An online shopping directory is a "Yellow Pages-Style"

web directory A web directory or link directory is an online list or catalog of websites. That is, it is a directory on the World Wide Web of (all or part of) the World Wide Web. Historically, directories typically listed entries on people or businesses, and th ...

that specializes in

ecommerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managemen ...

sites (which are websites that sell products or services). Inspired by the organizational structure used in traditional

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

directories, online shopping directories organize ecommerce sites by their category and subcategory of goods sold. Without the constraints related to shopping at a physical mall (e.g. distance, location, hours of operation, access to transportation), an online shopping directory serves to aggregate all ecommerce sites in one centralized location in order to help a user decide where to shop online.

Variations

A shopping directory is different from a

comparison shopping website A comparison shopping website, sometimes called a price comparison website, price analysis tool, comparison shopping agent, shopbot, aggregator or comparison shopping engine, is a vertical search engine that shoppers use to filter and compare produ ...

(which is also referred to as a comparison shopping engine or a price comparison shopping site). While comparison shopping websites present product listings, by category, so a user can compare pricing on same and/or similar products, a shopping directory does not provide product comparison, review or sale. Examples of comparison shopping websites include:

Google Shopping Google Shopping, formerly Google Product Search, Google Products and Froogle, is a Google service created by Craig Nevill-Manning which allows users to search for products on online shopping websites and compare prices between different vendor ...

, Shopping.com,

Shopzilla Connexity (formally Connexity Inc.) is a privately held Los Angeles operator of shopping web sites, including Shopzilla.com. Originally started as comparison shopping website Bizrate.com, the company changed its name to Shopzilla in 2004, and c ...

, TheFind.com A shopping directory is different from an

online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a way ...

. Marketplaces sell products and/or services that are aggregated from various ecommerce sellers but sold under the branding and infrastructure of the named marketplace itself. Examples of online marketplaces include:

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

Etsy Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft su ...

and

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

. A specialized form of a shopping directory is a

coupon In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in r ...

, daily deal and/or promotional savings site. Coupon sites provide a niche web directory centered on deal aggregation by listing only ecommerce sites that offer additional savings to the user. Coupon sites are very popular with users but often are viewed negatively by merchants.David Streitfeld (Oct 2011)

''NYTimes'', retrieved on 8 April 2014 Examples of coupon sites include:

Retailmenot RetailMeNot, Inc. (formerly Whaleshark Media) is an American multinational company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that maintains a collection of coupon web sites. The company was founded by Cotter Cunningham. The company owns RetailMeNot.com and ...

Coupons.com Quotient Technology, Inc. (formerly Coupons.com) is an advertising technology company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It specializes in digital promotions, retail media, digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising, social influencer marketing, ...

Groupon Groupon is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching soon af ...

History

Free directories such as the

Open Directory Project DMOZ (from ''directory.mozilla.org'', an earlier domain name, stylized in lowercase in its logo) was a multilingual open-content directory of World Wide Web links. The site and community who maintained it were also known as the Open Directory ...

, often updated by volunteers, lost their prominence and relevancy in today's search-driven internet. Before the increased popularity of the

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

search engine, shopping directories, such as that found at the

Yahoo! Directory The Yahoo! Directory was a web directory which at one time rivaled DMOZ in size. The directory was Yahoo!'s first offering and started in 1994 under the name Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web. When Yahoo! changed its main results to c ...

or the

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

Shopping Directory, played a prominent role in users' online shopping habits and behavior. As Google gained dominance, users adapted their shopping search behavior to the new system. Most search engines took over the role traditionally filled by shopping directories. Recently, criticisms have emerged over the limits of using search engines such as

and

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

for use in the ecommerce cycle. The dominance of the

SEO Seo or SEO may refer to: * Search engine optimization, the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines Organisations * SEO Economic Research, a scientific institute * Spanish Ornithological Society (''Socied ...

structure in search makes competition fierce among merchants as they struggle for positioning on the Google search results pages. New methodologies for shopping directories are emerging as startups look to bridge the gap between ecommerce and search . As ecommerce continues to grow, startup companies are reinvisioning the shopping directory to make it more relevant to the growing needs of online shoppers.

Business model

* Charging a one-time and/or recurring listing fee to the ecommerce site * Use of

affiliate programs Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of ...

of the listed ecommerce sites to earn commissions on referrals * Advertising in the directory itself, such as

banner ads A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking ...

, contextual ads like

Google AdSense Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advert ...

or some form of sponsored listings (usually

pay per click Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked. Pay-per-click is usually ...

based) * Combination of above

References

{{Reflist Web directories E-commerce