Comparing shops online saves serious legwork on the High Street

More than seven million Britons visited a shopping guide or shopping directory in July 2004, according to a report from internet measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings.

Surfers are visiting several comparison sites before buying, the study found.

They are prepared to spend time shopping around these sites to find the ideal product and retailer for them.

Shopping around

"It seems that using these guides has encouraged online shoppers to shop around for everything online -even looking for the best shopping comparison sites," said Nielsen analyst Gabrielle Prior.

"The British online consumer is truly shopping around to shop around."

TOP 10 SHOPPING GUIDES Kelkoo DealTime Ciao Yahoo Shopping Pricerunner Bizrate.com NexTag AOL Shopping Shopping.net CompareStorePrices.co.uk

Kelkoo is the dominant shopping guide according to the report, followed by DealTime and Ciao.

Smaller sites such as Pricerunner and Bizrate are seeing impressive growth as surfers realise the benefits of research before buying.

Some 70% of those who visited Pricerunner had also visited Kelkoo and one million visitors used both Dealtime and Kelkoo the report found.

As well as price comparisons, visitors to shopping guides are also looking at the feedback from other customers before they make their purchasing decisions.

The internet makes such in-depth shopping research more convenient for increasingly harassed shoppers.

"It is a lot easier than spending three hours tramping round the high street," said Ms Prior.