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Quote: The feedback of other shoppers is becoming a critical part of how shoppers compare and buy, with the desire to know what others experience with stores and products having doubled in importance among users of comparison shopping engines over the past four years, according to a survey by BizRate Research, a division of comparison shopping engine Shopzilla. Meanwhile, price as a factor, though still important, has declined.

In the survey of nearly 2,000 online shoppers conducted early this year, 49% of shoppers said price was most important to them when comparison shopping, a decrease from the 58% who said so when Shopzilla did the same survey in 2003. Conversely, only 7% of shoppers surveyed in 2003 said customer feedback was the most important factor when comparison shopping, in contrast to the 18% who said so in the 2007 survey. That means price has dropped in importance over the past four years by 9%, while customer feedback had gained in importance by 11%...