Back-to-school shopping: news from the UK

First of all, welcome on our new blog.

The whole study :

• The good news is that the UK offers top bargains online. British buyers could save as much as 55% on their back-to-school bill if they compare prices on the Web.
• Parents can find a good school rucksack from a well-known brand for little over £10, instead of the £30 to £40 that many retailers ask
• Beat the school rush, avoid the rain on the high street and get their kids essential school tool kit online.

London, 18^th August 2008 – Research out today shows just how expensive the children’s essential school kit could become if parents do not pay attention and how much they can save if they conduct sanity checks online. The research was conducted by next generation shopping search engine Twenga.co.uk.

The essential school toolkit is more expensive in the UK

To demonstrate the power of online price comparisons, Twenga identified 16 basic school supplies and compared their prices among nearly 2,000 online shops across the three largest European countries: the UK, Germany and France.

This comparison confirms the “rip-off-Britain” sentiment in that it shows that the regular price* for Twenga’s essential toolkit is 22% higher in the UK than in France and 41% higher than in Germany.

“If parents do not shop around, they will end up paying this high regular price” Therese Torris, VP Content at Twenga says.

The UK offers Top Bargains Online

The good news is that the range of prices on offer on the UK Web is much wider than in Germany and France – leaving plenty of possibilities for bargain hunting.

Twenga’s analysis of 83,440 price points demonstrates that there are more bargains to be had online in the UK than in France and Germany. Careful buyers can save more (up to 55%) in the UK than in France (45%) or Germany (40%) by exploiting the difference between the regular price and the value price**.

Parents can find a good school rucksack from a well-known brand for little over £10, instead of the £30 to £40 regular price that one finds if one does not look further.

Therese Torris says, “Savvy shoppers who use online search and comparison tools will pay much less.”

“The bottom line, Torris adds, is that parents should not go blind into back-to-school shopping. Whether they buy online or on the high-street, they should definitely check prices first. Using a search engine such as Twenga.co.uk makes it really easy. The back to school nightmare can all be solved with a mere click of a button to get the best view of the market.”

* standard price was taken to the median price

** value price was taken to be the first quartile price

About Twenga

Twenga, the new-generation search engine, enables millions of shoppers throughout the world to find what they want, at the best price, from the online shop of their choice.

Thanks to its home-grown technology, Twenga automatically gathers offerings from online retailers and displays them in one searchable interface. As a result, Twenga has the most comprehensive listing of online shops. Its search results are objective and not biased by commercial relationships.

Founded in 2006 by Bastien Duclaux and Cedric Anes, Twenga is headquartered in Paris, France; its 11 sites, including the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, and Russia, display 100 million offerings from over 60,000 online shops. In June 2008, Twenga sites received over 13 million visits.

*Twenga’s essential school toolkit

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Tags: back-to-school, school, shopping, supplies, Twenga Blog