How many people compare prices before buying online?

Comparing doesn’t necessarily mean a comparison site. In autumn 2025, according to Bitkom, 21% often bought through comparison sites, while 85% often bought on large online marketplaces.

The 48% comes from a Bitkom survey in October 2019 of 1,087 internet users aged 16 and over, 1,024 of whom shop online. The figure refers to those 1,024. The question asked which decision aids people generally use before buying products.

The three 2022 figures come from an online survey Bitkom Research ran from mid-October to early November 2022 among 1,123 internet users aged 16 and over in Germany. They refer to the 1,024 respondents who shop online. The shop criteria add up to well over 100%, so respondents could name several. For 65% the lowest price is a deciding criterion, though in Bitkom’s words not the only one.

The 73% refers to respondents who planned to use Black Friday deals in 2024. For this, Bitkom Research surveyed 1,180 internet users aged 16 and over in calendar weeks 40 to 43 of 2024, 1,127 of whom shop online. The press release puts this group at 59% but gives no case count for it. In Bitkom’s charts, the statement adds that the aim is to get the best bargain on Black Friday.

In the first three calendar weeks of 2025, Bitkom Research asked 1,006 people aged 16 and over, 978 of whom shop online. The press release gives no separate base for the 43% and the 38%. Bitkom mentions both in the context of personalised pricing: people check if a price changes with the device, browser or search.

For the report “Digitaler Handel in Deutschland” (digital retail in Germany), published by Bitkom in 2026, 1,120 people aged 16 and over were surveyed in autumn 2025 (calendar weeks 40 and 41), 1,072 of whom shop online. The 47%, 21% and 85% refer to those 1,072. Bitkom gives the margin of error for the full sample as plus or minus 3 per cent.

The 19.5% comes from a YouGov survey of 4,581 adults in the US and UK, carried out from 25 to 27 September 2023 for the software company commercetools. It asked for the reason behind abandoned carts. Among Gen Z (aged 18 to 24) the figure was 21%. Germany was not part of that survey.

You can’t line the figures up into a trend. In 2019 Bitkom asked about price comparison sites as a decision aid before buying, in 2022 and 2025 about comparison sites as a place to shop: in 2022 where people particularly like to shop, in 2025 where they often shop. “Lowest price as a criterion” and “price and discounts very important” are also two different questions, and the 73% from 2024 only covers people planning to use Black Friday deals. So the figures show neither a decline nor a rise in price comparison.

Anyone who taps your link sees the price in the shop at the latest, and can still check it against other offers. If that check turns up a better offer elsewhere, the purchase may not go through your link.

An example: you show a hair dryer in a story and add a link sticker to one shop. Someone taps it, sees the price, searches for the model in a search engine and finds it cheaper elsewhere. If they order there directly, the purchase usually doesn’t go through your link. With commission per sale (CPA) you get nothing for it. If the linked shop pays per click (CPC), you may still be paid for the click.

• If you recommend a product in October, the purchase may only come at Black Friday: in 2024, 65% of those planning to use Black Friday deals had put off purchases to wait for them. So show the product again with your link shortly before the sale days.
• If you link a shop other than the large marketplaces, check what the product costs on a large marketplace before you post. According to Bitkom, 85% of online shoppers often buy there.
• If the product is available in several shops, show more than one. People who want to compare then don’t have to search themselves. You only earn in shops you have an affiliate link for. Done by hand, that means finding and linking each extra shop yourself.

On wyrld, you paste the link to a product from a partner shop or pick it from the catalogue. wyrld recognises the brand, name and variant, looks for the same item across more than 90,000 partner shops and creates the affiliate link for each offer it finds. You don’t sign up with any network yourself, and you don’t search further shops for the hair dryer from the example.

Your community sees the offers it finds with prices side by side and buys directly from the shop, at no extra cost. The cheapest new offer among them carries the “Best price” label. In the example, the cheaper offer would already sit next to the first one, provided wyrld finds it in its partner shops. If your community picks a different shop through the price comparison in your storefront, it can still count for you: depending on the shop, you can earn on the click, the sale or both. Earnings are settled at the start of the following month by self-billing credit note.

wyrld’s creator terms don’t require exclusivity. From wyrld’s side, you can keep using the programmes you’re already in and add your wyrld storefront, for example as a link in your bio. If you work with an agency, it gets its own dashboard on wyrld, looks after the products with you and sees the same numbers. wyrld deducts an agreed commission share from your earnings, and your agency gets its own credit note for it. wyrld is free for creators.