Today’s empowered consumer consults numerous sources before making a purchase decision—online reviews, blogs, social media and comparison shopping sites. In response, the number of these sources is skyrocketing, with exploding growth in the number of merchants adding user reviews, separate review-specific sites, and shopping aggregators dedicated to everything from airlines and travel accommodations to electronics. Not to mention the one-stop-shop aggregators like Google (News - Alert) Shopping, Shopzilla, ClickZ and even daily deal sites like Groupon, 1SaleaDay and others are becoming a go-to source for savvy, bargain-hunting shoppers.

In fact, the explosion in information has made shopping for anything from an airline ticket to a flat-panel TV, tennis shoes or a dishwasher an extremely time-consuming process. More than 80 percent of shoppers now conduct extensive online research before making major purchases, spending an average of 79 days gathering information. Meanwhile, half of all shoppers spend 75 percent or more of their shopping time researching online before making a purchase.

While shopping aggregators might make it seem easier, there’s actually a hidden catch. Because aggregators only show merchants that have paid to be listed among the search results, consumers aren’t always seeing the best products or the best deals. The reality is that shopping aggregators serve merchants, not shoppers. The pay-to-play model helps funnel shoppers to merchants who pay a percentage of each sale back to the aggregator, which means consumers could be missing out on better products and better deals from merchants who don’t pay to play.

However, new online shopping technology is emerging that will shed unprecedented light on the e-commerce landscape and consumers will soon demand a more transparent shopping experience, free of collusion and pay-to-play tactics. Unlike conventional aggregators, a new generation of e-commerce aggregation technology will enable shoppers to efficiently search the entirety of the web in seconds, to find the best deals from all merchants of all sizes from around the world, not just those that are “in network.”

Shoppers who know what they want—and what they don’t—will be able to customize shopping search results based on granular parameters and see much more transparent results, exposing the true competitive differentiators among products and vendors.

This new dynamic will substantially level the playing field, presenting all merchants and their best offers in full transparency for consumers to truly compare apples-to-apples, without having to spend hours searching through dozens of bushel baskets. While this is great for consumers, some merchants may cringe at the thought of having to compete on a level field, in full view of motivated customers and their competitors.

So, what can merchants do to maintain their competitive edge in this new consumer dynamic?

1)      Make buying easy. Offer a wide range of shipping and payment options that make it easier for shoppers to choose your store over competitors. Offering fast, free shipping is always a smart move. And, consider making new payment methods like PayPal (News - Alert) or Amazon payments available, as many consumers prefer this method over conventional credit/debit card payment.

2)      Be descriptive. With these new aggregation systems, consumers can select very detailed search parameters, down to specific product dimensions, features, colors, accessories, etc. Be sure to include all of this detail in your on-site product descriptions to ensure your product and/or store appears in the search results when consumers shop for these specifications.

3)      Respond well to negative experiences. Despite your best efforts, there will inevitably be a shopper or two who has a negative experience. While you can’t prevent them all, you can minimize the damage, and even turn the tables in your favor. Research shows that shoppers who see a merchant’s efforts to make it right with the customer in response to negative feedback are 92 percent more likely to purchase, and product sentiment increases by 88 percent. Make it a priority to make the customer happy—and do it quickly.

As new shopping tools bring greater transparency to the e-commerce environment, consumers will start to demand more from merchants. In order to remain competitive, sellers must step up to the plate to offer buyers more up-front, honest pricing, better discounts and deals, features and service after the sale.