It appears more and more shopping comparison sites are popping up every day. Now, the first reported shopping comparison site for the niche market of "gift of the month" clubs is now online, just in time for the holiday season. The site, Club-Offers.com, brings together over 120 monthly gift clubs in 30 different categories from 25 merchants for consumers to find, compare, review and buy. The site will also reportedly provide coupon codes on many items, allowing consumers to save up to 15 percent on gift of the month club purchases, the company says.

"Gift of the month clubs have risen in popularity with the onset of online shopping. Traditionally, fruit gift of the month clubs were the only option, but today's consumers can choose from dozens of gift clubs for every lifestyle, age and interest," the company said in a written release.

Examples of gift of the month clubs found on Club-Offers.com range from fruit, flower and coffee to steak, chocolate and wine and also include odd options such as magic trick and necktie of the month. Club-Offers.com provides a variety of price options ranging from $12.95 for one month of a tea of the month gift club geared towards the individual tea lover to $1,145 for twelve months of a gourmet food of the month gift club designed to feed a family of four.

Club-Offers.com also provides an RSS feed that features a new gift of the month club every day.

Club-Offers.com is the first "gift of the month" comparison shopping site.

"Online shopping comparison sites are common in the travel industry, but no one has really brought it down to this level of specialty — until now," said Steve Schaffer, creator of Club-Offers.com. "Instead of spending hours online searching for the perfect gift on a variety of sites, Club-Offers.com brings it all together for consumers and gives them one place to find that unique gift that keeps on giving the whole year through."

Comparison Shopping Bonanza
Club-Offers is just the latest entry into the shopping comparison market. A number of sites have popped up this year alone and there is no shortage of options for online shoppers and merchants to choose from. PriceRunner launched its new site, eBay scooped up Shopping.com and EW Scripps purchased Shopzilla.com — all in the last six months. Some of the more popular mainstays of the comparison shopping market include Yahoo Shopping, NexTag, Froogle, AOL Shopping and, most recently, eShopperForum.com.

Studies have also shown the increasing popularity of comparison shopping engines used for online transactions. According to a comScore study published this past summer, one in three Internet users visits a comparison shopping site in a typical month. The growth of these sites is most dramatic among consumer electronics shoppers. Back in 2002 Q1, 59 percent of electronics shoppers visited comparison shopping sites. By 2005 Q1, this figure had grown to 93 percent.

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.