My Chitika mini malls display nothing but overpriced cell phones, i compared prices with Price Grabber, Chitika mini mall Best Deal offer from Dizzles $517.49 , same phone on Price Grabber $397.99 that`s $120 cheaper, now i know why people do not click through Chitika ads on my web site
The "Best Deals" tag is a little bit of a misnomer. Each vendor bids on ad placement. The vendor who bids the highest gets the best placement. Therefore the vendor you see there is going to give you the highest CPC. Of course CPC isn't everything, CTR is also important as you mention. You will even see similar things on an eminimall which displays three stores. The one that is the lowest price is not always the "featured" store or the one labeled "Best deal at", rather those attributes go to the store that will give you the highest CPC. When I use the eminimall on chitika's homepage and search for 'Motorola RAZR V3i' I see a price of $324.
i am still experimenting with chitika, so far i am not impressed, if i have to advertise overpriced merchandise i rather open my own online retail store