I see them for sale on Amazon and I’m just curious how well they actually work. I’m talking the $80/$100 kind.
FYI: I have arthritis. Which the cold makes it really bad and the bending over even more so.
How about a clue as to where you are?
I live in S.E. Wisconsin and I guess I would use one in February if I lived in northern Florida or central Alabama.
Not to be snarky or anything.
They work fine on unpacked snow no more than a few inches deep.
I have one and I break it out for the smaller snows we get in Chicago when I don’t fell like it’s necessary to bust the big boy out of the garage.
The cord can be a bit of a pain to drag behind you but it’s not too bad.
The one thing you MUST be aware of is that an electric unit can stall when it’s jammed with heavy snow and the motor can still be on, trying to move the blade - NEVER reach in to clear it, NEVER. It will look like it’s off, but with the electric motor still engaged, as soon as the blade is clear it will begin to spin again at full speed with your hand still in it.
A different condition, backlash, can happen in a gas blower but the results can be the similar.
So, yes it’s good for light to medium snow but be careful with it.
I’m in the DC area. We get light, unpacked, snowfalls unless Mother Nature decides to kick our ass. 
Er… how is an “electric shovel” different than a “snow blower”?
Usually the electric powered shovel has no wheels and must be used in a shovel-like motion and it’s motor will throw the snow out in a forward direction only. Snow blowers are gas powered, have wheels, may be self-propelled and have an aim-able spout to direct the snow as it exits the mechanism.
Power shovels are smaller and lighter, for lighter snowfall. Snow blowers are for heavy stuff. Either beats the old M.I. inducing shovel.
There are electric snow blowers as well:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/2/OutdoorLiving/SnowRemoval/Snowthrowers/PRDOVR~0603983P/Yardworks+12A+%2B+20-in+Electric+Snowthrower.jsp?locale=en
there are (were) also snow brooms, a light weight small wheeled unit with a rotary brush, i recall both gas and electric. good for only small amounts of snow and maybe only dry snow.
Snow blower is much bigger… Like a lawn mower on growth hormone.
An electric snow shovel is like a shovel on steroids. 
Electric shovel: http://www.amazon.com/Toro-38361-Shovel-Electric-Thrower/dp/B000VU222S
Snow Blower (ARR ARR ARR!): Small Engines, Generators, and Pressure Washers | Briggs & Stratton
.
My neighbor in Anchorage had one and it worked great. I never cleared off small accumulations and the result is packed snow that then becomes sheet ice. He never had that problem. I hated him.
I have a small, cheap electric snow blower and I strongly recommend paying the extra $20 for wheels. By the time I get down to the bottom of the yard I am crazy glad I can just roll that thing along behind me to get back up tot he garage.
I got it due to lower back issues, and it’s been a life saver. If there’s a bad blizzard then I just go out at intervals and clear it in phases as it comes down. No worries. I don’t get much sleep that night, but I can still walk in the morning. And being electric, it doesn’t wake the neighbors.
cwPartner went out and got one of those Toro electric shovels, insisting that it was more practical than a snowblower. I hate it with a passion. It can’t handle snow of any significant depth or heaviness. It’s so poorly balanced that it’s miserable on light snow, too. I end up using a shovel on deep snow (because the electric think can’t handle it) and on light snow (because a well-balanced shovel is actually easier on my back).
This winter, I’m going to haul my snowblower down from the frozen north, no matter how much it pisses cwPartner off.