MerchantAdvantage Helps Online Retailers at Internet Retailer and eBay Live!

Well the summer is just around he corner and convention season is upon us.  I love this time of the year as we all come together and learn from each other to help grow e-commerce and mobile commerce for us all, in terms of sales, revenues, customers, transactions, web site design, SEO/SEM, marketing and many other areas of importance to online retailers.

I will be at two of the best and largest online retail conventions, namely Internet Retailer and eBay Live, exhibiting and speaking at MerchantAdvantage's booths. The easy part for me is that they are both in Chicago and BOTH at the same location just a week apart in June.

Please see below for details of each convention.  If you would like to go to either convention, I include a special product code for you to get a discount on admission at Internet Retailer and get 25% off of eBay Live! attendance by signing up before May 31 - both courtesy of MerchantAdvantage.

Please come to one or both conventions.  Between the two of them you will learn a lot about e-commerce, mobile commerce and meet hundreds of fellow online merchants and vendors who can help you grow your online business.  Here is the information on what MerchantAdvantage will be covering.  Come by our booths!

Internet Retailer 2008 Conference & Exhibition
June 9-12
McCormick Place West
2301 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60616

MerchantAdvantage promo code to save $100: <<<CLICK HERE>>> and use this promo code EC8279

MerchantAdvantage will be at BOOTH: 307

At Internet Retailer, MerchantAdvantage will conduct mini-seminars including “Tips and Tricks to Working with Comparison Shopping Engines” and tutorials on “Channel Management with Chanalytics(sm) as the “Ultimate Marketing Tool” to work with 150+ shopping destination sites and marketing channels. Come by and watch how we cost-effectively upload your product catalog data and begin marketing your data to new marketing channels instantly to increase sales.

EBAY LIVE! CHICAGO:
June 19-21, 2008
McCormick Place West
2301 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60616 (Cab Drop Off at Gate 40)

Save 25% at eBay Live! by registering before May 31: <<<CLICK HERE>>> 

MerchantAdvantage will be at BOOTH: 967

At eBay Live!, MerchantAdvantage launches new products and offers its turnkey “Shopping Destination Site Marketing Solution” to work with 150+ comparison shopping engines and marketplace at a discount for eBay Stores and ProStores Web Stores. Come by and see how you can increase sales by using more marketing channels very cost effectively!

I really love to help any online merchant with issues they may have, so please stop by the MerchantAdvantage booths at both Internet Retailer or eBay Live and ask for Chip Arndt!  See you there! 

-- Chip Arndt

Internet Neutrality Issue Heats Up in DC and Wireless Carriers and ISP's Don't Like It

I have written about internet neutrality and spoke about it in Washington DC in 2006 at the Chamber of Commerce for Business Annual Summit in 2006. It was a big issue back then -- and I got into a heated debate with a lobbyist from Verizon when I mentioned that the wireless carriers cannot be allowed to be gatekeepers of information flow.  He did not like that phrase, "gatekeepers", but that is what they are and it is still a major issue for all of us, who use the internet to access information freely -- and have come to expect it.

Internet neutrality remains an important issue today for online merchants because, "feasibly", without internet neutrality laws in place, wireless and cable carriers could favor one merchant's data getting to consumers before others, ergo those who pay more!  Wireless carriers and cable companies battle to keep control of the argument and say they won't do this, but when precendence is set, it is set.  So we all better be concerned about this and keep an eye on what Congress is doing to resolve issues as they relate to internet neutrality, or as many call it, net neutrality.

And for those who think that this is not a HUGE issue, as it relates to protection of the freedom of flow of information, check out Andree Toonk's article about wireless and cable carriers in Canada experimenting with "tagging" web pages and information before letting the public have access to them. It is scary where all of this could lead.  <<<CLICK HERE>>> for that article.

I would like to share new information with all eTaildTail readers in regard to new legislation proposed by Democrats to protect the freedom of flow of information, as reported by eTaildTail friends over at Online Media Daily and Wendy Davis.

-- Chip Arndt

New Net Neutrality Bill Prohibits Blocking, Degrading

by Wendy Davis -- May 9, 2008

"Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced a net neutrality bill Wednesday that would prohibit Internet service providers from blocking or degrading access to any "lawful content."

"It shall be unlawful for any broadband network provider ... to block, to impair, to discriminate against, or to interfere with the ability of any person to use a broadband network service," states the proposed measure, The Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (H.R. 5994).

The bill would allow ISPs to manage traffic, provided they don't discriminate between their own content and content by...

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article by Wendy Davis at Online Media Daily after the jump."

Google Analytics Webinars and Education: A Must for Online Retailers Looking to Increase Sales

eTaildTail friends over at MoreVisibility are offering training on Google Analytics, which I think you all must explore to see how your website is performing. I am a big fan of analytics. It is the only way to really see how potential customers are interacting with your site and marketing campaigns.

I actually helped introduce "Chanalytics", at my company MerchantAdvantage, to assist online retailers analyze how their product data feed marketing campaigns -- using comparison shopping sites and marketplaces -- perform in conjunction with other marketing efforts.  Chanalytics compliments Google, Yahoo! or proprietary analytic packages and acts as an important "check" to other statistics you are receving on a daily basis.

I also think that these webinars (see below) are important to helping online merchants understand how people are interacting with your website in order to improve sales and then act on those findings.

You can also check out Yahoo! Analytics, as they are also free, after attending this webinar by MoreVisibility.

There is a cost for the webinars, but I think these costs may be worth it, especially if you are using Google Analytics or are considering using it.

 

The two webinars are offered at these times:

May 13 & 15 @ 1:00 pm: Launching Google Analytics & Integrating with AdWords

May 20 & 22 @ 1:00 pm: Using Google Analytics Beyond Google

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to find out more and register, if you want. I highly suggest checking it out.

-- Chip Arndt

MerchantAdvantage Helps Online Merchants Increase Sales Using Comparison Shopping Engines

Each month, I write a newsletter with advice, information and tips to help online, small to mid-sized businesses increase sales using comparison shopping engines, marketplaces and other marketing channels. I work closely with over 100 shopping destination channels, and some of them include:

Amazon, Become, Ciao, Commission Junction, eBay, GolfPricer, Google Product Search, GroupGain, mPoria, mShopper, Like, MyCoupons, PriceForSure, PriceGrabber, PriceRunner, Pronto, Shop.com, Shopping.com, Smarter, SortPrice, Underbid, Yahoo! Shopping, to name just a few.

I encourage all eTaildTail readers to review some of those newsletters to help grow sales and manage your online business more efficiently.  Each newsletter is free to read. 

Here are some of those MerchantAdvantage newsletters with a hyperlink to each of them.  I hope they help; let me know if you have any comments. You can email me at chip at eTaildTail.com and have a great week!

-- Chip Arndt

Some newsletters from MerchantAdvantage and Chip Arndt, Co-Founder:

• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part I
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part II:
  Print Media & Press Releases and Newsletters
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part III:
  E-Mail and Blogs
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part Part IV:
  Incentive Programs: Gift Cards, Refer-A-Friend, Coupons and Sweepstakes
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part V:
  Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
• Part 1: Do CSE's And Marketplaces Work For Online Merchants?
• Part 2: Do CSE's And Marketplaces Work For Online Merchants?
• 12 Step Program for Comparison Shopping Engine Management
• Free (and almost free) Internet Advertising
• Channel Feed Basics: Expand your reach and save money too!
• The Online Marketplace Revolution: Reach Millions of New Customers
• Pay Per Click vs. Pay Per Performance Marketing

Yahoo! Shopping Launches Bid Supported Marketplace and Updates Product Submit Features

eTaildTail always trys to alert small to mid-sized online merchants to updates and changes at comparison shopping engines and other shopping destination sites and marketplaces, as Amazon, Pronto, Shopzilla (which had some changes I talked about last week), and many others (see here for a comprehensive list) to ensure that online merchants are marketing their product catalog feeds properly to attain the highest return on investment/return on add spend.

So, please note that Yahoo! Shopping has some changes in the works and I suggest contacting your account rep and asking when these changes will occur. Headlines from an email I received yesterday are:

• Yahoo! Shopping Launching Bid Supported Marketplace (probably July 2008)
• Important Notification: Upcoming Changes to Product Submit (probably before June 2008)

My team at MerchantAdvantage received the following email, which I share with all of you to ensure that you are updated. 

If you are using MerchantAdvantage to manage your product data feeds to any marketing channel, we are keeping track of these new developments at Yahoo! and will be hosting a special, client-side webinar in the next few weeks to go over these changes. 

The Yahoo! changes probably will go into effect in July and new features as SKU level bidding, feed bidding, and hyperlinked ad placed logos will also available as a marketing option probably in June. Check in with your Yahoo! or MerchantAdvantage rep to help you stay one step ahead!

-- Chip Arndt

From Yahooo! Product Submit team:

"Dear Product Submit advertiser,

We are pleased to announce the upcoming launch of a bidded marketplace. With this change, there will be modifications to your Master Terms & Conditions and Program Terms, which will be detailed in a future email notice that you'll receive in the next 30 days.

We expect the bidded marketplace to have an impact on your day-to-day business. Therefore, we advise you and your team to begin planning for the transition to a bidded model.

As part of this launch, we are expanding the number of product categories and improving reporting within your Product Submit account.

These changes are designed to help you to:

1. Better influence the level of traffic you receive from Yahoo! Shopping
2. Gain more control over optimizing your product listings
3. Gain better visibility into your category performance

Stay tuned!

The Yahoo Product Submit team"

Bidding on Pay Per Click Keywords

A short and sweet entry and a MUST read if you buy adwords using Google and/or Yahoo! Search. Since we all do it....read onwards.

What follows is a great article written by Mark Williams, "Best Syndication News", Science Writer, which will help small to mid-sized buisnesses understand, manage and leverage adword marketing campaigns.  I am happy to share this article with the eTaildTail community.

-- Chip Arndt

by Mark Williams, "Best Syndication News", Science Writer

"Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series about making money on the Internet. In the last section we gave some background information concerning Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising. This section discusses bidding on keywords. Here is the article:

Not all keywords are created equal in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. For quite a while, the highest paying keyword was..."

Topics covered in the article are:

• Where to Look-up Keywords
• What Determines Advertisement Position
• How Lower Paying Bids Can Outperform The Higher Bid
• Choice of Keywords
• Picking Keywords
• Trademark Issues

Please <<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article after the jump; it is a great read.

Online Shopping, E-Commerce Sales Increase Because of "Perceived" US Recession

eTaildTail friends over at Marketing Vox have an interesting study that mirrors the correlation I hypothesized about 6 months ago of the increase in fuel prices, and the credit crunch, to an increase in internet and mobile shopping. 

In those comments, I stated that people still like to buy/consume and, while they have less money to spend due to stagnant wages and high gas prices, would turn to internet e-commerce and mobile shopping as a means to buy products to save money and avoid spending money on gas to buy products at brick and mortar stores. Furthermore, I stated that once they start to shop online, or via mobile commerce, they would also be introduced to price savings, and other offers, that they were of unaware of before.  In turn, this would lead to increased loyalty to the online and mobile shopping experience into the future from new online shoppers.

It seems that my thoughts now have some credibility in statistics.  The great news for small to mid-sized e-commerce merchants is that a whole new group of people are learning how powerful, cost-effective, and easy online and mobile shopping is and existing online shoppers are still shopping.

What Does This Mean For the Future of Online and Mobile Shoppping?

My next hypothesis, and you can hold me to this, is that as many new online shoppers will shop online because of:

1. adverse economic conditions
2. flat pricing plans to surf online from mobile carriers
3. better shopping interfaces by e-commerce storefronts,
4. better "shopping experiences" from shopping destination portals as Amazon, eBay, Like.com, mShopper.com, mPoria.com, PriceGrabber, Shop.com, Shopzilla, and many others, and
5. ongoing better pricing, special offers, reduced shipping costs, and other incentives from the e-commerce merchant.

New and "old" online shoppers will become more enamored with online and mobile shopping and continue to use these channels/avenues to buy products than ever before, even after the US economy rebounds. 

This, in turn, will result in driving more online sales into the future and help to exceed Wall Street expectations of 13-15% year-over-year growth in online and mobile shopping.  I am still targeting 20% - 25% year-to-year growth into 2015.

We will see!

-- Chip Arndt

From Marketing Vox:

"One-third (33 percent) of online US adults are more likely to shop online, rather than at a store, because of high gas prices, according to a Harris Interactive study conducted for iCongo - writes MarketingCharts.

Some highlights from the study:

Incentives

Consumers give various other reasons they would be more likely to shop online as opposed to a physical store:

• 57 percent cite free shipping.
• 55 percent cite lower prices.
• 61 percent cite the ability to shop at any time.

If a store were..."

Please <<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article from Marketing Vox.

Optimizing eCommerce Websites (LIVE) Help Session

14eTaildTail friends over at MarketingExperiments are having a webinar that will help small to mid-sized online merchants optimize your e-commerce storefront.

I have attended several MarketingExperiments webinars and they are quite helpful.  Please see below for all details and I hope it helps!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

-- Chip Arndt

Special Clinic: Optimizing eCommerce Websites (LIVE)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 – 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT

Presenters:

– Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments
– Jimmy Ellis, Director of Optimization Research
– Aaron Rosenthal, Director of Channels Research

Here's your chance to experience our optimization experts in
action, breaking down what is – and isn't – working on
eCommerce sites.

Join us for this free one-hour Web Clinic and you'll come away
with several ideas and insights to dramatically improve your
site's results.

The eCommerce websites we'll be optimizing live were submitted
by recent Web Clinic attendees. Don't miss this special
optimization session!

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to sign up for webinar.

We look forward to your participation and feedback on this Clinic.

Thank you for your trust,

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin
Director, MarketingExperiments