SHOP•COM ™ and MerchantAdvantage Deliver Online Innovative Comparison Shopping Solution to Maximize Sales

Okay I am a little bias...but proud nonetheless of MerchantAdvantage's progress to help small to mid-sized merchants reach potential shoppers where ever they shop. 

MerchantAdvantage's new strategic partnership with SHOP•COM alows online merchants now to work with SHOP•COM in either their cost-per-transaction marketplace or their traditional cost-per-click business model.

MerchantAdvantage continues to be a leader in the ecommerce and mcommerce (mobile commerce) industries helping online merchants optimize and feed their product catalog data to any online marketing channels easily and cost-effectively so that online merchants can reach their customers where ever they shop.

Thanks for the support and onward we charge!

Chip Arndt

SHOP•COM ™ Partners with MerchantAdvantage to Streamline and Push Product Data to Maximize SHOP•COM ™ Marketplace and Cost-Per-Click Platform.

"MerchantAdvantage, a leader in Web-based data feed management and analytic tools, today announced a preferred, strategic partnership with SHOP.COM, the destination comparison shopping site designed for women. With the click of a button, online merchants can cost-effectively send their product catalog to maximize sales opportunities at SHOP•COM.

MerchantAdvantage has been a fully integrated solution into SHOP•COM’s OneCart® cost-per-transaction marketplace since 2006 and has never charged its clients listing, transaction or revenue fees when working with SHOP•COM. Now, MerchantAdvantage is proud to support SHOP•COM’s new Cost-Per-Click (“CPC”) platform. Online merchants can work with SHOP•COM in the manner they desire, expand their marketing reach, increase sales, and manage, analyze and update product catalog feeds instantly within MerchantAdvantage’s Channel Management Professional tool-based offering."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full comments on the SHOP•COM ™ and MerchantAdvantage partnership.

Quality Product Images on Your Website Can Boost Sales

Good product images can increase conversions from leads to sales on your website...I have thought so, it seems intuitive, doesn't it? Now you have "scientific" proof, well almost.

Here is a great read from eTaildTail friends over at GrokDotCom on how better product images on your webstore/web site help with conversions to sales.

Hope the read helps small to mid-sized businesses with their site redesigns and updates before the holiday season.

And to all all who are leaving early this week for 4th of July, HAPPY 4th OF JULY and please remember our troops who are still fighting two wars...still.

Chip Arndt

by Robert Gorell from GrokDotCom

"One of the most effective — and overlooked — ways to differentiate yourself from the competition and improve conversion is to optimize the images on your website.

Granted, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but online, your customers don’t quite have the luxury of taste, touch, or smell. So one thing we can learn from ProFlowers.com’s impressive conversion rate last month is that images matter. A lot."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article from eTaildTail friends GrokDotCom

eBay! Changes and What Sellers Should Do

As I say often, I gladly rely on friends of eTaildTail who are far more knowledgable about certain products, marketing efforts and areas of ecommerce than me.

Debbie Levitt, President of AsWas, a company that specializes in helping small to mid-sized businesses work more productively with eBay!, is one of those people.

If any of you out there in ecommerce land work with eBay!, in any capacity, you want to attend this AsWas FREE webinar!

Happy eBay! selling.

Chip Arndt

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this FREE Webinar on how to work more productively and intelligently with eBay!

From AsWas and Debbie Levitt, President and CEO:

Tuesday, July 1: Free webinar on -- "eBay! Changes and What Sellers Should Do"

"eBay! has been making a lot of changes, and more are coming!

Let's talk about what's going on and how you should and need to respond to these. This webinar will look at the announced changes, possible future changes, and how to stay compliant and ahead of things!

We will be live on a phone call and you will be viewing our presentation. So if possible, please be at a phone and computer!"

This webinar is on Tuesday, July 1 at 11am Pacific Time|2pm Eastern Time.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this FREE Webinar on how to work more productively and intelligently with eBay!

Tips to Maximize Use of Comparison Shopping Engines with MerchantAdvantage CEO, Michael Lambert

At Internet Retailer 2008 in Chicago two weeks ago, MerchantAdvantage CEO, Michael Lambert, highlighted useful tips to using comparison shopping engines -- as Become, Ciao, FindGift.com, Gifts.com, Like.com, PriceGrabber, Pronto, Shopzilla, Smarter, SortPrice, Yahoo! Shopping and coupon comparison shopping sites -- as myCoupons.com. If you want a comprehensive list of comparison shopping sites, affectionately known as CSE's, then check them out here.

Michael Lambert also provided numerous tips to online mercants to optimize product catalog feed to ensure higher lisiting on comparison shopping engines, which, in turn, can then lead to more sales.

I found the video interview to be informative and concise, so check it out.

Please <<<CLICK HERE>>> to view the full interview on maximizing the use of comparison shopping engines with Michael Lambert, CEO, MerchantAdvantage.

The inteview was conducted by eTaildTail good friend Jason Billingsley at GetElastic, an ecommerce blog which I love to read daily. 

Jason is one of the few "industry experts" that I am very comfortable referring to as an expert. Click on his name above for an overview of what he has done with his life in a very short time = very impressive!

Have a great week!

Chip Arndt

Eric Ward's Advice on Deploying Link Building Budget for Maximum Impact

Industry experts in the world of ecommerce and mcommerce are often those who speak the loudest...and are not necessarily experts.  And then, sometimes, I come along those people whom I highly respect and love reading their commentary and advice to help small to mid-sized business with their marketing efforts.

This week, on "Dr. Ralph Wilson's Web Marketing Today", Eric Ward offers excellent insights on how to build traffic and credibility using "links."

Happy Reading!

Chip Arndt

By Eric Ward and as posted on "Dr. RalphWilson's Web Marketing Today":

"By now you know you need links -- links from other sites, pages, bloggers, bookmarkers, editors, Diggers, Stumblers, and others.  These links help your site in a number of ways, not the least of which is the potential they have to improve your site's search engine rank.
   
With so many different types of link building related services available, how do you know which ones make the most sense for you? How do you decide how much of your budget should be spent on each one?  Are link bait strategies a sound financial investment for your site?   What about press releases, paid directories, paid links or paid reviews?  Which links should you be willing to pay for and how much?  And what in the world is a widget link?

The bad news is that there is no one-size-fits-all link building budget deployment that will assure your success.  This is also good news, because it means the site with the biggest link building budget does not always win the link building game.  Having a million dollars to spend doesn't matter if you spend it in the wrong place.  There's a reason you don't see a lot of Travelocity.com ads in the San Quentin library.

How do you decide which approach should get what percentage of your link building budget?  Here are a few guidelines..."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full advice, story and fantastic strategies for "link building on a budget" to grow your brand, awareness and eventual sales.

Devix and MerchantAdvantage Partner to Maximize Sales for Online Retailers

Well, I had a wonderful past few weeks of traveling and meeting very intelligent people in the ecommerce and mcommerce (mobile commerce) world; I look forward to sharing all of those stories with you over the next few weeks.

It is nice to be back home, for now, so that I can sit down and synthesize all that I have learned and then  share this information with you over the coming weeks.

I was in Chicago for Internet Retailer 2008, Caanes Lions 2008 in Caanes, France (the largest advertising festival in the world) and then back to Chicago for eBay Live!

   

It has been fun and while I was away Devix Corporation released the following about one of my companies, MerchantAdvantage, and our strategic partnership to help online merchants with their online business.

Enjoy the read!

Chip Arndt

PRESS RELEASE

Devix and MerchantAdvantage Partner to Maximize Sales for Online Retailers

"Devix Corporation has announced a strategic partnership with MerchantAdvantage, a provider of Web-based data feed management and analytic tools. The users of Devix platform can now send their product catalog to over 150+ marketing channels and shopping destination sites on the Web.

Already, the Devix Platform offers a strong customer employment technology and the Devix - MerchantAdvantage partnership will only improve upon this. Even with the limited IT expertise, the customers of Devix have the facility to maintain and personally configure all aspects of their web platform and business flow. With the partnership with MerchantAdvantage, Devix e-tailers will now have various benefits such as the ability to strategically market products, find those marketing channels that maximize return on investment, choose from 150+ shopping destinations, and work more efficiently with these marketing channels.

...Devix believes that MerchantAdvantage represents a best of breed partner for its client base. The company also believes that MerchantAdvantage shares its philosophy of customer empowerment as demonstrated by MerchantAdvantage’s robust choice of marketing channels which actively places the power in the hands of e-tailers.

Michael Lambert, CEO and Co-Founder of MerchantAdvantage, added: “Devix clients can now leverage various pricing options and profit-margins on marketing campaigns at the product level, while reaching millions of new clients using an array of marketing options. MerchantAdvantage strives to provide the best products to empower online merchants to customize, send, evaluate, and update product catalog feeds to 150+marketing channels and shopping destination sites. We are honored to be an integral part of the future of Devix to help their clients grow their online business efficiently, intelligently and cost-effectively."

<<<CLICK HERE>> to read all.