"Some" Fixes To Google Product Base Data Feeds and Search Results..."Some" Problems Still Exist

eTaildTail community, a few days ago I posted about some delays with Google Product Base data feeds. 

Here is their recent update as posted by their Google Base (Product Search) Web guru.

Some fixes have been solved others still seem to exist. Hopefully all is resolved by the time I post this. Below is a post from their technical team.

- Chip Arndt

From Google Product Search Technical Support Team, November 19, 2008

This is a quick update to let you know that the issue regarding items remaining in the "Published...searchable soon" status has been resolved. However, the issue regarding feed processing delays continues to affect larger feed files. On a positive note, smaller feeds under 1 MB are no longer affected by the current processing delays and you should see your feeds processing as usual.

Thanks again for your patience and I will get back to you with more updates.

-The Google Base Guy

Here is a direct link to the posting and their support site, if you have any questions to ask them.

<<<CLICK HERE>>>

Delays To Posting Google Product Base Data Feeds and Search Results

Hi all,

I just wanted to keep the eTaildTail community up to speed on some delays Google Product Search is having with processing and listing product catalog feeds the past few days.

Below is a post from their technical team.

- Chip Arndt

From Google Product Search Technical Support Team, November 17, 2008

We've been experiencing delays in the processing of your data feeds. As a result, items remain in the 'Published...searchable soon' status for longer than normal and are taking longer to appear in Google Base and Google Product Search results.

While we work on fixing this issue, you do not need to re-upload your feed. Once the delays are resolved, your feed will process as usual. I'll be posting back to this thread once I have status updates to
report.

Thank you guys so much for your patience.

-The Google Base Guy

Here is a direct link to the posting and their support site, if you have any questions to ask them.

http://groups.google.com/group/base-help-known-issues/browse_thread/thread/89cdde83a733bd9f

Spruce Up Your Storefront to Meet Holiday Shopping Demand: Special eTaildTail Guest Commentary

I have a special Guest Blog Commentary for the eTaildTail community today from our friends at SLI Systems. 

It is great read and helpful for the holidays to increase Webstore conversions.

Happy reading!

- Chip Arndt

Spruce Up Your Storefront to Meet Holiday Shopping Demand

By Geoff Brash, VP of Marketing, SLI Systems

With the holidays just around the corner, below are some tips for how you can deliver the best possible online shopping experience for your customers, and capture your share of online sales.  All of these tips are fairly simple and can be implemented in little to no time, so there’s no time like the present to get started (if you haven’t already!).

1. Create a “gift finder”: A gift finder is a useful tool that helps online shoppers find just the right gifts for the various people on their holiday lists. It’s easy to deploy, and can be promoted throughout your site. Generally, gift finders let people narrow their search by certain criteria, such as price, who the recipient is (kids, friends, co-workers and so on), or gift type. They’re then presented with a list of all the products that match those criteria. To see a good example, check out the gift finder on Vivre (click on “Giving” at the top of the page).

2. Prepare your site for holiday traffic: Make sure your site infrastructure can cope with the onslaught of holiday shoppers – you don’t want the site to perform slowly -- or worse,  crash – when people are trying to buy. This is one area where it might make sense to use hosted ecommerce technology solutions, so your site performance won’t drag during peak traffic times.

3. Make sure your site search results are relevant: The holidays are a great time to gain new customers, but if people can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll quickly move to one of your competitors – and possibly never come back. Try searching your site yourself. Does your site search deliver results that are relevant? Can it account for spelling errors? Can you provide results for those “long-tail” terms that aren’t as commonly used but have higher conversion rates? If you answered no to any of these questions, you might consider finding a new site search provider – one that can get your site up and running in very little time.

4. Show off holiday specials: Promote holiday merchandise or holiday-related items with on-site banners or other highly visible promotional tools. And be sure to use search terms visitors use on your site in these banners, so your messaging resonates.  You could also place the banners on site search results pages, when you have a captive audience.  If you offer free shipping for holiday purchases, heavily promote that benefit as well.

5. Put keyword data to work: To improve the chance that your products will show up on the first or second page of search engine results, review your site search activity and create landing pages related to the consumers’ likely search terms. Since customers may not be familiar with the brand names of your company’s products, optimize your site for the terms your visitors actually use – those they enter in the search box on your site.

Are you doing anything differently this year than last, or did you try something last year that worked so well you’re going to repeat it this year?

If so, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at geoff.brash AT sli-systems.com

Holiday Fixes To Your WebSite and SEO Search By Click Z

Friends of eTaildTail at Click Z have some great advice and "quick fix" help tips to optimize your Webstore for the Holidays.

It is a quick read and very helpful to all online merchants.

Here is the beginning of the article:

"It's that time of year again: just after Halloween and just before Thanksgiving. That means your Web site is probably frozen, with no more development possible. Your IT guys are bracing the site and making sure it can handle the traffic the holidays will (hopefully) bring. Usually at this time of year, I remind readers to harness the traffic in Q4 long after it's over or how to turn interactions like customer returns into acquisition opportunities.

Today, however, let's look at quick fixes you still have time to make to your site, even though it's technically locked down. Obviously, we will concentrate only on the easy things. Nothing on this list will change logic or technology on your site that your QA people will fuss over. Given that restriction, we can only address minor issues in this quick-fix list. But added together, these quick fixes could have a major impact on your success this holiday season.

Before the holiday season ramps up, try these fixes:..."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full details.

- Chip Arndt

Comparison Shopping Engines Survey Report 2008: CSEs Are Effective Even In Declining Economy

I thought that these recent findings from eTaildTail friends at AffiliateTip.com and e-Consultancy.com on the effectiveness of Consumer/Comparison Shopping Engines ("CSEs") for online merchants was interesting.

CSE marketing channels are still excellent, cost-effective ways to drive traffic to your on-line Web Store front, even in uncertain economic times.

I was surprised how many online merchants actually manage CSE feeds in-house, almost 75%, and also use their own analytic tracking system as opposed to using easy to mange and cost-effective Web-based tools as provided from companies like MerchantAdvantage.

Please read the short article below and then click through to the more comprehensive article on sales that come through CSEs and how to manage your CSEs more effectively.

Here is the article and follow on information:

by Shawn Collins
AffiliateTip.com

November 9, 2008

"The declining economy isn’t pinching everybody. Online retailers are increasingly benefiting from marketing their products on shopping comparison sites as consumers seek bargains, according to research published by E-consultancy and DoubleClick.

Approximately 43% of retailers surveyed say that the proportion of online sales coming through comparison shopping engines (CSEs) has increased in the last 12 months.

Retailers surveyed report 10% of their online sales come through this channel.

Some highlights from the report:

• Retailers rate Google Shopping / Base and Shopping.com as the best comparison shopping engines for volume, with 38% saying that Google is “good” and 35% saying that Shopping.com is “good”. Kelkoo and PriceRunner are both rated as being good for volume by 28% of merchants.
• Google Shopping / Base was also rated by merchants as the best CSE for quality of traffic, and for ease of use.
• Just under a third of companies (29%) surveyed said that they used their own tracking tools to track activity in the CSE channel, compared to around a quarter (24%) who use third-party tools and technology and 11% who use CSE tracking. A third (32%) use a combination of these methods.
• The majority of retailers surveyed manage their CSE feeds in-house, while only 13% use specialist feed optimization companies. The same percentage (13%) use agencies for this purpose.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read more statictics and relevant information on CSE effectiveness in 2008.

If you are looking for an easy to use and cost-effective tool to manage and analyze data feeds to any CSE or marketing channel, check out MerchantAdvantage; they make data feed management a lot easier and work with 150+ CSEs and marketing channels.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read more statictics and relevant information on CSE effectiveness in 2008.

- Chip Arndt

Holiday Marketing Tips for Comparison Shopping Engines

'Tis the season for all online merchants to prepare for Holiday Shopping. 

There is a long to do list to ensure that your Web Storefront is the "best that it can be" so that when a shopper comes to your Web Storefront they purchase a product and feel confident that it will be delivered on time and be of the highest quality. 

I wrote a blog entry in July that referenced in detail all that you can do to make your site as professional as it can be before you start marketing anywhere.  If you would like to read that commentary please <<<CLICK HERE>>> ; it is a quick read and hopefully helpful to increasing sales. 

After you have updated and "cleaned" up your Web Storefront, it is essential that online merchants understand how best to market their Web Storefront on marketing channels as Amazon, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Pronto, Smarter.com, Yahoo Shopping! and 150+ other marketing channels.

SPECIAL NOTE: MerchantAdvantage is the only data feed specialist who works with any marketing channel to increase sales, so please make sure you understand your choices and how they can perform for you before working with a particular channel.  Need more information on your marketing channel options? <<<CLICK HERE>>>.

Okay, now that you are ready to work with one or several consumer shopping engines, comparison shopping engines, shopping destination sites, CSEs, online shopping malls - or whatever you would like to call them - for the Holiday Shopping Season, I highly suggest that you understand the nuances of successful marketing when using these channels.

I read an excellent overview from eTaildTail friends over at Mercent, whose thoughts are summarized very well by eTaildTail friends at Get Elastic titled: Holiday Marketing Tips for Comparison Shopping Engines.

We all work very hard to offer valuable insights to help online merchants increase sales when using CSEs - so I am very happy to link to Get Elastic and get an excellent overview of Mercent's advice.  Please read their advice, as it is very comprehensive and valuable. 

Once you have read these comprehensive insights, you may then want to attend a FREE MerchantAdvantage Webinar with Smarter.com, a very successful CSE, on November 13, and ask your questions to the experts in real time. You can sign up for that FREE Webinar by clicking the title here: 10 Crucial Changes to Marketing Data Feeds to Boost Online Holiday Sales

The above article coupled with this FREE Webinar should cover your bases to ensuring that your Holiday Shopping Season product data feeds are perfect when working with any consumer shopping engine, CSE, marketing channel or online shopping mall.  Attend the Webinar and ask the experts all of your questions.

If you have any further queries, feel free to email me at chip @ eTaildTail.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

We are here to help and, if you configure your product catalog feeds properly to all of your marketing channels, you will have more success this Holiday Shopping Season converting shopppers to sales and increasing your  Return on Ad Spend, which is critical during these difficult economic times.

- Chip Arndt

 

10 Crucial Changes to Marketing Data Feeds to Boost Online Holiday Sales

Okay, my company MerchantAdvantage is giving a FREE Webinar on November 13 to help online merchants with their marketing strategies when using consumer shopping engines ("CSEs) for the holidays.  This is a part of MerchantAdvantage's year long, 2008 Webinar series of presentations to help online merchants with their marketing strategies.  When you opt in to see this Webinar you will have access to all of the other ones over the past 10 months.

 

This is a great Webinar for all of you who use CSEs because it is being given by a technical expert at MerchantAdvantage, who specializes in increasing sales performance and return on ad spend when using CSEs and the Director Joanna Estacio at Smarter.com a highly successful CSE.

 

Don't miss out! Here is what they are covering in this 30 minute FREE Webinar.

 

"The holiday season means more sales possibilities, but poor CSE practices could mean wasted marketing dollars if not managed correctly. Drive sales up this holiday season by optimizing your online marketing channel feeds. As part of MerchantAdvantage’s A.M.M.O for 2008 series, this 30 minute complimentary webinar covers:

• 10 mandatory changes for successful optimization and marketing of product catalog feeds
• Advice on how to implement these changes immediately to increase sales
• Case Study: "Up and running in 24hrs. with Smarter.com to maximize the Holiday Shopping Season"

In this webinar, MerchantAdvantage will arm you with the information you need to make smart marketing decisions in the online retail and mobile commerce world during this holiday season to gain sales cost-effectively.

Presenters of this educational Webinar will be friends of eTaildTail, B. Thomas Romeo, Sr. System Administrator at MerchantAdvantage and Joanna Estacio, Director of Sales and Operations at Smarter.com. 

Webinar Details: <<CLICK HERE>>> to sign up for this free Webinar. 
Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM-2:30 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM-11:30 AM Pacific

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4TH.

- Chip Arndt