Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing - StreetPrices.com
Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing
Last week, eTaildTail had a great interview with consumer shopping engine Queen of Cheap.com as part of our 2009 ongoing series called: Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing, the weeks before that we had great conversations with UnderBid.com, Pront.com and Smarter.com.
eTaildTail knows that using consumer shopping engines ("CSE"s) can help online retailers increase sales at a price they can afford, although many ecommerce merchants still are hesitant to work with CSEs for a myriad of reasons.
The most notable three reasons are:
- lack of familiarity with a particular marketing channel
- lack of evidence that a marketing channel increases sales cost effectively, and
- difficulty of working with a marketing channel
As part of eTaildTail's 2009 effort to educate online retailers as to the many, cost-effective marketing channels available to them to list their product catalog, eTaildTail will interview executives at various CSEs and marketing channels and ask them to help us undertstand their value to growing an online merchant's sales and revenues.
eTaildTail hopes that these online Q&A sessions give you, the online merchant, pertinent information as to a particular marketing channel and the potential benefits of working with them. And, if you decide to work them then great, please let them know that eTaildTail sent you their way.
So let's get started with an interview with Street Prices and its President, Autumn Looijen. All interviews are conducted by Chip Arndt, an author of eTaildTail.
If you would like to contact Street Prices and Autumn Looijen you may email me at tips @ merchantadvantage.com and eTaildTail would be glad to accommodate you, or see below.
Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing – StreetPrices.com
Street Prices' Secrets to CSE Marketing Success for Online Merchants
Interview with Atumn Looijen by Chip Arndt, eTaildTail author. eTaildTail loves this photo and intelligent and happy teams!
1. When was StreetPrices.com founded and by whom?
Stephen Heise founded Street Prices in 1997, making it the third comparison shopping engine on the web. Before StreetPrices, Stephen was one of the first ten employees at idealab!, where he helped found GoTo.com. StreetPrices was developed in Hilo, Hawaii, and may be the first internet company developed off-grid.
2. What sets StreetPrices.com apart from the other consumer shopping engines?
StreetPrices has the best tools of any comparison shopping engine, with price graphs and price alerts for every item. Our in-house staff collects detailed specs on a wide variety of products, so users can compare digital cameras side-by-side,or search TVs by specs.
StreetPrices helps users do detailed research before making a commitment, so when they click, they're ready to buy.
We also have some nice features for merchants including:
- We update the site continuously, so you'll never "miss the train" and get stuck showing stale pricing.
- Our merchant review system lets you respond to any issues that come up --- and fixing those issues will improve your rating.
- You can update your "store info" page with a quote from you and deeplinks to your site, as well as facts like your contact info, hours, and payment methods.
3. What are the secrets to success for merchants advertising on StreetPrices.com?
Clicks are more likely to convert when you give customers all the information they need. Take advantage of all the available price file fields to maximize information to customers (especially shipping, in stock status, product condition, and image urls), and take advantage of our fast updates to make sure your pricing and inventory information are always up-to-date.
We encourage merchants to highlight the features that make them stand out, both by advertising them on their listings, and by filling out their "store info" page.
We also recommend using our extensive suite of reporting tools to help you analyze your traffic, tailor your feed, and stay up to date on competitive pricing.
4. Who is using StreetPrices.com and why?
Our traditional audience has been tech-savvy customers looking for the best deals on computer parts. We've expanded our offerings over the last year and are now seeing savvy shoppers looking for great deals on all types of products. We have a large base of loyal users who come back again and again, and they tend to be buyers rather than browsers.
5. What are some of the challenges you are seeing in the retail sector during the current economic downturn, and what are you doing to overcome them?
Consumers are turning to the internet more and more to get bargains on the products they need.
We're helping consumers get the most bang for the buck on every purchase. Many of our users are taking advantage of price alerts, so they'll be the first to know about great deals on the products they're already interested in. There are a lot of customers out there who are ready to buy, as soon as the price is right.
Bonus Q: How do I get to work with StreetPrices.com as an ecommerce merchant?
Getting listed on StreetPrices is easy: you can sign up online or call Erin Sankin at 650-988-1100. Erin is happy to walk you through the sign-up process or answer any questions you might have.
You can fund your account with as little as $50, and every account gets a free logo.
Chip: Thank you so much Autumn for your time and insights on how online merchants can benefit by working with StreetPrices.com If you want to keep up with all entries as they relate to Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing, please click on "Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing" under categories on the left hand side of the eTaildTail blog.
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