4 Stages to Successful Comparison (Consumer) Shopping Engine Marketing

I have received a flurry of emails in regard to comments I made about personally working with over 200 comparison shopping engine/consumer shopping engine/shopping destination sites ("CSEs"), knowing of over 200 shoppping destination site channels, and how online merchants can make money using CSEs.  I even have had people ask to purchase my list of CSEs so that they can test, test, and test again many CSEs to find the right channels that work best for them.

I have always said that only having the option to properly optimize, feed, and analyze marketing performance on only 5, 10, or even 25 CSE channels is limiting, because you never know what channel will convert best for you = lead to sales!

So instead of selling that list, let me give what I hope is helpful advice to building a long-term strategy to successful CSE marketing.  And if you really want to know more about the many possible CSEs that you can work with, please contact us at MerchantAdvantage and maybe we can help. We can’t give away our whole list but we’d be happy to point you in some good directions.

Some of the following advice you may know, some information may be new to you.  Regardless, this strategic approach has helped over 1,200+ storefronts we work with who collectively have had many of the same queries about effective, money-making, CSE marketing.

I first gave the following advice on February 24, 2009 on Ecommerce Merchants Trade Association's("ECMTA") Forum Discussion regarding CSE marketing.  You can find extensive advice and comments from merchants regarding the below information that will be helpful to you too on the ECMTA discussion board.

I hope the advice below is useful and easy to follow.

4 Stages to Successful Comparison Shopping Engine Marketing

Stage 1: "Honest" Evaluation/Analysis of Your Webstore

BEFORE you ever market using CSEs, or any other marketing effort, to drive traffic to your Webstore, ask this one simple question:

Q: Would you buy from you if you came to your WebStore site?

1. have you checked your competition and does your site match up?
2. are you price competitive?
3. do you have reviews?
4. do you use social media to stay connected to your customers?
5. do you change things up now and again by offering specials, holiday specials, free shipping sometimes?
6. do you have a newsletter to remind existing customers how special THEY are and what specials you have to offer them?
7. do you have loyalty programs?
8. are your graphics and pictures engaging or are they generic? Does it matter?
9. is your site navigation good?
10. do you offer several payment methods? People like options and, while you may not like paying the fees associated with Google Check Out or PayPal, your customers might feel more secure to use those methods.

Many of our clients say they get CSE traffic but the traffic doesn't convert and they are frustrated.  Well, there may be two main reasons for this:

1. your site is poorly designed and "scares people away" and does not look and act as professional as your competitors' Webstore "looks" and "acts"; in other words, would you buy from you or would you buy from your competitors' Webstore?
2. the CSE you are using attracts customers that "price compare" more than they shop, which is a bummer, but it happens. This is something that you can only monitor on a daily basis with a proper analytics tool, MerchantAdvantage uses its own built in Chanalytics tool to help its clients.
3. you might be working with the wrong CSE....try others and test, analyze, test, analyze until you find the right CSEs that have a higher conversion ratio for you. 

Stage 2: Forget - FOR NOW - PPC/Commission Based/Pay-Per-Action Models: Start With FREE CSEs

This is a no brainer. Feed to all CSEs that charge you nothing (not even commissions) because:

1. they are Free and any lead that leads to a sale, even if it is 1 sale a month, makes you money
2. posting your product catalog up on these free CSEs is good for organic, general SEO search
3. IT COSTS YOU NOTHING....but a little time...and MerchantAdvantage can solve that issue for you
4. Free CSEs, I know of, include:
   1. Google Product Search
   2. Microsoft Live Search
   3. theFind.com
   4. Oodle.com
   5. ShopWiki.com (they probably have already spidered your site, but they prefer a direct feed to be able to list you better)
   6. LivePriceList.com (new)
   7. ...and 3 other free ones through MerchantAdvantage - I am not being coy by not naming them because we have some special relationships for our clients only.

So that's 9 free CSEs I know of...who am I missing, I am sure there are more.  

Stage 3: Consider Pay-Per-Action and Commission Based CSEs

Again a bit of no brainer from the cost side of things, as an online merchant only pays when a sale is made. However, it is a little more complicated to feed to this type of CSEs, but, once you do, it is worth it and the set up costs to work with most of them is almost nothing. 

Even Amazon is making it cost effective to work with them easily, although they still have to approve you listing with them. For only $39.99 a month an online merchant can list their product catalog with Amazon - but don't forget that you still pay commissions, so monitor your margins carefully. 

Pay-Per-Action CSE: Ever think about MyCoupons.com? Feed for free and only pay $3 per sale regardless of the item? Not bad if your margin is anything over $3.  And other coupon sites act in a similar manner and, yes, MerchantAdvantage will feed to any of them for you. This is just one example and there are other sites that use a Pay-Per-Action model.

Commissions Based CSE: Yes, some commissions are high -- 15-22% with Amazon (and setting up with them can be expensive and timely so maybe Amazon should be in Stage 4) - but others are very reasonable - 10% with Go Daddy Marketplace; 10-15% with Shop.com's marketplace; 10-15% with Underbid.com; and Yahoo! Shopping is introducing a method to work with them on a Pay-Per-Action basis.

Stage 4: The Big Leagues: Pay-Per-Click ("PPC") CSEs

I am unsure wheather I should call this the "Big Leagues", but I do so because this group of CSEs is comprised of well known and larger CSEs.  I have found that when managed properly on a daily basis (yes, there is work involved) and an online merchant has a good idea which of these larger CSEs actually "convert" for them then these CSEs can be real winners.  But....they require monitoring and ongoing updates primarily because so many of your competitors are probably working with them too.

    Part I of Stage 4: Test "Niche PPC CSEs"

Ever heard of Cooking.com? How about HGTV.com (home and Garden Television Network)? HGTV Pro? How about MachineTools.com, GolfPricer.com, GourmetFoodMall.com, Alice.com, FindGift.com, ToolCrib.com, Zipidee.com, NowOnSale.com, RoomsByUs.com, and ShopandPrice.com?

These are all niche CSEs that focus on specific products and are not massive CSEs that purport to sell everything.  One of our clients, CallawayGolf.com, does very, very well listing products on GolfPricer.com. This fact alone should be a hint to you that you should be working with niche CSEs too.

Calloway Golf may get less traffic from GolfPricer.com than from Yahoo! Shopping, Shopping.com and Shopzilla.com BUT they get HIGHER conversions!!!  That is the goal of any ecommerce merchant.

So, if you have a product catalog that might fit into a niche CSE, test that channel and see if you receive higher conversions.

MerchantAdvantage works with over 200 channels, yes 300! CSE marketing success is not just made up of working with the larger, well known CSEs; niche sites are where I would start first.

    Part II of Stage 4: The PPC CSE "Players"

We know who they are - Yahoo Shopping!, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, NexTag, Pronto, Smarter, Become, etc...see here if you want to see more CSEs - and many of our clients simply have had a hard time converting trafiic from these CSEs to sales, even when they have tried hard over many months.

My simple answer is....BREATHE, relax and reassess. 

These larger CSEs can and do work for many online merchants but they take work BECAUSE EVERYONE OF YOUR COMPETITORS IS PROBABLY USING THEM TOO!!!  Got it? :-)

When using these larger CSEs you must always "fiddle" with your feeds and optimize it every day, or almost every day, to ensure that you are using the many features that these larger CSEs offer to you. 

These features include: SKU level bidding mechanisms, marketing language update fields, seasonal feeds vs. regular feeds, reviews, ratings, and many other "bells and whistles" that your competitors are probably using to both list their products higher on these CSEs and be rated higher in customer satisfaction.

For instance did you know about the many options you have to work with PriceGrabber beyond just a PPC model to increase your return on ad spend "(ROAS")?  I wrote about it here on eTaildTail, check it out, and it still applies today.

I also started an educational series with CSE participation to show how any online merchant can work most efficiently with CSEs to increase their return on ad spend ("ROAS").  That series is called: Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing and it is free.

So, the CSE marketplace is more sophisticated and working with larger CSEs requires time and nurturing precisely because they offer so many ways to help you get noticed and earn trust with potential customers.  If you don't take advantage of these features you are destined to just have people click through to your site to check on price, maybe search for a little bit, and then leave.

So at this point....are you confused?  :-)  Don't be. My advice...

Follow stages 1, 2, and 3 above ... which you can do on your own, or call us at MerchantAdvantage to help; we have created a very cost-effective, Web-based, marketing tool to make it all very easy for you to work with and analyze the performance of any CSE marketing campaign.  We also have a vast Resource Knowledge center of how best to work with CSEs and support staff to help you on a daily basis.

MerchantAdvantage even provides biweekly Webinars on how to market using CSEs and private Webinars with the CSEs themselves, who give you valuable inside "tips and tricks" on how increase sales and conversions using their CSE.

REMEMBER: A CSE has no interest seeing you spend money without conversions because then you will stop using them. They are here to help and MerchantAdvantage has a direct line!

Oh yes, and we do have some fun too...knowing over 200 CSEs personally requires a sense of humor. :-)

Finally, and this is just my advice, when you reach Stage 4, outlined above, as many of you have already.  Stop! and..

Go back and make sure you have completed Stages 1, 2, and 3 thoroughly first, because, when you reach Stage 4 you will then be prepared.  It will then be easier, more fun, and you will be much more knowledgeable on how to leverage PPC CSE "Players" to increase Return on Ad Spend ("ROAS") effectively.

And for those of you in the crowd that are A.D.D. , please don't skip from Stage 3 to Stage 4 Part II, instead follow the order I outlined above.  If you do, I know you will increase sales and conversions and soon be CSE marketing gurus, who will be giving me and MerchantAdvantage advice.

Promise!

- Chip Arndt

Smart People

"Press on.  Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence."

Ray Kroc
Founder of the McDonald’s Corporation

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:

1. lack of familiarity with a particular marketing channel
2. lack of evidence that a marketing channel increases sales cost effectively, and
3. 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.

- Chip Arndt

Smart People

“If a man harbors any sort of fear or insecurity, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost.”

Lloyd C. Douglas
American minister and author of the early 20th Century, suggesting how we not confront the challenges of our day

Insider Edition: The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing - QueenofCheap.com

Insider Edition:  The Experts' Guide to Channel Marketing

Last week, eTaildTail had a great interview with consumer shopping engine UnderBid.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 Gifts.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:

1. lack of familiarity with a particular marketing channel
2. lack of evidence that a marketing channel increases sales cost effectively, and
3. 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 Queen of Cheap and its Founder, Marifer Vergara.  All interviews are conducted by Chip Arndt, an author of eTaildTail. 

If you would like to contact Queen of Cheap and Marifer Vergara 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 - QueenofCheap.com

Queen of Cheap's Secrets to CSE Marketing Success for Online Merchants

1. When was QueenofCheap.com founded and by whom?

Founded in 2006 by Three Legged Toad to showcase its client's products data feed and drive free traffic to clients' Webstore fronts as value added to their data feed management contract.

2. What sets QueenofCheap.com apart from the other consumer shopping engines?

We drive traffic from our many product review blogs and coupon sites driving qualified customers to our product pages.

3. What are the secrets to success for merchants advertising on QueenofCheap.com?

Merchants should take advantage of our "special offer" with some marketing message and emailing us every special offer, coupon or deal so we can syndicate among our network of blogs.

4. Who is using QueenofCheap.com and why?

Demographics are very broad and consumers love wokring with us because of our coupons and free shipping promotion.  Merchants enjoy a flat rate listing business model.

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 really doing their homework before making a purchase. They search for lowest price available, free shipping offers, coupons.  We are working with merchants in providing a flat rate model where they can keep their ROI and monthly spend in check.

Bonus Q: How do I get to work with QueenofCheap.com as an ecommerce merchant?

Easy! Just sign up as a merchant on the website by clicking here or you can sign up easily via MerchantAdvantage.

Chip: Thank you so much Marifer for your time and insights on how online merchants can benefit by working with Queen of Cheap.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.

- Chip Arndt

Two Proven & Innovative Ways to Market Online

eTaildTail is proud to announce a Webinar on how to drive sales and retain customers for ecommerce merchants and any online business.  As part of MerchantAdvantage's FIT Webinar series for 2009, CEO of MerchantAdvantage, Michael Lambert, teams up with CEO Wayne Wall of FLIMP Media, a Web-based, rich media email platform company out of Boston, Massachusetts, for an informative free Webinar on proven ways to market online.

I encourage anyone to sign up for this 30 minute, free Webinar to stay informed on the best methods to marketing cost effectively online to increase sales, build brand awareness, and retain customers. I hope to see you on the Webinar.

- Chp Arndt

   

Webinar: 2 Proven & Innovative Ways to Market Online
Increase Your Sales with Video and Comparison Shopping

You know the challenge: get in front of the right potential customers and then engage their attention long enough that they receive your message. It all happens in just seconds or it doesn’t happen at all. You are invited to join our special 30-minute webinar on Thursday, March 26, to explore how simple but powerful tools can help your online business accomplish these exact goals: reach the right people, grab their interest, drive sales.

Does the idea of improving your response rate by 4, 5 or even 7 times its current level make your blood a little warm? According to DoubleClickstudies conducted from 2004 to 2007, "online viewers are 4 to 7 times more likely to engage with and respond to audio-visual web content".

By participating in this webinar, you will learn:

• How to quickly create and edit video brochures, video landing pages, sales collateral and communications using a simple interface.
• How to use online video to enliven your website and dramatically improve your response rates.
• How to nurture customer relationships and drive repeat business with video e-mail campaigns.
• How Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE's) can bring you new customers - without bringing you tech hassles.
• How to select the most effective CSE's for YOUR business out of the hundreds out there.
• How to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of your CSE choices and make changes in real time.

We will continue to review website marketing efficiencies during this webinar and will be looking at examples of using video to spark interest. If you would like us to consider your site, please submit your website in the registration form.

SPECIAL EVENT: This webinar features the experience and accumulated wisdom of two celebrated e-commerce CEO’s, broadcasting simultaneously from Miami, Florida and Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Please join Wayne Wall, CEO of FLIMP Media, and Michael Lambert, CEO of MerchantAdvantage. You don’t want to miss this one!

Webinar Details:
Date:Thursday,March 26, 2009
Time:2:00-2:30PM Eastern/11:00-11:30AM Pacific

SIGN UP HERE.

Smart People

"Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.  We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter;  we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them."

William Hazlitt
Noted 19th Century English critic and philosopher