The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today: Part IV

Part IV of a IV part series on the state of e-commerce and m-commerce shopping destination sites on eTaildTail from December 22-25th.

Part IV:

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today
Where do we go from here?

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part I: What Are Shopping Destination Sites? & The Way It Was…A Little History.

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part II:  How Online Merchants Can Benefit By Using CSEs to Increase Sales.

<<<CLICK HERE>>>...if you missed Part III: The CSE Landscape for 2009 and Where to Start.

Where do we go from here into 2009?

There is no question that CSE marketing is valuable, growing, and here to stay.  A new tech savvy generation is turning to online shopping, via their computers and mobile devices, to find, compare and buy products every day around the world.  It is now up to the online merchant to leverage these CSE marketing channels and implement cost-effective strategies to reach these consumers.

So for 2009:

1. Start feeding your entire product catalog to the three aforementioned FREE CSEs
2. Include CSE marketing in your overall marketing plan and budgets for 2009, and
3. Work with a company that provides easy to use, Web-based tools to leverage the CSE landscape cost-effectively

There are very few marketing strategies that cost so little to implement with such a huge upside. 

What are you waiting for?

Just do it!

HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON
AND
A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATION WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

- Chip Arndt

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today: Part III

Part III of a IV part series on the state of e-commerce and m-commerce shopping destination sites on eTaildTail from December 22-25th.

Part III:

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today
Where do we go from here?

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part I: What Are Shopping Destination Sites? & The Way It Was…A Little History.

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part II: How Online Merchants Can Benefit By Using CSEs to Increase Sales.

The CSE Landscape for 2009 and Where to Start.

CSE marketing can be overwhelming or it can be easy.  Let us, together, try the easy route.

Going into 2009, there are hundreds of viable CSEs and other marketing channels that act similar to CSEs to market products.  Last month and this month, MerchantAdvantage had two free webinars with buySAFE and Smarter.com that outlined this CSE landscape and how to implement a cogent and cost-effective CSE marketing strategy.

Anyone reading this newsletter can download these free educational Webinars here to learn more...FREE BUYSAFE WEBINAR and FREE SMARTER.COM Webinar.

To ready yourself for 2009, it is important to first understand the simple value-add of CSE marketing.  Diagram 1 shows that CSE marketing is straightforward process where online merchants can connect to millions of consumers via a wide array of CSEs, which then connect the consumer back to the online merchant’s Web Storefront.

   
After understanding the value of CSEs, online merchants often are confused about:

    a. How many CSEs are available to them to send their product catalog data
    b. The costs associated with working with one CSE over another:
            1. Some are free
            2. Some charge commissions
            3. Some charge a flat fee
            4. Some charge a Pay-Per-Click
            5. Some charge Pay-Per-Action (similar to commissions)
    c. The consumer reach of one CSE over the other
    d. The “best” CSEs to market and represent their product catalog data
    e. Analyzing the effectiveness of CSEs, and 
    f. The in-house technical skills and resources required to work with CSEs

To begin to answer these questions, Diagram 2 outlines important distinctions between one CSE over the other and the best possible place to begin CSE marketing.
 
 

There is no one CSE that is perfect for your marketing strategies.  Some CSEs start to lead to sales right away, other CSEs take some time to lead to sales, and others may not lead to sales at all. 

The only way to identify the best CSEs that work for YOUR product catalog is to test, test, and test again.  The good news is that there are many CSEs that might work for you and the bad news is you might have to test a few CSEs before finding the perfect one. The huge upside, however, is that when you find the right CSEs to work with an online merchant’s sales, leads, and brand benefit.

If you are new to CSE marketing, MerchantAdvantage recommends starting off with listing your product catalog to three free sites that also have a lot of consumer traffic.  These include: Google Product Search, theFind.com, and Live Search from MSN.  No costs are associated from any lead or sale an online merchant gets from these free CSEs.  The risk to work with these CSEs is zero with the upside of some sales and the proliferation of your brand, which is always good for SEO.

After understanding where to start, for nothing, merchants then ask the obvious questions:

1. What other CSEs market my products the best?
2. What are the costs associated with all of these CSEs? and
3. How easily can I work with numerous CSEs?

Question 1: “What other CSEs market my products the best?”  is answered by breaking down the CSE landscape in what we call “marketing buckets” and addressing each “marketing bucket” one phase at a time. 

There are 5 phases to consider when using CSEs.  We recommend looking at each phase as a marketing strategy unto itself.  And, we remind online merchants that they can start with any phase they prefer that answers best to their marketing needs and then move on to a different phase once they are comfortable.

Diagram 3 outlines Phase 1: Well known CSEs and marketplaces and Free CSEs.

Diagram 4 outlines Phase 2: Niche CSEs that market select products to targeted consumers.

Diagram 5 outlines Phase 3: “Affiliate networks” available to market an online merchant’s product catalog.

Diagram 6 outlines Phase 4: “Specialty Marketing Sites” available to market an online merchant’s product catalog.

Diagram 7 outlines the final Phase 5:  Mobile commerce ("mcommerce") CSEs available to market an online merchant’s product catalog.

Question 2: “What are the costs associated with all of these CSEs?” 

Each CSE has their own way to work with them and offer varying payment models.  Some CSEs charge a commission, such as Amazon, some are PPC, as Like, PriceGrabber, Pronto, and Shopzilla, some charge a flat-fee such as myCoupons and SortPrice, some charge Pay-Per-Action, which is a variance to the commissions, and others are FREE!  MerchantAdvantage makes it easy to find out the payment models of each CSE through a simple back–office interface or you can email the CSE and ask them directly. 

And, regardless of the payment structure a CSE utilizes an online merchant can easily analyze their return on ad spend ("ROAS ") on a CSE with a proper analytic tool that monitors their CSE marketing campaigns across all CSEs.  MerchantAdvantage uses a proprietary “Chanalytics” tool for its clients that measures the return on ad spend of CSE marketing campaigns immediately.

Question 3: “How easily can I work with numerous CSEs?

It can be confusing to work with some CSEs and very easy to work with others.  Working with one CSE is fairly easy to manage, but working with several CSEs and updating product catalog feeds on a daily basis on your own can be a nightmare. 

If you have the time and in-house technology smarts to dedicate to CSE marketing strategies, you can do it yourself.   MerchantAdvantage exists to empower merchants to work with 2, 5, 50, or 100+ CSEs easily and analyze how these CSE strategies are working to lead to higher ROAS and sales.

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part I: What Are Shopping Destination Sites? & The Way It Was…A Little History.

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part II: How Online Merchants Can Benefit By Using CSEs to Increase Sales.

Check back December 25 - yes, my Chistmas present to many of you - for Part IV, the final segment of our four part series.  Tomorrow we will cover:

Where do we go from here into 2009?

- Chip Arndt

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today: Part II

Part II of a IV part series on the state of e-commerce and m-commerce shopping destination sites on eTaildTail from December 22-25th.

Part II:

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today
Where do we go from here?

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part I: What Are Shopping Destination Sites? & The Way It Was…A Little History.

How Online Merchants Can Benefit By Using CSEs to Increase Sales.

Any online merchant should market their product catalog on CSEs for one simple reason, namely, CSE marketing is one of the most efficient ways to reach millions of potential customers quickly and cost effectively. 

Don't believe me?

Noted ecommerce and marketing expert, Derek Gehl recently weighed in on CSEs and their importance to successful online selling and increasing Return on Ad Spend ("ROAS") on MSNBC's Web site on December 19, 2008 and confirms eTaildTail and MerchantAdvantage findings from CEO Michael Lambert for 2008 and 2009.

Special Note: Derek Gehl is Entrepreneur.com's e-business columnist and CEO of the Internet Marketing Center. He's an internationally renowned internet marketing expert whose techniques and strategies for building a successful online business have been implemented by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. His comprehensive internet marketing guide,"The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet", has been an online bestseller for 10 years.

Whether an online merchant works with free CSEs, such as Google Product Search, theFind.com, or Live Cash Back from Microsoft, and/or CSEs that only charge a commission on sales, and/or CSEs that work on a PPC business model, and/or CSEs that work on a Pay-Per-Action (which is similar to a commission based model), and/or CSEs with a fixed monthly fee, CSE marketing should be part of the marketing strategy of all online merchants.

The four main reasons most online merchants say they do not work with CSEs are:

1. Limited time and money to dedicate to CSE marketing
2. A lack of the critical data necessary to make marketing efficiency decisions
3. A lack of understanding of how to produce a proper product data file to submit to CSEs, and
4. A lack of understanding of the CSE landscape and the best CSEs to use to increase sales.

MerchantAdvantage was founded to help online merchants leverage marketing channels, such as CSEs, to grow sales, build brand awareness, and increase return on ad spend (“ROAS”).   MerchantAdvantage solves these above concerns by providing online merchants a plethora of information about CSEs, a myriad of choices of how to work with CSEs for very little money, and robust analytic tools to gauge the success of CSE marketing.  In addition, considering that there are three FREE CSEs that an online merchant can start to work with immediately – yes, that means that these CSEs never charge an online merchant for a lead or sale - we see no reason why an online merchant would not use these CSEs, at a minimum.

Many MerchantAdvantage clients only use free CSEs.  These clients realize value in three main ways:

1. Any sale or lead that comes to them costs nothing
2. Any lead or sale that comes to them is a lead forever for future direct marketing efforts, and
3. The online merchant understands how to work with and leverage CSEs effectively

Most of the time, soon after an online merchant learns how to use free CSEs effectively and analyze these marketing efforts intelligently; they then introduce other CSEs into their marketing efforts and realize that CSE marketing is not only important to building sales but is also very cost-effective.

Once an online merchant gets past the “anxiety” of learning a new marketing method and realizes the vast potential to increase sales by using CSEs in a variety of ways, it is important that an online merchant monitor and stay on top of three main issues for effective CSE marketing.  These include:

1. Ensuring that they send an updated and optimized product catalog data feed to the CSE or mobile marketing channel
2. Ensuring that they have the resources to monitor and update CSE marketing strategies, and
3. Ensuring that the ROAS justifies the time, effort, and cost to working with CSEs.

Some online merchants have in-house resources to solve these issues, other online merchants simply out source to a third party to solve these issues.  Another alternative is to use intuitive, Web-based tools to solve these issues and ensure that the online merchant remains in control of their data and profits. 

MerchantAdvantage is the pioneer in ecommerce and mcommerce tools providing cost-effective, Web-based solutions and does NOT charge revenue share, listing fees, commissions or any other fees that might nip into your margins.

The right solution is up to the online merchant but the key take away is:

All online merchants should implement a CSE marketing strategy, be it limited or robust, to their existing marketing strategy.  The proper implementation of a CSE marketing strategy leads to exposure, sales, leads, and branding opportunities at a price, in terms of actual cost and time, which no other marketing strategy can approach. Period!

So now that I have your attention, what follows is an overview of how any online merchant can leverage CSEs in 2009....

<<<CLICK HERE>>>....if you missed Part I: What Are Shopping Destination Sites? & The Way It Was…A Little History.

Check back December 24 for Part III of our four part series.  Tomorrow we will cover.

The CSE Landscape for 2009 and Where to Start.

- Chip Arndt

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today: Part I

Part I of a IV part series on the state of e-commerce and m-commerce shopping destination sites on eTaildTail from December 22-25th.

Part I:

The State of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Shopping Destination Sites Today
Where do we go from here?

What Are Shopping Destination Sites?

Two years ago we all referred to online shopping destination sites simply as “Comparison Shopping Engines” (CSEs).  A CSE was an online mall on the Internet where consumers could find products, compare prices and ultimately buy these products online – direct from the online merchant.  Examples of these CSEs include:  Become, CNet, Google Product Search, mySimon, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Pronto, Shopzilla, Smarter, theFind, Yahoo! Shopping…you get the point.  CSEs were introduced as different business models from Amazon and eBay! but served the similar purpose of connecting consumers to online merchants.

Last year I started to refer to CSEs as “Shopping Destination Sites” because I did not think that all of these online malls were just places to “compare” prices on products. In fact, there were many niche shopping destination sites, which did not have an overwhelming comparison shopping experience of thousands of vendors’ products and rather marketed the ease of finding quality products and companies that many consumers might never have heard of before.  Examples of these alternative “Shopping Destination Sites” include: FindGifts, Gifts, Glimpse, GolfPricer, GourmetFoodMall, HealthPricer , Like, MachineTools, and many others.

Today I return to referring to “Shopping Comparison Sites” as CSEs. But, instead of CSE standing for “Comparison Shopping Engine” I now refer to CSEs as “Consumer Shopping Engines.”  I do this, not to subvert your ad word buys on search engines, but rather to be more precise and inclusive of all online Web destinations that allow a consumer to find products, compare prices, and shop easily.

So a CSE, from here on out, is referred to as a “Consumer Shopping Engine” – which is a Web site that allows anyone to shop on the Internet either directly from your computer (ecommerce) or mobile device, (mcommerce).

Okay, now that we have definitions out of the way, what can we expect from CSEs into 2009?  The below analysis may surprise you…or maybe not.

The Way It Was…A Little History

1992-1998: Years ago… in a place far, far away…online comparison shopping was born.  In the beginning, there were online shopping malls as Amazon, BizRate (now part of Shopzilla), CNET, DealTime (now Shopping.com) eBay!, mySimon, PriceGrabber, Shop.com, and Shopzilla. Each with their own business model of how to connect consumers with online merchants.

This was the dawn of a new way to shop.  Some say online shopping was little more than a more sophisticated “Yellow Pages”.  However, CSEs afforded the consumer a method to quickly compare prices and products from various vendors without leaving their home or office.  During these years, it was difficult to find well known brick and mortar stores listing their products with CSEs, as they were slow to adopt online shopping;  the small to mid-sized online merchant flourished. 

Most of these CSEs worked on a pay-per-click (“PPC”) advertising model, whereby online merchants did not pay to be listed on CSEs but instead paid for every click on a product, whether it led to a sale or not, which was then redirected back to their home Webstore.  Some experts refer to this as “pay-for-lead” advertising.

Many online merchants saw the vaue of CSE but were still confused about the best CSEs, the best methods to work with CSEs and how to ensure that they were getting the highest return on ad spend ("ROAS").  Online merchants were overhwhelmed with the possibilities...

 

...so CSEs stated to answer their demands.

As technology improved, this new "breed" of shopping Web portals changed both the business model of how consumers shopped and put pressure on CSEs to upgrade the features and functionality offered to online shoppers and online merchants to ensure online shopping was easy, safe, and fun to use.  Unlike search engines, CSEs did not merely "aggregate" data-feeds provided from the online retailers, but rather retrieved the data directly from each retailer site. This evolution allowed for a more comprehensive list of online retailers and the ability for the online merchant to update product information data in real-time.

1999-2003: Very quickly, online shopping went from being a novelty, niche Internet business idea to being a robust and profitable business model for CSEs, investors, and online merchants using CSEs and, because of this, many new CSEs emerged.

Improved technology shopping interfaces, more sophisticated Website, search navigation functionalities, safer payment gateways, and faster Internet connections collectively help make the online shopping experience more structured, efficient, unique, and fun.

These innovations empowered consumers to search for products more frequently, as download times to find products and execute subsequent online purchases was relatively easy and quick.

To complement these improvements, CSEs developed technologies to aggregate and list retailers’ product catalog data more efficiently.  This process ensured that online merchants’ products, listed on a CSE, mirrored exactly what was marketed on their own Website in virtual real time. Consumers could then be satisfied that the products and prices they found on a CSE accurately represented what they find on the actual merchant’s Website.  

Globally, similar CSEs launched, leading to over 50 CSEs marketing products to consumers by 2002 in the USA and Europe. This period continued to see consistent growth in new CSEs and improvements to existing CSEs, most of which still only offered a PPC business model to the online merchant.  Examples of CSEs that emerged were: 

USA based: Froogle (now Google Product Search), MSN Shopping, NextTag, Smarter, and Yahoo! Shopping.

Europe based: Dooyou Group, Froogle Europe (now Google Product Search), Kelkoo, MSN Europe, LeGuide, PriceGrabber Europe , Shopzilla Europe, and Yahoo! Shopping Europe.

2004-2008: Boom…During these years the marketplace witnessed an explosion in new CSEs across the globe, the emergence of new payment and advertising models using CSEs, the growth of mobile commerce (“mcommerce”) and the proliferation of merger, acquisition, and/or buyout activity within ecommerce and mcommerce.

Online and mobile shopping expanded exponentially during this five year period.  Traditional business models of the PPC and the commission based sales model, perfected by Amazon, now compete with new ways for online merchants to reach consumers and new payment methods for online merchants to work with CSEs.  As of 4th Q 2008, there are over 300 CSEs, large and small, that use traditional and new payment methods to connect consumers including: pay-per-click, commissions, pay-for-action, referral fees, product data feed licensing, gift cards, and coupons, to name just a few.  A list of several new CSEs can be found here.

The most notable change to online shopping during this period was the advent of product reviews, blogs, social networking sites, and targeted niche CSEs as viable places for consumers to find, compare, and buy products.   While traditional large CSEs are still viable and successful businesses, the landscape of online shopping has changed forever.  No longer are there just a few trusted online CSEs to shop for products online but rather hundreds and hundreds of large, medium, and small CSEs, and other online destinations, to shop both from your computer and hand-held wireless device. 

A whole other newsletter could be devoted to just this period and the explosion of online and mobile shopping CSEs, applications, and business models.  In the absence of that newsletter, here are the main points to remember:

1. Ecommerce is here to stay
2. Ecommerce is growing
3. The methods and applications to make online shopping more efficient and enjoyable are morphing every day, and
4. Ecommerce and Mcommerce are the preferred methods of younger generations to find, compare, and purchase products

Check back December 23 for Part II of our four part series.  Tomorrow we will cover:

How Online Merchants Can Benefit By Using CSEs to Increase Sales?

- Chip Arndt

What Do These Online Retail Statistics For 2008 Show?

SPECIAL COMMENTARY

By Michael Lambet, CEO of MerchantAdvantage

Well, here we are at the end of 2008 and everyone is either holding their breath to see how things went, or shouting expletives about what they already think they know.  As with all matters of such magnitude, the online retail environment had some bumps, and some interesting growth as well.

After a quick review of some serious statistics by comScore– I was pleased to see the online retail segment that we address almost doubling in volume over last year.  In the face of our current economic setting this is no small feat.

In one portion of the statistics e-commerce revenue was divided into “Referral Tactict” categories such as: Search, e-mail, Comparison Shopping, Coupons and Other.  As a preliminary statement they note that over 33% of online sales activity occurred through a referral mechanism as listed within their Referral Tactic categories, and this overall statistic is up a few percentage points from last year.

You can, and should review their detailed stats when you have the time, but I found this particular chart enlightening.  Quickly, the tactics and parameters were – Search which was down a few points (no surprise there), e-mail was up a bit, Comparison Shopping was almost double the previous year, Coupons were up slightly, and the “Other” category was down.

SEARCH – Sales referrals from Search is one category, and I didn’t see a clear distinction between SEM and SEO.  In either case, the measurement as it stands shows a subtle drop.  I believe there are two main factors that lead to this drop:

1. Monthly cost of SEM in click costs has gone up (though not necessarily the cost per click) and SEO fees are up as well (to the firms hired to “enhance and optimize”, and   
2. Merchants have become more savvy about tracking click to purchase conversions, and are diverting efforts to those that they know will convert.

EMAIL- Email has grown in percentage points, despite the “DON’T SPAM ME” epidemic. It really just goes to show you that there is a way around virtually every marketing obstacle.  With appropriate email partners such as Blue Hornet and Vertical Response, there’s no reason retailers shouldn’t be re-marketing to their existing consumers.  So, revenues caused by emailed referrals was up from 11% last year to just over 16% all “referral tactic” based marketing for online retailers.

COMPARISON SHOPPING – We prefer the acronym CSE be translated as Consumer Shopping Engine these days. But, this category jumps from 2.5% of referral based revenues to 4.7%.

This number may be a bit deceiving as it shows itself as the percentage of all revenues, but not all online retailers use CSEs. So, the question arises, of those merchants using CSEs, which percentage of their referral based revenues are attributed to CSEs?  Obviously more than 4.7%.  So, it’s great being a part of a company that helps merchants market in a segment that is becoming more and more successful.

COUPONS - Coupons went up, but from 1.1% to 1.8%. I think that coupon sites have gotten a bad rap; the thought being that only cost conscious consumers (sometimes called bottom dwellers) use them.  True or not, these are consumers you likely would not have found as they do not frequent your site, nor do they necessarily frequent Consumer Shopping Engines or any other more traditional marketing venues.

There are a few pricing models, but none of them are expensive, and once you’ve got a cost conscious consumer, you presumably have convinced them that you provide a cost effective product line. So, re-market to these humans…  All in all Coupons are clearly becoming a more popular venue.

OTHER – Hmmmmmm. Well, I am an advocate of using unique methods and exploring your options.  Further, Web 2.0 and other new “inventions” have really come a long way. So, in general I’d say the “Other” category should have gone up.   But “nay nay” says comScore.

I would suggest that random and lesser known parts of the “Other” category brought down some of the more successful components of the other grouping.  Product reviews, blogs, and the like seem to be doing well for those merchants with the time to pursue such efforts.  I am wondering how much of the “Other” category is Print, billboards or even standing out in the street and yelling.  Anyway, this ever so broad category was down from 28.7% to 22.9% - which I think is a significant amount, even if it doesn’t really suggest any particular call to action.

Although the 2008 Holiday shopping season grew ever so modestly (6%) over 2007, I think too much focus is placed on the “Modestly”  and “Holiday” season words, and not enough on 2008  vs.  2007. 

Perhaps online retailers need to look more at the rest of the year (9% growth) as an area of focus.  Online retailers, and retailers in general have simply accepted that November and December are THE MONTHS to make all the years revenues look good.  They were never happy about entrusting two months for their overall annual profitability. And yet that consistently is where they look for the big bucks.  Why slight those other pleasant months by not giving them your attentions?

Even if your individual profits only grew 6% over what you would have made without additional efforts, that can often offset a somewhat disastrous holiday season.  And if that disastrous season don’t happen, papa’s gonna buy you a brand new wagon!  (translated: all the better for you).

So, I guess what I’m trying to extrapolate from this information is that sometimes you have to fight the fights that you can win, and that may not be so seasonal as you thought.

-- Michael Lambert, CEO, MerchantAdvantage

Comparison Shopping Sites

Many online merchants continue to ask me if Comparison Shopping Sites can help them grow sales.  As I am biased, because I am cofounder of MerchantAdvantage, which helps online merchants use  Comparison Shopping Sites cost-effectively, I guide eTaildTail readers to the this article on the usefulness of Comparison Shopping Sites and their effectiveness to grow sales and brand awareness for online retailers from industry leading journalists at Practical Ecommerce. 

While the article was written almost two years ago the wisdom in the article STILL APPLIES TODAY because online and mobile shopping continue to grow every month and into 2009; it is also excellent reading for all online merchants looking to understand how Comparison Shopping Sites work.

The article includes valubale commentary about Comparison Shopping Sites from my fellow cofounder, Michael Lambert, CEO of MerchantAdvantage.

Practical Ecommerce
By Mitch Bettis

"With millions of ready-to-buy consumers turning to shopping comparison sites, experts advise retailers to consider participating in one of the Internet's newest sales channels.

Shopping comparison sites like Yahoo! Shopping, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag, Google Product Search, Jellyfish and others serve as a powerful tool to connect buyers and products.

Shopping sites allow merchants to “feed” them lists of products and prices, and then those products are displayed alongside the same products from other merchants when a shopper keys-in a search. For instance, if a consumer visits Yahoo! Shopping and types in “Coleman Sleeping Bag,” he'll see various styles of Coleman sleeping bags from a variety of vendors—from major retail players to smaller shops. A consumer can easily compare products, prices and shipping costs to look for the best deal. Consumers don't complete the transaction at the comparison site: They are linked back to the merchant's site to complete the transaction.

Follow the money

“Online retailers need to be in this marketplace because a good portion of sales across the Internet are coming from the shopping-comparison sites and marketplaces,” said Michael Lambert, CEO of MerchantAdvantage, a company that helps merchants provide feeds to comparison search engines and public marketplaces. “The consumers who come from these sites are buying approximately 25 percent more per sitting. So, when they come to the shopping cart from the shopping-comparison site, they typically spend 25 percent more money than they would have if they just came directly to the site.”

Lambert says there have been significant changes in the comparison-engine marketplace as more companies have entered the arena. Most sites deploy a pay-per-click (PPC) fee structure. These sites charge a merchant for every customer that clicks on their product at the comparison engine. There are also newer models in the marketplace, like Jellyfish.com, that use a cost-per-sale, commission model. Jellyfish.com will only make money if the customer it sends your way actually buys the product..."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to continue reading.

In the next week on eTaildTail, please look for a comprehensive three-part series on the state of Comparison Shopping Sites and the landscape of ecommerce and mobile commerce going into 2009.

-- Chip Arndt

"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

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