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

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

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

Shopzilla Cost-Per-Click Rate Increases for The Holiday Shopping Season

eTaildTail strives to inform online merchants of relevant information to help grow their online business everyday.

Last week, eTaildTail friends at Shopzilla let us know that they are implementing new Cost-Per-Click rate increases of 25% across the board for online merchants using Shopzilla's comparison shopping engine for the Holiday Shopping Season.  These rate increases are effective from November 20-December 31, 2008. (see below)

These increases are a bit hefty, so please ensure that you adjust your marketing and SKU level bidding strategies, as they are appropriate per marketing channel, accordingly.

As I have said many times before, it is useful and cost-effective for online merchants to have a Web-Based application that helps them:

• Set-up, optimize, and feed their product catalog from one application to any marketing channel
• Monitor and adjust SKU level bidding to maximize return on ad spend
• Analyze the performance of marketing strategies using comparison shopping engines, and
• Adjust marketing feeds immediately

Here is the cost-per-click news from Shopzilla:

"Dear Valued Shopzilla Merchant,

In advance of the 2008 holiday season, we are writing to communicate a seasonal adjustment to our cost-per-click rates. From November 20 through December 31, 2008, we will increase the cost per lead by 25% in all categories. This adjustment reflects the increased conversion to sale that occurs during the holiday shopping season.

These changes will automatically take effect on November 20 and end on December 31. You will not need to make changes to your account before or after this period.

We are committed to helping you maximize your sales during the 2008 Holiday season. If you have any questions, please contact your Shopzilla Account Manager."

If any online merchant needs help managing their Shopzilla feed, or 150+ other marketing channels, MerchantAdvantage, which I am a Co-Founder of, is the only application in the marketplace that allows online merchants to do all of the named functions above and:

• Allows a merchant to feed to 150+ marketing channels for one price
• Charges ONLY a flat per month rate with no long-term contracts
• Supports unlimited SKUs
• Supports unlimited storefronts
• Does NOT charge revenue share
• Does NOT charge transaction fees
• Does NOT charge listing fees
• Does NOT charge set-up fees
• Immediately sets up an online merchant to utilize 4 FREE comparison shopping engines
• Supports SKU level bidding
• Allows online merchants to analyze and react to their marketing campaigns in real time, and 
• Provides free, weekly educational Webinars to maximize their channel marketing efforts 

So if you are interested to learn more about how to maximize your marketing strategy, just go to MerchantAdvantage and ask for a free online demonstration and see what MerchantAdvantage is doing for Callaway Golf, ProFlowers, Birkenstock and hundreds of other US and European clients to maximize their return on ad spend.

The Holidays are upon us and, yes, you can make money in this "recessionary economy" with intelligent marketing strategies, as people are still shopping online.

In addition, if you want to learn more on how to make money during the Holiday Shopping Season, check out this free Webinar MerchantAdvantage and buySAFE gave last week -- it is definately a "treat" and not a "trick"....promise.  Full slides and audio! 

How to Gain Customers and Customer Loyalty During the Holidays

Happy Halloween Week!

-- Chip Arndt

MerchantAdvantage Helps Increase The Return on CSE Spending

It is always nice when the marketplace takes notice of our hard work at MerchantAdvantage to help ecommerce merchants work cost-effectively with over 150 consumer shopping engines and comparison shopping engines ("CSE"), including Amazon, buySAFE, eBay, Cooking.com, Greenzer, HGTV, Like.com, PriceGrabber, Pronto. Shop.com, Shopzilla, Smarter.com, and a myriad of other CSEs.

Today, BizReport reported on the importance of using a robust analytic tool to:

• measure how marketing campaigns are working across CSEs, and
• gauge and calculate return on ad spend ("ROAS") when using these marketing channels. 

In the article, BizReport highlighted MerchantAdvantage, and our "Chanalytics" reporting tool, as an important element to providing essential, easy to understand metrics for an ecommerce merchant.  These metrics are provided in a user friendly report which empowers a merchant to be proactive in adjusting marketing campaigns using CSEs to increase ROAS quickly and easily. 

The "Chanalytics" product is available to any ecommerce merchant, as a stand alone product, to measure and compare all marketing campaigns in one user-friendly interface.

"Chanalytics" is also incorporated into other MerchantAdvantage tool-based products that help ecommerce merchants feed their product catalog data to over 150 CSEs or marketing channels seamlessly.

In addition to the free white paper report on "Chanalytics", identified by BizReport, MerchantAdvantage also offers several other helpful resources free. <<<CLICK HERE>>> to access that library of information.

I hope these additional reports and resources prove helpful to all ecommerce merchants to grow sales going into the holiday shopping months.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to access that library of information.

- Chip Arndt

BizReport
by Kristina Knight
October 3, 2008

How to Increase the Return on CSE Spending

"Consumer shopping engines (CSE) are becoming much more integral to ecommerce but many etailers are still unsure how to ensure the best return on their spending. While nothing beats the tried and true "try it and adjust" philosophy, here are two ways to increase the ROI of CSE spending from the start.

First, don't go it alone. Marketers can spend all day tracking down the metrics of a campaign. Instead of doing this yourself, consider using an analytics program, like Chanalytics from MerchantAdvantage, to offer technical support. Chanalytics regularly feeds the data merchants need as they need it; it can also process any technical issues that face the marketer before those issues become huge, time consuming matters. Managing the CSE channel from the beginning can free up time so that etailers can focus on selling more products.

Second, don't stop reviewing the information sent from feeds and the responses received directly from consumers. Consumers feelings can change in an instant. Most want a simple shopping experience, fast shipping and a good product;..."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article by Kristina Knight and BizReport.