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

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

For the end of 2008 and going to 2009, I thought it would be helpful to comment on the state of shopping online, ecommerce, and mobile commerce ("mcommerce"), as it relates to shopping destination sites and other shopping marketing channels.

I will post a new topic each day that complements the prior day's post, so please check back each day to capture the entire summary.

This is what will be covered from December 22nd- 25th.

December 22: Part I
What Are Shopping Destination Sites? & The Way It Was…A Little History.

December 23: Part II
How Online Merchants Can Benefit By Using CSEs to Increase Sales?

December 24: Part III
The CSE Landscape for 2009 and Where to Start.

December 25: Part IV
Where do we go from here into 2009?

Happy Holidays to one and all and thank you for your support of eTaildTail and MerchantAdvantage.

-- 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

Online Ecommerce Holiday Retail Sales and Traffic Ahead of 2007

There are many reasons why 2008 Holiday Traffic and Sales are up over 2007 in this recessionary economy, but I will leave that analysis for a post Holiday blog entry.  

For now, as I know you are all busy with marketing efforts to drive traffic to your Web Store and increase sales, know that 2008 Holiday traffic and revenues are up from 2007.

The below chart, released this week, shows year-to-year growth at some of the the major online retail channels. While the below chart does not track a wide array of online retailers, it is generally agreed by most analysts that sales and traffic data from a sample group of top online retailers is a good indicator of what is happening across the entire ecommerce marketplace.

The below chart tracks online data from: Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, JCPenney.com, Kohls.com, Macys.com, Overstock.com, Sears.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com.

I was highly encouraged by the report and what it signals for the future of ecommerce across the board.

I encourage all online retailers, and those of us ecommerce and mcommerce "addicts" in the world, to read the complete article by <<<CLICKING HERE>>> for an excellent overview of the 2008 Holiday Shopping Season to date from eTaildTail friends at Seeking Alpha: "Experts in Stock Market Opinion and Analysis"

Happy Holidays!

-- 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

Survey Says: Site Search, SEO and Email Marketing are Key for E-tailing Success

eTaildTail and MerchantAdvantage are proud to offer insights from our friends in the ecommerce and mobile commerce industries to help online merchants improve their online maketing efforts and increase sales and return on ad spend.

This week, Geoff Brash of SLI Systems, the industry leader in intelligent storefront site search solutions, provides an insightful look into those technologies that help online merchants most effectively.

The study, and Geoff's subsequent commentary, covers what technologies online merchants found the most important to implement today to improve onsite conversions and build trust in the marketplace of their storefront and brand.

Thank you Geoff for participating in the eTaildTail community and helping us all learn a little bit more on how to be effective etailers!

Guest Commentary from Geoff Brash, SLI Systems:

"Are you giving top priority – and adequate resources – to making the most of site search, SEO, and e-mail marketing? 

We recently polled more than 300 U.S. retailers about what e-commerce technologies matter the most when promoting their online businesses, and these three e-commerce technologies scored the highest among several others, including user-generated content, static and dynamic ads, social media and more.  In fact, 90% of the survey participants said that search is a “critical,” “very important” or “important” factor in the success of their business. 

Those surveyed also said that the effectiveness of site search and SEO will continue to get better over the next three years.  Meanwhile, 40% of the retailer respondents are testing out new online tools as a way to strengthen their marketing efforts, by starting company blogs and podcasts. 

Almost the same number (38%) said that user-generated content – for example, ratings and reviews – is also gaining in popularity.  Have you incorporated any of these innovative approaches into your marketing efforts? 

What have your experiences been?

There are many more interesting findings from our survey, including the fact that about 90% of the retailers who tracked results said that after adding site search, sales increased or conversion rates improved.   

With the holiday season just around the corner, now is the perfect time to incorporate some of these important technologies if you’re not already.

If you’re interested in seeing the full results of our survey, please visit www.sli-systems.com."

Thank you Geoff and onward we charge to make our online storefronts the most productive that they can be for the Holiday shopping season -- even in a touch economy.

-- Chip Arndt

NexTag Says: "Economic Woes Won't Spook Smart Halloween Shoppers"

Is the following synopsis, by the highly successful comparison shopping site NexTag, a "Trick or Treat"?

Some analysts are "bearish" and see this announcement about Halloween Shopping as a "trick", especially when one considers that the USA is experiencing some hard financial times - even with the biggest one day gain of the New York Stock Exchange in history registered today.

But, if it means anything, I see NexTag's synopsis as a "treat"!!!

I do believe that we will see an overall decrease in all retail shopping 4Q 2008, due to general tough economic times and Americans deciding to live more within their means, but this does not mean that online shopping will see a decline from last year.

Actually, I see more and more people going online to shop because:

1. of several assumptions based on my prior post titled: Credit Crunch Sends Shoppers Online for Cheaper Holiday Presents
2. Americans find shopping online cost-effective and easy
3. consumers are becoming more and more comfortable with online shopping and with mobile commerce ("mcommerce"), and
4. month-to-month growth rate of 15-35 year olds shopping online is growing faster than ever before

So here is NexTag's analysis, which is a "little" bias as they want people to shop with them, but I believe it is accurate, especially when I see statistics on shopping across over 150 other comparison shopping engines ("CSEs").

Economic Woes Won't Spook Smart Halloween Shoppers
NexTag offers users the tools they need to save this holiday season.

From NexTag, October 13, 2008

The economic outlook may be grim for many Americans, but that doesn't mean Americans will skimp when it comes to costumes, candy and decorations this Halloween.

The latest report from the National Retail Federation shows that despite a slowing economy, Americans will be celebrating the holiday this year in greater numbers than ever before (64.5%, up from the previous year's high of 58.7%). Average spending is also on the rise at $66.54 per person, an increase of more than $20 in the past seven years alone. And it's not just parents and children who are getting into the spirit of the season, seniors, singles and even pets will be donning costumes and strutting their stuff.

However, while shoppers are spending more they're also spending smarter. Increasing numbers are turning to the internet, and specifically to price comparison shopping to find the best deals. NexTag offers consumers the information they need to find the best value for their money as well as access to hundreds of quality sellers.

It's Trick-or-Treat Time: By far the most popular Halloween activity...

<<<CLICK HERE>> to read full article, it is a good read!

-- Chip Arndt