Top 10 Insights on Comparison Shopping Engines

For my first official eTaildTail blog entry for 2009 I thought it important to address ongoing questions from clients about Comparison Shopping Engines ("CSEs"), what I now call Consumer Shopping Engines...please see What Are Shopping Destination Sites?

The process to work with CSEs has not changed much over the past two years so, rather than regurgitate articles and advice that has been written, I post links to what I believe are the 10 Top Ten eTaildtail blog entries the past year.  These 10 articles articulate how any online retailer can gain value from CSEs and how to work with them easily.

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

2. Comparison Shopping Engines Survey Report 2008: CSEs Are Effective Even In Declining Economy

3. Best Practices to Working with Comparison Shopping Engines

4. You Can Afford to Work With Comparison Shopping Engines: Tips and Tricks

5. Tips to Maximize Use of Comparison Shopping Engines with MerchantAdvantage CEO, Michael Lambert

6. Buying Into Comparison Shopping Sites and Engines: Just Do It!

7. MerchantAdvantage Helps Online Merchants Increase Sales Using Comparison Shopping Engines

8. Blueprint for Multichannel Sales Using Comparison Shopping Engines and Other Marketing Channels

9. Shopping.com Improves Its Consumer Shopping Engine To Help Online Merchants Reach More Customers

10. Increase Conversion Rates When Using Comparison Shopping Engines

BONUS ARTICLE: 12 Step Program for Comparison Shopping Engine Management

I hope these articles help begin and/or improve upon a strategic CSE marketing campaign going into 2009, and if you have questions please email me at chip @ etaildtail.com ... we are here to help.

- 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.

MerchantAdvantage Helps Online Merchants Increase Sales Using Comparison Shopping Engines

Each month, I write a newsletter with advice, information and tips to help online, small to mid-sized businesses increase sales using comparison shopping engines, marketplaces and other marketing channels. I work closely with over 100 shopping destination channels, and some of them include:

Amazon, Become, Ciao, Commission Junction, eBay, GolfPricer, Google Product Search, GroupGain, mPoria, mShopper, Like, MyCoupons, PriceForSure, PriceGrabber, PriceRunner, Pronto, Shop.com, Shopping.com, Smarter, SortPrice, Underbid, Yahoo! Shopping, to name just a few.

I encourage all eTaildTail readers to review some of those newsletters to help grow sales and manage your online business more efficiently.  Each newsletter is free to read. 

Here are some of those MerchantAdvantage newsletters with a hyperlink to each of them.  I hope they help; let me know if you have any comments. You can email me at chip at eTaildTail.com and have a great week!

-- Chip Arndt

Some newsletters from MerchantAdvantage and Chip Arndt, Co-Founder:

• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part I
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part II:
  Print Media & Press Releases and Newsletters
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part III:
  E-Mail and Blogs
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part Part IV:
  Incentive Programs: Gift Cards, Refer-A-Friend, Coupons and Sweepstakes
• Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part V:
  Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
• Part 1: Do CSE's And Marketplaces Work For Online Merchants?
• Part 2: Do CSE's And Marketplaces Work For Online Merchants?
• 12 Step Program for Comparison Shopping Engine Management
• Free (and almost free) Internet Advertising
• Channel Feed Basics: Expand your reach and save money too!
• The Online Marketplace Revolution: Reach Millions of New Customers
• Pay Per Click vs. Pay Per Performance Marketing

Pay Per Click versus Pay Per Performance Marketing

Hello eTaildTail community.  I have gotten some mails this week about Pay-Per-Click ad/marketing campaigns versus Pay-Per-Transaction/Performance ad/marketing campaigns.  I wrote some thoughts in a newsletter for MerchantAdvantage and I wanted to share those thoughts with you. There is also a free webinar that you can download associated with these thoughts if you prefer to get your information that way.

I hope these thoughts help.

-- Chip

"You have an online storefront and you have some customers coming to your storefront but you want more. The first thing most online merchants do is jump on the "adword/keyword search" band wagon to get more traffic using search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, LookSmart and others.

Not a bad idea, since millions of visitors search these sites everyday looking for help. The only problem with this method of marketing is, as an online merchant selling product, you are in the mix with hundreds of thousands of searches that relate to the "keyword" you purchase that may have nothing to do with the actual product search on the product you are trying to sell. Such examples include the history of your product, articles about a product, etc…To get around this, you can always bid higher for a given "keyword" on these search engines to guarantee you are listed on page one, or better yet, you come up at the very top – if you pay enough.

A more effective, or complimentary marketing method, may be to focus on the search engines that only focus on marketing retail products that online merchants sell and also bring in millions of potential customers each day. These are affectionately known as shopping destination sites and include:

1. Marketplaces, such as Amazon.com, Shop.com, JellyFish.com, and Underbid.com
2. Comparison Shopping Engines, such as Pronto.com, PriceRunner.com, PriceGrabber.com, Pronto.com, Shopping.com, Smarter.com, Shopzilla.com, Yahoo! Shopping, and over 100 others. For a complete list please see MerchantAdvantage.com
3. Mobile Commerce Engines, such as mPoria.com and mShopper.com
4. Couparison Shopping Engines, such as MyCoupons.com and CouponMountain.com
5. Product Review Sites, such as PowerReviews.com and Buzzillions.com, and
6. Hybrid Sites: GroupGain.com, NetHaggler.com and other sites, where online shopping occurs but revenue models vary.

These types of sites can be very beneficial to an online merchant, as millions of people come to them everyday looking for products to buy, review, and compare. As with general search engines, these sites do not guarantee sales, but for the most part, when managed correctly, can really help lead potential buyers to your online storefront, which can lead to sales and definitely leads to good branding.

Using Shopping Destination Sites: Choice

Every online merchant should first ask the same question: Which shopping destination site will lead to the most sales?

While an excellent question, it is nearly impossible to say which of over 100 shopping destination sites might work best for your product catalog and lead to the most sales. Everyone usually tries out Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping, Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, and Shopzilla.com as they are the best known and have built trust in the marketplace for the customers buying products and the merchants listing products. But these are not your only choices. And, remember, new shopping destination sites with unique business models are popping up every month which can also lead to new sales and branding opportunities.

There are many shopping destination sites from which to choose,..."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to continue reading the free newsletter written by Chip Arndt for MerchantAdvantage. 

It is a good read and I think the advice in it will help online merchants with their PPC campaigns across the board.  And when you click over, there is nothing else you have to do but to enjoy the article, promise!

And here is a link to the other helpful free newsletters. <<<CLICK HERE>>>.

-- Chip

Newsletter Archive from 2006 - 2008, Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                                                               

Hi everyone, this is my newsletter archive since 2006. There is a lot of valuable information. Please take the time to go trough them. Eanjoy! Chip

October, 2007 Marketing Methods and Alternative Options for 2008 Part I

September, 2007 Pay Per Click versus Pay Per Performance Marketing

August, 2007 Marketing Your Product Catalog Data: Using Your Storefront Data For All Marketing Efforts

July, 2007 Analytics: A Must When Using Shopping Destination Sites

June, 2007 Keyword Marketing for CSEs, Marketplaces and Other Channels

May, 2007 eTail dTail: CSE's Product Deployment Time, Tips and Tricks

April, 2007 Affordable Online Tools to Manage and Grow Your Business: Part 2

March, 2007 Affordable Online Tools to Manage and Grow Your Business: Part 1

February, 2007 Part 2: Do CSE's And Marketplaces Work For Online Merchants?

January, 2007 Part 1: Do CSE's And Marketplaces Work For Online Merchants?

November, 2006 The Color of Online Retail

October, 2006 Shop.org Annual Conference

September, 2006 Setting Up My Storefront/Shopping Cart Efficiently and Strategically: D

August, 2006 Setting Up My Storefront/Shopping Cart Efficiently and Strategically: C

July, 2006 Free (and almost free) Internet Advertising

June, 2006 Setting Up My Storefront/Shopping Cart Efficiently and Strategically: B

May, 2006 Setting Up My Storefront/Shopping Cart Efficiently and Strategically: A

April, 2006 CHANNEL FEED BASICS: Expand your reach and save money too!

March, 2006 The Online Marketplace Revolution: Reach Millions of New Customers