Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies

A Dose of Tips from The Feed Doctor

2011-12-14T09:57:54-08:00

Much of the wisdom of software development is expressed as wry---nay, even cynical---aphorisms. My favorite (attributed to Hamming) is: "Mathematicians stand on each other's shoulders while computer scientists stand on each other's toes." That one is merely descriptive, but the most important ones are prescriptive, like this one from Knuth:

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil"

Programmers obsess over "optimization." Mostly they mean they want their programs to run faster, because everybody hates waiting. In case you haven't noticed, business rules ARE little programs, and as my gift to you, I'm going to give you 3 tips that could make your business rules run faster.

IF vs. SELECTCASE

Let's say you've got a rule that has three possible outputs:

1. If brand is "Acme," output "Free Overnight Shipping"
2. If brand is "X," output "Free Shipping"
3. Otherwise, output "See Site for Shipping Cost"

I usually advise people to use SELECTCASE when dealing with more than one condition, like this:

SELECTCASE($brand="Acme","Free Overnight Shipping",$brand="X","Free Shipping","See Site for Shipping Cost")

I think this looks cleaner than the alternative, using nested IFs:

IF($brand="Acme","Free Overnight Shipping",IF($brand="X","Free Shipping","See Site for Shipping Cost"))

These two rules have exactly the same output, and I assumed they took about the same time to run. I was surprised to find out that the 2nd rule is TEN TIMES faster! Here's the fundamental truth of "optimization:" it's always a trade-off. In this case you are trading clarity (first rule) for speed (2nd rule). Choose wisely!

IFBLANK vs ISINLIST

Here's a pattern I've seen a few times:

IF(ISINLIST("Some list",$brand),LOOKUP("Some list",$brand),"Default text")

This rule checks to see if brand (it could be any attribute, of course) is the left-hand or "name" column of a list. If so, the rule outputs the corresponding data from the right-hand or "value" column. Otherwise, it outputs some default text. This is perfectly fine. However, if ALL the entries in the list have a non-blank "value" column, the rule could be this:

IFBLANK(LOOKUP("Some list",$brand),"Default text")

The second rule is twice as fast! The reason is that the first rule ALWAYS looks up the value in the list TWICE, whereas the second rule only does it once. Now, again, there's a trade-off: if your list has blank entries in the "value" column, the rules are NOT the same.

Regular Expressions

Ah, who doesn't love a regex? (By the way, here's another aphorism “Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I'll use regular expressions.’ Now they have two problems.’) However many problems you wind up with, you'll have this one at least: regexes can be SLOW. And given two regexes that do more-or-less the same thing, one could be MUCH slower than the other. For example, here are two rules that remove html tags from a description:

REGEXREPLACE($description,"<.+?>","")

REGEXREPLACE($description,"<[^>]+>","")

I won't go into the details of these; instead I will note that the second one is faster by about 50%. Be very careful with your regexes. Most of the tradeoff is in the time it takes you to write the thing; sometimes you have to be pretty clever.

There you go friends: 3 tips for faster rules. With all the time you save, you might be able to watch all 35 bowl games this year.

Blog post by Anthony Alford, (a.k.a. The Feed Doctor), Technical Lead (Follow him on twitter @TheFeedDoctor)

Countdown to Cyber Monday: Daily Tip 4

2011-11-18T12:08:18-08:00

In exactly one week, thousands will rise at ungodly hours, camp out and form store-wrapping lines to kick off the Cyber 5! And for online shoppers the dedication to deals is just as intense!

Make the most of the rush by enhancing your visibility on Comparison Shopping Engines.

Tip #4: Comply with Google Product Search Changes

We’ve got a secret…Google Product Search is going to be HUGE this Holiday Season. Aside from its ever-increasing popularity as a shopping starting point, a number of apps, like RedLaser (found to be the most widely used barcode scanner by our Global Consumer Shopping Habits Survey), now use GPS data to compare prices and locate products.

Get on board with the most recent GPS specifications and check the requirement list—twice—to optimize on traffic and sales. Apparel retailers will want to pay special attention to include product variation data (color, material, pattern and size) as well as unique images for items that vary (by color, pattern or material). For more details, check out Google’s Feed Specification Help Page.

Bonus Tip: Retailers should heed to Google’s wishes by listing shipping and tax costs, too. Incorrect or excluded cost data can lead to suspension and, more importantly, can deter shoppers who expect total price points at a glimpse. Still think it’s not a big deal? Check out this Search Engine Land article warning retailers against these violations, as well as the guest blog post from Google's Mayuresh Saoji on this blog.

If you've missed our past tips here they are:

Tip #1: Add Gift-Themed Categories

Tip #2: Offer and Highlight Free and Expedited Shipping

Tip #3: Bid Up Early and Often

Blog post by Natalie Sink, ChannelAdvisor Communications Assistant

The Feed Doctor Returns: Percentage Savings Rule

2011-09-30T12:40:24-07:00

Recently I've been asked how to create a rule to generate a "percent
savings" message. Let's say your sale price is in an attribute called
$itemstoreprice, and the regular price is $itemretailprice. The formula
for percent savings is:

100 * (1 - $itemstoreprice/$itemretailprice)

Here's the result for an item that's marked down to 14.99 from 19.99:
25.0125062531266

Well, that's kind of ugly. Maybe I only want whole numbers. That's easy to
do with the FORMATNUMBER function:

FORMATNUMBER (100 * (1 - $itemstoreprice/$itemretailprice), "F0")

That "F0" means to output a Fixed number of digits to the right of the
decimal; in this case, zero digits.

And here's the result: 25

If you wanted two digits to the right of the decimal instead of "F0" you'd
have "F2" and the result would be 25.01.

Let's stay with "F0," and some text:

CONCATENATE ("Save ", FORMATNUMBER (100 * (1 -
$itemstoreprice/$itemretailprice), "F0"),"% off retail!")

Here's the result:

Save 25% off retail!

Blogpost by Anthony Alford: The Feed Doctor

Guest Post: Google's Mayuresh Saoji Shares Product Search Feed Changes

2011-09-19T08:40:49-07:00

Guest Post from Mayuresh Saoji, Senior Product Manager, Google

As of September 22, 2011 Google will begin gradually enforcing the new Product Search feed spec requirements announced earlier (link). Beginning Sept. 22, Google will being dropping items that do not meet the new spec requirements. In some cases, Google may even completely suspend accounts that don't meet the new requirements from Google Product Search. We’re guest-blogging here to make sure that ChannelAdvisor’s retailers are well aware of the changes, and can act in time to avoid items from being dropped or accounts from being suspended from Google Product Search, as well as to provide you with tools available from Google to help you prepare.

New tools to help you prepare

First, use the new Test Data Feed feature in Google Merchant Center (under “Data Feeds”) to test whether your updated feed complies with the new requirements. You will be able to download a full error report and resolve any issues prior to submitting your actual live feed. Rest assured, your test feed won’t appear on Google Product Search.
For additional guidance, you can now view our new video tutorials:
We are revamping the "Data Quality" tab in Google Merchant Center to enable you to quickly view the most critical data quality errors, and learn how to fix them (coming soon).

Understanding the new requirements

We’ve received a few questions about specific attributes and have addressed these below. It’s a lot to read, but should save you time in the long run. Also, before you cancel vacation for your IT staff, please note that many of the requirements only apply to certain countries and categories.

Google Product Category (aka GPC): This attribute ensures that your products appear in the right category (you wouldn’t want that Harry Potter DVD showing up under “Books”) and that we apply the correct set of enforcement rules for a given category.
- GPC is only required for feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany, France or Japan
- You don’t necessarily have to send us this attribute. It is only required for items that belong to one of the following seven categories:

1. Apparel & Accessories > Clothing

2. Apparel & Accessories > Shoes

3. Apparel & Accessories

4. Media > Books

5. Media > DVDs & Movies

6. Media > Music

7. Software > Video Game Software

- For items falling under these categories, you must include one of these seven values appropriately for each item.
- More granular categorization is always preferred, but don’t stress out about this. If you can follow the level of categorization above, then you’ve satisfied our requirements.

Images: We made image_link required for all products. Images are especially important for product in the “Apparel & Accessories” category, where shoppers love to see the different variations of a product.
- Required worldwide (except Japan)
- For products that fall under “Apparel & Accessories” (and all corresponding sub-categories), we require unique images for products that differ by the variant attribute ‘color’, or ‘pattern’, or ‘material.’ No one likes seeing a black sweater when they click on the red one.
- We recommend sending separate images for variant products in other categories as well, but these are only required for “Apparel & Accessories.”

Apparel/ Variants: Variety is the spice of life, and we’re working to create a richer shopping experience for apparel & accessories that come in multiple colors, patterns, sizes, etc.
- Apparel variants are only required for feeds targeting the US. For feeds targeting other countries, the attributes are recommended and may be required in the future.
- Variant-level information is required only for products in the “'Apparel & Accessories' category, and all related subcategories
- You only need to send us data for variant attributes if your product varies by that specific attribute. So, if your shirts are all made of cotton, there’s no need to send the “Material” attribute. However, if your shirts were available in three colors and three sizes, you would send us nine separate line items, varying by color and size.
- There is no penalty for not sending variant level data for other categories
- If you include variants, you also need to ensure that you send an “item_group_id” to connect those variants and that these group of variants share the same common title. More on this below.

Item_Group_ID: We use this attribute to cluster together all the variants you send us for a given item. Sort of like Crazy Glue for variants.
- This attribute is required only for variant Apparel products in the US.
- If you have a “Parent SKU” shared by all variants of a product, you can provide that as the value for 'item group id'.
- If you send us an item_group_id attribute, we will automatically look for variant attributes. Conversely, if you did send us Item_group_id, you should ensure you send us at least one variant attribute.

Size: This is an important Variant attribute for “Apparel & Accessories.”
- Size is only required for feeds targeting the US.
- Separate your products into different line items in the feed (each line will have a different “size” attribute, and maybe even vary by other attributes)
- There’s no need to send separate images for separate sizes (unless the appearance of the item changes because of the size)

Please refer back to our detailed Product Feed Specification and Help Center for more information. We hope these tips will help you be more fully prepared to make the most of Google Product Search as we head into the most important selling season of the year for online retailers.

Shop On!

Blog Post by Mayuresh Saoji, Senior Product Manager, Google Product Search

Google Changes Webinar Q+A follow-up...

2011-06-24T11:29:35-07:00

Before Internet Retailer, on June 9th, we held a webinar about google changes including Panda, Google Product Search (GPS) changes and the impact on CSEs. After 70mins we still had ~10 questions in queue and promised to answer those. Here are the answers to those questions.

If you missed the original webinar, you can listen to a recorded version of it here from our webinars page (http://www.channeladvisor.com/webinars/) or follow this link to go directly to the webinar.

Q1: On Google for the term 'clearvite apex', we show up in organic search, page 1 in the top 5 results. Yet we do not show up in google shopping until page 2. How do the results from shopping differ from the organic search. What can be done so that shopping results are more consistent with the “everything” organic search?

A1: The two algorithms are not the same as you've seen. Pagerank looks at the content (URL, page, etc.) and the inbound links. GPS uses the content and then factors such as sales rank (CTR as proxy), etc. Without knowing more, it's hard to say, but usually our GPS experts can analyze a feed file and find a whole host of things that can be improved on the content side to improve your rankings which drives more sales which increases your sales rank, etc.

Q2: Can you please tell me if I have this link right. I am having a problem accessing it. http://www.google.com/products/seller?zmi=cdrackem.com

A2: Weird, usually that shortcut works. We tried using the longer form and got there here:

http://www.google.com/products/seller?cmi=2586711006707712&zmi=cdrackem.com&sa=X&ei=PZn_TcmrN6jj0QGmhdWaAw&ved=0CBsQwQY

The longer form instructions:

Go to a google SERP and click on 'rated' for those that have merchant ratings.
Edit the URL to be your URL instead of the one you clicked on.

Q3: Also have you ever heard of "influencing keywords". I am using an SEO company called XXXX that specializes in 'influencing keywords'. I fear at this time they be doing me harm rather than good. How can I find that out?

A: As we said on the webinar, any SEO firm that claims to have a silver bullet that 'guarantees' you some kind of SEO results, should probably be avoided. If they are out there buying links for you, that is very very dangerous and has resulted in overstock and jcp being in google's high profile penalty box. Panda/Farmer was specifically targeted at content farmers and this 'influencing keywords' sounds like someone maybe going out there and writing bogus content to try and fool google to increase your rank. It's our belief that the risk is not worth the reward on these types of schemes, but of course it's up to each retailer to go through that calculation.

Q4: I was wondering if there was any way to get more information on how Product Display Ads / Auto Targets work within Google.We are trying to figure out what criteria Google uses to display the products. Sometimes the products are not even relevant to the search term. For instance, if you search for “Raw Protein” the product Wobenzym will show in the Product Ads section on the top right, but our competitor’s Raw protein product shows.

A: Google does not publish or discuss their matching algorithm for Google Product Listing Ads. It is supposed to automatically match user intention with products, but we have seen, as you have, that is not always accurate. We suspect that this is part of the reason that we are currently seeing fewer product listing ads in Google search results as Google works to refine their matching algorithms.

Q5: I was suspended from Amazon Marketplace (I was 100% not guilty-it was an Amazon internal issue). Am I still able to sell on Amazon using Amazon Product Ads? I ask because this was suggested as a way to sell on Amazon (without having a Sellers account)?

A5: Amazon is extremely efficient at never letting suspended sellers back on the site. While I've never seen this exact situation, my guess is they would not allow it. Your best bet would be to partner with a reseller or a completely different entity with completely different information (everything - IPs, bank accounts, names, addresses, EIN, SSN, etc.) and work with them to run product ads.

Q6: Have you found that Google adwords ads are more or less effective this year (as op to last year)? Is Bing or economy doing any damage to Google adwords?

A6: Over on eBay strategies we release SSS and search details. Here's a link to the May results. As you can see y/y search has slowed, and conversion rates are up, costs are up, etc. Between google and bing, we don't see a change in that google has > 66% market share, so the whole space is a little soft right now, most likely due to the economy.

Q7: I tried the Google link you posted at the webinar (to ck Web Site reviews) but link did not work? Is this link correct: google.com/products/seller?zmi=xxx.com A: See Q2 for more directions.

Q8: If selling via ebay, amazon and your own web site would be the top 3 venues to sell on - what would you consider to be no 4?

A8: We have an unusual view of the world in that we view the web site as an enabler for even more channels. So I would say once you have your web site active, you should consider search. We publish an annual report on the influence across all of e-commerce for the major channels. For 2010:

Paid Search - 44%
Marketplaces (largely eBay and Amazon) - 27%
CSE - 10%
Direct - 9%
Mobile - 6%
Social - 4%

Search is the largest and in your question you don't mention it which is why we suggest search and CSE as the next channels because they represent 53% of e-commerce. Of course this is a rule of thumb and some situations don't work well in those channels and we'd recommend something else. That being said, if eBay and Amazon are working well, then usually retailers can make the jump quickly to search and CSE - they are just different and require a different set of knowledge.

That's it - if you have any other questions, sound off in comments.

CSE Holiday Rates for 2010

2010-11-10T13:00:49-08:00

Tis the season… For ecommerce retailers, this means huge boosts to conversions and revenue. For advertisers on CSEs, this typically means rate increases. In Holiday Seasons past, these rate increases have generally been 25% across all categories starting at the beginning of November and ending as last mid-January. However, last year, we saw a different trend. For some CSEs, the rate increases did not apply to all categories and for the categories that did have increases, they varied from 5 – 25%. There were some CSEs in 2009 who chose not to raise rates all!

For 2010, we find NexTag and PriceGrabber raising rates across all categories by 25%. This applies to all traffic you have received since November 1. Their rate increase will last into January of 2011. Shopping.com and Shopzilla rate increases will vary between 0 and 30% based on category. This is the first I remember any category rate increase being more than 25%. Amazon Product Ads and Become.com will not be increasing rates for the holidays.

For a more complete list of which CSEs are making rate changes, what the increases will be, when the rate increases will begin and end, and rate cards for category-by-category rate increases, see our 2010 Comparison Shopping Holiday Rate Changes page in the ChannelAdvisor Strategy and Support Center.

ChannelAdvisor @ Shop.org - booth 507

2010-09-25T21:37:22-07:00

A bunch of ChannelAdvisors are heading down to Dallas for this year's shop.org annual summit. We'll be in booth 507 if you want to see our search, cse, marketplaces and rich media in action. Also, I'm speaking at the "40+ Things You Can Do to Make More Money Next Week" session taking place Tuesday, September 28 from 3:15 to 4:15. This is going to be a fast-fire session with some great strategies that you can implement before Holiday 2010. I look forward to meeting everyone in the Great State of Texas!

ChannelAdvisor acknowledged as top Comparison Shopping Engine software vendor to the IR500!

2010-08-17T07:07:09-07:00

Today, August 17th, we announced that ChannelAdvisor has been recognized by Internet Retailer magazine as the top CSE vendor. We also scored well in search and Rich Media. Unfortunately, IR doesn't have a marketplaces category (Amazon / eBay ) as we would have dominated that one as well.

Thanks to all of our customers for helping us achieve the number one slot. Your feedback has enabled us to implement advanced features unavailable in other solutions, catapulting us to the top.

-Scot

Google Rumored to be Acquiring Like.com

2010-08-16T08:12:23-07:00

TechCrunch is reporting that Google is the late stages of acquiring visual search engine Like.com. The company also owns several other properties that utilize its image search technology, including Style By Jacquie and the fashion profiling site Covet.com. Originally developed for facial recognition purposes under the moniker Riya, the search technology has also been applied to user generated photos, not just product/celeb images.

If this is indeed to be, there are certainly merchants out there wondering what will happen to these existing sites and the traffic/revenue that originates from them. Like.com is a significant AdWords advertiser and has become a large referrer of traffic to some merchants in the shoes, apparel and accessory categories. Like also acts as a publisher of Shopping.com, Shopzilla, and PriceGrabber offer content, so merchants not sending a direct feed into Like.com may still receiving benefit from their properties.

It seems likely that Google's true target here is not any of these sites but the underlying technology, which generally does a very good job of returning similar product images by color, shape, pattern, etc. It doesn’t seem likely that Google would maintain these sites long term in parallel to Google Product Search. For one, it’s a conflict of interest since AdWords is a main acquisition channel for Like.com, but also Google generally thinks way bigger than that.

Integration of Like.com’s visual system into Google's existing search experience, both for product search and otherwise, could result in a very attractive option for users, especially in instances where words are not nearly as representative of the query subject as an image (this is exactly why Like.com focuses on clothes, shoes and accessories and not laptops or TVs). Giving users not only more ways to search but options that allow clearer communication of what is sought is definitely a win for Google. In addition, expanding the already overhauled image search to build a stronger response to Bing’s “Visual Search,” which is frankly more of a visual browse experience, is probably seen internally as a plus.

If this sort of integration is the long term goal, the product search integration is the logical first step since that is the technology’s primary use right now. Such a feature could mean an increase in stickiness for the already popular Google Product Search. However, there isn’t a lot of certainty outside of Like.com as to how many of their users choose visual search over the trusty old text box. Similarly, there is little clarity as to what the conversion rate of users who choose visual search over text based search looks like. When it comes to clothes and shoes, different brands and models can look very similar, so using an image to find that exact item seems a lot less effective than a text based search. Really only when users don’t know exactly what they are looking for and want to be guided to aesthetically similar items does an image search seem extremely valuable. That sounds like a less qualified shopper. Then again, as long as Google Product Search traffic remains free, does it really matter how qualified the user is?

There is also the possibility that this is intended to augment the already live Google Goggles app on the android platform, which allows for searches based on user photos. Though media products seem to already work fine in Goggles, other types of products have not yet been a focus. Both the technology and the existing product catalog could act as an accelerator to expanding the scope of the Goggles application, acting, at least in the short term, like a RedLaser for clothes, shoes and accessories.

Speculation aside, it seems safe to assume that Google wants to use this software to expand what they are already good at: helping users find things, and either serving ads during that experience, or driving Google usage/loyalty so they can continue to serve even more ads during other points in the Google experience.

Kelkoo Enters US Market

2010-07-15T09:04:40-07:00

Kelkoo formally announced today its entrance into the already crowded US comparison shopping market via Kelkoo.com, a domain previously used to provide navigation to country specific Kelkoo sites within Europe. The new site, which is currently in beta, starts with a simple search box, as opposed to their long-established geography-specific sites which are heavier on content and merchandising. I assume this will change with time as they work to develop an engaging experience for the US market.

Though the US market for comparison shopping is certainly an attractive expansion target, Kelkoo faces some challenges in their attempt to become a significant player. The most significant is that they will be starting from scratch in terms of consumer acquisition, and without the benefit of the brand strength that surely assisted them in earlier movements into new countries within Europe. They also lack direct merchant relationships, illustrated by their current offer content which appears to be sourced via several publisher programs including Shopping.com and PriceGrabber. As they mentioned, their already geographically diverse platform should make it relatively easy for them to on-board new merchants once relationships are established, but content such as merchant ratings and product ratings will take time to reach the critical mass necessary for them to offer a unique experience.

Despite these challenges, with their years of experience in comparison shopping and new market penetration to lean on, I expect them to make some waves in the future. We welcome them to the US market and wish them luck!