eTail dTail Blog

Reach More Online Customers This Summer And During The Holidays

2008-08-07T14:27:29-04:00

eCommerce Merchants Trade Association (eCommerce Merchants) and MerchantAdvantage had a free webinar last week attended by many online merchants looking for tips to increase revenues this summer and going into the holiday online shopping season.

Presenters were Brandon Dupsky, Managing Director of eCommerce Merchants, and, yours truly, Chip Arndt, Co-Founder|EVP of MerchantAdvantage and author of eTaildTail.

The webinar was free and the archived copy, with audio and slides included, is also free to download.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to download the free webinar titled:

7 Steps To Reach More Customers Before and During The Holidays

Make sure to check out the last few slides which gives small to mid-sized online merchants some budgeting ideas on how they can afford to use comparison shopping engines, especially since 4 of them are free to use immediately.

Can you afford not to use at least these 4 marketing channels and help, at the very least, to boost your SEO rankings in the process?

Enjoy and I hope it helps.

-- Chip Arndt

Online Shopping is Recession Proof...Well Almost! Online Shopping Continues

2008-08-05T16:22:43-04:00

These are difficult economic times for many, as we all know. When will relief trully come? Who knows, but probably we won't know until after November 4, when we elect a new President and commit to a better long-term strategy for economic stability for us all.

In the interim period, many clients and other online merchants have asked me about my thoughts about online shopping and the affects the economy will have as to people's behaviour to shopping in general and online.

I wrote about this in a prior blog entry on May 5, titled:

Online Shopping, E-Commerce Sales Increase Because of "Perceived" US Recession

You can read entry by clicking on the title above. I basically said that online shopping woudl benefit three months ago and now we have evidence that online shopping is doing pretty well even in a "perceived and/or real recession."

My advice....start selling online and use comparison shopping engines to market your products better to potential customers wherever they are online and on their mobile devices. Why? You can read an article I wrote about that by clicking here. that article was titled:

Why Online Merchants Should List Their Product Catalog on Comparison Shopping Engines

Now, in August, we have empirical evidence that online shopping may be recession proof, to some degree and that America still shops, they just find out more economic ways to shop!

Here is some new updated information from iCongo, a comprehensive eCommerce based solutions company, which I hope all online merchants find noteworthy.

High Gas Prices to Cut into Holiday Shopping Season and Drive More Shoppers Online

iCongo Survey Finds That Shoppers’ Holiday Spending Habits Will Change to Cope with the Rising Price of Gas; 36% of Online Adults More Likely to Shop Online

Portsmouth, NH and New York--(Businees Wire)-- iCongo, Inc., a leading developer of e-business systems and software, today released the results of a consumer survey1 conducted on their behalf by Harris Interactive® that shows the surge in gasoline prices will sharply cut consumers’ holiday spending and drive more shoppers online.

As a result of increasing gasoline prices, nearly three in four online adults, 73%, expect their holiday shopping habits to change in some way, for example, by spending less on gifts (42%) and doing more one-stop shopping (40%). Findings show more than one in three online adults (36%) are now more likely to shop online rather than in-person as a result of the increasing price of gasoline.

The iCongo survey also shows that nearly nine in ten online adults, 88%, currently shop online and, of those, the majority, 96%, are more likely to shop online than in-person at a store. Here’s why:

69% of online shoppers prefer the ability to shop at any time as a reason they are more likely to shop online;
60% said free shipping is a reason they are more likely to shop online; and,
59% of online shoppers said lower prices drive them to shop online over in a store.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article from iCongo, it is a good one.

-- Chip Arndt

eCommerce Merchants Launches Educational Training For Online Merchants with Inc. 500|Inc. 5000

2008-08-05T13:42:04-04:00

Two weeks ago MerchantAdvantage and eCommerce Merchants had a free webinar together titled, 7 Steps to Reach More Customers Before and During the Holidays, which was attended by over 250 online merchants looking for ways to increase sale via ecommerce and mobile commerce (mcommerce).

You can download that free webinar here.

eTaildTail and MerchantAdvantage are proud of our partnership with eCommerce Merchants and we strive to keep online merchants informed about new things that eCommerce Merchants is doing everyday to help them with their business. And believe me they are doing a lot.

If you don't know about eCommerce Merchants, check them out here

Just today eCommerce Merchants announced that they are leading a major initiative with Inc. 500 to leverage their knowledge base at theri conference in Washington DC this September.

If you are in Washington DC is September, I highly recommend going to the conference to learn from the "best-of-the-best" about what works when selling online. And since itn is right before the holidays what better time to learn from very successful online retailers.

There will be several break out sessions and opportunities to network. eCommerce Merchants always does a great job in their networking lounge areas, which are also very comfortable.

Here is the announcement from eCommerce Merchants and Inc. 500

-- Chip Arndt

eCommerce Merchants Selected to Launch Educational Ecommerce Program for Inc. 500|Inc. 5000

New York, NY - Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 the definitive list of America's fastest-growing privately held companies has selected eCommerce Merchants, a leading trade association for ecommerce education, to provide an ecommerce educational program for Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 business owners.

eCommerce Merchants will provide online and in-person education to all Inc. 5000 companies beginning with the 27th Annual Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington D.C. on September 18-20, 2008 where a dedicated eCommerce Pavillion will be included at the conference for the first time ever.

"Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 Conference is delighted to be working with eCommerce Merchants on this exciting and important new initiative," noted Kelly Winkler VP, Events and Business Resources, Mansueto Ventures, Publisher of Inc. "This partnership will allow us to deliver valuable information to Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 business owners at our events and throughout the year."

"We couldn't ask for a better partner than Inc. 500|Inc. 5000," commented Cresta Pillsbury, Executive Vice President of Business Development at ecommerce Merchants. "They have an impressive tradition of fostering entrepreneurial excellence, which compliments our 'best-practices' approach to eCommerce perfectly."

The Inc. 500|Inc. 5000 Conference in Washington is open for the first time to all business owners. Reservations can be made by visiting www.Inc500Conference.com or by calling 877-211-0489. eCommerce Merchant members who are not Inc. 500|5000 members are eligible for a special member discount by calling 877-211-0489 and asking for an "eCommerce Pavilion Attendee" registration.

Companies interested in exhibiting in the eCommerce Pavillion or working with eCommerce Merchants should contact Cresta Pillsbury at cresta.pillsbury AT ecmta.org or (415) 342-7075.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register, attend, and or/exhibit and read full article.

Cresta is a personal friend so please let her know Chip Arndt and eTaildTail sent you.

Get Elastic and FitForCommerce Free Webinar Helps Online Merchants Choose Best Online Technologies to Grow Sales

2008-08-04T09:39:29-04:00

eTaildTail friends over at Get Elastic and FitForCommerce are teaming up and hosting a free webinar to help online merchants choose the best online technologies that can build their online business cost-effectively and efficiently.

Each week Get Elastic has excellent advice and webinars for all online merchants to grow their business in a myriad of areas, such as: SEO and SEM advice, online shopping ideas, general site search and navigation methods, adword buys, technologies, and much more.

This month's webinar is free and should be a good one; it is titled:

The Art & Science of Choosing Ecommerce Technology
Date: August 14
Time: 9:00 am PST and 12:00 noon EST
Panelists: Bernardine Wu, CEO, FitForCommerce and Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to sign up, it is free.

Here is the overview:

Making the right choice is both harder and more important than you think. Attend this webinar to get step-by-step help from FitForCommerce, described in plain English! You'll learn:

How to figure out what your ecommerce strategy and needs really are
How to research ecommerce best practices and ecommerce technologies
How to define and document your requirements
How to assess the responses from the ecommerce solution providers; compare apples to apples
How to select from your 'short list' of options

Sign up now and you will receive all 30 of FitForCommerce's "ecommerce Best Practices." You can learn about best practices for eCommerce Platforms, Web Analytics and Search Engine Marketing, to name just a few.

After you attend, you will also receive all 30 of FitForCommerce's "ecommerce Key Questions" to assist you in assessing ecommerce solution providers.

FitForCommerce™ experts help ecommerce businesses analyze business and technical requirements, leverage best practices, gain visibility to market offerings and select 'best fit' technology solutions. FitForCommerce's unique ecommerce Diligence™ process and toolkit ensures rigorous evaluation and knowledge-based decision-making.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to sign up, it is free.

I hope you can join them. I am.

-- Chip Arndt

SHOP.com Adds Back to School Shopping Features for Online Merchants and Shoppers

2008-07-31T12:22:24-04:00

Well, I was "jolly" yesterday because "tis the season" for comparison shopping engines and other shopping destination sites to enhance their functionality before the school shopping and holiday day season approaches.

[Special Note: I work with many of the comparison shopping engines and shopping destination sites, over 150 , so I remain very conscious of updating eTaildTail readers on new things that are happening with the comparison shopping engines. I am fortunate to have close relationships with many of them, so, if you need information on a comparison shopping engine and you can't get the answer you are looking for from them directly, please email me at chip AT merchantadvantage.com or chip AT eTaildTail.com; I will try and get an answer for you.]

Okay, yes, we are in the middle of summer, but, if online merchants are going to utilize comparison shopping engines effectively to reach customers for the school and holiday seasons, now is the time to realize their value and to start working with them. Yes, now.

The reason I say this is becasue often it takes a good 15-45 days for comparison shopping engines to ensure that the product catalog of an online merchant is properly optimized throughout all of a particular comparison shopping engine.

A close friend of eTaildTail and MerchantAdvantage is Shop.com, which has created some wonderful new navigation methods for shoppers and listing options for online merchants.

Shop.com works with merchants either via a pay-per-click and/or a pay-per-transaction model. So I encourage all online merchants to check out the "new and improved" Shop.com and see how they are working hard to attract their key female demographic.

MerchantAdvantage supports all of Shop.com's features and can help any online merchant feed their product catalog to them easily and cost effectively.

Here is Shop.com's announcement of their new offerings:

SHOP.comTM Helps Busy Moms Save Time and Money This Back-to-School Season

New Kids Department Debuts at One of the Biggest Back-to-School Shopping Destinations on the Web

MONTEREY, Calif.--(July 31, 2008)--To help take the “stresswork” out of back-to-school shopping, SHOP.com (www.shop.com ), the destination comparison shopping engine designed for women, today announced the launch of a new Kids shopping department featuring up to 75 percent off virtually everything for kids and baby. The new Kids department, which features a myriad of favorite brands, including Roxy, Skechers, Nike, North Face, Carter’s and more, complements SHOP.com’s already comprehensive offering of the latest clothing, gear and accessories to send kids of all ages back to school.

SHOP.com’s multi-merchant marketplace enables consumers to conveniently find and compare products and prices from thousands of merchants. Consumers can purchase on the SHOP.com web site using SHOP.com’s proprietary universal shopping cart, OneCart®, or purchase directly from hundreds of partner stores.

“One-stop shopping convenience is of the utmost importance around the busy back-to-school season,” said Mondy Beller, Senior Vice President, Marketing for SHOP.com. “The call of duty for Moms particularly at this time of year reinforces that women shop for their family first, so we’re pleased to offer a robust online shopping destination that saves women time, money and their sanity during this hectic period.”

The new Kids section at SHOP.com covers all the shopping needs for busy consumers, offering a wide selection of products in seven key categories, as follows:

Baby Clothing & Shoes - - A stylish assortment of clothes and shoes for baby and toddler from popular baby brands, including Luvable Friends, French Toast and Ugg.

Kids’ Clothing & Shoes - - Apparel to take kids from the schoolyard to the playground in style from brands, including Baby Phat, Mossimo, GUESS?, Ralph Lauren and Quicksilver.

Kids’ Rooms - - One-stop kids’ room shop offers kids' room items - - from bedding to bedroom furniture and decorative accents - - to make kiddies feel at home; a high-quality selection from merchants, such as KidKraft, Olive Kids, Room Magic and Loft...."

<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article on all of the new product category offerings by Shop.com and more!!! It is a quick and informative read....and you can possibly win a $1,000 shopping spree. Click away!

Well done Shop.com.

-- Chip Arndt

PriceGrabber Market Reporter "Grabs" Online Merchants Attention and Boosts Sales Conversions

2008-07-30T15:07:59-04:00

I am happy to share with the eTaildTail community PriceGrabber's latest updates to their Market Reporter application for clients.

Many PriceGrabber clients are very happy with PriceGrabber and have had wonderful success in selling products through their shopping comparison site. Many of our clients at MerchantAdvantage have had wonderful success feeding their product catalog data to PriceGrabber resulting in sales. I encourage all online merchants to look into PriceGrabber as a viable marketing channel to sell your products.

You can either feed to them directly or you can try a data-feed management tool with robust analytics to analyze all of your data feeds across all your channel. MerchantAdvantage's Channel Management with Chanalytics application is a good place to start. MerchantAdvantage feeds to 150+ marketing channels and is configured to work with PriceGrabber in minutes.

PriceGrabber's Market Reporter has some wonderful new features which really can help their clients understand the marketplace and how their products perform on PriceGrabber.

Most important, PriceGrabber provides excellent research and other analysis that can help any online merchant sell better using comparison shopping engines and other shopping destination sites.

If you sell on PriceGrabber, I hope you use their Market Reporter application; it is excellent. And if you don't sell on PriceGrabber yet, try it!

Here is an overview from PriceGrabber's Market Reporter site for more information:

Market Reporter provides near real-time market research, customized to your individual needs.

Market Reporter gives you access to e-commerce shopping data from millions of consumers. Simply select the product, category, or manufacturer you want to analyze. Then, with a single click, you can see: demand curve, top manufacturers, market share data, price history, price elasticity, numbers of retailers, referrals by state, referred dollars, and much more.

While helping you track market share, Market Reporter makes it easy to follow traffic patterns with pricing trends and aggregate buying habits. PriceGrabber's database tracks thousands of the most actively purchased products.

PriceGrabber's Consumer Behavior Reports are sourced by surveying online shoppers and Market Reporter. These market research reports are used to inform industry analysts, media, and retailers on the latest research trends in the online shopping space.

If up to the minute numbers, a massive database, and detailed analytical capabilities are crucial to your success, make Market Reporter a permanent part of your research budget.

For more information, please take an online tour or contact pgmarket AT pricegrabber.com

Here are some screen grabs of a few of their features to give you a taste of what you can expect to see:

Home Page Design: Applying The "Dont Make Me Think Test"

2008-07-28T15:46:13-04:00

A few weeks ago, I talked about "Best Practices To Working With Comparison Shopping Engines and Why Online Merchants Should Work with Online Shopping Sites".

One of my first tips was to ensure that your storefront was worthy of marketing. Some people asked me for more information on what I meant.

Well, it just so happens that eTaildTail friends at Get Elastic have a perfect article, by Linda Bustos, today about how to ensure that your Web storefront is worthy of marketing.

Check it out; it is a quick read and has some great tips and tricks and visuals too!

-- Chip Arndt

Home Page Design: Applying The "Dont Make Me Think Test"

From Get Elastic
by Linda Bustos

July 28, 2008 -- "If you’re not familiar with Steve Krug’s web usability classic Don’t Make Me Think, it’s an entertaining and informative introduction to web site optimization. Though its screenshots and examples are quickly looking “old school” - its principles still stand. I “think” any web design and ecommerce professional should give it a read, and then give their own websites the “don’t make me think” test.

Today I’m going to apply the concepts from Don’t Make Me Think to The Source - a chain of electronics retail shops we used to call Radio Shack here in Canada, until it was acquired by Circuit City. I’m a fan of Circuit City’s web design and marketing, and have praised them many times before on this blog which is why I had high expectations from The Source’s web presence. But I found myself “thinking” very hard on this site.

This post is not intended to slam the design, but to point out areas that could be improved based on generally accepted design and usability principles.

(If you want to play along, you can click on the image to enlarge and see if you can predict which 10 issues I’m going to address in this post)..."

<<CLICK HERE>>> to read more and get Linda Bustos' tips to building a better storefront. Enjoy the read, it is a good one.

buySAFE Selects MerchantAdvantage as First Product Syndication Partner to Help Online Merchants Grow Sales

2008-07-28T15:11:16-04:00

It is always fun to work with professionals are changing the macrocosm of ecomerce and mcommerce (mobile commerce).

Earlier this month buySAFE announced a partnership with MerchantAdvantage, a company I co-founded, in regard to MerchantAdvantage being the first "Syndication Partner" to feed product catalog data seamlesly into their new, buySAFE bonded shopping network. We are excited about this partnership, as it gives online merchants the best options to reach customers wherever they are shopping.

The buySAFE bonded shopping network is a new online shopping model/experience that protects both the online merchant and consumer by leveraging the highly respected buySAFE bonding guarantee on all purchases. I encourage all online merchants to check them out and let them know Chip over at eTaildTail sent you.

Please read below the press announcement as listed with Forbes.com. I am happy to share it with the eTaildTail community and thank you buySAFE.

-- Chip Arndt

As seen on Forbes.com

ARLINGTON, Va., July, 2008 -- buySAFE, Inc. has announced a strategic partnership with MerchantAdvantage, a leading tool-based data-feed management solution for ecommerce and mobile commerce. MerchantAdvantage was selected as buySAFE's first product syndication partner for the Bonded Shopping Network (BSN).

MerchantAdvantage is the only industry solution that doesn't charge setup costs, fees for transactions, or a revenue share when optimizing, feeding, and analyzing client product catalog feeds to over 150 shopping destination sites, comparison shopping engines, mobile shopping engines, affiliate sites, and marketing channels. These channels include marketplaces -- Amazon.com and Shop.com -- and now BSN shopping sites such as TheFind (www.thefind.com) and www.buysafeshopping.com.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full story.

Best Practices to Working with Comparison Shopping Engines

2008-07-15T14:57:27-04:00

eTaildTail likes to give tips and ticks to online merchants to help them better use comparison shopping engines. Here is some guest advice from Michael Lambert, CEO of MerchantAdvantage.

Chip Arndt

Best Practices to Working with Comparison Shopping Engines

"Timing is everything. Although it is very important to feed your most current product information to Comparison Shopping Engines, they typically "Index" them before consumers view the information.It is best to be sure and upload your product data just before the CSE sweeps, or imports their data, and this typically happens a few times a day at varied times depending on the CSE.

But, when possible, it is good to allow a day or so between feeds to allow proper indexing within the CSE, and particularly Google Base. So, if your product information has not changed, wait until it has (up to a few days) before feeding again. This will allow your products to be properly categorized and indexed, and help your performance within that CSE.

And as always:

1. Feed to any FREE comparison shopping engines -- as your conversions can't be bad -- this includes free sites as, Google Product Search, Microsoft Cashback, Microsoft LIve Search, and theFind.com

2. <<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article.

Michael Lambert
CEO, MerchantAdvantage

Marketing for Holiday Season Should Begin in October

2008-07-11T10:39:05-04:00

This just in from the "experts." It is a good read for all online merchants! Prepare now for online holiday shopping....or very soon. :-)

From eTaildTail friends over at Internet Retailer and MarketLive:

"While most consumers don’t start holiday shopping in earnest until the day after Thanksgiving, online retailers should begin marketing for the season as early as October, according to MarketLive Inc., an e-commerce platform provider.

During 2007’s fourth quarter, online merchants in the MarketLive Performance Index experienced an overall conversion rate of 4.8%, an 18% increase from the third quarter. The engagement rate (visit-to-cart) ratio rose 9.87%, up 4% from the prior quarter, and cart abandonment dropped 6% to 55.64%."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article

Chip Arndt

Everest Software Names MerchantAdvantage Top Data Feed Management Software Tool

2008-07-08T08:30:34-04:00

I just wanted to thank Ryan Brown, Everest Software, for the accolade and recommendation from the recent Internet Retailer 2008 show in Chicago to utilize MerchantAdvantage and our cost-effective, Channel Management with Chanalytics Professional and Lite products.

We work hard at MerchantAdvatage to provide the best value for small to mid-sized businesses to manage their product catalog data feeds to ecommerce and mobile commerce comparison shopping engines, affiliate sites -- as Commission Junction and LinkShare -- and over 150 other shopping destination sites and marketplaces -- as Amazon, Become.com, buySAFE bonded shopping network, eBay!, FindGifts.com, Gifts.com, Google Product Search, JellyFish, Like.com, Microsoft Cashback, myCoupons.com, mPoria.com, mShopper.com, Pricegrabber, Pronto, Shop.com, Shopzilla, Smarter, SortPrice, theFind.com, Underbid, Yahoo!Shopping, and many, many others -- without charging any listing, set up or transaction fees or revenue share.

Here is the full review of MerchantAdvantage and other recommendations from Ryan Brown and Everest Software.

"MerchantAdvantage facilitates the marketing of your products through online shopping sites, coupon sites and mobile commerce sites..."

Chip Arndt
Co-Founder|EVP
MerchantAdvantage, LLC

Increase Conversion Rates When Using Comparison Shopping Engines

2008-07-07T08:46:37-04:00

Emails have come into eTaildTail recently in reference to my recent commentary titled: Why Online Merchants Should List Their Product Catalog on Comparison Shopping Engines.

Most of those emails ask questions related to Return on Add Spend ("ROAS"), when using comparison shopping engines and shopping destination sites, and how best to increase this very important business metric.

I defer to an excellent read over at Channel Advisor with Mark Vandegrift, who summarizes The Importance of Conversion Rate when using comparison shopping engines and shopping destination sites.

Channel Advisor is indeed in the same business that I am and my company MerchantAdvantage, and, while some might consider them a competitor, I prefer to see them as colleagues in helping online retailers around the globe gain more success when executing their ecommerce and mobile commerce strategies.

The Importance of Conversion Rate is a nice complimentary commentary to my prior blog. Here is the beginning of that commentary:

"How can I improve the return I get from Comparison Shopping Engines?"

"This is by far the question I hear most from merchants using CSEs. The answer is pretty simple: Improve your conversion rate. Making that happen, however, isn't quite as easy.

First, let's look at why conversion rate is so critical..." <<<CLICK HERE>>> to continue that read.

I hope that both commentaries help small to mid-sized business increase sales, and ROAS (conversions from clicks to sales) when using comparison shopping engines and shopping destination sites.

Welcome back from 4th of July weekend and onward we charge together.

Chip Arndt

Happy July 4th Weekend from Chip Arndt

2008-07-03T14:07:48-04:00

Regardless of difficult economic times, we are one nation together. We can and will overcome.

This weekend reminds us of who we are, our beginnings as a nation, being with family and friends, and thanking and remembering our thousands of troops and their families, at home and abroad, for their service and sacrifices.

Thank you for reading eTaildTail and being a friend. Happy July 4th weekend.

Chip Arndt
Co-Founder|EVP of MerchantAdvantage

Yahoo Shopping Adds Bid-Per-Click Option to Product Listings...Update

2008-07-03T13:32:39-04:00

Online shopping is here to stay.

Now it is just of matter of finding out which comparison shopping engines, and shopping destination sites, can actually make a profitable business out of online shopping while Google Product Search, Microsoft Cash Back, Live Search, and theFind.com continue to provide their shopping destination sites free to both online merchants and shoppers alike.

Yahoo! Shopping is an excellent comparison shopping engine and certainly has a wonderful worldwide brand (yes, they still do, for all of you cynics out there) which, in turn, brings millions of buyers and comparison price shoppers to their online mall to purchase products. How many do you ask? Aprroximately 18-20 million unique visitors a month -- still an impressive number even if it has not grown much beyond that number.

So how does Yahoo! Shopping plan to upgrade, bring more shoppers, and keep online merchants happy when using them -- as this is the group from which they make their money?

The following read is a follow up to my prior entry about Yahoo! and their additioinal bid supported marketplace I wrote about in May.

What WAS at Yahoo! Shopping

1. Yahoo ranked items based on keyword relevancy, categorization, click history, and customer feedback.

2. Listing has been difficult for merchants who struggle to get traffic to their products from Yahoo’s large database of products.

3. Set-fee-per-click format = merchants pay a flat rate for product listings in Yahoo! Shopping categories and have little control over positioning.

4. Yahoo! used to host the premier comparison engine but has lagged behind in the last couple of years in terms of traffic and interface.

5. "Innovations have been few and far between, traffic has been tepid, and retailers have seen flat sales overall"...states Kevin Packler, eTaildTail friend over at Channel Dollars, a wonderful blog that delves into more technical aspcects of working with comparison shopping engines than I often do! See I love experts, sometimes!

What IS NOW at Yahoo! Shopping

1. Online retailers have more options.

2. Bidding mechanism creates more competition among merchants and more flexibility in terms of how merchants may list their products and the bid-fee-per-click format positions those merchants highest who bid the most of key words, which is similar to keyword bidding using Yahoo!, Google, Ask, or MSN (Live Search) search.

3. A NEW Site redesign that compliments existing "set-fee-per-click" merchant product listings fees and new "bid-fee-per-" model. This additional bid feature means merchants can gain significant history within Yahoo! Shopping's algorithms, and thereby rankings, which will push their products to the top of result pages.

4. Product categories have increased from 64 categories to 1,200+, which allows merchants' products to appear in more places than they could under broader headings - but only if an online merchant maps the categories correctly, ergo try using a Web-based tool to help you.

5. "Category expansion allows merchants to bid on more granular product areas in addition to broad categories. For example, merchants now can bid on “bath towel,” instead of just “home & garden.” The added categories give merchants greater opportunities to improve their position in product rankings," stated Greg Hintz, General Manager of Yahoo!

Finally Greg Hintz adds: "The effects of the fee change on pricing might depend on the merchant. Because we are adding more categories it’s hard to say whether there will be an up or down effect on pricing. Some [categories] will cost more, some less. We are giving merchants the ability to tailor their campaigns to the categories they make the most money on. ROI should go up”

If you would like to read more analysis about changes at Yahoo! Shopping and all of the new Yahoo! Product Submit features, check out eTaildTail friends over at CPC Strategy; they have a great write up, and you can read it for free, promise! :-)

Using Testimonials/Reviews Effectively: How Credibility Indicators Can Help (or Hurt) Your Conversions

2008-07-03T09:38:41-04:00

l Yes, I love MarketingExperiments free Webinars.

These webinars have a great track record of helping my clients on numerous issues.

If you want to learn more about how "reviews/testimonials" can help, or hurt, drive traffic to your webstore and convert visitors to buyers, may I suggest signing up for Dr. Flint McGlaughlin's free webinar July 9.

Details below,

Happy 4th of July weeek and weekend.

Chip Arndt

Join a FREE July 9, 2008 MarketingExperiments Webinar

Topic: Using Testimonials/Reviews Effectively: How Credibility Indicators Can Help (or Hurt) Your Conversions

When: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 – 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT

Presenter: Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments

Is "testimonial blindness" the new "banner blindness"?

As more and more websites use these credibility indicators,
marketers need to know if these elements really work, if they're
just cluttering up pages, or worse – hurting results.

During this free, one-hour Web Clinic, we will:

– Examine recent tests that increased (and reduced) conversions
– Discuss proven ways to use testimonials more effectively
– Review and optimize attendees' landing pages (time permitting)

NOTE: To be considered for a live landing page review, please
include your sign-up page URL when you register.

Why Online Merchants Should List Their Product Catalog on Comparison Shopping Engines

2008-07-02T10:29:33-04:00

I am asked everyday questions about why online merchants should list their product catalogs on comparison shopping engines.

It makes perfect sense that I am asked this question, because I am in the business of data feed management and helping small to mid-sized online merchants increase their return on ad spend when working with a variety of online shopping destination sites, comparison shopping engines, mobile commerce sites, and other marketing channels.

So What is The Answer?

Online merchants benefit from ANY marketing effort that gets their brand and storefront products in front of potential shoppers, wherever those shoppers may be. This includes traditional marketing efforts, as the yellow pages, emails, direct mail, catalogs, and modern marketing efforts as ecommerce, mcommerce (mobile commerce), blogs, bonded shopping networks, and social networking sites (we are still seeing if these work, but you get the point). This philosophy is intuitive, simple, and should be not an issue.

Issues, however, do arise when an online merchant has to weigh the cost and time involved to market wherever a shopper might be using traditional or new marketing methods and strategies. These marketing methods bring into play three main issues:

1. Where do I market?

2. Do I have the time to maximize these marketing efforts correctly? and

3. What will it cost me?

And then of course, after an online merchant asks these three aforementioned questions comes the most important issue/question:

"Did my marketing efforts work = Did my marketing efforts lead to sales and brand awareness?"

I am here to tell you that any small to mid-sized online merchant should experiment and try comparison shopping engines and other shopping destination sites, because they "can" work, if you find the right marketing channel for your products.

Not every marketing channel is right for your products -- that is why I say "can" work. That's right. Online merchants have to test, often, numerous marketing channels to see which ones work for their online storefront/product catalog, as not every online shopping mall or comparison shopping engine may attract the right audience/shopper for your products.

[NOTE: Please do not let "experts" tell you that they know all of the right channels for your products, especially if they have not tested your products in a particular channel.]

The good news for online merchants is that there are a plethora of shopping destination sites and comparison shopping engines to pick from, each bringing millions of people each month to their online mall to find your products.

Some of these channels include: Amazon, Become, buySAFE bonded shopping network, Cooking.com, eBay!, GourmetFoodMall.com, Google Product Search, Greenzer, Like.com, MachineTools.com, Microsoft Cashback, myCoupons.com, PriceGrabber, PriceRunner, Pronto, Shop.com, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, Smarter, SortPrice, theFind, ToolCrib, Yahoo! Shopping, and many others. I know of over 250 marketing channels, so don't think that only the bigger, well known comparison shopping engines are the only marketing channels available to you. <<<CLICK HERE>>> for a more comprehensive list from MerchantAdvantage.

And the better news is that many comparison shopping engines have business models that ARE AFFORDABLE to work with right away. Some comparison shopping engines only charge when a sale is made, others have a flat rate per month, and others are FREE, ergo, not all comparison shopping engines charge on a pay-per-click/pay-per-lead model. Such examples are: Google Product Search; JellyFish, Microsoft Cash Back; MSN Shopping; myCoupons.com, and theFind.com.

I have many clients who are very selective to which comparison shopping engines they send their product catalog data. For instance, some of my clients only use niche comparison shopping engines that specialize in selling machine tools, gourmet food, or golf related products. Other clients use over 60 comparison shopping engines in order to saturate the marketplace with their products and be wherever an online shopper might be to build brand awareness. The strategy each client takes depends on budgets and time, but, in each case, comparison shopping engines work for them.

At all times, when working with comparison shopping engines, online merchants must ensure that the product catalog they send to a comparison shopping engine is perfect and up to date, so that the comparison shopping engine lists your product catalog in all of the appropriate places on their site.

This can be done directly with each comparison shopping site, i.e. feeding them a file each day that follows their feed specification document, OR you can use a cost-effective, Web-based tool that takes care of these issues for you. But...

Before You Work with A Comparison Shopping Engine

Online merchants must ensure, before using any comparison shopping engine, that their online storefront is worthy of marketing in the first place. What do I mean by this?

As an example, I had a client two months ago who was frustrated. He was getting a lot of hits/clicks to his website from comparison shopping engines but these hits/clicks were not converting to sales. This means that all of his fields were properly mapped to the feed spec document of each comparison shopping engine and he opitimized his data properly, but the clicks to his site were not converting to sales.

When we talked directly and both went to his online storefront, I was dismayed to find that his online storefront was a mess, was not professional looking, was hard to navigate, and the check out process was not easy. I asked him:

"If you came to your storefront, the way it looked and functioned, would you buy a product from you?"

At that point we made an assumption that most of his problems might not be with his comparison shopping engine marketing strategies. Instead, we agreed that he had to clean up the look, feel, marketing language, pictures, special offers, logos, and functionality of his storefront website before marketing anywhere.

Over the next three weeks, he cleaned up his storefront and then started his comparison shopping engine marketing efforts over again. I had him look at REI and ProFlowers, two websites/webstores that work very well and can show an online merchant what "not to do" when building your storefront, which is as important as what "to do." He could not afford all of the functionality of each of these sites, but looking at them and learning from them certainly helped. The results -- sure enough, clicks from the comparison shopping engines started to lead to sales.

The point of this example is that often online merchants fail to recognize that leads from comparison shopping engines do not always equate to sales, for numerous reasons beyond the control of comparison shopping engines, and that their online storefront must be professional and "worthy" to complete a sale.

Okay, now back to comparison shopping engines and what an online merchant can do right now to gain success on comparison shopping engines.

Comparison Shopping Engines: 7 Steps to Success

1. Professional Look, Feel, and Functionality: Clean up your online storefront/website. Ask your friends to go to your website and ask them this: "If you were a stranger and you came to my website would you buy from me?" If they say no, ask them why and remember that you only have one chance to make a good first impression.

2. Start with 4 Free Comparison Shopping Engines: Send your entire product catalog to 4 FREE comparison shopping engines: Google Product Search, theFind.com, MSN LiveSearch, and Microsoft Cashback. They are free, may lead to some sales, and will certainly help with organic SEO search. Where else can you get FREE marketing and also learn how comparison shopping engines work before making a larger time and financial commitment?

3. Use a Cost-Effective, Web-based Tool to Handle Technical Issues with Analysis: There are solutions in the marketplace that, for as little as $145 a month and no transaction fees, no listing fees, no revenue share, and no set-up costs, can get you up and running in less than 48 hours on the 4 FREE sites mentioned above (and 21 others, if you choose for the same price), with analytics included. What other marketing methods are available to you for only $145 a month?

4. Test, Test, and Test Various Comparison Shopping Engines: Even after you "worked" a specific comparison shopping engine for 60-90 days, optimized your feeds properly, and used the SKU level bidding feature of some comparison shopping engines, sometimes a particular comparison shopping engine still may not lead to sales. Instead of getting upset, try another comparison shopping engine. There are a lot of comparison shopping engines out there that may have a more appropriate audience for you. And, since most comparison shopping engines charge on a month-to-month basis, can you afford not to try them?

5. Educate Yourself: There are many resources on the web about best practices when working with comparison shopping engines. As an example, as a client of MerchantAdvantage, MerchantAdvantage offers weekly client-side webinars directly from the technical staff of both MerchantAdvantage AND the technical staff of a comparison shopping engine to keep you up to speed on the best way to work with a particular comparison shopping engine, how to use SKU level bidding features where supported, what products sell best, how best to optimize a feed, and the like. You also can access several FREE webinars, whitepapers, and other sources of information, with no obligation, from the front of MerchantAdvantage's website.

6. Catalog Dipping: Not every product you sell will sell well on every comparison shopping engine: we all know that fact. Try adopting a strategy of only sending products that lead to sales and not just clicks. You can do this easily when using a Web-based tool, with robust analytics, to manage your product catalog feeds and start to have some fun when working with comparison shopping engines.

7. Choice: Make sure you have the option and choice to send your product catalog feed to any marketing channel available to you on the Internet. That includes over 250+ comparison shopping sites I know of, affiliate sites as Commission Junction and Linkshare (that can get you to the smallest of sites where your products can be found), eBay! and Amazon. Why? Because you never know into which comparison shopping engine your product catalog will lead to the most sales. MerchantAdvantage offers the broadest possible choice in the marketplace and you can start with a pretty comprehensive list here.

I hope this information helps friends of eTaildTail prepare your marketing strategies for the online holiday shopping season over the next few months.

Happy 4th of July weekend.

Chip Arndt

Online Sales Tax..Yes You Must Pay It...Or Do you?

2008-07-01T18:33:46-04:00

I wrote about the topic of online sales tax, and how it affects interstate online commerce, at length a few months ago.

Due to this recent post I found elsewhere, I urge all online merchants selling anything online to ask their tax advisor and lawyers what to do so that you don't get burned, sued, or penalized going forward.

As I can tell, there is still no resolution from the time I last wrote but the online sales tax issue is certainly still an issue and far from being resolved. States want their tax share of online transactions and other parties are battling against it; either way, don't get burned through ignorance, as pleading ignornace won't hold up in court, if it comes to that when a state asks an online merchant to pay their share of state commerce tax, online or offline.

Please read my prior post, Will New York Online Sales Tax Legislation Kill E-Commerce? for that important read, AND then the article below in its entirety. After getting macro understanding of both, please seek appropriate tax and legal counsel in regard to your obligations as an online retailer to paying state sales tax for any of your online sales.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps.

Chip Arndt

By Andrea James from SeattlePI.com

"For the countless consumers who buy online to avoid paying state sales tax, the party is ending.

Though Washington shoppers are on their honor to pay sales taxes each year on out-of-state purchases -- it's called a "use tax" -- most people either ignore the requirement or have never heard of it. Thus, states such as Washington are banding together to encourage online businesses to collect tax.

On Tuesday, Washington joins 18 other states that require some e-commerce businesses to collect sales tax. About 1,100 online retailers have volunteered to collect, and in return, Washington promises not to sue them for back taxes they might have owed. Three more states are on the way to adopting the law.

The Tuesday change, which is the result of a state law passed in 2007, has two major effects, Washington Revenue Department spokesman Mike Gowrylow said..."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for this full and VERY IMPORTANT article and how Amazon is responding to all of this...as they are the ones who are fighting the online sales tax debate all the way to Congress