ChannelAdvisor

A Dose of Tips from The Feed Doctor

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

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

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

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:
  • Understanding changes
  • Providing high quality data
  • Troubleshooting tools
• 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...

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:

1. Go to a google SERP and click on 'rated' for those that have merchant ratings.
2. 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

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

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!

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

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

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!

Google Announces New Requirements around Unique Identifier Data

Google announced Friday that unique identifier content (MPN, Brand, GTIN/UPC/EAN or ISBN) will become required for electronics, books, and media products in the US in "late August." Many products of this type already have a product page created, so if your feed doesn't contain a unique identifier that is allowing Google to match your offer to that page, you're already missing out on exposure for that item.

As noted in the announcement, this content can generally be found on the product page itself. If you don't have this information the Google product page is a good place to look, though this is not exactly a scalable approach if you send a lot of products in these categories. The manufacturer/supplier of the products may have the data so if you aren't getting it be sure to ask.

One recommendation here is to not assume that your data is correct, nor to assume the same of Google's data. The only thing that matters is that the data you are sending matches the data associated with Google's product page, which may or may not be what you are expecting it to be. This especially becomes problematic for products where there are different versions or editions.

It would be nice if Google would roll out some sort of matching report that indicates which items are matching to a page as well as a link to the page itself and perhaps some other data about the item. This would make it easier for merchants to determine which data points aren't correlating to Google's product database so they can take action to correct the content in their feeds. Merchants should check for matching on top products anyway but such a report would accelerate the process.

Google Using CSE's Content Against Them?

I can see how CSE's would be pleased when they first saw Google aggregating their merchant reviews and displaying them on Google Product Search. It justified their place in the shopping ecosystem as a relevant source for information about the trustworthiness of online retailers. It also acted and still acts as a motivating factor for merchants to use those CSE's survey systems to collect more consumer reviews for display not only on the CSE sites, but on Google Product Search pages.

I'm not quite sure, though, if they will be equally pleased about Google's "seller rating extensions" announcement which states those same aggregated merchant ratings shown on Product Search pages will be automatically integrated into merchant's AdWords ads. Yes, it is an even stronger reason for merchants to embrace the CSE rating systems (which they should). But if you've ever run more than a handful of product oriented queries on Google, you know that CSEs are major AdWords advertisers.

This news seems like a plus for retailers who have more than 4 stars and at least 30 ratings (these are the requirements for display of this feature). Their ads will stand out more versus those without ratings, potentially resulting in a higher click through rate. Google also may give a quality boost to highly-rated merchant's ads. And from a consumers perspective, Google is effectively calling out these merchants as trustworthy, meaning customers are not only more likely to click, but probably more likely to buy. Since CSEs aren't merchants themselves and don't have ratings, this could work against them in the AdWords game, driving more interest to "trusted" retailers directly and away from other advertisers.

Though the impact surely remains to be seen, the content facilitated and stored by CSEs is being used to highlight their own AdWords competitors. Then again, that competition is also their customer base.

A few other thoughts on this:

• Why not charge extra? I guess Google expects the CTR increase to net out into increased spend overall, or maybe just yield a better experience that will grow/retain query volume.
• Why not include ratings in the one box? Seems like it would make even more sense than the AdWords placement.
• Why is the user experience a dead end? Click on where it says the merchant is rated and the user is taken to the ratings, but the only way out is to click back or search again.

Google Adds Variant Navigation to Product Search Pages

We recently noticed that for some products, Google has inserted a dropdown menu that allows users to switch more easily among product variants. The product pages for the individual variant items still exist and appear in search results, so this is really just a linking of existing related content. For example if you search for "canon powershot sd1300" you should see product pages for all five color variants but if you click into any one of those, you'll see a menu set to the color on which you clicked.

This seems to be a moderately useful function for this product type but the real question is how will this extend out to apparel, shoes, accessories, etc. where color and size variants can reach into the dozens or even hundreds. Product pages don't exist in those categories at this point but it seems likely Google will eventually move in that direction for those product types in the interest of improving the user experience and making it more like what a consumer would see on a retailer's website.

Will Amazon replace Bing Shopping?! We take a deep dive.

The e-commerce world is a-buzz with the report from Jay Yarow @ Forbes that he has heard that Bing and Amazon are in talks. 

The report indicates that Amazon is pitching Bing on Amazon replacing Bing shopping (and cashback) instead of Bing doubling down and recreating the space post cashback's demise.

Let's look at this from both company's points of view to help handicap if a deal can be done, but first a brief background refresher.

Background

Microsoft started getting serious in the CSE space in 2007 with the acquisition of Jellyfish, followed up by the acquisition of Ciao.  In 2008, they combined them with the old MSN shopping to form Live Shopping w/ cashback and re-branded when they launched Bing as Bing Shopping.  The general ideas was to compete with Google by having a better product search experience - a two-pronged approach: 1) eat away at various google verticals such as travel, ecommerce, health, etc. and 2) grab share whenever possible (Yahoo deal).

According to Comscore, Bing is 7th largest CSE by traffic.  At ChannelAdvisor they are the 7th by 'GMV', but growing rapidly and on track to be top-five in a couple of months (the cashback cancellation could change all that though).  So in short, Microsoft has made some major progress in a 2-3 year timeframe.

 

As part of the Yahoo! deal, all data and mock-ups we have ever seen indicates that shopping is not part of the deal (in other words, Bing won't power Yahoo! shopping results or have any Bing shopping integration there.

Amazon perspective

Now let's look at this deal from Amazon's perspective: 

Pros:

• Access to Bing's 9m/m CSE shoppers and whatever additional users can be pulled in from the search side.
• Probably could get some access to some other Windows/Microsoft properties such as MSN, browser search box, etc.
• Maybe work to get digital river out as Microsoft's e-commerce partner

Cons:

• Amazon would probably at-best have to pay a heavy rev-share and at worst some 'non performance oriented' up-front payments and or guarantees (probably a combo actually).  If I'm Microsoft, I don't want to lose $X of revenue from Bing shipping to have it replace by something lower, so you structure the deal to have minimum performance.  Amazon would have some risk of not achieving this.  In the history of internet deals, these mins can go really well or as in the example of myspace/google they can be a real problem if not structured correctly.

Microsoft/Bing perspective

Pros:

• As Yahoo! has proven (twice), outsourcing something like search/cse can be a very alluring business proposition from a financial/ P+L standpoint -
• • You get to keep 100% of the revenue if you structure it right (wow!)
  • But you outsource almost 100% of the expense - thus it turns what can be an investment area (losses) into one of pure profit.  Based on the model of most CSEs, properly monetized Bing shopping would generate around $100m/yr, and cost $60-80m.  An Amazon deal would strip out that cost and turn it into a $100m pure profit contributor (if structured correctly)
  • In short, bean-counters love it.
• While everyone thinks about Amazon primarily as a retailer, we've spent a lot of time helping everyone understand that at over 30% 3P sales and with programs like Product Ads, Amazon is really becoming the best product search experience on the internet. 

Cons:

• As Yahoo! has proven (once so far), outsourcing something like search (organic search to google) can be a tremendously bad strategic choice.  The P+L picture you envision falls apart because:
• • Consumers are smart - if they go to Yahoo! and see google search results, they start to ask themselves - wow, why am I going to Google for this, if I go straight to the source, maybe that's better?
  • They always lose control of the user experience.
  • Your partner is always misaligned and actually driven to get you out of the picture to avoid the economic over-hang.
• 40% of searches are product-oriented and these are the most lucrative searches from a RPC perspective.  It would be a big decision to essentially cede this piece of the business and make the bet that Bing+Amazon is better than Google+GPS.
   

Can a deal be done?

It really boils down to two variables that only Microsoft knows:

• How strategic they view product search in the war with google (I think it's pretty darn strategic)
• How much $ they are willing to invest to keep fighting google. The Yahoo! deal is very very expensive (some speculate it's the reason cashback was ended) and if Microsoft has some financial pressure (yes hard to imagine for Microsoft, but they are investing/losing $700m/Q which is serious even by msft standards) then doing this deal could help fund a pretty big chunk of the Y! deal.

Do you think Microsoft should outsource product search to Amazon?  Sound off in comments.

Seekingalpha disclosure - I am long Amazon and Google. eBay is an investor in ChannelAdvisor

Changes to Bing Webinar today

Today, June 16, we are hosting a complimentary webinar at 2pm ET to update everyone on the changes coming to Bing shopping and the end of the cashback program.   We'll give you some practical steps you can take today and also talk about some of the things coming in the future.

You can register at www.channeladvisor.com/webinars or click here.

The eBags and ChannelAdvisor presentation from IRCE - 'How to make the most from the coming comparison shopping engine changes'

Last week, I had the privilege to speak at Internet Retailer and share the stage with industry luminary / ChannelAdvisor customer, Peter Cobb @ eBags.

Wow, that show really has grown - I remember 6 years ago there were 20 booths and ~1000 attendees.  Now we fill the entire floor of the convention center with booths and there are > 6000 attendees. 

Since the talk, I've had literally hundreds of retailers request the deck so I thought I would put it up here as a reference to everyone that attended and those that did not.  We had only 30 minutes, but I think we jammed as much actionable information on CSEs into that 30 minutes as possible.  The presentation is pretty self explanatory, but I'll leave you with the one highlight:  The industry is changing very rapidly and if you are relying on 'the oldies but the goodies' - shopping.com, shopzilla.com, etc., you need to dust off your strategy and look at some of the up-and-coming CSE 2.0 companies to balance out your strategy.

Feel free to ask any questions in our fancy new commenting system.

Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition

View more presentations from Scot Wingo.

Come see our CSE presentation at Internet Retailer...

ChannelAdvisor has a lot going on at IRCE this year.  IRCE has over 6000 attendees, 400 exhibitors and tons of content.  IRCE has replaced what eBay Live was for years (thousands of small business retailers) and also draws in some great large and mid-tier retailers as well.

This year we are at Booth 501 giving demos of some cool new features we're announcing later this week and I'm giving a talk Wednesday at 11:30am with Peter Cobb from eBags on Comparison Shopping Engines.

We usually have a lot of blog readers in attendance so come on by the booth and say hello, I generally spend the bulk of my time in the booth so look forward to seeing everyone.

Google Adds Merchandising/Navigation to Product Search Home Page

Google has for the first time added some high-level merchandising to the Product Search home page by linking product images to queries under a "Gift Ideas for Father's Day" heading. Though it does technically involve a search, the resulting user experience is more like a category browse. It's difficult to know how much traffic actually comes through this page but it seems merchants who have good placement on these queries will benefit from this. The terms are generic enough where any merchant who is already including general keywords in their content probably don't need to take any action but this is further reason for those merchants who aren't including such keywords to start doing so.

CSE Video Tip: The End of Bing Cashback

Comparison Shopping Product Manager David Harris gives a quick overview of Bing's decision to end Cashback and the important details that retailers need to know.   

Bing's 'no cashback' letter to merchants

As reported earlier, Bing is canceling the cashback program.  They sent the following note to merchants.  A couple of interesting tidbits:

• There were 1200 merchants in the program.
• There are hints to a redesign for Bing shopping coming soon
• There is a hint to a late 2010 program that will allow retailers to expand products (we are hearing it will be a Google shopping-like, no cpc/free program.
• Bing/Microsoft remain committed to being the destination for commerce-related searches

Microsoft Advertising
Dear Merchant,

We are writing to let you know that Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Bing cashback program. After 9:00 P.M. PST on July 30, 2010, we will no longer offer this program on the Bing search results or Bing Shopping pages. This will also be the last day consumers will be able to buy through the Bing cashback program.

What this means for you
As we continue to evolve both the consumer and advertiser experiences for Bing, we will pursue different avenues in order to offer great shopping experiences to consumers and great advertising experiences for our advertisers. We’ve prepared some frequently asked questions about the program closure. Please keep these key points in mind in the coming months:

• This is a great time to spend your cashback budget to drive mid-summer sales. You can increase sales payout rates to the maximum outlined in your merchant agreement to help use up the funds in your piggybank before July 30, 2010. Microsoft will continue to contribute to your piggybank until that date.
• After July 30, Bing Shopping will continue to operate as it does today, but without the presence of cashback. We’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products, compare offers, and buy seamlessly online. In addition to current features like consumer reviews and ratings and Visual Search, we’ll also offer a more streamlined Bing Shopping experience and better shopping integration with Bing.com.
• We are developing a new shopping program that will offer greater flexibility than you experienced with cashback. You’ll be able to provide a broader set of products in Bing Shopping searches, with little or no extra work. The program is scheduled to begin later in 2010, and we’ll provide more details soon. 

What this means for your customers
Bing cashback consumers can continue to shop and earn cashback through 9:00 P.M. PST on July 30. They can redeem all of their acquired cashback earnings consistent with the cashback terms and conditions, as well as access the Bing cashback customer support system through July 30, 2011—a full 12 months after the program ends. Consumers can learn more about the discontinuation of cashback on the Bing web page.

Thank you
We would like to thank the more than 1200 cashback advertisers who joined us for this two-year journey. With over 82 million Bing searchers,* we are still strongly committed to being the destination for all commerce-related searches. Please stay tuned for more online shopping innovations from Microsoft, and again, check out the frequently asked questions to learn more about these changes.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Advertising Bing cashback Team

Bing says goodbye to cashback

Microsoft/Bing announced today via blog post  that they are going to retire the cashback program (both the search level and Bing Shopping level).  Retailers have really enjoyed this program and we believe it has been a big reason that Bing has been growing > 50% y/y for the last couple of years.

Bing tells us they will be taking the Shopping experience to a non-CPC model, ala Google Product Search, which could make retailers even happier as it could mean free traffic.   You could also see that a free shoppin experience maybe better integrated at the search level and possibly as part of the Yahoo! integration.

eBay was an early adopter and has been one of the biggest users of the program - it will be interesting to see what implications this has for them this holiday period.

This is big news and something we'll be tracking closely - stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Sponsored Listings on Google Product Search Pages

Google continues to add new placement opportunities based on data feed content. They are currently displaying a "sponsored listing" area on some product pages. This appears to be an extension of the product listing ads program based on the Google Affiliate Network technology, implying it is too works on a CPA pricing model. The listings are not only highlighted and listed first, but also contain promotional content. Promotional text such as this has not previously been displayed on Google Product Search pages. 

PriceGrabber's New Bidding System

Since the cat's out of the bag about the PriceGrabber bidding system, I thought it may be valuable to share thoughts and some early learnings from experiences we've had in testing it. Yes, you can bid below the rate card but no, you shouldn't bid all your items to a penny. We've seen that you can maintain a decent traffic level after lowering a category bid but that bidding too low will cause a significant traffic drop. Whether or not using a penny bid as a replacement for product suppression will be effective is still to be determined but it's something we're trying.

Overall, I think this is a step in the right direction. Multiple engines have made moves in the recent past that indicated concern over maintaining maximum assortment and I think this is a similar move on PriceGrabber's part, which should increase their value proposition to consumers. It also benefits merchants who have a more control and flexibility, giving them a better opportunity to succeed long term.

Another piece worth noting is that this is the first CSE bidding system that allows for not just absolute bids but incremental bids, including negative incremental bids. The interface also allow for rules that facilitate bid changes not only by category and product, but also by price and manufacturer. It's interesting to see PriceGrabber not only take a significant step in terms of introducing bidding into their platform but also see that step be one not previously taken by including this new level of functionality. I've always been impressed by their catalog/matching technology. This development shows they have the ability to roll out rich features that can differentiate them in the market.

Live Blogging from London - CSE panel at Catalyst UK.

David Harris from ChannelAdvisor hosted a panel that featured:

• Ciao/Microsoft - Tom Hyde, Teamleader for the UK
• Shopzilla.com - Joslan Chevalier - head of Sales Europe - He highlighted that they have 12m uniques/m, 3m in the UK
• Shopping.com - Bjorn Kvarby, head of international business.
• Dominic Smith, e-business for JD Williams - a > $500m retailer

Q: What have you done to improve things during the recession:

Shopping.com - CSE was bigger in the late 90s - most companies in the space haven't innovated enough and hence a shrinking/flat share for retailers.  The basic feature for comparing prices/merchants is what we realized is a commodity.  We are changing the business model and looked at our reviews - epinions.com - it's the largest review community and a pioneer in this space.

Despite our best efforts to kill it, the review community is thriving.  So we are picking some of the learnings there and implementing them on shopping.com.  This matters to retailers because we'll have a lot more content on shopping.com.   Buyers will like the reviews and come back to shopping.com.

Shopzilla.com - They have revamped their technology to be 5 times faster.  Also looking to do a lot of work with reviews.   Have more tools for retailers out in the last 18 months.

Ciao - we started as reviews - over 700k members leaving reviews.   Post Microsoft, we have looked at how we can deeper integrate with Bing.   Now have more incentives and competitions to generate more content.

JD Williams (retailer) - We've been working with CSEs for 9 months.  We've been focused on improving our site structure, checkout, and other conversion enhancements.  How can we  work with CSEs to drive higher quality traffic to our site.  One thing that's obvious to us is that when you work with CSEs with datafees, you open up a minefield of looking at and improving your data.

Q: You mention there are some things you've done, what are some things you are doing as a retailer to improve the CSE channel?

JD Williams - We get data from a lot of sources and inevitably we have a mish mash of data (we have 21 different product areas).  We are standardizing a lot of this across our company.

Q: From the CSE perspective - what do you have planned in the next 12 months?

Shopzilla - Display more content on our website to help consumers find the right product.  Making our search more accurate (black dress for example).  Showing more reviews.

Shopping.com - Starting July 1, going to have much higher data quality standards.

Ciao - Content is key.  We have a lot of changes coming from the microsoft integration. Photosynth - 3D photos of the products.

JD Williams - make sure you send all the parent/child information in your datafeed.

Q: Datafeeds have evolved over the years with regards to CSE - used to be 4-5 required fields, that's doubled and the number of attributes has skyrocketed.

JD williams (retailer) - this  is a huge problem as previously mentioned - getting everyone to use our CMS consistently is a HUGE effort for us.  The results are definitely worth it in all channels.  CSEs are doing very well for us as well.  We're seeing 7% conversion rates when we take the time to invest in content.

Q: When you have deep data from a retailer, how does that change the consumer experience?

Ciao - It all comes down to the amount of information you provide. Consumers are looking for the most information and the retailer that supplies the most frequently 'wins' the order.

Shopping - CSE is the most cost effective way for a retailer to generate sales. In addition to data quality, our ROI tracker will enable us to manage to your cost of sale.  Also, the review widget that we have built is huge.  70% of buyers read product reviews before they buy online.  Conversion rate doubles if you have product reviews on your site.

'Zilla - The more data, the better the user search experience.  Can you update the data faster - moving forward we'd like to see this near real-time.  We are still growing, a lot of retailers are coming on line so it's worth the resources and time to grow your business.

Now questions are coming from the audience now:

Q:  Will you work with ChannelAdvisor to make sure they have the new fields?

A:  Yes - we are on top of this on the CA side.

Q: We've been using CSEs for 5 years - you are all talking about reviews.  Traditionally you were buying traffic from Google.   I think you guys should focus on a better buyer experience (product pages and search) is that fair?

In other words, I want more roi focused solutions vs. volume

A: 

shopping.com - We are solving for the buyer.  That is a win for everyone.  It's not just reviews - we have a wishlist, facebook connect, buyer guides, Q+A later in the year.

zilla - Product reviews are a hot topic and we're looking at everything.

ciao - That's a fair comment and we are looking at everything like product comparison. We are seeing a lot in soft goods lately - fashion, toys, home and garden, baby.

Q: Retailers are implementing their own reviews on their site.  How is the consumer suppose to balance the CSE vs. the retailer conflict of review request?

A: 

zilla - we've partnered with powerreviews - we share the review back with them.  So there is one shared review.

ciao - The content is our own and we don't have duplicate reviews.  You can get alerts when you are left a review and you can respond to them.  We see that reviews are collected at both levels (cse and retailer) and try to keep ours unique.

JD Williams (retailer) - we don't have our own reviews, if we did, we'd want some kind of a connector that would share.

Q: Can you collect reviews we collect via Bazaarvoice and display them?

A: 

zilla - we do this today with powerreviews and could support Bazaarview

shopping.com - we'd love to have them.

Ciao - no we wouldn't take that content.  We have 5m reviews and would not share our reviews or accept outside ones.  We filter to experts which increases the value and we own them. 

(back to David for Q)

Q: What kind of tips do you have for people revisiting or starting with CSEs.

A: 

JD Williams (retailer) - Know your data.  If they need an optional field, try to have that data.  The more data, the better.  When we launched, we had 1yr old data out there and had to revisit that.

The CSEs will work with your cost of sales goals if you implement their conversion managers. (editorial note - many retailers do not want CSEs to see conversion rates so adoption on this is very low IMO).  Definitely have a resource.  Have some feed TLC.

Ciao - The most trusted brands do well so keep on top of your merchant reviews.  Feed quality and resources are important too.

Shopping.com - There are a lot of CSES out there. Spend $ with the ones that work for you.  Quality of data is important.   Use our conversion manager.  if you don't have product reviews, use our widgets to drive that.

Zilla  -Work with a partner that helps you get up and running and hit your targets.

----End of Panel------

Shopping.com Tries Out New Look

I noticed today that Shopping.com pages look a bit different, with a tighter overall feel and a new "sponsored results" area.  I may be oversimplifying things here, but aren't all the results sponsored? Not sure yet on how those placements are determined but they appear to be feed offers.

Verify and Claim Your Site with Google by May 18th

Google announced last week that every merchant sending product offer information into Google Merchant Center must verify their ownership of that domain by May 18 or face having their product data removed from Google Product Search. It's a relatively simple process but does require some action.

The most common question we've heard about this so far is, "can I use my existing verification?" Many merchants have already completed the verification process in order to gain access to Google's Webmaster Tools. The good news is, the answer to his is yes.

• If your Google Merchant Center login is the same as your login for Google Webmaster Tools, all you need to do is go into the Merchant Center account, go to Settings -> General and click to verify.
• If your logins to these areas are not the same, log in to Webmaster tools and click on the "verify" link under "verification" to see the verification details. Click "add a user" and enter your Merchant Center login. Then log in to Merchant Center, go to Setting -> general and click to verify.

 

CSE SELL MORE Video Tip: Google & Commerce

David Harris, Product Manager for CSEs is back in this video discussing Google's foray into e-commerce.

CSE SELL MORE Video Tip: ROI Management

Comparison Shopping Engines Product Manager David Harris shares some tips via video on getting the most ROI out of your CSEs.

First Thoughts on the New Yahoo Shopping, Powered by PriceGrabber

My first thought is that it looks an awful lot like the old Yahoo Shopping. The look and feel of Yahoo Shopping hasn't changed a bit, just the results and the URLs. Even the Yahoo rating system was retained. The search results are very similar to the PriceGrabber site, though I did see a few minor variations. Default rank on product pages is definitely different, probably due at least in part to the different rating systems.

Since this change was invisible to the average shopper, meaning the user experience hasn't changed, it's difficult to think the performance of this traffic will change drastically. I think PriceGrabber's results may  be perceived as more relevant and there is some additional navigation so it's possible that some improvement could come but only time will tell.

BizRank - BizRate Product Ranking

BizRate already displays product ratings on some products but they appear to be working on some new aspect of this function called BizRank.  Though there is no content appearing in the BizRank area on this example, the page code indicates that BizRank will consist of a numeric product rank and a text equivalent.

SELL MORE Tip Video: Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber

ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo sheds some light on the recent partnership announcement between Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber in this short video. For further details and to learn how this deal will affect your comparison shopping engine strategy, join ChannelAdvisor's webinar taking place January 19, 2010 at 2:00 pm ET. If you can't make it, the webinar will be archived at www.channeladvisor.com/webinars.