Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies

Two new CSEs on the block

What do a former eToys co-founder and a merchandising company have in common?

They both just launched new CSEs.

Frank Han, formerly of eToys, launched Glimpse yesterday.  Glimpse targets women in their 20s and 30s who don't care about bargain shopping and want to browse by styles worn by well-known celebrities.  Women can also browse by designer, "featured stores" and "hot trends."

Now I'm no women's fashionista, but a quick test with a female friend of mine got the "thumbs up" test.  In fact, I think she's going back to shop on the site.  I should get a commission.

Her single critique was that the index's body looked cluttered.  I agree.

Glimpse competes directly with Like (also targeting women in this demographic) and Amazon's Endless -- but this property only focuses on shoes.

Whatsbuzzing.com, a site recently launched by parent company Kriyari, uses technology that brings shoppers directly to  a merchant's storefront. 

In theory it makes sense.  On the technical side, all you have to do is provide an iFrame or something directly to the  merchant's product page.  This eliminates feeds and the delays encountered there.  And shoppers who have affinities for retail brands essentially get a dashboard of their favorite stores in which to browse.

But WB's execution needs improvement.  I should be taken DIRECTLY to the product page, not a page that lists a dozen other categories and mentions my product once below the fold.  This happened to me quite often while browsing for an iPod -- I can't tell you how many times I saw digital cameras and camcorders where Apple's lovely product should have been.

Like.com clicks grew 9.5X

In his "life of a startup" blog, recognizing Devon, Munjal Shah, CEO of Like.com talks about how they have used A/B testing to figure out the various levers that are driving clicks to advertisers at Like.com.
According to the post, Like.com is driving 9.5x as many clicks now since the beginning of the year.  The big question is what is the base?

I also noticed they have a Mother's day buyer's guide up.

Major CSE product analysis

I'm impressed by Search Engine Land's analysis of the major CSEs and how their user experiences add up.

Yahoo! Shopping, MSN Shopping and the "CSE formerly known as Froogle" are profiled by Gord Hotchkiss, CEO of search marketing firm Enquiro.

Key findings:

• Most of the shopping engines distract away from natural shopping results with advertisements, featured stores or sponsored listings (a major "faux pas," as Hotchkiss describes)
• Amongst the "big three," the browsing / searching tools just aren't up to part with some of the "independent" properties (I'd add that sites like TheFind, Become, and Jellyfish knock these sites out of the park)
• Yahoo! Shopping scores the highest in terms of product spec readability, sorting and navigation -- but screws it up by slapping too many sponsored listings up top

One aside: while playing with Google Product Search (GPS), I noticed that while performing a search, I can't break down to a specific product (JUST xbox 360 consoles) and sort by price.  I can only sort by relevance OR price underneath a search that may generate hundreds of extraneous results.  Furthermore, GPS won't let me sort by geographical location like Froogle did.

Anyway, an interesting look and I encourage you to take a peek.
 

myTriggers wants you to shop it big

Yesterday myTriggers launched what they brand a "streamlined" new site called ShopBIG -- the latest CSE on the block.  Furthermore, new merchants  CD Universe, Target,  Ace Hardware and others were added to their feeds.

What's new and different from myTriggers?  ShopBIG adds tax / shipping calcs, item previews, product specs and reviews, all beneath an improved search engine.

I think the site looks too bland.  It's uninviting, overly texty and reads like a stylized version of Yahoo! circa 2001.  Clutter on the index and search pages are also a distraction.

Yet what does add value is how this no-frills approach gets me to the product I want via the path of least resistance.  And once I'm there, I can see consolidated reviews across participating sites (or those that were scraped) and calc shipping right after I enter my zip code.

The on-site search engine usually pulls in what I want within the first 5-8 results; it also sports a subtle suggest feature which wasn't always that accurate.  Related searches are displayed next to the search box, but also need some work.

The big question in my mind is why myTriggers launched another CSE.  Here are a few ideas:

• Experimentation / entrance into a CPC model to improve ad revenue (myTriggers is a CPA model)
• Property diversification to funnel natural searches  (they also own ShopforWii.com, ShopforElmo.com, FindPlaystation.com)
• Appeal to more Web-savvy consumers who know exactly what they want, understand how to navigate Web sites, can deal with text clutter (and perhaps enjoy it), and don't want to be thrown huge product feature images
• Partner unease  with the progressive myTriggers model and a move towards a more traditional CSE site to attract larger merchants
• A place to experiment away from the main property

So, there you have it.  Let's continue the discussion via comments.

Adios to Froogle - Google makes major CSE changes...

Tonight, Google said good bye to Froogle and changed its product search functionality to be called "Google Product Search".  I think this makes a lot of sense.  Froogle was the only Google consumer search-oriented offering that has had its own destination outside of Google's onebox.  This move places the Google CSE functionality squarely where it belongs - in onebox.  The legacy froogle.google.com now redirects to www.google.com/products.

Google Product Search's product information is pulled directly out of Google Base. 

There are a couple of tweaks to note such as the ability to restrict product search results to those that take Google Checkout and the UI has changed somewhat (sort by price is at the bottom vs. top now for example).

CNET has a good interview with Marissa that details why they are making these moves.

Shopping.com results from eBay results today

During eBay's conference call today, Meg had a blurb about shopping.com and talked a little smack about Shopzilla:

"Shopping.com also had a great quarter. Globally, Shopping delivered 29% year-over-year growth in Q1 and according to the March comScore data, the Shopping.com network continues to lead the category in unique visitors. Traffic growth in the U.S. was 10% up year over year, significantly outpacing the nearest competitor."

I need to dig into what's going on at 'Zilla these days, I'm hearing lots of industry buzz that Scripps put the Kibosh on all their paid-search spend and their traffic numbers are plummeting.  The difference of opinions on the topic is rumored to have been what caused the 'Zilla founders to hit the doors.

Have any good info about this? - shoot me a note.

Introducing fresh blood

I'm posting here to introduce myself -- call me the new kid on the block.

As confusing as it may be, I'm Scott Hurff (note: one more 't' than Mr. Wingo, the "Senior Poster" here) and I'll be contributing here on the CSE 2.0 blog periodically.  So be prepared for a storm of Scot(t)s!

I just joined ChannelAdvisor (April 2 to be exact) and I'll be working in CA Labs, an internal incubator of sorts for fresh and innovative ideas within the company.  Before ChannelAdvisor, I was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Kodiak Venture Partners in Boston for six months working on "Yahoo Groups 3.0" called Groupvine.  I'm from Ohio, am a Buckeyes fan and went to Wake Forest.  Yay!

I'm eager to start digging into the world of CSEs and starting both fun and meaningful conversations with all of you.  Email me at scott.hurff (at) channeladvisor (dot) com if you'd like to chat.

Thanks!

Is Google going to start clamping down on CSE spend?

Today at Search Engine Strategies,  an angry SEM cornered Google's ad quality PM, Nick Fox, about CSEs and their use of arbitrage techniques.  Essentially arguing that CSEs are nothing but glorified affiliate arbitragers.  Nick hints they are working with CSEs on the problem.

I think what he's referencing is that on occasion you'll see a CSE buy a non-ecommerce term and then pump it through AdSense. 

The interaction between Google/Yahoo! and CSEs is going to continue to be an area to keep an eye on in 2007.