Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies

Facebook: the most unexpected new retail channel

Facebook this week announced Platform, branded as a way to "build applications the way Facebook does" -- and with the same level of deep integration and mass distribution opportunities.

Why should you care? 

The other catch to this announcement is that companies will be able to retain 100% of any revenue generated as a result of developing, integrating and distributing a Facebook App.

What's a Facebook App?  What can you do with it? Better yet, who's doing it?  Here are some examples:

• Glimpse.com: lets Facebook users "express" fashion choices through the products they own or want and sharing them with friends.  Think of Amazon's wishlist projected out to everyone with whom you're connected.  Everytime you update your list, Facebook tells your friends.  All items you like are published to your profile, and you can purchase them at Glimpse.
• Amazon.com: Facebook users can write and display book reviews of Amazon-held books on their profile pages, which can then be followed to the retailer's site through a "buy at Amazon" button.  This is a rudimentary application and Amazon says there are more on the way.
• iLike.com: scans a user's profile and figures out what music he likes, then recommends and alerts the user about new music, what their friends like and when the bands are coming near them on tour

So here's a quick equation:
24MM immensely active, passionate and connected members + a direct channel + 100% revenue take potential = the ultimate marketplace

I will even go to an extreme and say that Facebook just established itself as a new retail channel.  Think about it:

• Facebook is growing at 3% per month, adding 100,000 new users daily
• passed eBay in pageviews at 40 billion per month and is the 6th most trafficked site
• 50% of college females call Facebook is their #1 most important Web site
• the fastest growing segment on Facebook is over age 25

All this opportunity, and you can keep 100% of your revenues?  This is a no-brainer.

This is where people are going to hang out on the Web. It is happening now, and you as merchants and businesspeople can take advantage of it.

So instead of forcing people to come to you, why not go to them (to paraphrase Meg Whitman of eBay)?

Meet the Engines

It's just a day of great news!

I wanted to let you all know about "Meet the Engines," a new webinar series for merchants who want to increase their products' visibility on CSEs and search engines. 

So who's coming?  In each webinar, you'll hear:

• Reps from CSEs and search engines on how to be more successful at getting qualified leads and conversions
• CSE and search engine experts at ChannelAdvisor

Interested? Click here to register for all seven at once.

Here's a general idea of what you get:

• An overview of each engine
• Each engine's selling benefits
• The best ways to get visibility
• Tips and best practices for success
• and the secret sauce...tips and exclusive info from ChannelAdvisor experts

The series covers MSN Search, Google Product Search, TheFind.com, Google Search, Shopping.com, Yahoo! Search and Pricegrabber.com.  It happens once a month, so be sure to mark these dates on your calendar:

• MSN Search – Wednesday, May 30, 2 p.m.       
• Google Product Search – Wednesday, June  27, 2 p.m.       
• TheFind.com – Wednesday, July 11, 2 p.m.       
• Google Search – Wednesday, July 25, 2 p.m.       
• Shopping.com – Tuesday, July 31, 2 p.m.       
• Yahoo! Search – Wednesday, August 15,  2 p.m.
• UPDATED: Jellyfish – Wednesday, August 29,  2 p.m.   
• Pricegrabber.com – Wednesday,  September 5, 2 p.m.

Interested? Don't forget to register.

ShoppingAdvisor Launches

Today ChannelAdvisor launched ShoppingAdvisor -- a product that simplifies selling  products across the leading comparison shopping engines.   

Here's what I see the main benefits to be:

• Improve data quality and do things like run promotions without having to get IT involved
• Get a quick high-level view of feed status, progress, performance
• Syndicate content to multiple shopping engines at once (formatted automatically for you!)
• Higher product relevance by mapping your categories to the site's categories
• Ability to track purchases made through Google Checkout (this is only of the few products that can do this)
• Employ search engine analytics to find out the best keywords to use for your products -- helping your customers find your products early and often

Another great thing about ShoppingAdvisor is automated bid management (ABM).

ABM, for the uninitiated, is a fancy way to describe removing or promoting products based on performance.  In a word, this means profits. 

Are you interested?  Do you want to learn more?  Click here to download the official information packet, or drop me a line.

This is a huge announcement and I know many of the people who worked hard to make this happen.  Congratulations to the ShoppingAdvisor team!!

Is "distributed shopping" the future?

I know I've covered Mpire quite a bit in my last two entries, but during my research I stumbled upon their "Distributed Shopping Network" (DSN).

Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first CSE I've seen to really product-ize / consumerize a white-label CSE employing their backend, analytics and partnerships - being virtually instantly deployable and tailored to a site's identity.

I also imagine that a site could restrict the shopping experience to just a few or even one categories, such as this sample kitchen store shows.

This is a great complement to any lightweight site trying to make a buck, or a content site looking to "turn on" a revenue model without much effort. 

I believe this is the future, and while I know this is being done by the other CSEs, I think Mpire's vision is to ease the pains of white-label adoption and get their engine out there in as many ways as it can.

New CSE widget reviews

In my last post, I highlighted what I thought to be the value and worth of deploying a widget for a CSE.  For this post I want to look at two of the latest widget releases by Shop and Mpire.

As a quick clarification, there are two primary types of widgets: desktop and Web-based.  A desktop widget typically requires a platform to exist (Yahoo! Widgets, Mac OS X Dashboard, whatever).  Web-based widgets live on a Web site -- blog, social network, personal page.

Shop's offering is based solely on the Y! Widgets platform, which must be downloaded before you can even get a peek at the widget.  This is a fairly large barrier for people who aren't Web-savvy or comfortable with downloading / installing programs.  Plus, it effectively eliminates Mac users from their potential market since Dashboard is superior to Y! Widgets.

As for functionality, it's essentially a mini Shop search engine, sortable by department.  A click takes you to the product page.  Simple as that. 

Recommendations: bring the OneCart functionality up into the widget, make adding items to the cart similar to checking boxes and let a user buy something right in the widget itself.

Mpire's widget offerings are Web-based, and, I believe, the most robust of any shopping widgets I've yet seen, especially next to ThisNext's Shopcast.

Anyone can throw an Mpire widget on their site.   What makes them different than a simple mini search engine is a grouping of data that's dynamic, interesting and sticky.  They'll pull price trends, popular products and top searches.

Clickthroughs, according to Mpire's CEO, were apparently 5 percent higher than Google AdSense ads.  The value to the site owner is that they get to keep 100% of affiliate revenues from Amazon or eBay.

Where Shop is intending to increase entrenchment amongst its current user base, I believe Mpire is focused on a distribution strategy intended to increase exposure.

What do you think -- would you use any of these widgets?

Written by Scott Hurff.
Contact me at scott.hurff (at) channeladvisor (dot) com.

Attack of the Widgets!

Desktop beware...widgets are in the air!

Alright, enough cliches and stupid rhymes.  The point is that "official," branded widgets are starting to sprout from major CSEs offering functionality above and beyond simple search capabilities.

How does this affect both buyers and sellers?  And what does the future hold?

There are two common themes here: exposure and entrenchment.

Let's start with exposure.

Widgets by nature are meant to be distributed forms of marketing and functionality -- a platform for awareness, value and consumption.  When executed well, they can spread your content and brand to millions, provide a practically free distribution channel and segment your core product into smaller, bite-size mini products suited for highly-specialized needs.

The CSEs that released widgets over the past two weeks (Shop, Mpire and even eBay released one) are clearly seeking an early toehold into this "new-fangled" distro channel.  A good soundbite for this trend can be found in the words of eBay's Meg Whitman -- “If people don’t come to eBay, we will bring eBay to them."   I'm sure the  CSEs see it the same way.

These widgets hold the potential to strengthen the exposure of these engines and extend their reach.  Furthermore, this means that seller's products, ranging from the big boxes to the start-uppy, scrappy SMB operations, have an easier time getting in front of consumers' eyeballs.

Lastly, a widget with Shop / Mpire / eBay branding could convert CSE agnostics to choose a CSE religion.  Some Internet users are playful, but most are  prone to migrate towards the things that provide the most comfort.  Desktop widgets -- or even a widget on a trusted personality's blog -- set a new bar for comfort and trust.  And since most of these CSEs are, in the grand scheme of things, indistinguishable, widgets may give at least an early adoption edge.

So, this much is clear and particularly obvious.  In terms of entrenchment, however, I believe that  CSE widgets will tighten the grip around those who already prefer one CSE to another.  If I'm an avid Shop user and have the know-how to download and install a widget, I'll have little incentive now to look anywhere else.  My favorite CSE can be accessed, searched and purchased from right from the comfort of my very own desktop.

This is all theoretical  I'm not completely impressed with the execution of some of these widgets and I'll do an analysis into the specifics in a later entry.  (Preview:  Shop = mediocre; Mpire = very interesting and thought-provoking)

Until next time...

Written by Scott Hurff.
Contact me at scott.hurff (at) channeladvisor (dot) com.

Thank YOU!!!

Last week ChannelAdvisor announced that we raised a round of funding from the top-tier venture capital firm, NEA (New Enterprise Associates).  Why would someone like NEA invest in ChannelAdvisor?  The simple answer is our customers.  At CA we're fortunate to be growing at 65% y/y and the number one reason we are growing so rapidly is our customers. 

At ChannelAdvisor we work day and night to make you successful by providing you the features and functionality in our software that allows you to take advantage of the multi-channel opportunity (marketplaces, search, comparison shopping).  These efforts are really paying off.  We have large clients now that are leveraging CA for all of our services and even smaller players that got their start on eBay successfully evolving their businesses from eBay-only to multi-channel powerhouses.

What are you going to do with all that $?

The most frequently asked question I receive from customers is "what on earth is CA going to do with this level of investment?"  The answer is simple. We have a vision for CA complete and we're closer to that goal than  we've ever been before, but it's a big vision and we're going to use the bulk of this investment to make it a reality.  The good news is while we're considered to be the most aggressive developers in the space, you're going to see a dramatic acceleration in the innovation coming out of CA in the coming months.

So buckle up, hang on to your seats because it's going to be a wild ride! - one we look forward to sharing with our customers.

P.S. I did my first IM Interview with Owen Thomas at B2 last week. I think many of the topics maybe interesting to blog readers.

Shopzilla redesign = hot!

Shopzilla recently unveiled a new index page design, and I must say...I'm impressed.

It's a no-BS, simple, clean page centering around a search box. 

This probably reflects the fact that as more shoppers move to online purchasing, they're increasingly using the major search engines as a way to locate what they want.

It's a natural extension for CSEs to capitalize on this.  Give the people the tools they want to use to find their stuff.

Shopzilla's home page execution is impressive and it's a good balance between the browse vs. search function with the category tabs on the right-hand side.

As for the "top 10 searches" below the search box, the list looks too "manufactured" -- almost too proper.  It's odd to explain but I like it when searches are displayed in lowercase and some wacky terms are in the top 10 to prove that this is indeed a real, live search tabulation.

I'm a fan of this approach.  It's definitely more of a move towards theFind's approach.

What's next?

Written by Scott Hurff.
Contact me at scott.hurff (at) channeladvisor (dot) com.

Which CSE should benefit from your Mother's Day purchase?

You remembered, right? 

Mother's Day.  May 13. 

I took a look at the major CSEs that made special efforts to build mini Mother's Day stores — these engines clearly hope to up the ante and capture a bigger chunk of the estimated $11.5 billion that consumers spend on the leadup to the big day.

Here's a quick breakdown of selected mom-friendly CSEs:

• Shop.com — good, obvious promo on the front page and I like how they break out items by personality or profile and not just on price.  Some examples: "Gifts for Fashionista Moms," "Gifts for Gourmet Moms."  Beyond that, execution isn't impressive.  Items appear in pop-ups, but you have to jump through an obscure intermediary screen.  Once you get to the list of items, you can only add all or nothing.  Makes no sense to me.
• TheFind — Subtle and tasteful promo on the front page.  Stylish compilation pages and good concentration on food vs. clothing and other goods.  Once you click on an item, TheFind directs you to their standard comparison shopping grid treatment (which I believe is executed extremely well).  Humorous headlines, too ("Support Her Social Drinking"...they should have a keg or something).  Overall, I believe this effort seems seamless and is very well done.
• Bizrate — Nice product mix (Bluetooth headsets and earrings in one place) and simple, straightforward presentation.  A clickthrough yields the typical CSE experience.  I think Bizrate executed well on bringing attention to the "special" store with a pink "Mother's Day" nav button.
• Shopzilla — Same pink button stickout as Bizrate.  Again, simple and effective.  Shopzilla pulls it together better, I think, with their product categories.  Ooh, and they offer the "Ex Voodoo Knife Set."  Um...I'm sold.
• Pricegrabber — Continuing with the lovely pink color scheme, but you're lead there by PG's stylized category button on the right nav pane.  I don't really see anything special here, though and it's pretty text / promo heavy. 

It's obvious which engines put forth a little bit of an extra effort by putting some thought and resources behind a Mother's Day feature.  In the end, it's a fairly simple exercise...probably culminating in selecting the highest-converting products for women.  But anyone can do this, and that's why I give TheFind the top spot for best Mother's Day feature.  Shopzilla takes the second slot.

I think it comes down to copywriting and creativity.  Again, anyone can throw together a list of products. 

It's a lost opportunity for a CSE if a Mother's Day experience is lackluster.  Think about the droves of family members and spouses coming across these sites for the first time.  The CSE that makes things simple and fun will reap future benefits.  How do you want your shopping experience remembered?

If I missed any, then drop them in the comments with your own analysis / opinion.

Written by Scott Hurff.
Contact me at scott.hurff (at) channeladvisor (dot) com.

Take a ride in my shiny new cart

Shop.com — pastel CSE, video game, or both?

I'd say both.  Just last week Shop redesigned with a lovely new color scheme, moving away from its higher-contrast red & grey accenting to an array of pastels (I hear taupe is very soothing). 

Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, the language has been updated to be more snappy, stylized and engaging.  In other words, it's got some personality.

This is a positive shift away and a differentiator from shopping.com, bizrate, shopbig and AOL / MSN / Yahoo! Shopping, and clearly targets women (who comprise 63 percent of all online sales).  It makes sense to me.  And taupe is soothing.

Shop also sports a new way to engage customers — a "Price is Right"-style game where you try to drop products into a shopping cart to match a certain dollar total.  The catch is that you don't know the dollar value of the items. 

"Cart Me Away" looks like something out of an Old Navy commercial, and again, appeals to women.  Example: "Think of it as Sex & the City meets The Price is Right. Only this time it’s your story. Cart Me Away is a new kind of game that puts you into intriguing scenarios and chic locales." 

Shop's slight realignment places  it in the same  general realm as other CSEs going after the female-dominated online shopping base.  Like.com, Glimpse, endless and others are targeting this space.  Shop just does it with a little more style and attitude than the others, clearly seeking to distinguish itself with the "Cart Me Away" game where Like has visual shopping, Glimpse has celebrity shopping profiles, and endless has...shoes.

Written by Scott Hurff
Contact him at scott.hurff (at) channeladvisor (d0t) com.