Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies

TheFind: now with better local search data

I covered TheFind's move into local product search back in mid-December, a move that enabled shoppers to find products at local stores and to go pick them up.  These results were included at the top of search results in tabs -- also enabling shoppers to "virtually" shop on Madison Ave, Rodeo Drive, or take a peek at boutique offerings. I mentioned Krillion as one of TheFind's competitors.

Today TheFind announced a partnership with Krillion, a provider of local product availability data.  This effectively expands TheFind's capability to pinpoint exactly where one can pick up, say, that 52" Sharp Aquos without paying shipping charges while finding the best price.

TheFind was previously crawling this data and says that 86% of shoppers search online and buy offline.

written by Scott Hurff -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor.com

Are you in?

If you're not registered for ChannelAdvisor Catalyst yet, then you definitely should be.

Catalyst takes place in beautiful Pinehurst, NC after the holiday selling season has passed and retailers can actually come up for air.  It's a great time to assess selling strategies -- new and old for retailers large and small. 

Catalyst is perhaps one of the best places to get educated about multichannel selling from the people who are making the decisions at the Internet's most influential properties.

And guess what? You get to attend with hundreds of other sellers, and, of course, your humble ChannelAdvisor friends.

Here's the speaker lineup we announced today, in alphabetical order:

• Amazon - Sebastian Gunningham, SVP Merchant Services will be talking about the various third-party options that Amazon is offering including of course Merchants@, but also fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and ProductAds.  Sebastian is essentially the CEO of Amazon's third party business so this is going to be something not to be missed if Amazon is at all part of your strategy or something you want to learn more about.
• eBay - We have Stephanie Tilenius, GM of eBay NA, John Mracek from  Shopping.com and finally Mary Anne Gillespie, VP of Paypal coming to talk about all the changes and opportunities within the eBay marketplaces+payments family.
• Facebook - Ben Ling who runs Facebook's platform team will be here to talk about the opportunities there for merchants.
• Google - Vince Monical, Director of commerce and analytics will be talking about Google's long-tail strategy.
• Nike - One of the World's largest brands, Nike, will be covered by Chris Shimojima, VP of global ecommerce.  Chris will be talking about how the Nike brand is evolving and how they leverage it in the world of ecommerce.

This is only a sampling, and, of course, there are always great surprises -- you should definitely register here if you haven't already!

We expect to have twice the attendence of last year and have limited capacity so there's a good chance we'll have to cut off registrations early on, so get in while you can. 

Maybe we can finally meet in person, because I'll be there!

Written by Scott Hurff -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor

HealthPricer wants to own the health space

As more health-related information and access to products moves to online channels, the space will continue to consolidate around existing leaders.

But in one health-related space, there's no clear competition for HealthPricer, a CSE that specializes in offering everything from drugs to vitamins to beauty products and supplements.

The CSE just announced a partnership with Healthline, a health content site, to power an embedded marketplace for health products.  This should drive some welcome traffic -- Healthline's reach is about 2.5mm uniques / month, whereas HealthPricer drives about 50k  /month 150,000 uniques / month (based on HealthPricer company data), based on Compete data.

Versus mainstream CSEs, HealthPricer stacks up well in offering rich health data, relating ingredients across products, and figuring out volume pricing deals to tell you what the best deal is if you buy in bulk.

Overall, I'm impressed with HealthPricer's UI and logic in separating out relevant data to make informed purchasing decisions.  If you're a merchant who sells health products, check them out here.

Watch their DEMO 2008 presentation below:

Written by Scott Hurff -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor

Two Ciao updates

Two quick but important updates to Friday's Ciao post:

1. ChannelAdvisor is now live with our Ciao integration!  That means that merchants can now post to Ciao through our software.
2. The link for Ciao's merchant signup page is now updated with US information:  http://www.ciao-group.com/?id=media_merchant_signup

Questions? Write scott.hurff at channeladvisor dot com

Ciao US launches

I spoke yesterday with Markus Rottmaier, Head of Sales International for Ciao, which officially debuted in the United States yesterday.

The EU-based CSE is one of the biggest players in the market, with presence in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

While Markus acknowledges that the US market is the most crowded and competitive one, he still thinks there's space to innovate and extend Ciao's already successful model.  So what makes Ciao different?

"Our main focus is on the user. We provide them with all the information they need before clicking through to a merchant's product page.  The target audience is someone who's in the middle of the buying process.  Typically, we've found that customer-written recommendations are the most useful in accelerating the decision process -- and deliver increased conversion rates for merchants." 

Ciao encourages user-to-user conversations and also pays the  most valuable contributors.

The strategy has worked in Europe, where Ciao's conversion rates tend to be higher than its competition. Plus, it's one strategy also recently employed by Become and Pronto, both of which have seen massive traffic increases (1000%+) since releasing social features in the same spirit.

"We see ourselves more as a shopping community than a pure price comparison site."

Ciao's staying away from more traditional ad buys and relying most heavily on the site's content to drive natural searches.

By the way -- merchants who sign up now can get three months worth of clicks and traffic free. After the trial it's a CPC model with no bidding -- the cheapest price comes first.

The CSE was bought by Greenfield, a CT-based company in 2005. Ciao generated $34mm in 2007.

Stay tuned for ChannelAdvisor announcements about Ciao support!

 

Written by Scott Hurff -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor dot com

Amazon Product Ads begins rollout

Back in July, I mentioned a job posting over at Amazon about Product Ads, a previously-unknown program having something to do with "a new cost-per-click advertising channel."  Now it looks like this program has rolled out based upon email marketing performed by Amazon, as well as some early examples in Consumer Electronics, Home & Garden, Tools Toys and Kids & Babies categories.

Here's how the flow works:

• Merchant uploads product catalog
• Customers perform searches on Amazon.com, where the merchant's products appear in search results next to Amazon products (also known as "the product ad")
• Customers may click on the product ad, which takes the user to Amazon's product page presentation, which links directly to the merchant's OWN product page
• The merchant is charged on a CPC basis
• The merchant keeps all transaction revenue from the referral, minus CPC costs

Check out an example search here. Notice the "Available at external website" footer label on each "product ad."

So, what does this accomplish? It brings visibility to third-party merchants up one layer into the search results themselves.  Previously, as we all know, merchants could only be seen once a user clicked onto a product page. Now, third-party merchants can compete directly within Amazon's search results, depending on the product and category.

This will probably benefit merchants who sell more unique items, but the data will always tell the truth.

Anyone out there enrolled as a beta in the program?  Talk to me! scott.hurff at channeladvisor dot com

Thanks to Max & Brian for some information.

ChannelAdvisor ADC launched -- and we want you to come see it!

Our good friend Tank Stikman will be around to say hello if you come out to ChannelAdvisor's Agile Development Center, or ADC.

For around nine months we've shifted away from developing our products in the traditional "waterfall" method to an Agile / Scrum approach.  This means we're now releasing product updates every 30 days or so -- which also means that our products can better reflect what customers really want.

The ADC is in the building next door to 2701 Aerial Pkwy, ChannelAdvisor HQ, and we've outfit the new space in a way that encourages and fosters the Scrum methodology.

You're invited
If you're in the RTP area, come to our open house next Tuesday (Feb 12) and we'll show you the sights!  Rumor has it there are awesome door prizes like an iPod Touch or a Wii...

ChannelAdvisor is really looking to ramp up the size of our engineering team, so definitely come if you're engineering-inclined -- and invite your friends, too!

RSVP here: http://www.channeladvisor.com/openhouse/

Send questions to Scott -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor dot com