ChannelAdvisor

RIP Nahum Sharfman, Founder of Shopping.com

TechCrunch is one of several outlets reporting the untimely death of Nahum Sharfman, founder of Shopping.com, and his wife, Nava.

Condolences to the friends and family of Mr. and Mrs. Sharfman and the entire Shopping.com team in this sad hour.

Google Product Search Mobile

Google just announced that Product Search listings are now available on iPhones and smartphones that use Google's Android mobile operating system. I guess lowly Blackberry users like myself will have to wait a bit to take advantage of this.

There is an feeling of deja vu around this announcement since back in 2005, Google rolled out Froogle mobile. Updated technology for sure, but with pretty much the same impact.

There are other comparison shopping services with a mobile focus, such as Frugalytics, Frucall, and Pongr. Frugalytics is a pretty straight-foward CSE experience, but with pages designed for easy mobile browsing. Frucall has some interesting additional features for users, such as phone and SMS options, as well as price alert and "tell a friend" functions. Pongr has a downloadable app for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, as well as SMS and email communication options.

Despite the nice features of some of these sites, it's hard to think Google doesn't have an edge in terms of getting traction, even with the current limited support. Since BlackBerry has support for many Google mobile features and is a popular phone choice, it's seems likely that it will be long before the berry version becomes available.

Anyone want to place bets as to how long before we see a Cashback for Windows Mobile?

Shopzilla CPC Rate Changes

Shopzilla announced today via an email from VP of Sales, Beth Sterling, a new rate card effective April 28th that includes significant CPC drops in some categories. This is the second major site to drop CPC rates this year, starting with Shopping.com in February. See the new rate card here:

http://merchant.shopzilla.com/oa/resources/us/updated_rate_card.pdf

With the economy as it is, average order values and conversion rates have been suffering lately, resulting in tough times and tough decisions for retailers. It looks like the changes were focused on technology products, with significant drops for laptops, desktops and digital cameras. Apparel/shoes/accessories and Home & Garden appear to have seen no change. Though I recognize merchants in technology categories are hurting right now, I do think merchants in other categories could use some relief as well.

As I mentioned when Shopping.com announced their changes, it is very refreshing to see a major CSE such as Shopzilla not only take notice but take action. Kudos to Beth and her team for making these changes.

One important thing to note here. In order to take advantage of the lower CPCs, you will need to go into the Shopzilla merchant interface and lower the bids manually. From the email:

"To take advantage of these changes, please log in to the bidding tool via the Shopzilla Business Services site. We will not automatically place or change bids on your behalf."

Return of the...Feed Doctor

I know, I know, you were probably expecting some obvious Star Wars reference. Well, don't be disappointed...

...because the Feed Doctor is back, and over at the ChannelAdvisor Blog he's written a little preview of a fantastic new business rule that both extracts pre-set elements from a list and strips out particular characters.

But he says it better than I ever will. Go check out "The Feed Doctor Returns" at the ChannelAdvisor Blog.

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

The New AOL Shopping is Hungry for Data Feeds

There have been several reports recently about AOL Shopping's site changes and new recession-friendly features. We noticed traffic increases from AOL's new focus on coupons (which like their product listings is powered by PriceGrabber) about a month ago, but it wasn't until the last week or so where we began to understand the impact AOL's changes will have on merchants going forward.

In addition to the site changes, AOL is launching a new program that involves accepting direct feeds from merchants. This data will only power their new storefronts like this one and not the search results (still powered by PriceGrabber), but it is pretty clear this is an opportunity for additional exposure that all merchants should investigate. Pricing is CPC. ChannelAdvisor will be supporting this new opportunity soon.

In addition, since the AOL coupon area is driving more traffic be sure your PriceGrabber coupon URLs have tracking on them so you can see the activity associated with such clicks. They are subject to CPC rates just like product listings themselves.