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:
