Comparison Shopping Data Feeds

Optimized Shopping Feeds, Product Placement and Reach

You’ve probably heard of PPC (pay per click) advertising campaigns including Google AdWords. But, what you may not realize is there are similar sites for your eCommerce products. These sites are called ‘Comparison Shopping Engines’ (also known as CSE, price engine, or price comparison service). Paid shopping feeds work similarly to PPC advertising sites, except you pay when the shopper clicks on your product and is taken to your eCommerce store. Some sites specialize in different categories but many operate in a similar fashion. Free shopping feeds, such as Google Shopping, do not charge any fees for listing your products and with Google Shopping, your products are displayed amongst the organic search results as well as at your Google store.

The idea of using paid shopping feeds is to only pay for targeted leads. The shoppers browse the Comparison Shopping sites and are taken to your eCommerce store when their needs are satisfied within the search results. Targeted leads increase conversion rates as the shopper is directly linked to the exact product they were looking for. There are a variety of ways that shopping sites make money, but the most common is CPC (cost per click).

Automated Nightly Free Google Shopping Feed

Some Benefits of showcasing your product on Comparison Shopping Feeds include:

Included in WSM™ – In order to optimize your success as an eCommerce merchant, WSM™ features an automated eCommerce Shopping Feed which on a nightly basis will automatically update your product listings on Google Base Shopping (formerly Froogle). Your integrated shopping feeds are also available for use on other paid or free comparison shopping engines such as Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com, BizRate, Shop.com, PriceGrabber.com, Shopzilla, NexTag and many others.
Improved Reach – When you post products to your eCommerce site the hard work has been done. The photos have been edited, the cost of shipping has been calculated and then it just sits there, waiting for a site visit. Comparison Shopping sites allow your product to be viewed side by side with like items utilizing their huge volume of traffic.
Increased Sales – Matching search items to products eliminates the site browsers and will lead to higher conversion rates. Many Comparison Shopping sites allow inclusion of reviews, and coupons.
Warm Leads - People on shopping sites are not researching or browsing, they are ready to buy and just looking for the right price to pull the trigger on a purchase. Quickly moving people through the sales process and leaving more money in your pocket.

Automated Shopping Data Feeds

Typically, shopping feeds are manually updated every time a product attribute is modified such as, price, color, description, etc. There is a more effective alternative to the cumbersome task of manual importing, that’s the good news. WSM™ has developed a eCommerce shopping feed solution that will automatically create, manage and upload nightly the most current product listings via a customized data feed to Comparison Shopping site Google Product Search. Taking advantage of automated free shopping data feeds will allow you to:

Increase visibility in organic search results that include Shopping Results
Capitalize on huge volumes of daily site visitors
Maintain up-to-date product listings
Save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on manual updating

Google Product Search (Google Shopping)

Google Product Search – Formerly known as Froogle and sometimes referred to as Google Shopping, is the shopping comparison engine powered by Google. This shopping site is funded by paid advertisements. Therefore, it is free to list products for the sellers. There is less emphasis on product information and reviews than other sites. Think the power of Google meets comparison shopping site and it happens to be one of the few free shopping feeds.

Google Product Search can be linked to Google Analytics for further analysis of product listings

Automated Free Google Shopping Feed

Easy Product Export

WSM™ provides a universal CSV (comma separated value) product export that will allow you to populate product information into many other Comparison Shopping sites using their free data feeds. This empowers you with control over which product attributes are uploaded. Customized export files make it a cinch to optimize your product listings.

Customized Product Exports with Detailed Product Fields

Based on traffic data obtained from compete.com these are some of the top comparison shopping sites you should be aware of:

MSN Shopper (now Bing.com/shopping)

Bing.com/shopping is a price comparison site offering expert product reviews and direct control over how your products are listed on the site. Bing.com has organized their site in a way that the sellers can control how much of a rebate they want to give their customers as an incentive to purchase from them on Bing.com. This program is called ‘Bing cashback’.

Pronto

Pronto promotes itself as ‘the largest social shopping site on the web’. The Pronto Merchant Solutions program is a CPC program and your account is deducted once a user clicks on your product and is taken to your site. The account is funded by the seller and is automatically debited when the click occurs.

Thefind.com

Thefind.com allows merchants to register their site for free using the “UpFront” program. UpFront then generates a button to be imbedded in the product listings so that detailed information about the merchant can be displayed in the same window. Their theory is that this additional on page information (being UpFront with their users) will simplify the shopping process and lead to more conversions.

Yahoo! Shopping

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions allows merchants to bid the amount they are willing to pay for clicks. You can bid different amounts in different categories, and pay when a lead is delivered to your site.

BizRate.com

BizRate is a price comparison service (for just about anything) which is part of Shopzilla, Inc. “One of the largest and most comprehensive online shopping networks on the web.” They are a cost-per-click program designed for eCommerce sites. BizRate also operates a consumer feedback network collecting consumer reviews of stores and products.

NexTag – nextag.com

NexTag also packs a powerful punch in the world of Comparison Shopping. This site allows merchants to list for free. However, “the more you pay the higher your potential for incremental volume and leads.” Comparisons include products, financial services, travel, automobiles, and education.

Shopzilla.com

Shopzilla is in the same network of sites as BizRate and when you update one site you update both. Shopzilla.com customers are given the chance to leave comments about their experience which is a benefit to those with great customer service.

PriceGrabber.com

Another CPC Comparison Shopping site that boasts merchants both small and big that include: Best Buy, Office Deport and Wal-Mart.

Smarter.com

Merchants have real time control over which products are online. This is another bid based Comparison Shopping site with a minimum CPC price of $0.15. Smarter.com uses paid and natural search to get traffic to the site.

CoolSavings.com

Affiliated with PriceGrabber.com, this comparison shopping site also has a large coupon component.

ShopLocal.com

Shoppers browse based on location. They also use demographic knowledge to target their advertising. It works as a weekly sale circular that can be accessed anytime.

Digital Performance Inc. digitalperformance.com

Digital Performance Inc. is automotive aftermarket specific. The more specific the target market is the better the leads. Yes, please! DPI has created a data standard that allows consumers to find the perfect fit for their vehicles by matching year, make and model to parts and accessories.

ShopMania – shopmania.com

Besides Google Product Search, ShopMania is the only other free to post Comparison Shopping Engine website out there.

Amazon Marketplace

Sellers can sell their merchandise (both new and used) along side Amazon’s products. You only pay fees when an item sells.

Relevant Shoppers Mean Increased Conversions

When your product listing matches a shopper’s search term they will be directed to your merchandise. Then the shopper simply clicks on the listing to be taken directly to your store. But, consider that it may not always be the lowest price that the consumer is looking for. They may be willing to pay more for your items if your eCommerce site has: