A to Z of Comparison Shopping Engines, by Michael Lambert of MerchantAdvantage

#MonCon

MonCon EAST | May 18–20, 2012

#MonCon

A to Z
of CSE
Marketing

Presented by Michael Lambert
CTO-Founder
MerchantAdvantage
@caseycarey


#MonCon

CSE Overview
Selecting Channels &
Products
Building Data Feeds
today’s
Tips for Achieving
AGENDA Higher Exposure
Q&A


CSE Overview #MonCon

What do We Know Today? - Some Statistics*

~50% of online shopping decisions
influenced by “shopping destination
sites/marketing channels”
~80% of eCommerce marketing
campaigns that drive sales come from
SEO/SEM; Marketplaces; and PPC
Product Advertising
~5% of eCommerce marketing is now
driven by mobile commerce
(“mCommerce”)

* Reflects generally accepted statistics averaged from various resources as:
CPC Strategy, Forrester Research, Internet Retailer, MerchantAdvantage, and
Practical eCommerce



Online Shopping Channels, Affiliates, and Other eCommerce Sites Reach Millions
of Shoppers Everyday



There are 100+ eCommerce Channels from which to choose
Each channel varies in their offerings by click costs, target demographic, product categories and
other parameters. Selecting the correct channel to add or remove is vital and should be based
on your marketing strategies.



Online Shopping Channels Expand Reach and Expose Brand
There are 3 main categories of shopping channels:

Free…

Pay Per Action (PPA)/
Marketplace…

Pay Per Click (PPC)...



Why Do Shoppers Use Marketing Channels?*

Price - 94% of online shoppers invest time to find the best price for products
Access - 100% of products you want can be found online, instantly
Compare - 65% of online shoppers spend 15+ minutes comparison shopping for products
on Marketing Channels before making a purchase; 36% spend 30+ minutes
Trust - 54% of online shoppers visit 4+ Websites before finalizing purchase
Fun - finding the product you want - at the price you want - is a ‘game’

Conclusion: Marketing Channels ‘greatly’ influence an
online shopper’s experience and purchase decisions

* Reflects generally accepted historical data averaged from various 2010/2011 resources as: CPC Strategy, E-
tailing Group Study, Forrester Research, Internet Retailer, MerchantAdvantage, and Practical eCommerce



Why Do eCommerce Merchants Use Marketing Channels?

Revenues - access to millions of shoppers who spend money to buy products online
Profitability – monetize Return on Ad Spend/ROI and customer acquisition cost
Customer Quality - ~20% of USA online shoppers use Marketing Channels to
purchase products and spend ~25% more than the average online shopper*
Customer Acquisition - customer can be marketed to in the future, repeat business
Customer Awareness - visibility of brand/products on ‘other’ shopping-based URLs
SEO Relevancy - search engines access merchant product listings with frequency

Conclusion: Marketing Channels are an essential to part of an effective, cost-effective,
and comprehensive online marketing strategy to sell products online to grow revenues
and acquire new customers
* Forrester Research



Why Is It Difficult For eCommerce Merchants To Use Marketing Channels?

Resources & Time - no time to manage multi-channel product campaigns without assistance
& tool

Choice/Access - finding “the right” channels to sell products among 200+ is complicated

Support - access to direct help from channel account managers when you need it is limited

Technical Requirements - each channel has their own product data feed
specifications/guidelines
Cost Management - pay-per-click channels require daily monitoring/updating of campaigns

Data Updating - lack automated processes to create/manage data feeds to ensure
performance

Data Quality - options to optimize and map all product details in data feed are
numerous/confusing
ROI/Conversion Management - lack proper tools to track and respond to product marketing
campaigns performance within and across channels, in real time, to ensure profits

Conclusion: Layers of complexity to work with Marketing Channels scares off many merchants …
BUT ‘complexity’ can be a competitive ADVANTAGE when you have the right team and marketing
platform behind you!


Selecting Channels & Products #MonCon

Question: Where should you start?
Start using the free sites which
will allow a less expensive
learning curve and require less
research to choose.

On a free site it makes sense to
simply select all products from your
Catalog making it easy to choose
products.

Answer: Free and Easy?



How should you select Marketing Channels?
Break down Marketing Channel landscape into 5 categories for ease of understanding



Research each
perspective channel
Request any performance
statistics available from the
channel
Request target demographics and
strong categories
Review Cost and any special
offerings
Look for competitors on the
channel

Review your own statistics when available for future involvement



Product & Site Matching
In order to make these channels as profitable as possible, online retailers
need to analyze the performance of each product on the various channels,
and market only the products with the best performance, removing the
products that aren’t converting and only wasting click costs.

Suggestion-
Allow at least 1 week for major product decisions
Allow at least 3 months for major channel decisions



Analyze Performance
Review performance statistics using Chanalytics(sm) and any other
available tools to indicate what changes, if any, should be done within the
product selection or product optimization phases (tips in this presentation).
ChanalyticsReporters
m

Price
Change Check
Category
Remove Check UPC Info

Verify
Verify
Link
Model #



How Do Merchants Monetize Marketing Channel Strategies?
Simply feeding products and catalogs to channels has a low value proposition.
Feeding to channels is a process, and deceptively difficult to do well.

1. Each marketing channel has 2. 25-30% of products given to
their own unique requirements to marketing channel are
receive product catalog data Product & Site miscategorized, or not listed, due
Matching, to mapping issues
Categorization

eCommerce
Optimize Raw Marketing Analyze
Product Data Essential Steps Performance

4. Modifying marketing
strategies weekly maximizes Adapt Marketing 3. It is essential to track
affect of marketing channels Strategy clicks/purchases ratios to ensure
DRAMATICALLY and keeps positive Return on Ad Spend
you ahead of the competition (“ROAS”)
“ ”


Building Data Feeds #MonCon

Proper Tools To Format / Manipulate Data:
Microsoft Excel or MS Access
Relational Database
Marketing Software Suite
Optimization Knowledge:
Know The Feed Specifications
Work on Channel Category Values
Utilize Analytics:
Free Analytics (i.e.: Google)
Analytics Packages (i.e.: Omniture, CoreMetrics)
Marketing Software (i.e.: Chanalytics)

“With the addition of MerchantAdvantage, submission of our CommerceV3 product
catalog to online shopping sites has become easy and reliable. Sales have increased
30% from the optimized shopping feeds generated by the MerchantAdvantage
platform.” - DentalDepot.com, Commerce V3 Customer



Three keys for success in CSE efforts

File Flexibility – Merchants need the ability to build any type of file
format so that Marketing controls the channel selection, not
technology
Merchants need powerful data manipulation tools that allow
marketers to optimize content and create custom campaigns
Analytics – Merchants need custom analytical tools that give
analytics down to the SKU level for intelligent performance
measurement and feed optimization strategies



File Formats Transport Protocols

Comma Separated Files FTP (immediate or
(.CSV) scheduled)
Tab Delimited Files (.txt) SFTP (immediate or
Other Character scheduled)
Delimited Files HTTP (immediate or
MS Excel Files scheduled)
XML Files (.xml) Local file upload
(immediate only)
**Additionally, MerchantAdvantage provides
every merchant with an ftp/http storage
area



Type Name Requirement Description Examples

Country Required The ISO 3166 country code. The default US
is your feeds target country

Region Optional Geographical region – in US the two letter MA
abbreviation, zip or * wildcard

Service Optional The service class or delivery speed Ground

price Required Fixed deliver price (including VAT) 6.49 USD

Tab Delimited Separate each sub-attribute with a colon and each delivery attribute
group with a comma. Do not enclose sub-attribute values within
Example quotations. All colons, even for blank values, are required, i.e. three
colons are required.
US:::6.49 USD
US:024*:Ground:6.49 USD,US:MA:Express:13.12 USD

An example of one field in a specifications document


When saved locally, a feed document might look something like this:


Tips for Higher Exposure #MonCon

Tip #1:

Be Sure Every Product Has an Image
The image should be clear
Don’t upload placeholders or generic image
If you don’t have an image, GET ONE!

Bad Image Good Image



Tip #2:

Upload Your Store Logo
Logos build trust
Logos catch people’s attention, increasing CTR
Make sure logo is clear, readable, configured so it appears ‘crisp’
whatever size it appears
Size your logo appropriately!
If you use the wrong size – the result will be stretched or distorted
logos

If No Logo Allowed/Present ensure that
listing stands out, no www., capitalize,
and hyperlink to appropriate URL landing
page –
MerchantAdvantage.com



Tip #3:
Categorize Your Product Listings Using Full Channel Taxonomy
Use ‘full’ categorization options to help target your products
Gain competitive advantage over those that don’t
MerchantAdvantage ‘Global Cats’ Tool Automates this process

What Most Merchants Do What You Should Do
(goose egg)



Tip #4:
Expand Product Name/Title Field
#1: Use entire field to add descriptive words
If product name is “511 Jeans”, consider using either male/female, sizing info, &
type to make it “Men’s 511 Jeans 32W X 32L Black”
’ ”
#2: Use Keywords in Product Name Field
Be sure to use keywords that are being searched
Take example a step further and add “Men’s 511 Skinny Jeans 32W X 32L
Black” - The term “skinny jeans” is a popular term for this product
#3: Include Manufacturer/Brand in Product Name when Relevant if the channel
doesn’t automatically
Brands and manufacturers are heavily searched keywords (will vary per
industry)
For example, add “Men’s 511 Skinny Jeans 32W X 32L Black by Levi’s”. This
’
could also be written as “Men’s Levi’s 511 Skinny Jeans 32W X 32L Black”
’
So how does this translate to how you see data in your shopping cart
technology?...



Tip #4 (continued):

Example 1: Example 2 :
Data as imported from Shopping Cart Technology: Data as imported from Shopping Cart Technology:

Manufacturer Model # Description Condition Manufacturer Model # Description Condition

LVI 511 32Wx32L new SNY XBR757 45 Color TV
” new
skinny black with surround
jeans, men sound

Convert/Merge/Optimize Data From These Fields To: Convert/Optimize Data From These Fields To:
Data as it SHOULD BE presented to marketing channel: Data as it SHOULD BE presented to marketing channel:
<<NEW Men s Levi s 511 Skinny Jeans 32W x 32L Black>>
’ ’ <<Sony XBR757 45 inch NEW Color TV with Surround Sound>>

Convert ‘shopping cart technology’ data to ‘marketing friendly’ data (yellow area
above)
Do NOT use: Special Characters (&, e.g., etc.., +, $, ‘, “); Promotional Text (free
shipping, sale); HTML Tags; or Hard Returns when converting data



Tip #5:

Use appropriate Keywords in the Description Field
Determine what the keywords are for the product and include them in
description remembering this is NOT shown within your website.

Example:
“Wenge finish” may have
little meaning to consumers in
a larger venue – change it to
“dark wood finish” for CSE
descriptions
Updated Description

Original Description:



Tip #6:
Be Sure to Fill Out ‘Additional’ and ‘Suggested Fields’
Shipping info, taxes, sizing, gender, new/used, etc.,,
Most people only fill out required fields (HUGE MISTAKE)…fill out ALL fields!
Many engines give “extra love” for completed fields

What Most Merchants Do What You Should Do



Tip #7:
Review Your (and your competitions) Listings on the Various Marketing Channels
How does the product name look?
Does your listing stand out?
Would you click on the listing?

[see how products are showing up across 13
marketing channels, including Amazon,
Buy.com & eBay]



Tip #8:
Review the channels rules in the specifications guide
Do consumers look for your products by manufacturer, model number or variation
(perhaps include in product name field) – this can also avoid multiple products
(different by options only) being classified as ONE product
Is there a maximum character count limit for a field (your product name could look bad
or even be unrecognizable if they choose where to cut it off)

Without Conversion Converted

RANDY RED MOTORCYCLE HELMET ARAI Corsair V RANDY RED MOTORCYCLE HELMET
Randy Red MotorCycle Hel Randy Red Helmet



Tip #9:
Manage Your Adspend Budget
Set Budget
Manage Bids
Properly Fund
Holidays
Specials & Discounts



Tip #10:
Monitor Marketing Channel Performance by Category and Individual SKU
Reports from Marketing Channel
…and also from…



Tip #10 (continued):
Monitor ALL Marketing Channels’ Performance by Category and Individual SKU
Reports from 3rd party – MerchantAdvantage/Google/Yahoo …etc…Analytic Packages

&
Category Analysis SKU Analysis


#MonCon

CSE Overview
Selecting Channels &
Products
Building Data Feeds
Time permitting
Tips for Achieving
Q&A Higher Exposure
Q&A


#MonCon

Michael Lambert

MerchantAdvantage
thank you! (e) dsinclair@merchantadvantage.com
(p) 305-895-9466
merchantadvantage.com

Please visit www.monsooncommerce.com/moncon to download a copy of this presentation,
see pictures and videos, and tell us what you think about the conference.

A to Z of Comparison Shopping Engines, by Michael Lambert of MerchantAdvantage

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