Forum Moderators: buckworks
Anybody over here list their products in market places like nextag, shopzilla, sortprice etc..?
Is it really beneficial in terms of sale?
Can you please guide me with tips and tricks? Like what steps are involved? What techniques should be used etc..
Does it only involve in uploading updated data feed?
What factors beside price are involved in out beating the competitors?
Thank You!
otherwise, your datafeed will be sent, and your products will get clicks just for people curious to see a bigger picture. curiosity clicks will kill you as there are too many due to the display rules of the shopping malls
further your product(s) will have adwords from the shopping malls and appear in SEO optimized high PR pages, and thus reroute a searcher through them when they would have otherwise gotten to you.
Theese shopping malls are only concerned about more clicks, not your bottom line, so be carefull..... very carefull
What are your experiences with these services?
I had some decent success with a couple of the more popular engines and I had a very bad experience with another. I had the feeling that they were somehow inflating clicks.
hellraiser1 brings up some good points that you may want to mull-over one more time. Overall, I've had better success with PPC services such as Adwords and have since dropped all comparison engine campaigns.
further your product(s) will have adwords from the shopping malls and appear in SEO optimized high PR pages, and thus reroute a searcher through them when they would have otherwise gotten to you.
BINGO!
You will be competing with yourself for the same traffic and giving some faceless corporation a chunk of your profits in the process.
Shopzilla, shopping.com, nextag - these are comparison pay per click sites. ROI is certainly a factor to consider. We do not have any experience with these sites.
Froogle ( now google base) and sortprice are ( currently) free, as in no fee per click. Though we are usually in the top 3 results on google for most of our keywords, we do utilize both googlebase and sortprice. We have had very good results from froogle and modest but worthwhile results in sortprice.
>>Can you please guide me with tips and tricks
Tips and Tricks... start looking at datafeed optimization techniques. LoveYourFeed is a good place to start for that type of stuff. Also take a look at how your competitors are laying in their product names or titles. Spend the time to build a system that can automate the datafeeds build and delivery. I've had better success sending the feeds daily regardless of whether or not they contain any changes.
>>Does it only involve in uploading updated data feed?
You'll need to manage it tighter then this, think not only datafeeds but an ROI system that tracks the clicks from these links/partners and is capable of determining conversion at the time of sale. Also, be prepared to deal with credit card statement matching ickiness. All of these guys with the exception of sortprice (pre paid check) will bill your credit card, you will want to validate this stuff and watch it closely. I know one of these companies will occasionally overzealously bang your card which can wreak havoc on your ROI for the Month, especially if they do it right at the end of the Month. Some of the companies are pre pay and some are post click pay that adds to the ROI fun.
>>What factors beside price are involved in out beating the competitors?
Reputation, customers will provide either positive or negative feedback. They'll say things that can force you to review and sometimes change your policy. Be prepared to watch for negative feedback and be ready to respond. You don't want that stuff sitting for a while with no response. Also be prepared for "makes no sense" negative feedback which might be a competitor trying to tank you with something like "Great Service" followed with a 1 star vote.
You will be competing with yourself for the same traffic and giving some faceless corporation a chunk of your profits in the process.
I've experienced just the opposite. I had grown my business to a point where it wasn't going any further with organic search and by adding the Shopping Comparison Engines to the mix we've been able to move the business to another level by experiencing some real nice growth.
We did use them for a while and just saw the money disapear down a black hole for a few extra sales.
I think what you'll find is it depends on what you're selling. I know someone that makes some nice money from Smarter.com and that's one that doesn't do well for me at all because they don't seem to push any advertising dollars into my product segments.
Easy_Coder, the stuff you're selling.. does it involve much research from the buyer, or it it more impulse driven sales? Are you selling niche items, or are they commonplace brands available in many competing stores?
Other than price checking and general availability I don't think a tremendous amount of research is done. I wouldn't say none is done though; just a very small amount. I wouldn't say it's a tremendously popular impulse item either but more of a necessity every so many Months.
It's a universally recognizable brand with a tremendous amount of competition which means I've had to slug it out with some of the national level chain stores on occassion. That said, I've still done very well. Some of the bigger stores don't have the flexibility in their systems to sell this product the 'right' way and so they can be had in a competitive market place like a shopping comparison engine.
