Why 2010 Comparison Shopping Can Look Forward To The Past
There have been some recent changes in the industry (not Yahoo Shopping news), which may signal the window closing on the old way of doing comparison shopping.
In the beginning portions of 2009, there was seemingly little innovation on the horizon. Since around 2004, online shopping had been done in relatively the same fashion. Consumers typically used different search engines to initiate the purchasing funnel, and many times consumers would find themselves funneled into a comparison shopping engine based experience through paid and natural search listings. Now the patterns are changing, and it’s not the result of any one specific company or development.
The Rise of Amazon
In case anyone had missed it, Amazon has become a Goliath since beginning to sell books. Using a third party selling platform that is second to none, Amazon has single handedly changed the conception of a retail site. When Amazon first began to integrate third party sellers with their own platform, eBay was easily the king of the hill (or queen if you will) of partner selling. Using eBay’s auction format, individual merchants, with barely a keyboard, could easily sell their goods to millions of customers. Amazon however, pursued a slightly different format.
Amazon built a platform that allowed for typical single price transactions instead of time consuming auctions (although Amazon did try to do auctions as well). This platform was tear-jerkingly hard to integrate with, because of endless fields of product information that had to be created and kept updated in addition to orders, to ensure consumers would have a positive experience. Amazon was also keen on eBay’s empowered buyer model based on feedback. So Amazon evolved strict rules to ensure a seller was offering a quality transaction. Even today, if a merchant lowers their guard for 30 days, enough damage can build up to bring down the entire account. This adhesion to quality began to slowly retain costumers looking for a consistently good experience.
As Amazon grew, more third party sellers and greater selection came. Amazon poured resources into making sure products were understood systematically, so that product selection was accurate and comparable. Using the Amazon Unique Product Identifier (ASIN), a product listing could be monitored, controlled, and enhanced. By matching seperate sellers, Amazon could also build out robust product information by having the merchants tell Amazon, not Amazon having to find the information themselves. The overall product catalog grew not only in quantity, but also in detail. Having so much information on purchase activity, allowed Amazon to accumulate extensive merchandising information. Being able predict order volume and profitability, Amazon could now also sell products their merchants were selling and maximize profit. Amazon continues to expand their selection, and by providing lightning quick shipping and guaranteed satisfaction, Amazon has used it’s relationships to enhance the consumer experience to such an extent that Amazon is the default destination for consumers above any other retailer (meaning Amazon sells more online than anyone, end of story).
Covering All The Bases
Just in case the average Joe didn’t know about Amazon, they covered the bases by pressing hard on all fronts. Having an extensive product base, Amazon had a large selection to market, and also knew which products were the most valuable. Amazon aggressively utilized Google AdWords, among other paid inclusion systems, to place listings by related keyword searches. Rarely could you run a search for a certain product or type of product without seeing an Amazon paid listing. Of course, Amazon also had such such an extensive online presence, they also ranked highly for natural listings as well. Confronted on both fronts in paid and natural search, there was another channel of advertising available for Amazon to utilize.
Amazon looked to the shopping engines, and comparison engines running Amazon listings is one of the worst decisions they could have made. The reason is that shopping engine consumers are constantly driven back to Amazon. How many times will a consumer search for a product and hit Amazon, without actually starting at Amazon to begin with? A quick guestimate would be between 3-10 times, but the point is that consumers will just start with Amazon eventually. So using the comparison engines’ own systems, Amazon is slowly draining away market to their site. Brilliant really, except the next part is even better.
I Went To a Fight, and A Sale Broke Out
When two 800 Pound Gorillas meet in the forest, what does it look like? It looks like Amazon and Walmart sizing each other up in 2009. Walmart has been established as the preeminent retailer in the world for a number of years now. Utilizing an industry changing just-in-time inventory system, an extremely aggressive negotiating startegy to lower prices, and a flat out will to win, Walmart is the world leader in physical store sales. However, as many people are becoming aware of, online retail will dwarf physical store sales for nearly all companies, in the very near future. Walmart has it’s eyes set on being the destination for online purchases, and Amazon sees that coming.
What is truly brilliant, is how Walmart and Amazon used a dull, drained economy to fuel more growth. As consumers had their pocket books squeezed, consumers began to search for better deals. Walmart and Amazon had already become leading destinations for cost conscious shoppers, but in case anyone had missed the point, a price war developed between the 2 retail giants and played out in the media. Just the advertising from a typical sale can drum up sales, but exposure of having the press cover your sale, and essentially label both Walmart and Amazon as the destinations of price sensitive shoppers, that was priceless attention. Wonderfully orchestrated, whether completely planned or not.
Google Labs Get Cooking
2009 also saw the emergence, or perhaps reemergence of Google. The economic tail spin that was 2008 shook up a lot of people, including the folks at Google. Plans were changed, office expansions put on hold, workers moved around, etc. One other thing that happened, is the Googineers (a nod to Google’s engineer focused culture) looked at their presence in the retail area and began to pull together a new direction. Google Product Search had been in beta for a long time, but didn’t get huge amounts of traffic. That began to change within the last couple of years, especially with increased placement on the search results page. Google began to take products from Google Product Search (aka GoogleBase), and insert these offers with natural listings, as a type of search result supplement, known as the Google OneBox. The listings included picture, title, and price, store name and condition. Simple and efficient, Google began to absorb the comparison engine style listing into their results creating large amounts of traffics for retailers. Anyone see where this is going?
Google fluctuated the placement of these listings throughout 2009, but more and more consumers began to use them. It must of been such a clearly good idea, that someone decided these enhanced product listings should be part of the Google AdWords program as well. However, how do you do that?
Google had experimented in the past with the idea of a drop down box, known for a while as the Plus Box, and now known as Extension Ads. Essentially, product listings funneled from Google Product Search could be dropped down in some cases from the paid search listing, with a click of a “+” sign. It’s still a good idea, but for now the product listing choice quality is sporadic in relation to the keyword search, and a relatively small percentage of consumers click through the box currently. However, there is a more overt way to display the listings: just throw them out there like the OneBox. However, Google had gotten creative with the sauce again. Just like the auction platform of AdWords was a new step, Google went away from the PPC model. Instead, as is widely reported and seen in product search results, Google Product Listing Ads are now populating the upper right menu bar and driven by commissioned sales.
It’s pure speculation, but the sucess of Amazon, eBay, and and the rise of Microsoft’s Cashback program must have convinced Google that there was an opportunity in commission based selling that needed to be captured. With Google Checkout proving to be difficult to expand, Google went in a new direction. By leveraging the Google Affiliate Network and Google Product Listing Ads, which can be easily integrated with the Google Product Search feed and tracking code installation, Google could now be a part of the retail business without shipping a single item. PPC based ads are nice, but instead, for a merchant to simply pay a commission from each sale is a great business model. The wizardry is taken out of the accounting department, because ROI is easy to control and measure. Simply set a commission rate, and then balance that against your sales revenue and find the sweet spot. In the end, Google is served and so is the consumer, by having an easy time finding what they are looking for. Hey, finding what people are looking for is what Google specializes in, right?
What About CSEs?
All this leads up to a simple conclusion, it’s time for comparison shopping engines to change, or disappear.
That sounds drastic, but lets take a holistic view. Already through the course of 2008 and 2009, there has been tremendous pressure on the shopping engines to deliver high quality, high ROI traffic to merchants. Since the economy was contracting, and the consumer’s pie was shrinking, shopping engines became increasingly focused on delivering high quality traffic to ensure a sale, not just funneling part of the increasing avalanche of internet based revenue. This refinement process has already resulted in financial pressure on shopping engines that have not been able to keep up in the smaller, tighter pond. The stresses from other sources has made this pressure even greater.
By Amazon and Walmart increasingly becoming the default destinations for budget minded shoppers, this has begun to squeeze precious traffic away form comparison engines. The motivated shopper who is looking for the best deal is no longer starting at a shopping engine, but that motivated shopper is now going to Walmart and Amazon.
The next part of the crunch happens in finding shoppers who are in browse mode, and perhaps don’t care for Walmart or Amazon. That shopper is primarily doing searches on Google.com. When searching, the consumer is still bombarded with Amazon and Walmart listings, but they now have image enabled ads which easily catch the eye. Remember that web based shopping is all visual: you need to see the screen first before you mentally process the information. Having image enabled advertising on Google search result page is no small change. Increasingly these image based Product Ad Listings, Google Product Search Results, and Ad Extensions are pulling traffic right to the merchant without any help from comparison engines.
Remember the question from before, “do you see where this going”? There is where: Google has now begun to move beyond traditionally formatted text based results, and into more of a virtual result. Whether video, images, text, or now actual products, Google has taken shopping engine structure and begun to integrate this with their typical search results. Increasingly this provides less incentive for a consumer to bother going through another shopping engine, when they are essentially already using one in Google.com.
David vs. Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell rocks. Gladwell as an author is brilliant in his ability to draw connections and seek patterns in data which at first are not apparent, if not completely contrary to conventional wisdom. One of his articles focuses on the David vs. Goliath situation. This occurs when two parties face-off, and one party is seemingly over matched by the other’s strength. This situation occurs constantly, whether old Microsoft vs. old IBM, or new Microsoft vs. Google. Goliaths such as Walmart, Amazon, and Google are pursuing strategic goals which do not leave much room for traditional shopping engines. When considering rumors that Google is looking to limit the shopping engines’ ability to advertise using AdWords, the urgency level picks up a couple of notches. The key for the seemingly weaker David figure, is to change the battle ground and change the way of engagement. In this sense, the shopping engines need to change they way they do things, aka, use their apparent disadvantages as strengths. Being smaller, shopping engines can more easily evolve and maneuver.
Put simply, to change the tide, shopping engines need to become innovative again. At one time they were cutting edge in their ability to deliver multiple offers, additional merchant information and consumer feedback. Literally the CSE worked as a complete resource, aggregating purchasing data which helped merchants target consumers, and in turn which helped the consumer’s purchasing decision. Shopping engines need to find some of that creativity again. Whether this is done through dynamic social engagement, iPhone enabled scanning devices, or many other options is irrelevant. The point is that another large e-commerce shift is occurring, and if the shopping engines don’t get out in front of that change, then shopping engines face the prospect of becoming e-commerce relics of a by-gone area. That, would be too bad.
The Demise of Yahoo Shopping
Yahoo continues to be gutted and reorganized, creating the latest casualty, Yahoo Shopping.
As reported by many today, Yahoo Shopping is not technically disappearing, but changing completely. PriceGrabber product listings will instead populate Yahoo Shopping listings beginning in March, so consumers will continue to see product results. However, make no mistake, this will make Yahoo essentially a glorified affiliate for PriceGrabber and will be the end of Yahoo Shopping as it has been.
The makeover at Yahoo has been nothing short of dramatic. As written about here at ChannelDollars back in July of 2008, the Yahoo and Microsoft wedding was bound to occur. The eventual transfer of Yahoo search results to Bing created listings certainly spelled the end of Yahoo Search Submit Pro (YSSP). Since Yahoo was no longer creating the actual search results they would display, YSSP was a de facto victim of the merger along with Jerry Yang. (By the way, YSSP was supposed to end on 12/31/09, but traffic actually continued until 1/5/10. For merchants still on the platform, congrats, you received 5 days of free traffic.)
The interesting part is that Yahoo Shopping has now been targeted in a bigger reorganization effort, and this should be a bellweather to those following the industry. For one, it is indeed a victory for PriceGrabber, as reported by some other blogs and ecommerce sites. The PriceGrabber network has managed to envelope CNet, AOL Shopping (again), and now Yahoo Shopping.
Can anyone say consolidation?
Does this also indicate just how hard it is to make a comparison engine work in the first place?
Primarily though, it signals continued change in the industry. Yahoo has made vocal their desire to focus on content, but this is also a passing of the torch, because Yahoo Shopping had been one of the original giants in the comparison engine industry. Before Shopzilla and Bizrate came together, and before Froogle decided to start changing names, Yahoo was a monster. Yahoo Shopping still generates huge amounts of traffic according to companies like Hitwise, however anyone using Yahoo Shopping over the past several years can testify that traffic and subsequent sales became proportionately smaller compared to other leading comparison engines like NexTag, Shopping, and the aforementioned Shopzilla. Yahoo was late to the game in adding bidding technology, and continued to fall behind in aggressively focusing traffic into finely tuned search results. Instead, I think it’s safe to surmize that the Shopping aspect of Yahoo was of little focus internally, and essentially left to run.
This leads us to the result in today’s news. Yahoo decided that they could make more money displaying PriceGrabber listings than Yahoo’s own listings. Not terribly surprising, considering they have also abandoned being a search company. The real question is, are there larger lessons here? Will this be the time that comparison engines consolidate to a handful of large players, and numerous specialized sites?
Regardless of the answers, it’s worth taking a step back and recognize the passing of one of the originals, and the continued transformation of what was once an internet worldbeater, in Yahoo.
Shopping.com and PayPal
As all Shopping.com users should know by now, Shopping.com is changing over to PayPal as their payment processor. This has nothing to do with B2C transactions or a return to the Shopping Cart model. This does have everything to do with how Shopping.com takes payments from merchants. Since both companies are owned by eBay, I can only assume someone in the accounting and cost cutting department took a look at the big picture in early 2009, and realized the company was giving away a lot of money to card processors (yes, gas stations all over the country are accutely aware of this).
I bring this up because that transition process will cause numerous headaches for merchants which have not yet switched over by signing up for a PayPal account and adding Shopping.com as a billing entity. Luckily, this is an easy process to do through the Shopping.com admin panel. If you as a merchant have not done this yet, then you can expect your account to potentially come down entirely until this is fixed. Last I checked, Shopping would completley change over by December so there is still some time. However, do you really want to risk your entire account coming down in the middle of Q4?
Of course not, so if you havn’t yet done this, then what are you waiting for?
MSN Cashback Jellyfish Bing Thing
So it’s been a while since my last post. I have been figuring out what to do with my site layout while I investigate new hosting, upgrading to a newer Wordpress version, and redesigning the site in general. The problem with doing a lot of things at once, or finding how to undertake these things, is that a small block can turn into a major damn in the river. So, perhaps the best way to unblock the river is to begin with a trickle of thought -
So what is happening with MSN Shopping, um, I mean JellyFish, I mean Cashback, no…I actually mean Bing Cashback?
Of coarse some people still use the Jellyfish reference, but the comparison engine has now transitioned to Bing Cashback. Starting in May, Microsoft began to heavily transition over to their new comparison model by focusing their network on Cashback. This has created a natural conflict with MSN Shopping, which was Microsoft’s sole comparison engine before. The migration in May meant that MSN Shopping CPC listings and Cashback commission based listings were now merged (or conflicting depending on your perspective).
Since the official merger, Cashback merchant’s traffic has increased noticeably as Microsoft begins to push more consumers to the Cashback model. However, the converse reaction on a merchant’s MSN Shopping channel has been a steady decline. In the case where a merchant had both channels active, the commission based of Cashback sourced listings trumped and replaced the CPC or MSN Shopping based listings. This has been very telling in terms of direction for Microsoft. Recently the direction became clearer as Microsoft has now requested that if a merchant has both an MSN Shopping feed and a Cashback feed, that the MSN feed be discontinued. So, the turnover is almost finalized.
Of interest is the Ciao.com acquisition which was also made by Microsoft. In early July, Ciao announced that it was officially discontinuing traffic and that merchants should shut down sending products. The questi0n is why? Has Microsoft purchased and shutdown Ciao for their European based operations? Or is it that Microsoft eventually sees Ciao taking the place of MSN Shopping as a CPC destination?
My guess is that Ciao is valuable based on their international focus and that US based merchants should not expect to see much from Ciao in the future. After-all, Microsoft already had a PPC based channel in MSN Shopping, and we saw what happened there. However, what I have heard is that there is a future for CPC based shopping in Microsoft’s future. For now, merchants should not worry at all about MSN Shopping as this slowly fades away. If not on Cashback already, every merchant should be making the effort to gear up efforts now and get on here. Simply, why as a merchant, would you not want a commission based channel with reasonably easy integration, and where the commission is flexible starting at a low 3%? It’s virtually a no-brainer. Now, if only there were some easier ways to optimize for Cashback….
Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2009
If anyone would like to talk shop this week in Boston at IRCE, then let me know. I will be at the Mercent booth #645. Feel free to stop by and talk about CSEs, Amazon, or the Red Sox.
New Shopping.com Feed Format
The new Shopping.com datafeed format is one of the most innovative I have seen, rivaling GoogleBase for feed format champion of the CSE world. To explain why this matters and what makes the product feed format interesting, take a look at my post on the Mercent Blog: Evolution of the Data Feed Format: New Shopping.com Data Feed Specs
How To Win the Buy Box on Amazon
It seems like there are a lot of questions around how to sell on Amazon, especially since Amazon is one of the few growing online marketplaces right now. Amazon is a complex system which can’t be fully covered in one post, and indeed there are entire sites devoted to Amazon. However, in a single post we can get some traction around the buy box.
What is the Amazon Buy Box?
The Amazon Buy Box is the way Amazon compares like products. Instead of a product listing page with rows of matching results as you would see on a typical CSE, Amazon creates a master product page which incorporates all information known to Amazon, as passed on my eligible sellers of that product. Next, Amazon displays the competitive offers from merchants in the upper right hand portion of the page. The buy box contains a single offer and frames the now classic Amazon ‘Add to Shopping Cart’ button which has been duplicated by webmasters around the world. Below this section, Amazon delivers up the consumer a quick review of competing merchant offers.
What Does It Mean to ‘Win the Buy Box’?
All offers are not created equal, and Amazon has developed a system to lead the consumer to the desired offer. Amazon has constructed a tiered offer sheet, where the most desirable listing is located at top and is directly connected to the main shopping cart button. In order to buy from other merchants selling the same item, the consumer needs to examine the much smaller and less obvious product offers below the buy box and then click on the much smaller “Add to Cart” buttons. Because Amazon sees one offer as superior, Amazon attempts to drive the consumer to the winner of the buy box, and thus receive the majority of sales. Compared to the winner, sales significantly drop off for other merchants underneath the buy box. Remember every site design study you have seen, where consumers are drawn to bold calls-to-action, and you understand why winning the buy box is so important.
Can you sell items when not winning the buy box? Sure, of course you can. However, if you want to sell a reasonable amount outside of the buy box, you better have a very enticing offer (that means the cheapest price). So,that leads to the final question…
How Does A Merchant Win the Buy Box?
As stated, Amazon looks to show the most desirable offer. Amazon uses many different variables to calculate the buy box winner. Ultimately this can be divided into 2 types of variables. On one hand, Amazon is looking to give the best value to the consumer, and then Amazon is looking to determine how likely it is the merchant will provide the product in a satisfying manner.
Factors for the buy box:
Be eligible: First, you need to be eligible. This means being an Amazon Gold Level merchant or higher. (Essentially, this means Amazon trusts you)
Price: The most important aspect. This includes the selling price of the item plus shipping. The lowest combined price gets the most relevancy.
Availability: This includes how many of the items are available and how quickly the item will ship. Pay more attention to shipping time, or fulfillment latency. The quicker an item can be shipped, the better.
Volume: This refers to how many of these products are being sold. So the more products sold by a merchant, the higher the relevancy.
Refunds: This refers to the amount of refunds given based on merchant error. The more refunds a merchant dishes, that is the more the merchant backs out of the sale, the worse the relevancy.
Costumer Feedback: Just like eBay once was, feedback can be king. If a merchant can not maintain minimum levels of feedback (determined by category), then a merchant may be blocked from being eligible for the buy box.
A-to-Z Guarantee Claims: This refers to returns, and is another component of measuring costumer satisfaction.
When all of these factors are combined together, this results in a combined value which is then measured against other sellers of the item. The most relevant, or the highest value offer then wins the buy box.
Twitter Beginner’s Guide
So I am a Twitter newbie and I am not afraid to admit it.
I first signed up for Twitter around a year ago, but really had no idea what to do with it, so my account sat dormant and neglected. However, in recent months, Twitter is getting too much attention to miss. I mean, when CNN starts using it as part of regular programming, it’s time to look into things. So a little over month ago, I started Tweeting. Since I am fresh out of emerging from rookie confusion, it seems a great time to post a newbie guide.
1. Find people.
After creating an account, go out and find some friends. Of course you can start with people you actually know, but one of the charms of Twitter is being able to quickly follow people who you don’t know and may never actually meet.
I recommend:
-Looking for people in your industry (use standard search terms to find them)
-Look for celebrities you actually like or are interested in (I definitely recommend people like Shaq who know how to use a networking tool)
-Look for leading figures who you wish you knew (executives, experts, politicians,etc: you name it, they are on Twitter)
-Look for ogranizations and companies
2. Start reading.
It’s amazing how the smallest and most basic details can be interesting. This is the beauty of Twitter: short bursts of information, links, opinion, and thought.
3. Dont be afraid to network.
If someone ‘follows’ you (and people will find you), return the favor and follow them back. This is how you build a network and really get moving. The main problem I have found, is after a while, you have more people than you can reasonably pay attention to.
4. Start posting.
Don’t worry about what to write, just start saying the basics and then you are moving. Feel free to reply to others, it’s OK and definitely not rude. If you think something is valuable, then ‘Retweet’ it. This basically means you repeat the message to others as worth repeating (a true “tip o’ the hat” for tweets). Also, keep in mind the messages are limited to 140 characters, so if you post a link, use a URL shortening service like TinyURL.com.
A few basic protocols to follow:
A): Don’t curse, keep it polite.
B): It’s permanent, so be careful. You can delete your profile display of the message, but it will have already been broadcast to everyone following you.
C): Google indexes this, so once again, be aware of what you write.
D): Tweet frequency is debatable, it depends on who is following you and what you are saying. Some people tweet constantly with great info, and others just get cumbersome. At the very least, avoid making multiple tweets over a short period of time (5 Tweets in 5 minutes for example).
E: Be original and be social. This is a social gathering online. Say what you think and don’t be a afraid to post about your breakfast for example. These are real people out there, and they want to know you are a real person too. Remember, the small stuff is sometimes the most interesting.
5. Organize yourself.
There are some good programs out there for monitoring the people you are following, keeping track of those you really want to stay in touch with, and posting your messages. I recommend TweetDeck and twhirl as two applications to check out.
Also, if you are doing some market research, or just want to analyze the streaming thoughts of the planet, check out programs like TweetGrid. This program lets you insert keywords and monitor all tweets matching that keyword as they happen. Absolutely fascinating. Put in ‘Obama’, ‘Rihanna’ or even the name of your company. Then watch in real time as people talk about it.
Hope this helps, and in a couple months, I hope to have a some good business info. Companies like Starbucks are leading the charge in taking advantage of this opportunity, so of coarse, check them out too!
Shopping Cart Review
I saw a great overview on eTaildTail.com recently, and thought it’s worth referencing for any companies looking for an overview of shopping cart technology providers. As one of the basic components of a site’s framework, shopping cart options can also be confusing to navigate through. I suggest checking it out, if only to review the spiffy graph: Shopping Cart Technologies That Work for You
Problems with Product Matching
Lately I have been battling product matching more than being helped by it and that has boiled over in this post.
For the consumer, product matching should lead to the best consumer experience by showing competing merchants offering the same item. By lining up these merchants together, a consumer should then be able to judge quickly the differences in price, reliability, brand strength of the seller, etc. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.
To illustrate my point, I’ve picked a quick example from Shopping.com for a protein shake. I don’t want to pick on Shopping because this is not exclusively their issue. However, this is the most illustrative example of the issues I am finding more and more of recently.
You can click on the image included here to expand and see in detail what I writing about.
In this instance, a single product, “Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein Vanilla Ice Cream Gold 10.35lb” is shown. However, looking at the merchants who are selling this product quickly turn into an adventure in confusion and consternation for the consumer. Not only are different types shown, but the arrangement creates more issues. There are 20 listings total (instead of the 9 shown in the search result preview), and 13 of those listings are from Amazon. Then, looking at pricing, prices range all the way from $68.90 to $823.24. If I am a consumer, 2 things happen:
1) I am thoroughly confused
2) I conclude I should go to Amazon to look for products, not Shopping.com
Obviously, I have not even mentioned what a merchant should do here. If I were selling this product, I would do my best to try and break out my product from this listing match and move elsewhere. The downfall to that is, based on the channel’s emphasis on displaying matched listings, I will get pushed way down in results unless bidding a substantial amount.
The lesson here is that channels need to be on alert for issues in product matching and consumer experience. Having Amazon overrun merchant listings is an issue, creating relevant matches is an issue, and creating a sensible consumer experience is an issue. For merchants, the lesson is to be vigilant, and ready to alter your data and strategy, if needed to break out of bad situations.
