Shopping.com

Shopping continues to be the most innovative in billing, by supporting a value based rate card which fluctuates on the measured value of the traffic source that Shopping is using to drive traffic to the merchant site. The formula is defined by Shopping as the following:

 [Rate Card CPC]    x   [Publisher Quality Score]    =    [Billed CPC]

This formula paired with changing rate card CPCs by category and price level, gives Shopping a continuously variable CPC rate which is both innovative and difficult to pin down sometimes. The rate changes went into effect on May 16th, so it’s already out in the wild. The full rates can be seen at: Shopping Rate Card

Shopzilla

Shopzilla aka Bizrate, was the next domino to fall, announcing rate card changes effective June 1. Shopzilla has been good enough to provide a break down of current and effective CPC rates in June. As with many of the rate card changes on the engines, there is a mix of higher and lower CPC rates being put into place. You can find the complete review here: Shopzilla Rate Card Effective June 1

NexTag

Now the ball really gets rolling. A few days later this month, NexTag announced their rate card changes for June 1. NexTag’s changes are pretty heavy toward increases, but there are some decreases as well. Included in this change is the creation of many new categories, so merchants should be aware of the updates since this likely means a change to the product feed to include the new mappings. The NexTag taxonomy can be found here: NexTag Categories. In the update, NexTag did not including a rate card link, so merchants who are looking for new rates should check in their NexTag administrative tools.

Amazon Product Ads

Amazon followed up a few days later by announcing their rate card changes. The rate card changes have been nicely summed up by Amazon in their announcement. There are 36 categories effected, with 117 other categories left untouched. Of the 36 categories, 32 categories are seeing increases and 4 categories seeing decreases. As with NexTag, the CPC rates are located in the merchant’s admin panel, so there is no public link to provide. Amazon is also consistent on the date for the changes, which is June 1.

Become

Only a day behind Amazon, Become announced their rate card changes only a few days ago. There is no summary, so merchants should review to see what categories have been changed and how this effects overall expenses. The good news is that Become is giving more time than the others, making the changes effective June 15. The rates can be found here: Become Rate Card

Overall, any merchant who has tight controls on ROI, should keep June 1 circled on the calendar. More than likely, things will fluctuate on that day and adjustments may need to be made later on the month once the changes have a chance to yield a new pattern. Fortunately, there is no rate change on Google Product Search.

Analyzing demographics should be thought of in a similar way. There are many different ways you can slice up an audience depending on how detailed you are trying to be and what you are cooking. Typically, marketers are looking for basic information like gender, age, education, income status, and household population (have any kids?). This type of recognition of an audience lets a merchant or marketing professional know what marketplace to use. Comparison engines are the same, except I haven’t seen much information out there, about who goes where.

Male vs. Female Demographic

Besides being sharply divided about presidential candidates, male and female shoppers also shop differently. Companies are taking notice and some are actively responding.

SHOP.COM is an interesting case study here. SHOP.COM primarily reached a female audience, and after studies showed over 70% of shoppers were women, SHOP.COM began to adjust their strategy to suit their audience. Looking to sell some dresses or make up? Perhaps SHOP.COM is the place for you because they are building around female shoppers.

Become also sees a majority of female shoppers, but perhaps not as strongly as SHOP. Other comparison engines like Pronto see a pretty even split, with an audience that is 49% male and 51% female.

Looking for a male demographic? I would be willing to bet CNet sees a primarily male audience, and based on design, I would guess PriceGrabber sees the same (but don’t quote me on that).

Reaching Out to a Minority Audience

Speaking of PriceGrabber, if you are looking for a minority or Hispanic based audience, then PriceGrabber’s PrecioMania.com site may be a good fit. Increasingly companies are reaching out to minorities because, well, there are more minorities now than before. The wonderful thing about the American audience is, they keep changing.

Many of the comparison engines reach out in their own way to different groups, so it’s safe to say that using most large 1st generation comparison engines probably touches on this audience as well.

Gay Comparison Shopping Engine?

Now here is a demographic that is tough to pin down, and quite honestly, I have never seen this in a comparison engine’s media guide. However, I noticed something interesting with a client a few days ago.

One particular item was selling very well at one channel. So much so, that it was beating many other top performing products. I asked my client why this one item, a sailor hat, was selling so well. The client explained its an odd story, but after a few months of selling this item, they realized in working with costumers that this item was primarily purchased by a gay audience.

So where was the sailor hat selling like hotcakes? – NexTag

So, does one product give a case for rock solid proof of a particular demographic? No, but it is worth noticing. As a wise man once told me, think like your costumer and try to understand who they are. Who would buy this item? And for marketers more importantly, where would they go to buy it?

The original or 1st generation of comparison shopping engines included existing heavy weights like Yahoo Shopping, Shopzilla, Shopping, NexTag, Google, and PriceGrabber. Now the second round of CSE entrants are gaining momentum. New structures, new marketing tactics, and new approaches has lent some popularity to these companies. Social shopping, research oriented structure, and just some hard core marketing have helped these comparison shopping engines gain in popularity and added ROAS points for merchants.

Hoped a quick look may highlight how these channels are performing over the year in estimated visits -

At the end of every good cycle, or in this case year, it’s important to look back and point out the highlights as a road map for the future. So without further delay, let’s start handing out some awards!

2007 Vision Award: Social Shopping

Yes, it’s been promised for quite some time, but the 2.0 bug is starting to make it’s way into everyday shopping experiences. The following engines have embraced this movement and are moving toward a new way of selling:

Winners: Pronto.com – Become.com – Facebook

2007: Flip Flop Award

For keeping us all on our toes with constant changes in format, title, url, and mysterious ranking system, there is only one company who can clearly claim to be leader of the pack in 2007

Winner(s): Google..Froogle…Google Base…Product Search…Google Shopping?

2007: Coolest Logo Award

This was the toughest pick of the bunch. Lots of great marketing happens when you are pulling in millions of dollars in revenue, but I have always been a fan of the flaming shopping cart. It’s simple and to the point. Running a close second, the overzealous shopper sitting at his computer screen (remember when it was an old CRT style monitor?), joyously celebrating his purchase. You know, I would have chosen the robot #1, if only Smarter used him more often!

Winner: Shopzilla (Runner Up: PriceGrabber and Smarter)

2007: Ugliest Logo Award

Listen, I usually won’t ever say anything negative, but because I respect these two companies, some gentle proding is allowed. I understand the winner is under a major renovation and far from complete, but I know a good graphic artist from MerchantAdvantage, perhaps I can pass along the number…

Winner: Become (Runner Up: SortPrice)

2007: Most Innovative Billing and Pricing Model

CPA aka Smackdown model

Winner: JellyFish

(Runner Up: SortPrice flat rate billing model)

2007: Keeping Up With the Jones’s Award

Supporting Product Level Bidding, one of many options becoming more standardized.
Winners: Shopzilla, Smarter, NexTag, Pronto (Runner Up: Shopping…because it is still being officially rolled out)

2007: What Ever Happened To Them? (aka Vanilla Ice One Hit Wonder) Award

Once upon a time they were an industry leader, and now I can’t remember the last time I heard someone ask about them..

Winner: MySimon.com

2007: 400lb Gorilla Award

Awarded to the company that through aggressive advertising, has almost as many products displayed on comparison engines as their own site. As a good friend once said, ‘If I wanted to shop there, wouldn’t I have gone to their website in the first place?’

Winner: Amazon.com

2007: Best Value, Integration and Management of Shopping Comparison Engines

Yeah, I’m biased, but I am only reporting what I hear-

Winners: Mercent, Channel Intelligence, MerchantAdvantage

So please raise a champagne glass…or coffee cup depending on what time of day you read this…to the winners! May 2008 be blessed with less broken links and more ROAS! Cheers!