Optimization Tactics for Shopping.com

Shopping.com should be one of the main priorities for any merchant who uses comparison shopping engines. In reviewing Shopping.com, there are many features that make this engine unique and should be reviewed.

Key Features

Shopping.com offers a cost allocation system where the bid is adjusted based on the quality of the traffic source within the Shopping.com network. In doing so, Shopping.com is providing a great service for their merchants because rates are adjusted by quality. Bidding is only available by category, but if the bid on the item qualifies as one of the top 6 bids,  then the product listing is given featured status. If featured status is not available due to higher bids by competing sellers, then Shopping bills the bids at the standard category level rate. This makes Shopping one of the most bid friendly engines in terms of helping their merchants.

Next, check how products are matching up to existing listings. Shopping is one of an increasing number of channels which are focusing much more heavily on matching up offers from different merchants. If a merchant knows that their products are being sold by other companies, then that merchant should be sure to review Shopping’s listings to ensure the products are matching correctly. Shopping uses primarily UPC and MPN, as well as product title, so also ensure these are correct. If sending apparel items, the flood of listings from Amazon has created a surge of size specific listings. Based on this, I would suggest reviewing how apparel items line up and consider using size based or child specific listings.

Lastly, Shopping would want me to encourage everyone to use their ROI tracker which can help monitor the quality of traffic. So consider instaling the ROI tracker (your welcome, Shopping)

Potential Hurdles

In addition to reviewing product listings for matching, also review how Shopping is categorizing items. In Shopping’s backend, there are 3 sections: ‘Categorized Correctly’, ‘May Need Review’, ‘Rejected’. If items are listed in ‘Categorized Correctly’ or ‘May Need Review’, then always spot check, but don’t worry too much – the items are most likely where they should be. If in the ‘Rejected’ section, that means these items are not displayed. You should contact Shopping on this one or check the categories being assigned within the product feed.

If you do need technical support, plan ahead. You will need to go the help and resources section in the Shopping UI, and then submit a ticket. Unlike Yahoo Shopping and Amazon Product Ads, there is no support phone number or email address offered here which has frustrated quite a few sellers. So, if a merchant has an issue and isn’t spending a large amount each month (no assigned account manager), then put in a ticket and anticipate a wait: 24-48 hours is standard.

For the next post, I will continue focusing on first tier engines: Yahoo Shopping

October 7th, 2008