| Product
Shopping Search Engines Online shopping is growing
in popularity but stills struggles against brick and mortar retail stores for
sales. The key to online sales is fast delivery and many fail in this regard.
Another key is good production selection which brick and mortar outlets fail at
miserably.
Many big successess will be realized in the coming years by those
with vision, energy and resources to give online consumers what they want. What
they don't want is to wait. They're online because they're tired of lineups, rude
shoppers, driving to retail malls that don't offer a good shopping experience.
It's a good time to capitalize on this disillusioned marketplace. That's the biggest
opportunity for online retail.
If your company manufactures
or sells a product online, these product catalog-type sites also known as comparison
shopping sites or shopping search engines, offer impressive sales potential. Yahoo's
recent acquisition of Kelcoo.com is proof that online
shopping is ready to grow.
| Manufacturers
should be especially interested in shopping search engines.
With our
strategically-correct assistance, you can create a powerful network of Web sites
that can sell much more than your site alone can. |
| Product
search engines make it easy for consumers to find products with the features and
benefits they seek. They also provide companies with online access to shoppers
eager to receive their branding messages and sales pitches. |
You're probably just
thinking of direct sales, but in fact, product search engines allow you to get
your brands, benefits, and specific products in front of millions of buyers. Studies
have shown that visitors may not buy your product at the time, but they will learn
about your products features and benefits --- which in essence, is your value
proposition.
How many people buy
a coke while they're watching a TV commercial? Does that mean TV advertising lacks
sales power? Coca-Cola doesn't care when you buy some Coke. People remember and
do buy the products they've researched, later on.
Shopping search engine
users are more interested in details of products. They're not just comparing price.
Even after checking out a product, they often visit the manufacturer's site to
get a clearer perspective. One way or another, online buyers will end up up at
your site. If you increase the presence of your products in these shopping search
engines, you are bound to see an increase in buyers and often, repeat buyers.
The long term ROI is something to consider.
Forget about price
comparison. Research has shown that trust, customer service and delivery
were actually more important to online buyers. And only 4-10% actually do searches
based on price.
Online Shopping
is Huge
Online research by
consumers is increasingly determining many times the number of sales offline than
online. We have to remain broad minded about what consumers want and how they
finally make a purchase decision. Who cares whether demand is pushed or pulled
through the sales and distribution channels. The end result is that you're doing
good business and using Internet marketing to its fullest.
Manufacturers in particular
shouldn't shy away from these search engines because it's all about visibility.
Visibility is access to consumers. As Regis Mckenna suggests in his great book,
Total Access, gaining access to consumers where they actually live is
critical. Today, people "live" online and more purchasing is being directed
by shopping search engines. If you're not where consumers and buyers are searching,
you have no access. You're disconnected.
The Major
Product Search Engines
Dealtime,
MySimon, Yahoo Shopping, Froogle,
BizRate, Kelcoo, eBay and Amazon.com are all major
product search engines. Each engine is focused on a niche in the market although
that niche may not be readily apparent. Each of the shopping search engines has
its own method of ranking Web pages. There are numerous, popular specialty engines
as well focusing on particular product segments.
Why Optimize
for these Shopping Portals?
As
a manufacturer you may be concerned about channel conflict with your buyers, distributors,
dealers etc. online and offline. Very often these small resellers don't have the
knowledge and capability to rank well in shopping search engines. As a manufacturer
your Web site may have the ranking power to at least get your products in that
search results page. Even if the consumer bypasses buying from you directly, they
may go to an offline supplier of your product. Research shows that leads from
a manufacturer's Web site to a retailer site have an extremely sales conversion
rate. This is good news for all parties.
How do You
Optimize for Shopping Search Engines?
Each shopping search
engine has its own criteria or search algorithm. The Froogle
search engine for instance, uses both the content of Web pages and information
supplied by merchants in a data feed document. Your page's Google
Rank (PageRank) does affect your product page ranking. It isn't enough to
just list your pages with a product feed. Product search engines have their own
individual ranking algorithms.
Froogle, owned by Google
has incredible potential because of Google's huge search market share. Another
engine, Dealtime ranks search results based on bids. Highest bidders for the spot
win so keyword selection is important for merchants.
Regardless of which
shopping search engine you're submitting your site to, there is a strategic placement
and positioning element. Competition is always the overriding factor behind how
these search engines organize their businesses. Competition means strategy.
Actively pursue placement
of your products on these these shopping portals, the more the merrier. They are
not a temporary phenomena and will have an increasing presence in the consumer
marketing channel. As digital TV progresses, the home shopping channel will come
into direct competition with these digital marketing portals. Online shopping
is essential to modern shoppers. |
