Shopping Search Tactics

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Shopping Search Tactics
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Shopping Search Difficulties

• Rising CPC
• Poor tracking tools included
• Analytics vendors don't Get it right
• Too many individualized feeds
• ROI is hard to calculate correctly
• More and more competitors
• Rules constantly evolve

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Our Four Step Program

• List Everything
• Scale back
• Track data
• Develop technology to properly target the exact
  products to send in each feed

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Shopping Engines we use

• Froogle / Google Base Free (time)
• Bizrate / Shopzilla PPC
• NexTag PPC
• Shopping.com PPC
• Pricegrabber PPC
• Others will be added someday

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Build a strong foundation

• The key is knowing your clicks and sales
  associated with them
• We use a redirection (301) on our own site
• A cookie is set
• IP / UserAgent info is also gathered, and it's
  all logged in a db table

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Weight of Multiple Clicks

• Must decide how much weight each of multiple
  clicks gets
• First one, last one, product that sold only
• This can be a judgement call, but it will happen,
  so plan early

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Fixing Irregularities

• Multiple clicks of the same product?
• Timeframe to discount them vs count again?
• Bot clicks?
• Seasonality?
• Each engine handles click counts a little
  different.

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Data Analysis Step
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Data Charting
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Hidden Costs to Consider

• Boxes
• Order processing
• Merchant account fees
• Warehousing costs
• Drop ship fees
• Call center staff
• Packing materials
• Any other expenses, such as electricity, server
  upgrades, etc.

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Do the math

• GP - (CPC Clicks) (Other related expenses)
• Calculate the cost of each sale vs Net Profit
• Take a look at problem items
• Watch for new competitors
• Set goal ROI numbers
• Track as closely as possible
• Drop poorly producing products
• Work on your conversion rates

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Smart Feeds Show Profit

• Evaluated ROI after 3 months
• List Everything ROI 110
• Scale Back ROI 185
• Data Tracked ROI Grew from 135 first month to
  1250 by 3rd month and still holding in the 1800
  - 3500 range

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Seals / Logos / Pricing / Ratings
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Direct Shopping Engine Sales

• Direct is easiest to track
• Someone clicks on a product and buys on the same
  visit
• Same user at the same computer comes back later
  and buys

• Set a cookie when you see a referral from a
  shopping engine
• Track that user to purchase at any time while
  that cookie is valid

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Indirect Shopping Engine Sales

• Indirect can be for a number of reasons
• When your merchant ratings are low (new),
  customers tend to call to order
• Email to friend

• Ask them where they found your product
• Set a cookie on the Email to friend inbound
  link
• Other touch points for data gathering

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Effect on sales
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New Customers

• Shopping engines currently bring us 18 of our
  new customers
• Compare that to AdWords (4), MSN (6), Yahoo
  (9)
• 22 of our repeat customers arrive through
  shopping engines

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Conclusions

• Track as much as you can, but don't rely on an
  analytics package
• The more you know about your own sales process
  and the costs involved in an order, the better
  you can track ROI back to the source.
• Set goals and stick to them, even if that means
  you need to drop your favorite products out of
  the feeds.

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For Additional Assistance

• www.toolbarn.com
• www.toolpartsdirect.com
• brianm_at_toolbarn.com