Papers & Articles

04/02/2007  |  Shopping Feeds – Do They Help?

The internet, particularly among the e-commerce sites, has long been championed as the one battle ground in which the smaller business can successfully compete against the larger or even multinational organisation. And although the major retailers do have a prominent web presence, smaller companies appear to be more clued-up on how to promote their websites. A survey carried out by White Hat Media just before Christmas 2006, revealed that very few of the big High Street names had actually bothered to optimise their sites for Search Engines. While that probably did not make a significant difference to their sales performance, the opportunity is there for the small trader to cash in on "natural search" and "paid search" opportunities for specific products.

On the other hand, the larger companies who sell exclusively via the web, such as Amazon, would appear to have a monopoly over smaller businesses. Until you look at how they obtain their products, that is. Surprisingly, the e-commerce sites that are among the most profitable, such as Yahoo! Shopping, Nextag and Amazon are actually made up of networks of smaller businesses that sell their products through these "Shopping Feeds".

The development of "Shopping Comparison Feed" sites, such as Become.com, Shopzilla and Smarter.com, offers consumers a wide choice of suppliers who provide the "Feeder" sites information on the range, specification, and prices of their portfolio of products.

Marketing a "Feeder" site is not dissimilar from the conventional Search Engine Optimisation methods. You need to ensure that the information you supply, usually in a spreadsheet / database format, is valid and highlights the correct search terms within the right data fields.

You also need to keep your feed data up to date and relevant to the searches being made by potential customers. You should monitor which products are selling through which feeds. You will need to withdraw certain lines that are not performing, before the Shopping Feed site stops using your site, due to low sales levels.

A number of smaller suppliers who feed the larger retailers have failed to track sales and have lost money in the process. So you have to keep your eye on the ball, as with any form of marketing your goods.

Using a reputable web marketing company will ensure that you achieve your share of profit from this extremely lucrative and low maintenance method of achieving sales. You can avoid falling into the traps that befall those business owners who are blissfully unaware of the dangers of not keeping on top of it all.

In conclusion, filtering your e-commerce site through one or more of the major Shopping Feeder sites can provide you with a tremendous source of income, but you need to track the process effectively. As always, employing the professional expertise of a proven web marketing company will pay you huge dividends in the long run.