Online shopping has now hit the big time, and as a result has recently become a lot more social. So it’s vital for you as an online retailer to get your product or brand noticed at the right places. High on your list should be the various comparison based shopping search engines. Most consumers that are ready to buy, are increasingly using these services in their purchasing decisions.
As there are now more than 105 million online shoppers using comparison search engines every month, if you are an e-commerce merchant, and your brand or product is not yet listed on these search sites, you are passing up additional revenue, big time.
It is thankfully an avenue that you can tap into quite easily, and often with pleasant results. One of the best ways is by using Google’s service, Google Product Search. When you are seeking more product awareness, listing your online store with the major comparison shopping sites out there should be a priority.
Google Product Search Comparison Shopping Search Engine
Although there may be hundreds of other price comparison shopping search sites that you can choose from, Google Products is by far the most popular, offering the best results. Others search sites include: PriceGrabber.com, NexTag.com, TheFind.com , Shopping.com, Shopzilla.com, Amazon Product Ads, Bing, as well as Yahoo Shopping, Become.com, Pronto.com and Smarter.com.
Some of these comparison sites are free to display, while others will charge on a cost-per-click fee basis to list your products. But the impact on your business when listed and seen on these comparison shopping engines will impact in a variety of positive ways. It will give you the merchant one of the best Returns On Investment, (ROIs ) in the e-commerce industry.
The goal for every online retailer should be to be seen on every possible corner of the Web. After a potential customer has exhausted organic search engines, the most logical place for them is comparison shopping sites.
There are however some basic tips and guidelines that you should follow which will give you the best results. You can either undertake this yourself or seek outside assistance.
Listed below are some of the best proven strategies for using these comparison shopping search engine sites.
5 Steps To Comparison Search Engine Success
1.) Go Big
If your exploring comparison shopping sites for the very first time, you’ll be selling your company short if you list just on just one or two of these shopping sites. If you have a concern with your budget, then try some of the free sites to begin with, and see how that goes.
Just listing your products on one comparison shopping engine is not enough. As with anything, some of these sites are better at doing certain things that others, so doing a little research with a small investment should be enough to get your foot in the door. You will then have a ‘data feed’ for your products that you can send to the other sites, getting you additional exposure.
2.) Make Sure You Carefully List Your Product Data
This process should take the most of your time. Be absolutely certain that you’re providing the best possible available images of your product, with error-free data, accurate descriptive titles with detailed product descriptions. Also include customer ratings, feedback and reviews if available, and use unique product UPC codes that will have your stores identifiable map in all the comparison shopping search indexes.
3.) Offer Special Online Promotional Deals
Offer discount coupons or special-offer decals as they have proven to be successful on comparison shopping sites, mainly because they will stand out from the crowd, as well as inviting customers to engage in them. Many of these shopping search engines accept gift cards as well on their product listings, and these have also been profitable for online retailers.
4.) Always Keep An Eye On Your Stock Levels Closely
After listing on these comparison shopping search sites, you will not be the first to be pleasantly surprised by the success. The worst scenario is to run out of your ‘Best Selling’ items. Never do that, it is obviously bad for business and your new customer may never return. Make sure you don’t list any products until they are adequately in stock, and always keep an eye on your inventory.
5.) Do Analysis And Compare
Now it’s your turn as a merchant to do some comparison shopping, as well as analysis. After your online products has been listed for a while on a variety of these shopping search engines, identify which products are selling well and on which sites. Also identity what isn’t selling and where, and make the adjustments.
A lot of these shopping site such as Become.com not only have ‘metrics’ to help you in this process, but they also have dedicated customer service staff to help you out.