Shopping Search for Small Online Retailers

by Mike Banks Valentine

Shopping search is something all large portal sites attempt to incorporate into their search functionality in one way or another, but knowing where you are getting your results is the difficult part for most of us. The biggest issue is -- that nobody really understands that a search engine is made up of multiple resources and that is especially true of shopping search.

Forrester Research http://www.forrester.com/ in concert with http://Shop.org recently released an online retail shopping study in which they conclude:

"Shoppers will increasingly use search engines like Google, Overture, BizRate, and DealTime to find not only retailers, but also specific products. As email becomes less effective, retailers need to learn and test the search engine landscape."

Forrester Research should at least have a bit more clarity. The "search landscape" is incredibly diverse. Let's look at shopping search as a part of that landscape, but first let's take a look at the underlying "geology".

Here's a list of Major portals and their shopping search resources from an unscientific "click to see" tour conducted on May 19, 2003. I'll address each of those mentioned by Forrester and then a couple more.

Google has a shopping search function in 'beta' that is free right now called Froogle at http://froogle.google.com but they also have a PPC program called "Adwords" that gives paid sponsor listings along the right side of the normal (non-shopping search) result screen. Google is pure search when used from the front page or through any "Google" hosted search box available from thousands of sites. Standard results here do show those "Adwords" paid listings, but they are very clearly labled "sponsored links". Which is likely to give "shoppers" the best result? If you want *information* the standard search is best. If you want to visit the site that has bid the highest for the search phrase you typed, then by all means, visit that link!

Overture is a Pay-Per-Click engine that nobody uses directly (can't go to http://www.overture.com to search for anything), searchers see the results from Overture displayed on "partner" sites and portals like MSN and AOL as "sponsor listings". Overture PPC listings are displayed in differing ways by different portals, but essentially those results are served up to searchers as the top 3 or 4 results on a page depending on the partnership relationship Overture has with the portal you do your search from. Where do you see Overture results? Straight from their "About Overture" page they tell us "advertisers can bid for placement in search results that Overture distributes to affiliate partners such as MSN, Yahoo!, CNN.com and InfoSpace."

BizRate and DealTime are specifically "Comparison Shopping Search Engines" where a business bids for listings in order to have their products show up in comparison list of like products on a Pay-Per- Click basis at partnering sites and portals. Although you can go to those sites directly to do your shopping searches, not many do. They get those results fed to them by the site they started their shopping on and seldom consider the source of the results or who partners with whom to serve them those results.

You'll often hear people call Yahoo a search engine, when it is a directory. Yahoo does have shopping search but it defaults to their own Yahoo store owners, nothing outside of Yahoo Stores is served by Yahoo if you start in the http://search.shopping.yahoo.com page linked from the top of Yahoo under the "shop" icon or any of the links titled "shopping" at Yahoo. This means that if Yahoo doesn't host the store you want to shop at, then you won't get any meaningful "comparison" shopping results but it does fit Yahoo's paid Directory business model. If your ecommerce site is hosted by Yahoo stores, then you are already benefitting from being in their network of shopping sites and will turn up in searches from Yahoo pages. Consider this if you can't afford your own ecommerce site or getting it indexed on the free search engines.

As mentioned above in the "About Overture" quote, MSN serves results from Overture PPC from within the search function at MSN search, but if you start at the MSN front page, (the default home page for millions of non-tech-savvy consumers who don't know how to change their browser settings to display a different home page), you'll see that MSN simply links directly to the home pages of hundreds of huge retailers. Those retailers pay a hefty fee to MSN to be linked from front page links and more to be linked throughout the "shopping" sections of MSN in all of the links displayed on any of those pages at http://shopping.msn.com

What does shopping search mean to the small retailer online? Here's a rundown of where you should focus your energy in the shopping search game.

1. Once you have an online presence, make certain you have your site optimized for the search engines by including LOTS of good text-based information about your company, your products, your ingredients, your industry and your company philosophy throughout your site. This is the basis for turning up in what is called "organic" search results. Those results that are free and show up on non-paid searches. You'll do best when you limit graphics and images to small logos and product photos. Include your keywords often in page text, "title" metatags, text links, headlines and body text. This represents the least expensive strategy. I have a small client that has never spent a dime on advertising but his site ranks number one for the phrase "fragrance free lotion" which I'm proud to say we achieved for him with simple otpimization techniques. Check his ranking at any google partner site. Here's a search on CNN.com that reflects his search phrase in the top 10 as served by their search partner, Google. Fragrance Free Lotion Search at CNN. To learn more about how to achieve this for your products visit http://www.website101.com/metatags.html
   
   
2. When you've optimized your site for all the important search phrases for your product or service, then move on to the next level of shopping search marketing, Pay-Per-Click advertising. This strategy allows you to gain top positions or at least increase your visibility through being one of those "sponsored links" that is displayed above and beside those "organic" search listings at dozens of large portals and search sites. To learn more about that type advertising visit the following articles describing PPC engines and programs in more detail.
   http://www.searchengineoptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/index.html#PPC
   
   
3. If you operate an ecommerce web site that competes with major name-brand retailers for organic search terms as well as PPC phrases then you may find it more economical to contact one of those shopping search engines. BizRate and DealTime are both PPC shopping search programs where you become a part of their list of comparison of like products, so be prepared to see your competitors listed here as well. But the benefit of being in the same area as your competitors is well known and understood by major retailers who will sometimes open up new stores right beside well-established competitors to gain new customers. See http://www.bizrate.com or http://www.dealtime.com
   
   
4. Finally, search outperforms advertising in most circumstances on the web. There is no question that Forrester research have it right when they say, "retailers need to learn and test the search engine landscape." Be aware of the fact that advertising is an interruption to any surfers who are looking for information online, but search is an active move to FIND INFORMATION about products and services online and search results that provide more information first, will show up first in any search. Only after you've provided that information on your site should you consider paying for your traffic in any form, including PPC or those shopping search sites. Here's an article discussing search versus advertising online. SEO_vs_Advertising_ROI.html

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