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Feed-Driven Retail Search Beyond Google and Bing

SUPERCHARGING YOUR RETAIL FEED

& SOME LOCAL HIGHWAYS

#SMX #13C @ebkendo

11 years in the search industry

PPC, Social, SEO, Analytics, Content

Speaker: SMX Adv/East/West, Mozcon, Searchfest, State of Search

Author: Lynda.com, All in One Web Marketing for Dummies, ClickZ

And…

Elizabeth Marsten, CommerceHub Senior Director, e-Commerce Growth Services

#SMX #13C @ebkendo

Avid wagon-gater

Image: @ebkendo

#SMX #13C @ebkendo

NORTH AMERICA’S LARGEST RETAILERS,

MARKETPLACES AND SEARCH ENGINES

DEMAND GENERATION

ASSORTMENT EXPANSIONWAREHOUSES, STORES, DROP-

SHIPPERS,

BRAND MANUFACTURERS

DELIVERYNATIONAL CARRIERS, REGIONAL

CARRIERS, LOCAL CARRIERS

Image: CommerceHub

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Feed Size Solution Guideline – Small to Medium

Solution Best For Product Catalog Size Guideline

Google Spreadsheet SMBs, small catalogs, static productsoffered, infrequent promotions, stable inventory

Small (3k or less)

Excel – manual upload SMBs, small catalogs, static productsoffered, infrequent promotions, stable inventory

Small (3k or less) or Medium (50k or less)

Image: CommerceHub

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Feed Size Solution Guideline – Medium to Enterprise

Solution Best For Catalog Size

Tool provider (FTP, API) • Static or constantly rotating inventory

• Fast changing inventory and prices/promotions

• Need to isolate groups of products quickly, at scale

• Poor quality product information

Medium (50k), Large (100-500k) or X-Large (500k+)

Image: CommerceHub

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Keep in Mind

Technical difficulties – ability to get a feed out of the backend/cart

Inventory levels – if you only have a handful of each of the items and sell out often, sending incremental feeds

Promotions – do you have a lot that only affect certain products? Or are complex (like buy one, get one) or even just want to show off in the SERP all your different offers?

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How to tell if you’re “complex”

You need connections beyond search and social Retailers Marketplaces Site content widgets (ex: Fit Analytics)

Business rules – compliance, validation (especially at scale)

Inventory – competing channels, decrement speed/safety stock

Data transformation – product information coming out of the site is missing information, formatted funny or needs considerable work to be compliant or even legible

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Evaluate Data Quality

Product Data Missing information Formatted poorly (we love to insert ™ or HTML characters) Incomplete info (two words is often not enough for a product title) Creative information (is the color “Jubilee” pink, white, green or

blue?!)

Is the info being used in other places? How many other channels Website

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What Matters Most - Search

Product Titles

It’s the name of the product after all

It’s also heavily used by all channels in determining what the item is

Incomplete info (two words is often not enough for a product title)

Product Category

GTIN, UPC, UPI – required most of the time

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MARKETPLACE FEEDS

Image: Pixabay

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Marketplace Feeds

Attributes – less required to go live on Amazon (ASIN, condition, price and inventory)

A new ASIN typically requires a UPC, can be exempt if you are the brand owner – which means Brand Registry (similar to Google Manufacturer Center)

Less feed requirements because of other sources like ASIN to fill in the blanks.

Takes advantage of multiple sellers on the same SKU, however not always a 1:1 transfer

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Ouch

Image: Amazon.com

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Perfect data takes practice

Image: Getty Images

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Marketplace Feeds/Settings vs. Google

Shipping Differences Settings in Merchant Center vs. Shipping Templates in

Seller Central/Portal

Tax Differences Settings in Merchant Center vs. Tax code in the feed (the

type of product can vary the tax rate) Where the item is “sold” makes a difference

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Images

Google Only one image Google Manufacturer Center (alternate images, video)

Amazon Requires only one – but can have up to 6 images – Amazon

eBay – 12 per listing, so you pick your variations

Can submit stock photos from eBay

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Other Stuff

Videos – only through enhanced content on Amazon No videos on eBay (no active content) recently retired No videos on Walmart Jet is API only, there are no manual actions in the UI other

than viewing. Feed template mimics Amazon. Feed frequency – can be processed every 5-15mins to chase

the lowest price Incremental feeds for price and inventory updates also

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SOME “LOCAL” HIGHWAYS

Image: Pixabay

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Walmart – Sponsored Products

Image: Walmart.com

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Walmart – Sponsored Links & Display Media

Image: Walmart.com

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Walmart & Google Express

https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/25/google-home-walmart-shoppingImage: Google Express

Link Google account with Walmart account

Uses Merchant Center

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Walmart & Google Express

“The two companies said Google would start offering Walmart products to people who shop on Google Express, the company’s online shopping mall. It’s the first time the world’s biggest retailer has made its products available online in the United States outside of its own website.”

-Daisuke Wakabayashi and Michael Corkery, 8/23/17

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/technology/google-walmart-e-commerce-partnership.html?mcubz=3

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eBay – Fast Facts

Roughly 80% of items sold are new(1)

Adopted AMP in 2016(2)

Increased fees on poor rated sellers(3)

Increased spend on marketing/advertising to drive new sales(4)

No longer running ads that re-direct visitors to other sites(5)

(1) https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-celebrates-20-years-introduces-new-app-experience(2) http://www.ebaytechblog.com/2016/06/30/browse-ebay-with-style-and-speed/(3) http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/2/1488296012.html(4) https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/04/26/how-is-competition-impacting-ebays-average-spend-per-user/#534a12136026(5) http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2017spring/listings-visibility.html

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eBay Promoted Listings

Boost product visibility by 30%

No charge unless someone that clicks buys in 30 days

Debits from final sale price – set an ad rate

Image: eBay

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Pinterest – Shopping Campaigns

Shopping Campaigns now available to everyone

97% of search terms on Pinterest are unbranded(1)

85% on mobile devices(2)

Mmmm…TasteGraph

(1) https://business.pinterest.com/sites/business/files/a_new_take_on_search_0.pdf(2) http://www.adweek.com/digital/search-lens-pinterest-home-feed/

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Pinterest – Promoted & Buyable Pins

Promoted

Ability to edit or designate which products are promoted in bulk

Feed spec mimics Google

Buyable

Buyable requires a partner to handle the transaction

Image: Pinterest

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Polyvore

A social / commerce site

A high AOV channel for luxury apparel retailers

Owned by Yahoo

Accessed by users primarily through a mobile app

84% female users

70% female users of whom 50% of are under 34 (“Millenials”)

Source/Image:Polyvore

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Connexity

Pricegrabber, Become and Shopzilla

Social Influencers program

Low Avg CPC

Bid by category

Fewer optimization options

Slower to process/ingest changes

Image:Pricegrabber

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Other Feed Driven Places

Yahoo Dynamic Product Ads

eBay Commerce Network a/k/a Shopping.com

FindGift

Wishpot

International feeds: Kelkoo, LeGuide, Ciao, Shopbot

Image: Pixabay

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LEARN MORE: UPCOMING @SMX EVENTS

THANK YOU! SEE YOU AT THE NEXT #SMX

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Resources

• eBay Promoted Listings Get Started Guide

• Walmart Advertising

• Pinterest Buyable Pins Guide

• Polyvore Feed Specs