Shopping Engine Marketing

Online Holiday Shopping Highlights for 2011

2011-12-28T14:15:00.000-05:00

With 80 percent of shoppers agreeing to the statement "I prefer online rather than go to crowded stores during Thanksgiving weekend,' it's no surprise, that the web is taking over Black Friday sales.

And, as predicted by Forrester* and comScore**, online holiday spending has increased 15 percent since the same time last year, reaching 32 Billion with two weeks still remaining in 2011. Shopping days include November 2nd through December 19th.

Notable Holiday Highlights in 2011

Sales reached 32.6 Billion in December
Total sales increased 15% since 2010
18% increase in sales on Thanksgiving Day
26% increase in sales on Black Friday
22 % increase in sales on Cyber Monday
16% of shoppers bought through their mobile devices

Source: ComScore, Dec. 20, 2011

*Forrester, 2012 Online Holiday Shopping Highlights
**Heaviest Week in U.S. Online Holiday Shopping History Pushes Season-to-Date Total to $32 Billion, Up 15 Percent vs. Year Ago

Online Holiday Sales Expected to Increase 15%

2011-11-21T15:24:00.001-05:00

Forrester Research predicts that online sales are expected to increase 15%, year-over-year, totaling 60 billion in sales, despite the weak economy.

The Report points to shoppers hunting for better online deals, increasing recognition of key shopping dates like Cyber Monday, as well as retailers creating robust online sales to meet shopper expectations. "Tablet commerce," is also on the rise, with tens of millions of consumers contributing to the rise in sales.

Stand Out this Holiday Season
To help you strengthen your online presence and attract more qualified holiday shoppers this Black Friday & Cyber Monday GoDataFeed has assembled its top shopping channel management strategies for 2011.

Download the Holiday Guide Now

This complimentary download includes:

Top 2010 Holiday Spending Days - Review last year's top internet shopping days

2011's Big Shopping Days - Mark Your Calendar

Top Holiday Strategies for Q4 - Month-by-Month best practices and actionable tactics to get you holiday-ready

Reach More Shoppers - GoDataFeed's Top Shopping Channel & eCommerce Service Picks

Increase Traffic with Free Clicks

Many pay-per-click channels are offering free clicks to get you started. See page 8 of GoDataFeed's Holiday Guide for more details as well as actionable tips to optimize your holiday strategy.

Ready to Reach more Shoppers?
View our Demo or sign up for a 30-day trial and we'll help get you started with 2 free shopping feed setups.

Why GoDataFeed?

60+ Shopping Channels

Automate, Optimize & Analyze
Affordable Pricing

Learn How Top 500 Retailer Increased Conversions 180% with Amazon Product Ads

2011-11-07T13:39:00.005-05:00

Sleep Easier by Optimizing Your Amazon Product Ads Feeds

If you joined our last Webinar ,then you know how Amazon Product Ads is helping retailers sell more throughhighly targeted and effective ads.

With GoDataFeed,Amazon Product Ads helped 'Top 500 Retailer' US-Mattress.com increase conversions by 180% while lowering cost of sale.

Read the Case Study, and learn how US-Mattress is:

Reaching the Right Shoppers at the Right Time
Driving Conversions & Revenue
Optimizing their Amazon Product Ads feed

Webinar Recording Available

Like US-Mattress, youcan sleep easier by optimizing your Amazon Product Ads campaign.

Listen to the WebinarRecording and learn how to:

Get in front of millions of Amazon Shoppers to increase traffic to your site
Take advantage of Amazon's Product Ads promotion to get $75 worth of free clicks to your website!
Optimize your campaign strategy with the practical tips & tactics...all in the Webinar

Get started with Amazon Product Ads and get $75 in free clicks forselect categories.

Managing Multiple Shopping ChannelCampaigns?

Save time and money by streamlining yourcampaigns through GoDataFeed

We'll even setup your first twoshopping feeds FREE

Start Your TrialToday

WhyGoDataFeed?

60+ Shopping Channels

Automate,Optimize & Analyze

AffordablePricing

Upcoming Webinar: How to Increase eCommerce Sales with Amazon Product Ads

2011-10-18T11:57:00.002-04:00

Join Amazon Product Ads,GoDataFeed and 3dcart for a free webinar, learn how to get in front of millionsof shoppers and increase your online sales.

You will learn:

The importance of ecommerce for all businesses
How to market your business with optimized shopping feeds
Best practices for utilizing Amazon Product Ads to boost sales

When: Thursday, October 27,2011 @ 2:00PM EST

Where: Space is Limited, so Reserveyour Webinar Seat today at http://www.3dcart.com/amazon-product-ads.html

Why? With the holidays around the corner,Amazon Product Ads can help you get your share of quality holiday traffic.Amazon's Q4 traffic for the last 2 years exceeded 40 million unique visitors(see graph below):

Why Amazon Product Ads?

Amazon is the #1 Shopping Destination on the Web- 1 in 5 internet shoppers visit Amazon (comScore)
Highly targeted ads = higher conversion rates
You control your budget. No monthly fees or minimum monthly spend
You only pay when an Amazon shopper visits your site

Get started with Amazon Product Ads andget $75 in free clicks for select categories.

Google Launches Trusted Stores & Bing Teams up with Shopping.com

2011-10-03T13:54:00.016-04:00

As the holiday shopping season gets closer, three major players, Google Product Search, Bing Shopping and Shopping.com have just announced their newest programs...

Google Launches Trusted Stores

Google just launched their newest pilot Google Trusted Stores, a program designed to help shoppers 'Shop with Confidence' by highlighting merchants who offer 'a great shopping

experience.' This move is very much in line with their recent Google Product Search feed changes, aimed at obtaining more granular, shopper-friendly data. The 'Google Trusted Store' badge is only awarded to sites that demonstrate excellent customer service and on-time shipping performance. When a shopper hovers over the badge, they will see relevant shopping/customer service related metrics, as seen below:

How to become a Google Trusted Store:

To participate, you must voluntarily share shipping data and essentially, be extremely responsive if there are any issues. How? When completing a purchase on a Google Trusted Store, Google will offer the shopper free purchase protection (up to $1,000 lifetime purchase protection for eligible purchases). Then, if there's a problem and a shopper seeks Google's help, they will work with you to address the issue at hand. In turn, Google will collect customer service metrics when shoppers involve Google's with a problem.

Over the coming months, Google estimates, they'll be adding more stores to this pilot program. To apply to become a Google Trusted Store, fill out Google's form.

Bing Shopping Partners Up with Shopping.com

Bing Shopping just announced that they're teaming up with Shopping.com to enhance their existing merchant listing program.

How it works:

Starting November 1st, paid offers from Shopping.com will get higher visibility on Bing Shopping's search result and product pages. To get started, simply get listed on Shopping.com, if you aren't already.

No action necessary, unless you want more traffic from Shopping.com

If you're already on Shopping.com, then you may already have access to higher placements on Bing Shopping and no further action is needed. If you're already on Bing Shopping (and not on Shopping.com), then you don't need to do anything, just be aware that Shopping.com's paid listings merchants will get higher placements. If you're not on Bing Shopping, then you should know that they've paused on boarding of new merchants until further notice.

Want to try it out the Shopping.com/Bing Shopping Duo?

You can start out by submitting a subset of your products/best-sellers to Shopping.com which will get syndicated to Bing Shopping, and see how it affects your sales. To get started with Shopping.com, you can sign up by visiting GoDataFeed's Supported Channels.

Ready to Sell More this Holiday Season?

Download GoDataFeed's Holiday eCommerce Guide and learn how to stand out during retail's busiest season.

Google Redirecting Like & Boutiques Shoppers to Google Product Search

2011-09-26T15:43:00.009-04:00

Apparel Merchants, Take Note:

Google recently announced that starting October 14th, they will be redirecting shoppers from their Boutiques.com and Like.com websites to Google Product Search (GPS).

Why? As with all of their recent feed specification changes, this is part of their overall sweep to enhance the user experience, creating an "innovative apparel shopping experience", thus attracting more shoppers that convert. Among their enhanced features, like the ability to browse by price, color, gender and even silhouette, for instance, is the ability to view visually similar styles, (pretty cool!) as seen here below:

Update your Google Product Search Feed

If you're an apparel merchant who is submitting your feed to Like.com or Boutiques.com, be aware that your datafeed will not automatically transition to Google Product Search, so make sure you are submitting an updated Google Product Search feed that meets all their new requirements.

As noted on their posting:

"As we continue to integrate technology and lessons learned from Boutiques.com into Google Product Search, we will be redirecting shoppers from Boutiques.com to Google Product Search. The former Like.com team, alongside the Google Product Search team, will drive new ideas for apparel shopping through one unified product. "

Check out their new look & feel on Google's Commerce blog

Boost Holiday Sales, Download GoDataFeed's 2011 Holiday Guide

2011-09-14T13:10:00.018-04:00

Standing out during the holiday season is critical to the success of many online businesses, and this year is no exception. Are you ready for the holidays?

After a record-breaking $43 billion in eCommerce sales in 2010, smart retailers need to be on top of their game to capture this year's market share.

To help you strengthen your online presence and attract more qualified holiday shoppers,GoDataFeed has assembled its top shopping channel management strategies for 2011.

Download the Holiday Guide Now

This complimentary download includes:

Top 2010 Holiday Spending Days - Review last year's top internet shopping days
2011's Big Shopping Days - Mark Your Calendar
Top Holiday Strategies for Q4 - Month-by-Month best practices and actionable tactics to get you holiday-ready
Reach More Shoppers - GoDataFeed's Top Shopping Channel & eCommerce Service Picks

Expand your Reach

Now is the ideal time to diversify your marketing strategy to include popular channels includingNextag, Amazon Product Ads, Become or Pronto.com as well as marketplaces like Amazon, or Sears.

Increase Traffic with Free Clicks

Many pay-per-click channels are offering free clicks to get you started. See page 8 of GoDataFeed's Holiday Guide for more details as well as actionable tips to optimize your holiday strategy.

Ready to Reach more Shoppers?
View our Demo or sign up for a 30-day trial and we'll help get you started with 2 free shopping feed setups.

Why GoDataFeed?

60+ Shopping Channels

Automate, Optimize & Analyze

Affordable Pricing

Google's Top 3 Feed Changes to Review by September Deadline

2011-08-24T10:34:00.022-04:00

In the past several months, Google Merchant Center has been enforcing more datafeed requirements in a serious effort to provide shoppers with a 'high quality shopping experience." This is an opportunity for retailers to strengthen their presence on Google Product Search and increase the flow of free traffic from this priceless channel.

To help you get that competitive edge, and more importantly, to avoid getting your Google Merchant account suspended, review your Google feed and make sure you are complying with Google Merchant Center's three latest requirement changes below.

If you're a GoDataFeed retailer, look at your validation reports which will produce warnings or errors for many of the below listed requirements.

3 Key Google Datafeed Changes:

Unique Identifier Requirement, as stated in our June posting; Google Enforcing New Requirements - Is Your Google Feed Ready? merchants will need to provide 2 out of 3 data points: accurate Brand/Manufacturer, MPNs or UPC codes (or ISBNs for books). Only apparel and one-of-a-kind product retailers will be exempt from this requirement.
Google's Newest Requirements: As stated in our July posting, Get your Google Product Search Feed Ready by Sept. Deadline, the following data will now be required 'Google Product Category', 'Product Type' (recommended) , 'Availability' fields, 'Images' (300x300 pixels or larger; no thumbnails or logos).

Important Note to Apparel & Fashion Merchants: As of Sept. 22nd, you will need to provide variant information for size, color, gender and age group; learn more on Google's Tips for Submitting Apparel Products
Shipping and Tax Information Requirements- Be sure to include tax and shipping information by Sept. 1st, 2011. This pricing data can be set through either your Google Merchant Center and/or item-level through your datafeed (item-level overrides the Merchant Center data). Google has already extended their deadline from June 6th until September 1st, so make sure your shipping and tax data is good to go.

Important Note: Merchants not including accurate tax and shipping information may cause Google to disapprove their feeds. They are also permitting estimates for tax/shipping information. This rule applies to Google US, UK, France and Germany feeds.

Google Merchant Center Best Practices

As, noted in Google's article, Providing High Quality Data, to maximize your Google Product Search results and improve the shopper experience, you should follow Google's tips on improving data quality so that the product data, such as pricing, stock status and variant data, listed on Google Product Search is identical to the data on your site.

Check Data Quality: you should be checking the 'Data Quality' tab in your Google Merchant Center Account to ensure your feeds are up to par.
Keep Data Fresh: Make sure to submit your Google feed on a daily basis (through GoDataFeed, you can do this in Step 5 'Schedule Submissions')
Variant Data: If you have product variants, defined by Google as versions of the same product which vary by color, material, patterns or sizes, Google recommends you submit one item per variant. If you're an apparel merchant, this is a requirement. Learn more about Product Variants.

Back-to-School Shoppers Spending 40% More Online

2011-08-04T10:15:00.013-04:00

Even though the economy is still impacting spending, the typical online, back-to-school shopper will spend an average of 40% more than the in-store shopper, according to the National Retail Federation's 'Back-to-School Trends 2011 Survey conducted with BIGResearch.

That's an average of $850 versus the in-store $603 spend, and a total projected spend of $68.8 billion, for grades K-12 and college combined.

Back-to-School Trends

40% more spent online is a stark reminder that online retailers need to optimize and maximize all available shopping channels
Today's back-to-school shopper is seeking more value, quality and service; not just the lowest price
69% of shoppers are comparison shopping for bargains online, according to a Pricegrabber survey; good news for retailers looking to increase exposure
90% of shoppers consider prices and discounts a top priority in choosing a retailer for school supplies in an Accenture survey

Retailer Lessons

Value vs Price Consumers are extremely focused on value versus price alone, so retailers take this opportunity to offer value-centric promotions & sales
Promote Often 50% of shoppers will be shopping more often to take advantage of back-to-school sales and about one-third will be shopping one to two weeks before school starts
Beyond the Basics While Back-to-School shopping includes school supplies, apparel, shoes and electronics, college students and their parents will be shopping for dorm room or apartment related furniture and accessories, food, personal care products and gift cards (see Total Back-to-College Spending 2011 below)

Ready to increase traffic and sales?

View GoDataFeed's Demo or sign up for a 30-day trial and we'll help get you started with 2 free shopping feed setups.

Get your Google Product Search Feed Ready by Sept. Deadline

2011-07-19T13:36:00.027-04:00

Just when you thought your Google feed was perfect, Google has announced even MORE changes this month that will be enforced Sept. 22, 2011. These apply to Google Product Search feeds sent to the US, UK, Australia and Germany.

Rest assured that GoDataFeed is on top of all of these changes and has already started making changes to our 'Google Product Search' template, including the 'Google Product Category', 'Product Type', and 'Availability' fields.

Google's Newest Requirements:

· 'Availability' attribute will now be required, so make sure you have one of these four values: in stock, out of stock, available for order or preorder

· 'Google Product Category' attribute will be required - that is Google's category of the item

· 'Product Type' is now a new recommended field intended for your Merchant Category. We recommend that you map this to your Merchant Category right away in your Google feed, to avoid seeing warnings in your Google Merchant Center

· Images will now be required [image_link]. Please use full size images (300x300 pixels or larger), not thumbnails or logos. Soon, you will also be able to add up to 10 Additional Image Links through [additional_image_link]

· Apparel: In order to create a better experience for product variants such as dresses or shoes that are available in multiple colors or sizes, Google will be requiring US Merchants to include [size], [color], [gender] and [age group]. If you're an Apparel Retailer, please review Google's Tips for Submitting Apparel Products

Warnings vs. Errors

To prepare Merchants for upcoming changes, Google started placing 'Warnings' on these items. Please note that 'Warnings' will change these to 'Errors' as of 9/22/2011. Keep in mind that product listings with 'Warnings' will generally still get listed, but 'Errors' will not.

We highly suggest that you check your product data and/or download the current feed file to be sure you are in compliance with these changes.

You can learn more about Google's latest round of changes to the Product Feed Specifications here (with examples).

Learn how GoDataFeed can optimize your Google Product Feed

Drive More Qualified Shoppers to Your Site
We'll help you get started with 2 free shopping feed setups

Visit us at www.GoDataFeed.com
View our Online Demo instantly, or
Start your Risk-Free Trial today

3dCart Announces Version 4, Promotion for GoDatafeed Merchants

2011-07-05T12:37:00.010-04:00

3dCart's version 4 features combined with GoDataFeed's powerful automated feed submissions will help new and existing merchants increase traffic and conversions

Ecommerce software provider, 3dCart, recently announced the launch of version 4. As the biggest rollout to date, 3dCart 4 capitalizes on the group buying trend by putting control of group deals in the hands of online businesses. The new version features tight integration with GoDatafeed.

3DCart Promotion for GoDataFeed Merchants
As part of the release, 3DCart is inviting GoDatafeed merchants to sign up for 3dcart and get two extra months of service free.

The biggest new features of 3dCart 4 include:

• Daily Deals – By featuring a “daily deal” on their sites, online stores gain the ability to drive more conversions by adding urgency, pique customer interest with exclusivity, allow partner sites to promote deals, generate more content for social media channels and more easily clear stock of outdated products.

• Group Deals – The new “Group Deals” tool gives online stores the ability to feature their own group deals without paying out to a middleman. Businesses have the ability to run their own group promotions whenever they want and control how those deals are promoted.

• Make An Offer – This feature allows customers to place a bid on items. If the bid falls within a pre-designated percentage margin, the sale is closed. If not, the administrator has the ability to accept or decline the sale. The feature is meant to appeal to comparison, bargain and haggling shoppers.

• Autoresponders – Set and forget autoresponders—preprogrammed emails that go out based on customer activity and designations—to build brand loyalty.

• Feedback – Collect more leads, generate more sales, reduce cart abandonment and keep customers happy with easy-to-implement feedback tabs.

3dCart 4 also includes new features like:
“Quick View” to preview products and buy directly from the category page
“Quick Cart” to preview products in the customer’s shopping cart without leaving the page
“Facebook Send Button” to allow customers to quickly and easily share products over Facebook
“Facebook Open Graph Meta Tags” that allows customers to “Like” your store directly from your website
“Recently Viewed Items” for customers to return to product pages they previously visited
Integration with Australia Post; warehouse location updates; and updated order sorting

More details about 3dcart 4 are available on their site at 3DCart.com

Increase Sales with Bing Shopping's New 'Deals' Program

2011-06-27T09:59:00.018-04:00

As part of GoDataFeed's ongoing commitment to keep retailer feeds current with the latest shopping channel marketing initiatives, it now supports Bing Shopping Deals, an optional program designed to increase sales with limited-time, discounted offers.

Bing Shopping will be launching its 'Deals' program in a few weeks and GoDataFeed merchants who wish to participate, are able to so by simply adding the deal specifications through their existing Bing Shopping feed.

What is a Deal?
A Deal is defined, by Bing Shopping, as an online offer that contains a "temporary reduction in price."

What Data is Needed for a Deal?
For merchants who want to take part in the optional Bing Shopping Deal offerings, required fields include Price with Discount and Date the Deal is Added. Optional fields include Deal Expiration, Deal Description, Promotional Code, Location and more.

Already Submitting to Bing Shopping?
All required and optional fields are included in GoDataFeed's Bing Shopping feed template, so merchants already submitting their feed to Bing Shopping, who wish to add 'deals,' component to their feed, simply need to add the deal data to their current source file and map that data to their existing Bing Shopping feed.
Important note: Both the source file and Bing Shopping file names should remain unchanged to avoid feed acceptance issues.

Getting the Best Results

Deal attributes will only be displayed to help shoppers make better buying decisions. Merchants are highly discouraged from adding deal attributes to regularly priced offers, with no added relevance or reduction in price. Bing views this practice as 'abuse' that can diminish your brand and reputation, and may result in Bing taking, 'corrective measures,' including discarding offers that are not actual deals.

Not on Bing Yet?

While Bing Shopping has temporarily paused onboarding of new merchants, check back with them periodically, as they will be accepting new merchants. Learn more on Bing Shopping.

Short on Time?

We can create the new Bing Shopping feed for you!

Simply open a support ticket, approve the one-time $99 feed setup charge, and we will create and optimize your Bing Shopping Feed.

Need to Streamline Your Shopping Feed Campaigns?

We'll help you get started with 2 free shopping feed setups

Visit us at www.GoDataFeed.com
View our Online Demo instantly, or
Start your Risk-Free Trial today

GoDataFeed Helps You Maximize Shopping Channel Profitability

2011-06-22T14:34:00.003-04:00

GoDataFeed's Actionable Intelligence helps you Make Smarter Campaign Decisions

How would you like to have an assistant whose only job is to monitor your shopping channel analytics? Want to receive an email each time a campaign needs optimizing or fails to meet your marketing goals?

GoDataFeed's Performance Alerts &Cost Reporting are tools designed exclusively to help you make more effective decisions and increase your campaign's profitability.

Performance Alerts scans your campaign metrics daily and automatically emails you anytimesomething significant happens with your analytics. For example, if your clicks drop suddenly, your click costs exceed a specific threshold or if certain products are going beyond their profitability margins.

How it Works? First, you decide what to look for. Then, simply setup an alert. GoDataFeed will automatically deliver you that intelligence so you can take action accordingly (sample Performance Alert below for a 10% decrease in clicks in one week)

Why Performance Alerts? Reasons for an alert could vary from increased click costs, a sudden drop in clicks or conversions; variations that could derive from a number of reasons, including landing page issues, poorly categorized items, non-competitive pricing or a deactivated/unfunded account. You will easily be able to identify strengths and weaknesses before they become costly and unprofitable.

Metrics That Matter Once you receive an alert, you can take action to improve your campaign performance by either excluding products or modifying your campaigns (i.e. product title, categorization, pricing or shipping costs.) Plus, you can monitor all your campaigns performance and exclude or include products **directly** from your GoDataFeed account (Easily remove underperforming products in one place, just 'Exclude' products as in screenshot below)

Cost Reporting is a module that captures real ad spend on select paid channels. Real feedback lets you gain even deeper insight into your campaigns by reflecting valuable metrics like Cost-of-Sale-Percentage (COS%), Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS), Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) and Average Cost-per-Click (Avg. CPC). Cost reporting helps you make more informed campaign decisions. Plus, you can receive the information through Performance Alerts, giving you the intelligence you need, when you need it. GoDataFeed captures cost reporting for the most popular pay-per-click channels including NexTag, Shopping.com, Pronto, Become, PriceGrabber and Shopzilla (coming soon)-- and will be adding more channels.

How it Works? Cost Reporting gives you a more complete picture of what's happening with your pay-per-click campaigns, making it easier to decide which products to exclude before they become unprofitable as well as which campaigns or bidding need adjusting. Simply activate Cost Reporting and receive these critical metrics through Performance Alerts (sample Cost Reporting metrics, like COS% 'Cost of Sale Percentage' )

Ready to Gain that Competitive Analytics Edge?
Simply Add Performance Alerts & Cost Reporting modules in four easy steps:

Implement GoDataFeed’s Analytics
Go to the ‘My Account’ > Manage Stores Section
Choose the Store you want to Activate
Choose the Analytics Add-On Modules

Upgrade Your Analytics Today and get these modules for only $25 monthly, each-- much less expensive than the cost of a hiring a shopping channel analytics assistant!

Still have questions about Performance Alerts or Cost Reporting? Contact GoDataFeed customerservice@godatafeed.com or 954-745-7998.

Amazon Product Ads' New Advertising Categories

2011-06-14T10:12:00.009-04:00

If you're a Musical Instruments, Pet Supplies or Groceries and Gourmet merchant, you can now increase sales by advertising your products on Amazon Product Ads.

The Internet retailing industry has labeled Amazon Product Ads (APA) a "highest converting" CPC product advertising channel, due to it's highly targeted and relevant pay-per-click ads.

Merchants interested in listing on APA's Grocery and Gourmet category must obtain approval for this restricted category before they can list their products. To request approval, first sign up to Amazon Product Ads, then request approval to advertise in the Grocery & Gourmet category.

Musical Instruments and Pet Supplies are open to all sellers.

Listen to GoDataFeed & Amazon Product Ads' most recent Webinar 'Get in Front of Millions of Amazon Shoppers" to help you succeed

Learn more about Amazon Product Ads

Google Enforcing New Requirements - Is Your Google Feed Ready?

2011-06-08T17:12:00.010-04:00

As of June 20th Google Product Search Merchants will have to provide unique identifiers for products in all categories except for apparel and one-of-a-kind items.

To determine if your data is ready, login to your Google Merchant account and check your 'Data Quality' to see if you currently have Unique Product Identifier warnings, and make adjustments as needed.

Warnings could turn into errors on June 20th and those products will not be displayed.

Apparel & Accessories - If your items fall into the Apparel & Accessories category, you will be exempt, although it is still encouraged to provide a Brand/Manufacturer and the Google Product Type to ensure proper placement. Apparel & Accessories includes these categories:

Clothing
Clothing Accessories
Costumes
Jewelry
Jewelry Accessories
Shoe Accessories
Shoes
Watch Accessories
Watches
Luggage & Bags ' Handbags

Exemptions - If your products are custom made or one-of-a-kind items, you will need to apply for an exemption from Google:

http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/request.py?contact_type=unique_id_exemption

How to Validate your Google Feed

The best way to determine if you are in compliance with Google's new requirements is to use GoDataFeed's new Google feed template as the validation tools and field attributes are built-in to ensure compliance.

You will need two of the three items for your products:

1. ACCURATE Brand information (you can use Manufacturer)

2. ACCURATE Manufacturer Product Numbers (MPN) as assigned by the Manufacturer - and that they are assigned to the CORRECT products.

3. or ACCURATE UPC Codes as assigned by the Manufacturer - 12 to 14 digit codes (or ISBNs for books)

Google uses the above information to match your products against a standard database of products and will show their image, their title and descriptions. If the information you provide is inaccurate then it will show up incorrect in Google or may not get submitted at all.

Please note that in the weeks after June 20th, Google will begin disapproving feeds of merchants who have a significant percentage of items that do not include the correct unique identifiers.

Shipping and Tax Information Requirements- Google is also extending the previous June 6th deadline until September 1, to allow Merchants more time to modify their data. They are also permitting estimates for tax/shipping information. This rule applies to Google US, UK, France and Germany feeds.

Reminder: June Rate Card Changes for Several Top CSEs

2011-06-01T10:14:00.032-04:00

What you need to know about Rate Card changes at Amazon Product Ads, Become, NexTag & Shopzilla

Plus Reminder: Google Enforcing Tax & Shipping Requirements June 6th

As a reminder, many of the top shopping channels are changing their rate cards- see below for details and links to their newest rate cards:

Amazon Product Ads

Amazon is increasing minimum bids in 36 categories, and decreasing it in 4, starting June 1st.

View Amazon Product Ads newest Rate Card

What do I need to do? They will automatically set bids to the new minimums on June 1, in Baby, Computers, Electronics, Health and Beauty, Home, Home Improvement, Office, Sports, and Toys. **If you do not want your bids to be set automatically** login to Seller Central account and look for the title "Minimum Bids in 36 Categories are changing" at the top of any page to manage your bidding

Become.com

Become.com will be increasing rate card minimums starting June 15th.

View Become's newest Rate Card.

What do I need to do? No action required. The change will take place on June 15th.

NexTag

Nextag will be making rate card changes starting June 1st in various categories including Clothing & Accessories, Shoes, Bed & Bath, Home Improvement, Appliances, Food & Wine, Prescription Drugs and more.

View NexTag's newest Rate Card

What do I need to do? No action required, changes will take place June 1; any bids already equal to or greater than minimum rates will not be impacted

Shopzilla

Shopzilla will be increasing rate card bids in several categories starting June 1st, decreasing rates in Appliances & DVDs and leaving some rates unchanged.

View Shopzilla's newest Rate Card

What do I need to do? Shopzilla will automatically adjust CPC bids June 1st; CPC bids that are above the minimum bid will not be changed.

PS: Google Reminder

Starting June 6th, Google will require you to include tax and shipping information.

What do I need to do? This pricing data can be set through either your Google Merchant Center or item-level through your datafeed. **After June 6th, merchants not including accurate tax and shipping information may cause Google to disapprove their feeds**

Short on Time? We can create the updated Google Product Search feed for you!

Simply open a support ticket, approve the one-time $99 feed setup charge, and we will update and optimize your Google Feed. We will add your existing custom filters, categorization and rules to your new Google feed.

Reminder: Google is Enforcing New Requirements Tomorrow, May 3rd

2011-05-02T12:23:00.011-04:00

GoDataFeed has created a new Google Product Search feed template to reflect its upcoming feed requirements- which will go into effect tomorrow, May 3rd and June 6th, as posted in our blog last month.

We've created this new template to allow you to continue using the existing Google feed template, uninterrupted, while setting up the new one. If you haven't, we recommend you add your Unique Product Identifiers and migrate to the new template ASAP.

Google aims to help shoppers make better buying decisions with more accurate product and pricing information. GoDataFeed's new Google Product Search template will ensure you are adhering to Google's new requirements, maximizing all recommended fields and sending the most relevant, optimized feed to one of the Web's most important shopping engines.

If you are submitting your feed to Google Product Search, you will be required to include the following attributes in your feed:

Starting May 3rd (tomorrow)

Unique Product Identifiers- you'll need to include two out of the three unique product identifiers, such as Manufacturer Part Number (MPN), Brand or Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) in your datafeed (except for apparel or 'one-of-a-kind' items). This means you will now need 2 of the 3 below:

Brand Name (or Manufacturer)
MPNs -- these are usually Alpha Numeric codes assigned by the Manufacturer
GTINs --these are product codes or other values associated with an individual product generally 12 to 14 numerical digits and assigned by the Manufacturer, which include UPC, EAN (in Europe), JAN (in Japan), and ISBN (10 digit codes for books)

Important Note: As stated on Google's Blog: 'Products without unique product identifiers may not be listed in Google Product Search, though the feed may not be disapproved.' So to avoid seeing a drop in traffic, make sure to use ACCURATE Unique IDs, UPCs or MPNs and a Brand name, as opposed to an internal merchant ID or SKU.

Starting June 6th

Tax & Shipping Data- you'll be required to include tax and shipping information. This pricing data can be set through either your Google Merchant Center or item-level through your datafeed. After June 6th, merchants not including accurate tax and shipping information may cause Google to disapprove their feeds.

Short on Time? We can create the updated Google Product Search feed for you!

Learn more about Google Product Search's new Unique ID or Tax/Shipping requirements on Google's Merchant Blog

Need to Optimize Your Google Feed?

We'll help you submit the most optimized relevant feed to Google Product Search

Visit us at www.GoDataFeed.com
View our Online Demo instantly, or
Start your Risk-Free Trial today

Amazon Product Ads Changes & Webinar Recording Now Available

2011-04-27T09:46:00.017-04:00

Sellers and industry experts have labeled Amazon Product Ads a "highest converting" CPC product advertising channel. Amazon teamed up with GoDataFeed on last week's Webinar to share how you can succeed through Product Ads, it's highly targeted and relevant pay-per-click ads.

Missed the Webinar? You can still catch the Amazon Product Ads Webinar recording and learn how to:

Get in front of millions of Amazon Shoppers to increase traffic to your site
Take advantage of Amazon's Product Ads promotion to get $75 worth of free clicks to your website!
Optimize your campaign strategy with the practical tips & tactics...all in the Webinar

Already on Amazon Seller Central? Complement your Amazon sales with its high-converting, Product Ads program

Upcoming Changes to Amazon Product Ads:

Pricing Changes to the Product Ads Minimum: Starting June 1st, Amazon Product Ads is changing minimum bids, increasing it in 36 categories, decreasing it in 4.
View the new Rate Card
Already on Amazon Product Ads? They will automatically set bids to the new minimums on June 1, 2011. **If you do not want your bids to be set automatically** login to Seller Central account and look for the title "Minimum Bids in 36 Categories are changing" at the top of any page to manage your bidding
Categories Include: Baby, Computers, Electronics, Health and Beauty, Home, Home Improvement, Office, Sports, and Toys. Pre-approval is required in the Jewelry, Shoes, and Watches categories
Coming Soon! New Categories will include: Musical Instruments, Grocery and Gourmet, and Pet Supplies

Ready to Get Started?
You can get $75 worth of free clicks by signing up with Product Ads and either setup the feed yourself or request a GoDataFeed Feed Setup and get your products in front of highly targeted Amazon Shoppers

Want to Succeed on Amazon Product Ads?

We'll help you submit the most optimized, relevant product feed to Amazon Product Ads

Visit us at www.GoDataFeed.com
View our Online Demo instantly, or
Start your Risk-Free Trial today

GoDataFeed Supports Google's New Requirements for Unique IDs, Tax & Shipping

2011-04-07T10:10:00.028-04:00

GoDataFeed has created a new Google Product Search feed template to reflect its upcoming feed requirements- which will go into effect May 3rd and June 6th.

We've created this new template to allow you to continue using the existing Google feed template, uninterrupted, while setting up the new one. We recommend you begin adding your Unique Product Identifiers and migrating to the new template this month (before May) to stay ahead of the game.

If you are submitting your feed to Google Product Search, you will be required to include the following attributes in your feed:

Starting May 3rd

Brand Name (or Manufacturer)
MPNs -- these are usually Alpha Numeric codes assigned by the Manufacturer
GTINs --these are product codes or other values associated with an individual product generally 12 to 14 numerical digits and assigned by the Manufacturer, which include UPC, EAN (in Europe), JAN (in Japan), and ISBN (10 digit codes for books)

Starting June 6th

Short on Time? We can create the updated Google Product Search feed for you!

Learn more about Google Product Search's new Unique ID or Tax/Shipping requirements on Google's Merchant Blog

Need to Optimize Your Google Feed?

We'll help you submit the most optimized relevant feed to Google Product Search

Visit us at www.GoDataFeed.com
View our Online Demo instantly, or
Start your Risk-Free Trial today

GoDataFeed Now Supports Amazon Product Ads Cost Reporting

2011-03-17T11:00:00.003-04:00

Want to maximize profits, reduce costs and stay informed of your shopping channel marketing performance?

GoDataFeed's actionable analytics helps you make the most of your shopping channel marketing, tracking real costs on multiple pay-per-click channels, and now includes Amazon Product Ads.

Plus, you can still get $75 in free clicks on Amazon Product Ads, so use GoDataFeed's cost reporting to track those clicks.

As featured on Amazon's Seller Blog, GoDataFeed's Performance Alerts & Cost Reporting are tools designed exclusively to help you make more effective decisions and increase your campaign's profitability.

Performance Alerts help you identify strengths and weaknesses before they become costly and unprofitable, like:

Sudden drop in clicks or conversions
Increase in click costs
Products exceeding profitability margins

Helps you Flag:

Landing page issues
Poorly categorized items
Non-competitive pricing
Deactivated/unfunded account
When to bid higher on best sellers

Improve Campaign Performance by:

Easily Excluding Under-performing products
Modifying & Monitoring all your campaigns performance in one place
Using Feedback to Increase/Decrease Bidding

Cost Reporting captures real ad spend on select channels*, makes it easier to decide which products to exclude before they become unprofitable and which campaigns need tweaking.

Cost Reporting Advantages

Real feedback = deeper insight into your campaigns
Helps you make more informed campaign decisions
Receive actionable updates through Performance Alerts

Cost Reporting Reflects valuable metrics including:

Cost-of-Sale-Percentage (COS%)
Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS)
Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)

*GoDataFeed captures cost reporting for the most popular pay-per-click channels including NexTag, Shopping.com, Pronto, Become, PriceGrabber, Amazon Product Ads (new!) and Shopzilla (coming soon)-- and will be adding more channels.

Ready to Gain that Competitive Edge?

Upgrade Your Analytics Today

Sign up and get these modules for only $25 monthly, per module. This includes all supported shopping channels and all 6 PPC channels for Cost Reporting.

Still have questions about Performance Alerts or Cost Reporting? Contact GoDataFeed customerservice@godatafeed.com or 954-745-7998.

Want to learn more? See a preview of these modules today

Merchant Promotions we LOVE this Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T14:04:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we at GoDataFeed want to share the merchant promotions we LOVE, offered by our shopping channel, social & ecommerce service provider partners:

Amazon Product Ads - Get $75 worth of Free Clicks

NexTag - Get $50 in Free Leads

Pronto - Get 20% off your First Month's Clicks (With Promo Code)

Become - Get $25 Worth of Credit (With Promo Code)

SortPrice - Sign up with SortPrice's Enhanced Listings and Get One Month Free (Total 7 months)

ShopMed- Get $25, $50 or $100 in Free Clicks

ShopMania- Get 3 months Free Listings

Wishpot- Free Setup & $25/month on a Yearly Contract

CommerceSocial- Free Facebook Store & Setup (no start-up or ongoing fees)

BuySafe- 20% Discount for New Merchants

Share-A-Sale- Get a Discount off of Share-A-Sale's Setup Fee (Contact GoDataFeed for more details)

See all of GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels

Want to streamline your product feeds management and increase quality traffic to your site?

Request an Instant Demo or

Increase Shopping Channel Profitability with GoDataFeed's New Performance Alerts & Cost Reporting

2011-02-07T12:28:00.062-05:00

Introducing GoDataFeed's Actionable Intelligence to Maximize Shopping Channel Profitability

GoDataFeed is pleased to announce its two latest analytics modules: Performance Alerts & Cost Reporting; tools designed exclusively to help you make more effective decisions and increase your campaign's profitability.

Performance Alerts scans your campaign metrics daily and automatically emails you anytime something significant happens with your analytics. For example, if your clicks drop suddenly, your click costs exceed a specific threshold or if certain products are going beyond their profitability margins.

Ready to Gain that Competitive Analytics Edge?
Simply Add Performance Alerts & Cost Reporting modules in four easy steps:

Implement GoDataFeed’s Analytics
Go to the ‘My Account’ > Manage Stores Section
Choose the Store you want to Activate
Choose the Analytics Add-On Modules

Upgrade Your Analytics Today and get these modules for only $25 monthly, each-- much less expensive than the cost of a hiring a shopping channel analytics assistant!

Still have questions about Performance Alerts or Cost Reporting? Contact GoDataFeed customerservice@godatafeed.com or 954-745-7998.

Smarter.com Changes to Invitation Only Shopping Channel

2011-01-05T10:23:00.008-05:00

In an email sent out to merchants on 1/4/11, Smarter.com announced that they've changed their Shopping Channel to an invitation-only model, in an effort to attract, larger, more reputable brands. This is a decision that will obviously affect smaller retailers who will be removed from Smarter's marketplace starting Feb.1st.

As they announced through their email and on their Smarter Merchant Registration Page

[In response to an evolution in consumer demand, SMARTER has decided to change the service we provide to consumers. The initial phase of this change is visibly evident in the new look and feel of the site. Additional efforts will include moving to a smaller, invitation only program...
This change will be made effective 12AM PST 2/1/2011. We thank you for your support of SMARTER and wish you great success in the 2011 year.]

If you have any questions regarding this decision, please see the FAQs below:

What changes is SMARTER making?
SMARTER is changing to a smaller, limited invitation only program which will focus on topical and seasonal shopping trends and exclusive deals at national online retailers.

Why was my site not included?
Due to the limited and customized nature of the program, we are only able to work with a small number of retailers. We have chosen retailers based upon product selection and availability, brand recognition and consumer demand.

What are my options if my site is not included?
Shopping.com , Pricegrabber , and Shopzilla all have comparison shopping programs. You may decide to work with any one, if not all.

GoDataFeed merchants, if you've received this email, make sure to bring your Smarter.com feed to a close by 2/1/11.

Looking for a shopping channel to replace Smarter?

GoDataFeed's Top Shopping Channel Picks include:

Amazon Product Ads
Bing Shopping
NexTag
PriceGrabber
Shopzilla

View all of GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels, Affiliate Networks & eCommerce Tools

Contact GoDataFeed to streamline your shopping channel campaigns or see how it works with an instant demo.

Amazon Wins Black Friday & Cyber Monday - Get your $75 in free clicks

2010-11-30T11:56:00.006-05:00

Amazon Up 25% on Black Friday & Leads Cyber Monday
Product Ads Webinar Recording Available

Amazon saw a 25% increase in visitors on Black Friday* and online sales rose 19% on Cyber Monday, with Amazon being the most visited Shopping Site on the Internet**-- so if you missed GoDataFeed's Amazon Product Ads Webinar, great news! You can still listen to the Webinar and learn how to:

• Get in front of millions of Amazon Shoppers to increase traffic to your site
• Take advantage of Amazon's Limited time promotion by signing up for a Product Ads account by 12/31/10 and receiving $75 worth of free clicks to your website!
• Optimize your Holiday Strategy with the latest tips & tactics...all in the Webinar
• Get your Amazon Product Ads Campaign Up & Running for the Holidays!

Already on Amazon Seller Central?
Complement your Amazon sales with its high-converting, Product Ads program

Amazon Product Ads Webinar Recap:
• More Exposure on Amazon: Product Ads offers you more advertising placement opportunities showing your ads in relevant & related searches
• Higher Conversion Rates: Because of the targeted nature of Product Ads placements, sellers and industry experts have labeled Amazon Product Ads a "highest converting" CPC product advertising channel
• Get More Shoppers to your Site: Customers are directed from Amazon to your Website to complete purchases
• You Control Costs: Product Ads has a rate card with a minimum CPC bid for each product is based on the product category and product price; you control the maximum price you are willing to pay per click with your CPC bid
• Get on Amazon Quickly: Sign up with Product Ads and either setup the feed yourself or request a GoDataFeed Feed Setup and get your products in front of Amazon Shoppers before the Holidays!
• Open Categories include: Baby, Computers, Electronics, Health and Beauty, Home, Home Improvement, Office, Sports, and Toys. Pre-approval is required in the Jewelry, Shoes, and Watches categories

*Source: Black Friday Boasts $648 Million in U.S. Online Holiday Spending, Up 9 Percent vs. Year Ago ComScore
**Source: U.S. Online Sales on Cyber Monday Climbed 19%, Coremetrics Says Businessweek

2010-11-16T10:28:00.006-05:00

Get your Shopping Channel Campaigns in Holiday-Ready Shape with GoDataFeed's top tips & tactics, now featured on Practical eCommerce's Shopping Channel Marketing Blog.

And, Download GoDataFeed's Holiday Tips & Tactics Guide to maximize your exposure on the shopping channels. GoDataFeed's 2010 Holiday Guide is full of actionable feed optimization tips, ecommerce industry indicators and shopping channel strategies to help you reach more shoppers during retail's busiest shopping days.

GoDataFeed's Guide will help you:

Gain Insight with the industry's leading ecommerce indicators for 2010
Optimize Your Ecommerce Strategy with tips and tactics to get help you get found by more holiday shoppers
Get Ready for the 2010 holiday season with need-to-know retail dates
Expand Your Presence with GoDataFeed's top channel & ecommerce service picks

Empowering Retailers for Success
GoDataFeed provides retailers with a simple and affordable way to optimize, automate and track product feed campaigns to all major (60+) comparison shopping channels, marketplaces and affiliate networks as well as ecommerce tools that help you increase conversions on your site.

With GoDataFeed's robust shopping feed management and optimization tools, you can customize your feeds for each engine, create holiday-focused campaigns and track which engines and products are generating holiday sales.

Reach More Holiday Shoppers
See how it works, through our instant Online Demo, contact us or call us at 954.745.7998.
Get Started on your 30-Day Risk-Free Trial, and we'll setup your first 2 shopping channels FREE.

Webinar: Get in Front of Millions of Shoppers with Amazon Product Ads & GoDataFeed

2010-11-11T14:06:00.005-05:00

Webinar is Thursday, November 18th at 1:30 - 2:00 pm ET

Join Amazon Product Ads and GoDataFeed for a free webinar and learn how to increase traffic to your site with Product Ads, Amazon's cost-per-click advertising program. Topics we will cover include:

- How Amazon Product Ads fits into the product advertising landscape
- How to optimize your Product Ads listings
- How monitor and maximize your Product Ads performance
- How to get started with Product Ads today

Amazon Product Ads Promotion: Sign-up for a Product Ads account by 12/31/10 and receive $75 worth of free clicks to your website!

When: Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 1:30 - 2:00 pm ET

Why should you advertise with Amazon Product Ads?
- Amazon is the top shopping destination on the web, with over 63 million US visitors (comScore)
- Last year, Amazon.com saw Cyber Monday traffic jump by 44% YoY, over 15% of all Web traffic(Experian Hitwise)
- Highly targeted ads = higher conversion rates
- You control your budget. No monthly fees or minimum monthly spend
- You only pay when an Amazon shopper visits your website

Who: Presented by Kieron Zabow, Director of Business Development at GoDataFeed with guest Kristina Wallender, Marketing Manager at Amazon Product Ads

Where: Space is Limited, so Reserve your Webinar Seat today at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/834361321

Reach More Shoppers with GoDataFeed
See how it works, through our instant Online Demo, contact us or call us at 954.745.7998.

Get Started on your 30-Day Risk-Free Trial, and we'll setup your first 2 shopping channels FREE.

Boost Holiday Sales with Become's New Pop & Save Program

2010-11-02T09:59:00.015-04:00

We are happy to host Steven, our guest blogger from Become.com to introduce its new 'Pop & Save' program, helping online retailers gain more visibility and promotional opportunities for 2010's busiest holiday season.

Greetings GoDataFeed Merchants!
You asked for more merchandising opportunities and we have answered with our Pop & Save Program!

What is the program?
Our Pop & Save program is a way for you to highlight products that are part of a promotion your store is running.

Where does it appear?
Pop & Save appears as a red balloon with your product listings (when populated in the data feed), and links to a pop up that displays the advertised deal. Additionally, all offers are also included on Become's Deal Center

When will it appear?
The Pop & Save program starts November 3rd, 2010 and your offers will begin to list 24-48 hours after submission and activation.

How do I take advantage of this program?
1. GoDataFeed supports the new template fields you'll need to participate in the Pop & Save program, making it easy to setup the feed yourself. To learn more, contact your GoDataFeed team through your merchant support center or request GoDataFeed set up the Become feed for you.

2. In the Become.com merchant dashboard, under the bidding tab, you must select the Pop & Save option--this can be done for the campaign (Select All Pop & Save) or on a category-by-category basis. There is a small fee of $0.10/click associated with the feature.

Pop & Save Basics

$0.10 per click

All information contained in feed

Exclusive Deals (to Become) get a FREE $0.05 product ranking boost!

Get your Shopping Channel Campaigns Holiday-Ready with GoDataFeed

2010-10-13T11:45:00.010-04:00

With the holiday season quickly approaching, GoDataFeed's 2010 Holiday Guide is full of actionable feed optimization tips, ecommerce industry indicators and shopping channel strategies to help you reach more shoppers during retail's busiest shopping days.

Download GoDataFeed's Holiday Tips & Tactics Guide

GoDataFeed's Guide will help you:

Gain Insight with the industry's leading ecommerce indicators for 2010
Optimize Your Ecommerce Strategy with tips and tactics to get help you get found by more holiday shoppers
Get Ready for the 2010 holiday season with need-to-know retail dates
Expand Your Presence with GoDataFeed's top channel & ecommerce service picks

Get More Exposure on Gifts.com this Holiday Season

2010-10-04T13:29:00.012-04:00

To help you get ready for the Holiday Season, we at GoDataFeed want to help you optimize your feed campaigns, especially on shopping channels like Gifts.com which can really make a dent in your holiday traffic. To all the GoDataFeed merchants who are selling their products on Gifts.com, make sure you're:

Sending their editorial team the '2010 Holiday Product Recommendation Special Offers,' spreadsheet they've recently solicited from you to enhance your holiday listings
Promote any shipping or holiday special offers through your product feed
Take note of Gifts.com's Holiday Rate Card increases for select categories

Highlight your Top 10s!
Gifts.com sent the email with the aforementioned spreadsheet Friday (10/1/10) to get feedback from retailers regarding retailers "Top 10..."

Top 10 Holiday Themed
Top 10 Stocking Stuffers (under $50)
Top 10 Men
Top 10 Women
Top 10 Teens
Top 10 Baby
Top 10 Pets
Top 10 (Your Choice)

Promote your Special Offers
If you have low/free shipping offers, holiday coupon codes/discounts or same-day 'gifting' offers (i.e. for flower delivery retailers, for instance) make sure to include those attributes in your Gifts.com feed

Holiday Rate Card
Please note Gifts.com's Holiday Rate Card Adjustments for select categories, and will take effect October 15th.

Webinar: Go Social! Increase Product Exposure with Wishpot & GoDataFeed

2010-09-15T13:39:00.002-04:00

Join GoDataFeed for our free, educational Webinar to learn how Wishpot's social commerce platform can help you reach more shoppers who are actively networking on social media to:

Increase your Product Exposure
Boost Holiday Sales
Leverage Social Networks like Facebook & Twitter
Engage Customers, Increase Brand Loyalty

Who: Max Ciccotosto, Wishpot's CEO and Kieron Zabow, GoDataFeed's Director of Business Development

When: Wednesday, Sept. 22nd, 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Space is Limited
Reserve your Webinar Seat at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/733339057

GoDataFeed Announces Partnership with Wishpot

2010-09-02T13:44:00.003-04:00

Fort Lauderdale, FL and Seattle, WA, September 2, 2010 – GoDataFeed, provider of affordable shopping feed management solutions, today announced that they have partnered with Wishpot, social shopping commerce platform, allowing online retailers to expand their reach to social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

Wishpot is a social shopping service that lets shoppers save and share items they find online, through an online wish list registry. Its Facebook “Shop” tab now makes it possible for consumers to browse, engage with, provide feedback and buy from retailers directly from Facebook, while its Twitter integration allows retailers to auto-post new products, popular products, and price drops, while retaining brand identity. Working with GoDataFeed, retailers can now effectively develop a social presence where they can engage in conversation, generate leads and increase product and brand awareness.

“At GoDataFeed, we believe in empowering merchants with the tools they need to gain a competitive edge, reach more shoppers and to maximize product exposure; getting products listed on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, is a natural evolution of that online marketing process,” said Kieron Zabow, GoDataFeed’s Director of Business Development. “By working with GoDataFeed to automate and optimize product feeds to Wishpot, retailers can expand their online presence to this growing audience, communicate promotions, new products and most importantly, get valuable feedback directly from their customers.”

GoDataFeed helps online retailers streamline and optimize the datafeed management process to increasing traffic and visibility from a choice of more than 60 major shopping channels like NexTag, Shopzilla and now, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, via Wishpot.

About GoDataFeed
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 60 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client—from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process.

About Wishpot Social Commerce
Wishpot social commerce easily and effectively enables retailers to increase ROI from popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Wishpot’s Facebook “Shop” tab now makes it possible for consumers to browse, engage with, provide feedback and buy from retailers directly from Facebook. Twitter integration allows retailers to auto-post new product, popular product, and price drops, while retaining brand identity through customizable merchandising settings. Product feeds are monitored by Wishpot and updated in real-time streams across all social networks the brand has selected. Advanced analytics and trackable URLs provide insights on how and where customers are engaging with the retailer’s products, allowing for valuable, instant feedback. Wishpot Social Commerce quite simply merges social media marketing and shopping into one easy, effective, and affordable solution.

Bing Shopping's Webinar, Q&A Recap

2010-08-17T15:47:00.029-04:00

Thank you to all the online retailers and marketing agencies, and Bruce Curling of Microsoft, for joining us on the Bing Shopping Webinar earlier this week.

Want to learn more about improving results on Bing Shopping? Download your Copy of GoDataFeed's Bing Shopping Optimization Tips

Whether or not you were able to attend, we have recapped below some of the most frequently asked questions about Bing Shopping's new program:

Q: Are merchants who were already accepted into Bing Cashback grandfathered into Bing Shopping, or do we have to re-apply?
A: Bing Cashback merchants will automatically get their products listed on Bing Shopping and do not need to re-apply. Bing Shopping still accepts the same Cashback format, just disregard the commission field.

Q: How long does it take to get approval after submitting the request form.
A: Bing Shopping should have each application approved within 5 working days.

Q: How do we sign up for this program?
A: Merchants can request a Bing Shopping application directly from the GoDataFeed team

Q: How long does it take to see listing on Bing Shopping?
A: All products in all feeds take about two weeks to show up on the live site after they are initially dropped on the FTP. The time required to match the entire catalog and post it to the live site can vary and depends on a number of factors (size of catalog, richness of data, etc). Bing Shoping performs an initial matching to ensure that all products are properly merchandised and ensure search relevance. In short, Bing Shopping's team takes a little more time on the front end to ensure that you have a great experience over the long term with their program.

Q: Bing has "MerchantCategory" and "BingCategory". Can you clarify the difference and what they should look like?
A: Bing's Categories are top-level departments, while the Merchant Category you provide, detail deeper categories and subcategories. For instance, if you sell housewares, your products may be categorized in Bing Shopping's "Home Furnishings," department, and your Merchant Category will be "Home & Garden > Bedding> Sheets.

Q: Where do you draw the reviews and ratings from?
A: We receive a feed from Reseller Ratings. You can get more details on the Reseller Ratings website: http://www.resellerratings.com/merchant-solutions

Q: Will products expire after 30 days?
A: Products will expire after 45 days,if they are not refreshed (i.e. a new feed is uploaded) We do recommend submitting feeds daily, weekly, or at minimum, monthly.

Q: Is Bing shopping available for Canadians?
A: Currently, Bing only accepts US-based merchants, but is working on expanding international acceptance in the future.

Want to View a Demo? See GoDataFeed's Demo Now

Ready to Start Reaching More Shoppers? Start your Risk-Free Trial Today

Webinar: GoDataFeed Introduces Bing Shopping's Free, New Program

2010-08-09T10:17:00.009-04:00

Join us for a Free Webinar on August 17:
Introducing Bing Shopping's Free, New Comparison Shopping Engine

Drive More Sales this Back-To-School & Holiday Season

Join GoDataFeed for our Free Webinar with Kieron Zabow of GoDataFeed and guest speaker, Bruce Curling of Bing Shopping, to introduce Bing's long-awaited Free Comparison Shopping Channel.

Get an overview of Bing Shopping's new program, how to make the most out of your Bing Shopping feed campaign and gain valuable insight on how to:

· Drive Traffic to your Site for Free
· Expand your Reach to Bing's 83 Million Unique Searchers
· Plan your Back-to-School and Holiday Shopping Channel Advertising Efforts

When: August 17th, 1:00 pm Eastern Time

Reserve your Seat!
Space is limited, so reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/625458065

GoDataFeed Integrates with Sears.com’s New ‘Sell On Sears’ Online Marketplace

2010-08-05T11:35:00.003-04:00

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL – (August 5, 2010) –GoDataFeed.com, provider of affordable datafeed management services, today announced that it has integrated with Sell On Sears, Sears’ cost-per-action (CPA) online marketplace, giving retailers a way to increase product exposure with millions of Sears’ shoppers.

Since the launch of the Marketplace on Sears in January, its platform has grown to offer millions of products and expanded to allow third-party sellers the opportunity to list their products for sale on Sears.com. With GoDataFeed, merchants can automate and customize their feed to Sell On Sears’ precise datafeed template to maximize performance and enable sales among Sears’ loyal client base.

“Sears is one of America’s most trusted brands, so we expect to see good conversion rates for online retailers submitting their products to Sears,” said Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed Chief Executive Officer. “We’re very excited to be one of the first shopping feed management firms to announce integration with the Marketplace on Sears, a model which appeals to a growing number of merchants looking to diversify their shopping channel marketing strategy.”

Participating merchants have their products listed on the Sears site, where Sears processes the sales. Retailers then fulfill the orders and provide full customer service, similar to the Amazon Pro Merchant sales model. Merchants interested in listing their products on the Sell On Sears can create a merchant account directly at www.SearsMarketplace.com. Sears charges a flat monthly fee of $39.99, plus a commission fee based on the product’s category.

Retailers using GoDataFeed’s shopping feed management software can now customize their feed to meet Sears’ specific data requirements to ensure proper alignment of all product attributes, submit only in-stock items and automate their feed submission to ensure accurate product listings. GoDataFeed is also seamlessly integrated with a number of popular shopping carts including 3dCart, Volusion, Magento, X-Cart, Yahoo! Stores, MIVA and more, making it a turn-key, shopping feed management solution for many retailers. GoDataFeed supports a choice of more than 60 shopping channels, including Sears and other popular shopping sites like Google Product Search, Shopzilla, NexTag and more. GoDataFeed caters to online retailers, search engine marketing firms and hosting companies. To view a 3-minute GoDataFeed demo, visit www.godatafeed.com/contactus.aspx?subject=demorequest.

About GoDataFeed
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 60 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client—from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process.

GoDataFeed’s software engineers and marketing specialists have developed e-Commerce solutions for online businesses since 2000. Responding to the popularity of comparison shopping channels, GoDataFeed’s team combined its collective knowledge of best e-Commerce and shopping channel marketing practices to create a single, user-friendly application to manage the product feed process. The GoDataFeed team has been quoted by retail industry sites including Practical e-Commerce, Ecommerce-Guide.com, Small Business Informer and ECommerceOptimization.com.

PRESS CONTACT:
Lin Grosman
GoDataFeed.com
(954) 745-7998
lgrosman@godatafeed.com

3DCart, GoDataFeed Partner to Help Online Retailers Increase Quality Traffic

2010-07-13T09:31:00.006-04:00

TAMARAC and FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Shopping cart software leader 3DCart and GoDataFeed.com, provider of affordable datafeed management services, today announced a collaborative effort aimed at helping 3DCart merchants gain significantly higher visibility for their products by efficiently syndicating their merchandise on comparison shopping channels. Using GoDataFeed's shopping feed software, 3DCart merchants can automate their datafeed marketing efforts to a choice of more than 60 major shopping channels and affiliate networks including Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag, Google Product Search, PriceGrabber, Amazon.com, Share-A-Sale and many more.

GoDataFeed.com and 3DCart already serve a number of top online retailers including Candy.com. By listing on multiple comparison shopping channels, 3DCart merchants gain measurable improvements in visibility with the millions of online shoppers who actively research products before making their purchases. According to research by Alterian, a U.K.-based marketing services company, 95 percent of the online audience across the United States and United Kingdom uses price comparison sites, blogs, or other search related methods, at least periodically, before making purchases online.

"GoDataFeed is a leader in comparison site syndication services. Its technology takes the guesswork out of optimizing and automating shopping feed syndication to the Web's most popular shopping sites," said Gonzalo Gil, CEO of 3DCart. "Our partnership with GoDataFeed.com is a huge advantage for 3DCart clients - one that will make a real impact in any online retailer's marketing efforts."

"Once a retailer has built its online presence on a top e-Commerce platform like 3DCart, the most important step is expanding its online presence to reach qualified shoppers who are ready to make a purchase. The turnkey integration of 3DCart and GoDataFeed streamlines and optimizes that process," said Lin Grosman, GoDataFeed Marketing Director. "Both GoDataFeed and 3DCart believe in empowering merchants to sell more products online. Together, our technologies provide a powerful combination for maximizing online sales."

Read more about the 3dCart & GoDataFeed collaboration in the following publications:
Forbes.com
AuctionBytes.com
TheStreet.com

Copyright 2009 PR Newswire All rights reserved.

GoDataFeed Supports Google's New Requirements for Books, Media and Electronics Retailers

2010-07-12T11:07:00.010-04:00

If you are a US Retailer selling Books, Media and/or Electronics and submitting your feed to Google Product Search, you should know that Google Product Search will require you to include the appropriate unique identifier, such as MPN, Brand, GTIN/UPC/EAN or ISBN, in your datafeed, starting in late August.

GoDataFeed offers these Google industry-specific templates to help you:

Identify opportunities for better feed optimization- in minutes!
Validate for all required fields in Books & Media and/or Electronics
Maximize all recommended fields, like author, publisher, genre, actor, YouTube video, manufacturer, size, compatibility, etc...
Ensure you are sending the most relevant, optimized feed to Google Product Search, one of the Web's most important shopping engines

Google Product Search UK & Germany will soon follow these requirements. Learn more about Google Product Search's new required fields on the Google's Merchant Blog

Need to Optimize Your Google Feed?
We'll help you submit the most optimized relevant feed to Google Product Search
Visit us at GoDataFeed.com
View our Online Demo instantly, or
Start your Risk-Free Trial today

Still have questions? Talk to one of our Feed Optimization Experts at 954.745.7998.

Got Medical Products? Get Listed on ShopMed, a New Medical Products Shopping Channel

2010-07-02T14:09:00.034-04:00

If your store sells medical supplies, you should list your products on ShopMed, a new medical products specialty shopping channel. With more than 200 medical categories, you can maximize exposure for your products. Popular categories include Braces & Supports, Diabetic Supplies, Diagnostic Products, IV Supplies, Medical Apparel, Mobility Aids & Equipment, Nursing Supplies and many more.

Attract qualified shoppers including doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical facilities and individuals looking to purchase medical supplies. ShopMed has a free listings program as well as a pay-per-click program, where you receive preferred placement and more targeted traffic.

Special offer for GoDataFeed clients
ShopMed is offering $25 in Free Clicks; $50 in Free Clicks; or $200 in Free Clicks – You Choose!

$25 in Free Clicks
OR
$50 in Free Clicks with a $50 minimum deposit
OR
$200 in Free Clicks with a $200 minimum deposit

To redeem one of the above offers, contact GoDataFeed to get your ShopMed feed started.

About ShopMed
ShopMed’s mission is to provide a marketplace to connect buyers and sellers of medical supplies. The medical supply industry is changing. Budgets for both medical businesses and individuals are getting tighter, insurance coverage is being reduced, and more and more products are being introduced on the market every day. ShopMed was created to make buying and selling easier for both sides.

If you are a purchaser of medical supplies, ShopMed provides the widest selection available. It gives you buying power and the opportunity to compare multiple merchants. With hundreds of specific categories, you are sure to find the products you are looking for and get a great price.

Shopping.com's New Listing Policy in Effect July 1st

2010-06-28T11:21:00.011-04:00

As a reminder, Shopping.com is implementing their new listing policy July 1st (this Thursday). As we posted a few months ago, Shopping.com includes more required fields and additional attributes, so make sure your Shopping.com feeds are up-to-date, and include the following required data:

Image
MPN or UPC (C&E only)
Brand (C&E only)
Merchant SKU
Description
Condition
Product Name
Product URL
Product Price

New attributes
Also, be aware that Shopping.com added more attributes to enhance conversions including complete deal information, new navigation attributes including gender, color, size and material as well as category attributes like product type and UPC- so include as many as you can in your feeds. Learn more about Shopping.com's changes.

Interested in listing your products on Shopping.com? Check out Shopping.com on GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels page.

GoDataFeed's Internet Retailer Interview Featured on WebmasterRadio

2010-06-22T11:13:00.009-04:00

It was great meeting many of our clients, shopping channel partners and colleagues at the Internet Retailer.

While at IRCE 2010, Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed's CTO, was interviewed by WebMasterRadio, a Fort-Lauderdale based ecommerce radio station, to share his thoughts on Getting into Google, and tips on increasing visibility. Check out the WebMasterRadio Interview.

Bing Cashback Program Coming to an End- July 30th

2010-06-07T16:09:00.014-04:00

Microsoft announced on Bing's Blog Friday, June 4th, that they will be canceling the Bing Cashback program; their senior VP, Yusuf Medhi, cited the program's lack of "broad adoption," the company had hoped for.

Bing noted that the program will be shutting down July 30th, stating that consumers can still cash-in their Cashback dollars for up to one year.

The program debuted in May of 2008, after buying Jellyfish.com, and attracted more than 1,000 merchant partners.

More news to come later this summer on Bing product marketing initiatives....Stay tuned to GoDataFeed's blog for updates

Amazon Product Ads $25 Free Clicks Offer

2010-06-02T10:17:00.000-04:00

Amazon Product Ads is offering $25 in Free Clicks

Get listed on Amazon Product Ads to target customers that are looking for similar products on Amazon, one of the world's online retail giants. Get your $25 in Free Clicks by Signing Up with Amazon Product Ads Today; offer valid for the following "Open" Categories:

Baby
Computers
Consumer Electronics
Health and Personal Care
Home and Garden
Office Products
Sports and Outdoors
Tools and Home Improvement
Toys

Want to Optimize your Amazon Product Ads Feed?
Sign up with GoDataFeed's first-month's Risk-Free Trial today, and get your First 2 Shopping Feed Setups at no cost- Choose from more than 60 Shopping Sites & Affiliate Networks.

Join GoDataFeed at the Internet Retailer in Chicago, See our New Version

2010-06-01T13:16:00.000-04:00

Visit us at Booth #246 to learn what we can do to improve your online retail performance and view our new Account Center demo.

We will be exhibiting at the Internet Retailer 2010 Conference and Exhibition in Chicago’s McCormick Place West from June 8-11. Join GoDataFeed at Booth #246 and connect with 5,000 e-retailers to learn about the online merchandising industry outlook, latest news and technology, and to recommit to your business growth.

With 175 e-retailing experts, 91 conference sessions and five targeted workshops on all e-retailing topics, and the largest exhibition of ecommerce solutions in the world -- 400 exhibitors -- including GoDataFeed. We hope to see you there!

Can't make it to Chicago? We still want to connect with you

Feel free to check out our latest must-read article on optimizing your Google Product Search feeds or get your '5-Reason eCommerce Boost' on Practical eCommerce.

You can also Request a Demo or start your GoDataFeed Risk-Free Trial and learn how to streamline and optimize your shopping feeds today.

Shopping.com Downtime May 21st, Post Freshest Feed by May 20th

2010-05-18T15:49:00.005-04:00

Shopping.com recently announced, they'll be performing system maintenance (Thursday night at midnight EST), on May 21st and for up to 24 hours, which will impact your ability to make changes to your Shopping.com feed campaigns on Friday.

Make sure to post your 'freshed feed' by 12 pm on Thursday May 20th, so it's processed and your feeds are updated by Friday.

Learn more about this on Shopping.com

Reminder: Today, May 18, is Google Deadline to Claim & Verify your Site

2010-05-18T10:10:00.006-04:00

If you're submitting your products to Google Product Search, you should know that today, May 18th, is Google's deadline for merchants to verify and claim their Website URL- So if you haven't already, make sure to register your Website's URL.

The Website URL setting is in your Google Merchant Center account and should be done before you can upload and publish your product listings.

Read more about this requirement through Google's Merchant Blog

Not On Google Product Search?
We always recommend Google Product Search as a must-list engine; it's a free shopping site and it can generate significant quality traffic to your site.

Already on Google Product Search?
Learn how to Optimize your Google Product Search Listings to increase sales.

To sign up with Google Merchant Center, visit our Supported Feeds Page.

GoDataFeed Now Offers Seamless X-Cart Shopping Feeds

2010-05-04T11:30:00.017-04:00

(Fort Lauderdale, FL-May 4, 2010) GoDataFeed, the affordable shopping feed management solution, is now seamlessly integrated with X-Cart's shopping cart, making it fast and easy to submit X-Cart Shopping Feeds to multiple shopping sites and affiliate networks like Google Product Search, NexTag, Shopzilla, ShareASale and more.

GoDataFeed's powerful turn-key datafeed management software empowers X-Cart retailers with an affordable and effective way to automate and optimize their shopping feeds. With more than 60 Shopping Sites & Affiliate networks to choose from, X-Cart Merchants can easily:

Automate X-Cart Product Feed Submissions
Optimize Product Listings for each Shopping Channel
Diversify Online Marketing efforts
Increase Product Exposure for their X-Cart Store

To learn more about submitting your X-Cart Shopping Cart feeds, contact GoDataFeed or View an Instant Demo today.

Increasing Sales on Google Product Search

2010-04-22T10:21:00.021-04:00

Google Product Search is one of the most powerful shopping site platforms for gaining visibiliy and increasing signicant traffic to your site.

To help merchants make the most of their Google Product Search feeds, GoDataFeed shares it's Top 10 Google Product Optimization Tips with Practical eCommerce, in the "Ask an Expert: Optimizing Google Product Search" article, excerpt below:

“There are several ways to optimize your Google Product Search feed to gain valuable, free traffic to your site. The key to optimizing your feed is to provide descriptive and concise information about your products according to Google’s specific requirements, while maximizing all of its available product attributes. Below are GoDataFeed’s Top 10 Google Product Search optimization tips.

1.Optimize your titles and descriptions by providing concise, relevant titles to maximize searchability. Using search engine optimization [SEO] principles, describe your products using keywords that your customers would actually use to search for your products, such as manufacturer part numbers, for instance. Avoid any references to... Read the top 10 Tips on Practical eCommerce

Practical eCommerce is an online magazine that provides down-to-earth articles and advice to help smaller businesses succeed online.

GoDataFeed.com is a Web-based, datafeed management software solution that enables online retailers and marketing agencies to automate and optimize product feeds to all major comparison shopping sites- with more than 60 shopping channels and affiliate networks to choose from. Seamlessly integrated with leading shopping carts including Volusion, Yahoo! Stores, 3dCart, Magento and ShopSite, GoDataFeed empowers merchants to analyze shopping channel performance, track their best-selling products and make informed decisions about how to allocate their ad spend.

Increase in Online Retail and Consumer Spending Indicate Economic Recovery

2010-04-14T12:10:00.022-04:00

According to the latest research-- online retail is definitely trending upward. If you're looking for signs that the economy is recovering and that shoppers are spending more confidently, just look at the double-digit growth in online retail sales-- which include an average increase of 12% growth since last year as well as month-over-month growth:

Web Retailers are seeing an average of 12% Q1 Growth, according to the latest research by Shop.org in conjuction with Forrester Research
Retail Sales are Up Three Months in a Row-- according to the Commerce Department, the AP reported today; a solid sign that consumer spending is on the rise in a number of departments including: auto dealers, home furnishing and apparel

Looking to Increase Online Sales?
To enhance your online visibility on multiple shopping channels, or to streamline your datafeed management, visit http://www.godatafeed.com/, to request a Shopping Feed software demo or to sign up for a Risk-Free, 30-day Trial, that includes your first two Shopping Feeds, free.

New Requriement for Google Merchants, Verify & Claim your Website URL by May 18th

2010-03-26T09:52:00.010-04:00

If you're submitting your products to Google Product Search, you should know that Google is now requiring merchants to verify and claim their Website URL- This step is important to make sure merchants have the right to upload their product listings for their claimed Website.

In your Google Merchant Center, you will see the message: "From May 18th, you will not be able to submit any product listings unless you have previously claimed your Website URL"

So if you haven't already, make sure to register your Website's URL. The Website URL setting is in your Google Merchant Center account and should be done before you can upload and publish your product listings.

You can also read more about this new requirement through Google's Merchant Center article.

Not On Google Product Search?
We always recommend Google Product Search as a must-list engine; it's a free shopping site and it can generate significant quality traffic to your site.

To sign up with Google Base, visit our Supported Feeds Page.

FindGift makes Gift-Giving Easy...In Time for Mother's Day

2010-03-17T10:39:00.014-04:00

With one of the biggest gift-giving holidays nearing on May 9th, Mother’s Day, we would like to welcome our guest blogger, Gary, from FindGift.com, one of GoDataFeed's Gift-Specialty Shopping Channel partners. FindGift is a gift giving search engine that helps shoppers find unique gift ideas, making it a great place to list your gift-centric products.

Greetings from FindGift!

What is FindGift.com? Findgift.com is a gift ideas search engine. Shoppers typically come to FindGift.com looking for a gift for someone not knowing what to get them. This differs from most shopping engines where people know what they want and they are just trying to find who has it. In essence, FindGift is a personal gift advisor that understands the latest trends.

FindGift leverages a 'Hand-Picking' Editorial Process
FindGift's staff reviews your feed to build a targeted campaign, adding your products to the appropriate age, gender, categories, occasions, holidays and expressions. FindGift doesn't blindly publish your entire feed, it's team hand picks and categorizes products into the thousands of categories. Our "hands-on" editorial process fosters higher conversions for your products.

What you Need to Know about FindGift:

Flat Rate Pricing
We have a simple flat rate pricing model. Merchants that want to send feeds must partner at a minimum of $500.

On a budget? We also have rates less than $500 too for those who do not participate in the feed program or want to initiate a small non-feed trial.

We work with the merchants to discuss the path an account will grow and our pricing is flat rate making budgeting easy. Our rate card may be found at: http://www.findgift.net/RateCard.shtml. Rates are a very competitive flat rate over the entire site for every category, making it simple to forecast your budget.

FindGift's Hands-On Approach
Our staff is actively involved in merchant's accounts. All feeds that arrive are automatically tested and hand reviews as needed for content, photos and appropriate categorization into over 1,400 categories. We find that this hands-on approach gives just the right touch to propel results to higher levels. All products are initially reviewed by an editor before going live.

FindGift Performance
Once live, the feed system automatically tracks each product over time and will call for editor attention as needed based on our proprietary monitoring system. Because our staff is involved in your campaign, it is helpful when merchants provide details on best sellers or hot items so we can best understand your offering.

Qualified Traffic:
We pre-qualify the shoppers before sending them to the merchant's site. Our model is one in which we display the most frequently asked information before the shopper is sent to the merchant's site and before the merchant is charged. We allow the shopper to see large images, the store logos and contact information upfront. In the end the merchant owns the client.

With GoDataFeed's built-in FindGift Template, you can actually create a feed to our exact specifications.

To learn more about FindGift, go to GoDataFeed's Supported Shoppping Channels page.

Get Found on TheFind.com with its Expanded Datafeed Template, UpFront Program

2010-03-09T14:25:00.000-05:00

GoDataFeed is happy to host Jordan Keffer of theFind.com, one of the Web's best free comparison shopping sites, to let you know exactly how you can:

Enhance your online visibility
Update your TheFind Feed according to its new feed specifications through GoDataFeed
Increase your traffic by an average of 10 percent, just by joining their UpFront Program

TheFind's New Expanded Feed Specifications
TheFind's datafeed revisions lets merchants include more details about their products, through its new "highly recommended" attributes, to improve search relevance and performance. The new format includes new attributes like SKU, UPC codes, Free Shipping, Category, Color, Brand attributes and more.

TheFind also includes a number of Product and Industry Specific Attributes, so if you sell Electronics you can now include product attributes like Format, Battery Life, Display Type, Screen Size, etc... Or if you sell Apparel, you can include details like Age Range, Material, Shoe Size, Sizes in Stock and more.

While these changes are currently optional, we highly recommend you take advantage of TheFind.com's expanded datafeed format to enhance your visibility. GoDataFeed already provides the new TheFind template within its control panel, simply setup this feed through GoDataFeed to take advantage of the new expanded attributes.

Guest Blogger: Jordan Keffer
Hello from TheFind!

Over 17 million shoppers use our site every month, clicking out to visit hundreds of thousands of stores. Here are some FREE ways in which you can make sure you’re fully optimized with us:

Register and claim your store in the Merchant Center. If you’re not currently registered, you’re not maximizing the visibility of your products on our site. The more information we have about your store, the more relevant your results will be in our search algorithm and the easier it will be for you to connect with the millions of shoppers who visit our site every month.

Once you claim your store, you should use the following features to optimize your presence even further:

Join the UpFront Program Thousands of merchants have already joined. Here are just a few examples: Cymax Stores, Moosejaw, Beach Audio, and Stacks and Stacks. On average, merchants have seen an increase in visibility/traffic of ~10% post joining the program.
Upload your tax and shipping information
Submit coupons
Update your product feeds according to our new feed specification. Lucky for you, GoDataFeed has already been hard at work to make sure TheFind's new feed template is available through the GoDataFeed control panel- simply create a new feed according to the new feed specifications and complete as many attributes as you can about your products

Thousands of merchants have already registered their stores and joined UpFront. So what are you waiting for?
To learn more, go to: https://merchant.thefind.com and http://www.thefind.com/upfront.

Stay up-to-date on the latest from TheFind’s UpFront Program and Merchant Center on our Merchant Blog and Twitter. We follow back!

Volusion API failures - GoDataFeed work-around available

2010-03-06T19:42:00.006-05:00

UPDATE (03/08/2010 12:00pm EST): As of this morning Volusion is still working on the fix for this issue, they noted that this might take a day or two to resolve. GoDataFeed has a work-around and so far all Volusion customers experiencing this issue on GoDataFeed have their feeds up and running with our temporary fix. Read more below...

Those merchants importing their data from Volusion into GoDataFeed may find that the Volusion API is not producing complete data for import, the root of this problem seems to stem from a recent Volusion version and/or feature deployment. While Volusion does not have a time-frame for a fix we trust they are working hard to resolve it.

In the meantime, if you are experiencing problems with your Volusion import (not all merchants are) please open a support ticket within your GoDataFeed control panel and we'll guide you through a quick work-around that will allow you to submit complete data feeds while Volusion fixes the issue.

We will continue to communicate with Volusion to find out when they expect a fix.

Google data feeds uploaded via FTP receiving the data feed file name error

2010-03-03T07:49:00.004-05:00

Update: We can confirm that the Google FTP issue has now been resolved.

Earlier this week we reported that:

As of this morning Google Merchant Center is still experiencing FTP issues, their system is not picking up FTP files and sends out a data file name error email. This is a known issue: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/base/thread?tid=04c2d685fe982779&hl=en

We believe that this should be fixed sometime today, but while the issue persists the following should be done:

1. Open a ticket with Google notifying them that your account is affected by this issue
2. Manually download/upload the feed from GoDataFeed to Google Merchant Center

GoDataFeed Integrates with SearchSpring's Intelligent Search Solution- Webinar March 11th

2010-03-01T13:50:00.010-05:00

GoDataFeed.com and SearchSpring.net team up to help online retailers drive more sales to their site

Increasing Sales with Intelligent Search
SearchSpring makes it easier for shoppers to navigate through your site through an intuitive, easy-to-use search interface that delivers the most relevant and accurate product search results. SearchSpring’s enhanced search solution boosts conversion rates and average order sizes with advanced ecommerce site search and navigation for hundreds of online retailers.

GoDataFeed’s SearchSpring Integration
Online retailers already submitting their products through GoDataFeed’s shopping feed management solution can easily incorporate SearchSpring to enhance sales and searchability. According to MarketingSherpa, revamping a site’s internal search functionality can increase conversions by 270 percent because online shoppers expect to navigate through sites quickly and find products and accessories within seconds. This means that online retailers that have yet to streamline their search and navigation are missing out on significant sales. The problem is many online stores’ search tools are too basic to deliver the accurate search results that could yield higher sales.

Better Search Functionality Enhances SEO
Terms that your customers are using to search your site are valuable terms for which you should be optimizing on the major search engines. SearchSpring automatically discovers thousands of valuable keywords and phrases, and then automatically drives free organic traffic form the major search engines by creating and optimizing search result landing pages.

Driving Sales Higher with Intelligent Search- Webinar
To learn more about SearchSpring, join this Webinar March 11th, 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern:

Register Here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/914203665

Contact SearchSpring at (888) 643-9043
or visit http://www.searchspring.net/

GoDataFeed's Seamless ProStores Integration for Comparison Shopping Channel Marketing

2010-02-23T10:16:00.012-05:00

If you're a ProStores Merchant and interested in listing your products on multiple comparison shopping engines like Google Product Search, Shopzilla, NexTag, Pronto and more, then you should know that GoDataFeed's ProStore's Compatible Shopping Feed Solution can help you get listed effectively and affordably.

GoDataFeed.com is a ProStores Integrated Datafeed Marketing solution that lets you seamlessly automate and optimize feeds to all major shopping channels- with more than 50 shopping channels and affiliate networks to choose from. You can also analyze shopping channel and product performance to focus on your best sellers and remove poor-performing products from your feed.

GoDataFeed’s Exclusive Offer for ProStores Merchants
Start a 30-day Risk-free trial to and receive 3 shopping feed setups (a $225 value) free; this includes 2 feed setups of your choice, plus submission to TheFind.com, one of the Web’s best free shopping channels.

To learn more or view a demo, contact GoDataFeed at 954-745-7998, or contact us to enhance your exposure on the Comparison Shopping Channels.

Shopping.com Introduces New Rates, Listing Policy

2010-02-16T12:19:00.016-05:00

Shopping.com Changing Required Fields
To help merchants improve conversions and reduce cost-of-sale, Shopping.com recently revised its new listings policy, which will be required as of July 1st, 2010. Shopping.com will expand their 'required' fields to a total of nine fields, including:

Image
MPN or UPC (C&E only)
Brand (C&E only)
Merchant SKU
Description
Condition
Product Name
Product URL
Product Price

Learn more about Shopping.com's Listing Policy.

Shopping.com Recognized as Low CPC Leader
On a related note, we wanted to share Shopping.com's recent posting- in a Q4 Survey, Shopping.com was ranked 2nd in Lowest Cost-of-Sale during the two weeks which included Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
They also provided merchants, with Shopping.com's ROI tracker, a 12% ROI in leading C&E (Computers and Electronics) categories.

Interested in listing your products on Shopping.com? Check out Shopping.com on GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels page.

ShareASale Shares its Best Practices, Introduces its Aquarium Social Network

2010-02-05T16:55:00.023-05:00

This week, GoDataFeed examines best affiliate practices and looks at ShareASale's innovative affiliate social network, "Aquarium." To explain it, we're pleased to host our guest blogger, Carolyn Tang, Director of Client Services for ShareASale's award-winning affiliate network, who will share ShareASale's best affiliate marketing practices and introduce ShareASale's new "Affiliate Aquarium" social network.

Greetings GoDataFeed Merchants! Product datafeeds are a great way to maximize your affiliate marketing channel. They enable your affiliates to better merchandise their sites to meet specific consumer demographics, and they allow affiliates to drive shoppers deeper into your site.

Here are a few key best practices to implement:

Product Categorization. Designate a few fields in your datafeed to product categorization. Providing product categories helps affiliates slice and dice your data to best fit their needs. ShareASale offers five custom fields that are perfect for including product data such as: category, sub-category, sale, bestseller, etc. For example, a shopping portal affiliate would get the most out of product categories, while a coupons/deals affiliate would find greater benefit pulling out sale items.

Include a SKU or ISBN. When possible, include the product SKU and ISBN number. This is critical for affiliates with product comparison sites.

List In-Stock Products. Be sure that your product datafeed is up-to-date with in-stock items. If an affiliate finds too many dead links in your datafeed, the easiest solution for them is to drop your feed.

No Direct Links. Don't include any direct links in your product copy.
Affiliates view direct links in datafeeds as free traffic for merchants, and thus direct links in a datafeed are considered an unethical business practice. If the affiliate uses your datafeed to refresh their site, and after refreshing sees a direct link from their site to yours, with no affiliate tracking in place, they will likely drop your feed. (Note: Direct product links in the product URL field are necessary, as affiliate networks will automatically convert this field to tracking links. Direct links in any other field are not desirable.)

Include Image Links. If you have the option, provide the affiliate with both a thumbnail and a large image. Some affiliates are able to auto-resize larger images to meet their site needs, and providing them with a larger image gives them more to work with.

ShareASale's Affiliate Aquarium
ShareASale just launched its Affiliate Aquarium, a social community within the ShareASale network where merchants and affiliates can communicate freely. Merchants and affiliates can create profiles, blogs, groups, events and update their status. Aquarium users are also able to search for other users by keyword or function, making it easy to reach out to merchants and affiliates with mutual interests.

If you're already on ShareASale, and want to check out the Affiliate Aquarium, just login to your account and see the link for “Affiliate Aquarium” and the bottom right side of the main menu.

If you're not on ShareASale and are interested in expanding your visibility through affiliate marketing, take advantage of ShareASale's introductory offer for new GoDataFeed merchants-- Contact Us to learn more.

About Carolyn
As the director of Client Services for ShareASale.com, Carolyn Tang is responsible for building solid relationships between affiliates and merchants within the network, and for ensuring that the needs of all shareholders are communicated and resolved.

Get More Love this Valentine's Day with Feed Optimization, Merchant Promotions

2010-01-20T11:28:00.053-05:00

Now that 2010 has begun, the first real ecommerce holiday, Valentine's Day, is quickly approaching. To help get your site more LOVE and traffic this V-day, GoDataFeed recommends getting your Shopping Feed Campaigns ready by:

Adding Valentine's Day related Keywords (Valentine's day gifts, Gifts for Valentine's Day, Valentine's gift ideas, Valentine's gifts for her/him, etc...) to your feed descriptions and/or keyword fields
Announcing New Valentine's Day Gifts or Offers
Creating Appealing V-Day Deals, like Free-Shipping, Coupons or other promotions and announce them via Channels' Promo Text Fields
Making sure your product landing pages reflect Valentine's Day promotions
Acting Soon- to ensure your V-Day initiatives will be published on time

Optimize Your Shopping Feeds for Valentine's Day
GoDataFeed's shopping channel marketing software allows you to tailor your feeds for Valentine's day by letting you add or replace text in your shopping feeds with Valentine's Day keyword-rich, searchable product data, and/or filtering in/out specific items to target Valentine's day items, gifts or promotional campaigns

We Love Sharing our Merchant Promotions
At GoDataFeed, we work with our Shopping Channel and Affiliate Network Partners to get our online retailers and marketing firms introductory sign-up offers, including:

NexTag -$50 Sign-up Credit for New NexTag Merchants
Pronto - 20% off your First Month's Clicks
Share-A-Sale - 20% Setup Fee Discount
Smarter - $50 Sign-up Bonus
Become - $25 Credit
Sortprice- 7th month Free with Enhanced Listings
ShopMania- Free Listings for 3 months
theFind.com - Free Upfront Merchant Program (a $299 value)

We'd Love to Hear from You
To learn more about any of the above introductory offers, please contact us at or give us a call at 954.745.7998

Yahoo! Product Submit - PriceGrabber Partnership...What you Need to Know

2010-01-11T16:16:00.006-05:00

Yahoo! Product Submit is partnering with PriceGrabber on March 11, 2010 and requiring advertisers to take action which will affect their product listings:

What you need to know:

Deadline THIS WEEK (January 11th to January 19th) to sign up with PriceGrabber and ensure "your products are guaranteed by PriceGrabber to be live on both Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber on March 11, 2010"
Sign up before March 11 any applicable fees will be waived
If you're already on PriceGrabber, then you don't need to sign up for a new account; you'll get listed automatically on both sites

Know your Options:

List your products on both Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber. You can choose to have your products listed on both Yahoo! Shopping and the PriceGrabber Network. If you choose this option, you must sign up for a (no setup cost) PriceGrabber merchant account.
List your products on Yahoo! Shopping only. If you choose this option, you must sign up for a (no setup cost) PriceGrabber merchant account.
Do nothing. If you choose to do nothing, your products will continue to be listed on Yahoo! Shopping, provided your account is adequately funded, until March 11, 2010

Learn more about these options and the Yahoo! Shopping-PriceGrabber Partnership...

We also recommend you touch base with your PriceGrabber account representative to ensure your product listings will continue to run without interruption.

Resolved to Try Social Networking in 2010? Try Sortprice's Facebook Storefront

2010-01-01T08:13:00.039-05:00

For those of you who have resolved to incorporate social networking into your marketing mix this year, we are pleased to announce the first promotion for 2010 with Sortprice.com, who is offering GoDataFeed merchants a discounted promotion when they sign up for their enhanced listings program, which includes a free Facebook Storefront application.

Expose Your Brand on the Facebook Platform
Sortprice's Offer to GoDataFeed Merchants: Sign up for 6 months of Sortprice's Enhanced Flat-rate listings and get the 7th month Free, including a Free Facebook Storefront (limited-time offer)...Learn More

If you're not already on Facebook, you should know that many companies and online retailers, like Petco and Tiger Direct, are quietly branding themselves through this increasingly popular medium. Sortprice.com's Facebook Store application actually lets online retailers create a Facebook storefront.

This week's guest blogger, Doron Simovitch, CEO and Co-Founder of Sortprice will explain further:

Greetings GoDataFeed's Online Retailers,
For starters, merchants who list on Sortprice are guaranteed one of the fairest deals in the CSE industry:

A flat-rate pricing structure that ensures against click fraud
Gives merchants the ability to list all their products, regardless of profit margin
All products are also shuffled daily, ensuring all merchants receive equal exposure.

Sortprice's Facebook Storefront
The Facebook Storefront is included in the Enhanced listings program. Sortprice builds the storefront and retailers can customize it to their needs. Many of the 1,000+ online merchants using the Facebook application are already raving about how influential it is in expanding their ecommerce presence and tapping into Facebook's 350 million users.

Sortprice is committed to creating successful partnerships with merchants and building a strong
presence on Facebook is one area that sets Sortprice apart from other shopping engines. Sortprice brought the first-ever virtual storefront to Facebook, which is free to any enhanced Sortprice.com merchants and lets them operate a store with their Sortprice.com product listings directly on their Facebook pages. It even includes a fun "Wishlist" feature that lets Facebook users register gifts they wish for!

Sortprice's Fast Facts:

Flat-fee Pricing for Enhanced Listings
5,000 Online Retailers
1,000 Retailers on Facebook Store Application
Millions of visitors each month

We at Sortprice are committed to helping online retailers succeed and with our technology and special features, we strive to build solid relationships with every online retailer. We also strongly recommend working with datafeed optimization partners, such as GoDataFeed, to ensure merchants are submitting the most optimized product data.

GoDataFeed will continue helping online retailers enhance their exposure in 2010 by seeking out special offers and discounts with the most popular shopping engines, affiliate programs and innovative new programs, like Sortprice's Facebook Storefront.

Shoptimism....Retail Sales Greater than Expected

2009-12-11T09:58:00.006-05:00

According to the latest government report, retail sales unexpectedly rose by 1.2 percent, triple the anticipated number economists predicted. As stated in Shoptimism, an interesting new book by Lee Eisenberg, the American Consumer will keep on buying, "no matter what."

And while the overall economy finally starting rising at 2.8 percent in the July-September quarter, the global economy is also showing signs of recovery.

In fact, this year's Cyber Monday was the largest one yet, with an 8 percent increase in traffic, according to the National Retail Federation. As high-speed internet becomes the norm for American homes, more people are foregoing the malls for the convenience of online shopping, with a notable shift in shopping from home versus the office. And, according to Shop.org's survey, 96.5 million Americans planned to hunt for bargains, with 9 out of 10 retailers offering special promotions.

Although Cyber Monday was an overall success, online retailers must now focus on finding ways to bring shoppers back with free shipping and other promotional incentives.

Source: NPR, Retail Sales Stronger Than Expected, Shop.org Cyber Monday,
NRF, Cyber Monday Spending Shifts to Early Mornings and Evenings as More Americans Shop from Home

NexTag's $50 Free Clicks Promotion

2009-12-01T15:41:00.002-05:00

Many of you have inquired about getting listed on NexTag, so we are excited to announce that NexTag has just launched a new $50 Sign Up Credit promotion for GoDataFeed merchants.

$50 Sign-up Bonus
Sign up with NexTag and receive $50 credit after your $150* deposit- see terms below.
If you're thinking about listing on NexTag, now's the time!

NexTag is one of the most popular engines on the Web, making this sign-up bonus a great opportunity for new merchants:

More than 17 million people per month use NexTag to research, compare, and save on products and services online
For thousands of merchants, NexTag is an extremely efficient sales channel with its highly qualified traffic and performance-based pricing
Results are measurable so you can make an educated decision on how you allocate your marketing budget
You can find the promotion in the GoDataFeed-NexTag link that will enable you to sign up for this special offer.

Retailers Increase Cyber Monday Promotions to Attract Holiday Shoppers

2009-11-23T15:03:00.009-05:00

Shop.org just released their latest Cyber Monday survey, which reflects an upward trend in retailers promoting deals for CyberMonday, with nearly 90 percent-- that's one in 10 retailers-- that are launching sales for Cyber Monday

Enhancing your Shopping Feeds for Cyber Monday
Online retailers looking to enhance their shopping feeds for the holidays may want to consider increasing their bids and making sure feeds containing any Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotions-- through Shopping Site's optional 'Promo Text' fields-- are being submitted in time, as many engines require 24 to 48 hours to process feeds.

The Shop.org Survey
According to Shop.org's Holiday Survey, conducted by BIGResearch 87 percent of retailers are offering Cyber Monday promotions-- up from 83 percent last year and 72 percent in 2007, which include:

Specific deals 42%
One-day sales 32%
Free shipping on all purchases 15%

More Office Holiday Shopping
Over half of Internet shoppers-- 53%, or roughly 68 million people--will shop from the office to complete their shopping lists and avoid having to fight their way through the busy malls this holiday season.

Read more about this survey on Shop.org

You can also download GoDataFeed's Holiday Tips & Tactics Guide- FREE at GoDataFeed.com

Shopping.com's Holiday CPC Increases for Select Categories

2009-11-16T10:29:00.010-05:00

If you're already listing your products on Shopping.com, then you may have already heard that Shopping.com is only increasing their rates in select categories, effective November 15 to December 31st, 2009, when they anticipate a 35% increase in peak holiday traffic.

You will see increases where "conversions to sale," are highest during the holidays, including specific subategories within Clothing & Accessories, Computers, Electronics, Flowers and Gifts, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Jewelry & Watches, Toys, Sports & Outdoors and Video Games... View the Holiday CPC Increase Rate Card

According to Shopping.com, 85% of Shopping.com's categories will not see the industry's "Across the Board," rate increases. Shopping.com will automatically adjust the bids, so while you won't need to make any changes to your account, make sure to factor these increases into your holiday budget.

Not Listing on Shopping.com yet? Learn more about Shopping.com on GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels page.

Become.com's Gift to Merchants, $25 in free clicks offer

2009-10-27T13:58:00.007-04:00

Today we are happy to host our guest blogger, Greg Haslam, Senior VP of Become.com’s US Comparison Shopping, who will share with us Become’s gift to merchants, which includes $25 in free clicks for any new online retailers interested in listing on Become.com.

Become's $25 Free Clicks Offer

To get more information on the $25 free clicks offer, contact customerservice@godatafeed.com
Guest Blogger: Greg Haslam from Become.com

Greetings Merchants,

Unlike other shopping engines, Become will not raise our rates for the 2009 holiday season. We have historically preferred to give our merchant partners control of their campaign strategy during this peak shopping period, and this year is no exception.

We feel it important to provide our retail partners the flexibility to adjust their bid rates on a campaign, category, or individual product level in order to optimize their listings-- especially during the critical Holiday season. This pricing strategy is based around an individual retailer’s own internal goals and performance rather than a forced increase across the board.

Logo Program Promotion
We are also decreasing the cost to participate in our logo program by half for the month of November, in order to make ancillary branding opportunities on Become.com more available for merchants with various budgets to try out.

Become’s Datafeed Optimization Tips:

Merchants should always provide images and categories; missing either component will result in artificially down-ranked listings

Map as deeply as possible into the Become taxonomy-- GoDataFeed has all of Become's categories built-in to its software, making it easy to categorize products

The more unique identifiers one can provide, the better. Do not provide false unique identifiers just to populate the columns (e.g., 123456789 for UPC). If no data is available you can 1) leave the field(s) blank 2) omit the entire column, or 3) use internal numbers as SKUs under the SKU headers

Make sure the titles are clear and concise, while important keywords are placed at the beginning of the fields; include descriptive keyword information in the product descriptions as well (size, color, brand, etc).

Bid up a minimum of one cent for a quick boost to surpass those bidding at the minimums; depending on the category, bids can become competitive quickly—reviewing your bid strategy is important (especially during high shopping peaks like the holidays)

Free shipping can be indicated by entering “0” in the shipping cost fields
Provide tax and shipping information when possible. If tax is not charged in one or more states, use “0” to indicate as such in your merchant dashboard

Logo placement is available on Become.com to merchants who are bidding competitively to positively affect their ranking.

Update your listings as frequently as possible. Inaccurate pricing information will quickly harm conversions

Become.com offers a free ROI tracker that is integrated into their merchant dashboard reporting and helps optimize listings

To learn more about listing your products on Become.com, visit GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels page, or contact customerservice@godatafeed to get the $25 in free clicks today.

Increase Your Visibility with theFind's new UpFront Program

2009-10-21T10:39:00.018-04:00

TheFind just launched their new UpFront Program, to help merchants enhance their visibility on theFind.

If you're already listing your products on theFind, read on about getting on theFind's FREE UpFront program, with a Special Offer ($299 Value) for GoDataFeed Merchants below.

If you're not on theFind, this is your opportunity to learn more about one of the best FREE comparison shopping engines on the Web.

We are happy to host our guest blogger, Jordan Keffer from theFind.com

Greetings from TheFind! Our shopping search engine currently attracts over 13.5 million shoppers every month, and is built upon a philosophy of being the most comprehensive shopping destination online. We are thrilled to have sent traffic to over 100,000 unique retailers just in the last 30 days!

Our Merchant Center is for every merchant - large or small - who wants greater visibility and relevance within TheFind’s search results. Simply log in to claim your store and submit your key information - including payment and shipping options, Twitter and blog URLs, customer service links and more - so that we can share it with our shoppers and help increase your store’s relevance and conversion rates.

theFind's Upfront Program
Once you’ve claimed your store, you’ll be able to submit coupons and promotions and upload your logo and physical store locations. Also, be sure to join your peers in UpFront Program which gives you an added boost of visibility and transparency.

Limited Time Offer for GoDataFeed Merchants
For a limited time, we are waiving the annual UpFront service fee for GoDataFeed merchants, so be sure to join before the critical Holiday shopping season.

Here’s how it works:
1) Create an account in our new merchant center: https://merchant.thefind.com/.
2) Tell us more about your store by filling out the profile questions. This information will appear on our site with your product listings.
3) Verify your store by placing the code of the button, badge or link that you would like to display on your homepage and then clicking on verify. Shoppers will be able to click on the UpFront badge on your site and see a pop-up with the same information that appears on TheFind.

That’s it! As long as you leave the UpFront badge up on your site, you’re a member of the program and you’ll receive all of the benefits (including increased visibility on our site) that come with it!

If you can’t place the UpFront badge or text link on your homepage right now, you should still go in and tell us more about your site – the more information we have about your store, the more relevant your results will be in our search algorithm and the easier it will be for you to connect with the millions of shoppers who visit our site every month.

To learn more, go to: https://merchant.thefind.com/ and http://www.thefind.com/upfront.
Stay up-to-date on the latest from TheFind’s UpFront Program and Merchant Center on our Merchant Blog and Twitter. We follow back!

Optimize Your eCommerce Holiday Strategy

2009-10-15T13:23:00.026-04:00

Holiday Edition- Tips & Tactics Guide

To help you make the most of this holiday season, we at GoDataFeed have teamed up with our eCommerce Partners eComIQ.com and SearchSpring.net to offer you an actionable retail checklist, chock full of useful tips and industry insider tactics you can use to prepare for 2009's biggest shopping days.

This guide also features new merchant offers by the industry's leading shopping channels and affiliate networks.

Download the Tips & Tactics Holiday Edition Guide Today to learn more:

Get Ready for the Big Shopping Days- Calendar Items
Product Feed Optimization, with New Shopping Channel Merchant Offers
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Site Search Optimization
Email Marketing

Visit us at GoDataFeed.com to get your copy and drive more quality traffic to your site this holiday season!

Amazon Product Ads Offering $25 Free Clicks in October

2009-10-05T10:42:00.016-04:00

Amazon Product Ads just launched an October Free Clicks promotion where you can get up to $25 in free clicks for their CPC program. So if you've been thinking about trying out Amazon Product Ads, now is the time.

How it Works:

1. CPC Program- You only pay for click-throughs to your site

2. Market to Amazon.com's Customers- Amazon Product Ads helps you reach Amazon.com's millions of qualified, motivated shoppers

3. Get Started and get up to $25 in free clicks-- no monthly fees or minimum spend.

More About Product Ads
Amazon's Product Ads Cost-per-Click program brings buyers directly to your site by displaying targeted ads for your items on select Amazon.com product and search pages

Ready to get started? Sign up with Amazon Product Ads today, and take advantage of their introductory offer.

Want to learn how to streamline and optimize your feeds to multiple shopping sites?

Request GoDataFeed's Demo today or start your $0.99, first month's Risk-Free Trial and start driving more quality traffic to your site.

Sign up with Pronto and Get 20% off First Month's Clicks

2009-10-01T10:33:00.001-04:00

If you're looking for more value for your online marketing dollar, listing your products with Pronto lets you reach the Web's largest social shopping site and automatically market your products on Ask.com and CitySearch.com.

Pronto's Specialized Sites Drive More Targeted, Quality Shoppers to your Store
Plus, Pronto has recently rolled out a fun, new initiative to give shoppers a unique retail experience in Pronto's three most popular categories:

ProntoStyle.com
ProntoTech.com
ProntoHome.com

Pronto's uniquely branded sites feature easy-to-access categories, brands and sale items, making it easier for shoppers to find your products.

Interested in Listing Your Products on one of the Web's Fastest Growing Shopping Engines?

5 Reasons to List on Pronto

70+ million products, 65,000+ stores

One of the Web's fastest-growing shopping engines & social networks

You can highlight listings with promotional text

The Web's largest social shopping site featuring more than 14 million unique users

Automatically markets your products on Ask.com and CitySearch.com

Ready to Get Started with Pronto?
Get 20 percent off your first month's clicks by contacting GoDataFeed's Customer Service at customerservice@godatafeed.com and requesting Pronto's promotional code today.

To learn more about Pronto, visit GoDataFeed's Supported Shopping Channels.

Share-A-Sale Offers GoDataFeed Merchants Signup Discount

2009-09-08T14:38:00.023-04:00

Looking to Generate More Traffic to your Website through Affiliate Marketing?

Good News! Share-A-Sale's award-winning Affiliate Network is now offering GoDataFeed clients a discount to start an affiliate program with Share-A-Sale-- see details below.

Let Affiliate Marketers become your Online Sales Force

With ShareASale, you'll be able to upload your own banners, text links, videos, widgets and affiliates will choose from your available creative and send you visitors using their own individual traffic generation methods. Best of all, with Share-A-Sale, you decide your commission structure and criteria and only pay for performance.

How It Works:

1. Setup An Account with Share-A-Sale, and determine your commission structure

2. Automate & Optimize your Share-A-Sale Feed through GoDataFeed

3. Affiliates generate traffic to your site --you only pay commission on generated sales or leads

Ready to Get Started with Share-A-Sale?
To receive a discount off of Share-A-Sale's setup fee, contact CustomerService@GoDataFeed.com.

To learn more about ShareASale's Affiliate Network, go to GoDataFeed's Supported Feeds Page.

Amazon Product Ads Enhances Specifications for more Optimized Feeds

2009-07-27T14:50:00.020-04:00

GoDataFeed is now integrated with Amazon Product Ads' Enhanced DataFeed Specifications

More Attributes = Better Quality Traffic
New Feed Specs Amazon Product Ads' latest datafeed enhancements give merchants more opportunity to optimize product feeds with more attributes relevant to their product lines and industries.

These new feed specifications improve search results and relevance, which lead to more quality pay-per-click traffic from Amazon, one of the world's online retail giants. For instance, if you sell gourmet food, you can now populate the 'Flavor,' field. You can also add bullet points, keywords, colors, sizes, age and a host of other attributes that help market your products to your target shopper.

How Can I optimize my Feeds for Amazon Product Ads?

If you're GoDataFeed Merchant, you can simply add your desired fields to your source file and map your fields according to Amazon Product Ads' new changes-- just remember *not to* change existing field names. If you have a supported ecommerce platform/shopping cart, like AmeriCommerce, 3DCart, Yahoo Store, ShopSite, Volusion; then, you can add custom fields to your platforms and GoDataFeed will automatically import them. Then proceed to map those fields on Amazon Product Ads Feed (on GoDataFeed) and submit your optimized feed.

High Quality Images Lead to More Clicks & Sales

On a related note, a recent Amazon test shows that adding quality images to your feeds increases page views by up to 60 percent and orders by up to 25 percent-- underscoring the importance of providing shopping engines, and your clients, with quality images that show detail and inspire trust.

Not on Amazon Product Ads yet?

You can sign up for Amazon Product Ads directly through GoDataFeed's Supported Feeds Page.

More About Product Ads

Amazon's Product Ads Cost-per-Click program brings buyers directly to your site by displaying targeted ads for your items on select Amazon.com product and search pages

Share-A-Sale Affiliate Network Expands Datafeed Specifications

2009-07-09T14:37:00.013-04:00

GoDataFeed is now integrated with Share-A-Sale's New Expanded DataFeed Template

New Share-A-Sale Expanded Feed Specs
Share-A-Sale's expanded datafeed revisons lets merchants include more details about their products, through 15 new data columns, to improve search relevance and performance. The new format includes new attributes like quantity discounts, product cross-selling, additional category fields and other product options.

What that Means to You?
These changes are optional, so you only need to make changes if you want take advantage of Share-A-Sale's expanded datafeed format

Want to Enhance your Share-A-Sale Feed?
GoDataFeed clients can map to Share-A-Sale's new fields through the 'Map Fields,' option in the GoDataFeed application. To learn more about how to map your fields, watch our step-by-step 'Video Help' on the top navigation, near the 'Knowledgebase' icon.

Interested in submitting your products to Share-A-Sale?
Interested in Submitting to Share-A-Sale's award-winning affiliate network, you can sign up with Share-A-Sale through GoDataFeed's Supported Feeds page.

Google Base makes the 'Condition' Attribute a Required Field

2009-06-18T15:15:00.008-04:00

As of next week, GoDataFeed will make the Google Base 'Condition' attribute a required field to comply with Google Base's requirements, which go into effect June 30th.

So make sure to include the 'condition' attribute for all your items, if you haven't already. The condition attribute is one of the three values: new, used or refurbished.

You can also read more about this change on Google Base's Blog

Not On Google Base?
If you're looking to expand product exposure, you should definitely be submitting your product feeds to Google Base; it's a free shopping site and it can bring you significant quality traffic.

To sign up with Google Base, visit our Supported Feeds Page.

Online Shoppers Spend More On Dad- Are your Feeds Ready for Father's Day?

2009-06-05T11:34:00.041-04:00

Online shoppers spend up to 50 percent more on Dad, according to the NRF's most recent survey*, so to capture some of that lucrative Father's Day traffic, make sure to get your product feeds in shape for Father's Day, tips below.

If you sell any products in the most popular Father's Day categories below, make the most of your feeds to enhance sales to these generous shoppers:

Books or CDs
Clothing
Gift Certificates
Consumer Electronics
Personal Care Items
Sporting Goods
Tools & Appliances
Home Improvement
Gardening Tools
Automotive Goods

GoDataFeed's Father's Day Feed Optimization Tips

- Include Father's Day keywords - in titles and/or descriptions: Father's day, Father's day gift, gift for dad, dad, grandfather, gift ideas (for) dad, Father in law

- Make it Personal- If your store offers personalized items, make sure to highlight that in your feed, as these are popular for Father's Day

- Make it Fast- Shoppers are often rushing to get dad his gift on time, so if you offer free, fast or same-day shipping, highlight that in your feeds

- Promote Father's Day items if applicable, in your feeds with any Father's Day promotions

About the Father's Day Survey

Online Shopping for Father's Day isn't slowing down, according to Shop.org's* latest National Retail Federation survey, with the average offline shopper spending approximately $90, and online shoppers expecting to spend an average of $136! Although online shoppers only account for nearly 18 percent of overall shoppers, they are spending substantially more.

*Source:May, 2009, NRF Father's Day Survey, Conducted by BIGresearch

Shopping.com Revises Feed Specifications

2009-05-28T16:03:00.011-04:00

GoDataFeed is integrated with Shopping.com's new DataFeed Template, according to its latest datafeed specification requirments-- which will be in effect on Shopping.com on June 1st.

New Feed Specs
Shopping.com's latest template is more thorough and allows merchants to include more attributes and improve categorizations for their product lines.

Required Changes
Shopping.com requires merchants include a Merchant SKU as well as Brand/Manufacturer, by August 30th, 2009.

More Attributes, More Categories
They've also added a host of new attributes, including Product Bullet Points, Alternative Image URLs, Stock availability, more detailed Product Types and Sub-Types, and Category Specific Attributes like size, length and weight and industry-specific attributes like Software platforms.

To learn more, view Shopping.com's Revised Feed Specifications

Shopping.com Introduces 2 New Pricing Models & More

2009-05-11T13:15:00.016-04:00

GoDataFeed's team wants to keep online merchants in the loop regarding new programs and shopping engine updates. We just got word that Shopping.com is announcing two new pricing programs:

New CPC Pricing Models:

1. Tiered CPC- where the CPC Rates are based on the product price in all categories-- this helps merchants advertise lower priced items profitably

2. Tiered Logo Pricing - which makes advertising your brand more affordable by changing the logo rate from a flat $0.10 CPC to a tiered cost structure that ranges from $0.02 to $0.10, depending on the CPC rate

International Click-Filtering
Shopping.com has also rolled out an international click filtering program which will allow merchants to continue to receive clicks -- without being charged for them.

Upcoming Changes
Also, there will be changes to the Shopping.com feed later this month-- stay tuned for more updates.

GoDataFeed Now Integrated with 3dCart's e-commerce platform

2009-04-30T16:03:00.008-04:00

April 30, 2009-- 3dCart, an award-winning provider of hosted shopping cart solutions and e-commerce design, has partnered with GoDatafeed.com, a provider of affordable datafeed management services, to provide automatic submission of products to various comparison shopping sites including Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag, Google Base, Yahoo! Shopping, PriceGrabber and more than 50 Shopping Sites and affiliate networks.

"3dCart is committed to helping merchants drive more traffic to their stores and by partnering with GoDataFeed, we are providing our retailers with an aggressive solution to promote their products on multiple shopping sites, with more than 50 different sites to choose from," Said Gonzalo Gil, 3dCart CEO. "With 3dCart's award-winning search engine friendly shopping cart, and GoDataFeed's user-friendly platform that simplifies datafeed marketing, our customers will be miles ahead of the competition."

Now, 3dCart clients can import their product data into GoDataFeed’s system to automate their datafeed marketing efforts. GoDataFeed has created a seamless import process that automatically retrieves 3dCart stores’ product data and updates it nightly. To introduce the service, GoDataFeed will provide 3dCart's merchants’ first two feed setups on the GoDataFeed system-- a $150 value--at no cost, during their first month’s risk-free trial, all for only $0.99!

“We understand that 3dCart merchants are looking for a turn-key datafeed management solution that is both affordable, robust and offers the most value for their marketing dollar,” said Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed’s President and Founder. “We are excited to empower 3dCart’s online merchants with a new way to simplify and optimize their datafeed management efforts and enhance the flow of more qualified traffic to their Website.”

As the economy declines, retailers are struggling to find ways to maximize their ad dollars and get the most effective marketing they can find. By utilizing GoDataFeed’s software to optimize their own feeds, they are able to cater to the large percentage of online shoppers who research on comparison shopping sites before purchasing. GoDataFeed has all of the datafeed templates and categories built-in and makes it easier to optimize the product data for each shopping site's requirements.

GoDataFeed’s Web-based, user-friendly interface is designed with the user experience in mind, catering to retailers, SEM firms and hosting companies. The software supports more than 50 Comparison Shopping Engines and affiliate networks, including:Shopzilla, MSN Cashback, Shopping, Google Product Search, Yahoo! Shopping, NexTag, CNet, Shop.com, TheFind, Pronto, PriceGrabber, PriceRunner, Smarter, Share-A-Sale, ShopMania , MyCoupons, Oodle, Play.com, Amazon.com and more. See the full list here.

About 3dCart
3DCart Shopping Cart Software solutions include category, product, and customer management tools not found in many of our competitor products. Give our e-Commerce Software a test drive! - Click Here to start your free 30 day trial!
View the complete set of features 3DCart has to offer
Unlike most other shopping cart software providers, 3DCart is in constant development... always expanding and upgrading. It's the reason why we're the fastest growing e-commerce solution available. 3DCart provides you with an unrivaled toolkit - from promotion and marketing, storefront design, order processing, shipping options, statistics & reporting, and product management - we are simply unrivaled in the industry.

About GoDataFeed
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 50 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client- from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process.

GoDataFeed’s software engineers and marketing specialists have developed ecommerce solutions for online businesses since 2000. Responding to the popularity of comparison shopping channels, GoDataFeed’s team combined its collective knowledge of best ecommerce and shopping channel marketing practices to create a single, user-friendly application to manage the product feed process. The GoDataFeed team has been quoted by retail industry sites including Practical eCommerce, Ecommerce-Guide.com, Small Business Informer and ECommerceOptimization.com.

Optimizing your Shopping Feeds for Mother's Day

2009-04-27T22:04:00.027-04:00

Shopping for Mother's Day on the internet is so easy and convenient, it's no wonder more consumers are searching for just the right gift for Mom online.

Late April to early May, searches on comparison shopping engines for mother's day gifts are expected to peak, so to get your product feeds ready for the 4th highest spending holiday, GoDataFeed suggests:

Highlighting Ideal Mother's Day Gifts in your product feeds by sprinkling your titles and/or descriptions with terms including: mother's day, mother's day gift, gift for mom, mother and daughter, mom, grandmother, gift idea (for) mom, mother in law, nana or mommy

Personalization- Stores that offer personalized items, such as jewelry, should promote that service for mother's day; with GoDataFeed, you can include any promotional message in your product feeds. For instance you can include " Free engraving" in any shopping feeds that allow promotional messaging

Promote Free & Fast Shipping- With many shoppers rushing to get mom her gift on time, free, fast or same-day shipping should be accentuated in your feed. For instance, Gift Basket Sites- if you offer same-day delivery, be sure to include that information in your product feeds.

Include Promotional Language- such as Mother's Day gift with purchase, free gift-wrapping, discounts and coupons

According to the National Retail Federation's Mother's Day Survey by BIGresearch, despite the slow economy, approximately 18 percent of consumers expect to buy Mother's Day Gifts online, spending the same, or more than last year; an average of $181.88 in multiple categories, including:

- Jewelry & Watches
- Books
- CDs
- Gift Certificates
- Consumer Electronics
- Computer Goods & Accessories
- Personal Services - Spa Facials & Massages

Other very popular Mother's Day Gift Categories include:
- Flowers
- Housewares
- Home Decor
- Clothing
- Chocolates
- Edible Gifts

If you sell any of these product lines and want to learn how GoDataFeed can help you optimize your product feeds for Mother's Day, contact GoDataFeed to view an online demo, or start your risk-free $0.99 trial today.

Shopping.com Reduces Minimum Deposit to $100, Launches Reduced CPC Promo

2009-04-10T12:49:00.008-04:00

As many of you know, Shopping.com requried retailers to place a hefty $700 minimum deposit to advertise their products on Shopping.com.

So if you were on the fence about trying Shopping.com, good news! Shopping.com has just reduced their minimum deposit to $100. They also reduced cost-per-click pricing, which they are running until May 15th, on more than 200 categories and subcategories including:

Electronics
Computers
Office products
Health & Beauty
Home & Garden
Sports & Outdoors
Jewelry & Watches
Kids & Family
Video Games
Media --Books, Movies & Music
Musical Instruments
Cars - Auto Parts & Accessories
Flowers & Gifts

To sign up with Shopping.com, you can go directly through GoDataFeed's Supported Feeds Page.

Spring Forward with GoDataFeed

2009-03-20T08:35:00.022-04:00

Today is the First Day of Spring

Time to Kick off the Season and Help your Business Bloom

GoDataFeed's 5 Spring-Feeding Tips

Evaluate which shopping sites are bringing your store the most qualified traffic- With GoDataFeed’s Analytics module, you can track clicks, conversions and revenue from conversions. If you haven’t already set up your analytics—now is the best time to track performance and evaluate the best shopping sites for your store as well as your top-selling products

Go Green- What better way to welcome spring than to accentuate your green product lines — GoDataFeed now supports Greenzer, an innovative shopping site that helps merchants attract the growing number of eco-conscious shoppers

Spring into the Season by Trying Out New Shopping Sites- GoDataFeed Supports more than 50 Comparison Shopping Sites to empower merchants with more selection to expand their online reach and visibility to a variety of shopping sites, affiliate networks and free shopping sites like Sortprice, theFind and Google Product Search

Spring Forward your Marketing Promotions- Many comparison shopping sites allow merchants to enter promotions via their Promo Text fields. Using GoDataFeed’s robust rules editor, merchants can design promotional messages based on brand-name, price or any other criteria in their product data

Take advantage of GoDataFeed Merchant Offers- available at http://www.godatafeed.com/, including free clicks and listing offers from Become.com, ShopMania and Smarter.com

GoDataFeed Now Supports Greenzer.com’s Eco-Friendly Shopping Site

2009-03-17T10:51:00.005-04:00

Helping Merchants Cater to the Green Lifestyle

Who says it’s not easy being green? With shopping sites like Greenzer, selling green products is not only easy, it helps online merchants capture the growing market of shoppers interested in making more socially and environmentally responsible shopping choices. After noticing a growing trend toward more eco-conscious shopping, GoDataFeed added Greenzer.com, a green shopping site that promotes and simplifies earth-friendly shopping.

“Eco-friendliness is a new criteria shoppers are using to buy healthier, better quality products and we find that our website’s educational content both simplify buying decisions and result in higher conversions for merchants.” said Jeremy Arditi, one of Greenzer’s founders. “Consumers are only beginning to realize the tangible personal benefits from living green and we see this awareness influencing the purchasing process on an unprecedented scale.”

While there are a growing number of environmentally-friendly products on the market, many consumers are still trying to make sense of the green terminology and how it can enhance their lifestyle. Greenzer’s comprehensive buyer guides, online videos and product comparisons provide consumers with a well-rounded, balanced approach to shopping eco-friendly products, delivering more qualified shoppers.

“We are excited to work with forward-thinking shopping sites, like Greenzer, to provide merchants with a uniquely green platform to feature their eco-friendly products—giving more qualified exposure to those product lines.” said Ro Grosman, Director of Technical Operations at GoDataFeed. “Greenzer does the research for consumers and offers merchants an innovative way to highlight and sell more environmentally responsible products online.”

To be listed on Greenzer, products must meet one or more of Greenzer’s minimum environmental standards and go through Greenzer’s “Green” filtering process. Greenzer also ranks products on a scale from 1 to 10 according to their “Greenness,” 10 being the most green. By selling green products online, merchants are supporting green businesses and encouraging manufacturers to develop more earth-conscious product lines.

To help merchants increase their online footprint, while reducing our ‘collective’ footprint, GoDataFeed is offering a discounted rate for merchants interested in automating and optimizing their product feeds to Greenzer. In addition, GoDataFeed will setup the Greenzer feed for new clients—at no cost- a $75 value. To learn more about this promotion, contact GoDataFeed at customerservice@godatafeed.com.

GoDataFeed also supports more than 50 shopping channels including Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, NexTag and more.

About GoDataFeed
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 50 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client- from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process.

GoDataFeed’s software engineers and marketing specialists have developed ecommerce solutions for online businesses since 2000. Responding to the popularity of comparison shopping channels, GoDataFeed’s team combined its collective knowledge of best ecommerce and shopping channel marketing practices to create a single, user-friendly application to manage the product feed process. The GoDataFeed team has been quoted by retail industry sites including Practical eCommerce, Ecommerce-Guide.com, Small Business Informer and ECommerceOptimization.com.

About Greenzer
Greenzer is a new Web site and shopping engine intended exclusively for ‘green’ products, offering people the chance to shop at online retailers offering eco-friendly products. The catalog offers products that meet a minimum green requirement across ten categories, including apparel and accessories, beauty, babies and kids, electronics, home and garden, and travel. Using a proprietary, patent-pending technology, Greenzer scores select products’ impacts on the environment by analyzing their green attributes, labels/certifications, and manufacturers’ sustainable practices. The result is a 1-10 ‘Greenzer Score’. The site also offers green lifestyle content, such as the Daily Greenz blog, buyer’s guides and other content features. Greenzer also powers green shopping experiences on several partner sites including MSN. In October 2008, Greenzer was selected in PC World’s “100 Incredibly Interesting & Useful Websites”

GoDataFeed Adds Play.com, Leading Entertainment E-Tailer, Expanding Retailers’ Reach in Foreign Markets

2009-03-02T11:35:00.013-05:00

With the growing demand for consumer entertainment products online and accessibility of the internet, many retailers are naturally growing their business by selling their products in lucrative foreign markets. GoDataFeed, provider of affordable datafeed management services, has just added PlayTrade from Play.com. Play.com is one of the United Kingdom’s top entertainment shopping sites that specializes in gaming consoles, video games, books, music and other electronic products.

PlayTrade offers the opportunity for companies to sell their entertainment and consumer electronics products directly to Play’s own customers. Although UK-based, many American retailers are listing on Play.com to expand their international reach.
Some of Play.com’s most successful media sellers are US-based because these merchants realize the untapped growth potential that lies in marketing their products directly to Play.com’s 10 million registered shoppers.

“By adding PlayTrade to our supported feeds, we maintain our commitment of giving merchants more choices and tools to expand their customer base and boost their international presence among the world’s leading shopping sites” said Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed’s Director of Technical Operations. “Like PlayTrade, GoDataFeed aims to help merchants sell more products online, while simplifying their business processes.”

In fact, online analyst group, Foresee Results, have declared Play.com and Amazon.com as the UK’s leading online sellers as well as “most loved” by UK shoppers. During the 2008 Christmas season alone, Play’s sales grew a considerable 24 percent, when compared to last year, processing approximately 1,000 orders per minute, with sales in excess of £400 million.

Similar to the Amazon Marketplace model, PlayTrade handles the retail advertising and merchandising, credit card processing and customer care. All merchants need to do is decide on a selling price and fulfill orders promptly. Once signed up third party sellers can load their inventory into the PlayTrade database and their products will be available to purchase by Play’s customers in a matter of minutes.

Best of all, they can list an unlimited number of products on the site for a flat-rate subscription fee of £17.38, which is equivalent to approximately $25.00. Commission is only paid on actual sales, just 13.9% on books, DVD, CD and Video Games. All products sold in the Computing and Electronics categories have transaction fees of just 6.9%.

Play.com’s main product lines consist of DVDs, CDs, Books, Gadgets, Electronics, Mobile devices, PC and video games. For a limited time, PlayTrade will waive the £17.38 monthly ProSeller fee to GoDataFeed clients for the first 3 months of trading. In addition, GoDataFeed is now offering the first two feed setups on the GoDataFeed system—a $175 value-- at no cost for new subscribers interested in automating their feeds to Play.com.

About GoDataFeed.com
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 50 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client- from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process.

GoDataFeed’s software engineers and marketing specialists have developed ecommerce solutions for online businesses since 2000. Responding to the popularity of comparison shopping channels, GoDataFeed’s team combined its collective knowledge of best ecommerce and shopping channel marketing practices to create a single, user-friendly application to manage the product feed process. The GoDataFeed team has been quoted by retail industry sites including Practical eCommerce, Ecommerce-Guide.com, Small Business Informer and ECommerceOptimization.com.

Contact Information:
Lin Grosman
Marketing & Business Development
954.745.7998
http://www.godatafeed.com/

About Play.com
PLAY.com is the UK's favourite Book, DVD, music and games retailer and was founded in 1998. PLAY.com offers DVDs, CDs, games, books gadgets and electronics and has added to the range with Posters, T-shirts and the recently launched online trading site– PlayTrade™. Play.com differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on entertainment and leisure only, and pioneering free delivery on the internet. PLAY.com has become the UK's third most visited online retailer with in excess of 10 million registered customers in over 30 countries with more than 600 employees.

PlayTrade was fully launched in March 2007 and had a phenomenal first years trading. In year two the Company is experiencing triple digit growth as the PlayTrade sellers deliver both value for money and excellent customer service.

Contact Information:
Tim Tuer
Senior Sales & Account Manager, PlayTrade
tim.tuer@play.com
0044 1223 484174
Play.com

Amazon Product Ads Launches FTP & Merchant Webinar Feb. 25 at 10 am PST

2009-02-24T13:15:00.019-05:00

Good News Merchants!

Amazon Product Ads now Supports FTP, (File Transfer Protocol) datafeed delivery, enabling merchants to completely automate and update their feeds through GoDataFeed.

This feature makes sure your product data is always up-to-date--automatically! To learn more about this feature, you can register for Amazon Product Ads’ Webinar taking place tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 25th, at 10:00 am to 10:30 am PST.

If you're not already advertising on Amazon Product Ads, you should know that this is Amazon's Cost-per-Click program that behaves like a comparison shopping site in the sense that it takes Amazon shoppers directly to your site by displaying targeted ads for your items on select Amazon.com product and search pages.

Fast Facts about Amazon's Product Ads:

Exposes you to millions of Amazon shoppers
More than 85 percent of Amazon.com's 44 million monthly visitors are likely to have made a purchase in the last month
Amazon Product Ads drive traffic directly to your website
There are no monthly fees and no minimum to spend

Interested in advertising on Amazon's Product Ads?

1. Sign up and set up your account by contacting Ford Harris at Amazon:
Phone: 206-266-5584
Email: fordh@amazon.com

2. Setup your Amazon's Product Ads feed on GoDataFeed, with your new FTP information, schedule and submit.

If you need more information, contact GoDataFeed.

GoDataFeed Hearts its Supported eCommerce Platforms

2009-02-13T13:32:00.020-05:00

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we wanted to remind merchants of how much we, at GoDataFeed, LOVE working with our Integrated Shopping Cart Platforms—which include:

AmeriCommerce
Volusion
Yahoo! Stores
ShopSite
StoresOnline
OsCommerce*
Magento*

GoDataFeed Seamlessly Integrates with these various platforms, making it fast and easy to automatically import and update product data for submission to the comparison shopping sites.

It literally takes minutes to import your product data! And, once your data is in GoDataFeed, our system automatically retrieves product data on a nightly basis, so your store's product data is always current. What's not to LOVE?

We are always open to integrating new platforms, so if you have a shopping cart platform you would love to request for integration, contact GoDataFeed at contact@godatafeed.com

Love Easy DataFeed Management?
Sign up today and see how easy it is to automate and optimize your feeds through GoDataFeed.

We'd Love to Show you Our Online Demo, Request a demo today.

*Requires one-time integration through GoDataFeed, at a one-time fee of $99

AmeriCommerce Partners with GoDataFeed To Simplify Data Feed Marketing to Comparison Shopping Sites

2009-01-13T12:59:00.055-05:00

January 14, 2009 – AmeriCommerce, a leading provider of shopping cart software and storefront solutions, teamed up with GoDatafeed.com, provider of affordable datafeed management services, to automate the submission of AmeriCommerce stores’ products to various comparison shopping sites including Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag, Google Product Search and many more.

“Both GoDataFeed and AmeriCommerce are designed to help merchants drive more traffic to their sites and our integration provides our retailers with a turn-key solution to promote products on a variety of comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks,” said Ed Sturrock, AmeriCommerce Product Manager. “GoDataFeed’s robust and user-friendly platform simplify datafeed marketing, optimize product listings and update Americommerce store information automatically—saving our merchants valuable time and resources.”

Now, AmeriCommerce clients can instantly import their product data into GoDataFeed’s system to automate their datafeed marketing efforts. GoDataFeed has created a seamless import process that automatically retrieves AmeriCommerce stores’ product data and updates it daily. To introduce the service, GoDataFeed will setup AmeriCommerce merchants’ first three feeds on the GoDataFeed system-- a $225 value--at no cost, during their first month’s risk-free trial.

“We are excited to provide AmeriCommerce clients with effective datafeed management that will accelerate their marketing efforts on multiple retail channels,” said Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed’s Director of Technical Operations. “GoDataFeed empowers AmeriCommerce merchants by giving them the right tools to enhance their visibility on the comparison shopping landscape and give their stores a competitive edge.”

As sales shift away from brick-and-mortar stores, research [1] indicates that online retail sales are expected to exceed $300 billion in sales by 2012 and 75 percent of online shoppers purchase products they research on comparison shopping sites. Optimizing product feeds is a key element in shopping channel success and GoDataFeed’s software has all datafeed templates and categories built-in, making it easy to optimize product data to each shopping site’s unique requirements.

GoDataFeed’s Web-based, sleek-user interface is designed with the Web 2.0 experience in mind, catering to retailers, SEM firms and hosting companies. The software supports more than 50 Comparison Shopping Engines and affiliate networks, including:

Become

Shopzilla

MSN Cashback

Shopping

Google Product Search

Yahoo! Shopping

NexTag

CNet

Shop.com

TheFind

Pronto

PriceGrabber

PriceRunner

Smarter

Share-A-Sale

ShopMania

MyCoupons

Oodle

Play.com

About AmeriCommerce
AmeriCommerce is a full service e-commerce solution provider. In production since 2000, the AmeriCommerce shopping cart software is built on the concept of marketing performance, ease of use, and customization. AmeriCommerce pioneered the Multiple Storefront Technology™ and provides their customers with everything they need to design and operate successful online storefronts

AmeriCommerce Benefits:
Multiple Storefronts™ Management in 1 unified administration console
Free upgrades for life
Advanced theme engine providing control over the entire store layout
Product, Order and Customer management tools
Rule based analytics, shipping, discounts, payments, regions and more.
User defined tag based searching
Depth of features is unsurpassed, do what you do today…but better with the AmeriCommerce Shopping Cart Software!

About GoDataFeed.com
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 50 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client- from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process.

GoDataFeed’s software engineers and marketing specialists have developed ecommerce solutions for online businesses since 2000. Responding to the popularity of comparison shopping channels, GoDataFeed’s team combined its collective knowledge of best ecommerce and shopping channel marketing practices to create a single, user-friendly application to manage the product feed process. The GoDataFeed team has been quoted by retail industry sites including Practical eCommerce, Ecommerce-Guide.com, Small Business Informer and ECommerceOptimization.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Contact: Ed Sturrock
Product Manager, AmeriCommerce
Phone: 800-936-9006
Email: ed@americommerce.com
http://www.AmeriCommerce.com/

Contact: Lin Grosman
Marketing & Integration, GoDataFeed
Phone:954-472-3400
Email: lgrosman@godatafeed.com
http://www.GoDataFeed.com/
All You Need to Feed

[1] Source: Forrester Research, Inc., Cambridge, MA, US eCommerce: 2008 to 2012.

GoDataFeed's Top 10 Holiday Datafeed Optimization Tips

2008-11-02T13:20:00.042-05:00

This holiday season, many shoppers are going to skip the malls and shop directly online. In fact, Forrester Research predicts online retail sales this holiday season will grow 12% to $44 billion. With the holidays right around the corner, it's the best time to increase your store's reach and visibility.

To help you optimize your product feeds in time for the holidays, the GoDataFeed team has compiled its Top 10 Holiday Tips for optimizing your retail product feeds:

Anticipate upcoming traffic and bid more aggressively on top performing categories on peak bargain-hunting dates: Black Friday in Late November, “Cyber Monday” after Black Friday, pre-holiday, early December and post-holiday, December 26th and January 1st

Take advantage of GoDataFeed’s Featured Merchant Offers--which include free merchant credits, free listings and clicks-- by Smarter.com, Become.com and ShopMania to expand your holiday promotions

If you’re not already submitting to Google Base--- Sign Up-- it’s free and you could be reaching thousands of shoppers

Create compelling call-to-action promotions in feeds that allow promotional messaging, i.e. Holiday free-shipping incentives, Price Discounts, Date-specific promotions that prompt buyers to shop by a holiday deadline, Gifts with Purchase

Where applicable, include the “Retail Price” or "MSRP" field along with the “Sale Price,” so customers can see their holiday savings

Deepen your product descriptions by adding recommended data feed fields like gender, color, size, etc…

Provide as much preliminary information as possible in the feed including shipping costs, tax rates and delivery date estimations

Consider advertising on Microsoft's Jellyfish/Cashback, which employs a Cost-per-Action model - you only pay for conversions!

During the holiday rush, make sure to filter out any out-of-stock products and submit your feeds on a daily or weekly basis to keep your data feeds fresh

Install GoDataFeed analytics to get instant feedback on your holiday feed campaigns to gain insight on your best performing shopping engines, categories, products and holiday promotions--to learn more about installing analytics, go to your merchant home page--under 'View Start Page' ->'Activate Analytics'

Want to optimize your feeds in time for the holidays? Contact GoDataFeed at http://www.godatafeed.com/ or call us at 954-472-3400 to schedule a tour of our datafeed management software

GoDataFeed Merchants Get $25 Credit at Become.com

2008-10-06T14:11:00.017-04:00

For a limited time, Become.com is offering GoDataFeed merchants a sign-up bonus of $25 worth of credit. To take advantage of this promotion, enter the code: BEGDF208D during Become's sign-up process at: https://www.become.com/merchant/SignUp.aspx

Become's Feed Optimization Tips to Improve Shopping Site Performance

Merchants should always provide images and categories; missing either component will result in artificially down-ranked listings
Map as deep as possible into the Become taxonomy-- GoDataFeed has all of Become's categories built-in to its software
The more unique identifiers one can provide, the better. Do not provide false unique identifiers just to populate the columns (e.g., 123456789 for UPC). If no data is available, leave the field(s) blank or omit the entire column
Make sure the titles are clear and concise, while important keywords are placed at the beginning of the fields
Bid up a minimum of one cent for a quick boost to surpass those bidding at the minimums
Provide tax and shipping information when possible. If tax is not charged in one or more states, use “0” to indicate as such
Free shipping can be indicated by entering “free” or “0” in the shipping cost fields
Logo placement is free on Become! Use it to strengthen branding and to further call out your listings
Update your listings as frequently as possible. Inaccurate pricing information will quickly harm conversion

Smarter Offers $50 Sign Up Bonus for GoDataFeed Clients

2008-08-19T21:43:00.008-04:00

GoDataFeed recently caught up with Joanna, Account Manager with Smarter.com and in addition to offering new GoDataFeed merchants a $50 Sign up Bonus, she also shared with us Smarter's Insider Tips for Shopping Engine success:

•Manage Bids either by category, or better yet product level
•Remove products you know do not perform well on CSE’s (low margin, high ticket items)
•Remove Out of Stock products
•Refresh and update your data feeds as often as you make changes to your website
•Make sure your account is funded- Smarter.com has a Continuous Payment plan to avoid any downtime
•Use the MPN or UPC code to better compare with other merchants
•Write a product name that identifies the product by the common usage name-- i.e. pants, not slacks, shirts not blouses
•Ensure your store profile is completed fully and up to date, including name, location, phone numbers, customer service hours & contact info, shipping information, return policy
•Use any and all optional relevant data fields, including Coupon Field, Promotion Field, etc.
•If you change your data feed, make sure to contact your shopping engine representative immediately to avoid any potential issues
•Evaluate and optimize your product pages for a favorable and informational shopping experience

"It’s important to incorporate these best practices into your marketing initiatives. The deeper understanding you have of the options available on each engine, such as Smarter.com – the greater the chance of a successful marketing campaign," said Joanna.

$50 Sign Up Bonus for GoDataFeed Merchants
GoDataFeed clients who sign up for a Smarter.com account today can receive a $50 bonus towards use on the Smarter.com site.

GoDataFeed Data Feed Management Solution Now Integrated with eBay Stores

2008-07-24T12:48:00.004-04:00

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – July 24, 2008 – GoDatafeed.com, provider of affordable data feed management and optimization services, today announced that it is seamlessly integrated with eBay stores, helping its retailers promote their products on multiple comparison shopping sites including Shopping.com, Shopzilla, NexTag, Google Base, PriceGrabber and many more.

“We are very excited to provide eBay merchants with an affordable and innovative solution to diversify their marketing efforts on the comparison shopping engines,” said Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed’s President and Founder. “Savvy eBay merchants realize the importance of ‘spreading their eggs’ through multiple channels and our seamless eBay integration increases their marketing toolset and enhances their ability to reach more shoppers looking for their products.”

By combining their eBay marketing efforts with multiple comparison shopping sites, retailers can significantly increase quality traffic to their site-- while maintaining their eBay presence. Research[1] indicates that online retail sales are expected to reach $212 billion in 2009 and exceed $270 billion by 2010, and 75 percent of online shoppers buy products they research on comparison shopping sites.

Giving merchants the ability to optimize their feed is a key element in shopping channel success. GoDataFeed’s software has all datafeed templates and categories built-in, making it easy to optimize and customize feed campaigns to all major shopping channels at a flat subscription rate of $75.

To help eBay merchants get started , all GoDataFeed plans include two free feed setups and a risk-free, $0.99 trial for the first month. In addition, GoDataFeed offers free analytics and unlimited support with all its data feed management plans.

In addition to eBay stores, GoDataFeed is also integrated with Yahoo! Stores, Volusion, ShopSite and AmeriCommerce platforms. GoDataFeed’s feed management plans cater to all merchants, from new retailers who are just starting out to large search engine marketing firms with multiple retail clients. Learn more datafeed marketing and GoDataFeed’s plans.

[1] Source: Forrester Research, Inc., Cambridge, MA, US eCommerce: Five-Year Forecast And Data Overview, October 12, 2006

Maximizing Comparison Shopping Site Marketing

2008-07-08T19:52:00.020-04:00

Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs) have become increasingly important for merchants looking to increase sales, enhance exposure and build brand awareness online. They help attract more motivated buyers to their site and boost conversions through more targeted product advertising.

Whether you’re a shopping site veteran or just starting out, we at GoDataFeed put together a list of tips to help you get the most out of shopping site marketing:

Optimize Your Product Feeds- In a nutshell, to optimize your feed is to provide each engine-- and ultimately your target shopper-- with as much accurate, up-to-date and detailed product information as possible **before** they click over to your site- this includes product titles/descriptions, high quality images, complete price information, merchant profile, user reviews and relevant keywords/search terms
Maximize your Attributes- Include as many relevant required, optional and custom fields (i.e. color, gender, size, etc...) as possible about your products- merchants can even add seasonal, sale or coupon attributes to your data feeds, if they apply
Name Your Products Appropriately- use common search terms that shoppers are familiar with to find your products
Categorize your products in the most relevant location for each shopping site
Submit Fresh Feeds to ensure product data is accurate, in-stock and reflects correct pricing information
Customize Feeds to Each Engine- one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of shopping site marketing is that each shopping site is unique and you should tailor your feeds to meet each CSE's requirements.
Maximize Your Resources - Take advantage of each shopping sites' merchant resources. Some shopping sites, like PriceGrabber, have dedicated Account Managers for each merchant to help with the feed setup process; Become is a shopping engine that lets merchants post their store's logo at no cost.

Measure Results- then Modify

Begin with a Strategy- have specific, measurable sales goals to ensure your feed campaigns are effective and profitable
Monitor Listings- routinely review performance reports, looking at profit margins for each product to determine which products and engines are performing well and which products need to be tweaked or removed
Proactively manage bidding -review your products' performance and place higher bids on best sellers, place lower bids on average sellers, and place zero bids, if applicable, on the lowest sellers-- pay attention to peak sales and seasonal item trends
Manage your CPC budget- ideally, your best-selling, high-margin products should always be visible and you should aim to increase your budget during holiday and seasonal promotions
Minimize click costs by removing inactive, out-of-stock or unprofitable products- it may also help to manage bids on a product or category basis to reduce click costs
Spread your Eggs- you may want to test different feed campaigns, based on price, brand, sale campaign or category, for instance, to see which products and engines perform better

As comparison shopping online has grown, the number of shopping portals and shopping site models have also evolved:

CPCs, CPA & Free Models
Today, merchants can choose from the Cost-per-Click Model, offered by a majority of the shopping sites, as well as Cost-per-Action or Cost-per-Sale that charges merchants per sale (commission-based), such as Jellyfish, now known as CashBack, --a model that is becoming very popular with many merchants. And, of course, there are the free shopping sites, such as Google, TheFind and MSN Product Live-- which we recommend most merchants start out with.

Specialty CSEs
Shopping sites are also getting more specialized-- today, there are a number of niche sites dedicated to wine, electronics, books, baby products and those that target a specific demographic, like theFind, which is popular with the female demographic. These sites can increase product/store exposure through more targeted product placement.

Going Social
As shoppers surf for products online, they are also looking for user reviews and buying guides as well as positive feedback and ratings about the store they're shopping from. Merchants should take advantage of shopping portal "user review" programs, if available, because many times, a shopper will pay more to buy from a store that has higher merchant ratings.

For more information on effectively managing data feeds or outsourcing the entire data feed management process, visit http://www.godatafeed.com/.

About GoDataFeed
GoDataFeed is reshaping the delivery of product feeds to the major comparison shopping channels with an innovative solution that properly and effectively automates, optimizes and analyzes the data feed management process. GoDataFeed empowers online retailers and search engine marketers by providing an affordable, time-saving solution to increase traffic and visibility on more than 40 comparison shopping sites and affiliate networks.

Serving online retailers, hosting and search engine marketing firms, GoDataFeed strives to meet the individual needs of each merchant and exceed customer expectations. GoDataFeed’s staff provides one-on-one customer service to meet the unique demands of each company and works with each client- from setting up customized feeds to implementing tracking—to ensure feeds are delivered properly and are driving motivated buyers to their site. GoDataFeed also caters to companies who wish to delegate the entire data feed setup process through its fully-managed plan.

GoDataFeed’s software engineers and marketing specialists have developed ecommerce solutions for online businesses since 2000. Responding to the popularity of comparison shopping channels, GoDataFeed’s team combined its collective knowledge of best ecommerce and shopping channel marketing practices to create a single, user-friendly application to manage the product feed process. The GoDataFeed team has been quoted by retail industry sites including Practical eCommerce, Ecommerce-Guide.com and Small Business Informer.

GoDataFeed.com Releases its v2.0 Data Feed Management & Optimization Software

2008-06-19T16:28:00.005-04:00

Simplifying Product Feeds to 40+ Comparison Shopping Sites

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – June 19, 2008 – GoDatafeed.com, provider of affordable data feed management services, announced today the launch of the newest version of its Web-based application that helps online retailers list their products on multiple comparison shopping sites.

“GoDataFeed v2.0 helps clients maximize shopping site marketing efforts and optimize their product feeds for each engine through features that validate feed accuracy, customize campaigns and categorize products in the best department for each engine,” said Ro Grosman, GoDataFeed’s President and founder. “Our software simplifies data feed management and enhances product placement, giving online retailers more tools to increase quality traffic to their site from multiple comparison shopping engines.”

Forward-thinking online retailers and search engine marketing companies enlist the help of data feed management services, like GoDataFeed, to reduce the time and resources spent preparing and submitting product feeds to multiple shopping sites.

“GoDataFeed 2.0 gives you precise control of your feeds so that you can improve your shopping engine rankings and sell more products,” said Alan Townsend, Chief Technical Officer for StuffedAnimals.com and Puppet.com. “GoDataFeed 2.0 is the ultimate solution for managing, optimizing and updating your shopping comparison engine feeds automatically.”

After comprehensive research and development, as well as feedback from existing GoDataFeed users, GoDataFeed’s v2.0 software helps online retailers:

Optimize Product Listings with dynamic categorization tools that let retailers customize feeds and merchandise products in the best department for their products
Validate Feeds against each shopping engine's requirements to ensure product data is accurate and complete prior to submission
Preview Feeds in Real-Time- as changes are made to product data
Customize Feed Campaigns for sale, holiday and free-shipping promotions or to add third-party tracking tokens
View Real Time Analytics- of product and engine performance

To get merchants started, all GoDataFeed plans include two complimentary feed setups and a risk-free, $0.99 trial for the first month. In addition, GoDataFeed offers free analytics and unlimited support with all its plans.

GoDataFeed Plans
GoDataFeed’s plans cater to all merchants, from new retailers who are just starting out to large search engine marketing firms with multiple retail clients:
- Self Managed Plan- US $75.00 a month, per store for unlimited shopping engines
- Starter Plan- US $50.00 a month, per store for 3 shopping engines
- GoDataFeed-Managed - US $250.00 a month, per store for online retailers and marketers who wish to delegate the feed setup process to the GoDataFeed Team

Read more about about GoDataFeed’s plans. Their “Data Feed Tip Sheet” is also available on their site, at http://www.godatafeed.com/.

Increasing Conversions on Comparison Shopping Sites

2008-05-28T11:52:00.014-04:00

While there is no “magic” formula for increasing conversions on comparison shopping sites, there are some steps merchants can take to improve the quality of the feed to impact their conversion rate:

Fill in as many fields as possible in each shopping engine- in the GoDataFeed system, you can hover over each field to view each engines detailed description/example
Titles and descriptions - make them clear, concise and accurate
Categorize products in the best location for each shopping site- GoDataFeed has all data feed categorizations built-in, so you can view which categories best fit your product lines
Customer Reviews can seriously affect conversions so make customer service a main priority
Price Matters- it may be a good idea to include tax and shipping on the comparison shopping engine so that the consumer knows the exact price once they click over
Check your Links- make sure your product and image URLs work properly -- check that the re-directs are valid, working links that link to the actual product page for the product clicked as opposed to a homepage
High quality images- it is important to give consumers a good idea of what the product actually is when the image is enlarged, prior to clicking over
Improve and optimize all relevant landing pages, especially for sale or holiday items
Increase Ranking of Best Sellers- increase your maximium bid slowly -one or two cents in the beginning- then monitor performance and see if it pays to bid higher.
Maintain Fresh feeds- While a customer might be pleasantly surprised if a lower price is returned following a click-through, conversions may decrease if a higher price is returned or worse yet, the product is unavailable.
Remove low performing products- GoDataFeed's Performance Analytics lets you monitor which products are selling and which are not-- use this feedback to exclude low-performing items.
Take advantage of each CSEs features-For example, PriceGrabber's offers dedicated Account Managers for every merchant and Become displays merchant logos free with each listing

The idea is to provide shoppers with as much relevant information as possible prior to the click-through, leading to a good user experience and a more qualified lead. GoDataFeed has all of the fields and categories built-in for each engine, so merchants can see descriptions and examples of each shopping site’s data feed requirements.

For this entry, we surveyed a handful of our supported engines, including PriceGrabber, Become and Jellyfish-- now known as "Cashback." According to the NY Times article "Microsoft Offers Rebates to Shoppers Using Its Search," the new program focuses on searches for products to be bought online, which Microsoft executives said account for roughly a third of search queries and a majority of search advertising revenue.

Recently Released: Online Retailer Shortcuts: Automating Product Feeds to Multiple Shopping Sites

2008-05-26T14:47:00.002-04:00

Read recent article on GoDataFeed

GoDataFeed Now Seamlessly Integrated with Volusion 5.0 Stores

2008-04-07T16:45:00.010-04:00

Good News Volusion Merchants!

GoDataFeed now makes it fast and easy to submit your products to multiple shopping engines.

As part of our commitment to simplify your data feeds, GoDataFeed now retrieves product data directly from Volusion 5.0 stores.

GoDataFeed also supports Yahoo! and ShopSite stores- and continues to expand supported eCommerce platforms.

GoDataFeed's Performance Analytics also helps you track and manage your products and shopping site profitability. Read more about GoDataFeed's features.

You can consolidate your shopping feeds using one interface that works across multiple engines, including Google Product Search, Yahoo! Shopping.com, NexTag, Shop.com, Become.com, Pronto.com, and many more shopping channels. Want to know more? Contact GoDataFeed today.

Tips for Tracking Real-Time Sales & Clicks with GoDataFeed

2008-03-10T13:39:00.013-04:00

At GoDataFeed, we often get asked- "Which shopping engines are the best ones for my products?"

Although there is no right answer for any one category or merchant, our answer is always the same-- track your sales and clicks using GoDataFeed's Performance Analytics and you'll be able to follow which engines are bringing you more traffic as well as which products are your best/worse sellers. So on to our top "Performance Analytics" questions...

What will Performance Analytics track?

GoDataFeed’s Performance Analytics gives you real time statistics on orders, total clicks, revenue, profit and ROI information from each shopping site as well as product-level data. Performance Analytics will also give you Cost-per-click estimates, if you plug in your CPC values in GoDataFeed's Category Mapping section.

Why Track Performance?
Quickly identifying your top and bottom-selling products is crucial to measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns and your store's performance. Using real-time feedback from Performance Analytics can help you make better informed decisions to increase conversion rates and improve overall sales. This feedback will help you:

Determine the best performing shopping sites for your store

Focus on optimizing your best performing products

Reduce ad costs by excluding your lower performing products from your product feeds

So what does it take to install Performance Analytics?

It's easy-- just install a couple of lines of java script on a couple of pages on your site-- the landing and conversion pages- test your tracking and then start seeing which shopping sites and products are generating clicks and sales.

You've installed Performance Analytics- what's next?

After you've installed and tested Performance Analytics, can optimize your feeds by removing the unprofitable, low-margin items with GoDataFeed's Product Filter while optimizing by focusing efforts on the best performing engines and products.

Tips for Analyzing your Campaign's Success:

Define how you will measure your campaign’s overall return on investment and conduct ongoing, routine analysis of your comparison shopping engines

Set benchmarks by comparing monthly and quarterly figures

Identify which categories and items generate the highest revenue

Assess keyword trends in your top revenue-generating categories and items and determine which ones are driving traffic to your site

Determine which comparison shopping engines customers are using to find your site and generating revenue

Monitor costs and revenue received from each shopping engines’ click-through and conversion rates and modify your campaign accordingly

GoDataFeed Merchants-- you can download the Instructions directly from your Home Page in the GoDataFeed Application-- under the "Analyze Results" section. If you need assistance implementing Performance Analytics, or still have more questions, please email us at customerservice@godatafeed.com.

GoDataFeed Adds Amazon's Newest CPC Program, Product Ads

2008-02-21T11:54:00.017-05:00

Good News Merchants-- GoDataFeed now supports Amazon's new Cost-per-Click program that brings buyers directly to your site by displaying targeted ads for your items on select Amazon.com product and search pages:

Amazon's Product Ads and are accepting merchant applications for the following categories:

Electronics & Computers
Home & Garden
Tools
Toys
Kids & Baby

Interested in advertising on Amazon's Product Ads?

1. Sign up and set up your account by contacting Ford Harris at Amazon:
Phone: 206-266-5584
Email: fordh@amazon.com

2. Setup your Amazon's Product Ads feed on GoDataFeed, schedule and submit.

If you need more information, contact us to get Amazon's Product Ads Overview.

GoDataFeed Adds Dealio- List Products Free

2008-02-11T19:23:00.000-05:00

GoDataFeed Adds Dealio - A Great Dealio for Everybody

We're always on the lookout for the great shopping portals and opportunities for GoDataFeed eTailers and came across Dealio. Although still in Beta, this comparison shopping site seems promising.

So What's the Dealio?

- Absolutely free product listings
- Online Retailers can post Coupons and Hot Deals
- Dealio's Toolbar helps over 2.5 million shoppers search all websites for deals

Learn more about becoming a Dealio merchant.