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

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

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

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.

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