Shopping Search Tactics

An in-depth look at the technology we've developed to

track Shopping Search Performance

Shopping Search Difficulties• Rising CPC

• Poor tracking tools included

• Analytics vendors don't “Get it right”

• Too many individualized feeds

• ROI is hard to calculate correctly

• More and more competitors

• Rules constantly evolve

Our Four Step Program

• Throw caution to the wind• Scale back• Track data• Develop technology to

properly target the exact products to send in each feed

Shopping Engines we use• Froogle Free (time to create feed)• Bizrate / Shopzilla PPC• NexTag PPC• Shopping.com PPC• Pricegrabber PPC• Others will be added as we get the support staff

in place.

Build a strong foundation

• The key is knowing your clicks and sales associated with them

• We use a redirection (301) on our own site

• A cookie is set• IP / UserAgent info is

also gathered, and it's all logged in a db table

Weight of Multiple Clicks

• Must decide how much weight each of multiple clicks gets

• First one, last one, product that sold only

• This can be a judgement call, but it will happen, so plan early

Fixing Irregularities

• Multiple clicks of the same product?

• Timeframe to discount them vs count again?

• Bot clicks?• Seasonality?• Each engine handles

click counts a little different.

Data Analysis Step

Clicks Sales GP$

BizRate

Shopping

Froogle

NexTag

PriceGrabber

Data Charting

2,160%.50210.898-765-4SHOPPIN

11,796%.25129.4986-573-9NEXTAG

6,000%.35121.0063-372-4PRICEGR

7,333%.15111.0047-562-9BIZRATE

10,916%.30232.7518-432-1BIZRATE

16,413%.30249.2426-923-5BIZRATE

171,333%.151257.0012-345-6BIZRATE

ROIChargesClicksNetSKUSite

Hidden Costs to Consider

• Boxes• Order processing• Merchant account fees• Warehousing costs• Drop ship fees• Call center staff• Packing materials• Any other expenses,

such as electricity, server upgrades, etc.

Do the math

• GP - (CPC * Clicks) – (Other related expenses)

• Calculate the cost of each sale vs Net Profit

• Take a look at problem items

• Watch for new competitors

• Set goal ROI numbers

• Track as closely as possible

• Drop poorly producing products

• Work on your conversion rates

Smart Feeds Show Profit• Evaluated ROI after 3

months• List Everything ROI:

110%• Scale Back ROI:

185%• Data Tracked ROI:

Grew from 135% first month to 1250% by 3rd month and still holding in the 1800 - 3500 range

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1st Month 2ndMonth

3rd Month

EverythingScaledSmart

Watch Those Competitors

Direct Shopping Engine Sales

• Direct is easiest to track

• Someone clicks on a product and buys on the same visit

• Same user at the same computer comes back later and buys

• Just set a cookie when you see a referral from a shopping engine

• Track that user to purchase at any time while that cookie is valid

Indirect Shopping Engine Sales

• Indirect can be for a number of reasons

• When your merchant ratings are low (new), customers tend to call to order

• “Email to friend”

• Ask them where they found your product

• Set a cookie on the “Email to friend” inbound link

• Other touch points for data gathering

Overall effect on sales

| 2 0 0 2 | 2 0 0 3 | 2 0 0 4 | 2 0 0 5

Shopping Engine Sales Effect

Site AloneDirectIndirectTotal Sales

New Customers

• Shopping engines currently bring us 18% of our new customers

• Compare that to AdWords (4%), MSN (6%), Yahoo (9%)

• 22% of our repeat customers arrive through shopping engines

Conclusions• Track as much as you can, but don't rely on

an analytics package

• The more you know about your own sales process and the costs involved in an order, the better you can track ROI back to the source.

• Set goals and stick to them, even if that means you need to drop your favorite products out of the feeds.

For Additional Assistance

www.toolbarn.comwww.toolpartsdirect.com

brianm@toolbarn.com