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Holiday Shoppers Can Find Easy and Convenient Shopping on Their Mobile Phone With Sears2go PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance Ecommerce 30 Extending the Marketplace with Google ProductAds Auctionbytescom
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:36:12 +0000
PRNewswire FirstCall Just in time for the busy holiday shopping season Sears.com today announced the launch of Sears go a mobile commerce Web site. Sears go which enables customers to find and buy select Sears.com merchandise from their mobile phone is the first on the go technology offered by a US retailer pairing mobile commerce with Sears best in class in store pickup. In Sears continued effort to innovate and serve our customers as they adopt new technologies Sears go makes it easier than ever to cut out the holiday shopping hassles and shop from the convenience of your mobile phone said Ravi Acharya Director of eCommerce at Sears Holdings. More and more customers are using their mobile phones to shop online and Sears go is completely geared for mobile devices with an emphasis on speed usability and security. So whether you re stuck on the commuter train or waiting for your child s holiday concert to begin you can get your shopping done ultimately leaving more time for you Sears go lets customers select products from a wide variety of categories including apparel electronics and computers fitness and sports jewelry tools toys and games with home delivery or in store pickup. After purchasing an item on Sears go shoppers picking up their order in store will receive a text message alert when their merchandise is ready for pick up. Many of the same features available on Sears.com will be available through Sears go providing a streamlined consistent experience. Functional features such as product search browsing shopping cart and checkout gifts product reviews store locator special offers and order status make mobile shopping just as easy as shopping online. Text SHOP to or visit Sears go.com on your mobile phone. Standard text messaging rates may apply. About Sears Holdings Corporation Sears Holdings Corporation Nasdaq SHLD News is the nation s fourth largest broadline retailer with over billion in annual revenues and approximately full line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools lawn and garden home electronics and automotive repair and maintenance. Key proprietary brands include Kenmore Craftsman and DieHard and a broad apparel offering including such well known labels as Lands End Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands. It also has Martha Stewart Everyday products which are offered exclusively in the U.S. by Kmart and in Canada by Sears Canada. The company is the nation s largest provider of home services with more than million service calls made annually. For more information visit Sears Holdings website at http www.searsholdings.com . Source Sears Holdings Corporation Email Story Set News Alert Print Story Copyright Yahoo Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Terms of Service Copyright PR Newswire . All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PRNewswire content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRNewswire. PRNewswire shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. a leading provider of industry proven customer reviews and social merchandising solutions today announced the availability of AnswerBox. This new product specific FAQ solution enables online shoppers to interact with each other and designated staff experts to resolve product inquiries not fully addressed by existing product specs and descriptions. According to a JupiterResearch report of online shoppers surveyed have left a site without purchasing multiple products because they couldn t get a question answered about just one of the products in their shopping cart. Now PowerReviews clients like evo Evogear.com are able to identify and fill gaps in site content with answers from actual product users and subject matter experts. And unlike traditional one to one support channels such as email phone or live chat AnswerBox displays those answers directly on the product detail page for all future customers to see . Following a comparison of existing site content and questions collected through AnswerBox evo reported adding sizing and fit guides throughout its site to better address shoppers true concerns. Nathan Decker Director of Ecommerce for evo says The response to AnswerBox has been revealing with questions and answers coming in at x higher rates than customer reviews we re discovering where our site content needs enhancement the most. By listening to our customers we are able to identify gaps in site content and fill them in with highly relevant and useful product information. Andy Chen CEO of PowerReviews says In the absence of comprehensive product information customers are likely to abandon the shopping process and search for answers at competing sites or abandon the shopping process altogether. AnswerBox is the perfect tool for retailers to fill in this critical gap by providing the specific information their shoppers are looking for. About PowerReviews PowerReviews www.powerreviews.com provides customer reviews and social merchandising solutions to online retailers and their shoppers. The company s solution for collecting organizing structuring and moderating relevance based reviews helps significantly boost merchants sales driving the highest uplift in the industry. In addition to working with more than online retailers including Staples Toys R Us REI Drugstore.com Gardener s Supply Diapers.com and Jockey PowerReviews has also launched its own reviews and recommendation site Buzzillions www.buzzillions.com . The company is headquartered in San Francisco with an international office in London. For PowerReviews Lisa Tarter lisatidalwavepr.com Copyright Business Wire. All rights reserved. More. Article PowerReviews Launches AnswerBox to Help Retailers More Effectively Respond to Customer Questions Print this article Share this article Stay Updated News gadget on your Google homepage Subscribe to a news feed in Google Reader Share on Del.icio.us Digg Facebook Fark Google reddit Slashdot StumbleUpon Have your Say Name Email Subject Your Comment Enter Verification code Choose Theme Search Enter your search terms Web www.earthtimes.org Submit search form You can Current News News Category Business Entertainment Environment General Health Sports Technology World Add to Google Toolbar Breaking News Press Releases About us News Archives Browse old Archive Feedback Disclaimer Mobile PDA News Alerts The views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of earthtimes.org and we accept no responsibility for the views or opinions expressed in the articles either direct or indirect. www.earthtimes.org The Earth Times All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy But Google being Google it won t be a typical marketplace. Instead of setting up a core site where people will go to transact business Google is poised to bring the marketplace to all corners of the Internet. The following is a thought piece on how Google might use its search and advertising assets to change the face of ecommerce doing for product listings what it did for advertising. This is a view of what Ecommerce . might look like. Preamble What sparked this epiphany of sorts was a recent conversation with a collector and long time eBay seller. He related how much business he was seeing transacted within the forums of niche collectibles sites. A member will post a desirable item for sale and more often than not an offer would be made and the deal is completed within the confines of the forum. Conversely a collector might post a message about an item they are looking for. Because of the targeted nature of the community more likely than not someone would come up with the item and the deal is finalized between the two parties. We checked with several hard core collectors who confirmed that collectors were buying and selling from each other on niche sites classifieds and collectors forums whereas or years ago the items would likely have been listed on eBay. This type of ecommerce activity typically happens off the radar since the offers are posted informally on forums or classifieds of micro sites and buyers are sending payment through various methods including cash check or money order. Why Not eBay In June the theme of eBay s Developer s Conference was eBay Anywhere. eBay encouraged its affiliates to figure out ways to display eBay listings all over the Internet such as blogs and Facebook and across platforms including mobile devices and on users desktop through tools like San Dimas . This was a degree shift from how eBay had protected its proprietary marketplace in the past when it did not even allow search engines to display its listings side by side listings from other marketplaces. Yet one year later former eBay product managers criticized eBay for failing to take the marketplace out to the Web and to social networking sites. In August Rogelio Choy blogged about this in a post called eBay Look beyond the .com The fortunate unfortunate truth is that the radical shift in Internet usage especially with teens and young adults will continue to erode traffic at former leading mass market Commerce or content sites like eBay. Simply put the Internet is becoming WAY social and web service oriented. If an online site or service is not heavily invested in both the future is dire. A Forbes article relates the problem more bluntly The quirkiness eBay brought to the Web eventually moved elsewhere. Laurence Toney was running eBay s collectibles category in and tried to push through a plan to let fans of collectibles display their stuff free of charge on eBay and then chat and post comments. It would make eBay more sticky make it a place where people could hang out he says. But his idea didn t pass eBay s stiff test instant measurable profits. Only ideas with obvious returns get resources says Toney. He soon saw hobbyists shift their activities to MySpace and Facebook. He ended up doing a deal with online shopping site Kaboodle and had to pull it off with no engineers. eBay sellers are not passively waiting for eBay management to get it. They are listing on multiple sites in addition to eBay and they are using blogs and social networking sites to proactively create a presence where buyers are engaged. But many of eBay s collectibles and antiques members already belong to tight knit communities and feel a high level of trust with each other when transacting business. This type of informal ecommerce does not go unnoticed by companies who are anxious to aggregate this economy for its potential revenue. WorthPoint is an example of a company that is attempting to build an ecommerce site for collectors from the community up. Other social networking sites for collectors like iTaggit have sprung up trying to capitalize on this revenue stream which is a by product of community interaction. But will members uproot from their already established niche communities and add one more site to their favorites list or are they comfortable trading within their own circle Many frustrated eBay sellers have urgently called for Google to create an online auction marketplace which we see as unlikely. But with the tools they already offer and simply connecting the dots Google could extend the reach of ecommerce in bold and innovative ways and not only in the area of antiques and collectibles. Google ProductAds the Building Blocks The flash of insight into what Ecommerce . might look like came to us when we thought about what would happen if Google took Product Search which aggregates individual merchants product listings and put them on publishers websites the same way it does with Google AdWords. In other words a Google AdWords AdSense for ecommerce listings via Google Product Search. We are calling this hypothetical service Google ProductAds. We had been discussing Google internally quite a bit because it continues to refine its ecommerce platform now offering a multi item shopping cart and adding Shipping and Tax information to Google Product Search listings. But it was when our collector friend observed that there was a lot of ecommerce taking place directly between buyer and seller in forums and classifieds listings on niche collectibles sites that we saw the potential for a Google ProductAds offering. There are several components necessary for the type of offering we envision which Google already has in place Merchant product listings along with the ability to display them based on relevancy Google Product Search . Multi item shopping cart and the Google Checkout payment processing service. Existing relationships with a vast network of websites of all sizes publishers who run Google AdSense on their sites and the ability to classify those sites and their content according to subject. To understand our vision of Google ProductAds one must be familiar with Google Product Search and Google AdSense AdWords and how strong Google s algorithm is for recognizing relevant content and serving up appropriate advertising to a targeted audience. Google Relevance The reason the Google AdWords advertising program works is because Google is so good at serving up relevant ads on websites all across the Internet. For instance Google is able to dynamically serve up ads that link to websites offering dog training videos on this blog about Beagles. Imagine if the blogger also displayed Google ProductAds where visitors could click on individual product listings and purchase items through Google Checkout. And imagine how happy merchants would be knowing they are getting sales from people they might never have reached through mainstream marketplaces. The model also works well within collector forums which tend to be very specific especially as you drill down into individual threads. This is the type of content that drives very targeted Google ads in the AdWords program. Google Product Search Google Product Search is Google s shopping search product. Users can access it through the main Product Search page and users can also find product listings when searching directly on Google.com. Sellers can submit their product listings for free and those products then appear when shoppers type in relevant search terms. The feed can be submitted via Google Base Store Connector or Google s API and it includes the product title description attributes price shipping tax and photo. Currently merchants can upload listings from any marketplace storefront or website including eBay Yahoo eCrater Bonanzle etc. A shopper who clicks through to a Google Product Search listing is taken to the marketplace or storefront where the listing was created in order to complete a transaction. There they may have a choice of paying either the seller or the marketplace via Google Checkout PayPal credit card or whichever payment method the seller and or marketplace chooses to offer. Google makes no revenue from Product Search yet either from merchant or the marketplace. Google AdWords Advertising Program With Google s ad network Google brings advertisers through the AdWords program together with website publishers through the AdSense program . Advertisers can choose to run contextual ads on any participating website or they can run site targeted ads. Google AdSense is the flip side of AdWords publishers join the program and allow Google ads to be placed on their websites. The AdWords advertiser pays Google when someone clicks on their ad which compensates the AdSense website operator publisher on a Pay Per Click basis. Google ProductAds This hypotethical service Google ProductAds would offer merchants a way to have their Product Search listings appear on websites that participate in the program. These sites would be third party non marketplace sites such as blogs newsletters niche collectibles content sites and hobby fan sites. Just as advertisers on AdWords do merchants could choose whether to have their listings appear on a contextual basis or on a pre selected network of sites or whether to participate in Google ProductAds at all . Google would have to create some new fields in the Google Base feeds for merchants to indicate which if any products they would want to display on the ProductAd network. In order to participate in the program the merchant would have to first sign up for a ProductAds account and agree to terms of service and would also have to have a Google Checkout account. Website operators who choose to participate would enable Google ProductAds to be displayed on their sites just as they do for the Google AdSense program. But rather than pay per click they would be compensated on a commission basis when a visitor to their website purchased a product through ProductAds. When a sale is made the seller would receive the money in their Google Checkout account less Google Checkout processing fees a fee to Google and the commission fee to the website where the transaction was initiated. While the free Product Search listings on Google.com search results pages would continue to link to marketplaces we envision that the transactions made through the paid ProductAds program would take place via Google Checkout not on a third party marketplace nor on the merchant s own site . This way Google would know whether a sale was consummated. Google ProductAds Classifieds We also envision Google allowing sites to place a version of Google Product Search on their own website acting as a classifieds ad directory. It would display relevant ads on a site for comic book collectors for example it might display a page like this within the website s own branding The page would also offer members of the site the ability to create their own Google ProductAd listing on a comic books website a collector could create a listing to sell one of his or her comic books. Not only would the ad be seen on that comic books site but the seller could choose greater visibility across all comic book sites participating in the program as well as in Google Product Search results on Google.com if the seller so chose . The seller would not pay Google or the publisher sites for the listing but when a sale was made the seller would pay the Google Checkout payment processing fees a Google ProductAds fee and a commission to whichever site on which the item happened to sell. The commissions could be a strong incentive for site owners to implement this program within their communities. The Future of Google Product Search Google continues to invest in Product Search despite the fact the program generates no revenue. Recently Google asked merchants to add shipping and tax information to their product feeds so it could display this information to shoppers. If Google is to complete the transaction through Google Checkout instead of on a marketplace or merchant website it s essential to know shipping and tax costs for individual listings. With Google s announcement that Doubleclick would be integrated with Google AdSense Google strengthens one of AdSense s weaknesses that of displaying visually compelling content in an advertising format. The addition of this capability is perfect for showcasing content including product listings. Doubleclick is also known for its behavioral targeting techniques it may deduce your gender geographic location and other information about you based on your Internet surfing activity. With Google ProductAds the following scenario is possible you visit a content site about shoes and you are shown ads of shoes for sale and with Doubleclick Google might know whether to serve up listings for men s shoes or women s shoes. Will we see Google ProductAds in the near future Google is adept at keeping people guessing about their direction. However we re confident that as Google continues to beef up its ecommerce capabilities it will be perfectly poised to use its skills in bringing advertisers and consumers together and apply those skills to bringing merchants and consumers together. What s compelling about this model is that instead of attempting to drive ecommerce to a single core site Google instead will be taking ecommerce and integrating it into already vital online communities and content sites. Like VISA it truly will be everywhere you want to be. Let us know what you think in the AuctionBytes Blog . About the author Ina and David Steiner are publishers of AuctionBytes.com and have been writing about ecommerce since . Email this story to a friend. Previous Story Contents Next Story Related Stories Google Shopping Displays Merchant Reviews January Issue Google Announces Fourth Quarter Earnings February Issue Google Checkout Adds Multi User Capability February Issue Oops Google Outed in Objection to eBay Oz Policy May Issue Google Checkout Merchants Offer Coupons to Buyers June Issue Google Fixes Anti PayPal Bug June Issue eBay Loses Mojo on Google Search September Issue Ecommerce Meets Google s YouTube Videos October Issue Google Product Search to Display Tax and Shipping Costs October Issue Google Checkout Launches Shopping Cart New Taxonomy for Product Search October Issue Discuss this story in our forums. Ecommerce Podcasts Site Index Copyright . Steiner Associates LLC. All rights reserved
Mills And Bidz
Holiday Shoppers Can Find Easy and Convenient Shopping on Their Mobile Phone With Sears2go PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance Ecommerce 30 Extending the Marketplace with Google ProductAds Auctionbytescom
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:36:12 +0000
PRNewswire FirstCall Just in time for the busy holiday shopping season Sears.com today announced the launch of Sears go a mobile commerce Web site. Sears go which enables customers to find and buy select Sears.com merchandise from their mobile phone is the first on the go technology offered by a US retailer pairing mobile commerce with Sears best in class in store pickup. In Sears continued effort to innovate and serve our customers as they adopt new technologies Sears go makes it easier than ever to cut out the holiday shopping hassles and shop from the convenience of your mobile phone said Ravi Acharya Director of eCommerce at Sears Holdings. More and more customers are using their mobile phones to shop online and Sears go is completely geared for mobile devices with an emphasis on speed usability and security. So whether you re stuck on the commuter train or waiting for your child s holiday concert to begin you can get your shopping done ultimately leaving more time for you Sears go lets customers select products from a wide variety of categories including apparel electronics and computers fitness and sports jewelry tools toys and games with home delivery or in store pickup. After purchasing an item on Sears go shoppers picking up their order in store will receive a text message alert when their merchandise is ready for pick up. Many of the same features available on Sears.com will be available through Sears go providing a streamlined consistent experience. Functional features such as product search browsing shopping cart and checkout gifts product reviews store locator special offers and order status make mobile shopping just as easy as shopping online. Text SHOP to or visit Sears go.com on your mobile phone. Standard text messaging rates may apply. About Sears Holdings Corporation Sears Holdings Corporation Nasdaq SHLD News is the nation s fourth largest broadline retailer with over billion in annual revenues and approximately full line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools lawn and garden home electronics and automotive repair and maintenance. Key proprietary brands include Kenmore Craftsman and DieHard and a broad apparel offering including such well known labels as Lands End Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands. It also has Martha Stewart Everyday products which are offered exclusively in the U.S. by Kmart and in Canada by Sears Canada. The company is the nation s largest provider of home services with more than million service calls made annually. For more information visit Sears Holdings website at http www.searsholdings.com . Source Sears Holdings Corporation Email Story Set News Alert Print Story Copyright Yahoo Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Terms of Service Copyright PR Newswire . All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PRNewswire content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRNewswire. PRNewswire shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. a leading provider of industry proven customer reviews and social merchandising solutions today announced the availability of AnswerBox. This new product specific FAQ solution enables online shoppers to interact with each other and designated staff experts to resolve product inquiries not fully addressed by existing product specs and descriptions. According to a JupiterResearch report of online shoppers surveyed have left a site without purchasing multiple products because they couldn t get a question answered about just one of the products in their shopping cart. Now PowerReviews clients like evo Evogear.com are able to identify and fill gaps in site content with answers from actual product users and subject matter experts. And unlike traditional one to one support channels such as email phone or live chat AnswerBox displays those answers directly on the product detail page for all future customers to see . Following a comparison of existing site content and questions collected through AnswerBox evo reported adding sizing and fit guides throughout its site to better address shoppers true concerns. Nathan Decker Director of Ecommerce for evo says The response to AnswerBox has been revealing with questions and answers coming in at x higher rates than customer reviews we re discovering where our site content needs enhancement the most. By listening to our customers we are able to identify gaps in site content and fill them in with highly relevant and useful product information. Andy Chen CEO of PowerReviews says In the absence of comprehensive product information customers are likely to abandon the shopping process and search for answers at competing sites or abandon the shopping process altogether. AnswerBox is the perfect tool for retailers to fill in this critical gap by providing the specific information their shoppers are looking for. About PowerReviews PowerReviews www.powerreviews.com provides customer reviews and social merchandising solutions to online retailers and their shoppers. The company s solution for collecting organizing structuring and moderating relevance based reviews helps significantly boost merchants sales driving the highest uplift in the industry. In addition to working with more than online retailers including Staples Toys R Us REI Drugstore.com Gardener s Supply Diapers.com and Jockey PowerReviews has also launched its own reviews and recommendation site Buzzillions www.buzzillions.com . The company is headquartered in San Francisco with an international office in London. For PowerReviews Lisa Tarter lisatidalwavepr.com Copyright Business Wire. All rights reserved. More. Article PowerReviews Launches AnswerBox to Help Retailers More Effectively Respond to Customer Questions Print this article Share this article Stay Updated News gadget on your Google homepage Subscribe to a news feed in Google Reader Share on Del.icio.us Digg Facebook Fark Google reddit Slashdot StumbleUpon Have your Say Name Email Subject Your Comment Enter Verification code Choose Theme Search Enter your search terms Web www.earthtimes.org Submit search form You can Current News News Category Business Entertainment Environment General Health Sports Technology World Add to Google Toolbar Breaking News Press Releases About us News Archives Browse old Archive Feedback Disclaimer Mobile PDA News Alerts The views expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of earthtimes.org and we accept no responsibility for the views or opinions expressed in the articles either direct or indirect. www.earthtimes.org The Earth Times All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy But Google being Google it won t be a typical marketplace. Instead of setting up a core site where people will go to transact business Google is poised to bring the marketplace to all corners of the Internet. The following is a thought piece on how Google might use its search and advertising assets to change the face of ecommerce doing for product listings what it did for advertising. This is a view of what Ecommerce . might look like. Preamble What sparked this epiphany of sorts was a recent conversation with a collector and long time eBay seller. He related how much business he was seeing transacted within the forums of niche collectibles sites. A member will post a desirable item for sale and more often than not an offer would be made and the deal is completed within the confines of the forum. Conversely a collector might post a message about an item they are looking for. Because of the targeted nature of the community more likely than not someone would come up with the item and the deal is finalized between the two parties. We checked with several hard core collectors who confirmed that collectors were buying and selling from each other on niche sites classifieds and collectors forums whereas or years ago the items would likely have been listed on eBay. This type of ecommerce activity typically happens off the radar since the offers are posted informally on forums or classifieds of micro sites and buyers are sending payment through various methods including cash check or money order. Why Not eBay In June the theme of eBay s Developer s Conference was eBay Anywhere. eBay encouraged its affiliates to figure out ways to display eBay listings all over the Internet such as blogs and Facebook and across platforms including mobile devices and on users desktop through tools like San Dimas . This was a degree shift from how eBay had protected its proprietary marketplace in the past when it did not even allow search engines to display its listings side by side listings from other marketplaces. Yet one year later former eBay product managers criticized eBay for failing to take the marketplace out to the Web and to social networking sites. In August Rogelio Choy blogged about this in a post called eBay Look beyond the .com The fortunate unfortunate truth is that the radical shift in Internet usage especially with teens and young adults will continue to erode traffic at former leading mass market Commerce or content sites like eBay. Simply put the Internet is becoming WAY social and web service oriented. If an online site or service is not heavily invested in both the future is dire. A Forbes article relates the problem more bluntly The quirkiness eBay brought to the Web eventually moved elsewhere. Laurence Toney was running eBay s collectibles category in and tried to push through a plan to let fans of collectibles display their stuff free of charge on eBay and then chat and post comments. It would make eBay more sticky make it a place where people could hang out he says. But his idea didn t pass eBay s stiff test instant measurable profits. Only ideas with obvious returns get resources says Toney. He soon saw hobbyists shift their activities to MySpace and Facebook. He ended up doing a deal with online shopping site Kaboodle and had to pull it off with no engineers. eBay sellers are not passively waiting for eBay management to get it. They are listing on multiple sites in addition to eBay and they are using blogs and social networking sites to proactively create a presence where buyers are engaged. But many of eBay s collectibles and antiques members already belong to tight knit communities and feel a high level of trust with each other when transacting business. This type of informal ecommerce does not go unnoticed by companies who are anxious to aggregate this economy for its potential revenue. WorthPoint is an example of a company that is attempting to build an ecommerce site for collectors from the community up. Other social networking sites for collectors like iTaggit have sprung up trying to capitalize on this revenue stream which is a by product of community interaction. But will members uproot from their already established niche communities and add one more site to their favorites list or are they comfortable trading within their own circle Many frustrated eBay sellers have urgently called for Google to create an online auction marketplace which we see as unlikely. But with the tools they already offer and simply connecting the dots Google could extend the reach of ecommerce in bold and innovative ways and not only in the area of antiques and collectibles. Google ProductAds the Building Blocks The flash of insight into what Ecommerce . might look like came to us when we thought about what would happen if Google took Product Search which aggregates individual merchants product listings and put them on publishers websites the same way it does with Google AdWords. In other words a Google AdWords AdSense for ecommerce listings via Google Product Search. We are calling this hypothetical service Google ProductAds. We had been discussing Google internally quite a bit because it continues to refine its ecommerce platform now offering a multi item shopping cart and adding Shipping and Tax information to Google Product Search listings. But it was when our collector friend observed that there was a lot of ecommerce taking place directly between buyer and seller in forums and classifieds listings on niche collectibles sites that we saw the potential for a Google ProductAds offering. There are several components necessary for the type of offering we envision which Google already has in place Merchant product listings along with the ability to display them based on relevancy Google Product Search . Multi item shopping cart and the Google Checkout payment processing service. Existing relationships with a vast network of websites of all sizes publishers who run Google AdSense on their sites and the ability to classify those sites and their content according to subject. To understand our vision of Google ProductAds one must be familiar with Google Product Search and Google AdSense AdWords and how strong Google s algorithm is for recognizing relevant content and serving up appropriate advertising to a targeted audience. Google Relevance The reason the Google AdWords advertising program works is because Google is so good at serving up relevant ads on websites all across the Internet. For instance Google is able to dynamically serve up ads that link to websites offering dog training videos on this blog about Beagles. Imagine if the blogger also displayed Google ProductAds where visitors could click on individual product listings and purchase items through Google Checkout. And imagine how happy merchants would be knowing they are getting sales from people they might never have reached through mainstream marketplaces. The model also works well within collector forums which tend to be very specific especially as you drill down into individual threads. This is the type of content that drives very targeted Google ads in the AdWords program. Google Product Search Google Product Search is Google s shopping search product. Users can access it through the main Product Search page and users can also find product listings when searching directly on Google.com. Sellers can submit their product listings for free and those products then appear when shoppers type in relevant search terms. The feed can be submitted via Google Base Store Connector or Google s API and it includes the product title description attributes price shipping tax and photo. Currently merchants can upload listings from any marketplace storefront or website including eBay Yahoo eCrater Bonanzle etc. A shopper who clicks through to a Google Product Search listing is taken to the marketplace or storefront where the listing was created in order to complete a transaction. There they may have a choice of paying either the seller or the marketplace via Google Checkout PayPal credit card or whichever payment method the seller and or marketplace chooses to offer. Google makes no revenue from Product Search yet either from merchant or the marketplace. Google AdWords Advertising Program With Google s ad network Google brings advertisers through the AdWords program together with website publishers through the AdSense program . Advertisers can choose to run contextual ads on any participating website or they can run site targeted ads. Google AdSense is the flip side of AdWords publishers join the program and allow Google ads to be placed on their websites. The AdWords advertiser pays Google when someone clicks on their ad which compensates the AdSense website operator publisher on a Pay Per Click basis. Google ProductAds This hypotethical service Google ProductAds would offer merchants a way to have their Product Search listings appear on websites that participate in the program. These sites would be third party non marketplace sites such as blogs newsletters niche collectibles content sites and hobby fan sites. Just as advertisers on AdWords do merchants could choose whether to have their listings appear on a contextual basis or on a pre selected network of sites or whether to participate in Google ProductAds at all . Google would have to create some new fields in the Google Base feeds for merchants to indicate which if any products they would want to display on the ProductAd network. In order to participate in the program the merchant would have to first sign up for a ProductAds account and agree to terms of service and would also have to have a Google Checkout account. Website operators who choose to participate would enable Google ProductAds to be displayed on their sites just as they do for the Google AdSense program. But rather than pay per click they would be compensated on a commission basis when a visitor to their website purchased a product through ProductAds. When a sale is made the seller would receive the money in their Google Checkout account less Google Checkout processing fees a fee to Google and the commission fee to the website where the transaction was initiated. While the free Product Search listings on Google.com search results pages would continue to link to marketplaces we envision that the transactions made through the paid ProductAds program would take place via Google Checkout not on a third party marketplace nor on the merchant s own site . This way Google would know whether a sale was consummated. Google ProductAds Classifieds We also envision Google allowing sites to place a version of Google Product Search on their own website acting as a classifieds ad directory. It would display relevant ads on a site for comic book collectors for example it might display a page like this within the website s own branding The page would also offer members of the site the ability to create their own Google ProductAd listing on a comic books website a collector could create a listing to sell one of his or her comic books. Not only would the ad be seen on that comic books site but the seller could choose greater visibility across all comic book sites participating in the program as well as in Google Product Search results on Google.com if the seller so chose . The seller would not pay Google or the publisher sites for the listing but when a sale was made the seller would pay the Google Checkout payment processing fees a Google ProductAds fee and a commission to whichever site on which the item happened to sell. The commissions could be a strong incentive for site owners to implement this program within their communities. The Future of Google Product Search Google continues to invest in Product Search despite the fact the program generates no revenue. Recently Google asked merchants to add shipping and tax information to their product feeds so it could display this information to shoppers. If Google is to complete the transaction through Google Checkout instead of on a marketplace or merchant website it s essential to know shipping and tax costs for individual listings. With Google s announcement that Doubleclick would be integrated with Google AdSense Google strengthens one of AdSense s weaknesses that of displaying visually compelling content in an advertising format. The addition of this capability is perfect for showcasing content including product listings. Doubleclick is also known for its behavioral targeting techniques it may deduce your gender geographic location and other information about you based on your Internet surfing activity. With Google ProductAds the following scenario is possible you visit a content site about shoes and you are shown ads of shoes for sale and with Doubleclick Google might know whether to serve up listings for men s shoes or women s shoes. Will we see Google ProductAds in the near future Google is adept at keeping people guessing about their direction. However we re confident that as Google continues to beef up its ecommerce capabilities it will be perfectly poised to use its skills in bringing advertisers and consumers together and apply those skills to bringing merchants and consumers together. What s compelling about this model is that instead of attempting to drive ecommerce to a single core site Google instead will be taking ecommerce and integrating it into already vital online communities and content sites. Like VISA it truly will be everywhere you want to be. Let us know what you think in the AuctionBytes Blog . About the author Ina and David Steiner are publishers of AuctionBytes.com and have been writing about ecommerce since . Email this story to a friend. Previous Story Contents Next Story Related Stories Google Shopping Displays Merchant Reviews January Issue Google Announces Fourth Quarter Earnings February Issue Google Checkout Adds Multi User Capability February Issue Oops Google Outed in Objection to eBay Oz Policy May Issue Google Checkout Merchants Offer Coupons to Buyers June Issue Google Fixes Anti PayPal Bug June Issue eBay Loses Mojo on Google Search September Issue Ecommerce Meets Google s YouTube Videos October Issue Google Product Search to Display Tax and Shipping Costs October Issue Google Checkout Launches Shopping Cart New Taxonomy for Product Search October Issue Discuss this story in our forums. Ecommerce Podcasts Site Index Copyright . Steiner Associates LLC. All rights reserved
Mills And Bidz
posted by Gonzalo Israel at 11:36 AM
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