A lot of people missed the emails sent by the shopping engines about seasonal rate increases, so here’s a quick summary:

Become.com - no rate increase
Yahoo! Shopping - no rate increase
Google Product Search - free
TheFind - free
Pronto - not holiday related, but there will be some adjustments, both up and down (Nov. 15)
Smarter.com - 20% rate increase for all categories (Nov. 1 - Dec. 31)
Shopzilla - 25% rate increase for all categories (Nov. 12 - Dec. 31)
PriceGrabber - 25% rate increase for all categories (Nov. 1 - Jan. 15)
NexTag - 25% rate increase for all categories (Nov. 1 - Jan. 2)
Shopping.com - 10-25% rate increase depending on category (Nov. 15 - Dec. 31)

Herman, thanks for passing along…

MeziMedia, Inc.’s Financial Statements for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2007 and June 30, 2006. Note that MeziMedia is made up of more than just Smarter.com and revenue/expenses are not broken out by operating division.

My friend Greg Sterling thinks that most of the video reviews can be ‘excruciating to watch‘. He was responding to my post here and a slightly different version over at Search Engine Land. What do you think?

Greg and I are in total agreement that this is going to be an important part of the purchase process…it’s just a matter of time before we see them everywhere. How they’ll evolve is another question.

I don’t ask much from you readers out there, but some comments on the future of video product reviews would be appreciated.

Thanks!

The power of user generated content continues to amaze me. In early February, Smarter integrated video reviews into it’s shopping search listings. While not the only shopping engine stepping into video product reviews (ShopWiki has them too), I absolutely love the way Smarter displays these videos.

The screenshot highlights a product level view, but also notice the call out in the left hand nav which shows up for general search results or browsing (dental floss, camera phones, mice/trackballs, etc.)

Late last year I bought an electric razor. Too bad I didn’t see the Norelco Quadra review (click on Norelco Quadra to view), powered by Smarter partner Expo TV.

Expo TV provides the 24,000 product video reviews and Smarter.com matches them to the product level. And that’s the real beauty of the integration, as a part of product research, the video reviews are invaluable. According to Smarter’s product evangelist, Paul Willmes, “the reviews are by people who actually own [the product] which makes it more real. It makes the opinion more valuable, like a friend giving you advice.”

Expo TV pays for the reviews then an editorial staff reviews each video and rates it on a scale from 1 - 5. Smarter.com only takes reviews with a rating of 3 or higher.

My main question for Paul was whether the videos increase click-through or conversion rates for the merchants. According to Paul, “merchants have provided positive feedback and are asking how they list their own videos on Smarter. Where there is video available, click-through rate for products goes up.”

This presents some cool optimization opportunities for smart retailers…

Many of the shopping comparison engines allow merchants to specify ‘Promo text’ within the data feed. Shopzilla, for instance, allows a merchant to add pre-set promotional designations such as ‘Same Day Shipping’, ‘Price Before Rebate’, or ‘Gift with Purchase’. While adding this kind of promotional text is a step in the right direction, what about coupons? Aren’t all online shoppers now trained to look for coupons?

Users of Smarter.com and Yahoo! Shopping no longer have to leave these comparison engines to search for the latest coupon deals.

Smarter.com claims to be “among the first comparison shopping engines that allows [merchants] to integrate coupons at the product level. We’ve found that by including coupon info with your product listings, consumers see more of the ‘big picture’ before determining who to buy from (meaning more qualified leads to you).”

This is a no brainer for the comparison engines, and I’m really surprised that it’s taken so long for this type of coupon integration. See an example here and here. It’s nice to see the little guy innovating.

Yahoo! Shopping, with the data feed of of all data feeds (they accept sooo much information) has long allowed merchants to include promotional text. However, the site is now highlighting ‘Deals’ on product pages - see picture above. Users can click on a green link at the top of the page to see all offers associated with a product.

Harry Tsao and Talmadge O’Neill are veterans of the PPC industry. They were both employees at Goto.com (which later became Overture Services and was then acquired by Yahoo!). Harry was an early member of the product management team and Talmadge was the first business development employee. In 2002, they left Overture and launched Coupon Mountain, focusing on helping consumers save money shopping online.

In 2003, the company expanded to offer coupon sites in a number of countries and is now in 10 countries including China, Japan, and Korea. The company also owns MoreRebates (launched in 2003). Smarter.com, the shopping comparison engine, launched in July 2004 leveraging the combined power of coupons and comparison shopping.

I was in LA a couple weeks ago and met with Talmadge, Harry, and Alan Wallace (VP of Corporate Communications). Here’s what they had to say. The comments are from Talmadge unless otherwise noted.

Company background…
“Most consumers use shopping engines to get a good deal, but they are missing part of the picture. Smarter.com provides more - reviews, research, pricing information, and promotional information. We didn’t call it Lowestprice.com for a reason.”

“Consumers are not librarians. From a search perspective, Google is trying to solve something really hard. 80% of that opportunity is better served by a shopping engine. Searching on Google only gives you ‘light introductions’ - pricing information and coupons.”

“Because of our experience at Goto.com, we understand the search query string and how the monetization piece works. The PPC market is $5 - $6 billion. While only 30% of queries are of commercial intent, those terms represent 90% of monetization which means approximately $5 billion in clicks is commercial. If I look at the paid search results [when thinking about shopping], they are of limited value to consumers. It’s the same with organic results as many review sites will show up that aren’t ready to sell.”

“Will users migrate from search engines to shopping engines? The better question is whether the most valuable users will migrate. If you’re looking for hiking trails in Yosemite, go to Google. If you’re looking for products, go to the shopping engines. We can provide a much better service to consumers looking to shop.”

On international expansion… Read the rest of this entry »