$700 Start-up Cost?!?! - E-Commerce Forum

kick2fix · 03-21-2008, 03:15 AM

You heard right: new merchants to Shopping.com have a whopping $700 dollars to put up in order to advertise on the comparison shopping engine for the first time. According to Marketing Sherpa (2007), Shopping.com is the best-performing CPC comparison shopping engine in general according to a survey of about 1900 merchants who use the engine.

I'm curious to know how everyone here has done with this engine considering the initial funding amount required to start an account w/ Shopping.com

Thoughts?

vselin · 03-21-2008, 12:36 PM

that must be new...........we never paid that $700 before.....that seems really high. then they raise their PPC during the holidays!

carlos...where is it saying that on their site?

turnahead · 03-21-2008, 02:35 PM

https://merchant.shopping.com/enroll.../WelcomeFaq#22

kick2fix · 03-21-2008, 03:21 PM

There it is =) Thanks, Justin.

lucysdoghouse · 03-21-2008, 03:30 PM

I did not have to pay that and I signed up not too long ago. in the fall of 2007. Interesting development.

Isn't shopping.com owned by ebay? Would not surprise me, they are pretty fee happy at ebay in my experience. I do not mind paying for something that provides me value but ebay seems to raise prices without raising the value.

All the best,

Hans

Matthew.Major · 03-21-2008, 04:03 PM

Yes Hans, you are correct about it being an eBay co.

From " https://merchant.shopping.com/enroll...PartnerWelcome "

"Shopping.com, an eBay® company, pioneered online comparison shopping and today is consistently the leading online comparison site because of its comprehensive set of products from thousands of trusted stores from across the Web.

With an average of 20 million1 unique visitors each month, Shopping.com offers shoppers easy-to-use search tools, engaging content, and time saving navigation, along with millions of unbiased product and merchant reviews from Epinions.com community, all in one place."

vselin · 03-21-2008, 04:16 PM

and shopping feeds into become.com...which is actually not that bad.

hopefully their customer service improves.....received an e-mail from them last week saying that their turn around time to getting back to customers is now going to be 2-3 days....rather the 7 days they use to allow!

cperry · 03-21-2008, 10:53 PM

yikes - that is ridiculous. Glad we did not have to sign up now with them. Maybe it is a way to weed out smaller etailers.
We use them but would not if that fee trend continues.
we did not have much luck with some of the smaller ones - like become.com - even though the fees are lower - the traffic was too low.

spytown · 05-21-2008, 05:57 PM

we have been with them for awhile before the $700.00 fee now required. the only issue i had with them was when i sent the feed , they did not categorize it correctly on their end.
i was going back and forth with them about this and finally received the answer below..

We made some changes on our end which might have improved a bit of your categorization. However please ensure that you provide detailed product names and descriptions within your feed file. Below are some feed optimization tips we can offer you:

*Promotional Text
Take advantage of the Stock Description field in the data feed and include promotional text for structured/hard products (e.g. “Free Shipping, Arrives on Time for Christmas, Ships in 24 Hrs”).

*Correct MPN/UPC codes
Shopping.com maps products by MPN/UPC codes when available. Make sure the correct codes are in your feed and refrain from using internal codes.
NOTE: MPNs can be found on site by clicking on the “Product details” link from a product page.

*Use our attributes
A common mistake most merchants make is not including common search terms (or attributes) in the product names and descriptions. Product names should follow a structure of “Brand Adjective Adjective Noun” and include our attributes in the product description. Promotional text in the description reduces relevancy!
TIP: suggested attributes can be found on the left hand navigation after performing a search on Shopping.com.

03-21-2008, 12:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
vselin Status: Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 74	that must be new...........we never paid that $700 before.....that seems really high. then they raise their PPC during the holidays! carlos...where is it saying that on their site? __________________ Take care - Vance

03-21-2008, 02:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
turnahead Status: Solid Cactus Alum Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 26	https://merchant.shopping.com/enroll.../WelcomeFaq#22 __________________ Justin Rattigan E-Commerce Specialist

03-21-2008, 03:21 PM	#4 (permalink)
kick2fix Status: Solid Cactus Team Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Wilkes-Barre, PA Posts: 25	There it is =) Thanks, Justin. __________________ Carlos A. Sanes Technical Support Engineer carlos.sanes@solidcactus.com

03-21-2008, 04:16 PM	#7 (permalink)
vselin Status: Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 74	and shopping feeds into become.com...which is actually not that bad. hopefully their customer service improves.....received an e-mail from them last week saying that their turn around time to getting back to customers is now going to be 2-3 days....rather the 7 days they use to allow! __________________ Take care - Vance

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03-21-2008, 10:53 PM	#8 (permalink)
cperry Status: Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 69	yikes - that is ridiculous. Glad we did not have to sign up now with them. Maybe it is a way to weed out smaller etailers. We use them but would not if that fee trend continues. we did not have much luck with some of the smaller ones - like become.com - even though the fees are lower - the traffic was too low.

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