-->
Sample Data Feeds and Feed Specifications for Comparison Shopping Engines
Below you’ll find both sample data feeds and links to data feed specifications for the major shopping engines (As of 10/3/2009). It’s highly recommended that you read over the latest specification at the engine resource site before deploying the feeds for your campaigns.
-Nii
Google Base/Google Product Search
- Sample Data Feed for Google Base/Google Product Search
- Google Base/Google Product Search Data Feed Specifications Page
Shopzilla
- Sample Data Feed for Shopzilla
- Shopzilla Data feed Specifications Page
Pricegrabber
- Sample Data Feed for Pricegrabber
- Pricegrabber Data feed Specifications Page
Nextag
- Sample Data Feed for Nextag
- Nextag Data feed Specifications Page
Shopping.com
- Sample Data File for Shopping.com – Varies By Category, see Specification Page
- Shopping.com Data Feed Specifications Page
Bing Cashback
- Sample Data Feed for Bing Cashback
- Bing Cashback Data Feed Spcifications Page
Yahoo Shopping
- Sample Data Feed for Yahoo Shopping
- Yahoo Shopping Data Feed Specification Page (Must be a Yahoo Shopping Merchant to View)
Become
- Sample Data Feed for Become.com
- Become Data feed Specifications Page
Smarter.com
- Sample Data Feed for Smarter
- Smarter Data feed Specifications Page
Pronto
- Sample Data Feed for Pronto
- Pronto Data Feed Specifications Page
Amazon Product Ads
- Sample Data Feed for Amazon Product Ads
- Amazon Product Ads Data Feed Specifications Page (Need to have an Amazon Product Ads account to View)
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
Categories: Amazon, Become, Bing, CSE Management, Cashback, Google Base/Shopping, Nextag, Pricegrabber, Pronto, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, Smarter.com, Yahoo Shopping, bidding Tags: Feed Specifications
Bing’s Double Cashback for Clunkers Prematurely Ends
What do you do when your promotion runs more wildly popular than you could ever have hoped for?
You end it of course.
Scheduled to run until the end of the month, Bing’s double Cashback program in which Microsoft matched the percentage that merchants were giving back to consumers, has ended a few days early due to them hitting a cap of how much they paying out to consumers.
“Due to an overwhelming, positive response from our Bing cashback shoppers, we’ve now closed our limited time back-to-school promotion where Microsoft increased the percentage of cashback rewards on behalf of retailers.”
Previously they had asked merchants to lower the % they were giving back, citing “it was in shoppers’ best interest to adjust the percentage of a few retailers to allow more customers to take advantage of double cashback”, but the ending of the program confirms our suspicions that Microsoft was simply taking the frugal (not to be confused with Froogle) approach this time around–something they’re generally not known for.
Lest they believe of course that ending the program earlier would again allow more customers to take advantage of the non-existent program.
Still, it’s been a wildly successful promotion for Microsoft and merchants alike, as many have seen sales go through the roof due to savvy consumers finding great deals on products.
Now if only the federal government can follow suit with automobiles.
Just a thought.
Source: TechCrunchk for you.
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
Categories: Cashback Tags:
Cashback for Clunkers
How popular is Bing’s Double Cashback program?
Too popular, according to an Internet Retailer report.
Whereas typical merchants on Bing’s program were giving back around 5-15% of the order value back to the consumer, Microsoft was currently matching that amount, thereby doubling the amount of money a consumer was getting back on each purchases.
The promotion began on the 10th and will run until the end of August in an attempt to further promote their program to merchants and consumers alike.
Ashford.com, a merchant selling watches, was offering consumers 25% back, which Microsoft would match giving watch buyers a 50% discount.
However as with all good things, Microsoft tried, and successfully put an end to it:
On Thursday, Microsoft asked Ashford and an undisclosed number of other retailers to reduce the amount of their cashback to ensure the program can continue through the end of the month, as planned.
Microsoft responds:
“With hundreds of retailers participating and a set cap on the promotion funding, we felt it was in shoppers’ best interest to adjust the percentage of a few retailers to allow more customers to take advantage of double cashback. Through the cooperation of our partners, we’re able to continue the promotion beyond this week and allow more consumers to take advantage of the great money saving deals at Bing cashback.
We’re not quite sure how giving consumers less money back would allow more customers to take advantage of “double cashback”, which makes us wonder why Microsoft would want to scale back something that apparently succeeded beyond their expectations.
The program wasn’t going to run for very much longer, and while there apparently was a high number of merchants participating, Microsoft certainly isn’t a company short on funds, particularly when it’s just a few percent off some orders.
Still, double cashback is double your cashback, and we hope Microsoft will continue this program in the future or extend it from its existence.
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
Categories: Cashback Tags:
Microsoft’s Bing Cashback Helps Users Get Discount off Apple’s iPhone
It isn’t too often that you see the words “Microsoft”, “Apple”, and “help” bundled together in the same sentence–without the words “push off a boat” in it at least–but for the bargain hunters of the world it’s been a known thing that one of Live Bing Cashback’s biggest allure is the discount that they provide on the iPhone.
While most merchants and retailers listed on Cashback generally offer a 5-10% “discount” on their products, AT&T began offering the iPhone at a 35% discount rate compared to their online or in-store prices back late last year via Live Cashback. That promotion helped put Cashback on the map to other users looking for discount deals, albeit rarely as much as 35%.
A new deal that’s surfaced in the past few days then is Apple’s new iPhone, labeled the 3G S, will also be available with a 35% discount via Microsoft.
The deal is red-hot for bargain hunters and Apple fans , alikeand makes plenty of sense for Microsoft to promote since they don’t have a physical phone that directly competes with the iPhone.
Microsoft is the maker of Windows Mobile which is used in many smartphones out there, but based on their marketing budgets, their new search engine Bing, along with their shopping platform is where they would like to see the most growth.
Imagine that then, Apple and Microsoft teaming up, though very indirectly, to help take down Google. It’s quite the world we live in now.
For full details of how to get your 35% cashback, head on over to Fat Wallet.
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
“Bing Cashback” is the New “Live Cashback”
Microsoft has just officially launched its new search engine, Bing, which some facetiously say stands for either “But It’s Not Google” or, as a reciprocal acronym, “Bing, It’s Not Google”.
Whatever it may or may not be shorthand for, Microsoft has officially thrown on its gloves and challenging Google at what it does best, search.
Whether or not users will begin to adapt to the new engine is something that only time will tell, so for now we’re going to focus on the shopping experience it provides to users.
First things first, directly on the Bing homepage is a link for Shopping, which didn’t exist before when it was called Live (and currently exists on Google).
Clicking on the tab takes a user, appropriately enough, to the Bing Shopping page, where as we’ve discussed previously, highlights Cashback toward the top.
But now by virtue of the shopping page receiving exposure via the home page should certainly increase the amount of users who actually enter the shopping page and use it as a platform the way they’re using Google Product Search.
We’ve certainly noticed a steady increase in our merchants revenue via the Cashback platform as of late–though it’s hard to tell if it’s directly because of this change.
As with before as well, a search that Microsoft recognizes as a popular product search will be highlighted with popular brands, and price ranges that a user can click through (similar to Google’s “one box” feature):
We will continue to monitor if user adoption of Cashback continues to increase as users begin to adopt Bing either plain curiosity, or because their shopping section is now directly on the home page–or simply by the natural increase of online retail in general.
We here at CPC Strategy though certainly approve of any methods that make the online shopping experience that much easier.
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
Smack Shopping gets Smacked from Microsoft
Smack Shopping, which is a part of Jellyfish, which ended up being scooped up by Microsoft, is sadly shutting its doors down as of February 16. As reported by TechCrunch, we would agree that it’s a surprising move for several reasons:
a) it’s backed by Microsoft, a company certainly not short on funds by any means
b) in the downtrodden economy where consumers are constantly looking for cheap deals one would think sites like these would gain in popularity
c) Microsoft has continuously tried to break into social media–e.g. its investment in Facebook–which Smack Shopping was relatively successful at doing.They even have a Facebook fan page.
Perhaps they’re simply narrowing their focus onto its Cashback platform, which to the surprise of quite a few, has been successful for merchants who list their products on there via a cost per acquisition model.
In any case, many frugal shoppers (not to be confused with Froogle) will miss the Smack Shopping model, and hopefully similar sites such as a Woot do not follow suit any time soon.
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
Categories: Cashback Tags:
Microsoft Giving Cashback Traction
Microsoft’s equivalent to Froogle Google Shopping Google Product Search, Live Search Products is now going to integrate their other shopping site, Cashback, into its homepage, says Microsoft.
The move should help gain exposure for their Cashback platform, which they’ve slowly been trying to do ever since they bought it when it was known as Jellyfish. In our experiences Cashback is a very solid solution for consumers looking to increase their own exposure, and their CPA model makes it risk as well as management free once the products are listed.
Source: Techcrunch
—
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. You can check out our webpage at www.cpcstrategy.com. Don’t hesitate to Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.
Categories: Cashback Tags:
