September 17, 2007
Easy Datafeed Uploading For Shopping Comparison Engines
Optimizing datafeeds for shopping comparison websites is no easy task in itself. However, what makes it even more difficult, is the fact that every comparison engine has their own specs including file format, how it’s named, and what information is included, etc. Thus, making changes across multiple platforms a real challenge.
As with anything else, difficulty usually leads to finding ways to make it more simple. And one company of particular note that is doing just that is Singlefeed.
Lead by one of the most senior experts in the field and author of ComparisonEngines.com, Brian Smith is leading the way with a low cost solution in making datafeed optimization easier.
As the name implies, Singlefeed allows you to create one feed in a comprehensive excel spreadsheet that can then be used for multiple comparison search engines: Google Product Search, Shopping.com, Shopzilla.com, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Become.com, Smarter.com, and TheFind. From that point, Singlefeed does all the hard work in determining what engines require which fields, formats, etc. As a result, you can focus more of your efforts on the more important changes like product titles, descriptions, images, and other updates.
Additionally, Singlefeed uploads a fresh datafeed every 24 hours, which many experts agree will increases your likelihood in moving up the rankings not to mention the huge time savings you’ll realize. Also, Singlefeed allows for easy analytic tagging for each engine, so you can measure each channel effectively when paired up with freebies like Google analytics or your favorite service provider.
Lastly, technical support is timely and “works the issue”, which I believe to be the most highly noteworthy point here because the shopping comparison engines are notoriously bad for their customer service to merchants.
Currently is sold as two options:
- Google Base Only Version- $9.99/Feed
- Deluxe Submission (supports all the engines noted above)- $129.99/Feed
[tags] datafeed optimization, datafeed uploading, shopping comparison optimization [/tags]
Filed under Shopping Comparison Websites by Christian Del Monte
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Comments on Easy Datafeed Uploading For Shopping Comparison Engines »
edkohler @ 12:47 pm
It's not clear to me what you're getting for the money here. If a site knows how to build a data feed, building the feed for more than one comparision shopping site isn't exactly rocket science. They have slight variations in what they name fields, but the data is basically the same.
Just set up a cron job push the feed daily, or create a button that someone can click whenever they've changed pricing. Assuming inventory is automated, the cron job option would be a better choice.
Christian Del Monte @ 5:29 pm
Hey Ed,
Thanks for weighing in. Nice to hear from you!
Its true, building the core components of datafeeds isn't rocket science. And as you stated, basically its the same fields only renamed different ways. However, not all engines like it in the same format such as txt vs csv, have different file names (that only accept that way), and sometimes do have additional fields that are useful. NexTag allows promo messages for example.
I guess im not pushing the 24 hour uploading as much as the ease of updating one feed. Suppose for Labor Day weekend, you wanted to push "Free Shipping" for all your products. A quick update to one spreadsheet (and one upload) will take care of all of the engines in a matter of minuets. On Tuesday, you just upload the old feed again. This whole process being under 10 minuets.
Additionally, if you are constantly adding and deleting products, i don't care what anyone says, you'll likely make mistakes. Their system catches feed errors automatically during the upload, so that you can quickly make revisions and re-upload again. Otherwise, you might have uploaded something erroneous and not know it for potentially days.
Anways, there are cheaper solutions as you suggested depending on your skill set, for me however…i think im going to stick to this one:)