Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2015
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Posted: 2006-May-09 16:37
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philh
Joined: Sep 14, 2001
# Posts: 3050
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Posted: 2006-May-09 16:47
Well? What do you all think? Anyone want a Froogle Forum?
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dudibob
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
# Posts: 1462
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Posted: 2006-May-10 14:09
Aye! don't use it but will get a better view of it from more experienced ppl
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2015
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Posted: 2006-May-10 16:35
That's the trouble - Is there a Froogle expert in the house?
I'm about to start using it and will be happy to share my experiences.
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dudibob
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
# Posts: 1462
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Posted: 2006-May-10 16:48
well, (if the mods will let it) your our guy then Hampstead
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-May-10 23:58
Is Froogle similar enough to PPC to belong there or would it be better to have a forum for that type of site? There are other shopping type sites besides Froogle.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2015
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Posted: 2006-May-11 08:33
To be honest I don't know Rose. I know the basics on how to create and submit a feed for Froogle, but what I don't know is how to appear in the first page of results. I'm not sure whether it's simply cost based or whether playing around with the titles and keyword density will have an effect.
I suppose i should go away and find out for myself then report back.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2015
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Posted: 2006-May-11 11:24
I've been pondering this Froogle idea.
I don't really want to discus my clients experiences as such. I think I owe it to them to have full anonymity.
Seeing as nobody has come forward as a Froogle expert and I'm certainly not, I'll start a post in the Google forum (seeing as it's a Google product) and use it to share my experiences. In order to give my clients the anonymity they deserve, I'll select a product and set up a completely new URL to showcase it and try to sell it through Froogle only.
I'll report back as things move on.
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-May-12 06:46
I have a client using Froogle and can see the conversion data for that as well as PPC and other referrals. I'm not involved in their Froogle feed so I don't have any details on how it is done or what exactly they're advertising.
I do know that their Froogle conversion rate ranges from about 0.37% to .55% versus a norm of at least 1.7% to 3.45% from their PPC advertising.
This is a somewhat "apples to oranges" comparison because I suspect they may advertise all products at Froogle versus my focusing on what sells best in their PPC accounts.
For comparison, their natural search results conversion rate is around 1.4 to 1.5%. Bounce rates for Froogle are higher than natural search and both are double the bounce rates for the PPC traffic.
I suspect that Froogle and other shopping site traffic will work best for sites with the lowest prices as they may be heavily used by those wanting to compare prices on something they've already decided to buy.
Anyone else have any experience or theories?
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3736
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Posted: 2006-May-14 09:14
My theory is I don't use Froogle--it's not just a theory it's a fact. Guess I never got curious and tried it.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2015
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Posted: 2006-May-14 10:14
Froogle conversion looks low from those figures, but it is a no cost option.
I'll give it a go and see how I get on.
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-May-14 23:29
There are numerous reasons why sites like Froogle may convert lower than PPC:
1. Buyers are more likely to be price shopping so if you're not the lowest priced you may not convert.
2. Searches appear to be far less targeted which can be seen by the higher bounce rates from those sites.
3. Users of Froogle may look at products on many, many different sites so they're less likely to stay and buy on yours - they may even have trouble remembering which product they saw where if there are many pages of results.
4. You don't control where your products show up in the results.
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visitor
Staff
Joined: Sep 06, 2001
# Posts: 604
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Posted: 2006-May-22 21:37
I manage shopping engine feeds for our company. There are major players in shopping engine realm, such as BizRate/Shopzilla, Shopping.com etc. - and the simple fact is that Froogle is not.
Froogle is Free - that alone though, makes it worth the effort. I use Froogle sale to smooth out my expense(s) with the big boys - I try to cover 10% of the total expense with Froogle profit...though it doesn't always work out quite nicely like that :P
Froogle is quite messy as they can't even distinguish the difference between the product(s) for humans and pets lol :P It is important that your backend/internal catalog is in conjunction with your site's product categorization for Froogle. This may seem like a common sense, but there are numbers of companies have different catalog categorization vs site product categorization.
This is due to purchasing/merchandizing is usually done by a separate department from site development/marketing department, especially if the warehousing gets involved with shipping/receiving/tracking issues. Internal catalog may not make much sense in the true 'merchandizing' perspective, but it can make the tracking for warehousing and purchasing much easier by bundling products by 'classification'. It makes merchandize reporting and searching for 'receivables' easier.
Adding to flyingrose's post...
1. Buyers are more likely to be price shopping so if you're not the lowest priced you may not convert
In most cases, this is true - but your brand does play a roll in shopping engine as you are compared to your competitors directly (most of times, within same page).
Unless your competitor's price is low enough to trigger next-level price value point, many people still opt to go with known-brand. In most cases, price difference is minimal to none in the end as bigger/better-known brand can offer better shipping rates (bigger the sales volume as the company, better deals you can command for shipping rate from major players such as FedEx, UPS, etc.).
2. Searches appear to be far less targeted which can be seen by the higher bounce rates from those sites.
I tend to think the opposite. When a prospect searches for a coffee cup at a shopping engine, that's what he/she is 1. looking for and 2. will MOST LIKELY get in SERP
3. Users of Froogle may look at products on many, many different sites so they're less likely to stay and buy on yours - they may even have trouble remembering which product they saw where if there are many pages of results.
Absolutely true
4. You don't control where your products show up in the results.
It's not completely true You can apply organic SEO knowledge in feed optimization and place your products in more desirable position(s). In shopping engines, it's not just have top results, but having Multiple results within a SERP. I tend to cut up the SERP into 3 areas (top, middle and bottom) - and try to fill in each area with at least 2 products - in attempt to maximize the product exposure during the page scroll process.
The best thing about feed optimization is that, once you have a 'master feed' you can convert it into various feed format for different shopping engines. You don't even need much IT involvement as this is viable in Excel (a lot of logic formula for modifying text though lol). My feeds are over 4000 products, and the optimization process is now automated through Excel file. It just requires me to C/P the master feed.
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visitor
Staff
Joined: Sep 06, 2001
# Posts: 604
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Posted: 2006-May-22 21:39
Oh yeah..in any case...Froogle forum would be neat...I am all for Free shopping engine :D
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-May-23 05:05
Awesome post, visitor. Do you do shopping SEO optimization for clients?
Two drawbacks I've had trying to use shopping comparison sites are getting results that are not what I'm seeking and when trying to do comparisons.
The sites have difficulty recognizing product descriptions as the same product so they don't merge them into the place you compare them.
I don't use shopping sites very often so I don't remember which ones had those issues. One reason I don't use them much is that I don't know one that shows shipping and/or total costs for comparison.
If anyone knows a great comparison site that does show shipping and/or total price I'd love to know.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2015
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Posted: 2006-May-23 09:39
Brilliant post Visitor,
This is the sort of information we need - especially the optimisation part of point 4.
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visitor
Staff
Joined: Sep 06, 2001
# Posts: 604
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Posted: 2006-May-25 20:52
rose,
Do you do shopping SEO optimization for clients?
My primary duty at my company is marketing analysis, but the whole feed dealie kinda got dropped on me at one point lol. So in a simple word, no..I don't do/have not done feed optimization for anyone else as I am inhoused.
If there were demand for the service, I may offer it...that is if I ever decide to go back to independent consulting again...I kinda miss being on my own............
Comparison shopping engines are just that...comparison shopping. For that reason, they aren't too concerned with anything else other than 'price' once a prospect reaches product comparison page...their belief is that at this point of purchase, price is the determinate conversion factor...I don't fully agree on this issue, but that's a whole different story all together heheheh
BizRate/Shopzilla, Shopping.com and Yahoo! Shoppping, naming 3 big boys, show total price, including shipping, at comparison/point of purchase (though done in different manner).
Not because they are the biggest fish in the pond, I personally am most fond of BizRate.com's layout. None of them are really 'clean' design'ed - it's a karma of shopping engines lol.
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wfbopt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 45
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Posted: 2006-Jun-01 21:29
I certainly vote for a Froogle Forum.
We use it but with very little success. ie. Very few conversions.
We'd look forward to learning what we can.
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philh
Joined: Sep 14, 2001
# Posts: 3050
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Posted: 2006-Jun-01 21:36
Looks like we dont need a Frogle forum - we need to look at closer at Base
[link]
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bhartzer
Staff
Joined: Jun 08, 2000
# Posts: 7042
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Posted: 2006-Jun-01 21:36
Well, it appears that we won't be having a Froogle forum; from what I can tell, Froogle may be combined and/or moved into Google Base.
It appears that Google Base replaced Froogle Merchant center this morning.
What about having a Google Base forum?
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