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Shopping.comMSN Shopping partners with Shopping.com"Shopping.com, a global leader in online comparison shopping, announced today that it has formed an alliance with MSN to provide users of MSN Shopping with access to millions of products from thousands of online merchants. Will be interesting to see how well MSN Shopping is able to integrate all the offers from multiple sources. This has the potential to make things better on niche searches, but it also has the potential to make things messier on popular products. I'll look at this in more detail when the dust settles.
MSN Shopping partners with Shopping.com
Farhad Mohit on Shopzilla vs. Shopping.comA follow-up to David Jackson's post at the Interent Stock Blog: Chairman and Chief Product Officer of Shopzilla on Shopzilla vs Shopping.com (SHOP) He makes five main points on Shopzilla vs. Shopping.com, starting with 1) Shopzilla has far superior technology. The rest of his response elaborates on this theme. A barn-burner of a good read, but it could use some balance. for example, "How else can you explain that with 22MM UVs they're planning on generating significantly less revenues than we will be with 14MM UVs?" It could be superior technology, but that is not the only possible answer. 1) What vs. Where. In other words, when I am early in the buying process (What), I almost always use a Shopping.com site (Epinions) over Shopzilla, for a near-seamless transition of buying guides, attribute search and user reviews. When I am getting closer to making the purchase (Where), I might be more apt to check in on Shopzilla. Of course, clicks later in the buying process are far more valuable. 2) International Expansion. 3) Distribution Partners. How do we ever know we are comparing apples vs. apples? For example, visitors from AOL InStore, surely they show up on the revenue side, but are they also included in the unique visitor count? None of this is to take away from the strong results by Shopzilla, but comparing financial results is not always as straightforward as comparing product prices.
Farhad Mohit on Shopzilla vs. Shopping.com
Valuation: Shopping.com vs. ShopzillaInternet deals analyzed by David Jackson of the Internet Stock Blog: Scripps-Shopzilla deal shows eBay-SHOP deal too cheap?
Valuation: Shopping.com vs. Shopzilla
The Progression from Ebay Seller to Shopping.com MerchantThe announced acquisition of eBay and Shopping.com got me thinking about a friend who is an online retailer. Several years ago, he sold computer cables on eBay to make extra money while in college. Rapid turnover lead to a growing inventory that soon filled every nook and cranny of living space, like a scene from the movie, The Blob. Eventually, his catalog grew to over a thousand products, and he went from the simplest website possible (one-page .txt file!) to a more advanced shopping system. Along the way, he tried a range of online advertising, from direct graphical advertising on popular content sites to PPC ads from Google/Yahoo. After all this, he is just now getting ready to test the comparison shopping engines. People can debate the current level of merchant synergy in this deal, but perhaps it makes a lot of sense when viewed over the long term? I'm guessing my friend coulda/shoulda started advertising at the shopping engines years ago. Could a combined eBay/Shopping.com have expedited that transition? Hmmm...
The Progression from Ebay Seller to Shopping.com Merchant
Quick Links: eBay and Shopping.comGoogle News has a few zillion rewrites of the eBay/Shopping.com press release. Here is a quick roundup of articles and posts that offer additional information: background, analysis, comments, etc. - Shopping.com, Sold! (fool.com)
Quick Links: eBay and Shopping.com
eBay to Acquire Shopping.comeBay to Acquire Shopping.com (press release) "eBay has agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of Shopping.com stock for $21 per share in cash. Based on the number of Shopping.com shares outstanding on May 31, 2005, the total consideration would amount to approximately $620 million. Shopping.com's cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of May 31, 2005 totaled approximately $140 million." more soon... hat tip: Niall Kennedy
eBay to Acquire Shopping.com
Shopping.com International ExpansionIn an interview with TheStreet.com, Dan Ciporin said he would be surprised if their international revenue did not surpass their domestic revenue within five years. also: More details at the the article and the interview (runtime = 16:28). The interview also covered topics such as stock price, marketing expenses, revenue per lead, and leadership transition.
Shopping.com International Expansion
New! Mortgage Comparison Shopping from Shopping.comShopping.com Debuts Services Category With Beta Launch in Mortgages (investor.shopping.com) "Shopping.com Mortgages allows consumers to shop for mortgages with the same detailed level of associated attributes; customized search; and structured, intuitive presentation previously available only in consumer products and unprecedented in financial services." Most sites use a "black box" model for financial services, but Shopping.com looks to be going 180 degress in the other direction. Very interesting.
New! Mortgage Comparison Shopping from Shopping.com
Shopping.com Reports Results For Q1 2005Shopping.com reports results for Q1 2005:
Shopping.com Reports Results For Q1 2005
Shopping.com Powering AOL France Shopping ChannelShopping.com Selected to Power AOL Shopping Channel in France. "more than 3.5 million AOL French visitors will have access to Shopping.com's global product catalog through the AOL service in France and www.aol.fr" specifically, http://shopping.aol.fr
Shopping.com Powering AOL France Shopping Channel
Ciporon Speaks. Analysts Speak, Too.In an interview with Haaretz, Dan Ciporin talks about resigning as CEO of Shopping.com. Also, David Jackson has collected analyst reactions at The Internet Stock Blog.
Ciporon Speaks. Analysts Speak, Too.
Dan Ciporin Steps Down From Shopping.com"Shopping.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: SHOP), a leading online comparison shopping service, today announced that Dan Ciporin will be stepping down as CEO and will continue to guide the company as Chairman of the Shopping.com board of directors. Lorrie Norrington, a member of the Shopping.com board of directors, will replace Mr. Ciporin as president and CEO, effective June 1, 2005."
Dan Ciporin Steps Down From Shopping.com
Shopping.com France - First Lookrechercher, comparer et acheter... Today, Shopping.com did what it said it would do and expanded its shopping service to France, http://fr.shopping.com. I had time to look at several categories, and this site looks like the real deal. shopping.com - digital cameras, laptop computers, refrigerators Sure enough, my contact at Shopping.com confirmed that the FR site has the same attributes as the US site, plus some additional attributes specifically for the local audience. That might not seem like a big deal, until you look at the difference in functionality at sites like Yahoo Shopping and their unconnected counterparts in India and Japan and Australia and... I have not confirmed, but have to assume, that Shopping.com was able to seed the user ratings from their other sites. The only thing I did not see was user reviews, which was to be expected, or a link to add new reviews, which was not expected. I'll look more into the European expansion in the coming weeks.
Shopping.com France - First Look
More Product Attributes at Epinions?In January, I wrote about hidden attributes at Shopping.com, and how some of these attributes did not appear on Epinions.com. Today, some product attributes are still hidden at Shopping.com, but all of them are clearly visible at Epinions.com. Yay! I understand the emphasis is on driving traffic to Shopping.com, but I am more in tune with the usability choices at Epinions.com.
More Product Attributes at Epinions?
Shopping.com Overseas OperationsFrom JPost.com: "Gov. regulations cloud shopping.com Israel plans" (free registration required) The Jerusalem Post reports on a press conference by Shopping.com CEO Dan Ciporin in Tel Aviv. highlights: On a related note... new shopping engines tend to get more posts, but Shopping.com is the clear leader in cataloging product attributes.
Shopping.com Overseas Operations
Amended Agreement - Epinions and Google(excerpt) "The Amendment extends the term of the GSA through May 1, 2006, and eliminates the minimum number of clicks and click-throughs that Shopping.com was required to deliver, as well as the minimum amount that Google was required to pay to Shopping.com under the terms of the GSA." source: Form 8-K
Amended Agreement - Epinions and Google
Shopping.com in 2005 - More Countries, More CategoriesIntegration, integration, integration. The recent trend for search engines (news, images, local, etc.) is also spreading to shopping engines. Shopping.com plans to expand into France in the first half of 2005, and Germany in the second half of 2005. They are looking at ways to integrate new product categories with their existing categories. "Cross-selling is part of the reason to do this," Ciporin says, adding: "We’re looking into other markets also, including travel, autos, tickets—we’re looking at all of them." source: Internet Retailer
Shopping.com in 2005 - More Countries, More Categories
Alexa Rank: Shopping.com vs. NexTag.com vs BizRate.com vs. PriceGrabber.comNot that Alexa is the most scientic source of traffic measurement, but it is interesting to see how the leading engines have converged.
Alexa Rank: Shopping.com vs. NexTag.com vs BizRate.com vs. PriceGrabber.com
Alexa Rank: Shopping.com vs. Epinions.com vs. DealTime.com vs. DealTime.co.ukThe Shopping.com domain came on strong last year to surge ahead of Epinions and gain a slight lead over Dealtime, according to Alexa.com.
Alexa Rank: Shopping.com vs. Epinions.com vs. DealTime.com vs. DealTime.co.uk
Hidden Features on Shopping.comShopping.com has possibly the most detailed product-attribute database on the Web. They allow you to make shopping selections based on everything from the L2 cache on a CPU, to the to the transmission feed of a fax machine, to the additional features on a vacuum cleaner. Sometimes, they even have product attributes that are not available at their Epinions site. It is safe to say that I find myself "feature finding" at Shopping.com more than any other general shopping comparison engine. But there is a catch that feature-driven shoppers need to know about. Not all of these great features are visible when you first arrive at a product category page. Here is an illustration of the problem, along with a possible win/win solution: These are the primary features for the PC Laptops category of Shopping.com.
These are the additional features for PC Laptops, located in the right-side box.
In each step, we click the first link in the right-side box and make a selection. In the first instance, this produces an additional category, Operating Systems.
We select an Operating System and get a new feature link, CD / DVD Type.
Next, we get a link for Use (Home, Education, Corporate, Small Business).
Finally, after all of these steps, we get to select based on Networking Type.
The right-side list now has less than six links,
Summary of Features
Summary of Problems What if a shopper was primarily looking to select a laptop based on Operating System and/or CD / DVD Type? Would they dig deeper to find these features, or would they figure those options were unavailable, and leave? But what if we were to include more options, or all of the options, right from the beginning... Would it overwhelm the shoppers who only want or need to make selections using the most basic features? Would it effectively "break" the layout by pushing some valuable content "below the fold" of the first screen? Recommendation for Shoppers If you come to a category that has more than six links in the right-side box, dig deeper and see if it has hidden features. If so, you might want to drill down until you find all of the features, then return to the category home page for a new search, using the knowledge of the hidden categories to guide your navigation choices. Recommendation for Shopping.com Shopping.com should put a link at the bottom of the right-side lists called "browse all features" that would display all of the available options at the same time. This way, casual searchers would not be distracted, and power searchers would not be discouraged.
Hidden Features on Shopping.com
Shopping.com Sponsored Link Contracts With GoogleUS - source "In the first nine months of 2003 and 2004, we derived approximately 34.4% and 44.1% of our revenues, respectively, from these agreements. Our revenues under these agreements generally depend on the amount Google charges its advertisers for the lead referrals, which we do not set. However, under one of our agreements with Google, we were guaranteed payments of $16.0 million during each of the 12-month periods ending April 30, 2003 and 2004, and under another of our agreements with Google, we are guaranteed payments of $500,000 per month through February 2005." UK - source (note: GSA = Google Service Agreement) "The GSA is effective through November 30, 2006. Shopping.com UK may terminate the GSA on October 31, 2005 by providing at least 30 days prior written notice to Google.
Shopping.com Sponsored Link Contracts With Google
Shopping Search Week 2004 at Search Engine Watch (3 of 4)Day #3 - summaries of NexTag, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com/Dealtime and Yahoo Shopping.
Shopping Search Week 2004 at Search Engine Watch (3 of 4)
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