TheFind’s Merchant Blog

The Oscar-like Statue in its full 18 inches of glory

Last week, after an extensive and exhaustive process (actually, I can’t confirm that it was either, but we’re honored nonetheless) LinkShare presented TheFind with its “LinkShare Golden Link Award” for 2011′s “Best Mobile Strategy”. Amongst hundreds (perhaps even thousands?) of other nominees, we were pitted against Buy.com and Drugstore.com as the other finalists, and all we can say is wow, thank you!

We can also say that we’re thrilled to be helping merchants while shoppers are both online and off through TheFind Mobile, and we’ll use this opportunity to remind our merchant partners that fully 18% of our searches are now coming from mobile devices. We point this out because if you haven’t already, it is an exceedingly good idea to get a mobile CSS site up and running. Because while we can (and probably already do) send you traffic from our mobile searches, what they see when they get to your site (and how it is optimized for their current device) will likely drive who wins
the sale.

(with apologies to Steve Martin and perhaps a too obscure movie reference for these pages, but)…Things are going to start happening now.

But seriously, folks, another edition of the Getting Found merchant newsletter is now available.  Sit back and enjoy a great read.

In our “Getting Found” newsletter 3 weeks ago, I wrote an article on the surprisingly mysterious question “Is it profitable to offer Free Shipping?“.  We got a not-so-surprising flood of comments from our merchants, with a wide range of opinions.  Most of them agreed that they needed to model out the net impact on profit, including looking at customer acquisition cost and lifetime value.   And a few decided they were going to do “A-B” tests on free shipping.  I offered to them (and I offer to you) to publish the results of these tests on our Blog, given the importance of this decision to merchants of TheFind.  (just add a comment to this post if you’re interested)

One reason I’m posting this follow-up is that Comscore just published their Q1-2011 statistics on free shipping (as a percent of total e-commerce transactions), as reported in TechCrunch last night in their posting Almost Half Of All Online Orders Now Include Free Shipping.  The numbers show that Q1-2011 did not experience a significant decline in free shipping relative to Q4-2010.  Free shipping accounted for 49% of all e-commerce transactions in Q4-2010 and 47% of all e-commerce transations in Q1-2011, virtually maintaining the use of free shipping as a primary promotional tool… even after the Holiday season.  This is another indicator that more merchants are adopting a broad use of free shipping as they see their competitors using it - a trend we think will naturally continue as part of the normal “penetration curve” effect of new technologies and programs.

All the more reason to model the economics of free shipping (by product category) in your business, including the CPA-LTV relationship.  And just as important, testing it out to validate your assumptions.

Click here to read our analysis on The Case for Free Shipping: Is It Profitable? from our “Getting Found” Newsletter on April 27th.

In our “Getting Found” newsletter a week ago, we said “We’re about to launch a major upgrade to our Merchant Program that will give you an opportunity to be highlighted on TheFind’s search results pages (for free).”  Today, I’m pleased to announce that this change is Upfront 2.0 – a significantly enhanced “trust program” that carries more meaning for shoppers and more conversion benefits for merchants than our original Upfront program. 

The big change is adding the “Upfront Promise” - asking Upfront 2.0 merchants to make a strong and visible commitment to key trust principles (the “Promise”), thus adding significant confidence to shoppers who aren’t familiar with that merchant.  In return for this commitment, we will now highlight that Upfront 2.0 merchant on TheFind’s search results pages, as shown below:

We believe these new trust elements will add significant click-through and conversion value to merchants who upgrade to Upfront 2.0.

The idea for this new program came from a survey we took of TheFind users, asking them about their decision making process and greatest concerns when shopping online.  The standout finding was that 53% of them rated “merchant trust” as important as “price” in making the decision about where to buy.   Upfront 2.0 is all about addressing this… and by doing so, giving shoppers who land on our search results pages considerably more comfortable in clicking through and buying – by presenting the new Upfront Badge on the Product tab and Upfront Promise commitments on the Store tab for Upfront 2.0 Merchants. 

Today was our official launch (you probably all got an email from me in the last few hours), but we actually went live 6 days ago.  In the first 5 days, over 500 merchants signed up for Upfront 2.0 (with no marketing outreach).  This we didn’t expect… but we’re super excited by the quick uptake. 

Here’s the complete requirement for Upfront 2.0 participation. 

1. Commit to the “Upfront Promise”:

• We explain our return policy clearly on our website.
• We make every effort to ship orders on time.
• We handle online payments securely.
• We inform shoppers how to reach customer service and work diligently to resolve any issues.
• We keep customer information private and confidential.

(Please note: there is a place for shoppers to let TheFind know if they believe the merchant is not honoring their Upfront Promises.)

2. Submit weekly data feeds (which can be automated).

3. Place the new Upfront 2.0 badge (or text link) on your home page. 

There is no charge to be Upfront 2.0 — TheFind benefits from increased shopper trust and click-through along with you.

For more information, download the Upfront 2.0 Data Sheet (PDF).

Let us know what you think (in the comments area below)!

Thanks,

Darby 

We just launched our 3rd edition of “Getting Found“ - our Merchant Newsletter focused on helping you boost traffic and acquire new customers!  You can read it here. 

The case study in this edition is a slight departure from the last two.  It focuses on a group of merchants rather than a single one – 113 merchants who used our just-launched Quick Promotions tool in the Merchant Center to create a Free Shipping promotion on TheFind’s search results pages.  It also presents the six economic drivers of Free Shipping. 

Siva focuses on the emerging Tablet Shopping Application category and the inherent advantages of shopping on a Tablet versus a laptop.  Dave serves up a handy SEO checklist – things you have total control over that really make a difference.  And Nish brings his unique social marketing perspective to the World of Facebook.

I also wanted to alert you to a major upgrade to our Merchant Program you’ll be hearing about soon.  We’re officially launching it at the Internet Retailer Show (IRCE) in San Diego on June 14^th, but we’ll give you the scoop well before that.  If you’re going, please stop by our booth (#1021), and we’ll answer any questions you might have! Plus, we’d love to get your feedback on our merchant efforts in general.

Here’s the articles in this edition:  (or you can click on the “Newsletter” tab above and see excerpts of each)

The Case for Free Shipping:  Is it Profitable?

The Tablet Explosion:  How will People Shop on Them?

On-Site SEO Checklist

Facebook Marketing with Personality

Exciting Change to our Merchant Program

Enjoy… and let us know what you think (in the comments sections)!

TheFind is the fastest-growing top-tier shopping engine, and the one people return to more than any other according to comScore’s measure of comparison shopping engines. With over 25 million monthly visits and growing, we know Magento merchants want to make sure they’re working with us and are optimized! Getting found by our shoppers is easy, and it starts with submitting a product feed to us directly.

Why submit a feed?

• Greater control over how your products are merchandised

• Increased product coverage online – provide your entire inventory;  each product in the feed increases expected impressions and clicks

• Optimize your products as needed. Do you want to add sale price for clearance items? You can!

• Did we mention it’s free?

How do I submit a feed?

Magento merchants can submit a feed directly through the Magento software client. We’re now integrated into the latest versions of the Community, Professional, and Enterprise editions. No additional extension downloads are necessary.

After logging into the admin panel, you’ll want to make sure and do the following:

1.       Go to System > Configuration and locate “TheFind” in the left navigation bar.  Click on “Feed” to set up your FTP credentials and settings.  If you do not already have FTP credentials for TheFind, you will be asked to register and verify your store in TheFind’s Merchant Center to access your credentials.

2.       Go to Catalog > TheFind Feed > Manage Attributes and make sure to specify your attributes, including the following required attributes:

• Title
• Description
• Price
• Page_Url
• Image_Link

3.       Next go to Catalog > TheFind Feed > Manage Items and select the products you would like to send to TheFind.  You can select all products by clicking on the “Select All” link.  Make sure “Publish” is selected in the “Actions” drop-down menu and click on the “Submit” button.

4.       That’s it!  If this is your first time sending a feed to TheFind, it can take up to 72 hours for your products to appear on the site.  Subsequent updates occur every 24 – 48 hours.

Any best practices for product feeds?

Good question – yes!

• Submit your product feed daily (or at minimum every 7 days)
• Use the highest-quality product images available
• Add UPC/MPN data in your feed (UPC/MPN data also gets your products found on our mobile searches)
• Include as many product description dimensions as possible – color, size, compatibility, etc.

To see how frequent and comprehensive product feeds can impact your referral traffic and sales from TheFind, check out the Beverly Fabrics Case Study.

Product Feeds, Siva’s 2011 Ecommerce Predictions, TheFind 2.0, TheFind Mobile

We asked for it and you gave it to us – feedback on our first “Getting Found” newsletter and TheFind overall. Thank you! We took your top area of feedback – Product Feeds – and made it a key theme of this newsletter. Another is “Learnings from 2010 that should apply in 2011”, including changes in search marketing and mobile shopping, and merchant implications from our recent launch of TheFind 2.0 and our product plans in 2011. 

Click here to read the newsletter (or select the “Merchant Newsletter” tab above).

Hello Retailers!

In observance of the holidays, our offices will be closed from December 24^th – January 3^rd. We will have a limited number of support team members on hand to provide assistance, but you may experience a delay in our usual response time during this period.

Thanks in advance for your understanding and best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

TheFind Merchant Support Team

Just a quick note to let you know that Usher Lieberman and I were just on  TheRiver The Ranch The Bay Internet radio show for online retailers – with hosts Melinda and Bryan. We wanted to let the listeners (and you) know how to sign up for our new Merchant Newsletter called “Getting Found”, and learn about best practices for maximizing the traffic to your online store from TheFind and elsewhere.  To read the most recent newsletter, click on the “Merchant Newsletter” tab on the top of this page.  (Check out Dave Cook’s article on competitive analysis for online marketing planning, and Zoran Dukic’s article on the do’s and don’ts of product feeds.)

To subscribe to the newsletter, click here. 

To join our Merchant Program, click here.

To hear the radio interview/podcast, click RRB’s podcast page. 

To give us feedback (on anything), submit a comment below.

Thanks!

Darby