They were alerted today of an email phishing scam targeting some sellers on other Shopping.com markets with the subject line “Important NOTICE: Registration Suspension”.

This email is NOT from Shopping.com. The login page that you are being redirected to, as well as the email address that it has come from are also NOT part of Shopping.com

As a precautionary measure they are alerting all of our clients. Don’t become a victim of phishing, in which a fake site that mimics a legitimate site is set up to harvest login credentials. By following the tips below, you can avoid such a scam:

Be on alert of wording in emails that require urgent action, confirmation or information about a transaction.

Always view the webpage address you are on especially when clicked directly from an email.

Opt to manually type in a webpage address or use a bookmark.

Upgrade your browser version and enable the anti-phishing feature.

Remember, legitimate online services will not ask you for sensitive information via email.

All very sensible advice. At this time of year, these scams multiply to cover comparison sites, Google Adwords accounts, Affiliate marketing accounts etc, not to mention the usual fake bank notices.

At a pressurised time for e-tailers the temptation to click on a link from a genuinely good fake is easy to do – but take the extra bit of time to log in on what you know is the real page, saved from a bookmark or a typed in address. We have seen horrible things happen when advertising accounts are compromised so we hope that this does not happen to you.

With mixed views about Christmas and concerns over the VAT rise in January, retailers will be keen to maximise their post-Christmas sales which is start climbing from mid-November and usually peak in the first two weeks of December.

I believe that the internet will be the saving grace for many retailers this year, as more people shun the high street in search of the best deals. I think that the price sensitivity displayed by consumers is fuelling greater demand for solutions which helps retailers make sure their products appear first when consumers carry out product searches online.

The product feed is essentially the online alternative to instore merchandising. It’s all very well having a presence but if it doesn’t do the job of pulling in the sales, it’s pretty useless. Retailers really should invest in their product feeds as they would in the high street store and it is a shame to think that many retailers will miss out on valuable sales this Christmas due to inaccuracies in their product feed data, which could mean either poor search rankings or being omitted from searches all together.

The good news is that there is still time for retailers to get their product feeds in check, as with solutions like Feed Manager™, information can be updated and pumped out across the web in a matter of days.

One the initial preparatory work is done, the product feeds can be automatically updated so that they match the requirements of each individual product feed site. Retailers will be astounded at the difference a few minor tweaks to their product feeds can have on their sales figures, something which I’m sure most would welcome at this time of year.

In a local shop this week I noticed that Christmas items are already on sale, this is no different for the internet. With lifestyles getting busier and even more hectic many people will be turning to the internet to do their Christmas shopping this year. Not only are they in the comfort of their own home but they can compare prices without trailing through many shops.

With the recession not a distant memory, people are still watching their cash flow and with Christmas being one of the most expensive times of the year product price comparison is going to be big. However, the problem I often find is that many retailers have the information available to update their product feeds, but simply didn’t have the ‘thing’ that could feed this information out to the web and where it needed to go.

Automated ‘intelligent’ product display feeds are consistently proving to save retailers and agencies days or weeks of management and development time to set up and maintain listings on product listing sites and help get products in front of more online shoppers quickly and effectively.

It is a shame to think that many retailers will miss out on valuable sales this Christmas due to inaccuracies in their product feed data, which could mean either poor search rankings, reviews or being omitted from searches all together.

The good news is that there is still time for retailers to get their product feeds in check, as with solutions like Feed Manager, information can be updated and pumped out across the web in a matter of days.

This ties in with our understanding of the ever increasing importance of product reviews in supporting the rankings for relevance in Google’s Shopping and natural results. Google already pulls in reviews from a number of shopping comparison sites and its own Checkout ecommerce offering, and it is easy to appreciate why it wants to extend the range of reviews it can pick up and use to provide as much information to the potential shopper as possible.

We always stress to clients that positive reviews from ecommerce transactions are highly beneficial to conveying trust and convincing new potential customers to engage. Google’s growing emphasis on reviews within their product listings means that estores must continue to refine and improve the quality of their product listings – not just to Google’s Merchant Centre, but to all websites where the client products are listed – a theme we have touched on several times in recent weeks.

The market is now flooded with price comparison and product listing sites but we are finding that many of the listings don’t have the correct price or stock availability, which can be damaging for the brand when they fail to deliver what the customer is expecting. Couple this with the fact that sites like Amazon have a very strict policy when it comes to listings and protecting their customer’s experience, brands could be putting themselves in a very vulnerable position if their product feeds aren’t kept up to date.

Automated ‘intelligent’ product display feeds are proven to save retailers and agencies days or weeks of management and development time to set up and maintain listings on product comparison sites and help get products in front of more online shoppers quickly and effectively. For retailers and marketers alike, a failure to keep stock levels up to date online is something which can cost retailers dearly when it comes to reputation and credibility. It is also one of the key areas that marketing agencies already offering product feed services tend to fall down on.

The problem I often find in my line of work is that many retailers had the information available to update their product feeds, but simply didn’t have the ‘thing’ that could feed this information out to the web and where it needed to go. Often, I find that marketing agencies are none the wiser either.

Logan Tod’s Annual Online Shopping Index has revealed that the public intend to do 23 per cent more shopping online in the run up to Christmas 2010. Stock availability will be a critical issue for many retailers over this period and so agencies need to take note. Providing their customers with an outsourced solution like Feed Manager will ensure marketing agencies can help their clients get their listing processes in order now so that their online product display matches the real picture in the warehouse and that customers are not left disappointed.

*http://www.internetretailing.net/2010/06/growth-in-online-shopping-at-its-fastest-for-two-years/

** http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/retailonlineshopper.html

We’ve been saying for a while that things are bubbling under with the GMC. Affiliate listings are being purged, product submissions being reviewed (we think) much more closely and a lot more detailed checks are being done on product entries.

The latest changes have just been announced to Electronics product submissions, where starting in the first months of 2011, they are making some changes to how products in the Electronics category may appear in Google Product Search. In order to aid the user search, Google are stating that suppliers of data then include at least two of the following three unique product identifiers: MPN, Brand, and EAN.

While these attributes will not be required for the feed to process correctly, if you don’t include them, chances are that your products will not show often/(if at all).

So, forewarned is forearmed. Get that data into your product database now and included in your submissions now. Natch, Feed Manager is already submitting this if it exists for any client and the longer your products are submitted including the data, the better the long term benefits to your listing.

They quote a recent e-commerce consumer survey carried out by Webcredible which revealed that almost one third (28 per cent) of online shoppers are most likely to be persuaded to make an online purchase by the reputation of the retailer.

We agree that inclusion of surveys and reviews are an essential part of listing products on price comparison websites. Not only do they provide a strong level of reassurance to potential purchasers, they are often picked up by Google to support natural rankings. Google’s own checkout reviews feature heavily in their product listings, and help support their rankings as well.

To find out more on deploying any shopping comparison site survey scripts, get in touch.

Image (Minimum size 150 x150 pixel)
MPN or UPC (certain products only)
Brand
Merchant SKU
Description
Product Name
Product URL
Product Price
Shipping

No massive showstoppers for most e-store owners as these are fields which are almost universally contained within an e-store by product. MPN might present a problem if you don’t have the data, although this only affects products in Consumer Electronics and/or Media.

If you are already a Feed Manager customer this need not be a concern; your shopping.com feed will be updated in line with their new listing instructions.

However, if you are submitting a feed to shopping.com independently, you’ll need to take action in the next couple of weeks to prevent problems with your listing.