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As many advertisers are realigning budgets for greater efficiencies in 2009, we wanted to take a moment to remind merchants of the many ways in which Smarter.com listings can be optimized for greater efficiencies and revenue growth.
The following best practices are brought to you by CJ Search:

1. Verify that your products are properly categorized within Smarter’s taxonomy. This will ensure that products are showing up in the right category and that you are paying the appropriate cost per click for each listing.

2. Continuously update your data feed! Consumers need to see the most updated information in regards to pricing, inventory levels, new products, etc.

3. Take advantage of special features such as adding your company logo or highlighting lower prices.

4. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize! Not all products perform at the same level of return. Some listings may generate great ROI, others may show lower than average return, yet others may perform under the allotted threshold. Weekly rounds of ROI optimization will certify that the highest level of revenue is achieved while meeting your ROI objectives.

Start using these best practices today! Login to your merchant account.
Not a Smarter merchant yet? Create an account.
Need help optimizing your feed? Contact our preferred partner: CJ Search.

I hope everyone has fully recovered from Halloween weekend! We sure had fun here at Smarter! 

Now that it’s the first of November I know that for most of us its full-steam ahead for the holidays! I’ve gathered a couple of resources for you this week to help in your efforts for a successful holiday season!

Free Holiday Webinar from Merchant Advantage featured Smarter.com!

 #1: Merchant Advantage offers a free Webinar featuring Smarter’s own Joanna Estacio on hand! Just click on the link above and register. The date/time is Nov. 13th, 2008 2pm – 2:30pm EST.

Marketing Charts Brings Us Deloitte’s ‘08 Holiday Findings

#2: Deloitte’s 23rd Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends. Take it from the experts, Deloitte is trusted by industries across the spectrum! Gift Cards still reign on shoppers lists, but a huge spotlight will be focused on discount & value! For current Smarter merchants this is a great reminder to make sure and include your gift-cards in your feed with us as well as any and all rebates & coupons!

Regarding Mercent from Seattle Tech Report

 #3: All about Mercent! If your site is already doing a robust e-commerce business but you are looking for an agency to pull your online/data-feed marketing and reporting together for you, read on about Mercent, they’re doing a great job for their client list!

And finally, please let me know if I can offer you my support for a Smarter account set-up in time for the holiday’s! You can also register online here:

Register Now for Smarter.com!

Once more, no Trick, just Treat!

Smarter.com is looking forward to working with you for the holidays! In fact, I want to remind you of our little pre-holiday gift I am offering as an incentive to any account that signs up before noon on Oct. 31st! Smarter will be having our office Halloween party that day, so make sure your account is in-place before noon and I’ll credit it with $50 in bonus clicks!

(speaking of Halloween Party, here’s a photo of some of us from last year : )

To make it easy, here is our account sign-up link!:

Official Smarter Sign-Up!

I have to tell you, we are still having temperatures here in the mid-80’s, so it still doesn’t feel quite like fall! But the truth of the matter is that it is that the first day of autumn did come quite a few weeks ago and NEXT WEEK is (finally!) election day! So, we are actually clipping along thru Q4!

Okay, I saw this article and just had to share (never fear, I’ll tie it back to comparison shopping at the end):

Read the full Recessionista New York Times article!

The New York Times Fashion & Style headline reads, “A Label for a Pleather Economy” I love it! So now I can really be on the cutting edge of style with my ‘boutique-Target’ (pronounced “TAR-shea” for those not in the know!) purchases!? The truth of the matter is that in a down-turn economy, budget and value is at the top of most shoppers minds!

Here’s the circle back!

At Smarter.com, we give every opportunity for our merchants to let shoppers know about all their special offers, coupons and discounts! We have a place for coupons in our data-feeds, and there is also a mechanism for adding them to products thru our back-end SAM (Smarter Account Management) accounts! Also, something new that we’re adding is the ability to list both the regular price of a product along-side the sale or discounted price of a product! This will serve to visually reinforce the great value that purchasing the product from your store over your competitors store offers!

E or ring me and I will be happy to explain these benefits to you further or walk you thru your Smarter account set-up.

Happy haunting until next week!  For more Recession Chic, visit Mary Hall’s blog at:

therecessionista.blogspot.com

How’s your Halloween marketing going? Great I hope! On Smarter.com we have a homepage feature called, “What’s Hot” - so, if you haven’t seen it yet, please check out some of the best Halloween decorating buys and creative costumes online by visiting this area of Smarter! This is what our “What’s Hot” Halloween area looks like from our homepage:

Only a week and a half until November!

I hope you’ve been able to visit and download the Holiday Survival Kit that I gave out the link to awhile back! If anyone missed it, it’s an annual guide put out by National Retail Federation and its full of great information and tips for maximizing your site’s potential during the holidays! You can find this kit for free downloading at the NRF “Holiday Headquarters” here:

Click here to find the full Holiday Headquarters report for downloading!                                                                                 

Also available on the NRF site is the latest Holiday Shopper survey, if you haven’t seen it yet!

2008 Holiday Consumer Spending Survey

Smarter.com is looking forward to working with you for the holidays! In fact, as a little pre-holiday gift (for those of you that have read this far!) I am offering an incentive to any account that signs up before noon on Oct. 31st! We’ll be having our office Halloween party that day, so make sure your account is in-place before noon and I’ll credit you with $50 in bonus clicks! Here is our account sign-up link!:

Sign Up Here to Begin a Smarter.com Account!

No Trick, just Treat!

I found a great comparison study poll for you this week from our friends at eMarketer.com and Universal McCann:

So, this begs the question: If your products are on the list above, how well are you optimizing your online reach? Reach is key; your products need to be found and your site name and brand re-enforced when shoppers are researching! What Smarter offers is another avenue for your site to pull in highly educated online shopping traffic. So basically, if you aren’t participating in comparison shopping sites like Smarter.com, you are neglecting a whole range of shopping traffic that we pull in!

Opening an account with us is simple and inexpensive (you can begin an account with as little as a $100 deposit, and this comes back to you in your first $100 worth of clicks) and there is no long-term obligation if you are not happy with your results! You can give me a call and I can help you set up your account or you register online here:

Register Here for your Smarter Account!

Lastly, knowing how important Q4 sales are to our eTail merchants, I want to include this link to a very practical article from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Small Business section, especially the part about optimizing NOW for the search engines like Google, Yahoo & MSN:

Read the full Wall Street Journal article here!

I look forward to hearing from you!

 Image Source: (eMarketer.com)

Happy first day of Autumn! Can you believe it’s here already?

I’m pretty excited to let you know that I will be attending the Online Marketing World ‘08 conference next week in San Francisco, (Oct. 1-3). For those of you that aren’t familiar with the event, here is a blurb from their site:

“The constantly changing face of the Internet presents the foremost marketing challenge and opportunity for today’s business marketers.

Online Market World is the premier event for online sellers and marketers dedicated to taking their businesses to the next level. For companies that market and sell on the web, Online Market World 2008 brings together the best innovative minds in the industry, to help people learn how to market products better; how to exploit the growing list of online markets (such as Amazon, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Facebook, Shopping.com, etc.) while implementing successful multi-channel sales and service strategies.”

For the daily program preview, please visit the link below:

Online Marketing World ‘08 Schedule Preview

I’d love to meet up with you there! If you are planning on being in attendance, please bounce me back an email and let me know!

One more thing, fourth quarter officially starts next week! Are all your ‘ducks’ in a row? In advance of what some retail experts are saying may be a tough holiday season, allowing for a depth and breadth of availability for your products just makes sense! Smarter can definitely help you achieve that extra ‘shelve’ online! And don’t forget that I am still offering our $50 in bonus clicks to new accounts that sign-up before end-of-day on the 30th!

E -me if you’ll be at Online Marketing World!

Ps/

BTW – Let me know if you are planning on taking in the My Bloody Valentine show in San Francisco on the 30th, - I’m sorely tempted, even with the $47 price tag (!):

MBV Sept 30th, San Francisco Design Center

Smarty and I would like to welcome you to the first ever “Official” Smarter Blog!

I’ll be posting here about once a week on different topics such as:

• What’s New with Smarter
• Merchant Updates
• Data Feed Optimization
• Comparison Shopping News
• E-commerce Tips
• Shopper FAQs
• Online Shopping and eTailing In the News

I’ve been an Account Executive/Sales Account Manager here at Smarter for the past couple of years now and look forward to sharing the insight I’ve garnered over that time-span with you in this space!  Also, I plan on keeping a keen eye on ‘all things future’ regarding online shopping and successful ecommerce so stay tuned!

At Smarter we believe in providing the best quality shopping experience for our shoppers as well as providing the highest educated online leads to our listing merchants. With those goals in mind, check back here often and see what’s new with Smarter.com!

Last week’s post was a little bit lengthy, so I’m planning on keeping this one short and simple. I know that some of you are saying “we’ll see”, right? Ha! Okay, maybe you’re right…. Having said all that, there is no less a “punch” here for those that will read on!

First, I wanted to call to your attention a FREE webinar hosted by Hitwise entitled, “Retail Planning for the Holiday Season”. Here’s the blurb that caught my eye:

“The Holiday season will be here before you know it. Your retail competitors are already planning promotions and marketing initiatives to maximize traffic and sales. Make sure your promotions, content, affiliate partnerships and search programs hit the mark with Holiday gift-givers. Don’t miss this 30-minute webinar covering Hitwise data and trends from Holiday 2007 and early hints for 2008.”

Hitwise Webinar - Retail Planning for the Holiday Season
Date: Wednesday September 10, 2008
Time: 1pm EDT (10am PDT), 30 minute duration

Here is the link for Registering!

On to the second thing I want to mention here… Smarter.com is planning an exciting new roll-out in the next couple of weeks and I want you all to be the first to hear about it! We are going to be updating our category landing pages in a big way! Check an example out of a current category landing page:

Smarter’s Current Home & Garden Category Landing Page

These updated landing pages are going to really come into their own with lots of fun integration to help educate our shoppers and offer them even more value when they choose to shop for the products you offer thru Smarter! Following is our official “pre-launch” blub! (BTW – I’ll explain more about how this is a benefit to YOU, our merchants, in the next few weeks!)

“With this updated version of the Smarter.com channel and sub-category pages, we’ll be pulling all the levers to deliver a streamlined, magazine-like layout that displays content ranging from ‘Top Stores’ to ‘Best Deals’ to ‘Popular Video Reviews’, and even a ‘What’s Hot’ section updated frequently by our in-house ‘Channel Guides!’”

Hope you had a great Labor Day and I look forward to talking with you soon!

I know I talk a lot about using video in advertising in this space – But - I’m going to point to video again today since I came across this recent article that makes a great case for including video in your marketing plan. Click on the following link to see what I mean!:

Shoeline.com’s Conversion Rate Up 44% Using On-Site Videos!

If you’re not going to click on the link above, then please check out the following quote taken from the Internet Retailer article posted 8.22.08:

Shoeline.com last year tested adding 10 videos highlighting different shoes on some of its product pages. The videos showed the feet of models sporting the various styles. The items that had videos experienced a 44% increase in conversions. Now, the company is expanding the number of videos to 100.

“With such positive results on our existing videos, the goal right now is to add video to as many of our products as possible,” says Frank Malsbenden, vice president and general manager of Vision Retailing Inc., the parent company of Shoeline.com.

So how are your video plans coming along? At Smarter we currently offer more than 62,000(!) product video reviews. What that means for our merchants is that if we have a video review on-file for a product that you offer in your feed, we will link it up to your product (at no-extra cost) and indicate it’s availability with our video review icon right next to your product! What is means for our shoppers is that we offer one more way for them to become better educated before actually making a decision to purchase! Check out the Apple iPod listings here showing the video review icon here for an example:

Click on the “tv” icon next to the product to watch the consumer review video(s)!

Lastly, but certainly not least, did you know that our merchants now have the ability to submit their own product videos for inclusion in Smarter’s video review feature? I can send you the detailed specs if you are interested – and if you’ve read the article/quote above, I hope that I’ll be hearing from you soon!

Of course when it’s mid-August and you’re an online retailer staring down the calendar toward the inevitable season of green & red, the question to ask is, “is our site READY for the holidays??” If you haven’t done that yet this month, lets pause together and ask that question now…

…Okay! I know here at Smarter our answer is ‘not quite’! We have a LOT of initiatives in the queue that we are still planning on launching this fall! (Go Green! anyone? More about that later!) Of course I will let you know about each exciting feature/opportunity as soon as the information becomes available! In the meantime – what was your answer?

Here are a few articles from this week with good suggestions to help you get ready!
Turning Web Clicks Into Purchases from CNN Money

What is SEO Anyway??
It’s FREE Traffic, You Need It - click here for 10 great SEO tips!

So read on, make sure you have an account with Smarter.com – and if you already have an account with us, keep in-touch so that together we can be sure that your account is optimized for its greatest performance potential on Smarter!

I won’t wish you a ‘happy holiday’ yet – it’s not even Labor Day, but let’s just say I hear the distant sound of jingle-bells jingling!