Next Generation Shopping

Can anyone explain to me why the affiliate networks are planning on switching to JavaScript links?

Here is part of a message I recieved directly from Commission Junction:

“The following information has been posted within the CJ Account Manager™ announcement section but we wanted to personally message these important details regarding the upcoming Link Management Initiative release scheduled for June 23, 2006.

Our Link Management Initiative is a program which will make it easier for you to get the most out of your advertiser relationships. This initiative will be released in multiple phases, with the first phase building the foundation for future releases through the following enhancements:

• JavaScript Link support”

Rumors are also flowing around ABestWeb about LinkShare considering the same path. This quote from Michael Coley (of Amazing-Bargains.com) about sums up my thoughts…

“During a followup phone call, they specifically told me that LinkShare had sent out two newsletters announcing that they were switching to JavaScript links. I know that LinkShare is planning on switching to encrypted links (and probably making them required), but this is the first I’ve heard about JavaScript links. Did CJ misunderstand something, or did all of the rest of us miss something? I find it incredibly amusing that CJ is apparently justifying their Lost Mind Initiative based on misinformation.”

It seems to be catching many people off-guard, and not many know what to think. Don Lieser (runs DFLSports.com) recently brought it to my attention, as I had not really paid a great deal of attention to it… So it seems I am with the rest of you who are not in the loop on this one. Those of you interested can follow this thread at ABestWeb. And I urge anyone with more knowledge to leave comments on this post, as well as on ABestWeb.

Technorati Tags: Affiliate networks, javascript links, affiliate marketing, ABestWeb, Commission Junction, CJ, LinkShare, Link Management

An entry on ProgrammableWeb caught my eye tonight. A new shopping mashup that utilizes the eBay API in a very unique and innovative way. The mashup is called Cooqy.

Cooqy is a really nice implementation of the eBay API using OpenLaszlo technology. OpenLaszlo, which currently only runs on Flash (for those non-flash users it will soon support DHTML). For developers…

“OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for creating zero-install web applications with the user interface capabilities of desktop client software.

OpenLaszlo programs are written in XML and JavaScript and transparently compiled to Flash and soon DHTML.”

Ryan Stewart has a very nice writeup that goes into more upfront, as well as, behind-the-scene details of Cooqy, and I would suggest reading his article (see a short introduction and link at the end of my entry). But I’d like to mention some of the features that I found to have added-value on top of the normal eBay site (important for a mashup to do).

Here is a quick summary of the Cooqy features:

• Community features like individual product tagging and chat threads.
• Each search opens up a new tab in the current page (similiar to a new tab in FireFox).
• Four different product listing views are available to users: Photo Collage View, Gallery View, List View, Map View.
• They claim it is faster than eBay. Seems to be pretty fast.
• Save Searches

A feature I would suggest would be the ability to Drag-n-Drop items into a watch/wishlist.

I wonder if this will be featured at the upcoming eBay DevCon 2006?

Further Reading on ZDNet
Rich Internet Application Case Study: Making eBay Better with Flash and Open Laszlo by ZDNet’s Ryan Stewart — Cooqy is the kind of Rich Internet Application that is going to bring mainstream users. Using Flash written in Open Laszlo, it enhances the eBay experience while adding valuable features. It’s a fun way to buy and sell, and it’s a great example of a well done RIA.

Technorati Tags: eBay API, eBay, mashup, openlaszlo, Open Laszlo, Rich Internet Application, cooqy, eBay Web Services

What is Zixxo?

“ZiXXo™ provides a web-based coupon creation, management and syndication network that enables businesses to reward favorable behavior by local consumers. In plain English, that means that businesses can create and manage their coupons with us and we syndicate them out to local consumers through partner websites.”

The Affiliate Program and the API
I have been in touch with Mike Hogan and have took a moment to briefly go through Zixxo’s recently released API, which is integrated in their Affiliate Program. Here are my initial thoughts, with more to come later…

.NET, nice! Both SOAP and REST support, also nice. They give plenty of code examples to get you started programming in .NET. Looks like it shouldn’t be too much trouble to implement for an MS Developer. Unfortunately, no revenue share will come for at least six months.

As of now, the entire service is free, but in the future they will charge advertisers and share revenue with affiliates. A couple conerns I had with the coupon results returned from the API were:

1. Phone numbers with a reference code, eg. call 1800-xxx-xxxx and use reference code ZIXXO. Hmm, as an affiliate how do I get credit?
2. There are a lot of “Printable Coupons” for online stores. How does this get tracked from an affiliate perspective?

Who should get the lions share of revenue?
This is relates directly to ZiXXo’s Affiliate Compensation Plan. It is obvious here that referring an advertiser (called an Ad Rep) is more important at the forefront. However, without the Coupon Distributor you aren’t reaching nearly as large a consumer audience. The affiliate traffic and exposure gained through affiliate marketing is substantial. Especially for mashup developers utilizing their API.

Initially their revenue share was 40% and 10%, but it seems they have revised it to be a 40/15 split between the Ad Rep and the Coupon Distributor. I’m inclined to suggest higher revenue for the Coupon Distributor or at least some type of tiering, but am not certain how it could work. One thought is of a sub-tier as well depending on how much traffic is being sent to an advertiser. Eg. If I’m running a pizza coupon website and I’m sending 50 prints a day to Bob’s hardware, and only 1 a day to Joe’s Hardware, it might make sense that I receive more revenue with Bob’s pizza… Hmmm?

With out a doubt the Ad Rep will win out on receiving the bulk of the revenue split as it is much harder to acquire new merchants for Zixxo than it is to give consumers the coupon to use. I would say try to be both an Ad Rep and a Coupon Distributor if you can work it into your site!

Finally, the Zixxo system itself has a large potential to change the current process of local coupon creation and redemption for the better.

Technorati Tags: Zixxo, coupons, local coupons, syndication, developer, .NET, C#, mashup

I have been looking for a useful Search Engine Marketing application that uses the Google Adwords API. I came across (via the ProgrammableWeb blog) a project that the guys at Webreakstuff are working on called Siteblimp. Apparently it aims to combine the Google Adwords API and Y!SM API (Yahoo! Search Marketing API). Thats pretty cool and sounds very powerful. If you add the Wordtracker API to that, you could have one powerful SEM tool!

I wish I had more time to look into the Search Engine APIs, but I don’t… And it seems the Webreakstuff guys are already having their own problems with creating the Siteblimp tool using the Y!SM API…

“Siteblimp is a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign management web application with some innovative features. Initially, the goal was to support both Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) but for reasons we’re about to explain, Y! support was dropped.”

They go on to say the Y! developer support for this particular API is horrible. Strange, Y! seems to generally has good developer support and you would think they would want to concentrate on an important API like Y!SM. Oh well, I’ll keep dreaming.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Adwords API, Yahoo, Yahoo search marketing, API, Wordtracker

Yesterday ShopWiki announced a mobile version of their site. Right from their press release:

“ShopWiki, the complete shopping search engine and buying guide, today announced the launch of its mobile service, available on Web-enabled mobile devices at http://m.shopwiki.com/. ShopWiki Mobile Search (beta) allows shoppers to quickly compare online product pricing or research product information before making an in-store purchase.”

This continues with the trend of online e-commerce engines realizing the potential needs of in-store shoppers. As a side note, I couldn’t get the site to load on my new Razor phone… Not sure if it was my phone or the site, oh well!

Brian Smith over at ComparisonEngines.com is attending Google Press Day. He mentioned a resource, amonst others, on his blog that Google is releasing called Google Trends. I did a few e-commerce related searches on it to give it a try… Then a quick search for “Mobile Shopping” immediately caught my attention. Here is what the City-based breakdown looks like:

Look at that… The majority of search is coming from India. Other cities have much less search volume, and no US city is even in the top 10. I then recalled reading somewhere recently about the importance of mobile commerce in India… Oh yes, eBay just launched eBay.in Affiliate Program, now I remember. Directly from their May 2006 newsletter:

“As internet entrepreneurs, India and the eBay.in Affiliate Program represents an attractive global opportunity to website publishers. India, with a population of approximately 1.1 billion, and with just over 39% internet penetration, represents a large opportunity for affiliates. eCommerce is exploding in this English-speaking, technologically sophisticated market. One thing to consider: mobile applications and SMS are vital components of internet usage in India.”

My first time reading it I was thinking yeah, yeah. Now I’m thinking up how to get in the game!

Final Note: While the trend data from Google appears to be very useful, although my experience with it has been short to this point, it is also important to note the discrepancies between similiar keywords such as “price comparison” and “comparison shopping”. It can give you a good idea of what different regions and cultures refer to similiar terms as, which may be important in your SEO or SEM campaign. Using it in conjunction with the Overture keyword tool, and WordTracker could become a very powerful combination.

Technorati Tags: mobile shopping, mobile commerce, eBay India, google trends, SEO

Today eBay held a Developer Drop-in Q and A with the eBay Express Team. I inquired about the future of eBay Express for eBay Affiliate API users. Here is the question:

“For eBay affiliates, it is my understanding that all purchases on the eBay Express platform will be compensated under the eBay.com Winning Bid Revenue Share tiers.

My question is: How can (or will) eBay Express web services because utilized from an eBay Affiliate standpoint for marketing eBay Express products? “

Here is the response from Elliot on the eBay Express Team:

“Great question. To help affiliates drive traffic to Express, we are working on an Express search API (similar to the existing GetSearchResults) that will allow affiliates to see and drive traffic to Express inventory.

We should be announcing dates for this API soon. “

Thanks Elliot! This is very good news for affiliate API users and e-commerce developers. I’ll keep an eye on the eBay Express API docs.

Some related links:

• eBay Express API Documentation
• eBay Express FAQ’s

Technorati Tags: eBay, eBay Express, ebay Affiliate, eBay API, web services

ProductWiki

“ProductWiki provides a new kind of online shopping experience: one that is both individual and collaborative. A place to not only research products, but a place to share with others what you’ve found. The best thing about ProductWiki is that we are an independent website that does not sell any products. What this means for the consumer is that we provide information that isn’t influenced by advertisers or sellers, and is instead based on what our users and the community feels is best.”

The Good - Nice Features
They have some neat Web 2.0ish features implemented. One of the things I really like was their tap board (seen to the left) which allows the users to tap the product. A tap related to the product can be that you love it, hate it, have it, or a tag. You can then connect with other users by seeing a list of who has tapped the item. Furthermore, on each product page they have a section for community. A member can participate by starting a discussion, writing an article, sharing an image, adding a relevent link, or writing a review.

The Bad - Where To Buy? Google Ads Aren’t The Answer
My last post mentioned having a viable business model using Google AdSense… I’m in pain with how ProductWiki has used Google Ads on their site! Such a nice looking site and then they pop Google Ads at the most critical point of revenue generation, eeek! Forget being told “Where to Buy”, some of the Google Ads are not even close to being relevant to the product itself! Looking at a JVC camera, Google is telling me where I can get a Palm Pilot case… Ugh.

Here is an example of one that at least is relevant to the manufacturer. The product is the
Sharp AQUOS LC-32D6U, but as you can see it does not tell you where to buy the correct model.

However, a few products do have Shopzilla implemented (not sure how that works, first I’ve seen of it).

That is good, but it is still two clicks to a merchant. Thus potentially losing revenue on the extra effort of another click. Optimally, what should it look like? Something like this:

Summary
Overall, as it is now, the site layout is very clean (love it!), and has a lot of community features. I haven’t heard too much buzz about this company so I think the company needs to do some serious PR to compete with ShopWiki… But could definitely be a contender in the long-run because of the innovative collaboration features. However, without pricing information, the site definitely loses out in the comparison shopping aspect! Note: They state that they are working on that section with merchant affiliates, so that is a plus.

Technorati Tags: ProductWiki, Web 2.0, Wiki, Shopping Comparison, ShopWiki

“ShopWiki is a shopping search engine that indexes retail products from thousands of online merchants. ShopWiki is not a store and does not sell anything. The purpose of the site is to help consumers find the products they are looking for online with ease.”

Buying Guides
Unique content. Shop Wiki adds, like any Wiki, the ability to edit for the community to edit the content. It has some nice buying guides already in place, they say more then 1,000 actually. Many of which have been edited several times already by community members.

Finding a Product
They have an intelligent search engine setup. You can type more complex queries such as price ranges. They have also implemented a sliding bar allowing the user to narrow your price range.

Product Page

• Offers - They generally have a wide variety of merchant offers, but details are often lacking.  Also, like Froogle, crawling is not always accurate. For Example, the first two offers for the Western Digital WD740GD 74GB Hard Drive are from stores.tomshardware.com. Well, last I checked TomsHardware didn’t sell anything… In actuality it is a co-brand of PriceGrabber.

• Reviews - Interestingly enough, they have in place some review data from Amazon and Epinions, but do allow users to write their own reviews.

Summary
Pros: Crawling gives them access to more merchants, unbiased. Smarter search capability. eg. ” 5 megapixel digital camera with 10x optical zoom” returns highly qualified results. While some comparison engines like Shopping.com are also fairly smart, many do not have the ability to determine the language.

Cons: Since information is crawled, Shipping and handling and tax is not often found. Also, errors in pricing data or even relevant merchants can occur.

Overall, I’d say the site has high potential to become a quality shopping resource as the unique content grows as well as the community. We will continue to see with these type sites as they mature, if the community will be able to filter out unrelated content. Or if it becomes a linking game.

For more information you can read the NY Times article, or a detailed discussion can be found at ComparisonEngines.com in Brian Smith’s interview with the ShopWiki founders. My favorite comment by a user on Brian’s blog post is “When did Google Adsense and YPN become a legitimate business model?” I wonder how long companies will try to survive on Google Ads.

Thus far ShopWiki has taken the route of PR to gain exposure in the e-commerce market. However, they aren’t the first to take a Wiki approach to online shopping. A competitor lurks, ProductWiki, which is much more Web 2.0ish in my opinion. But that will be another blog post.

Technorati Tags: ShopWiki, shopping comparison, web 2.0, wiki