Next Generation Shopping

A while back I had posted a question about the ability to access eBay Express items via the Search function in the eBay API.  I haven’t checked out the call myself yet, but you can see on the eBay roadmap they have already begun to integrate the Express results.  Below are notes from the eBay Developer Roadmap:

• GetSearchResultsExpress (should be available now)
  The new GetSearchResultsExpress API call will allow developers to access Express-specific items, products and domain histograms.
• REST Support for GetSearchResultsExpress (September ‘06)
  Adds REST support for the GetSearchResultsExpress API call. Click here for details on the GetSearchResultsExpress API call.

I see this call as being be very useful specificly for mining marketplace item data from eBay.

Jeff Barr over at the AWS Blog has posted a very nice writeup about SecretPrices.com and the Amazon perspective…

“True to the site’s name, there’s a list of secret deals and also a so-called “tag cloud” of coupons. You can post any product to Digg or to Delicio.us.

Interestingly enough, Mark told me that the lowest priced vendor doesn’t always get the sale. There’s a strong preference toward Amazon among his user base. That’s good to hear, and there are undoubtedly many reasons for this. I’ll take a guess at a few. First, people are loathe to create yet another online account. Second, they would like to deal with a known entity where possible. Third, they have probably had some positive experiences with Amazon in the past — an easy shopping and buying experience, on-time shipping, and responsive customer service…”

Take a minute and read the full post over at the AWS Blog.

Technorati Tags: aws, amazon web services, secretprices, brand loyalty

For those who don’t know too much about Mashup Camp, the guidelines serve as a great summary.

Mashup Camp is governed by a few essential principles:

• Whoever comes are the right people.
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
• Whenever it starts is the right time.
• When it is over, it is over.

Winners of the Speed Geeking

#1 - WeatherBonk

#2 - HotCaptcha (+ MeCommerce, something fishy here, perhaps they combined nickels)

There are a ton of pictures from the camp event found on FlickR.

And it looks like I got picked up a few places as well.

• In the background of a picture currently on the frontpage of the Mashup Camp blog, seen here, during a session about “Social Networking for Young People” run by a 16-year-old girl.
• Someone snapped a shot of me during Speed Geeking, where I was demoing SecretPrices.com.
  

Finally, I’d like to personally thank David Berlind and Doug Gold for organizing the event as well as a quick thanks to the sponsors who made it possible. By the way, the conference was free.

Ideas for next time:

• My first suggestion is to have a time slot allocated for developers to checkout each others mashups. The problem was that those of us who did Speed Geeking both days had no time to see the other developers’ mashups.
• Secondly, a session for Speed Geeking Best Practices… Generally how to market your mashup to people in the five minutes you have. Identifying what is the most important to cover, identifying what you want the audience to take from it, establishing contacts, etc.

Technorati Tags: mashup camp, mashup camp 2, mashup, web services

This was another packed day (07/13/2006) of sessions, not quite as many that I was directly interested in.

Here are the sessions I attended:

1. Speed Up Mashup Development
2. Social Networking for Young People (run by a 16 year old girl)
3. User Acquisition and Retention – Part 2

In the afternoon, another speed geeking session took place. I had great response to the demoing of SecretPrices again. I had some very enthusiastic women “bargain hunters” giving me some very positive feedback, as well as a developer saying it was “the best site idea” he had ever seen. By the time speed geeking was over I had ended up collecting enough wooden nickels (used to cast votes) to lock in around 5th or 6^th place. I edged out Nasser of Frucall by just a few nickels! But he had also allocated enough nickels to place and received a copy of Visual Studio 2005. I’d say this is probably one of the best (un)conferences I have attended thus far in my young career. I’m truly excited for the next one as it sounds like the event will take place on the East coast!

Technorati Tags: mashup camp 2, mashup camp, mashup

I’m currently at Mashup Camp 2 in Mountain View, CA.

To recap day one below are the sessions I attended:

1. User Acquisition and Retention (by Nasser Manesh – Frucall)
2. Google Checkout + Google AdWords (by Thomas Steiner – Google)
3. Monetization Models for Mashups (by Dave Nielsen – StrikeIron)
4. Voice-enabling mashups (by Nasser Manesh – Frucall)

Aside from attending the sessions, during Speed Geeking I demoed my own mashup website, SecretPrices.com, to almost a dozen groups of 5 within a very short hour.  It was great to get the site more exposure and quality feedback from fellow developers, API providers and others… but very tiring (to say the least).

Technorati Tags: mashup camp, mashupcamp2, frucall, google, strikeiron, secretprices.com, api

In a few short hours I’ll be hoping on a plane to sunny Mountain View, California. There I will attend the two day “Mashup Camp 2″. It should be a great networking opportunity, learning experience, and most important of all, a lot of fun! As it is an “unconference” the agenda is setup by those who attend, developers being the first priority… So I am really not sure what to expect. There is already a ton of great discussion ideas, but I’m sure there are many more to come.

I definitely plan on attending the Monetization Models for Mashups discussion proposed by Dave Nielsen of StrikeIron (who I previously met at the eBay Developers Conference), as I see this as a necessary. Of course if I go into it and the only thing written on the whiteboard is “Google AdSense”, I’m leaving the room immediately! Other than that I will probably wing it and decide once the ideas are more solidified.

To learn about Mashup Camp, check out the official Mashup Camp homepage.

For Mashup Camp coverage, stay tuned to the Mashup Camp Blog, as well as John Musser’s ProgrammableWeb Blog.

Don’t know what a Mashup is? It’s ok! Check out the Mashup definition found at Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: mashup, API, web services, mashup camp

Erik Kalvainen, co-founder of ProductWiki.com, dropped me an email yesterday letting me know that they have successfully integrated Shopping.com listings into their site by utilizing the Shopping.com API. I mentioned to them about a couple months back that the API would be a great fit for their site. Originally they were considering trying to work with BizRate / ShopZilla just linking to their site. I have little knowledge of BizRate offerings as far as an API, and they don’t seem to get back to me on it. From what I hear, they have something, but require you to have a very significant amount of traffic. Anyway, I feel they will find a much higher CTR and eCPM from utilizing the Shopping.com API instead of linking to a comparison engine product page since it cuts down the amount of clicking the end-user must do in half.

In the email Erik told me that my original ProductWiki “blog post helped initiate the process.” It is a great feeling to know people are finding the information I post in my blog useful, and actually taking action based on it. They even did a nicer job than my quick and dirty mockup seen in my previous ProductWiki post, check out the Apple iPod 30GB Video page (”Where to buy” section seen below):

You can read more about their affiliation with Shopping.com and some other new features added to their site in their blog post.

Technorati Tags: ProductWiki, Shopping.com, Shopping.com API, API, web services, wiki

My brother has put together a Wordpress “Meetup” group for the New York City area. The first official meet-up is scheduled for July 15th. Basically it will be a casual gathering of WordPress users of any experience to share WordPress knowledge, chat, network, and grab some food and drinks!

If you are interested, you can find out more information here at the WordPress Meetup Page. I’ll be at the Meetup, coming back fresh from Mashup Camp 2. Anyone wanting to discuss e-commerce/shopping-industry or mashup related topics are welcome to come join us as well.

Full information below:

Original post on DisconnectTheDots here.

Technorati Tags: WordPress, bloggers, meetup, nyc, new york city, web development, mashup, ecommerce, blogging

I placed my first order using Google Checkout last night. I was hesitant to try Google Checkout, but in the midst of an impulse buy I decided to give it a whirl. I picked up a Iomega 250 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive from RitzCamera for $19.95. This great product deal came curtiosy of a listing found at SecretPrices.com as the normal price is somewhere upwards of $250+. SecretPrices also had listed a coupon for $10 off $20 at RitzCamera, only valid when using Google Checkout. So the grand was $9.95 for the drive, plus shipping. Not sure if it was a price mistake or what, but the product was removed from Ritz’s website only a few hours after my purchase. Update: RitzCamera cancelled my order stating that the item was “out of stock”. Oh well!

The whole process for Google Checkout was straightforward and simple. It seemed easier than using the relatively clunky RitzCamera checkout interface itself (which has given me problems in the past when using FireFox). Of course you it seems you need a Gmail account to use the service (which is still by invitation only?).

After the purchase you can keep track of your order using the Google Checkout History found in your Google account. Also, Google also allows you to refrain from giving out your Gmail email address and just having Google forward information on from the merchant.

Technorati Tags: google checkout, gmail, ritzcamera

Here are some interesting tidbits after reading the E-Consultancy Shopping Comparison Roundtable May 2006 Whitepaper. Some of the participants include: Shopping.com, Ciao!, PriceRunner, and Genie Group, amongst others.

• “According to one shopping engine representative, only 20% of consumers click on the cheapest product.”This is good information to know. My feeling here is that 4 of 5 clicks are most likely going to a slightly higher priced, but more trusted or higher rated merchant. This 20% maybe a good deal higher on a niche site like SecretPrices.com in which the target audience is mainly bargain hunters. But I wonder which shopping engine stated this fact?Update: Shopping.com stated the 20% click fact.

• There is a lack of research about the value of comparison engines (for Retailers) in terms of raising awareness and increasing purchase intent. Calling Brian Smith, comparison engines guru… Please save us!

• Retailers are NOT better off avoiding comparison engine advertisingThis is something rather obvious to me, as any price concious consumer is going to hit a price comparison site first. If you, being a retailer, aren’t listed on the engine then you aren’t going to get any traffic or leads from it. Further reading in the “Widening the Customer Base” section of this recent E-Commerce Times article.

• MPN, EAN, ISBN, and UPC are extremely important to include and be accurate.Ok, seriously, read that line again if you are a retailer using datafeeds. If you are not doing this your product may not be correctly categorized, and thus, never seen. This is the only true way for comparison engines to identify matching products with 100% accuracy. If you are a small or medium-sized retailer and need help in this area, Brian Smith’s new datafeed optimization business might be for you to keep an eye on.

Technorati Tags: shopping comparison, e-consultancy, shopping comparison roundtable, shopping.com, ciao, pricerunner, genie group, datafeed