Next Generation Shopping

This is a follow up to my previous post “Open Source E-Commerce Storefront Solutions Comparison for ASP.NET and PHP” in which I had compared two open source E-Commerce solutions (one for ASP.NET and one for PHP) as well as a full-source paid solution (Znode Storefront).

First off, a couple updates with regards to Znode…

1. Znode Storefronts has recently changed their pricing structure. They have dropped their Standard edition since my original blog post. Now they have Professional, Advanced, and Server editions. The reason I mention this is because the Professional price is labeled at $995, a $500 jump from the now extinct Standard version. This puts the software in the same category as other popular ASP.NET E-Commerce solutions, and so more must be expected.
2. Znode has launched a Developer portal and Knowledgebase at kb.znode.com. They seem to be off to a good start with that, and hopefully it will continue to grow. A strong developer community and responsive customer support is really what makes a product shine!

As I previously mentioned, Znode has hiked its price up. Two other solutions that are currently set in the same price range of a thousand bucks are ASPDotNet Storefront (ML Edition / DotNetNuke) and AbleCommerce 7.0. In this post we’ve got some great guest commentary from one of our readers, Jim Swanson. He recently had to make a decision in which he looked at Znode, AbleCommerce and ASPDotNetStorefront. In his research he found AbleCommerce to be the most promising for ventures. Read more »

Finally a Half.com API?  I just got word that the Half.com product inventory will now be available through the eBay Shopping Web Services.  It seems that it is actually just an additional API call (FindHalfProducts) rather than a full API itself.  I (and other developers) have been wondering for some time now why eBay hasn’t made this feature available to its web publisher and developer network. 

This API feature had been slated for release during July ‘07 according to the eBay Road Map.

More news coming next week.  Right from the e-mail:

• How does this help me?

  • Half.com product and pricing information will now be available via a Shopping API returning data in near real time. This will allow you to provide your shoppers with accurate and up-to-date information.
• Where can I get more information?
  • Information will be available at developer.ebay.com. The API name is “FindHalfProducts” and it is available as a Shopping Services API.
• How do I sign up and begin ramping up using the API?
  • Signing up is simple and free: You must have a developer account at developer.ebay.com. Documentation for the new FindHalfProducts API will be available at:
    developer.ebay.com/DevZone/shopping/docs/CallRef/index.html
• When will this be available?
  • We are shooting for the API to be available next week! Watch for a follow-up notice to announce availability!

Web Publishers: Half.com has a separate affiliate program running on CJ.

By the time I had checked my feed reader this morning, Brian Smith had already covered Shopping.com’s latest press release.  If you are a reader of Brian’s blog then you know he has been very critical of Shopping.com the past couple years.  So I was sure I was dreaming when I read his post title “Shopping.com Gets With The Program.”  Alas, I was not dreaming… They are planning to release the following quality innovations for merchants:

• Product Performance Reporting
• SKU Level Bidding
• Shopping.com Cart
• Distributed Commerce Program

These will be accesible through a merchant portion of the Shopping.com API, slated for beta release in 2008.  You can read the details about the items mentioned above in the press release or on Ed’s etaildtail blog entry.

Now, what does this mean to a Partner in the Shopping.com Developer Network?  Simply put conversion will effect your CPC rate.  Directly from Shopping.com:

“the revenue per click to publishers will also be adjusted based on the merchant CPC. We evaluate the quality of traffic from our distribution partners by measuring the conversion to sale and adjust the merchants’ cost per click accordingly.”

More…

• All existing agreements to remain the same
• To continue to receive a share of the merchant revenue
• To be evaluated based on a new metric: Quality Score. This metric will determine the value a partner receives on each click and will be available in the Partner Account Center upon launch of VBP.

I’m hoping that Shopping.com will ensure publisher partners have the information neccessary to increase their conversion and provide a higher quality of clicks.

This will change the landscape dramatically, especially for those pumping low quality clicks through SDC.  But at the end of the day, its all for the better.  From Shopping.com:

“Value-Based Pricing will encourage merchants to increase their investment with Shopping.com, driving a mutually beneficial relationship between partners and merchants and reinforcing our ecosystem.”

I often post from the point of view of eithier a developer or an industry analyst. This post is not one of them.

Lately, I’ve run into trouble as an online consumer. Specifically getting shipments. Here is a real-life post from being an everyday consumer:

I ordered a Nintendo Wii from CircuitCity.com on August 30th. I got it right before they sold out. Everyone here was really excited about it. Well, it still hasn’t been delivered yet. Here is my FedEx SmartPost tracking log:

Today is only one day after the estimated delivery date, but it hasn’t moved from the Edison NJ warehouse in 4 business days. I’m starting to think something is wrong so I decided I’d try to find out.

I started out by calling FedEx.

FedEx Rep 1:
Rep 1: Thanks for calling FedEx…
Me: Hi, I’m trying to track a SmartPost package…
Rep 1: We don’t track FedEx SmartPost, you have to call your local post office.

Ok, calling the post office

Local Post Office Rep (Pat):
…
Pat: Do you have a tracking ID?
Me: I believe so. (Read the number).
Pat: That looks to be a FedEx number. We probably haven’t received any information from FedEx yet.

Back to square 1. I call FedEx again.

FedEx Rep 2:
Rep 1: Thanks for calling FedEx…
Me: Hi, I’m trying to track a SmartPost package…
Rep 2: Let me transfer you to SmartPost department.
Me: (Thinking why the hell couldn’t you do that the first time?)

Wait to be transferred…

SmartPost Rep (Mary):
Mary: Hi, how can I help you?
Me: (Explains the whole situation)
Mary: We are a 3rd party organization that hands off packages from FedEx to the Post office for finally delivery. We usually have a 1-3 business day turn around once it enters the Sortation (that can’t be a real word) facility. Since it hasn’t moved since September 7th, I would say there is something wrong with your package. Perhaps the package, packaging or label was damaged. I would call Circuit City and tell them you talked to us, and we feel that the package has been damaged or lost.

Great, now to call Circuit City…

Circuit City Rep (Michelle):
Michelle: You can only report lost after 15 business days from shipment.
Me: So I can’t do anything until September 20th?
Michelle: I’m sorry sir, but we can’t report it lost until 15 business days from the shipment.

End of Story

I’m still hopeful that I might get my package, but this whole thing has turned into a nightmare. I thought I’d save a couple bucks for free shipping. I should know better. Now some kid who works at the Edison FedEx sortation facility is probably playing my stolen Nintendo Wii right now; or maybe its on the back off an unmarked truck to be sold on the black market… who knows, but at least I’m optimistic.

Lessons learned

• Never use free shipping from Circuit City again.
• Never receive or ship using FedEx SmartPost (I’m not the only one that has problems).
• Stop shopping online its not worth it =)

ScanAlert’s HackerSafe has been making some big headlines recently with the announcements of partnerships with both Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber. These engines have integrated the HackerSafe trustmark feed into their comparison shopping portals. For specifics on the trustmark feed, check out the intro on the HackerSafe site here.

Why would comparison shopping engines be interested in HackerSafe? For starters, the service boasts that: “Tests confirm 15% average conversion increase when your HackerSafe image is displayed directly in comparison shopping search result pages.”

Joe Lazarus, director of marketing at Yahoo Shopping, states: “Combining enhanced security information with price, user ratings and merchant reviews helps online shoppers make more informed and trusted buying decisions.”

Despite such claims, many in the industry are still unsure what the true benefits of these partnerships will be. There are some interesting user comments on a recent GrokDotCom blog entry about whether or not the trust seal brings real value to consumers. Only time (and good solid analysis) will tell.

As a seasoned online shopper with over a decade of experience, I can say that I personally don’t take the time to check for “HackerSafe” or other trustmarks on a merchant product page. However, taking out the price and the brandname factors, I’d be likely to pick a “HackerSafe” trustmarked merchant site over unmarked sites, especially if they were placed right in front of my face on a comparison shopping product page.

Two large-scale integrations is a great start for HackerSafe, and I anticipate more partnerships and continued innovation in this field. I’m not sure how their “feed” currently operates, but I’d love to see a standardized web service (like BuySafe has) be on their roadmap. This would allow developers widespread access to their product, and increase the value of their product for their merchant customers. For now, interested parties can find out more information about HackerSafe and its trustmark feed here.

Resources and More on this topic:

• ScanAlert HackerSafe is Good and .. Yahoo! and PriceGrabber agree
• E-Commerce Optimization - Yahoo Shopping & ScanAlert Announce Partnership
• InternetRetailer - Yahoo Shopping adds trust marks as another comparison element
• PriceGrabber Press Release

PayPal is ready to give away $25,000 to seven Facebook developers who create innovative applications that utilize the Facebook platform and the PayPal API.  The following is a break down of the awards:

• Grand Prize (1) - $10,000
• Second Prizes (2) - $5,000
• Third Prizes (4) - $2,500

Check out the comments on this Mashable post as their has been some controversy over the rules of the contest, which have just recently been updated (better for the developers).  More about the new terms on AuctionBytes.

I’ve recently spent some time putting together a social shopping solution for Facebook users. I wanted it to cover a wide range of products and categories, so I choose to use Shopping.com as my data partner. They have a very extensive product database and a good search engine. Also, this will allow me to integrate the application into our website SecretPrices.com going forward if I should choose to.

As always I’ve created my application on Microsoft’s ASP.NET. I’m still preaching the Microsoft word, even after returning from the second NYC Developers hackathon which was about 99% guys with Macbooks and programming in PHP, Ruby or even Java. Yeah, I was that 1%. However, the guys from ClipMarks came eventually and were developing on ASP.NET (but- .NET 1.1). At any rate, you can develop your own Facebook solution with whatever language you wish. Without getting too technical, here are the basics for ASP.NET developers:

1) Get an application key on Facebook, if you don’t already have one. See developers.facebook.com.

2) Goto CodePlex and download the latest (v 1.2) of the Facebook Developers Toolkit by Microsoft. Note: Requires .NET 2.0. Optionally, there are a few other open-source ASP.NET development frameworks including this one.

Next, Load it up and read the Facebook Developer resources. Read the ASP.NET and other tutorials. Hit up the developer discussion boards as well. There is a lot of information. If you are encountering a problem with the Facebook platform, the answer is probably out there somewhere. If you know what IRC is, you might be able to hop on and get some instant answers or feedback in the #facebook channel on irc.freenode.net.

3) Creating A Page – Be sure to assign the your developer key and secret key with every page load, as you’ll need it before you call the Facebook API

_fbService.ApplicationKey = “YOUR_APPLICATION_KEY”

_fbService.Secret = “YOUR_SECRET_KEY”

Read more »

Shopping.com had a big announcement at the eBay Developers Conference. A complete revamp of the API is in place (version 3). The new API will support REST and SOAP protocol formats. Phase I is to be released in mid-August, with a feature set focused on search type integrations. The product specs and reviews will not be included in the initial phase. The rest of the functionality for the API will be released in Q1 ’08. The current API will remain available for at least one year after the new API is fully released (estimated Q1 ’09). Documentation for the new API is slated to be released in Mid-to-Late July.

They’ve added a new part of their site dedicated to their partner developer network. For starters they’ve launched a blog and application gallery located at http://developer.shopping.com. Planned for Q3 are several enhancements including Forums, Documentation, Sample Code and a Knowledge Base.

With the added protocol support and documentation, this should continue to give Shopping.com the edge as the strongest API overall in comparison shopping industry.

I’ll be sure to continue coverage as they roll it out. More on the eBay Developers blog.

eBay DevCon 2007 is set for June 11 - 13 in Boston, Mass., only about three and a half weeks from now.  I’ll be in Boston from Friday, June 8th until the end of the conference if any developers (or anyone else) want to meetup and a grab a few drinks prior to the conference.

I’m not certain where I am staying as of yet.  And the eBay DevCon page doesn’t seem to have any information about hotel/travel accomodations.  However, eBay Live! does, so here is a link to that information.

If you haven’t already signed up you still have time.  I’d recommend it to those looking to work with eithier the eBay or Shoppping.com APIs.  Since you are a reader of this blog (and I like you), I’ll tell you that you can save 40% off the conference price by using the following special promotion code:

40% off Discount Code: 7DCAL1

Some sessions of interest on the Affiliate Traffic track are:

• Build a Shopping Portal
• Building eBay Mashups
• Make Money with Shopping.com APIs
• Content Tools for your Website

 You can contact me here if you are in Boston and wish to meet up.

Today I received notice “PriceRunner is pleased to offer qualified publishers access to its newly updated API Feed and Shopping Banner Widgets.”  I was obviously interested to know more about it, so I called their marketing manager directly.  A couple hours later their GM of PriceRunner US called me back to personally answer my questions.  Wow, impressive.  So here is what I got out of it…

PriceRunner has launched a competitve API service for web publishers in the shopping industry.  Apparently PriceRunner has had an API for about a year now (and I found this comment that dates back to September 2005). 

PriceRunner has sites in Sweden, France, Germany, UK, and the US.  They rank  #1 for shopping comparison in Sweden and Denmark, and near the top of other European countries.  You can become a partner to any of their sites via Commission Junction.

I have not yet played with the API, but I am told that it functions the same for all countries.  Since they cover a lot of countries this is very nice feature for expanding your own development outside the US.  Also another nice feature is there are no current restrictions on API calls. Read more »