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Making Your eBay Store Search-Savvy, Part Two
By Beth Cox
July 22, 2004

One of the things needed to be a successful e-commerce entrepreneur is persistence. So, despite the initial frustrations of trying to make use of eBay's XML catalog file for store operators, I have kept on keepin' on.

My goal was to get our eBay store listings picked up and listed in some of the shopping search engine to draw more potential customers to our little orchid store on eBay. And to do it for free -- as a struggling small business, any ad campaign much over two figures is just out of the question.

My results? A mixed success. I tried Froogle, BizRate, Shopping.com and Yahoo! Shopping. I spent some time with each site, and although it's possible to make some progress, I'm really not sure it's worth the bother considering some of the up-front fees.

Froogle
The one place I really wanted to accept my eBay store XML feed was Google's Froogle operation, which seems to be in the midst of change and thus somewhat confused.

At first I thought they had turned me down cold, without real explanation. I filled out their application on July 8, and in response, Froogle told me that: "We will respond to your submission as quickly as possible. Please note that due to a large volume of responses, it may take us up to 5-10 business days to respond."

Not exactly speedy. Then, about five days later, I got an e-mail from Froogle with the header: "Your site cannot be included in Froogle at this time."

However, when I read the e-mail, they told me that my store listings could be included if only I would go to eBay and create the XML file. Having already done this, I submitted the link, which eBay promises to keep up-to-date as store listings come and go.

Within an hour, I got an acknowledgment of my submission, and six hours later, I got back an e-mail telling me that Froogle had entered the URL into its system.

So, despite some confusion and frustration, they came through. A day later, I searched for one of the orchids listed in our store, and up popped a link with picture and description letting customers click through right to our item listing.

Success!

BizRate
Next I tried BizRate. They say on their site that "our mission is to provide the world's best shopping search engine. To that end we strive to list every store and every product, with helpful price, availability and ratings information, so shoppers can find and confidently buy anything that is available for sale anywhere."

Stores are listed on BizRate Shopping Search regardless of whether they pay or not.

Their site tells me that it enables paying advertisers' listings to appear more prominently than those that don't pay, "when their offers are equally relevant to a shopping search query."

However, unlike Froogle, I got the feeling that BizRate seems to be aimed more at getting merchants to pay for listings. Even though I'm looking for maximum exposure at no or ultra-low cost, I went ahead and filled out their application online. Immediately, I was asked to create an account and pay $100 "to be applied toward Cost-per-Click Leads that you receive from BizRate's Shopping Search Engine."

That told me all I needed to know, so I politely declined.

Give 'em credit though: When I did a search for orchids on Bizrate, our main Web site showed up in a link in the Additional Resources section. I had to hunt for it, but it was there. The main search results, of course, were dominated by the big boys like 1800Flowers, FTD, etc.

Still, things are changing. BizRate spokesperson Helen Malani told me that they actually spider eBay for "catalog" items, which BizRate defines as "items that are easily comparable like electronic devices, appliances, etc."

Also, they are in the process of integrating a general eBay feed for non-catalog items, but "in both cases we do not take users directly to the individual eBay retailers page. We always take them to a product listing page."

So, my XML eBay feed is not going to end up on BizRate, but at least my items may one day appear there.

Continued on Page Two: Shopping.com and Yahoo! Shopping.

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