Comparison Shopping News for the past few weeks. CPC Strategy’s semi-monthly news series highlights recent happenings within the comparison shopping landscape as seen through our eyes. The Comparison Shopping News Series recaps what’s happened on paid CSEs, free CSEs and the broader implications that search has on comparison shopping.
CPC Strategy’s Comparison Shopping News Headlines:
Google Product Search Extends Deadline for Product Identifier Attribute – The May 3rd deadline for the product identifier attribute is postponed to June 20th. The Google Merchant Center has begun identifying missing product identifiers in shopping feeds so merchants can identify potential issues that may arise on June 20th.
Shopzilla Announces Updates to CPC Rate Card – On June 1st, Shopzilla will increase the minimum cpc rates for 30% of their categories and lower them for about 9%. Shopzilla will automatically set your bids to the new minimums on the declared date so be mindful of how it will affect this particular comparison shopping campaign.
Shopping.com’s Value Based Pricing and New Maximum CPCs –Shopping.com rebrands their payment structure with the new “maximum CPC” bids. The rebranding accompanies an updated rate card that reflects many dramatic increases in CPC rates per category. Read on to learn more about how this comparison shopping engine is leveraging their Value Based Pricing program to offset the CPC rate increases
Become.com Launches Merchant Blog – Become.com revealed to us that they recently soft launched a new merchant blog with tips for merchants on how to increase your sales on this particular comparison shopping engine.
Shopzilla Acquired By Symphony Technology Group – Shopzilla was sold by Scripps Interactive Network Inc. to Symphony Technology Group for $165M.
Top Ten Comparison Shopping Engine Rankings for Q1 2011 – CPC Strategy releases its Q1 2011 Comparison Shopping Engine Rankings. New to the quarterly rankings is a breakdown by category that you can download here.