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Comparison shopping engines (CSEs) are of growing importance to the success of your ecommerce website. Watch today’s episode to learn how and why these powerful tools can help drive more traffic and sales to your online store.

How do you drive more traffic and sales to your ecommerce site?

It’s simple: do a better job of marketing.

This is obviously easier said than done, but a new marketing tool has emerged to help solve your problems. This solution, known as comparison shopping engines (CSEs), essentially provides customers with a search engine to find specific products. Some examples include Google Product Search, NexTag and Shopzilla.

But why take the time to have someone manage your shopping feeds for CSEs? Join me in today’s episode to find out.

Happy selling!
-Matt Winn, Online Communications Specialist, Volusion

We’d also like to thank Volusion Customer, The Bird Safe Store, for allowing us to feature their product. If you’d like your product featured, please send an email to marketing@volusion.com for further instructions.

And here’s the transcript for your reading pleasure:

Hi everybody! My name is Matt and I’m an Online Communications Specialist here at Volusion. Welcome to Two Minute Tuesday, where we give you two minutes of ecommerce advice to bolster your online success.

Today we’re going to dive deep into the trending wave of Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs). These include sites like Google Product Search, Nextag and Shopzilla. These are places where customers can conduct a specific product search, see a list of results, and buy products after comparing to see which they like the most. This trend is really catching on, so pay attention to see other reasons why you should get started with this tool.

First, you can reach new shoppers. You likely have a large number of customers who come back to your site, but you might be having trouble driving or acquiring new customers to your ecommerce site. CSEs allow you to reach an entirely new base, especially since millions of shoppers are flocking to CSEs. This allows you to make your name known to a new audience.

Next, you can forget the funnel. As you can see in this bad drawing, this is a sales funnel. Essentially customers enter your funnel by learning about you. Then you have to nurture them until they reach a sale. With comparison shopping engines, however, you essentially can cut the top half of this funnel since customers are already deeper into the buying process. By moving shoppers right down to the sale, you can save quite a few marketing dollars.

Along the same lines, you can also extend your discounts. Since customers are increasingly price-conscious, CSEs allow you to share your discounts and extend them to a new audience, which is a great way to drive more sales.

Finally, you can equalize yourself with the competition. Most likely you’re a smaller online business owner that’s competing with giant corporations like JCPenney, Staples, Target and Office Depot. CSEs allow you to place yourself on the same playing field as these large players, which helps equal the playing field in gaining exposure to your products.

We also have shopping feed management services to fully optimize and manage your shopping feeds when you’re ready to get started.

And in the spirit of helping people sell online, today’s featured product comes from www.birdsafestore.com, and here I have the Birdsafe Stuff’d Toy. I had a bird growing up who liked to tear up everything, but this product allows your pet to tear up something they’ll love. Essentially the bird can pull the confetti out of the tube, which is a safe and fun activity for them. So whether you have a bird or know someone with a feathered loved one, check out The Bird Safe Store for more great products.

Whether you’re selling to birds or selling through comparison shopping engines, we’re always here to help answer any of your burning questions. From me to you, happy selling!