Over at the SingleFeed Blog (yes, I gave my clients a running start!), I introduced Google Base’s new pre-defined attributes. These were announced yesterday by Cynthia Kwon on the Google Base blog.

Here are some of the new attributes (definitions):
department
made_in
material
style
binding
edition
genre
pages
publisher
film_type
focus_type
resolution
tech_spec_link
zoom
functions
wireless_interface
battery_life
capacity
operating_system
optical_drive
recommended_usage
screen_size
weight
aspect_ratio
display_type
color_output
memory_card_slot
load_type
feature
height
length
width
installation
occasion
heel_height
shoe_width
age_range
platform
rating

So if you want more exposure on Google Base, consider using as many relevant attributes as possible. As I said a couple months ago: you’re the expert on your products, not the shopping comparison engines. Cynthia from Google Base echoed this comment yesterday by saying ‘After all, you (the retailer) are the true expert in the category.’

Related Post:

SingleFeed Blog - New Google Base Specs

Google Base rules/requirements seem to zig or zag without any notice. The latest example? A couple days ago a merchant could list Google Checkout as a payment option in their Google Base feed (bulk upload) in the payment_accepted field. In fact, Google Checkout is still listed as an example in the instructions for the payment_accepted field…without any special notes.

Well, it turns out that the instructions need to be revised. Google has been rejecting feeds with the completely useless message: “To accept Google Checkout, you must first sign up for a Google Checkout account.” That doesn’t happen to help. The merchants in question accept Google Checkout. Upon further investigation, it turns out that merchants are only supposed to list Google Checkout in the payment_accepted field if they use Checkout for Google Base hosted items. Otherwise list Google Checkout in the payment_notes field.

The official word from a Google rep: “Please know that you are receiving this error for the items in your bulk upload because you have included the value ‘GoogleCheckout’ under the ‘payment_accepted’ attribute. To resolve this problem, you must include the Google Checkout payment option under the “payment_notes” attribute, rather than the “payment_accepted” attribute. Including Google Checkout under the “payment_accepted” attribute should only be used by those who do not have Google Checkout on their site and would like to use Google Base hosted item pages displaying a Google Checkout ‘Buy’ button.”

If you accept Google Checkout and haven’t logged into your Google Base account lately, make sure to take a look and list Checkout under payment_notes.

Related Posts
-Google Base - The Comparison Shopping Story of Q1 2007 - January 12, 2007
-Google Checkout Increases Troops - January 17, 2007

Any merchants reading this that are listing 2 stores on the shopping engines with the exact same inventory?  I know this is a common practice.  If so, I’d love to hear your advice on pricing strategies.  Your comments will be totally off the record if you want them to be.

Just a brief post to thank the launch sponsors of LoveYourFeed - Telic Media, Pivotal Payments and adMarketplace Keywords.

If you’re looking for a boutique SEO or PPC agency, contact Telic Media.

If you’re looking for a merchant account provider who will give you free clicks on Shopzilla, consider Pivotal Payments.

If you’re looking to amp up your eBay sales, check out adMarketplace.

And tell them that LoveYourFeed sent you.

If you’re interested in advertising on LoveYourFeed, just send an email to ‘brian at loveyourfeed dot com’.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

If a product is out of stock on your site, immediately remove that product from your feed. If not, you’re potentially paying for clicks that have almost no chance of converting. If you’re a large merchant with abundant resources and approach the comparison shopping game from a branding/mindshare perspective, then go ahead and spend strategically.

If you’re a small merchant with limited resources, I wouldn’t even recommend using the handy ‘out of stock’ marketing message available on many engines…just remove that product from your feed or if you control the bidding through your feed, bid the SKU to $0.00.

Me? No. Brian Mark? Maybe.

Brian Mark is the CTO of ToolBarn. He generates aprx. $1m in sales from Google OneBox results. And he’s finally blogging. Check out OneBoxer. Looks like he’s going to share his secrets.

He’s a data feed guru…pay attention…while it sounds like he’ll concentrate on Google Base/Froogle, his tips are applicable to all shopping comparison engines.