I asked all the shopping comparison engines to submit the ONE data feed optimization tip they’d give merchants right now for the holiday shopping season and then explain why it matters. Here’s what Dennis Hoekstra of Yahoo! Product Submit had to say…

The holiday shopping season is already in full swing, but it’s never too late to better optimize your listings on Yahoo! Shopping. You probably already know how critical it is to provide informative and relevant names and descriptions, product attribute data, and universal identifiers such as UPC. However, to take advantage of Yahoo! Shopping’s newest functionality and reach more motivated buyers, we also recommend including sale-price and MSRP data in your Product Submit feed.

More users than ever are looking for deals on Yahoo! Shopping. The demand has been so great that we launched a new Bargains Center full of information about sales, discounts, coupons, free-shipping offers, rebates and more. Popular bargains and sales categories are featured at the top of the Bargains Center home page with links to product listing pages narrowed by sale price and MSRP. This “special deals” narrowing option is also available from every search result page. Make sure that your reduced-price products are included in these narrowing options by completing the sale-price and MSRP fields in your feed, in addition to the price field.

To keep up on the latest changes on Yahoo! Shopping, remember to visit the Yahoo! Shopping Blog . If your products are not in Yahoo! Shopping today, sign up for Product Submit to get included.