STORES Magazine - February 2009 - (Page 46)

NUTS AND BOLTS / ONLINE MARKETING Clicks that Count Buyz.com sold on solution that boosts its profile on comparison shopping sites BY CRAIG GUILLOT W ith financial belts tightening throughout the industry, retailers are seeking ways to optimize ad expenditures that reached a record $11.5 billion in the first six months of 2008, according to a survey by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Bidz.com is the second-largest online jewelry retailer, with estimated 2008 revenues of $230 million. From earrings and necklaces to watches and sunglasses, the website operates in an auction format where customers bid on their favorite products. Seeing there was a segment of the market that preferred direct purchase to auctions, the company launched Buyz.com last year with an inventory of more than 20,000 jewelry items. “We wanted to take our product lines out to customers in a more retail environment and to a more mainstream consumer,” says Leon Kuperman, chief technology officer and vice president of business development for Buyz.com. Online marketing channels are critical in providing traffic and sales leads, and Kuperman estimates that up to 40 percent of Buyz.com’s sales come from those channels. A customer who searches online for Azimuth jewelry often is led to a shopping site where she can learn “We’re helping connect retailers with high-intent online shoppers in more places across the Internet and, more important, we’re helping retailers generate more return on their advertising investments.” — Eric Best, Mercent more about the individual products and compare retailers and prices. Known as comparison shopping sites, they include customer reviews and rate everything from video games to furniture and baby apparel. Some of the more popular marketing channels include Nextag, Google Product, Shopzilla, Price Grabber and Yahoo! Shopping. Traffic from comparison shopping engines is important to retailers because most visitors who arrive via them tend to be further along in the buying process and therefore represent a more solid lead. When a consumer clicks on an offer from a retailer at a comparison shopping site or online marketing channel, that retailer is charged a payper-click price that can run anywhere between a few cents and a few dollars. To help it reach customers through these online marketing channels, Buyz.com enlisted the help of Mercent, an online marketing firm that helps retailers optimize performance across online channels. Through consulting and use of its webbased solutions, Mercent clients are able to push their ads and products out to the major online marketers more easily. From creating the individual ads to 46 STORES / FEBRUARY 2009 WWW.STORES.ORG http://www.Buyz.com http://www.Bidz.com http://www.Buyz.com http://www.Buyz.com http://www.Buyz.com http://www.Buyz.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - February 2009

STORES Magazine - February 2009 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Are You a Pusher or a Puller? What Shoppers Think Online Retail Satisfaction 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story - Something’s Got to Give First Look Concept2Watch Online Partners Merchandising Sustainability Inventory Systems Drug Store Systems Business Intelligence Inventory Managment Online Marketing Supply Chain - Better Data, Better Decisions Returns Management - Identifying Fraud Data Security - Securing Intimate Data Anti-Shoplifting - Mall of Shame? Risk Management - Securing Consumer Confidence Loeb Retail letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar End Cap

STORES Magazine - February 2009

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