Vertical Marketing: A Study

Over the weekend Multichannel Merchant released an article supplying results from a Jupitar survery. This survery looked at vertical marketing and comparison shopping sites. Here's a little break down if you don't have time to read the whole thing.

A vertical search site is becoming more of a hybrid than it originally was:

“[V]ertical” search engines — particularly comparison shopping engines, but also engines for travel and financial services - are melding with vertical sites, adding the informational content, buying guides and consumer reviews that will encourage users to engage with and trust the sites. The results are an amalgam: not totally a content site, but not a straight-ahead search engine either.

Meaning ecommerce sites need to pay attention to their brand, reputation, web content, and which search engines they use to promote their goods. Being visible is #1. Being useful isn't far behind. Shoppers like price comparison, but it may be a little different than merchants originally believed.

In its most recent survey of consumer engine usage, Jupiter found that consumers cited low price as the most influential factor in determining where they would buy a product online.

Said "Low Price" would direct purchases:
43% of undecided uninfluenced shoppers (those who did not have an idea where they would make their purchase and who had not been influenced by information they had already found on the Web.
54% of "undecided influenced" shoppers (haven't selected a merchant but say they were influenced by Web information).

NOTE: Be present throughout the shopping cycle, be informative and friendly, easy to navigate and useful and customers will consider you when their ready to buy. Of course, you must be present during the final phase as well.

Other influential factors? Low-cost shipping options and past store experience.

Comparison shopping engines lead only 4-5% of shoppers to a retail site.
26% of undecided uninfluenced and 20% of undecided influenced directly navigate to the site.
15% of undecided uninfluenced and 25% of undecided influenced find a site using a search engine.

In their influence, comparison shopping sites are about on a par with catalogs, promotional e-mail or mass-media ads.

Finding base prices:
37% of polled shoppers said they found prices at retail Web sites.
15% said they found prices on comparison sites.

Finding comparison prices:
27% of shoppers say they compare prices at comparison shopping engines.
17% cross compare at retail sites.
24% looked at comparison shopping sites for "best buys".
17% looked at retail sites for "best buys".

“Retailers should be on comparison shopping sites in order to capture those later buying-decision stages,” Patti Freeman Evans said at the Internet Retailer 2006 show in Chicago. “Consumers may have figured out that $100 is the right price for a DVD player, but who’s got free shipping? Who’s got a rebate? That’s where many of these niche and vertical search engines come into play.”

Retailers are reacting by spending more in the virtual segments or SEM (search engine marketing). In 2005 $143,000 was average spend for retailers compared to $122,000 for others. Over 50% of retailers have outsourced their SEM campaigns. This frees up time for those retailers to focus on other aspects of their businesses.

For more information on how to outsource your SEM campaign, whether you'd like to continue to be involved or would rather the campaign be handled professionally without much time on your part please contact us.

Adding to the spectrum of search engine marketing campaigns retailers often face are the incredible numbers of search engines available.

On average, retail search marketers included 4.4 search engines in their SEM campaigns in August 2005, compared to 3 for all search marketers. That figure increased in February to 5.9 search engines for retailer SEMers and 3.3 for all Web marketers.

“The advice is to be broad and test as many of these engines as you can,” [Evans] said. “Then refine down to the ones that are appropriate for your business. Even if you don’t get a lot of traffic from these vertical search engines, it might be very qualified traffic and convert very well. So it might make sense to keep a small investment in some of these vertical search engines.”

Marketing is ever evolving. To get and stay on top retailers must be agressive, thorough, knowledgeable, influencial, available, and easy to find. Search engine marketing is important for all size businesses whether you are selling a product or service. If customers are looking for what you provide you need to be where they can find you.