Optimizing Your Product Data Feed for the Holiday Rush

By Donna McCarthy

As we get closer to the 2008 Holiday season, everyone is asking how can I best optimize my product data feed and how can I increase my conversion rate to get more sales over my competition. Below I will outline a few helpful simple helpful hints to increase your conversion rate and increase your revenue.

Optimize Production Descriptions

First, your product descriptions need to stand out to make the consumer want to click on your products links instead of your competition. The primary goal is to differentiate your products from your competition. How do you do that? You need to really take time with your product descriptions. Make them as unique as possible, do not use the general product descriptions provided by the manufacturer.  Chances are this is what everyone else is using. Include things like your shipping costs, if the item is available online only, or if you’re running a special discount. Your descriptions are key to making your products stand out among the competition.

Update Feeds Frequently

Second, make sure you are updating your product data feeds frequently. You should update your feeds as often as your inventory changes. Pricing and products need to be as fresh as possible. Nothing depresses a conversion rate more, than when a consumer clicks on a product which is out of stock.

Check Your Landing Pages

Third and I think the most important, is your landing pages. Make sure your landing page URLs go directly to your product pages. So many times, I’ve seen data feeds where all the landing pages go to the home page. Why would you send the consumer to your home page, when they have already selected the product they want?

These helpful hints probably seem really obvious, but you would be surprised how many companies are not using these best practices. That’s good news for you! You now have the advantage to get better conversion rates and earn more revenue.

Comments

[online marketer]

Evaluation for holiday sales is based on previous year's record. With an expected demand, you must add up more supply as slack so whenever more orders occur, there will always be some back-ups.