Merchant DataFeeds and the quality of content

[DataFeedFile]

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Hi

I want to judge from this forum how many affiliates we have using it and how many mercahnts look a the threads.

The reason for my questions is that I want to start and active discussion on creating DataFeeds and how we can all help improve them for the benefit of the merchants and affiliates. Here in the UK the quality of datafeed provided are not to exacting standards and this will result in lower clicks and lost sales. I can demonstrate how even the biggest merchants are getting it wrong and loosing sales to companies that provide better feeds and how easy it is to correct them.

I would appreciate feedback from other users of datafeeds and merchants so we can get this started. I know a lot of affiliates have issues with feeds from the various networks and compatability but we have resolved that issue with the tools available at www.datafeedfile.co.uk but to provide even better service for Affiliates and Merchants we need to work on feeds improvements.

Please provide feedback and we can hopefully make a positive change.


Roy
DFF_UK




About DataFeedFile

DataFeedFile, a leading provider of 3rd Party online marketing solutions, announces today that it has joined forces with WebGains to track and supply data for many leading UK Merchants. The new relationship will see DataFeedFile extended its current portfolio of 500 merchants to over 600. DataFeedFile are now working with five affiliate networks being Affiliate Window, Trade Doubler, Affiliate Future and Web Gains and Commission Junction . DataFeed File continues to expand on a daily basis both in the UK and USA adding new merchants and networks to become the best 3rd Party Affiliate in the world.

Founded in 2006, and part of the Price Comparison Network of Companies we provide the best online 3rd Party marketing and sales solutions in the industry and are led by the requirments of Merchants and Affiliates. Leading Retailers and Affiliate Networks have partnered with DataFeedFile to increase sales and improve online busines. The tools availabe use a single line code to provide Rotating Banners, Price Comparison Scripts, Price Comparison Search Engine, Shop by Category, Shop by Brand, Shop by Store, Comparison Banners showing Products and Prices, Category Menus. All of this is provided in a search engine friendly format including Page Titles, Subdomain Routing and Site Maps in JavaScript, PHP and XML formats. DataFeedFile is headquartered in the USA with a presence in the UK with big future growth plans. To visit us please goto www.datafeedfile.co.uk and see our example scripts.

[deadgoodundies]

1. we are a merchant and we look a the threads
2. you need to sort out the display of merchants logos they are all squashed up
3. you need to add second decimal place for prices shown i.e at the moment if a price is £10.50 it is shown as £10.5

[drivetowin]

Roy

I'm sure you have very good intentions (albeit commercially led in your own interests - standardised datafeeds would no doubt reduce datafeedfile's cost base) - and it is worth discussing them - but can you lose the corporate 'about datafeedfile' bit from each of your posts - put a simple one line link to your website in your sig and if people want to know about your service they can go there to read it.

[DataFeedFile]

Thanks for your comments re standardised datafeeds.

We are not doing it to standardise our cost base as we can import the feeds no problem with our systems and match to the database. Our main issue is the data they contain.

A good example is product SKU this should always be the manufacturer SKU which is unique to each product. Many merchants will use the internal business SKU so when grouping products or comparing prices it fails to pick the mercahtns without the correct SKU resulting in lost sales.

You could search on description but for example Ipod Nano would not just display Ipod Nano it would show for example Ipod Nano Case.

It is important to work to a standard to make life easier for the affiliates and this is what I want to achieve.

Roy

[drivetowin]

But that's what I mean - no disrespect to what you are doing which for sure provides a useful service but gathering datafeeds from the various networks and combining them is relatively straightforward (and can be fairly easily automated) - I and several others on this forum have been doing this for a few years now - and ok - your usp is that you are offering these combined feeds to other affiliates whereas we only use ours internally - but essentially that is nothing new.

The bit that takes a lot of manual labour (and therefore has most cost implication) is manually matching data records to a) similar records and b) devising algorithms to return intelligent answers to user searches.

Yes, if all merchants used the same manufacturer SKUs then this would make product matching much easier and remove much of the manual effort from product matching - but I for one am glad that they don't - why? - because it makes the barriers to entry for product comparison much higher - which reduces the amount of competition to my product comparison sites.

I firmly believe that the day datafeeds become really easy is the day that they stop having value, because there will simply be hundreds if not thousands of sites with exactly the same data in exactly the same format - and lots of disappointed webmasters finding their sites get nowhere in the search engines as they fall foul of duplicate content filters.

[DataFeedFile]

I understand what you are saying but PriceComparison.com an other Comparison Sites are run by us as well as DataFeedFile so we are allowing people to compete against ourselves.

You will notice that the US data is much cleaner than that of the UK as the technology in data creations is far more advanced than the UK and therefore allows for better matching.

Our system is CSS driven and we want people to create sites that are different and add value by adding unique content around the prices etc. We have some great examples on this in the US as they are got started several months ahead of the UK. Uk is only one month old but doing very well.

You can buy some comparison scripts for £50 that will import feeds etc for a basic site but we are offering much more with some major advances due in the coming weeks. We are driven by the demands of affiliates and merchants and we respond quickly to the needs of our customers.

We want the data to be correct over here in the UK as the end user gets a better experience as they can read full specs etc etc.

What are you price comparison sites by the way?

Roy