AboutJim Novo Expertise Questions about using customer data to inmprove online profitability, particularly in retailing. Topics include profiling customers using weblogs, figuring out which ads generate the highest value customers, how to reduce the numnber of 1x buyers, how to generate higher sales from current customers, customer analysis, ROI calculation, reducing discounts while increasing resaponse rates. Do you collect customer data (purchases, page views, surveys) and not really use it for anything? Want to find out how? Just ask.
Experience
Past/Present clients Cellular One, MBNA, SteelTorch Software, Retek Direct, CBS Sportsline, Kobie Marketing, Aerial, Tupperware, Barnes and Noble, Comcast Corporation, Home Shopping Network
Question QUESTION: Hi Jim, How does sites like net-a-porter.com shopstyle.com build catalog of high quality pics and inventories of so many brands? Is it done by hand? I assume they are not using any dropship company that provide them with a catalog.
I ask this because say if I want to create a shopping site, I can use their API and get paid that way or go sign up for affliate programs at a tons of stores. In the 2nd method, I still have no way to show products.
I would get paid more without the API because I am probably getting a fraction of the referral fee since the retailer is paying the API owner, and then API owner pays me.
What do you think about all this?
ANSWER: I'm not sure I understand your question.
To the extent there is an affiliate relationship where the site is just sending the traffic to the program store, the art would come from the affiliate program owner, if they were smart. But they might be stupid. So there's really no way to answer this question.
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QUESTION: Ok question restated.
other than shopping.com's API, what method would you recommend to create an online catalog?
Answer Jack, I think perhaps you are asking a technical question of a marketing person so I'm not really following your intent.
*I* would always shoot everything by hand and write custom copy for every product. But I only put up stores that are designed to rule their niche, because that model makes the most sense for the web - this approach minimizes the marketing costs because it takes advantage of organic search.
So, *I* would never put up a store like shopstyle.com because that business model doesn't make any sense to me, and I would never work on a project like that for the same reason. It's a "race to the bottom" when all you do is sell other people's products. It's the same reason why I don't like drop shipping, there really is not any point in selling the same thing 10,000 other people are selling, all that happens is you get into a price war and nobody makes any money.
So, if what you are saying is you want to be in that business, and you're looking for a technical answer to the problem of how to set up a store with 10,000 items without killing yourself, I don't have an answer for you. API or not, such stores always look lousy and perform same - low conversion rates, poor usability, waste of money.
It's a business model that you can force to work as long as your overhead costs are very low, because you need to spend nearly all the money you make on grabbing traffic. But I can't help you with the technical tricks needed to make it work.
