FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

GoDataFeed's Frequently Asked Questions:

• What are Data Feeds?
  
  
• Why advertise on Comparison Shopping channels?
  
  
• What does GoDataFeed.com do?
  
  
• Why submit through GoDataFeed?
  
  
• Do I have to open and fund accounts with the shopping sites or does GoDataFeed do that for me?
  
  
• What if I want GoDataFeed to perform all my feed setups?
  
  
• Is there any hardware or software to install?
  
  
• Do I have to sign a long term contract?
  
  
• Does GoDataFeed charge revenue sharing?
  
  
• How much does it cost to subscribe to GoDataFeed?
  
  
• Are costs of PPC feeds included in my monthly subscription rate?
  
  
• Why is GoDataFeed less expensive than other datafeed management firms?
  
  
• Why is the first month only $0.99?
  
  
• Is there a cost for technical support?
  
  
• What if I have multiple stores?
  
  
• I've subscribed to GoDataFeed. How do I start getting my products listed on shopping sites and how long does it take?
  
  
• Which Comparison Shopping Sites should I submit my product data feeds to?
  
  
• Is it hard to build a feed if I don't have an IT person to help me?
  
  
• How can I create my own source file if we don’t use one of your supported platforms?
  
  
• How do I submit my products to Amazon or Sears Marketplaces?
  
  
• Is there a limit on the number of shopping channels I can submit to?
  
  
• How long until I see my products listed?
  
  
• How often do feeds update and how much time is required on my part?
  
  
• How can I optimize my feeds?
  
  
• What if I submit to a Comparison Shopping channel that is not listed on your site?
  
  

A Data Feed is simply detailed information about the products your store carries, including product name, price, product images, SKU or UPC numbers, etc., stored in an electronic file (tab, .csv or .xml) and is the source by which shopping channels derive descriptive information about your products.

With an increasing number of shoppers searching for deals on the internet, comparison shopping sites continue to gain momentum. For many online retailers, shopping channel marketing holds real advantages as a way to reach a large number of highly motivated shoppers, and is becoming a powerful marketing force. By submitting directly to each shopping channel, you are diversifying your store's exposure and reaching highly qualified consumers who are actively researching products and are ready to make a purchase. This is why shopping engines deliver more qualified traffic than traditional search engine Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or organic methods. Plus, with the shopping channels' affordable model, merchants are only paying for traffic generated to their site and can control costs with product or category-level bidding and a maximum daily or monthly budget.

GoDataFeed provides a single point of integration to optimize, automate and track product feeds to all major comparison shopping channels. With GoDataFeed’s robust shopping feed management and optimization tools, you can customize your feeds for each engine, create campaigns and track which channels and products are generating more sales. With more than 60 shopping channels, marketplaces, affiliate networks and ecommerce services to choose from, GoDataFeed is a simple and affordable way to drive more qualified, targeted traffic to your Website. Plus, by streamlining your shopping channel management efforts, you ensure that you’re always submitting valid feeds, categorizing your products correctly to enhance your search-ability and that you’re not wasting your marketing dollars on out-of-stock or unprofitable items.

Managing feed campaigns for multiple shopping channels can be a labor-intensive, time-consuming process. Each shopping channel has different data feed and categorization requirements and manually preparing and submitting feeds to various marketing channels can be cost prohibitive and inefficient. GoDataFeed consolidates your efforts to submit to multiple shopping channels by providing a user-friendly way to:

• Simplify and automate the preparation and submission of data feeds
• Optimize product listings with intuitive mapping and categorization tools
• Analyze your results by tracking clicks, conversions and revenue from conversion for each of your feeds; down to the SKU level

GoDataFeed is a self-service, datafeed management software, which means that merchants are responsible for establishing, funding and managing their shopping site accounts. Your monthly GoDataFeed subscription includes access to the software and technical support.

Although we encourage merchants to setup and manage their own feeds, we do cater to busy merchants who would rather delegate the feed setup process entirely. GoDataFeed charges a one-time feed setup fee of per shopping site feed setup. Please note, this is a feed setup-- not feed management charge-- and it is a one-time feed to setup your feed, not to manage your account or troubleshoot non-feed related issues.

GoDataFeed's solution is web-based, so there's no software to install; you can manage your shopping channel campaigns from anywhere with internet access.

No. GoDataFeed is a pay-as-you-go service. There are no long term contracts or commitments on your part. You simply pay month-to-month. If you cancel, you'll be billed for the current month, but you won't be billed again.

GoDataFeed's employs an affordable, self-service software model- we do not participate in revenue-sharing.

GoDataFeed offers 3 Pricing Plans:

• The Starter Plan ($50/Month) designed for new merchants, this plan allows you to submit your products to 3 FREE listing shopping channels (like Google Product Search, Bing Shopping and TheFind)
• The Plus Plan ($99/Month) which supports 3 free listing and 3 paid listing shopping channels
• The Unlimited Plan ($149), which enables submission to all supported shopping channels, affiliate networks and ecommerce services

No, your monthly subscription includes GoDataFeed's shopping channel management software and service. You must fund your merchant accounts directly with the channel. However, several shopping channels, affiliate networks and ecommerce services do offer GoDataFeed merchants introductory and free-click promotions to help you get started -- Click Here for all channels that are offering sign-up offers and promotions.

We believe in empowering merchants to manage and optimize their own datafeeds. Our user-friendly software includes everything you need to optimize and submit your shopping feeds, with built-in datafeed templates and feed validation tools, which allow you to quickly and accurately set up your own feeds one-time, without relying on costly data feed management firms. Even if you choose to delegate all of your feed setups to GoDataFeed's setup team, feed setups only involve a one-time setup charge, per feed setup.

We believe in trying before you subscribe, which is why we encourage you to take advantage of our first month's, risk-free trial and get your first two shopping feed setups FREE. We are confident our software and service will speak for itself.

There are no added costs for online technical support using GoDataFeed. Our Tech Team will respond to support tickets within 24 hours and you will usually see a response within the first couple of hours.

Each store is subject to its own subscription, but you can manage multiple stores under one login. If you have more than five stores, please Contact us about a multiple store discount.

Research, plan and sign up for the shopping channels that suits your budget and business initiatives. Make sure to fund your accounts and place bids on your desired categories. To give you a head-start, GoDataFeed will setup your first two data feeds FREE within two-to-three business days of your request. After your first two setups, you can either set up the rest of the feed campaigns yourself, referencing the first two FREE setups, our help video, knowledgebase and FREE online support -OR- delegate the setup process to us for a one-time $99 fee per channel. Many busy merchants delegate feed setups to GoDataFeed experts because it is a cost-effective, one-time process that helps them accurately promote their products.

We always recommend merchants list their products on all the free listing engines, including Google Product Search, Bing Shopping and TheFind. For paid-listing engines, the top comparison shopping channels include (in order of traffic generated during 2010, source: Compete.com) NexTag, Pronto, Shopzilla, Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Shop.com and Become. Amazon Product Ads, Amazon and Sears Marketplaces are also very popular. Criteria to consider when selecting a Shopping channel are: Categorization- Do they provide categorization that best classifies what I am selling? Budget- What is the Cost-Per-Click for the categories I intend on mapping to? Also, check out the different channels you are considering and see if it is geared towards your market and see how other merchant listings appear with similar products.

At the very minimum, you need to know how to export your product data from your shopping cart platform. Once your products are imported, the feed setup is a streamlined, one-time process per channel. We provide several merchant resources to help you along including an extensive knowledgebase, video help and online support. Since we do your first two setups (FREE), we recommend you use those as a point of reference.

GoDataFeed can pick up your tab or comma delimited product source file (.txt or .csv) via FTP/HTTP from our or your servers. We can also import files generated according to GoDataFeed's XML schema or Google's XML RSS/Atom feeds that are commonly included with most ecommerce platforms, see our source file specifications for more details

If you have either an Amazon ProMerchant or a Sears 'Sell on Sears' account and want to optimize & automate the process of submitting your product feeds to them, you can add the Amazon or Sears Add-on Modules to your account; Click Here for the Markeplace Add-on Modules Pricing. GoDataFeed's feed specialists will customize your product data to Amazon or Sears exact template and automate your feed submission to ensure your product listings are always accurate and reflect the correct stock status — vital to maintaining a positive Merchant Status on any marketplace.

There is no limit with the Unlimited plan. The Plus plan allows a total of six feeds (three Free listing and three PPC), and the Starter plan limits you to three FREE Listing-only feeds (not PPC channels). Learn more about our different Pricing Plans.

GoDataFeed will setup and submit your feeds within two to three business days. Then, each channel has its own feed processing times, whereby they'll usually perform an initial feed review which can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on the channel, before they will list your products.

GoDataFeed automatically updates your product data nightly, then recompiles and submits your feeds, according to their scheduled frequency (daily, weekly...) to ensure the most recent information is being sent. Merchants can update their product data and submit feeds manually at any time in our system. Once your feeds are setup on GoDataFeed, the only time required on your part is to monitor shopping channel performance and manage your campaigns. Merchants should routinely review incoming analytics data to measure campaign effectiveness and decide which campaigns to modify and/or products to exclude. To save you time, you can add GoDataFeed's Cost Reporting and Performance Alerts to deliver timely, actionable emails that let you know when you need to take action or remove products.

GoDataFeed features channel-specific feed optimization tips for most major shopping channels, during the feed setup process, so you can see actionable tips to help you understand best feed and campaign management practices. We also recommend you sign up for our Shopping Channel Marketing Blog to receive the latest industry updates.

You can request a custom channel integration for a one-time charge, see our pricing page for more information. Simply contact us with the name of the shopping site or affiliate network you wish to submit to and send their datafeed requirements and specifications to support@godatafeed.com.