Objectives
FusePump conducted a full review of Argos’ existing feed and provided a detailed proposal on how it could be improved. Issues with the feed related to inconsistent category information, incomplete (or sometimes even incorrect) pricing information, and a lack of overall data quality with the feed. In August 2009 Argos decided to produce a new product feed via FusePump, and to trial this feed with a select group of affiliates to ensure that the new feed would meet their requirements and to gain their feedback before rolling it out to a larger number of partners.
The new data feed was ready in September 2009 and access to the new feed was given to the selected affiliates for testing and feedback. Significant improvements were made to the feed including:
1. Full category information (as per the breadcrumb structure on the site)
2. Full pricing (wasPrice as well as price so that discounts could be identified by affiliates)
3. Model numbers
FusePump had addressed the data quality issues associated with the feed. However, two other common issues encountered when working with product feeds are:-
1. Not all feeds follow the same schema
2. You may only want to include a selection of products within the feed.
FusePump addressed distribution issues for Argos by delivering the feed via the FusePump FeedCreator™. The FeedCreator™ platform is a self-service tool which allows affiliates to filter and customise the feed to suit their own applications. For example, an affiliate could choose to just download products in the toys and games category that are below £50 if they understand that these are the types of product that sell well to their particular audience. The affiliate can also choose which attributes they would like to make use of in the feed, as well as renaming these to suit their own database schema. XML or CSV formats can be selected and affiliate network tracking is included by integrating the tool with the affiliate network tracking solution. Once the
affiliate has fully configured a feed, they are provided with a static URL from which to download the feed. The Argos feed is updated once per day and the optimal feed download time communicated to the affiliates.
Results
Dave Harding, e-commerce Promotions & Advertising Manager for Argos:
“FusePump delivered a 171% improvement in Earnings Per Click (EPC) for Argos affiliates. Uptake has been good and we now have around 60% of affiliates using the FusePump feed. For those that are still using the old feed we are taking the more accurate, richer data from the FusePump feed and using it to populate the old one. That way they should benefit from the better data and that should have a positive impact on their sales too.”
Testimonial
Dave Harding, eCommerce Promotions & Advertising Manager for Argos, comments:
“Argos was keen to get the new feeds right to help our partners to be more flexible and innovative in their approach to customers. To achieve this, we had to give them the flexibility to include whatever detail they thought was required. FusePump were flexible to our needs. They created the feeds in different formats so that our partners had choice. And, they incorporated all the feedback from the pilot and the proposals so that we got the functionality we wanted from the start.
“Once the test affiliates were live we were able to get additional feedback on the data and structure of the feed so that we could optimise it further before rolling it out to the wider market. Hence, while the test ran in September 2009, we prepared the marketing for the launch of the feed so that we could get it live and incorporated into affiliate sites and partners during October.”
FusePump deliver 171% improvement on EPC for affiliates
A well-structured and accurate product feed can be an extremely important source of revenue for e-Commerce retailers. Applications of product feeds in online marketing have increased significantly in recent years to create brand new revenue streams, as well as increasing the revenue and conversion potential of existing ones. In July 2009, Argos realised that revenues generated via their product feeds were limited by the quality of their feed and the number of their partners who could utilise it.
A particularly good source of feedback on your product feeds are affiliates. This is because they will only make revenues themselves by referring consumers to merchants who go on to purchase. Having consulted affiliates directly, and with additional feedback from their affiliate network, Commission Junction, Argos decided to investigate ways of improving their product feed and was subsequently introduced to FusePump via Commission Junction in July 2009.
Ordinarily, product feeds are generated from the various databases within an e-Commerce organisation. While this works well for some retailers, the increasing sophistication of websites can make feed construction complex. When you couple this with the fact that product feeds require continuous resources from the IT department, you often see a situation where feed quality and distribution is compromised.
FusePump’s approach to product marketing means that marketing departments can take direct control of their product feeds while working with an organisation who will help them maximise their return on investment from their feeds. Because FusePump build product feeds directly from the website they do not require any resource or management from the technology team at the client to deliver the feeds required to power the various eCommerce partnerships and applications. This means that the client can focus on strategy and sales as well as ensuring that any new applications and partnerships can be delivered quickly and effectively.
