eBay has today relaunched its Shopping.com price comparison site as the eBay Commerce Network.
The company says the rebranding reflects Shopping.com’s evolution into a leading commerce network since its 2005 acquisition by eBay. The network now includes more than 8,000 merchants and 2,000 publishers around the world and is, says David McCall, UK country manager for the eBay Commerce Network, the only commercial network where merchants can advertise their products both on eBay and on other websites through a single campaign.
Its mission, said McCall, is “to connect consumers to the world’s advertisers by building the world’s best performing commerce advertising platform.” He said: “Our business has developed over the last few years to becoming one that’s much more networked. We provide the same functionality that allows people to find the best possible product for them at the right quality at the right price but we provide that functionality to a network of publishers or websites that have a consumer-facing angle to their business.”
The network boasts a reach of more than 250m consumers a month, through a wide range of publishers who can bring merchants in contact with consumers at any stage of their shopping experience, from awareness to purchase.That, says McCall, means the network is relevant. “If we’re communicating with 250m consumers on a global basis every single month that means we’re tapping into the majority of demographic groups that would be of relevance to these retailers. It’s all about touchpoints as well: the consumer is not just going online to look for products. They’re using tablets and smartphones – we make sure we are working with the publishers and retailers that have the environment that the consumer wants to look at.”
eBay Commerce Network has a team dedicated to optimising listings and promises publishers real-time access to services, products, features and merchants through flexible technology. Publishers are paid in line with the quality of the traffic that they send to merchants, while the network covers the UK, US, France, Germany and Australia.