Submitting product information to the shopping comparison search engines such as Yahoo! Shopping, Froogle and Shopping.com can be a daunting task for many merchants and managing the data feeds across many comparison sites can get very time consuming.

The first step in the product submission process is the preparation of the product data feed. Data preparation starts with writing a script to capture all products information from the web site’s product database and formatting of the product information into the require feed format. Often the raw data stream must be verified and optimized before the product feed can be uploaded to ensure that the product listings rank well on the search results page of the shopping comparison sites.

Doing a good job of building your data feed, with effective product names and descriptions, will certainly bring you more traffic. Once you get them to your store, there are three things you *must* do: close the sale, follow up on the sale, and provide a reason for that visitor to start their shopping excursion at your store next time, instead of with Froogle. This is doubly true if you decide to offer substantial discounts, or even loss-leaders, to bring visitors to your website.