ChannelAdvisor Introduces Industry’s First Portfolio Bidder for Retailers

ChannelAdvisor Corporation (NYSE:ECOM), a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions that enable retailers and manufacturers to increase global sales, recently introduced the industry’s first portfolio bidder designed specifically for retailers. The ChannelAdvisor Portfolio Bidder automatically adjusts bids within retailers’ campaigns and ad groups to help increase ROI using a proprietary algorithm to predict traffic and revenue metrics at various possible keyword ranks. ChannelAdvisor customers using the Portfolio Bidder have experienced as much as a 300 percent lift in conversion rates.

“We developed the Portfolio Bidder with the retailer in mind,” said ChannelAdvisor Senior Product Manager Jackie Jenkins. “Based on product-specific cost data, our bidder can incorporate margin metrics to help maximize profits and increase overall revenue by using predictive analytics to place optimal bids for each keyword. This ensures that you’re constantly bidding smarter even on new products without performance history.”

Portfolio bidding has proven to be especially successful in campaigns with the following characteristics:

• Lower average click volume per keyword
• Well structured ad groups
• New products/keywords
• Effective revenue share (ERS) outside desired range but with revenue opportunities, e.g., expensive keywords on top-selling products

ChannelAdvisor tested a group of identical campaigns to compare the results generated with manually managed bidding, rules-based bidding and the new Portfolio Bidder. By holding other variables constant, ChannelAdvisor was able to test the impact of the Portfolio Bidder in isolation. The campaigns managed by the Portfolio Bidder consistently outperformed those managed manually or by rules-based bidding. In fact, in several isolated test cases, ERS was cut by over half, revenue nearly tripled and conversion rates more than doubled. The manual and rules-based campaigns saw ERS increase, revenue decrease and conversion rates increase by less than 10 percent.

"ChannelAdvisor's Portfolio Bidder technology is not only automating a very tedious process for us, it is testing different bid scenarios thousands of times in a way that humans aren't well equipped to do manually,” said BeverageFactory Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mark Grennan. “With Portfolio Bidder, our bids are more competitive than ever, and we’re increasing our ROI and conversion rates. Digital marketing has never been easier."

The ChannelAdvisor platform offers retailers and manufacturers leading cloud-based solutions to efficiently automate and manage the online selling process across multiple channels, including third-party marketplaces and digital marketing channels such as paid search and comparison shopping engines. Through a single inventory feed, ChannelAdvisor customers can manage their overall online selling process, from listing to order management, from one platform. By eliminating the tedious tasks of optimizing online listings and analyzing performance, ChannelAdvisor enables sellers to increase sales and successfully scale their e-commerce businesses.

For more information on the ChannelAdvisor Portfolio Bidder, register for the 2014 Spring Release webinar, taking place May 1, 2014 at 2 p.m. EDT: http://bit.ly/2014SpringReleaseWebinar.

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About ChannelAdvisor

ChannelAdvisor (NYSE: ECOM) is a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions that enable retailers and manufacturers to integrate, manage and optimize their merchandise sales across hundreds of online channels including Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook and more. Through automation, analytics and optimization, ChannelAdvisor customers can leverage a single inventory feed to more efficiently list and advertise products online, and connect with shoppers to increase sales. Billions of dollars in merchandise value are driven through ChannelAdvisor’s platform every year, and thousands of customers use ChannelAdvisor’s solutions to help grow their businesses. For more information, visit www.channeladvisor.com.