Live from Internet Retailer 2006: Yahoo Bows Shopping Blog
In a continuation of its social-networking initiative, Yahoo! has ‘soft-launched” a shopping blog on its Yahoo! Shopping Web site at http://shopping.yahoo.com/blog.
Chris Saito, senior director of shopping products for Yahoo! Shopping, said the blog was conceived as “a great way merchandise products within Yahoo! Shopping.” It will also be a way to drive transactions for merchants on the site and, once it attracts enough RSS subscribers or My Yahoo! registrants, will be a sticky feature that will bring visitors back to the Yahoo! Shopping site again and again.
The blog is being written by a stable of four to five Yahoo! employees and makes the point in its first post that the opinions they express are not those of Yahoo! It also points out that “the Yahoo! Shopping Blog does not allow advertisers or sponsors to influence editorial decisions in the creation of blog posts. We just like to find good things so you can find them too.” The post promises that the blog will highlight “new and interesting products, sales, deals and coupons”, although it adds that some of the features are not yet operable in this early beta launch.
Among the “good things” featured in the first round of posts are Hannspree animal- and toy-inspired TV sets, Dragon Trap sunglasses, and the Skyrail marble roller coaster toy. Each post contains a zoomable photo of the item, basic information about price ranges and a link to its page on the Yahoo! Shopping site. Visitors can add comments to the posts.
Saito told the Internet Retailer 2006 audience that Yahoo! Shopping would be watching the number of RSS subscriptions to the blog to measure its appeal and would also monitor page views, to see how many readers clicked through to the Yahoo! Shopping site. Yahoo! will also study the comments and suggestions provided by users to tweak elements of the blog, he said.
Several general and specialty shopping blogs have proven that they can garner large and loyal subscriber audiences in recent months, from three-month-old MightyGoods.com for apparel, décor and novelties to CoolMomPicks.com for fashion and parenting items and SparkleLikeTheStars.com, a blog dedicated to celebrities and jewelry run by online jeweler Ice.com.
