List Your Property with a Shopping Portal featured shopping portal providers >>> Online malls have been prevalent on the internet since the launch of ecommerce. There exist the invariable variety of venues, ranging from "free listing" shopping directories, to pay for placement properties whose charges can vary significantly based upon the type of service you select. For organizations whose sole purpose is retail, such environments, if selected carefully, offer an opportunity to place your product line in the sightlines of a large number of internet savvy, ecommerce ready shoppers. The best online shopping portals provide a wealth of buying traffic that can truly advance your operation’s potential. In selecting a mall or portal listing, take care to do in depth research into the benefits of placement with that organization. Ask sufficient questions regarding traffic, both in general, and to areas of specific interest to your product line. Consider contacting existing mall merchants to inquire regarding their experience with a listing in that location. Take care to select a non-competitor, as a company in a similar line to yourself may choose to offer an inaccurate review simply to lower the risk of competition. One note of caution – there do exist a number of mall properties offering purported benefit to their listed clientelle, who do not deliver sufficient numbers to warrant the initial listing expense. Fortunately, these organizations are in the minority, as many online shopping portals work diligently to provide their merchants with sufficient traffic to sustain their companies, and make their listing expenses worthwhile. Their very survival depends upon it! Additional opportunities outside of the standard mall listings include search portal shopping areas, such as Yahoo shopping. These services offer a simple fee-based store building package, and will also, for a % cut of your company’s sales, give your individual products a keyword based listing in Yahoo Shopping. Most shopping at Yahoo is completed via a product search tool that will bring up your products, and your competitor’s, when queried on a specific keyword. These portals can generate a substantial amount of exposure for your products, presuming an existing market, and competetive pricing on your part. Yahoo in particular will not charge your company the % fee until monthly sales of $5000 are achieved. Many of today’s most popular portal sites maintain their own shopping specific areas, with listing potential for your company. Some offer very few listings, with pricing that is reflective, while others have opened up to merchants of all shapes and sizes, creating a potentially affordable option for the newcomer to the always expanding ecommerce marketplace. Shopping Portal Examples Buy.com Mall.com Dealtime.com Yahoo Shopping ChoiceWorld.com MaxManager.com Related Subjects: Internet Marketing – Award Site Submission Online’s Affordable Site Sponsorship Directory back to top