Shopping.com Rebrands As eBay Commerce Network: What It Means

Shopping.com, is rebranding as the eBay Commerce Network. The move marks the site’s transformation from shopping comparison engine to e-commerce advertising platform, where scale is the goal.

In an email notice to current Shopping.com merchants eBay VP, Gautam Thakar wrote, “This new name more accurately reflects who we are today. As an eBay company for the past 8 years, we have evolved from our legacy as a comparison shopping site into a robust commerce network. Our strategy and investments are focused on enhancing and scaling this network.”

Merchants advertising on the eBay Commerce Network (ECN) can make their product listings available to hundred of sites within the network with one feed. Network partners include Bing, CNET, TheFind, eBags and eBay itself. Shopping.com also remains intact as a site within the network.

For publishers, the ECN API offers access to millions of products included in merchants’ feeds and revenue share from each qualified click they send to a merchant’s site. Publishers have several options for integrating product listings on their sites including widgets that can be customized to show specific types of products (see the screenshot example below). Non-standard sizes and advanced request parameters can also be configured.

With the rebranding, eBay is positioning the network to become a stronger competitor against marketplaces like Amazon and Google Shopping, which made its own high profile move in this space with the switch to a paid model last year. In a nod to Google Shopping’s influence, the new ECN website boasts “Our merchants acquire 3X more new customers through eBay Commerce Network than through search campaigns.”

eBay’s move comes just months after Rakuten announced in January that it was transforming Buy.com into a new marketplace called Rakuten.com Shopping. Similar to the Shopping.com now, Buy.com operates as a site within the broader marketplace.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.