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Search Ads Rise; Amazon, eBay Comparable Sales Growth Slows In February

ChannelAdvisor released its February same-store sales (SSS) year-over-year analysis for Google search ads, comparison shopping engines, Amazon, and eBay. Search ads did fairly well, but comparison shopping engines plummeted.

Search ad-based SSS for February -- mostly contributed by Google Ads -- rose 10.7%, with rising clicks and orders offsetting declining ad prices. Google Shopping-related SSS grew 20.7%. Google Shopping came in at 20.7% YoY, which followed a strong increase in January of 10.1% YoY, according to Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor CEO.

Wingo recently told the Wall Street Journal that Google's Local Inventory Ads are less popular, in part because it is harder for retailers to measure whether the ads result in store sales. Online, retailers can track users’ purchases after they have clicked on an ad, but that's typically not possible in physical stores, he said.

The comment was focused on Wal-Mart's decision to pull out of Google's Local Inventory Ads program, which lets retailers share prices and product availability by location. The WSJ reported Wal-Mart executives have told Google that Wal-Mart pulled out in part because it wants to offer a similar local-inventory service itself, rather than pay Google to do it.

Meanwhile, ChannelAdvisor's data on comparison Shopping Engines came in at -4.4% for February, down from January's -9.4%. ChannelAdvisor said CSEs continue to struggle due to Google changes and product listing ads taking market share. Overall, Google Shopping for February came in up 20.7% YoY, up from January's 10.1%. The conversion rate rose 12.1% YoY from 2.48% to 2.78%. The average order value also rose 10.3% from $93.25 a year ago to $102.86.

Amazon came in at 22.7% for February, down from 27%, sequentially. eBay SSS in February came in at 5.1%, down sequentially from 6.8%. Auctions were -26.2% YoY, a decrease from January's -16.2%.

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