VeriSign helps Yahoo! Shopping merchants maximize sales

VeriSign has just launched a new solution that helps both merchants and consumers get the most out of Yahoo! Shopping and shopping comparison sites like it... the VeriSign Verified Seal for Comparison Shopping.
Consumers turn to comparison shopping engines to help find the best deal. Even during tough economic times, the best deal is not always just the lowest price. Fundamentally, people do not make the decision to buy on price alone. Plus, one is often faced with search results that return a multitude of offers that look virtually the same. It is not always easy to make a choice.

Meanwhile, merchants need a better way to stand out and then maximize sales through shopping comparison engines. Even the biggest online retail brands can easily be lost in the crowd despite their name and the value they deliver. VeriSign and Yahoo! understand these issues and have deployed the VeriSign Verified Seal for Comparison Shopping as the answer.

Shoppers buy from merchants they trust

Shopping comparison sites are an excellent way for to people to find products at the best prices, but the experience is not always perfect. Have you ever tried to search for iPhone or Nintendo Wii or LCD TV? Even the best shopping comparison engines give you a bazillion results that all pretty much look the same. Plus, the ludicrously low priced listings of $149 for 52" Plasma TV usually fill the first results. Yep, "Bob's Shady TVs" and "AAAA+++ TVs" are probably not the safest places to spend your money.

Consumers already have ways they can determine if an online retailer is safe to buy from once they are on a merchant's website. The green bar that is show for a site using EV SSL and the VeriSign Secured Seal are the most well known. However, shoppers do not have a great way to gauge trust before they click through on a comparison shopping link. Until the VeriSign Verified Seal that is!

Did I mention retailers can get the seal FREE for 90 days?

Ecommerce sites promoting their products via shopping comparison engines face the flipside of this dilemma. They need a way to stand out from the crowd while reinforcing trust to drive sales. When shoppers arrive at a "compare" page on Yahoo! Shopping, they get a great visual cue that draws their attention to any online retailer with the VeriSign Verified Seal.

Certainly there are other methods to build your brand image, like huge TV and media campaigns, product placements on the Today Show, or have Tiger Woods be your celebrity spokesperson. Once you have spent the your vast, unlimited marketing budget on that, you have a better (but not ironclad certain) chance of having a consumer have warm fuzzies about buying something from you.

I've got a better idea. Yahoo! Shopping merchants normally pay just $14.99 per month for the VeriSign Verified Seal. If you sign up right now, you can display the seal for FREE for 90 Days. Hey, that means more Holiday sales for you!

For more info, check out the press release or the VeriSign Verified Seal webpage.