Hello,
Does anyone know if you can combine your business 2 business feed with your retail feed for submitting to froogle?

I ask because I am just in the process of creating the B2B site. I can set it up as a subfolder of our domain or as a separate subdomain (same c block).

If I set up the whole sale section as a part of our retail site(http://www.hookmarks.com) I am worried that I won't be able to sumbit the wholesale products to froogle because the B2B feed doesn't require prices whereas the retail feed obviously does. I know I can set up 2 separate feeds, but that would require 2 separate domains. My worry with that is that I will get hit with the Dup content filter because our wholesale product pages and retail product pages will be very similar except the page title, some description change and prices.

What do you all think, do I need to definitely have 2 separate domain names to be able to sumbmit 2 types of feeds?

Thanks in advance for all your expert opinions!
:)

So far as I know, the initial aim for Google to develop Froogle is that they want to provide lowest price products info to searchers, just like eBay. No matter what it changes now, the price is a compulsory field when you submit your data feed. In this case, I think your B2B feed can't be applied to Froogle.

Any other opinions?

They do allow for B2B listings without a price.. its right on their FAQ page. I don't think its been very long that they have been doing that, but its there now!
:) ariana

Ariana,

I didn't find B2B info in Froogle FAQ. Could you give me the link? Thanks

I review the feed instructions again. They don't say it's optional, so I assume this field is compulsory.

Hi Maxman,
Sorry, Its not in FAQs, its in Policies: https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/policies_new.html

The revlevant paragraph is here (at the bottom of the page):

Business & Industry

Froogle aims to be an excellent resource for businesses. Our Business & Industry section is designed to help businesses from all industries find the products they need. Unlike our consumer merchant policies, our inclusion policies for business-to-business merchants do not require the listing of product prices, nor do we require specific payment methods. If you are a business-to-business merchant with an English-language website and the ability to ship anywhere within the United States, please take advantage of Froogle's sign up form. Be sure to select 'Business & Industry' when choosing your store's primary category in the Froogle sign up form.

Thanks Ariana,

I came cross this page before but I missed this paragraph. :o

...but I missed this paragraph.

I read the page over after reading this thread and almost missed the paragraph.

It's especially subtle on their form, where "Business and Industry" is extremely non-specific. How does this work out, say for manufacturers or wholesalers? I'd never before considered Froogle for B2B.

I can really only imagine having it work if your site is set up almost exactly like a shopping site but with no buy or checkout buttons. i.e. you need to have a specific product page, but not necessarily a price like you do for retail. For us, this is essentially a copy of our retail site, but instead of the retail price, the page may have a grid with pricing at different quantities and say "call to order" or no price and say "call for a quote."

If someone searches for "custom bookmarks" we want them to get to a page that shows our custom style and have them call us for a quote. With just the retail feed, people can buy from us, but our pages aren't optimized for the word custom so wouldn't show up in that kind of search.

We wouldn't have previously considered it, but now that the "products" listings are showing up under regular google searches, its become an incentive.. :)

Arina,

Have you made your B2B page worked on Froogle? I search "custom bookmarks" in Google and can see your retail site "www.hookmarks.com" indexed in the first page. I tried again in Froogle, but I neither found your retail site nor your wholesale site.

Furthermore, I tried to search a B2B supplier by choosing "Business and Industry" category in "advanced Froolge search". The results still came out with a price. The companies in the results may are B2B merchant. But how can I see it's a B2B feed? A B2B feed doesn't have a price, does it?

hi Maxman,
You're right we're not in froogle yet for custom, I'm still building the "wholesale" store :)

Come to think of it I haven't found a b2b listing with no prices at all, I see a lot of grids like this one: http://www.ocshirt.com/ocs/product.asp?dept_id=237&pf_id=13411
Where froogle will pick up one of the tiered price levels..maybe this is something still in the planning stage? I'm not sure. You definitely bring up a good point. We may have to put pricing after all! Or maybe I'll try it without and see where the listings come up (if at all.) I actually corresponded with a google tech about the price issue and they confirmed that you can have b2b listings with no price in your retail feed, but I guess the whole pint is moot if you don't show up in the results..!

Ariana


Arina,

Have you made your B2B page worked on Froogle? I search "custom bookmarks" in Google and can see your retail site "www.hookmarks.com" indexed in the first page. I tried again in Froogle, but I neither found your retail site nor your wholesale site.

Furthermore, I tried to search a B2B supplier by choosing "Business and Industry" category in "advanced Froolge search". The results still came out with a price. The companies in the results may are B2B merchant. But how can I see it's a B2B feed? A B2B feed doesn't have a price, does it?