Become.com is establishing itself as a player in the comparison shopping engine environment. Become is a classic model CSE that is great for consumer product research and comparison. Become accepts data feeds, FTP uploads and crawls the Web for shopping related pages to identify changes to existing pages. They are a CPC based pricing model with free setup. Minimum bids are required, based on the category your products.
Format your product data feeds with Engine Conductor, an easy-to-use self-management utility by Vertical Rail. Use Engine Conductor to map and format product data feeds for Become.com shopping engine inclusion.
Easy-to-use product mapping console allows for custom feed creation. Create, manage and report from one centralized location. Easy-to-use interface quickly converts XML or CSV files into your required data feed format. Eliminate feed file errors for all major comparison shopping engines. Fast, easy data feed formatting at your fingertips.
Sign Up
Visit https://www.become.com/merchant/SignUp.aspx
There is a nice blurb here about what you will need to establish and merchant account for Become.
At the bottom right of this page is a button. Click NEXT and begin your process. Required fields are clearly marked.
After completing the Account Information and Store Info and Logo sections, you will go to the State Taxes portion. Here, Become asks you to provide the sales tax rate for the states you do business in. This is also optional, with an opt out click box at the top of this section. Click NEXT when completed to move to FUNDING ACCOUNT. The minimum deposit for Become.com is $25.00 and you can choose whether you would like to make one time payments, replenishing payments or budgeted payments. Click NEXT and this takes you into the PAYMENT INFORMATION section. After completing the PAYMENT INFORMATION section, you will be taken to a section to upload your products through DATA FEED.
Become.com has provided specific instructions on how to format your data feed for inclusion in their index. We are reprinting them here for your convenience.
Feed Format:
- Become accepts product feed files in the following formats: tab-delimited text, CSV, or XML.
- Files may be zipped.
- The first line of the feed must be a header row containing all the Field Titles exactly as they appear in the requirements listed below. The column order must remain consistent throughout updates. Please include all of the fields, even if several are left blank.
- The following are prohibited and product lines containing them will be skipped: Carriage returns, line breaks, quotes, HTML or tabs (when used other than as a delimiter; for example, in your description)
- A sample feed is available at: www.become.com/merchant/information/BecomeSampleFeed.txt
Feed Delivery & Updating:
- The feed may be uploaded to our FTP or Become can download it from an FTP or URL of your choice. These options can all be selected within the "Account > Edit Information > Datafeed" page in the merchant dashboard.
- The file name must remain consistent throughout updates.
- Do not upload incremental updates; please upload the entire feed each time.
- New feeds typically require a 24 hour turnaround to process and go live. Any subsequent updates should be reflected on the site within 20-30 minutes.
- If the format of your feed needs to be changed, please contact your account manager. If it is not brought to our attention your products may come off the site.
XML Feeds:
- XML feeds must adhere to all regular requirements for .TXT and .CSV files and in addition:
- XML must be validated.
- Encoding method must be included in the XML declaration line.
- File must open with Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater.
- HTML tags cannot be included within the text of description.
- Data does not need to be specifically ordered and tags do not need to be specifically named.
For more information and explanation of feed required fields for Become.com, visit https://www.become.com/merchant/DataFeedSpecification.aspx , where they detail out those fields for you and also include a taxonomy listing of categories to map your products to.
Important Links
Sample Feed
www.become.com/merchant/information/BecomeSampleFeed.txt
Current Rate Card PDF Download
www.become.com/resource-center/Become%25202009%2520Rate%2520Card%252002-02-2009.pdf
FAQ
https://www.become.com/merchant/MerchantFAQ.aspx
Data Feed Specifications
http://www.become.com/resource-center/data-feed-specification.html
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