Certain Datafeed Studio niche online store themes take advantage of the “Price Compare this Product?” input field that is available when you edit a product.

Normally, when you build a niche online store using Datafeed Studio it is in traditional “one product, one merchant” mode, i.e. the application displays the product information directly as it comes the datafeed, with a single price, that of the merchant the product belongs to.

However, price comparison is a very effective method to increase your sales, and adds real value to your site, steering it away from that of a mere thin affiliate. The Datafeed Studio product editor allows you take advantage of this and as an advanced option allows you to provide the SQL to use to generate a dynamic price comparison of the product being viewed.

For example, let’s take a look at the rather nifty Cargo Truck product on the example Indiana Jones Toys website.

This product is taken from a Play.com datafeed and without editing the page would display just the once price from that merchant. Instead, we would prefer to display prices of this product from other retailers. By filling in the Price Compare this Product? on the backend administration interface of Datafeed Studio with the following SQL :

select * from products (match(name) against ('+indiana +jones +cargo +truck' in boolean mode)) order by merchant_name

the page instead displays all products from merchants that match the criteria specified.

Intimidated by the hairy SQL? No need to be – this SQL can be automatically generated from Datafeed Studio’s search facility. If you did a search for “indiana jones cargo truck” the software shows you the SQL query generated to do the search – all you have to do is copy’n’paste it into your product and ta-da – instant price comparison and improved conversion rates for you!