I just wrote that I would not write about eBay anymore and here I am, compelled to do so...
Fortunately, this is really not a story that will be seen as bashing eBay because it is just not something that the giant of over regulation and useless rules has any control over.
It seems con artists, inspired by eBay's (Good?) name have adopted a new tactic to scam people of hard earned money.
and here is the kicker....
Scammers are advertising on Craigslist and claiming to be connected with eBay!
Amazing as it sounds, it is true, the story goes something like this...
You (i.e. the aforementioned earner of difficult to gain money) see an auto for sale on Craigslist, posted in an advertisement in your local area. The car is the model you want, the price is unbelievable and you contact the seller to be first on the deal. - Normal life of a Craigslist buyer (I can attest to this as I am an active Craigslist buyer and seller).
Obviously I have been at a loss for words about eBay for some time. My passion for the platform has waned, I no longer follow what happens or what rules have changed or why the fee structure has gone here or there, on a day to day basis. It is just too time consuming and really the return for me is not equitable.
I ended my eBay oriented services about 6 months ago and I have turned away clients who only want help to start selling on eBay as a business.
I do this simply because it does not help me or my reputation to be associated with the name eBay. I know that is a strong statement, and that a lot of fine people make a good living by providing training and advise and third party tools to the eBay selling marketplace... I commend all of you who keep up the fight. Continue reading “What to say about eBay? How about Goodbye…” »
It had to happen sooner or later... Google brings the power of Search to eCommerce!
Why oh Why eBay, did you not think of That!
Hmmmm - maybe eBay can sign up for Google Commerce Search and scrap this whole "finding" experiment... Maybe with Google Search installed on eBay.com, the term Best Match might actually mean that the best product matching the search terms entered will be presented.
Oh - what a novel idea - Actually allowing the person doing the search to determine what it is they are searching for...
But I Digress - eBay and Google burned bridges long ago and ever since that time, Google has grown stronger while eBay - well we all know where eBay's numbers are - in the hands of PayPal!
So... what is Google Commerce Search anyway? (Get most of the scoop at this link Google Support)
Evidently Google has a few tricks up their collective sleeves...
eBay is sold to the public on many different levels...
To the consumer eBay is offered as a great online place to find anything - cheap
Consumers are also told what a "safe" and easy place eBay is to shop.
All well and good, in most cases, except for the fact that eBay does not have to stand behind the promises they make to the consumer, eBay leaves that bit of dirty business to the individual seller and they use PayPal as the big stick of enforcement to make sure that the sellers keep the buyers happy, no matter the cost or situation. (more on that later)
To the Individual Seller eBay is offered as the easy and fast way to sell the junk that accumulates in the garage or attic
eBay has been promoted as the place for anyone to start a business (selling junk from your garage) for years. (More recently eBay went courting the corporate world, offering enticements and sweetheart deals to big sellers like Buy.com and others). For awhile it looked as though eBay would turn its back on the small individual sellers in lieu of the huge volume possibilities offered by the Buy.coms of the world.
Some eBay Kool Aid?
Thankfully, eBay has not completely forgotten the little guy, they are happy to take his/her money and they have taken some minor steps to entice the small seller back. To be honest, I still don't understand the "selling junk from the garage" business plan "drink the kool aid" approach, but that must just be me...
2008
2008 was a long year in eBay-land, the changes and turmoil wrought by the eBay executives decisions (right or wrong) made an impression on the rank and file. The effect of these constant changes on eBay's core audience of sellers (the little guys and gals) became more than an annoyance. For some of these smaller sellers the constant state of flux of 2008 - early 2009 ended a long term love affair.
I will admit that my own love affair with eBay ended in 2008.
It was just too frustrating at times, not only dealing with the changes in my own eBay selling business, but also fielding questions from my clients regarding unexplainable and sometimes indefensible new rules or policies and outrageous games with fee structures. I pretty much shut down all operations on eBay myself and quietly told my good clients that they might want to take a fresh look at eBay, it was time to evaluate whether the price in terms of time, frustration and costs, had possibly become too high for some to do business on eBay.
eBay is what many call the 100 pound gorilla of eCommerce.
It may have been a long while since you have heard anyone repeat that phrase but it bears remembering from time to time. Just the shear vast amount of merchandise available on eBay along with the volume of sales on a daily basis is just awe inspiring. This is why many of us jumped into the eBay vortex feet first.
eBay for some people is an addiction much like the gold rush of the 1890's.
Some merchants find the mother load, while others have been panning the same weak stream for many years. There always a comes a time when it is wise to look at other ways to make money. Many think that means leaving eBay altogether, while others feel it is blasphemy to utter such thoughts. Is there a happy medium? I think so....
We have all heard or told stories about those who just packed it all up and left selling directly on eBay. Many claim it is because of the massive changes or because of the rules, or more often because of the fees. Others just face the reality of the combination of smaller margins and an increasing work load and they make a business decision to find other marketplaces.
Change is growth and we all live in an ever present state of flux when it comes to the eCommerce business. No matter if you choose to keep eBay as your home listing venue, or you move on to Amazon or Etsy or Bonanzle, eBay will always be that Gorilla in the corner of your mind... Reminding you that there are thousands of smart people making more than a living on eBay every day.
In fact, some of them are making more than a living on eBay, without ever listing a single product or paying a single fee.
Now, that's a concept - making money on eBay without all that hard work of sourcing, stocking, listing, photographing, handling customer service or paying the ever increasing shipping to deliver your low margin product to the consumer!
From the very first day of my involvement within the eCommerce world, the holy grail of selling online included offering product on multiple venues yet managing that inventory from one central location or software package. Personally I have worked towards that goal for several years, working with developers and designers who had greater resources than my own and trying to convince them of the need for an entry level multi- channel solution. It's always nice to know you had the right idea all along, even if someone else implements it before you do.
What the company has to say about it's new eCommerce solution:
The Vendio Platform is a complete eCommerce solution that includes a robust, feature-rich online store as well as item, order and customer management – all for free. It doesn’t matter whether a merchant sells 10 or 10,000 items in their Vendio store – they pay no web hosting fees, imaging hosting fees, listing fees or success fees. There is no catch. No gimmicks.
Features of the Vendio Platform with free online store:
Fast and easy setup: Be up and running in minutes. Create your items and store without any development work or technical knowledge.
Customized look-and-feel: Customize your store with your logo, custom categories, featured items, external links and more. You have complete control when you use our easy-to-use Store Builder to see exactly how your store will look as you build it.
Professional designs: Dozens of free templates to choose from to make your store stand out.
Simplified sales: All customers, items, and orders managed from one location. No need to worry about tracking transactions across different channels - it's all in one spot.
SEO & Analytics: Add meta keywords and descriptions quickly and easily in order to help buyers find your store via search engines. Google Analytics integration assists you in monitoring and understanding your store traffic.
Custom URL: Get a free Vendio domain or create your own custom domain name to keep your brand intact.
Item Search: Buyers can search both your item titles and descriptions.
Widget: Promote items anywhere online such as your website or blog with a cool widget that shows off your items.
Again, Vendio offers all these store features as well as the sales management, for free. Just because the Vendio store is free, doesn’t mean that it’s subpar to existing paid store offerings on the market such a Pro Store or a Yahoo Store. Here is a helpful feature matrix that differentiates the Vendio store from just some of its competitors.
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What’s most unique and powerful about the Vendio Platform is that all items uploaded into the Platform are automatically placed in the store, immediately available for sale.
If a merchant wants to reach more buyers in places where they shop, such as eBay, Amazon or Google, then they can easily extend the Platform to multiple marketplaces for a small monthly fee plus percentage of sales. Extending the Platform means that the merchant uses just one set of inventory details for as many marketplaces as they’d like to sell on – all managed from one, single interface. This results in countless saved hours and inventory management control mix-ups.
For merchants who are interested in extending the Vendio Platform to marketplaces, Vendio is currently offering a 60 Day Trial. Along with the trial comes a great bonus – Vendio is waiving its Amazon fees for the rest of 2009.
What "Others" are saying - Robert Scoble interview with the Vendio Founders
My Take on the Vendio Platform eCommerce /software solution:
Scott's Take
Vendio has a long history as a third party software and applications developer and is a familiar company to eBay sellers. The work that has obviously gone into this multi-channel solution is very apparent and indicates a long standing understanding about how merchants, especially eBay merchants, work to get product online.
Usability: I give it a 8 on a scale of 10
Functionality: I say 9 on a scale of 10
Intimidation Factor: 3 on a scale of 10
The Vendio platform may indeed be the light at the end of a long tunnel for many eBay merchants, especially if they have not yet expanded beyond eBay to sell on other channels or on their own web store.
If you are an experienced eBay seller, this Vendio Platform solution will give you the confidence to go forth and find new markets, to boldly go into the ecommerce world - feet first, while knowing that you will have familiar surroundings and procedures available at all times. No need to leave the comfortable blanket that is eBay or the traffic the megasite produces, yet with the Vendio Platform tools, new markets await that may help you to see beyond the eBay safety net. Expanding into multi-channel ecommerce is the next logical step for any eBay merchant.
The software has been extremely well thought out, it is apparent that years of development work went into this package. And the prior experience with an eBay focused offering shows through here.
Importing existing eBay listings is an easy proceedure and once complete all can be converted to free web store listings.
Importing eBay Listings
The control panel is well laid out and the instructions are comprehensive as can be seen by reviewing this extensive create listings PDF found in the help section. Or you can read it here before you sign up for your free account.
Keep in mind this is just one of the 23 extensive help manuals available for download on the site:
While the platform has had a great deal of sweat equity poured into it prior to launch in March of 2009, this does not mean that the new platform is completely finished.
One example of need for improvement comes when users begin to list a new item. The list new item screen (which is a one page piece of organized well thought out web engineering) unfortunately does not have an integrated image upload function. A user must first go to Images -> upload images and then create a folder to then upload images one at a time to the site. Then come back to create a new item and choose the folder where the images reside to include those images in a new listing. Obviously this process needs to be refined to allow for a faster method of uploading image files directly from the listing form. I contacted my Vendio contacts about this issue to find out if there were any way to speed up the process? I had an answer back within 1/2 hour - the entire image upload process is being re-worked and should be complete in a few weeks.
It seems that not only does this company listen to their users, but they also act on the needs of the users to improve the product.
Overall Impression: I say give Vendio a try, the ecommerce webstore is free forever and with an eBay import you can easily see how the system works for you. Having the ability to test products and control inventory on Amazon and eBay as well as in other search driven marketing and a stand alone ecommerce store from one control panel is the ideal solution that I have been looking for ages. Vendio as a company has been working with eBay sellers for a long time and they know the business. One does need to keep in mind that optional features incur monthly charges but the base online webstore is completely free. Why not give it a test drive?
Additional Tid Bit: One feature that Vendio does not tout regarding this free hosted webstore that I find most intriguing is that the eCommerce webstore package can be added to any existing domain. In other words if you have a business with an existing brochure style website and you would like to add an ecommerce shopping cart to that site without all the expense or hassel of starting over from scratch, give Vendio a hard look. By following a few simple instructions and simply creating a folder on your server with a single FTP upload a small piece of code your website can almost instantly become and eCommerce website. http://mywebsite.com becomes http://mywebsite.com/store with a fully functional ecommerce shopping cart that is secure and can accept multiple forms of payment. How cool is that? And it is Free!
Here is a table of existing Vendio Webstores for your review:
There is a controversy brewing and this time it is not really about eBay - or is it?
It seems that Debbie Levitt CEO of ASWAS, an eBay Stores designer and consulting company based in Boston, MA and a personal friend, has come out very strongly against the grass roots marketing efforts of Bonanzle.com. A Prominent blogger and also a friend, Henrietta of the Red Ink Diary has responded quite directly to Debbie's take on the Bonanzle Action Club.
Henrietta has been a friend to Bonanzle.com since the beginning, I don't think she is a member of the BAC, but could be. It is a pretty small club of only 50 people when weighed against the 30,000 members of Bonanzle. Yet the effects of its political style grass roots effort to get out the word about the site seem to have gained some attention in eBay circles (where Debbie Levitt is a big swimmer).
The Article on the Red Ink Diary is available for all to read in its entirety here Red Ink Diary. I have included a short quote below to give you the idea of where Henrietta stands. (Note: Links to the articles Debbie Levitt wrote in the ASWAS blog are included, just as they appeared in the Red Ink Diary.) I don't know if I would have been quite as direct as Henrietta was in her post, but she expressed her point without leaving any doubt.
Recent earnings announcements along with this last years alteration of the core philosophy at eBay seem to have had a negative effect on many of the third party solutions providers who have built businesses upon the foundation eBay created in the late 1990's.
Rumblings and rumors always abound in a industry such as this, but recently changes made at the top levels of some of the most prominent 3rd party providers seems to predict a consolidation and possibly belt tightening within the firms who revolve around and depend upon the eBay brand.
It is true that some new players are entering the market with interesting solutions, software and services yet at the same time, are the executives at older and more established companies making what could be considered exit strategy moves?
From the announcement of a new CEO at Infopia, Coleman Barney, which in and of itself is seen as a move towards new blood and not a barometer an industry crumbling, to the recent departure of the managing director of Frooition, a UK based eBay stores and template design company, changes at the top of several eBay centric service providers seem to be occurring at a faster rate than normal.
I was quite surprised when I noted earlier today that Grenville Wheland had left Frooition and is now seeking new opportunities through LinkedIn (see Below). Grenville had been purported to be one of the financial backers of Frooition and while his skills as a start up entrepreneur were also touted, on the outside we can only wonder if his reasons for departing may have included deeper financial concerns for the future of the business model.
No Longer With Frooition
Frooition grew very quickly into a multinational marketing powerhouse for eBay based design work and is still strong today yet they have relied upon eBay as the basis of the business strategy for what seems to be too long when branching out into eCommerce was an available avenue for expansion. My readers will know that I have worked with Frooition as a representative in the States since mid 2007, My dealing with Mr Whelan have always been cordial and above board. I am sure Frooition will notice his departure.
eBay Live 2008 - Karl, Ciz, Grenville Whelan, David Sullivan of Frooition
Channel Adviser, while not changing the steadfast leader of the pack Scot Wingo, has had some major personnel cuts in recent months. As eBay has itself, a Rolodex or Blackberry full of contacts at eBay in 2007 would be suspiciously empty today.
The industry that has based itself on the largess of this giant we call eBay is morphing into a new animal. Eventually changes beget changes. While we all wish the likes of Grenville Whelan and Bjorn Espenes of Infopia the best (Bjorn is now the COB), we only have to wonder... who is next?
While riding the gravy train of eBay can be a sound business decicion (at least many of us thought it was), the hard crash at the end of the tracks can be just as abrupt. Other have noted that eBay may be on a uncontrollable death spiral (i.e. Scot Wingo) into the abyss that some great companies (AOL) fall into.
Is it possible that some of these highly placed executives see a bad wind a blowin and have chosen to diversify before the end comes?
I know that even though my heart will always have a place for eBay and I still promote the site and services surrounding its capabailities, I myself have diversified and are very glad that I did. I no longer depend completely upon eBay as a seller or a service provider. Having options for myself and my clients is what I am all about now.
Some other service oriented eBay centric companies could take a note...
One inventory distributed throughout the world on eBay. Efficiently and easily with complete control... Without cross border charges or additional eBay fees. Offering products in Australia, the UK, Germany or Italy when you know they will move in those fantastic markets, all from a single inventory.
Offering your products in 21 global markets around the World from a single standard inventory and managing every product and every market from a simple to use web based console, even if you sell under multiple ebay accounts.
Selling on eBay here in America or throughout the world just got easier with MerchantRun-GlobalLink
Would this be an interesting prospect for you as an ebay Powerseller?
Does this sound like an expensive and complicated proposition? It is not...
With MerchantRun-GlobalLink these capabilities and more are available and easy to manage in a single low cost solution. We all know selling on eBay can be challenging and exploring worldwide markets with multiple eBay accounts via eBay can be even more intimidating with other solutions, yet doing either with MerchantRun-GlobalLink is makes the process painless.
Manage multiple selling names in as many of eBay's global markets as you wish without duplicating inventory data or managing multiple listing solutions for each market. Know at a glance where your products are selling, where they should be offered and at the same time enjoy the ability to place inventory where it will sell at a moments notice in any market in the World. Continue reading “21 eBay Global Markets – One Inventory – Dream Come True? MerchantRun GlobalLink” »
eBay - Claims and is touted as the traffic "firehose" of eCommerce.
eBay - to get traffic, one must list auctions - Just ask eBay about that.
eBay - fixed price listings get traffic but from where? Inside of eBay or from outside. (more on this difference later)
eBay - fixed price 30 day - still not as effective as a fixed price (till it sells) listings found elsewhere for outside search indexing.
Bonanzle - received more hits on a specific fixed price listing within the same time period as compared to a nearly identical eBay auction listing.
Consider this... the last small point is a real quandary for some, why?
Because the time period was less than a normal eBay 5 day auction. Sure, auctions are not normally indexed in that short of a time frame, but people still use them. 5 Day and 7 Day auctions do get traffic, they just get it from inside eBay and eBay charges a great deal for access to that traffic.
It was a Traffic test, not an external traffic test. Any traffic that is interested in my listings no matter where they are listed, is good traffic. So to point out Auction vs Fixed price as being unfair to eBay is like saying setting up a blanket in a flea market on a Saturday afternoon vs selling in a downtown mall, is unfair to the mall.
If I had listed the tickets on eBay as a fixed price 30 day listing vs the Bonanzle fixed price listing I could have guaranteed Bonanzle a win based on my eBay fixed price 30day traffic track record on other items. The only real measure in this short of a time period was to use an eBay auction. Bonanzle does not offer auction listings.
The last traffic test we did on the TAJ was between two auction venues - eBay vs OLA and eBay won that one hands down.
While most eBay auctions are not indexed by Google, they do get hits from within eBay. In fact, most eBay fans agree with eBays claims that within eBay, a "firehose of traffic" is sent to its internal listings (i.e. Auctions). So why the gripe? eBay produces traffic all on its own and it seems they have no real use for, nor do they seem to particularly care if they receive any search engine derived traffic.
eBay wants everyone to use the eBay search box, not the Google search box.
"Everybody" has not exactly listened to eBay on this directive.
Regarding Auction vs Fixed Price - Most websites are not fully indexed within 5 days, not even a small eCommerce website. So, how did the fixed price listing outperform the auction listing on a site that has a "firehose of traffic".
This "firehose" is why everyone says eBay is the best place to sell and why eBay can charge so much in fees. Yet, a fixed price listing on a little site like Bonanzle, listed for the same (actually 4 days) received twice as many visitors as the eBay Auction listing.
Most people wanting to sell a similar SuperBowl Ticket package, in a speedy way would first think of eBay. My client first thought of eBay, I first thought of eBay and then of course - we listed the package on eBay. I did not expect to see more hits on the Bonanzle listing. I do not think eBay and Bonanzle compete neck and neck on any playing field, not monetarily and not for traffic.
The test was a sort of a lark, an attention getter, an idea to see what would happen. I never expected the "test" to be a United Laboratories experiment with blind control groups and extensive data analysis - who do you people think I am - AuctionBytes?
What I was hoping to point out, more than anything else, is that eBay is not the only place to find traffic.
Google is a pretty darn good traffic generator... with the right keyword selection, and with the right search optimization.
eBay is not optimized for Google search, neither auctions, fixed price, or stores listings. Maybe at one time, but in my experience no longer.
eBay depends upon, promotes, and lives on the laurels of the history of people going directly to eBay to search for products. I believe the number of those people is declining. The preponderance of traffic graphs, earnings reports, and seller anecdotes seems to agree with my assumptions.
Bonanzle just happens to be a site that is optimized to take advantage of Google search algorithms, it is clean and fast and quick to index.
Sellers on Bonanzle can conceivably build a business online that can rival any eBay based concern.
Remember here - I said "conceivably" and by that I mean that a lot "right" has to happen, but it can happen. For my money, Bonanzle or your own search optimized and advertised website are the safest bets outside of eBay for quality traffic generation.
Do your own tests, blind or open, with the listings set up with proper keyword optimization. If Bonanzle shows you additional traffic over time, that traffic can only build because the listings are on the site until sold, the Google Base works, the site is indexed quickly and often and it is just darn simple to move inventory over to Bonanzle to see how it works for your products.
If it does not work for you, the test costs you nothing.
If it works a little, then you are a little better off.
If the site, that has grown faster than any other in eCommerce venue in history, continues on this path...
One Million Listings in 4 Months!
...then, will you will kick yourself for not having tried it sooner?
