Amazon vs eBay? - Cliff Aliperti’s Inside Scoop on Amazon FBA

Cliff is a long time eBay seller and now a new Bonanzle Booth owner. Cliff knows his business and he also knows how to get the most out of eBay and Amazon, now he is tackling the world of Bonanzle booth sales (in his spare time).

When iBusinessLogic announced a special offer to Bonanzle Booth owners to build a website/blog with a Bonanzle product feed (See: Bonanzle Website Offer), Cliff was the very first to jump onboard!

Cliff plans on using this new website/blog in conjunction with his existing website to bring in long tail search traffic to both his website, and his Bonanzle and eBay operations. Cliff is an expert in his field of memorabilia and movie collectibles. He will write informative and interesting blog posts about the history of Hollywood along with informative articles about the great finds he has in his inventory of thousands of unique collectibles.

Our first design for Cliff's new website/blog looks very nostalgic, we certainly hope he likes what we have done. But if he needs a tweak or two, or a completely new look, we will make it right for him.

Things and Other Stuff - New Look

We have other projects in the works for Bonanzle sellers and I think it will build a great community over at Bonanzle if more sellers join in with their own blogs/websites designed to not only promote their individual businesses, but also the entire Bonanzle community.

The more outside links leading back to Bonanzle, the better sales will be for each and every Bonanzle merchant. This is one way to build traffic for a selling venue through a grass roots effort. With every Bonanzle merchant who has a desire to not only increase their own business, but also add to the entire health of the site as a whole, sending traffic from sites like Cliff's new Bonanzle focused website/blog, the selling venue will grow in both sellers and buyers at an even more impressive rate.

If you have been considering building a website to promote your own Bonanzle or Etsy, or Online Auction or even eBay sales... Just get out there and do it! The biggest step is the first one, and we all know after that, its all just a matter of following through.

Cliff Aliperti, is following through!

Congrats Cliff!

Read more at the iBusinessLogic.com/blog We even have a another Bonanzle Booth owners website screen shot - let us know what you think of "A Night Owl's Treasures"....

Cliff Aliperti - Guest Blogger

Cliff Aliperti is known in some circles (Twitter - Land) as the eBay buyer/Amazon seller.

Cliff Aliperti specializes in paper goods and collectibles and is a long time eBay seller and buyer. He has a nifty blog/website called "things and other stuff" which focuses on his passion for these items he collects and sells.

Recently Cliff has ventured into the world of Amazon and Amazon FBA as a merchant and he is quite active on Twitter discussing with excitement his daily purchases on eBay and then subsequent sales on Amazon through the FBA program.

I asked Cliff to explain Amazon FBA to our readers here at the Trading Assistant Journal because we are always aware of the desire to look outside of eBay and learn about eBay competition. Naturally Amazon is one of the first places eBay sellers think about when considering a switch.

I think Cliff's frank and honest story reveals two constants.

• It is not always greener on the other side of the fence - but sometimes it is cooler.
• The tournament is always easier to win - When you know how to play the game.

I want to extend my personal thanks to Cliff for this amazing insight into Amazon FBA, not only is it a great story, but when told from the perspective of a long time eBay seller it brings the ring of truth rarely found in these types of reviews. Thanks Cliff!

Amazon FBA from a eBay Powersellers perspective: by: Cliff Aliperti

You ever get that feeling that you're dealing with a bunch of idiots who know less about the company that they work for than you do?

This was my start to selling on Amazon.

I'd never sold on Amazon before, wait, that's not true.  At the time of my return in Spring 2008 I had one seller feedback from an old Z-Shops sale back in 2000.  That was almost embarrassing.

Then sometime in 2007 I signed up for one of their web stores under a free trial, quickly became confused, then irritated, then shut down well before the trial was up.  I left shaking my head content to continue selling on eBay.

Then I started reading Randy Smythe's My Blog Utopia! and his adventures with something called FBA and little by little the thought of trying out Amazon one more time sprouted.

Amazon FBA

Amazon FBA

FBA is the acronym for Fulfillment by Amazon.  Basically, you take your product, list them for sale on Amazon, click a button to convert them from merchant fulfilled (ie: you pack it up and ship it out after a sale) to fulfilled by Amazon.  Then you just have to put some identifying labels on your goods, box 'em up, ship 'em out, and sit back while Amazon fulfills your customers orders.

The Goods Will Move!

So I'm reading about this, flipping the idea around in my head, and thinking to myself, "This guy just sits back and rakes in money while his product is warehoused miles and miles away and taken care of by Amazon."  It's your goods and they're always in stock, at least until they sell, more dependable than drop-shipping.  And it's Amazon.com the almighty online retailer who's flipping product over by the second.  The goods will move.  I've got to try this!

I had some back and forth with Randy, e-mails, a phone call, I can't stress enough how much he helped me get started with this, and I decided a risk free test was in order.  I have, well had, a ridiculously large personal collection of Media items, Books, CDs, DVD, and a whole lot of VHS, including several rare and out of print items that I knew were worth some money.

eBay Powerseller

Good spot for a little aside.  I'm an eBay Powerseller who specializes in Movie Collectibles and Magazine Back Issues.  Those specialties, besides being areas of collecting that I love, share a trait that Media items do not possess.  They're flats.  Back in my early days on eBay, when I was willy-nilly selling anything not nailed down, I learned to despise selling non-flats, especially items like books which would involve bubble-wrap and worries that they weren't packed quite well enough.  This was well-before you could print a shipping label through PayPal and I'd be on long lines at the Post Office for an hour at time a few times per week juggling boxes, sometimes looking like a cartoon character with a stack reaching up over my head.  Once I had enough of that I made a conscious effort to switch over to flats.  No more books or videos being shipped out.

Like an eBay Virgin

Excited to at the very least be able to clear out some clutter from the house, feeling a little like an eBay virgin again, I sat down with a stack of DVDs and listed the first one on Amazon.  Then I went into my Seller Account and looked for the button to "Convert to FBA," and...did not find it.  Stalled out after one item.

Long story short, it took their customer service a full week to convert me over to FBA.  I resumed listing and lo and behold actually sold a CD on the site before I even had the chance to convert it to FBA!  Bad part, I'd have to pack and ship it; Great sign, they're buying stuff before I get it off my desk!

I started out with the Easy Sell program.  This is a good spot to get into the fees.  Coming from eBay I was immediately turned off by Amazon's fees.  They seem prohibitively high, but, and a big BUT, there are no listing fees.  I'm going to throw some numbers at you here, first I'm going to assume that you're starting fresh like me.  You're not already selling on Amazon, you're not already a Pro Merchant (more on that coming).

Costs of Amazon FBA

This is what it's going to cost you to use FBA to sell a Media item under the Easy Sell program:

$0.99 Amazon Fixed Closing fee (This is also paid by non-Pro Merchants on any sale on the site)
$1.00 FBA per unit fee (Your basic FBA charge for Media items under $25, fee does vary however)
$0.04 FBA weight based fee (This varies, but looks to always be under a dime. It's basically their handling fee)
$0.80 Variable Closing fee (I honestly don't know what this one is specifically for, feels like another closing fee tacked on. It’s 80 cents for DVDs, VHS, CDs, $1.35 for Books, Video Games and Software).
PLUS 15% commission for Media Items

Yikes!  So we're working with $2.83 plus 15% going to Amazon on any sale of a DVD, VHS, or CD, which is primarily what I'm sending them.

How do I compete with the penny-sellers?

You don't.  The biggest advantage to selling with Amazon through FBA is that your items are eligible for their shipping specials.  That means that instead of tacking a shipping fee onto your sale price your customers are instead eligible for Amazon's Super Saver Shipping, which is free shipping by the cheapest method on orders $25.00 and above and probably more importantly Amazon Prime customers receive the same deals on shipping for your items as they do for Amazon's own eligible merchandise.  These are customers who pay an annual fee and in return receive free 2-day shipping year round.

As someone who never made an Amazon purchase for under $25...at least until Prime came along, I could relate to these two benefits.

By shipping through FBA your items gain an advantage over the majority of sellers in a couple of different ways.  A standard $2.98 shipping charge is added to a single item order from a non-FBA seller.  Third party items are default listed by order of price, cheapest first on the page.  So when a Amazon Prime buyer clicks through to view third-party offers on an item whose cheapest offer used is $5.00, the FBA seller will actually come up first in search by pricing his item $7.97 or lower.  Non-prime members will see a note that the item is eligible for Super Saver Shipping, which, once again makes you stand out from the majority of sellers whose items are not eligible.  Finally, there is a sort button at the top of the page so buyers can filter the search by Amazon Prime offers only.  They click that button and odds are it's probably just you and Amazon, assuming the item is still in print.  I've listed close to 1,000 items now and I've yet to see more than two other competing FBA sellers on any item.

Competition Disappears

This is potentially advantageous when there are a couple hundred of an item available in stock and it takes you until page two of the results to find one for over half a buck.  Prime customer clicks to see Prime eligible items and those other few hundred competing offers disappear.

Back to my story, I had converted over enough items to FBA to fill a case nicely so I went in to print my labels.  You need to pick up a package of 1" X 2-5/8" removable labels for this step.  I say removable because we are sticking them directly over the bar code on our items.  Your buyer will be a lot happier if he can easily peel the sticker off and make the item his own without damaging it.  The label contains Amazon's own bar code, which they use to track your item in their stock, so this is an important step.

Then you print your shipping label through Amazon.  They recommend you use UPS as they give you their UPS discount on shipping.  It's dirt cheap, I've sent several cases out now and they've pretty much all ranged between $4-$8 and the $8 was a monster box of VHS!  But they had to teach me a lesson first, I opted for USPS Media Mail, since this is what I'm familiar with.  Again, I'm a flats guy, USPS has always worked like a charm for me.

This is where my selling on Amazon with FBA stalled for the second time.  They got my package, but man, it was not a smooth delivery.  Here's the actual info from that experience:

Shipped: March 14 (via USPS Media Mail)
USPS Delivered: March 21 (according to delivery confirmation)
Amazon Received: April 15 (Items received and available for sale).

A day over a month!  Oh man, this isn't going to work.  Well, I've used UPS since then and packages have always been received and available for sale within 4 business days, once as quick as 2 days!  Use the UPS, believe me, cheaper and better, at least in the specific example of shipping product to Amazon FBA facilities.

Pro Merchant

It took me three months to become a Pro Merchant.  Pro Merchant is not a special honor afforded you like eBay Powerseller.  To become a Pro Merchant you just click a button to convert your account and Amazon begins charging you a $39.99 monthly fee.  What do you get?  The 99 cent Fixed Closing fee disappears and the FBA per unit fee halves itself.

Remember, Amazon was taking $2.83 + 15% from us as an Easy Seller, now they're taking the $39.99 per month, but just $1.34 plus 15% of each sale.  We save $1.49 per sale in exchange for the monthly fee--the more you sell, the more the fee is absorbed and the less it hits your pocket.  But basically once you dependably have 27 sales per month you should convert--at 27 sales the fees comes out even, any number over that and you're already ahead of the game as a Pro Merchant.

So if you're pricing an item $6.99, you'll see $3.11 of that as an Easy Seller, but $4.60 of it as a Pro Merchant (plus the applicable portion of your monthly Pro Merchant fee).

I should also mention that after items are in stock for a time FBA sellers are charged a warehousing fee--I just got hit with my first one and it was about $2 and change, quite minimal.  I think it averages out to something like a penny per month on CDs and most DVDs, 2 cents per month for VHS and DVD sets.  I don't have many books in stock with them at this time, but obviously fees are going to vary by volume and weight (still pennies though).

Customer Service No Better than eBay

I clicked the button and as far as I knew I was converted to Pro Merchant.  Nope.  Soon after my first sale I clicked through to Seller Help and sent this e-mail:

Hi, I am still being charged $1.00 for the FBA per unit fulfillment fee on items under $25.  Shouldn't this be 50 cents per item now that I've upgraded to Pro Merchant?

To which I received this reply:
Since you are in our Merchant program, your concerns are best addressed by our Technical Account Management team. To contact them, click the "Get technical support" link (found at the bottom of most Seller Central pages)...

Problem, I had no such link on any pages.  This necessitates several phone calls over a two or three week period.  Once I was passed around for 45 minutes.  Another time I was transferred to a gentleman who spoke with a quiet unsettling voice that I found a bit eerie.  He realized he couldn't help me explained that he didn't have the ability to transfer me to anyone who could.  I'd have to call back.

This place is a nut-house!

Finally I got in touch with someone who understood my problem, was quite helpful and then followed up with an e-mail explaining everything we had discussed.  It took some more time, but Darren finally straightened out my account and I was even credited all of the little half-dollar fees that they were holding back from me.

Now if it sounds like I went through hell, well, I have to admit I was close to quitting a few times.  It just should not have been as hard as it was to get the help I required.  Even on a call with one of the more helpful reps I had to direct them through their own website to show them specific rates that they thought I was making up.

I created my first Amazon listing on February 28, 2008 and my account did not get itself ironed out until mid-June.  Look, before you read too much into my story, let me say that as far as I know it's unusual.

Glad I Stuck it Out

I'm glad I stuck it out because now I'm the guy who feels like he's getting money for nothing.  eBay is still my primary bread and butter, but if I want a change of pace from my normal grind I prepare a case of goods for the Amazon warehouse.  I haven't had any problems with my FBA inbound shipments since I switched over to UPS after that first one.  My account has been running smooth since it was corrected in mid-June.  I get to go in and hit the button to transfer payments to my bank account every few days.

I'm not doing a tremendous amount of business, but I'm doing enough that I'm more than covering the Pro Merchant fee.  I've been sending Amazon orders as often as possible, hoping to get my stock up in time for big holiday sales.  While I'm still getting rid of some of my own stuff (there was a lot!), I've made several purchases, ironically off eBay, of items I receive, open up, price and label for Amazon, then seal the box and ship away.

After 5 Months - The Payoff

In other words, after going through four to five months of some of my worst experiences ever online, the pay off is enough that I've stuck with it and plan to continue doing so.  Heck, I've even activated an Amazon web store and begun cross-listing some of my eBay stock onto it.  But that's another story...

Follow Up:

Randy Smythe "added to this conversation" - (or had a Amazon FBA post in the works anyway) and just released his latest take on FBA today.  Read more about Amazon FBA here: Consider FBA This Christmas

This is the article: Digital Delivery on eBay - A Crime or Just Bad Wording?

I have continued to stay in contact with Timothy Jones since that article was published and I am happy to report that he has continued with his many businesses and is doing fine. eBay changes aside, he made adjustments and moved on.

Timothy had the good fortune of attending Affiliate Summit East in Boston this year. Read more about the history of Affiliate Summit here: About Affiliate Summit

I could not attend affiliate Summit this year so I asked Timothy to bring back an inside view from a first time attendee to the event.  Since Timothy is a travel writer and all around good guy, he was kind enough to present our readers with a guest blog about Affiliate Summit 2008 in Boston.

If your interested in reading Timothy's report and learning more about what its like to check out Affiliate Summit from a new attendee perspective, please follow this link to the ibusinesslogic.com/blog

Hey guys, here is Part III and this is the final in this series. So let's get into it!

First I want to go over the little notes I listed in Part II of this series.

I'll go through it and give you my personal feeling about what Lorrie Norrington said and how what she said in her speech might affect my business and as a PowerSeller on eBay.

I want to respectfully say that I am basically just a guy trying to feed my family with an eBay business. My business is a business that I started at the kitchen table, literally. It is a business that I actively run and the day to day operations of it are handled by myself, my partner and a small virtual staff. I think 3rd Power Outlet has come to the point now where we would be considered small to medium eBay Powersellers, experienced sellers, and primarily eBay-centric sellers.

When Lorrie started the speech and said primarily that eBay wanted seller's business and considered us sellers as partners, my initial reaction was, "OK, this is different". I was not really used to hearing keynote speeches from eBay Presidents speaking in these terms.

Much a part of my previous experience with eBay executive speeches always seemed to be a little demeaning toward the seller. This speech flipped things and made it seem like both buyer and seller were equally important to eBay leadership.

With this different perspective I had to stop and grab myself because I didn't understand where I was! After hearing these repeated sentiments at both CA Catalyst and now at the eCommerce Summit, I have become convinced that eBay is serious about a committed partnership with its sellers, which feels real good folks.

Lorrie spoke about improving the SELLER experience and I was very, very excited to hear this as a topic point. This was something completely different, along with financial reward for good sellers (with a good customer experience). It all sounded extremely exciting to me.

I wholeheartedly applauded eBay's efforts with the DSRs and cleaning up the platform. However, I do have some reservations possibly about eBay throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to historical feedback.

What does concern me is that basically, eBay has taken all of your lifetime feedback and completely ignored it when it comes to your "value" as a seller. eBay does not give any weight to your historical feedback in it's new DSR system. So even if you have a high 99% or above lifetime feedback rating it doesn't help your DSR scores! I feel at some level that the combination of the two scores should also be included if not forever, at least for a time. Maybe you've got 99% or higher historical feedback with good DSRs of say 4.8, 4.7, 4.6, and a 4.4. Maybe your DSR plus feedback should still qualify you for PowerSeller status, for lets say…6 months while you get that last score in line?!?

I dunno, just sounds fair to me to allow for adjustment to business models.

Her statistics of 63% of power sellers getting a 5% discount while 30% received a 15% discount seem a little off? But I believe Scot Wingo got that one cleared up for us on this point (http://tinyurl.com/5po5mv)

Now onto the retaliatory feedback. Oh boy, you are not going to like this, but here it goes… Personally I've always thought the feedback system should be a one-way system with customer feedback only. This is a highly contested view and I simply cannot lay out my entire argument on this in this blog post; it really needs a post of its own. But I will say this: one-way feedback is the reality of nearly every other marketplace other than eBay.

As a service provider/seller I have always highly valued the feedback of our customers. You simply do not go into a restaurant and have the kitchen give you feedback on how fast you eat the food. Nor does your waiter come by after the meal to comment on how much food you left on your plate. That would be completely asinine! In the world of restaurants you get a comment card as the restaurant customer, you then provide comment on the food and the service of the restaurant. That's the way it should be between a customer and provider. NO PRESSURE.

eBay in its inception was a unique "community" platform, but I believe that the nature of the eBay experience and platform has changed. And as such, the feedback system is antiquated and absolutely needs to be a redone. That is what eBay is doing with DSRs and with removing the seller's ability for negative feedback. For me, this change is a no-brainer and way overdue. At the same time, she spoke about the new tools to block those poor buyers. Excellent choice and I am glad they're putting in more tools to prevent problem buyers. Yes, there are defiantly bad buyers out there and we all get our share of those.

They are FINALLY acknowledging that not every buyer is necessarily a good buyer and that is great news.

Now for my last bullet point in my notes where she says free shipping is the standard of eCommerce. I am puzzled - where in the world did she get that from? While I am not an expert on eCommerce, I do shop online often. Free shipping is not a standard that I see. Even Amazon Prime has a member cost associated with it. I do recognize many specials from companies that advertise free shipping, but the "standard" I see is you get free shipping when you spend over a predetermined amount with that company.

If eBay desires the platform to be full of FREE Shipping, I think they would need to tie that to FREE Listings. If the listing fees were removed, I could very well see free shipping as a business model making more sense for a seller like myself.

All in all, I thought the speech was fantastic and I left the room feeling pretty good about the directions that eBay is taking.

I was also fortunate enough later that day to have lunch at the eBay table with Lorrie, Jonathan (PeSA Director), Matt (eBay) and Josh who created Best Match / finding 2.0 and Scott Pooler. This opportunity extended my conversation with the executives even further. One thing that I asked all the eBayers at the table: "I need a direct answer. Can any of you explain to me the difference between an "Accurate description" and a "Very accurate description"?

…Holy crap, you could hear a pin drop… and then all fingers pointed to Matt Halprin (eBay Trust and Safety) who was at a completely different table. LOL…

I dropped my fork and walked over to Matt and asked him the same direct question. He responded to me, in his unique no-nonsense delivery…"I am not even going to begin to try to explain that to you. What I will say is that I believe we should remove the language all together from the DSR ranking page."

WOW, I was floored by that response! There may be some good things coming soon around that tricky wording with DSRs.

So that is my take on my trip - well, at least as it related to the eBay experience. The rest of the time was absolutely fabulous, informative and entertaining. The event was top notch and for a first-timer at the eCommerce Summit, I was very impressed. I would like to personally thank all the planners and organizers for an exemplary experience. I cannot wait to do it again and hope they will consider Atlanta once again in the near future...wink, wink.

Thank you also to Scott for allowing me the opportunity to guest on his blog. It was a blast!

John Lawson
President
3rd Power Outlet (www.3rdPO.com)

Guest Post by: John Lawson - 3rdPowerOutlet.com

Wow, the intro that Scott wrote on Part I was very flattering. I really appreciated it, and he made me sound smart…way smarter than I am. I really am glad he wrote it though, because others may start to believe it, in spite of the glaring contradiction I will detail in these next entries of blogging about the conference. I got my own style, so do not get too offended.  This is only me having fun.

Part II – Conference Day

We left off at 2:00 AM this morning. That is when I got my crazy butt in a cab to the hotel and got to bed about 2:45 AM or so. As Scott said about the fine liquor in his intro, I am glad it was fine because the sting is a lot less in the mornings.

Note to self…Top shelf means fewer hangovers.

Well, the hotel calls my phone at 7:00 AM. Good thing I remembered to ask for that wake up call or I would have missed the entire morning session. Not a good thing when the VP of eBay is starting the morning off; you want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

I got up, showered, shaved and was out the door. The breakfast was scheduled for 8:00 AM so I had to get there. I did not know what was in store today, but I know I needed coffee and carbs or my body would still be asleep for the keynote. So I sat, got some coffee and a muffin and chatted with some other sellers I had met from ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst. OK, first I see Scott that I had met there and now these guys…hmmm, that sounds like networking.

Finally it is time for the kick off. You could feel the air, it was rather charged and everyone was sort of on edge, 'cause you know there is MUCH going on in the world of eBay. I am feeling like opening night for a production and I am hyped up to be there. The room was beginning to fill and I put my bag down right by one of the mics 'cause “I Got Issues” and I want to talk! LOL…Seriously though, I paid money, left my home and business, rented a car and stayed in a hotel. I’ll be damned if I am leaving New Orleans wishing I said something…umm, no…well, not just no…hell NO. LMAO!

The opening came from the host Jonathan Garrison of Gotham City Online to a packed auditorium. Then he introduces the speaker, the lights dim and a video begins. There it was on 2 big screens…cut to Hurricane Katrina! eBay starts the event off remembering why we are in this city for this event. The video details stories of real eBay sellers and how eBay and PayPal assisted them in those troubled times.

The lights come up and on comes Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations. She then presents a big ol' check to Jonathan for $50,000. Now that was a Kodak moment. I actually felt proud because I knew that was MY MONEY too. I felt proud to be selling on eBay and be a member of ECMTA right at that minute. Very touching and an appropriate way to start an event in New Orleans…well, actually I started it off right when I partied on Bourbon Street on the first night, but this is good way to start a business conference the following morning.

Now let’s get down to business. I am NOT going to go through all the points and topics she covered. That exhaustive stuff is better left to media reports. What I got are my little notepad notes. What I do is not really take notes, but capture thoughts and phrases (not directly quoted) in bullet points. So I will give you my notes top down:

Originally uploaded by ebayink

Notes from Lorrie Norrington's Keynote Speech

• We want your business
• If you are not doing business on eBay we want you to start
• We value your business
• You are our customers too

My thought in my head right now is…OK, STOP….Who in the hell is this? Does she work at eBay or is this a freakin’ dream?… sorry, I digress…

She presents 3 points (again, not directly quoted):

1. Make eBay safer and easier
2. Improve value and selection
3. Extend the Paypal leadership position

Improve the SELLER experience

She mentioned Scot Wingo’s speech at Catalyst and quoted that he said “eBay is the best place to turn assets into cash”

• Financial rewards for sellers
• High DSR is key to your success
• “Frankly” if you are unwilling to change (she was speaking to sellers with low DSR) then eBay is NOT for you!
• All member DSR’s are up over the last few weeks
• 63% of Powersellers got 5% discount
• 30% of Powersellers got 15% discount
• Retaliatory feedback was 4x greater in ’07 than it was in ‘04
• New tools to block bad buyers (see details at http://tinyurl.com/4c68ms bullet point #4)
• More success based pricing & category specific pricing
• You are not “just” an eBay seller, you are an eBay customer (2nd time)
• Free shipping is the standard in eCommerce (WTF?)

Now those are my personal notes as I wrote them. So that is what I heard in my head; she could have said something totally different. Applause, applause…now on to question and answer…SHOWTIME baby!

I did not want to look too anxious so I did not jump right away. I let another guy be “the first” this time. I was first at Catalyst so I didn’t want to look too crazy, LOL. You know how you feel when every boring meeting you are in, you know it will not end without that crazy person asking a question? I did not want to be that guy, but…

I want to quote my question from the eBay Ink Blog, they got it from transcript I guess…

Q. I was at the Catalyst Conference and I’m really excited to hear about some of things you’re introducing and to see you guys out here in force. You said it today, and it came up back at the Catalyst Conference about the .02 points discrepancy for non-domestic DSRs. There are some areas of this world that just don’t have the same postal service as we do here in the US. There is a distinct drag in Italy for example, really slow. Another is Slovakia. I shouldn’t have to tell the Canadian customer that his mail system is stinky – he already knows it – but it won’t stop him from dinging me on shipping. I know you look at it from the 50,000 foot level but it would be great if you could address it more granularly so maybe I could qualify for the 15% discount next time. [Applause]

Matt Halprin (eBay Trust and Safety): Although this is the first time I’ve heard about Slovakia, it’s not the first time I’ve heard about Italy or Canada. We’re aware of it and there are a variety of ways we’re looking at addressing it. I don’t think right now that we have a tool that allows you to lock out a country like Italy for example (if you simply choose not to ship there) but that is one end of the spectrum. Just to share one bit of information and I admit it is 50,000 foot information, but it is very telling for us. We thought that all Cross Border Trade DSRs were going to be a little bit lower than domestic DSRs because of shipping. Actually, around 50% of sellers have cross border trade DSRs that are equal to or higher than their domestic ones. So obviously there are some best practices in place that are helping address that possible situation. Now, I want to make sure I affirm what you said – we are looking directly at Italy and Canada to address that specific issue.

That was me and that was my question. Yeah, I am that guy. My thoughts on the speech? Tune in next time for Part III, I’ll be back… If Scott lets me?!?

--
Thanks,

John Lawson
President
3rd Power Outlet (www.3rdPO.com)

from Scott:

Now that I have opened the flood gates of prose from John Lawson, how could I ever prevent him from posting here?

John, your perspective is always welcome!

John Lawson is the President and driving force behind 3rd Power Outlet www.3rdPO.com

If you are already a member of PeSA ECMTA you may already know of John. I mean, he is hard to miss! I don't say this just because he knows how to attract attention with his branded 3rdPowerOutlet clothing...

I say it because John is a active member on the PeSA ECMTA Forums and as the first first African American member of PeSA he is a trailblazer who adds real value to the community.

John adds value on the discussion boards and in person. John asks the questions most attendees at events like Catalyst or eCommerce Summit wish they had thought of asking. The fact that he is a straight shooting, successful business person and a pioneer who brought Hip Hop successfully to eBay just adds enormous credibility to what he says and lends value to the answers he gets from speakers at these conferences.

It did not take long for John and I to hit it off when we met at Catalyst in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I felt we had a connection both in business philosophy and as friends. I do not come from John's background, and to be honest I do not know much about Hip Hop. I would never presume to relate to John on that plane and he is fine with that.

I can relate to John as a business person, entrepreneur and a good guy. I appreciate hearing what John has to say and I thought my audience here at the Trading Assistant Journal would also appreciate reading John's perspective.

So after plying him with fine liquor and offering to make him even more famous than he already is... I have successfully convinced John Lawson to add to our conversation here at The TA Journal as a guest blogger.

What follows is what I hope to be the first of many entries from my friend John. Please read and enjoy. Check out his store and learn how this man views the world of eCommerce. You could only stand to learn a thing or two...and that can't be a bad thing.

eCommerce Summit - View from a PeSA Attendee - Part One - by: John Lawson

You guys can read about the eCommerce / PeSA sessions from a real blogger as Scott has done wonders capturing it on this blog. I met Scott for the first time at the ChannelAdvisor Catalyst event earlier this year. At that time he asked me for my input and chatted about it. I mentioned that I would be going to the PeSA event in New Orleans and he asked if I would be interesting in a guest blog about it. So I agree to give it a try and I am not a pro at all, so here is my story.

This is a personal perspective of my trip to New Orleans and my perspective of the events at the summit. This is written by me and for me mostly, but I thought I would capture my thoughts here and you are welcome to follow along.

Part I.... (The arrival)

I got up on Tuesday morning and left Atlanta, GA by car. I picked up Moms (that is NOT a typo, we refer to our Mom like that where I come from) and we were off. She was my 'road dog' for the trip and I was glad to spend some QT (quality time) with her for a change. I thought it would be a long ride and we left at 9:00 EST. I made a food stop and a rest stop and we hauled a** the rest of the way.

We saw some very telling sights on the drive in. Katrina left scars on the landscape from Biloxi MS, all the way into New Orleans East. There was some serious devastation and whole neighborhoods still in shambles as we passed by on the freeway. I got to New Orleans in what seemed like record time. I gained an hour since NO is 1 hour behind Atlanta so we arrived about 3:30 P.M. local time. It took me only 7 hours door-to-door from the time I packed the car until the valet took my bags to the room! Not bad at all.

We stayed at the W hotel which was basically ground zero for the reporters during the storm. It was one of the only large hotels that remained habitable during the storm. The bellman began recounting his story to me about how the W paid them to come back immediately after the storm and how they had taken care of his needs and his family. You could tell that he was genuinely proud to work for the W and was very friendly.

We (Mom and I) cleaned up and I walked my Moms around to show her the casino, the mall and the Riverwalk. I was glad I had time to do that so she would feel comfortable venturing around the city while I was at the events. After that, I left her at the Riverwalk which is next to the convention center that was the location for the events. The downtown was just like I remembered since my last trip to NO in February of 2005. As we walked along we commented on how the city looked well recovered.

But OH BOY, I was totally not ready for what happened to me a few minutes later. I must admit that I got a little choked up as I approached the convention center. The site of the building that we all saw from Katrina 2005 suddenly started flashing in my mind. The vision was made even worse by the fact that this vast building looked empty and completely closed as I approached.

I had to walk from the far end of the Morial Convention Center all the way to the door where we were going to enter and register. It was still pretty early, about 5:00 pm, and that huge convention center was basically empty. And as a matter of fact, the place remained basically empty for the entire week except for our event. It shows that NO really needs to get back up on its feet even 3 years later.

We have a huge convention center here in Atlanta too and I don't care what day of the week or year it is, there is ALWAYS some crap going on. It was very noticeable that the tourism and trade business has not recovered fully yet.

Once I found an open door, I was still a ways from the registration area and I was there VERY early. Viewing the inside I had to take a second to compose myself in the hall because I knew that at one time nearly 3 years ago, people were laid to rest here. It got a little overwhelming and I am not an emotional person, but that hit me all of a sudden in the halls. And it became emotional for real, damn!

I approached the tables down the hall and got a quick pick me up. This white haired man who sort of looked like Santa came up to me and grabbed my hand. He said with a big hardy voice "Welcome to the Summit". I did not have my name tag, but I had on my work shirt and he was genuinely delighted to see me there. He said, "Hey John, I am David from Shoetime. We were on the PeSA call together!" See, they guys over at PeSA were having a call about DSRs and they invited me to participate. Both myself and David were on that call sharing tips and results we had experienced with trying to increase the response, so it was good to meet him in person.

I was blown away, because he looked EXACTLY like I had pictured him in my mind - LOL. It was kind of surreal. He was downstairs greeting everyone as we came in. That really started my first PeSA summit off right. You know that is why they greet you at the door at Wal-Mart too. They know it makes your time there enjoyable and it transferred well for me at the Summit too.

So I got my little bag of goodies and proceeded up the escalator to the cocktail party. After all the emotional bull crap my head put me through I needed a strong drink and the ladies at the bar were more than willing to oblige. One thing about NO, you do not have to ask more than once for a strong drink!

So like I said, I was pretty early and I think there were just a hand full of folks there and most of them were vultures, er... I mean vendors, LMAO. I guess they saw me and they were just hungry since I was one of the first there. I was there no longer than about 10 minutes when out the corner of my eye I saw Scott Pooler, Master Blogger , approaching. We got some finger food and went to a nearby table. I met another seller and the 3 of us started chatting.

While we were there, a couple of vendors came up to us, but I had to put the brakes on 'em quick. I was like to one dude, "Yo homey, I just got off a 7 hour road trip and the LAST thing I want to do right now is read your freakin' pamphlet. I need food and liquor!" We all laughed and we stood and had a drink together.

For the most part, I talked to a few other sellers and vendors, ate the finger food and got a buzz. I met some of the folks I had seen on the boards and me and one dude decided to hit the casino and Bourbon Street afterwards for some food and drink. Boy, that was the wrong dude to hook up with1 He was ready to party -like I was - and we did! So much in fact, that after a Hurricane and 2 Grenades, He, I and 2 others ended up on the "strip" until way past 2:00 A.M. Man, that was one crazy way to kick off a conference!

to be continued...

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Thanks,

John Lawson
President
3rd Power Outlet (www.3rdPO.com)