Vendio Free Store Offer
Vendio is offering a free online store as described in our previous article/Review on the All Business Auctions Blog:
Does anyone have a follow up on this service and the effectiveness of the free ecommerce store Vendio is offering to the public?
If you do, please chime in here on the TAJ Forum with your thoughts!
Thanks!
Scott
It seems that I have "gone missing", people ask me where have I been, what am I doing? Well, I have been busy and have not had the time required to keep this and many of my other blogs current.
I love my Trading Assistant Journal readers just as much as I hope they appreciate me, and in fact I want to thank the readers who have sent me notes of concern, wishing me well, and asking me to come back. I am still here, I just have been so busy working for clients and on my own projects, that I have not had time to keep up with a lot of the stuff I used to comment on here in the Journal.
BonanzleStore Opening Late Summer 2009
In our vast eCommerce world Bonanzle.com has been one of the hottest topics of discussion for over a year now .
As a venue Bonanzle has many advantages for sellers.
Simplicity, Social interaction, seller camaraderie, ease of use, customer service from the founder himself... Bonanzle has a lot to like.
When a new merchant comes to Bonanzle from eBay or elsewhere, they are usually struck with the speed and ease of use of this well laid out platform. From the very first day of operations, this site has been clean and quick both on the front end and on the back end where merchants spend most of their time.
The speed of listing product, either one at a time, or through a bulk upload and then a bulk editor (both included) is a major factor attracting merchants familiar with the multiple page listing processes of eBay. This simplicity and speed are major factors that can improve the bottom line of any seller. The fact that there are no listing fees and only a small final value fee - if an item is sold, is another top pick on the feature list at Bonanzle.com.
Sellers are joining Bonanzle by the thousands, the growth curve of Bonanzle has been phenomenal - some say... even faster than the original eBay.
Yet with all of the great features of Bonanzle, and there are many, it struck me that the one thing that was missing from the merchant experience at Bonanzle was a home base or store. Come to think of it, at eBay the "eBayStores" product has never been a real home base or place to build a business for merchants. I say this, even though I was at one time an eBay stores promoter, designer and owner, because at eBay you had no way to bring your customer back to you. The entire eBay Stores strategy was sold to promote the idea that a merchant could have that "home base" but in reality the home was just a temporary shelter - with high fees.
If you are starting or running an online business selling products, unless you are happy to be anonymous, it is best to build a "location" on the net. A Storefront or a business office so to speak. A Place where your customers, new and old, can find you, and find out more about you and your business. A place where, as a business owner, you can choose to educate the public (your customers) with more information than is included in a standard description of a product for sale.
Now I don't want to say that at Bonanzle there is no "Store". Bonanzle's "store" is called a booth. A Bonanzle Booth is a central location grouping all of your listed products together by category. The booth is great, but since it is dedicated to the Bonanzle tenants of simplicity and clean design (something I do not disagree with), a Bonanzle Booth does not lend itself to merchant branding or education of the public or much of anything more than presenting the merchants products, with 4 images and a very clean description to the outside world. For many merchants, this may be all that they need. For others, something a little more personal may be appropriate.
Late Summer 2009
As a result, my company, iBusinessLogic has created a new way to optimize a Bonanzle merchants business and Internet marketing capabilities with what we call the BonanzleStore.
A "BonanzleStore" (launching late summer 2009) is an outside website, separated from Bonanzle and allowing the merchant to brand themselves with a completely customized eCommerce Web 2.0 Site. This website (A BonanzleStore) will include many features never seen before in eCommerce. Continue reading “What is Scott Pooler Doing Now? – Part 1 – Bonanzle and BonanzleStore” »
Click to learn more
Pitchmen - is the new Discovery channel TV series about the art of the "pitch" and for many reasons, I find it fascinating.
This TV series is an inside look into the 2 minute infomercial concept "As Seen on TV" and two of the top personalities that make the all important and insidious television "pitch" on a daily basis to America.
Both of the primary characters of the series, Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan, have become multi-millionaires without so much as a college degree between them. They each own production companies, work for multi-million dollar corporations and, if you are lucky, and if they choose to bring your invention to the television airwaves, these men may possibly be making a millionaire out of you to.
Vendio Platform Previewed by Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble is a fairly famous blogger, videographer, photographer and all around tech critic/guru. he has worked with all of the big tech conglomerates including Microsoft, Fast Money, and now RackSpace (More details about Scoble available via the link attached to his name).
While his interview of the powers that be at Vendio was not exactly from the perspective of a well informed ecommerce specialist or writer, (He refers or defers to his ex-wife's experiences with eBay) this video does offer some insight into how the platform Vendio has assembled works. Scoble does not venture into our world of eCommerce often so I find it interesting that this interview even occurred. Good job Vendio!
For more information about the Vendio Platform, read my review on the All Business Auctions Blog
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.
From the RedInkDiary Continue reading “Bonanzle Action Club Controversy – Evil Empire or Just Grass Roots Social Marketing” »
Yesterdays post encouraged an unbelievable amount of partcipation. In less than 24 hours we had over 1000 individual votes for the sites listed on that Poll:
Results can be seen on our previous post - click the results link on the poll display.
The previous poll is still open so if you have not voted yet for one of the platforms or options listed above, please do so here:
Multiple Channels - Where do you List Your Products? eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Bonanzle or?
No surprise there, but as an observer the voting became an interesting horse race with the early lead going to OnlineAuction soon followed by Bonanzle coming on strong mid way through the day (at one point having over 50% of the vote but ending with a very respectable 30% at last check.
Todays poll includes all of the write in candidates from yesterdays poll, (additions readers added into the list on yesterdays poll) each of the listed sites below accumulated at least one vote in our last poll. (In todays poll you can also add any site not listed here of in yesterdays poll).
We are including all of the write in sites without checking to determine the validity of these sites, as always comments and discussion are welcome in the comments section below.
The Trading Assistant Journal is not promoting or endorsing any site(s) on these polls.
I will say that I am surprised that Etsy and Amazon did not get more votes in yesterdays poll. I can only attribute this to sellers on those platforms not being away of our unscientific census of online merchants. If you know anyone who would be interested in weighing in for Amazon, Etsy, Dawdle or any of the others, please send them here to let us know where they are proud to sell product online!
Our last poll asked if our readers were selling on multiple platforms, just eBay or on thier own eCommerce website?
The results from just one days of replies was overwhelmingly in favor of multiple channel selling with 63% of the respondents affirming that they do indeed market product on multiple venues other than their own ecommerce website.
Today we will ask where you are actually selling product or offering product in these channels. Obviously we could not list every channel available so we will leave the ones you suggest in the comments section for another poll. For this poll we will simply ask about the majors and it is multiple choice so click on every place you utilize that is on the poll.
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...
Imagine if you will...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
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” »
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.
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?
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.
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.
...then, will you will kick yourself for not having tried it sooner?