Tag Archives: EPN

Auctiva Auctiva – Why all the drama? It’s a Mad Mad Mad eBay World!

Posted on by
5

Warning....

  • If you are an Auctiva fan - You may not like this article.... auctiva-logo

  • If you are an Auctiva basher - you also may not like this article....

  • Read on, if you dare - or care either way!

Ok, the drama started June 1st when Auctiva sent out an email to anyone and everyone who had ever done business with them. I know this because I received one of those emails and I have not done business with them in like - oh I dunno - 4 years maybe?  In any case, it was a sweet hello and by the way, we now have to charge for the services that we have been providing for "free" all these years.

Why? you ask? Well, simply because the eBay Partner Network is so screwed up that we no longer generate enough revenue from our affiliate plan to support giving away the software for free.  Oh, and we have been cut off, because - well we don't really understand why, with 20% of the eBay sellers using our tools, but our revenue stream just dried all the way up with 30 days notice! (I am paraphrasing).

OK - from my point of view - no surprises here... I had always known that Auctiva was simply a huge eBay affiliate and I also knew that the eBay Partner Network has been cutting affiliates to the bone since it was created.  This is, in my opinion, one of the many reasons why eBay has less traffic now than they did when Commission Junction was running the affiliate program, a point I have made in the past.

So whats the big surprise? Auctiva must make money, they are a business and can not be expected to give away services without compensation, if that compensation does not come from affiliate revenue, it can only come from the user.  - No story here - right?

Not So Fast...

It seems that while I did not immediately follow the reaction which developed from this revelation from Auctiva's announcement it seems that the world went mad... The eBay world that is...

Big News - Auctiva - No Longer Free - Aren't all good things in life - FREE?

In a Word - NO!

That's it in a nutshell, all good things in life are not free and to expect them to be free, especially in regards to a tool or service used for the advancement and management of an online business... is a myopic and naive point of view.  I am so sorry eBay sellers, but to gain access to the very complicated software required to transmit secure information back and forth between your computer and the eBay API you can not expect to not pay one red cent. I know, I had my own eBay management software brand, this is not childsplay - it is labor intensive hard work to keep up with the eBay API.

eBay charges you for almost everything that they can get away with and you gladly come back to the trough time and again to contribute, but when a third party software company expects to be paid for making your life easier - Wo Nellie! We are off the Tracks!

What is that?

I understand all of you Auctiva users became spoiled by the free bandwagon all of these years and in exchange for the free nature of the product you put up with some of the major drawbacks of using the Auctiva tools, it was a tradeoff... Free listing tools and management for almost no support and a very clunky program, but hey - you loved the free part.

Now you find out that - oh my gawd - Auctiva was making money after all... and even worse than that, they made this money through what? oh please don't tell me, AFFILIATE commissions off of the sale of my products listed on eBay?  Oh the horror - How dare they?

Get a Grip People! - There is nothing wrong with being an affiliate - without the affiliate program developed under Commission Junction for eBay, the place would never have had as much traffic as all of you so love to quote that it has (or had before CJ got the boot).

Auctiva - Free - on the surface - in the past

My experience with using Auctiva has been limited, I checked out the listing tool in the past, did not like it, and moved on.

I knew enough back then to realize my business needed a paid solution which had reliable support and which worked more smoothly.

(I went with AuctionSound by the way, a software I highly recommend but no longer use).

The time saved by using a reliable and well thought out program to automate my selling on eBay, more than paid for the software expense.  I will never agree that a free offering could be as efficient as a paid solution.  Especially when dealing with eBay listing software.

Of course Auctiva has updated the program since my early trial so I can not say how it works now but for my MONEY, trusting my business operations to a FREE software package did not make sense.

Thousands of eBay sellers disagreed with my assessment however and happily dipped in the trough at the Auctiva soup kitchen to operate small eBay businesses or hobby selling activities for free (plus eBay fees - always remember the eBay fees).

Great, no argument from me, but for those same people to now act as though this "Free" status was somehow an entitlement that would last forever just tends to offend the business person inside of me.

I have no trouble with paying money to help me make money - this is hurdle many eBay sellers need to overcome!

The Dogs of War...

This last week has been a maelstrom of attacks upon the management team and CEO of Auctiva.  From bloggers and journalists to customers and competitors - it seems everyone felt that Auctiva had somehow ripped them off or personally attacked the eBay world by actually proposing to charge for services.

Sure - the fee structure could end up costing a pretty penny but it was not unlike several other paid software plans.

Many good quality eBay listing platforms such as InkFrog, Vendio, and MerchantRun-Globallink charge for their services and does anyone in the room think that Channel Advisor or Infopia will offer a free software or eBay listing services any time soon?

It is up to the merchant to evaluate the features, service, and workflow of each software package or vendor program, then select the one that fits within their business plan, their user/operator needs and capabilities and the businesses budget. Free should not be the deciding factor!

uncleThe attacks have been merciless and after a week of soundly being beaten up from all corners of the eBay universe,  Auctiva has cried UNCLE!

Today, I received, along with millions of other former Auctiva users, another nice little note from Auctiva and it's CEO Jeff Schlicht.... It said... Basically...

Pardon the Paraphrase here Jeff....

UNCLE - WE REPENT!

Auctiva will NOT charge high fees for the software used by thousands to list stuff on eBay, we will however charge $9.99 a month just as InkFrog does! We are sooo sorry, we dared to try and remove your eBay entitlement to free software, but seriously - this whole eBay Partner Network thing is not working out for us... We gotta charge something... like please let us charge something, won't you?....

Quoting from the email:

Since we first announced our new pricing structure, I've been listening to the community's concerns. Considering the frank feedback you've provided, through email, surveys, customer support cases, our community messages boards and other forums, a few facts are abundantly clear:

  • You'd prefer a simple, no-surprises flat-rate pricing structure.
  • You don't want to pay any additional FVFs.
  • You want image hosting included.
  • Your margins are tight.

If you are asking yourself, "Why didn't they just use this pricing in the beginning?" the answer is that I thought our customers would like to have the choice of picking a tailored plan based on usage. Clearly, I was wrong.

I don't know if it was actually wrong Jeff, but it did create quite a hubbub!

At least you got Auctiva's name mentioned on the Internet about a bajillion more times than this time last year with your "free" program. (Always looking for the silver lining).  More people know about Auctiva today than when the product was free, so seriously ... was this some sort of master PR stunt or marketing plan?  I mean, eBay has not upset the masses lately and they have stayed out of the daily news cycle for several months, pretty much licking old wounds, could it be that you learned from the eBay induced turmoil of last year and decided to get a little negative attention flowing your way? Just for Grins and Giggles? Maybe?

Naw, I doubt that....

I think Auctiva sincerely is trying to survive in an ever tightening eBay solutions marketplace and I think the eBay community should cut them some slack.  They may have not been one of my favorite software packages in the past, but there is no reason to beat them into submission when times are tough.  (Hmmm, I guess this article to too little too late - job done).

A lot of people are familiar with the Auctiva system and is it really too much to ask to give them a break?

I mean $9.99 a month is a small price to pay, unless you can get it for free.

Hmmm Vendio, did you say something? (Vendio is offering a free solution throughout 2009)

eBay Competitors Take a Lesson – Traffic is king – Long Live Traffic

Posted on by
Reply

Lessons of eBay - Traffic is king - Long Live Traffic

Recently, I wrote an article highlighting the traffic history of three of eBay competitors, Compete: OnlineAuction.com vs Bonanzle.com vs. etsy.com

The article on iBusinessLogic.com/blog highlights the relatively flat traffic levels of two of the three sites, with etsy being the clear winner when looking at both growth and monthly visitors to the site. To be fair, Bonanzle has not been in the race long enough to be compared in this way (Bonanzle opened for business in June 2008) and Compete.com figures are not always considered the most accurate.

The current climate of disruption at eBay makes it no surprise that competitors new and old have tried to seize the day by collecting as many of the fleeing sellers as possible for their own sites.  Attracting sellers is certainly an important part of building a new online marketplace but it is only half of the battle.

Every seller looking for a new venue is seeking buyers, any venue who can provide buyer traffic will have no trouble attracting eBay sellers.

It is a catch 22 situation and it appears sites like Onlineauction.com are caught up in the vortex.  Online Auction has a vibrant and engaged seller community yet the buyer traffic is slim, the same thing could be said for many other would be eBay heirs.

eBay certainly has the traffic numbers (or had) to make almost any competitor short of Amazon seem almost a trivial pursuit.  But how did eBay get to that point?  What was it that made eBay an almost overnight success and kept them on a steady growth curve for so long?

Lessons can be learned about the early success at eBay which today's new and fresh competition (like Bonanzle) should mimic to grow beyond current expectations. I think Bonanzle has attempted to mirror some of the early eBay elan' but are they there yet?

Lets look at what eBay had going for them in the late 1990's. Admittedly some of these market factors could not be replicated now (no competition, barrier to entry for sellers elsewhere) yet some factors can be replicated by any of todays upstart eBay alternatives.

  1. eBay provided a community of buyers and sellers and promoted the one on one communications between these two groups. eBay no longer provides this social interaction, many alternative sites do - good job!
  2. eBay was an easy way to get products online - easy to sell with minimal friction. (Once again, no longer true at eBay but sites like Bonanzle and etsy have this wrapped up). Good Job for Alternatives
  3. eBay was the place to find the unusual, unique and outlandish - No longer the story at eBay. Some alternatives are working hard to fill this niche - Good Job!
  4. eBay was a fair playing field, designed to allow the small merchant or at home sellers the ability to have equal standing with huge retailers. - Not true any longer.  A message more of the alternatives should trumpet, true in most cases on competetive sites however. Good Job!
  5. eBay opened up a Worldwide marketplace - Still true, to its detriment sometimes - Asian knock offs flooding categories and killing perceived value.
  6. eBay provided a searchable database of merchandise from around the world - Not always the best of search but early on it was the only search - now it is a broken search.  Alternatives should focus on making sure search is always functional and easly to use.
  7. eBay brought buyers and traffic with partner relationships. The obvious early partners were Google and Yahoo. Yahoo is still with eBay, Google not so much. Alternative sites need to find ways to make sure they maintain a good relationship with Google - This is Crucual.
  8. eBay took advantage of mass marketing via affiliates through Commision Junction - now they have almost strangled the relationship they enjoyed for so long with affiliates with the switch to the eBay Partner Network.
Point #8 is the genesis of this article and from what I can determine, outside of OnlineAuction.com's very basic and nearly unusable user affiliate program, no eBay alternative sites are utilizing the power of affiliate marketing.

Effective Affiliate marketing can propel any website to the top of the leaderboard in traffic from buyers in a matter of mere months.  Utilized in the right way an affiliate program will build any sites page rank and inbound links exponentially in a matter of weeks. eBay shared the wealth with affiliates and Google early on and it worked for them in a grand and glorious fashion.

I question why sites who want to tackle the giant of eBay when it has shown its weaknesses have not utilized this simple method of attracting new users and visitors. Affiliate Marketing.

eBay affiliates are a major reason why the company enjoyed success for so long.

With thousands of small sites all feeding traffic in varying amounts to the mothership of eBay. The steady and meteoric growth of eBay was assured.
Every river has its tributaries and if eBay is a river (sorry Amazon) then affiliates are its streams and creeks. Today, those streams have been choked with pollution in the form of EPN and they are seeking a new course.

Which eBay competetor will give those affiliate streams a place to send the water?