Comments on My Blog Utopia!: 10 Reasons Why eBay Will Eventually Acquire Channe...

channeladvisor is terrible... I wish there was a w...

2009-07-10T19:53:05.167-07:00

channeladvisor is terrible... I wish there was a way to know before you click buy that you were going to be put through that garbage. (btw tigerdirect.com uses them if you want to avoid the hassle avoid them... but what do you expect from a site that takes the ability to view already loaded pages away from you if you do not have java enabled)

JJ

Thanks Danna! Merry Christmas to you and yours and...

2007-12-08T22:02:30.533-08:00

Thanks Danna! Merry Christmas to you and yours and to everyone who reads the blog Happy Holidays.

Hi Randy, I was just passing by and wanted to say ...

2007-12-08T20:21:10.284-08:00

Hi Randy, I was just passing by and wanted to say hello :-)
And wish you a Merry Christmas!

Danna ..<><....

Thanks a lot!Building on your thought of potential...

2007-11-29T18:01:28.611-08:00

Thanks a lot!

Building on your thought of potential acquisition by eBay, do you think companies like CA expanding their business horizon into actual retail and becoming eBay's sort of competitors help increase their valuations?

Also, I thought about offering online ad services in addition to search ad, partnering with local-focused channels, and/or introducing gift cards somehow..

TS

In the US Marketworks was CA's biggest competitor ...

2007-11-29T14:33:35.199-08:00

In the US Marketworks was CA's biggest competitor until CA acquired them.

Now, Infopia, Monsoon, Zoovy, Kyozou are the biggest competitors.

Monsoon is very entrenched at Amazon, Infopia is more geared to Web Retail and eBay, Zoovy has a lot of backend tools. Kyozou is a Canadian company that I think is similar to Zoovy but I haven't looked at them in depth.

There are also smaller players like Fillz for the media marketplaces and Vendio etc.

I hope that helps.

Nice observations. Regardless of eBay buying CA do...

2007-11-29T14:15:53.463-08:00

Nice observations. Regardless of eBay buying CA down the road, CA seems to position itself well in long-tail sellers' interest, providing full range of channel services.

I have a quick question for you, Randy. Who do you say are the key competitors of CA in the US market? I'm trying to figure out the competitive picture of e-commerce space, specifically multi-channel selling..

Thanks,,,TS

Why would eBay buy a system that SUCKS as bad as C...

2007-11-08T18:09:56.940-08:00

Why would eBay buy a system that SUCKS as bad as Channel Advisor? It took me 4 hours over 2 days to get checked out. PayPal is a instant service.

Trevor,eBay purchased AfterBuy and they help users...

2007-10-21T16:14:11.883-07:00

Trevor,

eBay purchased AfterBuy and they help users post on other sites. The CA guys thought the post was funny.

I just bring things up to get the discussion moving. The post was my most visited post in the history of the blog.

you have given some pretty valid reason why eBay w...

2007-10-21T15:36:45.102-07:00

you have given some pretty valid reason why eBay would want to invest more heavily into listing software. However, I can't really see them buying a software package which encourages people to list on other platforms (even if eBay is it's real strength)

AnonymousI think the MarketWorks acquisition helpe...

2007-10-15T14:45:14.897-07:00

Anonymous

I think the MarketWorks acquisition helped CA avoid some of these issues. CA is growing Internationally and their diversification into Search and Comparision Shopping services should help them avoid any problems.

My friends at CA thought my post was funny. My friends at eBay haven't responded to me about it yet. We will see.

I'm not as optimistic as you regarding CA's number...

2007-10-15T10:58:55.616-07:00

I'm not as optimistic as you regarding CA's numbers. With all of the expansion that CA has been going through, and with the continuing demise of eBay's transaction volume, I'd say that CA is likely having some internal valuation problems. Expanding off and off eBay is the right way to go, but CA's pricing structure is something that doesn't fly with any real ecommerce business. I can have nearly any standalone website on CA recreated in India or China for a $3K-$6K and the merchant would own their own site. I vote that CA's numbers start going sour and a sale is eventually made out of necessity.

Bill, I may very well be wrong but based on what I...

2007-10-10T13:23:37.250-07:00

Bill, I may very well be wrong but based on what I'm seeing it makes sense that this is where they are headed.

As for MM and CA it will still be performance based pricing so I wouldn’t see that changing if eBay owned them :)

I sincerely hope you're wrong about this. It's ba...

2007-10-10T12:40:58.186-07:00

I sincerely hope you're wrong about this. It's bad enough having annual and semi-annual fee increases on eBay. We don't need the same frequency of fee increases with Marketworks. I've been a MW customer for eight years, and to the best of my recollection, I have never witnessed a fee increase. Their motto is "We make money when you make money."

I'm not suggesting that eBay do this, I'm observin...

2007-10-10T06:19:13.077-07:00

I'm not suggesting that eBay do this, I'm observing that this is the direction they are headed.

Believe me I'm not putting ideas into their head.

Randy, why do you suggest eBay obtain even greater...

2007-10-10T02:35:04.837-07:00

Randy, why do you suggest eBay obtain even greater control of the marketplace. Is this spreading good news or advocating a "utopia"

Craig, thanks for the clarification.

2007-10-09T08:59:52.585-07:00

Craig, thanks for the clarification.

fyi: there are no investors in craigslist.Thanks!C...

2007-10-09T08:40:48.194-07:00

fyi: there are no investors in craigslist.

Thanks!

Craig