My Blog Utopia!

Solitude

2011-07-11T21:57:00.001-07:00

Solitude, a set on Flickr.

A change of pace...

These are pictures from some of my road trips. I call this Solitude and I hope you enjoy it.

Margins Narrowing, Amazon Faces a Well-Financed Campaign to Force it to Collect Sales Taxes - YCharts - Information, Not Opinion - Forbes

2011-06-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Margins Narrowing, Amazon Faces a Well-Financed Campaign to Force it to Collect Sales Taxes - YCharts - Information, Not Opinion - Forbes

States look to Internet taxes to close budget gaps - Yahoo! Finance

Just my 15%

Sales Tax - Who Cares what Amazon Thinks?

2011-06-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

Raise your hands if you think there will eventually be an Internet Sales Tax? Of course there will be and Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos can't stop it. It is time the US Government earns some of the tax dollars we are paying them and enacts a sensible plan for managing Internet sales tax.

States need the revenue, consumers are conditioned to pay sales tax and it is fair to charge sales tax for purchases shipped to a state. Right now the States need to shut up and listen. You are better off with a reasonable Internet sales tax for all sales in your state then you are protecting your own sales tax percentage. A reasonable sales tax of 5% with .5% going to the Federal government for managing the program.

California will moan, but we get 8.75% and we can't make it at 4.5% and I say, quit bitching and take the 4.5% because your are fighting for the 8.75% and losing the battle and years of trying to get an additional 4.25% won't get you anywhere.

I say give every State 4.5% of the sales shipped to that state and be happy with it. Even states like Oregon and New Hampshire with no sales tax should charge 4.5%. Ecommerce needs a plan now so we don't play games for 2-3 more years and get stuck with a worse law.

Look, I don't have the lobbying budget that Amazon has but I do have a blog and I do have a voice. Congress wants to say this is an issue for the states so they need to figure something out but getting the States to agree on anything is like herding cats -- its impossible. Congress needs to enact a reasonable solution that is fair for every consumer and still give ecommerce the room to grow.

I say a 5% Internet Sales Tax managed by the US government is the quickest and smartest approach available and regardless how much money Amazon throws at this issue, a national sales tax must be enacted.

Just my 15%

Internet Retailer 2011 - San Diego

2011-06-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

If you are attending the Internet Retailer show this year in San Diego, please make sure to stop by the Buy.com Marketplace booth #1922. This is the first year we are sponsoring the show and I would love to meet you in person.

Internet Retailer runs from Tuesday 6/14 through Thursday 6/16

Just my 15%

Pandora Now Sees IPO At $10-12, Up From $7-$9; Expands Offering - Eric Savitz - The Tech Trade - Forbes

2011-06-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

Pandora Now Sees IPO At $10-12, Up From $7-$9; Expands Offering - Eric Savitz - The Tech Trade - Forbes

Pandora is my favorite music streaming service. I'll have to find a way to get in at the IPO price. I'm glad the company was able to last long enough for this big payday.

Who will be the next eCommerce company to go public?

Just my 15%

Rakuten Acquires Brazillian Ecommerce Platform

2011-06-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

TechCrunch had the best write-up on this so I'm just going to link you to that.

"Japanese online retail juggernaut Rakuten is expanding its reach to South America with the acquisition of a 75% stake in Ikeda, a provider of e-commerce services to many of Brazil’s largest retailers.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in São Paulo, Ikeda provides retailers with a SaaS e-commerce platform, enabling its customers to help build their desired features and provides advisory services to support their online retail operations.

Ikeda currently provides services to over 100 major retailers located all over Brazil."

I look forward to working with our new friends in Brazil :)

Just my 15%

Overstock No More ... at Least in Name

2011-06-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

I know, I haven't blogged much in the last two years and all of a sudden I'm blogging like its the end of the world. Sorry, just lots of interesting news.

From the "What were they thinking" files comes a story I still can't get my head around. Overstock is rebranding to ... get this ... O.co. Yes you heard it right, O.co! They have also redesigned the website to be a little less "female" while securing Naming Rights to the Oakland Coloseum where my favorite NFL team (Da Raiders) play.

According to the AdAge article; The online retailer's website will also change with the logo heading, changing to "O.co, also known as Overstock.com," said CEO Patrick Byrne. TV ads will begin to reflect the change to O.co after Father's Day.

"O.co will keep on emerging as our brand," he said. "It's been a gradual transition. We didn't want to risk throwing out the brand equity we've built with Overstock.com. ... I think if it all works really nicely, you'll just see Overstock.com fade away and O.co take its place."

I can get behind the concept of rebranding because Overstock was so heavily female but I don't quite grasp how these moves will help them become a more well positioned brand.

Just my 15%

eBay Buys the Rest of Magento

2011-06-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Newsflash! eBay acquires Magento the open source shopping cart. Well they actually acquired the rest of Magento since they already owned 49% prior to this news.

When it comes to eBay and their M&A activity I sometimes scratch my head, but this seems like a no-brainer move since they already owned 49% now they have control of the company and in theory can maximize the investment.

I am very curious to see what they do with all of the recent moves. I could speculate of course about what I think they would do but when it comes to eBay you never know.

Just my 15%

New IPO Bubble Building.

2011-06-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

What is it about the world of finance that keeps us building "bubbles"? We had Internet Bubble 1.0 in 1999 and that bubble burst in 2000, we had a much large bubble build in the mortgage business and we just recently started to recover from that bubble bursting, now we see Internet Bubble 2.0 building. I wonder if we've learned anything from all the bubble bursting in the last decade?!

Internet Bubble 2.0 is gathering steam since the successful IPO of LinkedIn last month and now Internet startups are lining up to be the next company to board the IPO gravy train. Groupon has now filed an S1 to announce their intent to go public and I would imagine that Twitter and Facebook will follow shortly.

If this is a real bubble you will start seeing lots of money flowing back into Venture Capital and start-ups across the country getting new investment. If there are any lessons to be learned from all of these bubbles it is "get in quick and be one of the first" who knows how long the bubble will last so you need to act quickly to take advantage.

This will be fun to watch.

Update: Here is a contrary view

Just my 15%

How eCommerce Times are a Changing!

2011-06-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

While eCommerce continues to grow its share of global retail and Brick and Mortar retailers look for ways to stem the tide causing their sales to slow. eCommerce itself is morphing into something much different from its infancy.

In the early days of the web, it was much like the old west, brave entrepreneurs ventured online to stake their claim for retail riches and with their satchels full of VC money they used TV, Magazines, Radio and other traditional media to get the word out. Companies like, Amazon, Buy.com, eBay, Drugstore.com Ebags.com are still around but many others didn't survive. At the time large retail brands like Sears, Best Buy, Staples, J.C. Penny were just testing the idea of selling online and many tech companies like Dell, HP and Compaq decided the web was their future. Unfortunately it took a lot of money to get consumers to stop by these online stores. Amazon was still mostly a book store. The lion's share of consumers went directly to the .com from their browser to find those items they wanted to purchase, if you didn't spend the Traditional Media money to brand your business nobody showed up at your store. According to the chart below, from Channel Advisor, in 2000 75% of consumers started their shopping experience directly at each companies website. Search, CSE (Comparisons Shopping Engines) and Marketplaces consisted mainly of Yahoo, AOL, eBay, and collectively they were only 25% of ecommerce in 2000. Google had just launched their AdWords program in 2000, likewise Amazon launched their Marketplace late that year.

Jump forward to 2010 and you see a much different landscape on the web. Yahoo, AOL and eBay have been dominated by Google, Facebook and Amazon. 44% of eCommerce sales now start from Search (mostly Google) and 27% start in a Marketplace (Amazon, eBay, Buy.com); only 9% start at the merchants website. All of this while the whole eCommerce pie continues to grow

CSE's as a segment have slowed considerably even though Google Product Search continues to grow. Mobile and Social are growing and may represent the future of eCommerce 5-10 years down the road.

So, in 2011 what's an online retail store have to do to sell their wares? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) efforts are extremely important as Search still dominates but Marketplaces can no longer be left off of the table. Online brands that haven't sold in a Marketplace channel till now are going to have to start or they will missing out on a huge number of eyeballs. In fact many mainline retailers are launching their own marketplace as a way to attract new shoppers to their increased selection; Sears, NewEgg, Walmart among others to launch this year.

In 2011 most shoppers are not starting at your website or going there at all, make sure you don't miss out on those sales by avoiding 27% of those shoppers. Don't miss out on the Marketplace customer.

Just my 15%

Online Sellers Need to Step it Up!

2011-05-31T06:56:00.000-07:00

Gone are the good old days, when you just had to take a snapshot of your product and list it on eBay to make a sale. It was easy back in the day but those days are gone forever ... now a seller needs to have a UPI (Unique product identifier) just to get listed on Google Product Search, let alone on a marketplace. Content standards in all of the available selling channels have been raised. At this point in the game, every seller needs to develop their own content strategy in addition to the other facets of their business. Sellers need to take professional quality images, write beautiful unique descriptions, add professional video, reviews, social bookmarks, etc. just to have a chance at a sale.

Back in the day, you just had to source product at the right price and you could make a great living on your own terms. We had a saying "you don't make money on the sale, you make money on the buy" basically if you bought right you would always make a tidy profit. Today it is much more complicated.

Increased competition for product, higher seller performance standards, increased content requirements, multiple-channel selling makes it very difficult to do business online. So what do you do?

You have to make a decision, are you going to keep complaining that everything is so difficult now? Or are you going to "Step Up" your game? This goes for small sellers as well as the "Big" guys. The sellers who will thrive are those that "Step Up" their game.

For small sellers, that task often falls on the owner because even if you do have staff they are typically doing customer service or fulfillment (pick, pack and ship) If you do not have the time or technical ability then find someone who does because it is a matter of survival. Take Google Product Search as an example. There is no cost to list your items with them and no rev share if it sells, so why would you complain about the increased requirements instead of making the adjustments necessary.

If you have a website and are not submitting your items to Google Product Search you are missing the boat and honestly should re-think your whole business. Google has raised their content requirements regularly over the years and each time they do, it is a hassle to make the changes in your system, but many businesses generate upwards of 25% of their sales through Google. It just takes a little effort to understand what they are looking for and they provide all of the info in their help pages. If your items do not have a UPC, ISBN, JAP, or EAN than you can provide the MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) as well as the Brand Name. For antiques, collectibles, apparel, custom made product you can have an exception.

It always amazes me when people complain about the effort it is going to take to maximize a free service like Google Product Search. Don't complain, adjust! Step-up your game in every area of your business and leave your competition behind.

Just my 15%

Another Marketplace Option for Small Online Sellers

2010-10-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

After reading that title, who would have guessed that option would be Buy.com? Well, today I am happy to announce that Buy.com has opened its marketplace to online sellers large and small.

We've relaxed the requirements for registration to allow online business sellers who have a retail website and/or other marketplace sales history from eBay, Amazon, Bonanza, Etsy and others to begin selling in the Buy.com Marketplace.

We've also launched a new category called Everything Else where sellers can sell their automotive parts and accessories, art, collectibles, antiques, business and industrial, hand-made items, stamps, memorabilia, vintage, arts and crafts, food and gourmet and a whole lot more, in fact we now have more selling categories than any other marketplace.

We are off to a great start, signing up 100s of new sellers before the paint was even dry on the new categories. We now have over 140,000 listings in our Everything Else store and 15 million listings in our marketplace.

While we require UPC codes in most of our categories, we understand that many items in these new Everything Else categories just won't have a UPC, so we've removed that requirement. You can add your items to the Marketplace through a simple template and begin selling right away.

You only pay a commission when you sell an item and there are no listing fees or monthly subscriptions. We submit your items to our marketing partners, so you get additional exposure and we handle fraud review, 1st tier customer service and payment transactions; no need to sign-up for yet another payment.

If you are looking for incremental sales for your online business, make sure to sign-up and begin selling on Buy.com

Just my 15%

Strange New Marketplace World

2010-09-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

This has been an interesting year in the online marketplace space. We've had a flurry of acquisitions, increased investment, global expansion and even eBay seems to have settled into some form of stability.

All of this activity is good for online sellers and should give you all some hope that better things are ahead -- more viable places to sell means more opportunity to make a buck or two.

At Buy.com, we've had a very interesting year so far:

Our marketplace continues to be a huge growth story. We are having a phenomenal years by all measurements.
In June, we were acquired by Rakuten.com, the third largest ecommerce company in the world, and together with our sister companies Priceminister.com and LinkShare.com we plan to be a dominant force in global ecommerce.
We are expanding our marketplace to include sellers of all sizes. We still want to make sure you are a business, but we will open our doors to online sellers of all shapes and sizes before Q4. - This is a HUGE change for us. Now both large and small sellers will have access to Buy.com's 5 million unique monthly visitors and unique customer demographic of wealthy, highly educated but value conscience consumers.
We will "empower sellers"! - Check out the header on this blog; "empower sellers and get out of the way" is my mantra and I am finally going to be a part of a company where that is the goal.

This blog is all about my 15% (perspective) on ecommerce and I'm proud to work for a company that is making waves on the Internet and has global ambitions.

In the September issue of Internet Retailer Magazine you can get the inside scoop on our plans with the cover story called "Making their move". The man to the left, on the cover of the magazine, is our fearless CEO Neel Grover and together with Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani they are "Making their move"

There is a new model at Buy.com - courtesy of Internet Retailer Magazine

"At Buy.com, the new mantra since the acquisition by Rakuten has become: We help our marketplace merchants. Buy.com is modeling itself after Rakuten Ichiba, a massive Japanese marketplace operated by Rakuten that recorded $1.92 billion in revenue in the first half of 2010. Rakuten Ichiba gives retailers the freedom to design their web stores and not just pick from design templates, to offer rewards points on Rakuten purchases, and to use the customer's e-mail addresses for follow-up marketing, which is not the case on Amazon.

"On Amazon or eBay you feel like you're just listing your products on their marketplace," says Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten's founder, chairman and CEO. "We share the customer with our merchants."

While Rakuten does not have the scale of a Wal-Mart or Amazon, it's a growing international force in online marketplaces. Mikitani followed up his purchase of Buy.com by acquiring France's largest online marketplace, PriceMinister, and has closed deals to extend Rakuten's reach in China, Thailand and Taiwan. One indication of its global ambitions: All internal Rakuten meetings are conducted in English.

As its U.S. outpost, Buy.com will follow the Rakuten philosophy of promoting marketplace merchants. "We'll give sellers more flexibility on the site," says Neel Grover, CEO and president of Buy.com. "You'll see more of the merchant's brand on the site. Sellers will have more brand recognition throughout the site." (bold is mine)

The Buy.com Marketplace is a game changer and as Neel says in the quote above, "we will give sellers more flexibility on the site" We will make these moves in stages, starting with opening up our marketplace to more product categories and a great range of sellers from sole proprietors to IR 500 merchants.

Opening up the marketplace

"In another change, Buy.com, which has featured items from mostly larger merchants in the past, will open up its marketplace to more small and midsized merchants later this year, following the Rakuten Ichiba model.

"Rakuten is all about empowering merchants—regardless of their size," says Grover. "In Japan Rakuten's marketplace has large sellers like Wal-Mart and small sellers who sell products like quail eggs. They empower everyone, and that makes a great ecosystem. Since May, we've examined the way their business works and it has led us to reevaluate our current model of focusing on large sellers."

Another game changing move is distributing the Buy.com marketplace to other online retailers through a white-label program.

"Buy.com also recently announced another strategic shift: The retailer plans to white label its marketplace, enabling other web retailers to sell all or some of Buy.com marketplace's more than 7.5 million SKUs on their own sites late this year or early next year.

Two large bricks-and-mortar retailers plan to add the Buy.com marketplace offering to their sites, says Grover. Retailers tapping into the selection on Buy.com's marketplace will be able to control the look and feel of the marketplace, all the way to checkout, which will occur on the retailer's site, not at Buy.com. Buy.com and the retailer hosting the marketplace will both receive an undisclosed commission from each purchase from the marketplace retailer actually selling the merchandise.

"For a retailer with a lot of traffic that wants to sell things other than its current offerings, this can empower the retailers to offer consumers the full marketplace experience without having to do the five years of tech work that we've already put in," says Grover.

In strengthening its marketplace offering, Grover says he hopes to entice more sellers and buyers to look to Buy.com. "The marketplace is a really important part of our business and it has been an important part for the past five years," says Grover. "Going forward it will be a bigger and bigger part of our business."

Granted, I work at the place so I'm going to be a little more excited about all of the changes coming down the pike and my title is "Merchant Evangelist" so I'm prone to blowing things out of proportion, but can't you see the opportunity here? As I said earlier, we aren't going to roll out all of these changes at once and it may take some time to make the change-over complete but with Rakuten behind us and "empowering sellers" part of our mission, the future looks bright.

More to come as we roll out announcements ...

Just my 15%

Note to the Unemployed - Get Off Your Ass and Do Something!

2010-08-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Now, before you crucify me for being insensitive, would you do me the favor of reading the entire blog post? After that, you can use the comments section to "rip me a new one".

I've been watching the unemployment numbers for the past couple of years and have come to a sad conclusion -- 9.5% national unemployment is going to be the new norm because the Obama administration, Congress, State Governments and Big Business won't do the right thing to solve the problem and no, Meg Whitman won't be able to do anything in California either.

Ideally, if government and big business would pull their collective heads out of their asses we could solve the problem this year. Unfortunately we live in the real world where their heads stay firmly planted "where the sun don't shine".

Much like the music, newspaper, TV News and advertising businesses have felt the impact of the Internet/Information Revolution; so has the employment sector. During the recent "Great Recession" many businesses downsized to stay alive, but after downsizing realized that they didn't need all of those employees anyway, instead they just decided to make their current employees work harder for the same pay. Today many large companies are showing record profits; mainly because they are doing the same business with fewer employees. There is little incentive to increase hiring because technology has made fewer employees more efficient; after all there is a bottom line to protect.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau; in 2004 there were 23.3 million businesses in the United States with 9 or fewer employees; 19.5 million sole proprietors among them. Many of those 23.3 million businesses would love to hire, but they do not have the resources nor access to capital to do that. Had the government spent even 50% of that $700 billion in stimulus money on helping these small businesses, our unemployment rate would have dropped dramatically ... and seeing as employed people spend more than unemployed people the economy would start to grow again.

So, since Big Business isn't hiring and small business can't hire ... unless you want to work for Obama, Inc. the job of creating your next job, falls to you.

I was unemployed for three years after I shut down Glacier Bay. I sent out over 300 resumes and had a total of 4 interviews, heck I couldn't even get an interview with the local CVS pharmacy that was opening up in my home town. I had to reinvent myself because I needed an income. I became a blogger and consultant, one of those 19 million sole proprietors; I cut my expenses; I leaned on the support of my loving family; I bought back DVDs and CDs from consumers and sold them on Amazon; I made money online with Google Adsense and as an Amazon affiliate; I wrote and posted content on Associatedcontent.com and Squidoo.com. I wasn't getting rich but I was paying the bills.

During that first year and a half I sent out the 300 resumes; eventually I stopped doing that and just decided my destiny was in my own hands. If I was going to make a living, I had to rely on my own efforts. I was perfectly content to continue this approach because each year I made more money than the previous year. Who needs a job, I would just work for myself ... then a strange thing happened. Because of my blog and my consulting, I met Neel Grover, the CEO of Buy.com and over the next 6 months we would occasionally converse about the state of online commerce. I remember during Christmas in 2008 telling my dad that I should ask Neel about coming on board at Buy.com to help them grow their marketplace business. My dad said; "what do you have to lose"... well, the rest as they say is history :).

In January of 2009 I started consulting full-time for Buy.com and was offered a full-time position in May of the same year. The job is a dream job for me and would not have happened had I not been active re-inventing myself for the 3 years leading up to it.

The moral of this story: If you are currently unemployed "get off your ass and do something" do not wait for the Government or Big Business to come to your rescue. Your future is in your hands and you need to re-invent yourself. Keep sending out those resumes but get active creating something for yourself while you do that. Who knows maybe that activity will open the door for your "dream job" like it did for me.

Just my 15%

The Future of eBay

2010-06-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post this because it was interesting. Not much new but still interesting.

Just my 15%

I Have a Little Hop in My Step!

2010-05-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Suddenly I feel invigorated; which is hard to do for a guy who is 50. The Rakuten acquisition of Buy.com has me practically giddy.

Many of you know that I have been working for Buy.com since January of 2009 and after joining the company, my blogging efforts nearly ceased. I became focused on my new job; growing the Buy.com marketplace and to be completely honest... I have enjoyed every single minute it. Buy.com was the absolutely perfect place for me (thanks Neel) but I was so focused on the new job I had lost any desire to write about it. Now, with this new chapter unfolding in my life, I am so excited I want to write about it too.

Buy.com is a great company and we have a great team here with lots of innovative ideas but ... isn't there always a but? We have limited resources. I've often dreamed of a day when Buy.com with our near 6% conversion rate (that's huge for a website) would have the traffic of an eBay or an Amazon... we would literally take the world by storm.

In 45 days (when the deal closes) we will have access to the resources that I've dreamed of. Forget your old concept of Buy.com as a male dominated, tech geeky, deals site. We are still going to be about deals but we will become so much more. When a marriage like this starts; the possibilities are endless.

Sure, many of you may say I'm putting the cart before the horse but think about this for a second:

Rakuten is the largest online retailer in Japan (Yes, larger than Amazon Japan). Japan is the second largest economy in the world behind the United States; unless you lump together every nation that is part of the European Union then they would be number 3.
Rakuten has recently expanded into other Asian markets. Buy.com and our merchants now get access to these markets; not only access, but we will be the leader. The Asian markets are the toughest markets to crack for US companies.
eBay has tried for years to penetrate Japan and in one fell swoop, we are now the leader there ... well we are owned by the leader :)
Buy.com is the 3rd largest general merchandise 3P marketplace in the US behind Amazon and eBay; a distant 3rd. Plenty of room for growth there.
The Buy.com name will live on after this deal finalizes and more than just live on, it will grow to become a leader.
Our new owner says things like this: "We believe that we have a very different business model from Amazon and eBay. We empower the merchants" Check out my tagline at the top of the page. I should fit in very well here.
As Scot Wingo said in his post regarding the deal. "Speculation aside, what is clear is that a new $9.5b player is in town from Asia, they are willing to spend $250+$450m = $700m to get the pieces they need, and they clearly have their sights set on a US Ichiba-like marketplace as an alternative to eBay and Amazon."

I get to be part of this new adventure with the great team we already have in place here at Buy.com so I'm pumped.

Just my 15%

Rakuten Acquires Buy.com - Great Things to Come

2010-05-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Full Disclosure: I am an employee of Buy.com and this post is strictly my opinion and not an official statement from the company. You can get the official story here.

Wow! I woke up this morning to the news that Buy.com had been acquired by Japanese ecommerce company Rakuten. I had heard the name Rakuten before, but knew very little about the company. I quickly did some research and found out they run Japan's largest ecommerce site,own LinkShare.com here in the US and they also own a Japanese Pacific League Baseball team called the Rakuten Eagles. (I am a huge baseball fan, so this was exciting). You can imagine I was anxious to get into the office.

Once at the office there was lots of discussion about what this deal meant to us as employees and the company as a whole. I spent a good part of the morning scouring the Internet for information and returning congratulatory emails.... there were already a number of blog posts and articles about the deal and Scot Wingo posted his take on the deal. Apparently I was so busy working that my blogger radar must have been jammed ... I didn't pick up any signals that something like this was in the works.

Later in the day, we were able to meet our new owner Hiroshi Mikitani and hear his plans for Buy.com. His goal is to be the #1 Internet services company in the world and Buy.com will be a major contributor to that goal.

So, after less than a day to absorb the news, here is my 15% on the deal:

This is a great opportunity for Buy.com employees as we become part of a much larger company. With 6,000 employees worldwide and several business units, there will be numerous opportunities for promotion within the larger company.
Increased Resources - With the financial resources of a much larger company, Buy.com can grow at a faster pace then we have to this point. That is a very good thing.
Marketplace Sellers - This is fantastic news for our current and future sellers. Buy.com will continue to grow and that will bring added opportunities for them to grow their sales.
The Ecommerce Industry - I am hoping to hear the names Amazon, eBay and Buy.com in every discussion of online commerce for years to come. I'm very much looking forward to being a part of that.
Innovation - Buy.com has been able to grow a retail business, a marketplace and International expansion with 135 employees. Our employees can roll out innovative new applications at a furious pace... imagine what we can do with some resources.
Change in Culture - I think this has many Buy.com employees the most anxious. Mostly because it is unknown what to expect. I'm not too worried about the culture. We will remain headquartered in Southern California and our current management team will remain in place.
I'm excited to be working for Hiroshi Mikitani because he is an entrepreneur that has succeeded by taking risks and he wants to win.

After reading this post, would you be surprised to hear that my title at Buy.com is Merchant Evangelist? I have to tell you I am very positive about this deal and the growth that is coming and excited to be part of something even bigger than before I awoke this morning.

Update: Day 2

No, I'm not going to give you a daily update, but I thought I would update you on how the employees were reacting. Today was very much business as usual and there was a feeling among the employees that this deal was going to be a good thing for all of us. It is reassuring to know that we will remain in beautiful Southern California and that we can count on Rakuten to keep our executive team and give us the support to grow Buy.com as big as we can dream it.

Just my 15%

Alibris Acquires Monsoon - Is M&A Heating Up?

2010-02-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

Big M&A (Mergers and Acquisition) news came out yesterday with the announcement that Alibris Holdings, the parent company of Alibris.com, was acquiring Monsoon a marketplace integrator with a substantial media business.

"Alibris Holdings, Inc, owner of Alibris, Inc., the premier online marketplace for sellers of new and used books, music, and movies, announced today that it is acquiring Monsoon, Inc., an Oregon-based marketplace selling solutions company, for a combination of cash and stock in Alibris Holdings. Oak Hill Capital, a private equity firm that acquired Alibris Holdings in 2006, provided funding for the transaction along with additional bank financing from Square 1 Bank. After the merger closes, which is expected by early March, Alibris and Monsoon will continue to operate as separate businesses under their existing names."

Seattle's TechFlash blog had a fairly complete post on the acquisition and the possible increase in M&A deals in the space and Scot Wingo wondered aloud on his Amazon Strategies blog what this meant for the Monsoon/Amazon relationship since Alibris is a competitor to Amazon.

I spoke with Monsoon's CEO Kanth Gopalpur about their relationship with Amazon and he said "Monsoon has a long standing relationship with Amazon and looks forward to continuing to build on that partnership, both in media and consumer goods categories. In addition, Alibris is both a marketplace and a third-party seller on Amazon and this new combination with Monsoon will strengthen their integration efforts with many marketplaces.

I would say this opens the doors to similar deals in the space as companies try to find growth. After some tough years, many integrators are seeing some signs of life in their business while others continue to struggle. This deal looks like a combination of two strong players and we are likely to see more in 2010 and 2011.

With other retailers launching marketplaces the need for some kind of multi-channel integration becomes paramount to managing the growth. This looks like a great marriage to me.

Full disclosure: Both Monsoon and Alibris are integration partners with Buy.com and will continue operating separately.

Just my 15%

A Great Post for Online Sellers

2010-01-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

Everyday I take time in the morning to survey the ecommerce landscape. I have a multitude of sources for news and tips and occasionally I find something that interests me and I blog about it. Yesterday, I read a blog post over at TheBrewsNews that I thought I would share with you.

Many of my readers also read TheBrewsNews so you may have already read this, but I thought the post was worth highlighting.

Here is an excerpt:

"If I were to write a book and I could write about anything I wanted (not worrying about who would buy it and read it), what would I want to write about? I think I would want to write about my mistakes as an entrepreneur… my errors in judgement… the poor choices I made which seemed to me to be so right at the time. It amazes me how most people are reluctant to talk about their business mistakes. While I am far from being proud of my past mistakes, I know that my “good decisions” today come as a result of making the wrong decisions in the past and learning hard lessons."

Read the rest of the post here:

Just my 15%

Marketplace Options for 2010

2010-01-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

While I do work for one of the fastest growing marketplaces on the web, I figured I would do a post on the current landscape for all online marketplaces. Some of these sites may be options for your business in 2010.

One thing to take notice of when assessing each marketplace, is to consider their demographics. Each of these sites has a specific customer base that in many ways is unique to them. The only way to get access to those customers is by selling on their marketplace. One very good tool for determining each marketplace demographic is www.quantcast.com. SO check it out when you are considering a new marketplace channel for your business.

The 800 lb Gorillas:

Amazon.com - Not much needs to be said about this marketplace, except they seem to be firing on all cylinders. If you are not selling on Amazon.com currently you should consider it. Not ideal for vintage or collectible product and some categories are closed or invitation only (Jewelry, Apparel, Cell Phones)
eBay.com - eBay used to be the only marketplace in town and has gone through a number of changes since 2006, but they still get a ton of traffic and are the best place to sell collectibles and vintage product. Sellers of New In-Season and Secondary market product may see them as an incremental sales channel. eBay is still a "high maintenance" marketplace so go in with your eyes wide open.

Note: Buy.com sells on Amazon as well as eBay because we get access to a customer that doesn't generally shop on Buy.com and they are great incremental sales channels.

Up and Comers and Niche Sites:

Etsy.com is a great site for Handmade, Vintage and Crafting Supplies but they are not open to any other categories, so if you sell vintage items or product you make by hand make sure to check out Etsy.com
Buy.com - (Full Disclosure, I work for Buy.com) The Buy.com marketplace had a tremendous year in 2009 with 150% year over year growth and we are looking to keep the momentum going. We are expanding categories in 2010 to add Pet Supplies, Musical Instruments and Personal Care. We do have several gated categories (Jewelry, Sports, Cell Phones) and we require a verifiable online sales history. We hope to add more categories as the year progresses.
Overstock.com While I don't consider Overstock a marketplace, it is a sales option for 3P merchants. Merchants actually serve as drop shippers and are not the merchant of record on Overstock so there isn't an opportunity to display your brand like at eBay, Amazon, Buy.coma and Etsy.
Alibris.com is a great marketplace for online media sellers and they get expanded reach for your product by selling on eBay, Amazon, Half.com and now Buy.com among other sites.
Half.com - the "red-haired step child" of the eBay corporation for sellers of Books, Textbooks, CDs, DVD and Video Games.
StubHub.com is another eBay marketplace specifically for Ticket sales. If you have tickets to sell, StubHub is the online leader.
WalMart.com launched a new marketplace in 2010 and wants to be one of those 800 lb. gorillas in the first section. In its current form I don't consider it a marketplace because they are not bringing on competing offerings, but it would not be wise to under-estimate the online arm of the #1 retailer in the world.
Sears.com - another new addition to the marketplace field. The Sears.com marketplace is still in it's infancy, so time will tell how viable it is as a marketplace.
NewEggMall.com the marketplace of Newegg.com

The Small Guys (but growing in viability):

Bonanzle.com - They are positioning themselves as a marketplace for "find everything buy the ordinary" So if that is the type of product you sell, you should consider Bonanzle.com. Don't wait for eBay to spin-off the old eBay as eBay Classic. Bonanzle.com hopes to fill that void.
eCrater.com is really what eBay stores should have been (sorry for all the eBay references). If you are looking for your own online presence without creating a website on your own then eCrater.com should be considered.

Auction Options:

eBay isn't the only auction site on the web, though they are still the leader. Here are two options to consider.

eBid.net is the #2 auction site in the UK and has a US auction website as well.
Bidtopia.com is a new auction site developed by a former eBay seller and may be an option for your business.

There are sure to be more additions to this list as the year progresses, and having so many viable options is a good thing for online sellers.

Just my 15%

eCommerce Resolutions for the New Year!

2010-01-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

I love when the calendar changes to a new year, because it once again gives me hope that this new year will be so much better than the last. Moving into 2010 from the recession plagued 2009, gives me added hope; it couldn't get worse could it?

As you are looking to 2010 for improvements in your online business? Consider one or more of my top 10 resolutions/suggestions for 2010. Hopefully they will help you with your business in the new year. Theses are not ranked in order of importance just by when they came into my head :) First, the best way to plan for the future is to assess the past, so here are a few suggestions.

Take these first few days of the new year to reflect on what you want out of your online business. There are many reasons for starting an online business; is the reason you started still a reality? Did you just want extra cash? Did you get laid-off and need the additional income? Did you want to expand your Brick and Mortar business? Did you want to grow your business into a huge online operation? Look at what motivated you to start and see how well you did so far. Take stock of where you are currently and be honest about it.
Take these first few days of 2010 to assess your business and the ecommerce climate. If you are a marketplace seller, take stock of what worked and what didn't for each marketplace. Stop looking at each sales channel from the same perspective. If you only sell on your website, then consider growing incremental sales on one or more of the viable marketplaces on the web.
If you are a small seller, part-time seller, lifestyle seller, hobbiest, eBay seller (eBay is your sole marketing vehicle) please understand that ecommerce today is nothing like when you started. There are many more marketing options available now, your competition has increased and the online consumer is much more demanding. The idealism that carried you through the early days of your business needs to be replaced by the cold, hard reality of doing business on the web today. Take this time to assess, how you can achieve your goals in light of the current environment.
If you are a large seller looking to grow your business even more in 2010, take stock of all of the marketing channels available and start using the ones that make the most sense. I would recommend a site called Quantcast.com to give you a feel for what the demographic is for each marketplace. What sells well at eBay may not at Amazon or Buy.com.
Do not "live" on any one marketplace. This applies mostly to small sellers who don't have the resources, nor desire to sell on multiple channels. Take it from me, I lived solely on eBay and waited too long to launch my website, when my business model on eBay no longer worked, I didn't have enough website business to keep me afloat. At the very least launch a website and grow it while selling on a marketplace. If you decide to "live" on a marketplace, please make sure your livelihood doesn't depend on it.
Many online sellers are fantastic at sourcing product, but not so good at the other aspects of the business (customer service, shipment, etc.) If you plan on selling on a marketplace, remember that each channel will become more restrictive, rather than less. Performance will be key to your success on each sales channel.

Ship your orders sooner rather than later. At Buy.com we require that sellers ship their items within 2 business days. We have some exceptions depending on category. Amazon is heading that direction. They currently do not require it but my guess is they will soon. WalMart does require that sellers ship with 2 business days.

In a recent Business Week article "eBay's Last-minute Delivery Push" "Vice-President for Buyer & Seller Experience Dinesh Lathi says its sellers take an average of four days to ship items, and 85% of orders ship within three days. That's an improvement over a year ago, though Lathi won't say by how much. "We are working with sellers to make sure they are better-positioned to meet buyers' expectations," Lathi says."

In the good old days, that kind of performance worked on eBay, because eBay was the only place to get the product, but there are way too many viable options to eBay these days, so shipping in 4-days does not measure-up. If you want to be successful on other marketplaces you will need to improve your performance.
Stop looking at Marketplaces as customer acquisition tools, even eBay: First each marketplace will have rules that restrict you from marketing to their customers and you may put your selling account in jeopardy and secondly because it really doesn't work.

Consumers shop on these sites for a reason, because they like the broad selection, the way the site works and they know the site will stand behind the purchase. Buy.com customers regularly turn in sellers who market directly to them. Even eBay shoppers are extremely difficult to acquire. I had 400,000 customers at Glacier Bay and only 40,000 of them were regular customers. I could only get maybe 10% of those regular customers to shop from my website.

Customer acquisition should come through comparison shopping, paid search, SEO and other marketing efforts. Marketplaces should be considered incremental sales channels based on revenue sharing. If the share of revenue that a marketplace gets works within your financial model, then make that marketplace part of your business.
Understand what your business model is: If you are a high value, low volume seller than the marketplace may not be for you. Marketplaces are competitive and usually the lowest price gets the sale. Marketplace managers are looking for sellers with great selection, low prices and great performance, so before you sign-up take this into consideration.

Many successful online businesses thrive with the high value, low volume approach on their websites and use marketplaces for liquidation and cost recovery. Find the model that works for your business.
Are you enjoying your business, or is it sucking the life out of you? Take these first weeks to assess what you are doing and either re-commit yourself to your business plan, revamp your business plan or find an exit.
This is specifically directed at eBay sellers. The eBay of today will never again be like it was and you need to finally come to grips with that. Either make eBay work for you or find another option.

Happy New Year to all of you and I would love to hear your comments or additional suggestions.

Just my 15%

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T18:40:00.000-08:00

As 2009 and the first decade of the 21st century winds to a close, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

I haven't blogged much in 2009 and I really have missed it. I'm still working on my New Year's resolutions and returning to regular blogging may still be one of them.

It has been a very interesting year in ecommerce and hopefully the signs of a recovery continue to improve. As we look forward to the next decade I have nothing but best wishes for all of your endeavors.

See you next year.

Just my 15%

WalMart Marketplace - CNBC Video

2009-09-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

Just my 15%

Not Another eBay Video!

2009-07-23T11:56:00.001-07:00

I don't have much time to write these days, but I came across this video clip from CNBC where an analyst says “[EBay] took the buyer base that they had for granted and basically let the sellers run the business to the benefit of their individual businesses, but not to the benefit of the buyers ...”

So I thought I would have some fun and see what you guys and gals thought. Listen to the interview and give me your 15% in the comments

Sam, I posted another video just for you.

Just my 15%

The Corporate Blogger - An Interview with eBay Blogger RBH

2009-07-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

Just my 15%

Blast From the Past: Let's Talk Sales Tax on the Internet.

2009-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry to rehash an old blog post, but I thought it was relevant in light of the recent news coming from Amazon and Overstock. The wave of States going after online retailers for Sales Tax collection is becoming a Tsunami. This post was originally written in January of 2009.

Brick & Mortar stores have been complaining for years about the competitive advantage online stores and catalog companies have regarding sales tax. To be completely honest, I make most of my online purchases at Amazon because I don't like paying sales tax. I like the current system just the way it is, but it will change and sooner rather than later. [I now make all of my online purchases at Buy.com and pay sales tax because Buy.com is based in California.]

Unfortunately the tide has turned and will soon be gathering steam as State after State follows the model New York started:

"New York state won a round in court against Amazon.com over a new law requiring out-of-state online companies to collect sales tax from shoppers in New York.

The law applies to companies that don't have offices in New York, but have at least one person in the state who works as an online agent -- someone who links to a Web site and receives commissions for related sales."

Of course this is just round one of the court battle and my guess is that Amazon will continue this fight up the Judicial ladder until it is presented to the US Supreme Court, but it is just a matter of time before sales tax is charged on every purchase from Brick and Mortar to online stores.

I'm resigned to the fact that it will happen in the near future, but I'm very concerned with the implementation. Small business cannot manage collecting a different sales tax for every city they ship to, it would cause an undue burden on all but the largest of companies.

In my years selling online with Glacier Bay, we shipped to every single state in the US and managing the different sales tax requirements for each local jurisdiction would have made my low margin business implode. Just look at the different tax rates for each state.

I think there is a simple solution, but as yet I haven't heard any lawmakers presenting it, though I'm sure I'm not the only one to come up with it.

The Internet should be treated as its own locality with a flat sales tax rate of 4 - 5%. All sales on the Internet need to have the same sales tax rate irregardless of where the customer is located. Payments need to be made to a national clearinghouse for distribution to the states.

This of course will only be the first stage of the process because once governments start seeing the cash they will of course want more. In the first iteration though, local governments will not take part in the revenue unless they work out a deal specifically with their state's tax department.

Let me be clear, I do not want this to happen, but it is inevitable that sales tax collection will come to the Internet and online retailers need to band together now to enact something close to what I've presented (and I'm sure others have as well) while they still have some negotiating leverage.

The key is not to solve the tax problem all in one fell swoop, but to come up with a workable solution that gets state government tax revenue and does not put an undo burden on retailers to collect that tax.

Just my 15%

Worse Yet to Come for Retail?

2009-06-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Just my 15%

Shopping Engine "TheFind" gets UpFront with Information

2009-06-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

If you are in Boston this week, for the Internet Retailer show (IRCE), make sure to stop by TheFind's booth #422 to hear about a new program for retailers.

The announcement won't be made until Tuesday, but I have some of the details, so since I'm already here in Beantown, I figured I would share them with you.

As the name implies, The Find will display merchant information UpFront within TheFind’s product search results, on a retailer’s own web site, and elsewhere on the Web, providing participating merchants with a way to get higher quality traffic, establish and reinforce their credibility, and improve their conversion rates.

Shoppers clicking on a retailer’s UpFront button will now easily be able to find store information such as:

Contact methods, including web form, email address, phone number and chat
Security, business and privacy certifications
Payment and shipping options, return and exchange policies, and other charges
Store locations and hours
Ways to connect with the store such as Facebook, Twitter, blog and email newsletter.

Here is a picture of what the UpFront results look like when you mouse over a listing on TheFind:

Click on the image to enlarge.

Basically all of the merchant's information in UpFront for the shopper to see before they click on the listing; increasing conversion.

“UpFront is all about helping customers quickly find the critical information they need when shopping so they can get down to the business of choosing and buying products. “ said Siva Kumar, co-founder and CEO of TheFind. “Stores that make a commitment to putting their information upfront in as many ways as possible are paying close attention to the maturing expectations of online shoppers and are more likely to acquire loyal customers. Last month TheFind sent shoppers to over 100,000 different online stores, so we are very focused on providing ground-breaking tools like UpFront that support both shoppers and retailers, and improve today’s online shopping experience.”

Please visit TheFind.com to find out more about the UpFront program. For a limited time, the annual service fee for the program will be waived for qualifying merchants. Retailers can register for the UpFront program by visiting TheFind’s Merchant Center. or visit TheFind's booth #422 at IRCE. June 15th-18th

Just my 15%

A Few Moments With ColderICE in Atlanta

2009-06-09T20:08:00.001-07:00

While in Atlanta for the Ecommerce Summit I spent a few minutes with John Lawson of ColderICE.

Just my 15%

I Told you Buy Back Was the Future

2009-05-28T20:58:00.001-07:00

Many of you know I used to buy back DVDs and CDs directly from consumers and then re-sell them on Amazon, using FBA -- I still love the concept.

I guess it was just a matter of time before Amazon copied me :) It looks like they just recently launched their new trade-in store for DVD Box Sets and Blu-ray Discs. I'm hearing rumors that they are buying back around 1,000 units a day right now without any announcements. Imagine if they actually did it the right way.

Earlier in the year they launched the Buy Back/Trade-in concept with Video Games and apparently it was a success, so expect the program to expand to Text Books soon and then from there consumer electronics and much more.

Just my 15%

Citigroup Take on ChannelAdvisor Catalyst

2009-05-04T09:24:00.001-07:00

I normally don't just repost investmnet notes from analysts but since Mark Mahaney's take on CA Catalyst was pretty much the same as mine I figured I would do it this time. I also like that he mentioned Buy.com. :)

Takeaways From Upbeat ChannelAdvisor Conference - Last week, we attended the ChannelAdvisor (CA) Catalyst 2009 Conference in Raleigh, NC. Per the company, attendance was in-line with last year, with participation from companies like Amazon, eBay, Google, Buy.com and many large, medium and small retailers.
Takeaway #1: Tough Times? Yes, But CA Clients Surprisingly Upbeat - There was general consensus among the retailers we spoke with that while these are clearly difficult times for retail, the online retail channel remains strong. Many of the conference participants had successfully diversified their online channels beyond eBay Marketplace and were seeing success with Amazon's 3rd party channel, and direct to their own Websites through Comparison Shopping and Search.
Takeaway #2: AMZN Continuing To Gain Momentum Vs. EBAY As Platform - AMZN's 3rd party channel continues to be well received by sellers we spoke with. AMZN closed the conference with a big push to get sellers to try fulfillment by Amazon (fba), and Amazon Product Ads, a CPC based advertising model that redirects buyers to seller product landing pages off of Amazon.com's Website. All in, AMZN continues to gain momentum vs. EBAY, the largest online marketplace. We estimate that AMZN was only 60% the size of EBAY in '08 in terms of total U.S. GMV (excluding Vehicles), but could surpass EBAY by 2011 (AMZN-EBAY crossover point) -- see page 3 analysis.
Takeaway #3: A More Sober EBAY Committed To Competing For Buyers And Sellers - eBay pitched its simple message that it plans to compete aggressively for buyers by providing better selection, value and trust in its marketplace, and by providing sellers with high velocity, efficiency, and predictability. While eBay openly admitted that it has plenty of work to do, it pointed to evidence that it is making progress: 1) a tripling of fixed price multi-item format items since September, 2) 30% of live listings now include free shipping, and 3) under new DSR system, roughly 80% of sellers qualify for some form of discount.
Takeaway #4: Google Market Share Gains Continue Unchecked - We didn't hear anything incrementally new from the Google presentation, but consensus among sellers we spoke with was positive on both traffic and ROI trends. One presenter boasted getting $7 of margin back for every $1 spent on Google.

Link to our full note: https://www.citigroupgeo.com/pdf/SNA33423.pdf

Just my 15%

My Podcast Interview with Auctionbytes

2009-05-04T08:40:00.001-07:00

I sat down with Ina Steiner last week and spilled my guts about Buy.com :) If you have 20 - 30 minutes today to take a listen and then comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Just my 15%

One Size Does Not Fit All!

2009-04-27T04:59:00.001-07:00

When it comes to ecommerce and social networking and for that matter just regular life, most of us form opinions about things from a very narrow viewpoint; our own experiences. If we don't like it or understand it then it is not worth discussing or paying attention to. I've always known this but never spent much time thinking about it.

This morning, I was reading a blogpost by Ina Steiner about the impact of Twitter and this little factoid stood out: "Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February, up over 700% vs. a year ago" no matter how you shake it, 10 million visitors a month is huge. This information alone should, at the very least, encourage online merchants to check out Twitter to see if there are any benefits to be gained there, but then I read the comments to Ina's post:

"by: Jim S.
Sat Apr 25 15:38:57 2009
Maybe I'm in another world but I think Twitter tweets are annoying and the biggest waste of time yet. Who cares what someone is doing at 12:01pm? I put it right up there with people constantly yakking on their cell phones in public places."

by: clueless
Sat Apr 25 19:43:32 2009
Maybe I'm an idiot but I just do not get twitter. I have signed up for twitter. I still don't get it. What am I missing? I have a couple people I'm watching. But I still have no clue. Cannot see what all the fuss is about.

by: Ming the Merciless
Sat Apr 25 21:21:32 2009
IMO, Twitter exists primarily to promote the sales of 3G mobiles and expensive 3G net minutes.

It's another new tool for the growing hive mentality in this country.

Whether it or any of the other social networking sites like Facebook will actually produce significant member e-commerce sales remains to be seen."

This sample of comments points out the problem: "Because I don't understand it or think it is useful, it must be a waste of time"

Rather than investigating Twitter to see if there are any benefits in its use, we take a few cursory glances and read about what someone had for dinner and make a judgement that it is a waste of time. It may be, but making a judgement from reading a few Tweets hardly gives you enough information to make that assessment.

I try to learn from others, as much as possible, because if I rely solely on my own perspective, I often miss the big picture. Twitter didn't immediately make sense to me, but once I spent some time with it, I began to see the power. It allowed me to connect more effectively with my blog readers. I was able to meet a wide variety small business owners, that I would never have met any other way -- Twitter is a great networking tool, for those who utilize it. Sure, there are seemingly unimportant things being tweeted, but that doesn't make the tool worthless.

I use Twitter, I see the value of Twitter for me, so my opinion is based on a narrow viewpoint (mine). My dad hates Twitter and thinks its a waste of time. He has never even been to the site. Twitter may be a waste of time for you, but I would encourage you to at least investigate whether it can help your business

Just my 15%

I'm Back Baby! Regular Posts on MyBlogUtopia

2009-04-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

I figured since I was spending my entire week working to make the Buy.com Marketplace a successful sales channel for 3rd party merchants, I would start using MyBlogUtopia to talk about what we are currently doing and possibly even give you a scoop or two about what we have planned -- this will allow me to get back into a regular blogging schedule.

I won't write exclusively about the Buy.com Marketplace, but that topic may dominate my posts. This is not an official blog for Buy.com so the opinions expressed here certainly should not be construed as the official position of Buy.com -- MyBlogUtopia will remain strictly my 15% but with no listing fees :)

It is my view that online merchants should be selling their product in multiple channels, including there own website and I would hope that Buy.com would be one of the channels.

We are not yet open to every category of product, but hope to keep adding categories as we grow. Here is a list of current categories:

Apparel & Shoes
Bags & Luggage
Books
Buy for Business
Cameras
Cell Phones
Computer & Office
DVDs
Electronics
Fragrance
Games
Home & Outdoor
Jewelry & Watches
Music
Networking
Software
Sports
Toys & Baby

And we will be launching these stores shortly:

Pets - (Currently accepting merchants)
Health and Beauty - (Currently accepting merchants for Beauty products)
Automotive Parts
Musical Instruments - (Currently accepting merchants for Pro Audio products)
Office Supplies - (Currently accepting merchants for Business Equipment products)

You can sell your new, used or refurbished product on Buy.com, just as long as you accurately describe its condition.

So if you are looking for a new sales channel, why not take a look at the Buy.com Marketplace. We would like you to "Make your next sale with Buy.com"

Just for fun check out our latest TV commercial with Howie Mandel. This one is special because Howie is promoting Jewelry and Apparel which are 100% marketplace categories on Buy.com

Just my 15%

ECMTA Ecommerce Summit - Atlanta, GA June 3-4

2009-04-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be speaking at the upcoming Ecommerce Summit in Atlanta, GA on June 3rd and 4th. The subject, of course, will be about the Buy.com Marketplace, but I will also be sharing my 15% on ecommerce -- probably won't be bashing eBay because they will be speaking also.

If you can make it to Atlanta on June 3rd and 4th, I would love to meet you and hear about your business. You can find all of the details at the ECMTA website.

Just my 15%

Scot Wingo's White Paper on eBay Changes

2009-04-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

Scot, has taken an in-depth look at eBay's Spring changes and put his thoughts together in a White Paper that you can get here for free.

If you still sell on eBay, this is important information for your business.

Just my 15%

Market Watch Video - eBay and Yahoo Earnings

2009-04-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Just my 15%

Buy.com a Sponsor at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst Conference

2009-04-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would announce that Buy.com will be a sponsor at this year's ChannelAdvisor Catalyst. Several members of our "Marketplace" team will be there (including yours truly), so make sure to stop by our table and say hello.

I'm looking forward to this years event, to catch up with some old friends as well as make some new ones. Hope to see you there.

Just my 15%

Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.

2009-04-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

In case you are wondering ... I am still alive and doing very well.

Contrary to a little rumor going around. I have not stopped blogging because my new employer Buy.com, told me too. I'm not blogging much lately because I'm very busy at my new job and my time and energy is being spent helping make Buy.com's Marketplace the best place on the web for online merchants.

I still follow eBay, Amazon and even Bonanzle. In fact I just talked to eBay managers yesterday about Tuesday's announcements, but when I sat down to write the post, I just lost interest -- Ina, Scot and Tamebay covered the announcements very well; there was no need for my 15%.

The only reason I'm blogging tonight is because a commenter on Ina's ProStores blog post mentioned a rumor that I stopped blogging because my boss at Buy told me to stop bashing eBay. Anyone who knows my boss would laugh at that.

I still love blogging and will get back to it regularly when I can figure out a better writing schedule. I am a creature of habit and I had a routine that has changed since I started working at Buy. I haven't figure out a new schedule yet.

For those of you still reading:

I really love what I'm doing. I'm going on my 3rd month at Buy.com and really enjoying myself. Not many people even know that Buy has a marketplace, but that will all change this year. I call us "the little marketplace that could", because nobody even includes us in the marketplace discussion. Buy.com is known as a retailer, but we are so much more than that.

Just my 15%

While Some Run Away From eBay, Mercent Moves Closer.

2009-03-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of years many 3rd Party Software vendors have diversified off of eBay to other marketplaces. As eBay has slowed down, many of them have begun searching for growth elsewhere.

Now, kind of like Salmon swimming up-stream, 3rd Party software vendor Mercent has actually expanded onto eBay.

Mercent began in 2004 by integrating large retailers onto the Amazon platform and now they are doing the same with eBay; through eBay's Large Merchant Services. In November of 2008, Mercent launched SmartBargains on eBay and last week they announced the launch of online retailer Altrec.com.

"Mercent™, a leading provider of online marketing technology and services for retail merchants, today announced that the company is an approved member of the eBay Certified Provider Program. The program qualifies companies with expertise and experience in growing eBay seller businesses, and provides sellers with the tools to locate them. Mercent also announced the launch of a new eBay storefront for online retailer Altrec.com, integrated with eBay’s Large Merchant Services using Mercent Retail™, the company’s hosted online marketing software."

"By partnering with Mercent, the extension of Altrec.com’s e-commerce presence onto eBay was predictable and efficient, and we’ve seen immediate results,” said Kevin Bauer, VP of Business and Product Development for Altrec.com. “Our product pricing, inventory, and merchandising offers are all automatically updated on eBay, resulting in a high-performance eBay presence.”

Mercent provides enterprise retailers like Altrec.com the ability to optimize listings across eBay, and efficiently process high order and payment volumes through eBay and PayPal. Mercent is the first eBay integrator to leverage eBay's new Large Merchant Services, designed to increase profitable, high-volume product sales for large sellers on eBay."

Mercent seems to be bucking a trend here, but it looks like they see an opportunity to introduce their clients to a completely new market and customer base, after-all everyone is looking to grow incremental sales. Look for Mercent to launch more large retailers on eBay in the future.

Just my 15%

Shopping.com Listings on Completed eBay Items

2009-03-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

This has actually been happening for awhile now and I didn't blog about it because it doesn't seem to do anything except get everybody riled up. eBay will continue to maximize their use of sponsored ads and shopping.com listings on pages they feel are not competitive; in this case a completed listing.

I wasn't going to blog about this but my buddy John Lawson of ColderICE did a video blog on it so I thought I would post his take here at MyBlogUtopia

Just my 15%

Another eBay Top Seller Summit

2009-03-25T18:49:00.001-07:00

I know I haven't been around much lately but I still hear stuff that is going on at eBay. Most of the time I shrug but today I figured I would just blog quickly about the new Top Seller Summit being held at a secret location in Florida.

It will run for one day and then we won't hear anything knew until April sometime when I hear the big announcements are going to be made.

I'm not real sure why it took so long for them to hold another of these Top Seller meetings but unlike the last one when no real information leaked out, I'm hoping somebody gives in and shares a little.

Just my 15%

Half.com Moves to eBay - My 15% Update!

2009-03-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

I've been talking about this move for years now, I'm glad I can finally say, "I told you so!" BTW, this change was tested back in the days of eBay Express.

The details are a little bit murky and the deal isn't actually happening until May, but lets take a look at how this change might actually work:

Half.com listings in Books, DVD, CD and Video Games will be available on eBay.com only if the Half.com merchant opts into the program.
Items with a price under $1 on Half.com will not show on eBay.
There will be no listing charge to be included on eBay, but the items will not be available in search, they will only be available via the product pages. The product pages do not get as much exposure as items in search, so the additional exposure for Half.com listings may be minimal.
The product pages look a lot like Half.com; where the top 4 offers per product condition (New, Like New, Very Good, etc) are shown on the first page. Half.com results will be mixed in with the eBay listed items but still only 4 will show (per condition) on the first page. We all know that if you aren't on the first page, the chances of a sales are greatly reduced.
Orders will be processed just like they are currently on Half.com, except payments will be made to your PayPal account and available immediately. It will be interesting to see how eBay manages the sales process when a merchant has a Half.com listing and an eBay listing in the same order.

That's the basics on how it actually works, but much more important is how sellers react to the change.

Since there is no cost to list, I can't imagine that current eBay sellers will not begin listing also on Half.com, but since there will be limited visibility of Half.com items on eBay, most will continue to list on eBay, hoping to get additional exposure/sales from their Half.com listings.

On Half.com items are sorted by lowest price and sellers are only rated on 3 DSR's (No shipping cost DSR) but DSR's have no impact on sort order. Half does not have Best Match.

We don't quite know how items will be sorted on eBay after this change, but lowest price seems to make the most sense -- who knows what eBay will decide on.

I'm not sure how much of an impact this will have on eBay sellers, it really depends on how many buyers actually click onto the product pages. If that number is large, the impact may be substantial, if very few look at those pages then it will be minimal.

I know a lot of sellers are worried about the increased listings drowning out their paid eBay listings, but I don't think it will effect DVD's, CD's and Video Games as much as it will Books; especially text books, unless the product pages become the standard way buyers find product.

For the most part Half.com is [mostly] just a text book marketplace and two times a year (Jan and Aug/Sept.) it gets lots of traffic. In between all of that it isn't all that vibrant of a site.

The real interesting aspect of this for me will be how Textbooks begin to sell on eBay. With Textbooks students usually search by ISBN number. If this search method is used on eBay it will show the product pages and that kind of traffic could be substantial.

If this test is deemed a success by eBay, look for this approach to be duplicated in other categories with Shopping.com listings.

Update:

I spoke with eBay about this coming change and most of what I have written above is accurate but the section on DSR's needs a little more explanation: Half.com only rates sellers on three DSR's. -- the one they do not rate sellers on is Shipping Cost. Having one less DSR will not advantage or disadvantage a Half.com seller when their items are listed on eBay.

I was told that this change is a test of a new buying experience on eBay and it made sense to use media as the guinea pig (my choice of words).

Certainly there will be sellers who try and game the system but how much of an impact this will have on current eBay sellers depends greatly on how many buyers click over to the product page. Knowing eBay buyers, they hate change just as much as sellers.

Just my 15%

eBay Analyst Day - Morning After

2009-03-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

After a big party there is often a huge hangover. So, what are the analysts saying the morning after eBay's big PayPal coming out party?

Jeetil Patel - Deutsche Bank

"eBay hosted its analyst day yesterday, at which management provided details behind its financial goals for 2011. While filled with long-term optimism, we thought the analyst event lacked near-term reality with respect to the current deteriorating fundamentals. In light of no near-term (2009) guidance, anticipate acceleration in growth, competitive pressures and economic backdrop, we think it's difficult
to put much credibility into the 3-year plan. We think investors should gauge eBay against near-term performance. We reiterate our SELL."

Justin Post - Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Research

Analyst Day overview - PayPal will do heavy lifting
EBay held an analyst day, introducing its new management team (70% of top executives are new or in new positions) and outlining its plans to turnaround its core while continuing to grow its PayPal and Skype businesses. Biggest positive: 2011 growth targets for PayPal ($4-5bn) and Skype ($1bn+), which even with flat Marketplace rev. would put total rev. at $11bn, well above Street at ~$9.0bn. Biggest negatives: No obvious fixes to marketplace share losses, and US net debt position limits ability to attract value investors with buybacks.

2011 outlook well above the Street
EBay expects to drive $10-12bn in '11 revenue vs street at $9.0bn (BAC-ML at $8.8bn) with $4-5bn from PayPal, $5-7bn from core, and $1bn+ from Skype. Implied operating income target is $2.3-3.9bn, above our $2.1bn estimate even at low end, and EPS at midpoint would be around $2.10, vs our $1.54.

Why we are lower than management's outlook
Guidance is based on a return to a more normal economic environment in 2010, with marketplace maintaining share in '10 and growing share in '11. With Amazon, Craigslist and Google growing users, we expect marketplace to remain under pressure, which could have a spillover effect on PayPal and advertising.

Maintain Underperform - share headwinds in '09
Upbeat presentation, but one message from the day was that eBay was still early in their turnaround and that things would get worse before they would get better. We believe that the Market is putting companies, and especially turnarounds like eBay, in a "show me" box and we think other stocks are more likely to react positively to signs of an economic turnaround.

I will post additional Analyst notes as soon as I receive them.

Update: Here are three more from the Silicon Alley Insider Blog. "Analysts Barf All Over eBay (EBAY)"

More from Scot Wingo: Wall St. Analysts' thoughts on eBay Analyst Day

Just my 15%

eBay's Big Plan - CNBC Video

2009-03-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

PayPal, PayPal, PayPal

To see the entire interview go to CNBC

Just my 15%

eBay/Amazon Smackdown CNBC (Video)

2009-03-11T10:58:00.001-07:00

Just my 15%

Move Along - Nothing to See Here!

2009-03-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

That's how I feel about today's eBay Analyst day -- the first one since 2006. It is going to be much ado about nothing as far as I can tell.

Looking through my crystal ball, here is what I see.

Paypal, Paypal, Paypal - They will lead off the presentations today by discussing Paypal and Paypal and Bill Me Later will take up a lot of the discussion today.
Marketing Services - The new shining light for eBay Inc. Marketing Services is now a billion dollar business, made up mostly of advertising and StubHub.
Marketplace - We still face challenges in the business but we are on the right path, yawn.
Skype - Continues to be a great stand alone business that is not currently a distraction (until you analysts ask about it)

There you have it, the entire day, condensed into 4 bullet points.

eBay's share price has gone up in the last day with the rest of the market, by the end of the day, you will know what Analyst think of their plans. Now move along there is nothing to see here.

Just my 15%

Amazon Gets Into the Buy Back Business.

2009-03-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes great ideas just take resources to make them happen and when you are Amazon, you have a ton of resources.

Today we find out, thanks to ZDnet, that Amazon is now in the Buy Back business, though they call it Trade-In. Consumers can trade-in their used video games to Amazon in exchange for a credit on Amazon for future purchases. Could DVDs, CDs, Books Consumer Electronics be far behind.

It isn't clear what Amazon does with the used Video Games once they have them, but rumors have circulated that they are working on a program, where they will begin selling used "Certified Used " video games and compete directly with their 3P merchants in the used space.

My guess is they would not sell them directly under the Amazon name but more than likely through the Warehouse Deals business, which currently handles returned merchandise, etc.

Tin Hat Warning!

I don't want to be an alarmist here but this opens the door for Amazon to compete against their 3P merchants and my guess is that won't go over well.

I know this idea works because I bought back used media this way. When Amazon gets into this business it gets a little scarrier for 3P Merchants in the media category.

Just my 15%

What I've Been Up To!

2009-03-04T07:41:00.001-08:00

I know you all love my recap posts, so here's what I've been up to lately:

Not as much blogging: I'm sure my regular readers have noticed I don't post as much these days and there are a number of reasons for that. First reason is; I have a day job and that has changed my schedule a bit. I still haven't come up with a better schedule for blogging. Second, I'm tired of writing the same eBay stuff. After 2 years making suggestions and writing about eBay, I'm pretty much burnt-out.
I'm really enjoying my time at Buy.com. This is week number 6 and I'm starting to get into a routine. Buy's marketplace business is growing and there is a ton of upside, so it's a lot of fun being part of that and for the record, CEO Neel Grover does not have horns.
My own retail efforts are on hold. While I am still selling used media items through INet Media Source it is mostly liquidation of inventory that I have in at Amazon's FBA warehouse. I'm getting down to the really long-tail items now because I'm not replenishing product through the Buy Back website any longer.

I'm committed to making Buy.com's marketplace business a win-win selling option for online merchants. We aren't open to every merchant yet, but as we grow categories and our product catalog we will expand opportunities for many online merchants. Right now we are very much under-the-radar as a marketplace, but we won't be able to keep the site under wraps for much longer.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to in recent weeks and I hope to get back to more regular blogging as I develop a new routine. Hang in there, I'm not going away.

Just my 15%

I Like Carol Bartz! Update

2009-02-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

I generally don't talk about Yahoo much unless I'm making fun of them, but I noticed recently that Yahoo's share price had stabilized and in fact Yahoo's Market Cap was now greater than eBay's by more than $3 billion.

I've also been very impressed with new CEO Carol Bartz -- I like her style. Today, Ms. Bartz blogged for the first time regarding the upcoming restructuring. I don't know much about Yahoo's current structure but it looks like some needed changes are being made.

Some key points from the blog post that I like:

"I’ve noticed that a lot of us on the inside don’t spend enough time looking to the outside. That’s why I’m creating a new Customer Advocacy group. After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we’re investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best."

and

"Finally, a note about our brand. It’s one of our biggest assets. Mention Yahoo! practically anywhere in the world, and people yodel. But in the past few years, we haven’t been as clear in showing the world what the Yahoo! brand stands for. We’re going to change that. Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again."

Here is the entire blog post.

Now she sounds like the type of CEO that should be running eBay. Perhaps in the coming months she will :) I may have to bring back my Yahoo/eBay merger posts.

Update: Now this from the Silicon Alley Insider: Can We Have A Carol Bartz For eBay, Please?

Just my 15%

Introduction of the Kindle 2 on CNBC

2009-02-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

I really just wanted to embed a video clip from CNBC for the first time. (I've only been suggesting it since 2006) So I chose a clip on the Kindle 2

Just my 15%

Best Buy is Getting into the Secondary Market

2009-02-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

According to a blog post by Best Buy CMO Barry Judge;

"We have a new team at Best Buy called the Secondary Market Team. Most people don’t have a clear idea of our vision in this area or what the team is doing. This is a team that gets me very excited about the future at Best Buy, let me tell you why.

Secondary markets refers to all the buying and selling involved in “non fresh” product. Things like vendor overstock, consumer returns, refurbished, used, etc. that are often sold through alternative channels like auction sites, clearance centers, overstock stores, etc. You might be shocked to learn that secondary market electronics sales represent an estimated $15B market in the United State. This is a space where Best Buy has only just touched the surface of all the opportunity. Getting our “fair share” of sales in this market is easily a $1B revenue opportunity for us."

What this ultimately means to the secondary market is unclear as Best Buy is in the planning stages, but it is clear that more retailers will be thinking along these lines.

Could Best Buy eventually open a marketplace of their own? Judge hinted about that;

"Now that we have the ability to receive, process, and re-sell products in these markets, it opens up opportunities for new business models which were not previously feasible. Things like extended product support or “trade in to trade up” privileges may become viable because we have the ability to extract the value from secondary market products through alternative channels."

Just my 15%

Update: "eBay" Top Online Retail Name in Search for Jan. 09'

2009-02-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

See I can say something positive about eBay.

Clarification. After re-reading this info, I need to clarify something. "eBay" the name was searched 19,321,000 times in January. This list was not searches done on eBay. So folks are going to Google, Yahoo, Live, etc. and searching on the name "eBay" 14 million times more than they searched on "Amazon" in January. Sorry for the confusion. I should have read the press release closer.

["eBay" led all online retailers names in searches in January, according to Nielsen Online and Internet Retailer. "eBay" outpaced "Amazon" by some 14 million searches]

Here is the list of the top 20 retailer names searched in January with the number of searches for each, according to Nielsen Online:

1) ebay, 19,321,000

2) walmart, 6,061,000

3) amazon, 5,227,000

4) best buy, 4,058,000

5) target, 3,742,000

6) netflix, 3,067,000

7) circuit city, 2,990,000

8) home depot, 2,790,000

9) sears, 2,020,000

10) lowes, 2,005,000

11) office depot, 1,700,000

12) macys, 1,452,000

13) costco, 1,395,000

14) staples, 1,351,000

15) qvc, 1,283,000

16) walgreens, 1,247,000

17) barnes and noble, 1,120,000

18) kohls, 955,000

19) kmart, 947,000

20) office max, 927,000

[These are not searched conducted on eBay, but searches done on the Internet for the name "eBay" Perhaps, folks are searching on the name "eBay" in conjunction with another term (possibly product name) They just go to Amazon and the other retailers rather than search on them in search engines.

With this revised look at the data, what are your thoughts?]

Update: Here is the search data from Dec 2007

Just my 15%

My Visit to ColderIce.com - Podcast

2009-02-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

I know, I haven't been writing much lately and I hope to change that in the coming weeks, but I have made the rounds a bit on the podcast circuit.

Here is my most recent podcast interview with John at ColderIce.com and this evening I will be on the Auction Wally show at 8:00 PM est.

I've been at Buy.com now for a month and I'm starting to get into a bit of a flow with my routine, so I should be back writing more frequently soon. Of course there are a number of sources out their in the blogosphere for ecommerce/eBay news so I'll continue to write about stuff I think I can add my 15% too.

Aren't you all proud of me for not turning this into a Buy.com commercial?

Just my 15%

Scot Wingo's Amazon vs. eBay Series! Updated

2009-02-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

I couldn't think of anything earth shattering to write about, so instead I thought I would highlight a great series of blog posts by Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, comparing eBay and Amazon.

The entire series originally consisted of 4 Episodes (Episodes being Scot's tribute to Star Wars) but has since morphed into a Q&A post and part A and B of Episode 3. Stay tuned this series could go on for ever.

Episode I - Q408 In-depth Analysis - eBay vs. Amazon - The Giants of Ecommerce Duke it out
Episode IA - Some quick answers to your episode I questions.
Episode II - Introducing the ChannelAdvisor Ecommerce Framework (CEF)
Episode IIIA - eBay and the CEF
Episode IIIB - Amazon and the CEF Updated
Episode IV - How to Fix eBay A New Hope (this concludes the series)

Episode IV may take several more blog posts, who knows. Anyway, Scot has some great stuff in these posts.

Just my 15%

Richard Brewer Hay Interview at ColderIce.com

2009-02-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

I know, I've been throwing up lots of media clips and podcasts recently, but nothing much has been happening that I want to add my 15% too.

Here is a great interview with RBH.

Just my 15%

Buy a Cave on eBay! Family Forced to Sell Their Cave

2009-02-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

Its a Saturday and I saw this clip on Yahoo and thought I would share it with MyBlogUtopia readers.

Unique Cave Home over 15,000 sf. Beautiful setting

Just my 15%

Tech Ticker: More Retail Carnage.

2009-02-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting video clip about the carnage affecting major retailers in 2009

I'm seeing a very interesting trend here. The mainstream press continues to beat the "depression" drum; Brick and Mortar retail is in real turmoil; The Consumer's discretionary spending is not happening to the degree it needs to help these large businesses stay afloat and yet Amazon and Buy and other ecommerce pure-play sites are still growing.

There will be winner's and losers during this recession and online merchants will be among the winners. In fact I'm hearing from many 3rd party sellers that they are continuing to show stronger sales then they anticipated.

Spending is down and those companies that over-built or have huge overhead are not able to manage the sales downturn, many of them are too heavily in-debt to survive this turmoil. Small merchants on the other hand are not leveraged to the hilt, they have access to customers on their own websites and at marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Buy.com and the smaller sites.

People are still spending but the big guys are the ones taking the hits. Smaller players are getting access to product that is being liquidated and are able to actually grow during this downturn.

2009 will be a tough year for the Brick and Mortar and Click and Mortar retailers but 3rd party merchants may be the lone bright spot in this terrible retail environment.

Just my 15%

Tech Ticker - Retail Outlook Is Worse Than You Think, Ford Models CEO Says

2009-02-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

I didn't really think the CEO of Ford Modeling Agency would have anything to offer my readership but this clip had some interesting nuggets about the economy and the current retail environment -- take from it what you can.

Just my 15%

Amazon Shows Sponsored Links Above the Buy Box

2009-02-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

I was doing some research on Shoe Merchants who sell online, so that I could reach out and introduce them to Buy.com, when I searched on Rockport 7100 Men's Walking Shoes on Google. There was a link to Amazon so I figured I would see who was selling the item over there.

Here is the page that was displayed. Now I have never looked for shoes on Amazon before so this may not be new. Click on the image to see a larger version.

There is messaging at the top of the buy box that says "Customers viewing this page may be interested in this Sponsored Link" followed by the text for the sponsored link "Don't Buy Men's Rockport 7100 Shoes Until You See InsiderPricing Here! ShoesRUs.net/Rockport"

So it appears Amazon is being very aggressive with the placement of their sponsored ads by placing them at the top of the page above the Product Detail.

I haven't seen this on Amazon before and it only seems to show-up when you click onto Amazon from organic search in Google, Yahoo or Microsoft Live. I couldn't get the sponsored link to show-up on media items though.

With all the concern over sponsored ads showing up on eBay listing pages, it looks like Amazon beat eBay to the punch.

Sponsored ads are not going away and when Amazon is showing them above the product detail information on product they themselves sell, I have to ask why?

Since I'm not privy to the data, perhaps it shows that customers who click on the sponsored link still come back to purchase on Amazon and if they don't at least Amazon made some money on it.

Updated:

[Thanks to Hallie over at the PeSA board, I checked into the ClickRiver aspect of these sponsored links and it looks like ClickRiver is only available for service businesses, so this program may be handled by a new department or by a 3rd party service. If you get any info please email me]

Update 2: It looks like once the visitor clicks on an Amazon site link the sponsored ad no longer shows up above the detail page. Perhaps Amazon is trying to monetize that % of visitors who link to the site and then bounce back to Google to look for something else. This would explain why the sponsored link gets such a premium placement. If it was lower on the page, the "bouncer" wouldn't see it long enough to click on it.

st my 15%

Why eBay Will Have A Problem Being Amazon

2009-02-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

If you don't change the perception of eBay in the world, consumers will still believe THIS is what eBay is all about.

eBay is part of popular culture and is known just as much for these types of "items for sale" as the hard to find product or great deals. If eBay is to grow they need to change the brand and that is not an easy thing to do.

Just my 15%

Meg Hits the Talk Show Circuit

2009-02-12T14:33:00.001-08:00

No comment here just posting a clip from Meg's trip to the Today Show and an interview with hard hitting interviewer Matt Lauer :)

Just my 15%

Half.com Comes to eBay!

2009-02-12T06:51:00.000-08:00

I started hearing rumblings of changes coming to eBay's media category, during the summer of 2008, those changes are now live on the site and all I have to say is... they just turned eBay Media into half.com.

Listings grouped by item condition
Brand New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable. I like this idea because I sell used product but if you are not in the top 4-5 items in a search you might as well kiss sales goodbye. If they go to free listings (I think they will) at least you won't lose money listing stuff that won't be seen.
Standout with Sub-title
Sub-title is now prominently displayed on the left had side of the screen, so make sure to use it to draw attention tom your listing
Best value box
"Best Value" box shows 1 item representing the best value for the buyer. The item is selected via Best Match, considering total price (including shipping) and the seller’s track record—seller’s search standing must be "Raised". This is eBay's version of Amazon's Buy Box but they I don't trust eBay to select the "Best Match" let alone the "Best Value" My first search had a "used good" item in the Best Value box but you didn't know that until you clicked on the listing itself.
Formats mixed
Buyers see a mix of Best Match Auction-style and Fixed Price listings. They are only showing 4-5 items per condition so the buyers choices are limited. Used items are most likely to be auctioned so auctions should dominate the items displayed in search.
Shipping revealed
Buyers see shipping charges right up front.

Media sellers should be watching things closely over the next couple of weeks as this new sort display takes hold. Remember you are still paying listing fee's (even if only 5 cents) but if you don't get into the top 4-5 items for your condition you will probably never be seen.

Certain sellers will dominate the "New" media category now, but used items will get more prominence and be easier to find.

Some observations.

This move effectively kills the SIF (Store Inventory Format) format in media -- it was on life-support anyway.
If you are smart and have raised standing you can dominate the media category for your sku's. A lot of sellers will see their sales drop substantially. eBay needs to repeal listing fees on media items immediately.
This is a very good move for sellers who sell used items and opens the door for improved bids on auctions if you can get raised standing in search.
It will take some time to sort this all out, but it looks like it will soon be feast or famine for ebay media sellers.

Just my 15%

TheFind100, the Top Specialty Stores of 2008

2009-02-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

TheFind, Inc., the leading shopping search engine and web destination for discovering lifestyle goods, announced today the winners of the inaugural TheFind100, recognizing the best 100 online stores in sixteen shopping categories. These categories include: Apparel, Appliances, Baby Clothing, Bags & Luggage, Crafts, Food & Wine, Furniture, Garden, Health and Beauty, Home, Jewelry, Kids & Family, Kitchen, Pets, Shoes, Tools & Hardware, and Sports & Outdoors.

TheFind100 annual list can be found by visiting www.thefind.com/thefind100.

Over 500,000 online stores and retailers can be found on TheFind, and over 11 million people are visiting the TheFind every month. This sheer diversity illustrates the great achievement that these 1,600 merchants demonstrated by being clear favorites of users searching within each specific category.

“At TheFind, we are committed to connecting shoppers with the best stores and online retailers, and believe that by recognizing unique, specialty retailers with this annual award we will go a long way to promoting the very best of online shopping,” said Larisa Hall, Vice President of Marketing for TheFind Inc.

You can read the entire press release here.

I just recently came across TheFind through some relationships on Twitter and I really like the way they handle product search. It is much more visual and shopper friendly than Google's GoogleBase, IMO.

Check out The Find today and submit you product information, you don't want to miss out on 11 million visitors a month who might be introduced to your product.

Just my 15%

It's Official - Meg Runs for California Governor in 2010

2009-02-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

We've heard the rumors before but now its official with the launch of her campaign website. http://www.megwhitman.com

Just my 15%

New eBay Store Format Slowing Down Sales?

2009-02-09T07:09:00.001-08:00

I've been hearing some interesting anecdotal stories from sellers that have seen sales slow down once they opt-in to the new eBay Stores format, so I thought I would reach out to my readers and see if you were experiencing the same thing. Apparently sales return when sellers opt-out of the new format.

Please let me know what your experience has been.

The new stores format becomes the default in March so if there are problems eBay needs to address them now before they have to rollback another change.

Just my 15%

Do “Big Wigs” Get Special Treatment from eBay? I asked Jonathan Garriss of PeSA

2009-02-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

John at ColderICE interviews Jonathan Garriss, Executive Director of PeSA. Well worth the listen.

Just my 15%

It's February, Where are the eBay Announcements?

2009-02-04T07:08:00.000-08:00

Normally by now eBay would have made their big announcements for the year, so I'm wondering what's up. Sure, they make big announcements now in Aug also but late January is traditional for the biggest announcements.

I've heard everything from a shopping cart to the ending of SIF (Store Inventory Format) I can't help thinking that "free listings" are coming to media and that reduced FP-30 listing fees are coming to everybody else. Inquiring minds want to know.

Maybe the uncertainty of the economic environment has thrown their forecasts for a loop or maybe they are just struggling to get everything completed, but sellers are going to want to know sooner or later.

What do you think the changes will be?

Just my 15%

Overstock.com Throws a "Hail Mary" Pass at the Super Bowl

2009-01-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Overstock.com earned $1.01 million in Q4 of 2009, though they lost over $12 million for the full year. I believe the profit in Q4 is the only profitable quarter in their history.

According to the earnings announcement, they were able to make this profit by cutting expenses:

"Combined technology and G&A expenses decreased 17% to $21.5 million in Q4 on lower depreciation and compensation credits. The company had accrued profit sharing and executive bonuses throughout 2008. These were reversed in Q4 resulting in a one-time benefit of $3.7 million when the company decided not to make a profit-sharing contribution and the senior executive team requested not to receive a bonus. For the year, tech and G&A expenses fell 5%. Total operating expenses were tracked down 29% for the quarter at 9% for the year. Operating income for the quarter was a positive $5.7 million compared to a loss of $6.8 million in Q4 2007."

This is good news right, and the share price proves it by gaining 12% today. Then tonight I see the following press release:

"Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK ) announced today that it will be airing a 30-second Super Bowl advertisement featuring Overstock.com spokesperson Carlos Boozer. The commercial is scheduled to air immediately following the halftime show."

I'm not sure what I'm reading. I feel like I'm watching a Twilight Zone episode. Overstock is going to spend upwards of $3 million for a 30 sec. spot, an amount that is 5% of their total marketing expense for the entire year of 2008; Gone in 30 Secs.

Is this a "Hail Mary" pass? Aren't their more effective uses for that $3 million? This better be one very exciting TV spot. I'm sure there are more effective marketing uses for that money.

Observers of ecommerce, will be able to see how much of a spike in traffic Overstock gets from this ad buy looking at the various traffic management sites.

If you are a 3P seller on Overstock, let me know if your Overstock sales improved following the Super Bowl.

Just my 15%

Tech Ticker - Amazon Crushes Earnings

2009-01-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

From Tech Ticker:

Just my 15%

Amazon Beats the Street!

2009-01-29T13:12:00.001-08:00

This just in. Amazon beat the Street's estimates for Q4, both on the revenue side and on the bottom line. North American revenue gre 18% Y/Y and International revenue gre 19% Y/Y.

According to MarketWatch:

Amazon reported earnings of $225 million, or 52 cents a share, compared to earnings of $207 million, or 48 cents a share, for the same period the previous year. Revenue grew 18% to $6.7 billion. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 40 cents a share on revenue of $6.48 billion, according to consensus estimates from FactSet Research.

Guidance for call for Q1 revenue of $4.525 and $4.92 billion and operating income of $125 million to $210 million

Amazon did not offer full-year guidance, basically because nobody else is so this allows them to follow suit. That's just my opinion so take it for what its worth.

More detail after the conference call. Apparently, it wasn't the economy.

Update: Here is the link to the earnings press release

Just my 15%

The ChannelAdvisor Investor Pitch and Review

2009-01-29T08:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to ColderIce for finding this video clip, so I thought I would share it with you. I think it is quite interesting to hear the analysis of ChannelAdvisor buy eBay's Director of Corporate Strategy.

Sorry for the quality of the video, the folks who produced this don't seem to understand the audio part of video production.

Let me know what you think.

See this video on Vator.tv »

BTW, I want to commend VatorTV for allowing bloggers to embed their videos into our blogs so that readers don't need to click out to see them. Other services like TechTicker are doing this as well but the big boys like CNBC seem to be living in the dark ages when it comes to this type of stuff.

Just my 15%

Amazon Announce Q4 Earnings After the Bell

2009-01-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

It is the day many of you have been waiting for, the day that Amazon announces how well they did during the 4th Quarter and also the day we see if "it's the economy, stupid" or there is some other reason eBay is faltering.

I think most analysts anticipate that Amazon had a good quarter so, if the numbers just meet expectations the stock will probably remain range bound. If the numbers are better than expected the share price should do well after hours.

I am very curious to see if Amazon will follow eBay's lead and only give Q1 guidance, or if they will look further down the road to assure investors and other stakeholders that they see light at the end of the tunnel. 3P merchants have just as much interest in this as investors do.

I'll be back later today with the numbers.

Just my 15%

Infopia Ecommerce Leaders Summit - March 3-5, 2009

2009-01-29T07:06:00.000-08:00

It’s Time to Maximize Your Competitive Advantage

eCommerce Leaders Summit is the most comprehensive gathering of eCommerce leaders in 2009 for SMB online merchants! Why should you attend? A strategic plan is not enough. Learn from business leaders and other successful online merchants how to make eCommerce success a reality.

What are some other benefits you’ll get from this year’s eCommerce Leaders Summit?

Make quality decisions based on “no nonsense” metrics and tactical plans
Implement eCommerce efficient operational workflows
Be ahead of the curve when it comes to achieving business scale
Successfully overcome customer satisfaction issues that accompany exponential growth
Accelerate growth in tough economic times
Learn how to optimize growth and profit across website and marketplaces, drive high quality traffic to your website and convert visitors to purchasers. Now is the time to invest in success.

Keynote Speaker - Mr. Guy Kawasaki

Mr. Kawasaki delivers a blueprint for competing with other online organizations for customer attention, dollars and loyalty. He draws upon dozens of examples to share how to ethically and effectively defeat the competition.

Arguably the best entrepreneur of our day, Forbes columnist, Apple evangelist, author of 8 books, including best-seller “Art of the Start,” venture capitalist and highly acclaimed speaker, Guy explains that the difference between mediocre and great is usually only a few adjustments away.

Ecommerce Leaders Summit, is being held in Salt Lake City, UT from March 3 - 5 and there are only 2 days left to get the early-bird discount and save $150. For more information or to register please visit the conference website.

Just my 15%

Do You Want to Work with eBay?

2009-01-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

I found this video clip of an interview with eBay's Director of Corporate Strategy, Eric Stuart and thought you might enjoy it. You can also read about it at Vator News.

See this video on Vator.tv »

Just my 15%

eBay - Can We Ship Your Product Too?

2009-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

As Ina Steiner points out in yesterday's blog post; eBay has been surveying sellers to measure their' interest in a fulfillment service -- presumably run by eBay. I guess they are considering something similar to Amazon's FBA program.

On a basic level this is not a terrible idea. Small to Medium sized sellers are looking for alternatives to storing and shipping themselves. The problem I see with this, is that eBay is involved in the idea and they do not have a very good track record on these types of initiatives.

I'm not sure how they would be able to compete with a world class fulfillment operation like Amazon. With Amazon's FBA, you get customer service, gift wrapping services, expedited services access to Prime customers, etc. and all Amazon has to do to compete is bring down the cost of their Basic Fulfillment service. If that happened, eBay's service would have a hard time getting off the ground. I can't think of any reason sellers would choose eBay's system over Amazon's FBA unless of course eBay had a program like Super Saver shipping, Prime or subsidized free shipping. Just not sure eBay could come up with enough reasons for users to take part.

If this were to actually come about, it would most likely mean that eBay would buy an existing fulfillment business -- they are not very good at creating their own stuff. I'm sure there are a number of companies out their that would fit eBay's needs at least structurally.

My guess is that eBay wants to create their own version of Prime and the only way that makes sense is if they can control the costs of fulfillment.

It will be interesting to watch. Either way online merchants can use Amazon FBA or maybe the new eBay Fulfillment to ship products sold on the Buy.com website -- isn't this a great business. :)

Just my 15%

Wow, That is Hard Work!

2009-01-27T19:46:00.000-08:00

Shill Alert - Warning I am going to promote Buy.com. (I know that is shameless)

I had a great first day working at Buy.com. Got to meet some great people (no, they didn't have three heads) and see what the company had on tap for the marketplace. It is clear they are committed to growing the Buy.com marketplace business.

Buy.com has over 4 million unique visitors a month and a very active merchandising program that includes marketplace merchants. Some very exciting things in the works.

We will see how day two goes, but I like what I'm seeing so far. The sky is the limit. Of course you know I wouldn't tell you if I hated it :)

If you get a chance checkout the marketplace merchant info.

Just my 15%

Is Skype Finally for Sale?

2009-01-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

This morning from Tech Ticker.

Just my 15%

Randy Gets a Day Job!

2009-01-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry for that title, just couldn't figure out how to lead into this, but I have exciting news, at least for me its exciting.

On Tuesday, January 27, I begin a full-time consulting arrangement with Buy.com as their Merchant Evangelist.

My role with the company will be to reach out to third-party merchants and introduce them to the platform, solicit feedback on what merchants need from the marketplace and work on ways to drive sales to Marketplace sellers.

I will serve as an advocate for merchants within the company on product management and marketplace issues. My goal will be to assist the marketplace team in making the Buy.com marketplace the ideal platform for third-party merchants to sell their wares.

I will not be involved in Buy.com's eBay business. I will have plenty to do working with merchants to maximize their use of the Buy.com platform.

With my background as a third-party merchant with GlacierBayDvd and my years observing and commenting on the ecommerce business at MyBlogutopia, I'm excited about the opportunity to be the voice of the merchant within the company.

In the past, I've blogged about the need for eBay to have an experienced merchant working inside the company, as an advocate for sellers. Well, I am going to get that opportunity at Buy.com, and I'm pumped about it.

As for MyBlogUtopia, I will continue to blog about issues facing 3P merchants in ecommerce. The views and opinions expressed on these pages will be my opinion solely and not that of Buy.com. Of course I will promote the Buy.com marketplace here from time to time, but I'm hoping to develop a specific blog just for those issues.

2009 is going to be an interesting year and online merchants will have lots of options. I'm going to do my part to make sure you know how Buy.com can work for your business.

I look forward to working with many of you and please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I don't have my Buy.com contact info just yet but you can reach me in the meantime at rksmythe at yahoo.

And yes, I will continue to blog about eBay, Amazon and the rest, but I will always try to be fair.

Just my 15%

Where One Door Closes, Others Open!

2009-01-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

We've all been reading the news of layoffs, business closings, etc. and the "bad news" will most likely continue through the rest of Q1, especially in the retail environment. This can be a devastating time for many laid-off workers, but there is a silver lining.

My guess is that many of these laid-off workers will look into starting their own businesses and dare I say start selling online. The folks being laid-off are not just minimum wage earners, some I'm sure have many years of experience and strong network connections that can help get them started running their own business.

Jobs are going to be hard to come by, so unless these unemployed workers are going to sit at home waiting for a check from the government many of them are going to have to make a living.

I would envision a renaissance in the small business world and certainly an increase in those selling online. Not everyone is cutout to be an entrepreneur, but there will be thousands of new businesses rising from the ashes of these recent layoffs.

If I can make a political comment for just a second. Mr President, make sure to address small business in your stimulus package. Get this nation running again by encouraging Americans to innovate and achieve through small business.

Just my 15%

Will eBay Unload Skype?

2009-01-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

Everyone's talking about Skype today. Well, not everyone but at least the tech press and bloggers are.

It appears much of the interest in the subject has come from what John Donahoe said during the eBay earnings call. “Skype is a great standalone business.” Therefore many are reading into this that eBay has put Skype on the block.

I normally don't talk much about Skype, but thought I would give you my 15% on subject since everyone else is.

Skype has been informally "on the block" for awhile and eBay certainly would have sold it by now had a reasonable offer been made. The problem, as I see it is, nobody will want to pay eBay's price. eBay paid $2.6 billion and most would agree they overpaid, so even though the company is arguably more valuable today then when eBay bought it, the market for these types of deals is much different.

Skype, will generate maybe $600 million in revenue this year which is admirable, but the margins are thin and technology changes so fast these days, the company will have to continue to invest to stay ahead of the game. Switching to a new technology is as simple as downloading a new piece of software.

So, the only way eBay will sell Skype in this environment, is if they add "Best Offer" to their "Buy it Now" price and take a bath or heaven forbid they run a 1 cent no reserve auction.

I don't see eBay getting offers close to what they paid for it 4 years ago.

Just my 15%

Amazon and Overstock Earnings This Week.

2009-01-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

Last week we had eBay's earnings announcement and this week we get two other marketplace coming out with their Q4 numbers.

Amazon - January 29th. I'm looking for double digit growth Y/Y for revenue and units shipped and single digit growth in profit. Amazon's Q4 earnings will prove the value of third-party sellers on the platform.
Overstock announces Q4 earnings on January 30th and your guess is as good as mine on how they will do. I see trouble in Overstock's future.

Just my 15%

Bonanzle Closing in on 1 Million Listings

2009-01-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would give you all an update on what's happening over at Bonanzle. They are approaching a milestone of 1 million listings in about 6 months time. Currently they are at

989,658 and should reach 1 million by the end of the day and they are doing this while making hard decisions; like limiting booths (storefronts) to 10,000 listings max.

Here are some other numbers.

22951 users
6763 Sellers
180,000 unique visitors a month (Dec's numbers) and growing.

There has been lots of talk recently about the eBay alternatives and it seems like there is a new site opening up just about every day -- not all of these alternatives will survive, but I think Bonanzle has one of the best shots.

First off, they are not trying to be something they are not. They are concentrating on small to mid-size sellers of unique and hard-to-find items rather than going after large retailers or commodity type items. They are already at break-even financially in less than a year and will be expanding their marketing efforts in the months ahead now that they have a solid base of product and they understand community and are keeping an open channel of communication with their users.

2009 may be a challenging year for eBay, but alternative sites like Bonanzle are going to get some traction in this down economy.

Just my 15%

eBid Expands Marketing Efforts in the US

2009-01-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

eBid.net, the largest auction alternative to eBay announced yesterday that they will be expanding their marketing efforts in the US. According to the press release:

"To support its 2009 growth ambitions eBid.net will re-invest its 2008 profits into US marketing initiatives to include key strategic partnerships and national advertising. Additionally, to make its site slicker, quicker and easier to use, eBid is investing in technical and design improvements. These include its ‘Ninja Lister’ desktop software application to enable offline auction creation and ease the transfer of auctions from other sites; its first public API to support third party applications and widgets; sales tax calculations for US and Canada; the creation of a Who’s Online System to bolster an already huge and vibrant online community and the introduction of non-English versions of the site."

eBid Co-founder Mark Wilkinson added "In this tough economy, we want to ensure that sellers make great profits on our site and buyers, who are increasingly looking for second hand or discount items, get the best deals around. To help our community during these tough times, part of our investment will include regular and ongoing cash back promotions for both buyers and sellers as thanks for helping us take a large chunk of the online auction market.”

eBid is entering its 10th year and continue to grow, likely taking some auction business away from eBay because of the high fees on the eBay site. With this commitment to expanding their marketing efforts to the US, the company is taking a much more aggressive path than in the past.

It will be interesting to watch as the year progresses.

Just my 15%

Change is in the Air at ChannelAdvisor

2009-01-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

There have been some rumors going around that ChannelAdvisor was preparing layoffs. The company has issued the following press release: (I will add my 15% at the end)

CHANNELADVISOR ACHIEVES OPERATING PROFIT AND ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURING

Leading provider of e-commerce channel management solutions has solid fourth quarter growth despite tough economic backdrop

Research Triangle Park, NC– January 23, 2009 – ChannelAdvisor, the leading provider of e-commerce channel management solutions, announced today that it reached operating profitability in the fourth quarter of 2008. Additionally the company plans to undertake restructuring to further streamline its business and better position itself for an uncertain economic downturn.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, ChannelAdvisor recorded gross merchandise value (GMV) of $775 million and for the full year, ChannelAdvisor recorded GMV of $2.6 billion. This represents 34% growth in GMV from 2007. Additionally, the company continues to experience strong customer growth, now boasting more than 110 top internet retailers from the prestigious Internet Retailer magazine’s Top 500 list. Over the last year, the average ChannelAdvisor customer’s sales grew at 7% while eCommerce grew at 4% proving that retailers continue to find great value from ChannelAdvisor’s solutions during this economic slowdown.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, ChannelAdvisor recorded revenue of over $10 million and for the full year, ChannelAdvisor recorded revenue of over $35 million. This represents 44% growth in revenue from 2007. Even in this challenging economic environment, ChannelAdvisor reached operating profitability in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will continue to see growth, reach goals and strengthen their position as an industry leader.

ChannelAdvisor plans to undertake changes geared to optimize its workforce, facilities and products in order to adjust to the current economy while positioning to leverage future growth in 2009. As part of the changes, ChannelAdvisor is reducing its global workforce by 19%. Those whose jobs will be eliminated will be offered severance.

“ChannnelAdvisor had a solid quarter and we will continue to focus on profitability and growth in 2009,” said Scot Wingo, Chief Executive Officer of ChannelAdvisor. “The restructuring steps we’re taking are designed to better position the company for potentially deteriorating macro economic conditions. These steps will lower our overall operating costs and enable us to weather the current economic storm.”

About ChannelAdvisor Corporation

ChannelAdvisor Corporation provides technology and services that enable leading online retailers to maximize their products across multiple ecommerce marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon.com and Overstock.com, comparison shopping engines such as Shopping.com, Shopzilla, Nextag and Google Product Search and search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN. In 2008, ChannelAdvisor managed over $2.6 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) on behalf of its customers. ChannelAdvisor solutions combine best practices, on-demand software and integration technology to help retailers sell more products, faster, by automating labor-intensive, manual functions so they spend less time optimizing campaigns and more time solving marketing and business issues. ChannelAdvisor has expanded its retail technology and services by acquiring Rich FX media solutions. MyRichFX™, RichImage™, RichCatalog™, and RichCircular™ are now part of the ChannelAdvisor rich media technology and service solutions that ChannelAdvisor offers. ChannelAdvisor's customers include GSI Commerce, Brookstone, Abebooks and Motorola. ChannelAdvisor Corporation is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC with offices in Atlanta, Seattle, New York, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and Germany. For more information, visit http://www.channeladvisor.com/.

-----

So yes, the rumors are true, they are having layoffs in addition to other cost cutting measures; "ChannelAdvisor plans to undertake changes geared to optimize its workforce, facilities and products in order to adjust to the current economy while positioning to leverage future growth in 2009. As part of the changes, ChannelAdvisor is reducing its global workforce by 19%. Those whose jobs will be eliminated will be offered severance." according to the press release. By my calculation that would put the number of laid off worldwide at around 50.

I spoke with ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo about the restructuring and he said; "2009 is going to be a challenging year. We reached operating profitability in Q4 and we liked that, we plan to maintain that profitability throughout a tough 2009."

Layoffs are never fun, but are sometimes necessary to get a business to the right size for sustained profitability. ChannelAdvisor reached operating profitability in Q4 on $10 million in revenue and in light of the current state of ecommerce, management felt more layoffs were needed to continue 2009 profitably.

Now, I've been hanging around the CA guys for years and I've never seen them release annual revenue numbers before, so with this announcement it appears they are being as transparent as possible -- $35 million in annual revenue is not a small company, especially in the SaaS (Software as a Service) space and hard choices needed to be made.

Reaching operating profitability in Q4 was quite an accomplishment, especially this year, but you can't just assume that business will stay the same. Hopefully the laid off employees will find work shortly.

Just my 15%

eBay Q4 Earnings - First Blush!

2009-01-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

I know you are all expecting my typical assessment of eBay's quarterly earnings, but I don't have the heart anymore. I've written this post 4 times already and each time I say "what difference will this make?"

I have been shouting about the troubles at eBay for over 2 years now. I've offered suggestions; I've criticised management and I've banged my head against the wall 100's of times, but nothing has changed. A once great company continues to struggle and now they can't even look further than Q1 of this year to see where they are headed.

It did not have to be this way, but it is.

Amazon will announce earnings next week, on the 29th, and while there numbers will be muted by the failing economy, they will be light years better than eBay's were. John Donahoe and his team are now "on the clock"

If you want details on the numbers please check Auctionbytes and eBayStrategies, they should have plenty of coverage.

Just my 15%

The Silence is Deafening!

2009-01-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

Usually, I hear a lot of chatter in the days leading up to eBay's earnings reports, but things have been decidedly different in the last few weeks. I haven't quite put my finger on why?

It is possible that eBay watchers have extremely low expectations for Q4 results and expect eBay's guidance for Q1 to be muted as well. There is almost a feeling of resignation that 2009 will be a wash and so everybody is looking at other options.

I know sellers that I've spoken with are working hard to lessen their dependence on eBay, though many of them still sell on the platform. They've jumped through so many hoops in the last year they are unwilling to continue jumping and just trying survive the ride. Many are thriving on their websites and other platforms and eBay is becoming a smaller portion of their overall business.

I'm not sure if this silence is a good thing for eBay. It is probably not a good sign for the company when people stop talking about them. The feeling of eBay is "so yesterday" starts to take hold. John Donahoe was even concerned about this back in April of 2008 when he was interviewed on the eBayInkBlog. Richard Brewer Hay asked:

Q. Any advice to the new guy?

Listen and have passion. Our goal is not to be a finely tuned, smooth, perfect machine. The minute our community stops talking is the minute I worry. Because their opinions, constructive criticism or praise, stem from passion. People are basically good – that is our belief. And we will not shut our ears to what people have to say – we will embrace it. [bold is mine]

I agree with Mr. Donahoe, the minute the community stops taking is time to worry. Have they stopped talking, probably not yet but we will know better when eBay makes their annual announcements later this month.

When there is no longer much "noise" it could mean that people have stopped caring. When that happens the silence will be deafening.

Just my 15%

Not Everything is Scalable.

2009-01-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to JayandMarie for providing a link to this video clip.

The clip is called "The Speech" and was produced in 1989 for United Airlines. I'm not critiquing this as an advertisement, instead I want to look at the message in the content.

Setting the stage:

Pay close attention to what is happening here. The CEO of an unnamed firm is having an all-hands meeting, everyone looks nervous.

Don't jump down my throat about the feasibility of eBay reaching out to their sellers. I'm speaking conceptually, "big picture" here. When I reached 100,000 feedback with Glacier Bay, I received a phone call from eBay North American president Jeff Jordan congratulating me. He didn't need to fly out and visit me. With that one call, I felt that I was part of the success of eBay.

I've written many posts criticizing the MBA approach to management: metrics rule and if you can't scale it you shouldn't waste your time.

In management meetings at these large companies they always ask the questions "What is the ROI?"; "Can we afford to do this?" Those are valid questions as long as they also ask. "Should we do this?"; "Can we afford not to do this?"

Sure, 200 clients is a far cry from reaching out to eBay's 1 million plus sellers, but I wonder if eBay's Seller Experience team will ever have a meeting like this; imagine the cost of all those plane tickets.

Just my 15%

UPDATE: Everyone Wants to be an Online Marketplace.

2009-01-19T07:29:00.000-08:00

The King of all online marketplaces (eBay) is wounded, so it makes sense that competition would rise up to take some of their business away, but when GoDaddy.com announces they will be launching a marketplace, it is getting ridiculous.

GoDaddy.com has lots of traffic, roughly 3 million uniques a month, but how much of that traffic is going to GoDaddy for anything other than domain names and related services. There are some serious issues to consider:

How are they going to get product? Just saying you have 3 million unique visitors each month and throwing a 10% FVF on each sale isn't going to entice sellers to sell on the platform.
Perhaps they can bring on related product that would make sense to their current user base. GoDaddy users are tech oriented and dominated by males, just look at the GoDaddy.com ads at the Super Bowl in two weeks to identify who their market is.
A marketplace needs much more than traffic. They would be much better off selling sponsored links and advertising to online sellers than to facilitate the sale of real product on their site.
If they do not get to a critical mass of product selection, users will just pass over the marketplace.
Online merchants want to get eyeballs in front of their items, but they have limited resources so dealing with another marketplace with dubious credentials for selling product won't be high on their list.
Competing with the "Big 2"; eBay and Amazon and the "Little 2"; Buy.com and Overstock not to mention all the specialty sites doesn't make much sense to me.

I haven't seen their marketplace yet, so I won't call this effort "dead on arrival", but they have a huge hill to climb before the GoDaddy marketplace is viable.

UPDATE: Okay, here is a link to their marketplace http://shops.godaddy.com

Just my 15%

eBay Alternatives Ranked by Alexa.com

2009-01-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

As far as marketplaces go, eBay.com still gets the greatest amount of traffic, but I was curious if any of eBay's competitors were gaining on it. Of course Amazon passed eBay briefly in the 4th quarter of 2008 and according to Alexa the 2 sites are neck and neck currently.

I'll break the sites down into 5 groups: The US sites will begin with the worldwide ranking but be ranked by their US ranking. UK sites are ranked by their UK ranking. The Alexa ranking takes into consideration Page Views and Reach.

The Big Guys:

eBay.com - #20 worldwide and #8 in the US
Amazon.com - #31 worldwide and #11 in the US

The Not as Big as the Two Above Guys: (but millions of unique visitors a months)

Overstock.com - #616 worldwide and #110 in the US
Buy.com - #724 worldwide and #185 in the US
Etsy.com - #904 worldwide and #238 in the US

The Up and Commers. Growing the fastest

Ecrater.com - #6233 worldwide and #1606 in the US
Bonanzle.com - #38754 worldwide and #5930 in the US
Neweggmall.com - #31,271 worldwide and #6526 in the US

Some of the Rest

Blujay.com #37654 worldwide and #7518 in the US
Wigix.com - #56850 worldwide and #7979 in the US
OnlineAuction.com - #78,988 and #21,079 in the US
AtomicMall.com - #119,254 worldwide and #22,562 in the US

Top UK marketplace Sites:

ebay.co.uk - #90 worldwide and #8 in the UK
Amazon.co.uk - #227 worldwide and #12 in the UK
Play.com - #745 worldwide and #19 in the UK
ebid.net - #16204 worldwide and #1629 in the UK
CQout - #86083 worldwide and #6920 in the UK

To provide some perspective; the worldwide Alexa ranking for My Blog Utopia is #218,401 and in the US #54,811

Just my 15%

eBay Q4 Earnings Call Announced!

2009-01-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

The eBay Q4 earnings call will be held on January 21st, 2009 at 2:00 PM PST. You will be able to get the first blush earnings info from the web, CNBC and Fox Business but the conference call will have all the detail.

You can listen in by linking here on the 21st.

This is possibly the most important earnings call in the history of eBay and certainly John Donahoe's most important call. Q4's numbers will tell the story of how the recent changes have worked and if they do not meet the top end of expectations the Street will not be happy.

Here's my 15% on the numbers:

I believe that eBay was able to meet the top end of their guidance for the 4th Quarter, but that all other marketplace metrics (users, traffic, GMV, etc) will be down Y/Y. In their guidance for the 4th quarter they really lowered the bar of expectations, so meeting or slightly beating their guidance should not be celebrated with a party. They will still be flat to down Y/Y

Look for a non-GAAP EPS of $0.41 as opposed to $0.45 in 2007 and revenue for the quarter at $2.16 billion as opposed to $2.18 billion . The buzz in the marketplace today is nothing like it was in early Oct. when eBay came out before the earnings call and lowered expectations. I believe they were able to fix the search problems of early Oct in time to save the quarter but they will still be flat or down Y/Y.

This news, taken on its own, should give the share price a bump; that is until Amazon announces their numbers later in the month.

my 15%

WhatDoISell.com Amazon FBA - Replay

2009-01-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

It was my pleasure to spend some time with Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com last week; discussing Amazon's FBA program. She just posted a link to the replay and I'm excited to make it available for My Blog Utopia readers.

You can download the interview or listen online whichever you prefer. http://www.whatdoisell.com/amazonfbateleclass/

Let me know what you think.

Just my 15%

Skype Discussion on Tech Ticker

2009-01-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

I usually don't write about Skype -- it doesn't really interest me -- but this video clip was interesting from an investor standpoint. The second half of the clip is not Skype/eBay related. Source Tech Ticker

Just my 15%

New Amazon Webinars - WebStore and FBA

2009-01-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

Amazon began holding Webinars back in Q4 of 2008 and it looks like they will continue pretty aggressivly in 2009. There are two Webinars being held in the next couple of weeks that will be of interest to online sellers:

Wed, 1/ 14 - 10:00am PST

Introduction to WebStore by Amazon

WebStore by Amazon provides you with a branded e-commerce site backed by the support, selection and expertise of Amazon. WebStore is easy to set up and comes with a number of great marketing features so you can start selling in minutes! Learn more about owning your own WebStore. Space is limited. Reserve your seat now!

Wed, 1/28 - 10:00am PST

Understanding Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)

Learn how Fulfillment by Amazon can help you achieve your 2009 fulfillment needs and grow your business without the fixed costs of setting up and maintaining your own infrastructure. Space is limited. ! Reserve your seat now

Just my 15%

Former Microsoft Execs end up at eBay!

2009-01-08T12:42:00.001-08:00

Thanks to a tip from my faithful reader Moonlight, I found out that eBay purchased a small Seattle firm in Dec. (must have been a very small transaction not to make the news) and in the deal they got two former Microsoft Search executives. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not.

According to ZDNet;

"Two years ago, when Microsoft’s search and advertising unit was even more of a revolving door than now, two long-time managers, Christopher Pane and Dane Glasgow, parted ways with Microsoft.

(Payne was Microsoft’s search chief — when the company’s search engine was known as “Windows Live Search” (not just Live Search); Glasgow was General Manager of Live Search.)

In January, Payne resurfaced — as an eBay employee."

Since I'm still wearing my Tin Hat from the previous post, maybe the reason eBay hasn't identified the speaker at Internet Retail, is because he just came on board and they don't have his picture and bio yet. Though these two execs are more search oriented than retailer/seller focused, so they wouldn't likely speak at IREC.

Maybe Microsoft will just buy eBay and we will have a whole new bunch of execs to discuss --just thinking out loud.

Update: eBay did confirm the acquisition and hiring of the two executives mentioned on the eBayInk blog.

Just my 15%

Tin Hat Alert! eBay Management Changes Afoot?

2009-01-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

An analyst buddy of mine was checking out the speaker lineup for the Internet Retailer Conference to be held in Boston this June and he noticed something odd in the press release. After announcing the featured speakers and stating this was going to be the best speaker line-up in the history of the conference, came this:

"Other featured speakers at IRCE include a soon-to-be-named key executive of eBay, who will explain how the #1 e-retail portal is evolving to help established web merchants expand their Internet reach;"

Now, the way this was worded seems to intimate that there will be a "new" soon-to-be-named eBay exec. at the conference. Of course, they probably meant that at the time of this press release eBay hadn't announced the executive who would be speaking. Okay, now you can put on your Tin Hats.

I checked the speaker lineup further and there are several mentions of eBay speakers during sessions and an eBay exec is Featured on the June 17th (but there is no picture). So, you all know me, I decided to have some fun with this. I'm sure eBay just didn't provide this information in time to be included in the press release and website, but there are two other possibilities:

A featured speaker, at this type of event, is usually a senior executive, so it could really only be one of four eBay execs; John Donahoe (not likely) Lorrie Norrington President of eBay Marketplaces, Stephanie Tilenius, Sr. VP of eBay North America or Dinesh Lathi, VP of Seller Experience, so why were they not named? Perhaps none of those executives are assured of being with the company as late as June 2009, so they don't want to name somebody and then have to replace them.
Or they just haven't drawn straws yet to determine who will speak. After all they were able to provide the topic of that featured session:
"In its more than dozen years of existence, eBay has evolved with the Internet, from providing millions of entrepreneurs an easy way to start a business to enabling established retailers to extend their reach on the Internet. Now, with a change in leadership, eBay is going through further evolution that the company hopes will attract and engage more consumers and boost revenue for eBay sellers. An eBay executive in charge of transforming the user experience at eBay will lay out in detail where eBay is heading and how retailers large and small can take advantage of the new eBay."

Now doesn't it seem odd that eBay has agreed to send a featured speaker and even provided the content of that presentation, but they were not able to provide the actual speaker information?Just thought I would throw that out for discussion. Maybe June is just too far a way for them to schedule.

Just my 15%

Sharing my 15% about Ecommerce in 2009 with ColderICE.com

2009-01-07T10:53:00.003-08:00

Just checked out John Lawson's blog over at ColderICE.com and was blown away by his intro to our little talk from last week. Thanks for the props John.

John and I converse quite a bit about the world of ecommerce via Twitter and his podcast interviews and so this interview is just something we would like to share. I'd love to hear your comments. I'm just sharing my thoughts on the world of ecommerce and yes we did discuss Buy.com, but that was only a small part of our discussion.

Is Buy.com Leaving eBay? Let’s Ask Randy Smythe.

Just my 15%

Let's Talk Amazon FBA!

2009-01-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Please Join us this Thursday, January 8th at 11:00am Pacific,I will be joinging Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com to discuss the Fulfillment by Amazon program and how it can benefit your business.

Basically, I'm going to share my experience with the service over the last year and cover it from start to finish. This will be less a "How To" use the service teleseminar and more a "Why" use the service teleseminar.

So why not join us Thursday, January 8th at 11:00am Pacific, for a free teleseminar on the power of using Fulfillment By Amazon (Amazon FBA) in your online business.

Reserve your seat immediately below. Can't make the live class? By registering now, you'll receive immediate notification when the replay is ready.

Hope to see your there.

Just my 15%

Infopia Appoints New CEO

2009-01-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Infopia, the leading SaaS [Software as a Service] provider of eCommerce software services, announced today that Coleman Barney has joined the company as President and Chief Executive Officer. As CEO of Infopia, Coleman will bring extensive experience in eCommerce and business improvement to fuel Infopia's continued growth serving mid-market and enterprise online businesses. He is succeeding Bjorn Espenes, former CEO and President, who will continue as a member of the Board of Directors for Infopia.

Entire Press Release

I'll add my 15% as I get more info. Infopia competes in a tough business with ChannelAdvisor, Mercent, Monsoon and others helping retailers manage their multiple sales channels.

It is interesting that a new CEO would come on-board during a real challenging time in ecommerce, but as outgoing CEO Bjorn Espenes says "Infopia's successful expansion into higher end, multi-marketplace online businesses demonstrates our ability to support increasingly complex retail environments," said Bjorn Espenes. "We looked for someone with a proven track record who could take the company to the next level. Coleman brings his results-oriented style to a business that saw record results in 2008 - a perfect combination."

We'll have to see how this move plays out in this very competitive environment. Good luck Mr. Barney.

Just my 15%

Etsy Improves Search -- Adds Relevance

2009-01-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

According to Auctionbytes: "Etsy is replacing its existing search technology with Solr, an open-source search system used by sites like Netflix and Zappos. Etsy said the new technology would provide it with the foundation to scale in terms of speed and functionality and is the first in what it expects to be a series of improvements to Etsy's search function throughout the year."

As Etsy grows and adds listings to its database, the need for search improvements becomes evident. The need for more relevant search results increases as you grow. Relevancy is a tough component to add to search because you are adding some subjective elements to an objective search using an algorithm that weights keywords. Google does a great job with relevancy but search is their core competency.

eBay should have considered using an outside search technology like Solr, instead of bringing search in-house and screwing it up. Sorry couldn't just leave an Etsy post alone without adding my 15% on eBay. Notice Etsy doesn't have anything called "Best Match" in their search. :)

Just my 15%