Free Puppy And...

I saw a funny sign in a local place that specialises in pizza and large, hot cookies.

"Unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy."

Enough said.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

No So Practical Ecommerce

PracticalEcommerce.com. It has nearly NOTHING on it about eBay. One article I wrote. A reliable person who sometimes blogs. That's it. I can't believe that those readers have little to no interest in eBay.

That's not enough. Sellers need more than that. I hope somebody starts a new online magazine that's focused on helping eBay and online sellers. You knew I wanted that, but I'm just saying it out loud.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

There's Room In The Rocket

Just a note that our conference, RocketPlace, still has space available. Disney has rooms too in case you decide last minute to come. Plane fares looked non-deadly too. :)

Posted at 02:28 PM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How To Not Partner With Us

I heard about a company last fall. I contacted them. I heard nothing back. I saw them at a conference in early October 2007. I told them to contact me. I heard nothing back.

Last week (mid-Feb 2008), I get this email from them:

I hope all is well with you.  I wanted to follow up to an inquiry you made to [company name] regarding a potential referral partnership.  Please let me know if you are still interested in that conversation.

Did I not ask enough times for a conversation about a potential partnership? And they're JUST getting back to me nearly 6 months later? Wow, I sure feel like a priority to their biz dev team! :)

Usually, companies looking to break into the eBay seller space seek us out. They know that sellers ask us who they should use, so they want to partner with us. They want us to get to know their companies and systems so that if we like it, we'll recommend it. That's what we do!

I guess in this case, these people aren't that serious about breaking into the eBay space or partnering with us. I can't imagine being the "Channel Manager" at a company and emailing a potential partner something that bland, uninspired, and bleh. If they wanted to partner with us, I could imagine a zillion other emails they might have sent rather than making it sound like I haven't followed up with them enough to be having a conversation about partnership.

And if it takes them nearly 6 months to get back to me, how are users of their system treated? I'm someone who could be bringing them business with no effort for them. You might want to get back in touch with me soonish. :) Or not!

I replied with some of what I've said here, and suggested that we continue to put the partnership on hold.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Threats from an eBay Seller

With all the fuss lately, people are forgetting the fact that some eBay sellers are still not giving good experiences to eBay buyers. I do more buying than selling nowadays, so I see both sides. But here's one for you.

I bought something recently. I was waiting to hear if it shipped. Nothing. I'm waiting. I eyeball my spam filter every day, many times a day in fact, but I get THOUSANDS of spams each day. It's tough. I miss things. The best way to get through to me is to make sure that when my spam filter emails you back to ask you to verify yourself that you DO IT.

The eBay seller decided they needed my real name for their package. My confirmed address had my business name, and evidently, they wanted a human name. They were evidently emailing me this... but they emailed it to my PayPal address and NOT the address I used when I bought the item. I use a certain buying account because it's linked to my personal email, and my personal email doesn't go through my spam filter. They were emailing my business address associated with my spam filter and weren't verifying themselves when the spam filter came back to say the mail wouldn't be delivered.

More than that, they were emailing threats. If I don't email them within 48 hours with my real name, they'll cancel my order and refund me. No, I wanted this! Second email. They're going to cancel me within 24 hrs if I don't email them my real name. Well, I finally noticed these in my spam filter, and I wrote back to them.

I have no idea if that'll be good enough. You can't ship to As Was at my confirmed PayPal address? Maybe next they'll delay my order because they don't like the area code of my phone number. I read the policies in their listing, and I do NOT remember seeing that they won't ship a package to a business name.

[ Shipping ] • Signature required for receipt of delivery (except USPS deliveries).
• Please allow 2-3 Business days for your order to be processed.
• Available for shipping in the US ONLY (including Hawaii, Alaska & Puerto Rico).
• Cannot be shipped to PO Boxes, APO/FPO, Canada or any other non-US addresses.
• We do not process orders/offers/customer service inquiries during the weekend.

I rest my case. I made sure to give them a street address because I READ THIS.

When I ding them for communication and shipping time, I hope they don't wonder why. I hope they don't think they got a crappy buyer. If you are emailing the PayPal address and not the eBay account, realise that you could be doing something like this. Use eBay to contact me or email me at the address I used to buy from you. My PayPal address is another story. If you need the address to have a human name on it, put that in your listings. Unlike most eBay shoppers, I read your policies! You weren't clear enough. You delayed my order because you needed something I had NO idea you needed.

So all the people complaining that eBay changes are going to hurt them, ask yourself what you can do better. Ask yourself why buyers don't give you better ratings. What expectations are you setting up? What policies did you give them? Did you leave anything out? Did you write so much that I'm unlikely to read all of it? When you emailed your buyer, did you threaten to cancel their order within 48 hours? Communication is within your control. eBay is creating a high standard. How you match up to that standard is within your control.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Beware of This Email Spoof

I got this in the email. Of course it's fake. The "sign up" link was to a Russian web address, so it's not eBay.com by far. But I think most people would click on this. Please don't click on this!

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

eBay Boycott & President's Day Week

Many schoolkids have this week off for President's Day Week. Many parents take off to travel.

Those parents may not list eBay items this week as they are away, and can't really mind the store.

So how much of any decrease in eBay listings is from the boycott, and how many because some sellers may be on family vacations this week?

We'll never know. :) I guess the boycott people picked the wrong week OR picked it on purpose to try to claim vacationers as boycotters.

Posted at 02:08 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

eBay Boycott & President's Day Week

Many schoolkids have this week off for President's Day Week. Many parents take off to travel.

Those parents may not list eBay items this week as they are away, and can't really mind the store.

So how much of any decrease in eBay listings is from the boycott, and how many because some sellers may be on family vacations this week?

We'll never know. :) I guess the boycott people picked the wrong week OR picked it on purpose to try to claim vacationers as boycotters.

Posted at 12:08 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Don't Believe Everything You Read

The media would rather latch on to a negative-sounding eBay story than a positive one.

I can tell you that certain publications used to call me ALL the time to interview me. I typically gave a positive look at most eBay moves and changes, and they seemed very interested in my takes on things. And every time their articles came out, there was no quote from me. Instead, there were quotes from certain other people in my industry who you can rely on to give negative quotes. Yes, this person seems convinced that every eBay move is a 100% wrong one, and all of his software users are against it.

That's what the media printed. Not what I said about how the change will help some people. Not BOTH opinions about the eBay move or change. Just the negative one.

And Mr. Negative Quote is the same guy who told me a couple of years ago that NONE of his users are interested in branding and marketing themselves. Really? Including the ones who are my clients because they wanted our help with branding and marketing?

This is the same guy who has been against every eBay change, even ones that have worked out well for his target user base.

And then I read that people don't want to sell or buy after reading these articles and blog posts. Well that's just sad. I think it's a shame that we do such little critical thinking of our own that we read a typically-slanted article in the media, and make life decisions based on what really boil down to opinions.

It's all opinions. Look, even science reports change. Remember when cigarettes were healthy? :) Don't believe everything you read. Remember that the media is going to print what people want to read, and for the most part, that's pop stars imploding and eBay pissing people off. When's the last time a media outlet asked me to find them happy eBay sellers to interview? I have them ready and waiting!

And let's not forget junk science. I've seen a figure floating around that the new fees will mean a 66% increase in fees for sellers. I can't make that math work. So far, the clients I spoke to and the math I did show people's fees going down. One friend of mine will see her fees go up an average of 50 cents per sold item. That's not enough for her to care. So exactly WHO is seeing their fees go up 66%, and out of all the possible math examples, why are people latching on to this one?

Don't stop or refuse to buy or sell on eBay because of a media article or blog post, even in what you consider to be a reputable newspaper or magazine. You have NO idea what's going on behind the scenes. Not all of it, but plenty of it is a manipulation. It's not balanced. It doesn't look at multiple sides of an issue.

How many articles have you seen about sellers who are HAPPY about the changes eBay just announced? Some of those happy people are my clients, and I have them ready to be interviewed. Would you read that? Would you believe it, or after everything else that's been written, do you believe that all sellers hate the announced changes?

Somehow, people watch commercials for drugs for literally made-up diseases, think they have these diseases, and start taking drugs for them. So eBay in the media is not the only place we're being manipulated... not by a long shot, and I won't even get into politics! I say just start thinking for yourself more. Research and look at multiple sides of an issue. There can't be only one side.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Lazy eBay Sellers

OK I don't think all eBay sellers are lazy, but I got your attention so I can say this.

I've been getting a lot of feedback from my blog posts and mailing list mailings, and the word seems to be that buyers have a lot of negative experiences buying on eBay, and these are not eBay's fault. This is about how sellers operate.

Between my own buying experiences and what people are reporting to me, sellers are lazy. Their policies in their listings might be overly wordly, hard to understand, grumpy, incomplete, or outdated. LOTS of sellers I talk to tell me their policies have changed, but they don't have time to go back into every item and change their policies, one by one. Of course, if they used a template and the policies were there, that would solve that.

The equivalent of this is if you went into a retail store and they had policies hanging up. You read them. You then tried to go by their policies and found that they changed them but didn't bother making up a new sign yet. Well that's a bad experience, and you may not shop there again out of lack of trust.

We know that eBay is making changes because of buyer trust issues.

How about the definition of "new"? There has always been a debate as to whether "new" and "brand new" are the same thing. How about something that's "factory fresh" or "open box"? If someone opened the box and returned it, is is still new?

It seems that some sellers are not being honest ENOUGH about the conditions of items. I had this in another flavour with a seller from whom I wanted to buy. His listing said his items were refurbished and tended to have some cosmetic damage, but were working fine. His listing said that the photo he was showing of the item may NOT be the item I'm buying. I emailed him and asked him to show me a photo of the exact items he could sell me so I could see how much damage they had. He replied that he doesn't have time to take pictures of every item he has, and I'd just have to assume that the damage is minimal.

No thanks! Let's not assume! I had to weigh the savings on that item against the potential for disappointment because I would be assuming "minimal cosmetic damage."

Hey eBay sellers. Hands up... how many of you want your shoppers coming up with their own ideas and expectations about the condition of your item? Few of you I'm sure since you know the shopper will imagine it to be better than it might be. Then they get disappointed, and feedback and DSRs go down. Meanwhile, you're thinking that the shopper is a jerk since you said it has some cosmetic damage, and didn't the shopper know that. Yes, we knew that, but HOW MUCH, we did not know. So you left us to imagine, and we imagined. Then we saw it, and found that you and I don't have the same definition of "minimal."

Imagine going to a retail store and buying something, but the clerk tells you that the one you get may or may not look like the one you picked out. Would you still complete that transaction? Would you shop there again?

Why leave these up to chance? Why leave the shopper to guess and imagine? You could be doing a much better job. No matter what changes eBay makes, you could probably be doing a much better job communicating item conditions and policies.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The eBay Boycott This Week

I've been hearing about the boycott this week, and I wonder how many sellers have to be a part of it or how much revenue the boycotters want eBay to lose to consider it successful. 100 sellers? 500 sellers? 1000 sellers? 7000 sellers? Given that past boycotts haven't made eBay change, at what mark do we call it a success?

If eBay has around 1 million people who are serious part-time or full-time eBay sellers, the estimated 7000 boycotters from this demographic is participation of 0.54%. I'm not sure any company is swayed by the actions of 0.54% of its biggest users. That's a tiny radar blip.

And with some sellers saying their sales are down and they're in a post-holiday selling/US economy slump, who is going to stop listing and selling on eBay this week? People need the sales, and I think there are other ways to get eBay's attention.

I do hope that eBay is listening to what people are saying. I do want change and I like some of the ones they announced, but they need to do more. They need to restore the power balance in feedback as it's heading too far towards buyer power, and sellers I know who use Amazon have complained about some of that problem there. I want higher standards for PowerSellers, but 4.5 on all DSRs may be too high.

I think that if you want eBay's attention, somebody should be compiling a list of all the PowerSellers who have at least one DSR under 4.5. These are the people who will be disadvantaged in Best Match search results, lose their PowerSeller status, and therefore not get the 5% or 15% fee discounts. eBay should know who these people are and now many there are. They can then decide if making 4.5 the threshhold is too high or just right. If eBay is OK with most of the eCommerce Forum attendees, my clients, and PowerSellers I know losing the PS status and being disadvantaged in search, then their change is the right move.

But I wouldn't understand that.

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Amen, Sista :)

http://whatdoisell.com/blog/ebay/should-you-participate-in-the-feb-18th-ebay-boycott/

Well said.

And one more thing. Based on what I read on the eBay discussion forums, other sellers bullying you and making you feel like you're not a part of a 'movement' unless you strike this week is also NOT a good reason to strike. If you want to be part of that movement, you're part of it for whatever that means to you. I read some very upsetting posts from single Moms who rely on eBay for income. Those people shouldn't be striking.

Well nobody should in my opinion. I agree with Lisa that you are likely to lose more in sales than gain eBay's ear.

Posted at 07:34 PM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sellers Leaving Negs For All Buyers?

I just heard that some eBay sellers are leaving negative feedback for every buyer to protest to eBay because eBay is going to remove the ability for a seller to leave a buyer negative feedback.

This is like beating your wife to protest the amount of domestic violence that goes on.

It's just childish. Sellers leaving undeserved negs for buyers is the problem in the first place. If sellers hadn't been leaving negative feedback for buyers who did nothing wrong other than not liking what went on in the transaction, eBay wouldn't have to do something like this. Sellers abused the system, and now eBay is giving you a time out!

I have seen plenty of eBay listings that say that if the buyer leaves a negative feedback, the seller will automatically leave a negative. That means that if you don't like my service, you are to keep quiet. It's extortion. Sellers HATE when buyers do feedback extortion... like a buyer who wants to return something after the return period is up. The seller might say no, and the buyer leaves a negative out of anger that they couldn't control the situation. But sellers are using negative feedback for extortion too.

If sellers hadn't been doing that, eBay wouldn't have to crack down on it. You took a system that was supposed to be about honest communication and true appraisals of each other, and you made it into a tool for leverage. The system no longer works when EITHER party uses it for leverage or revenge. Sellers already have something in place for buyers who use it for extortion. You can report it, and eBay will remove it since eBay has a rule against feedback extortion from a buyer.

But even with the power on the seller's side, sellers kept using their power. It's all made the feedback system meaningless, and now things are shifting to DSRs because feedback is becoming meaningless.

Sellers will now have to actually communicate well, describe items well, ship well, and be a good seller. If a buyer wields too much power, report him for feedback extortion. But eBay took your power away because too many people abused it.

I'm NOT for what eBay has done. I believe the feedback system needs to change because it has become meaningless. I don't know what needs to be done, but I understand WHY eBay is doing this. I hope they'll try some other things too since removing the seller's ability to leave negatives for crappy buyers may not solve any problems either.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why I Might Give You Low DSRs

To me, the main problem is that sellers, especially big ones, don't want to change. I think every year, eBay makes changes to make people change. If they wanted everybody to stay the same, that's easy, and nothing evolves. But they want people to change.

A very angry vocal seller at eCom Forum was saying how DSRs will destroy her. I looked at her listing, and she's doing a not-that-great job of communicating her policies. So honestly, I'm not surprised that there are some buyers who have wrong expectations about her shipping time and pricing, and her DSRs reflect that. I sent her a LONG email about what I'd change, and I didn't hear back. Maybe she's just making the changes and maybe she didn't want to hear that this stuff is within her control.

Communication is in your control, and with DSRs really being a reflection of expectations, sellers could be doing a better job to communicate so that buyers have expectations that'll match what sellers will deliver.

I just bought an item on eBay last week. After waiting days to hear from the seller, I found that he was emailing me at an email address different than the one I bought from... so it went into my spam filter and he didn't verify himself. I finally noticed it in my spam filter as garbage. And what was he saying? Even though I gave him a PayPal confirmed address, he was going to cancel my order in 24 hours if I didn't send him my personal name (my PayPal address has my business name on it).

NOWHERE in his policies did it say he needed a personal name to ship to, and I read every policy he had. I gave him my street address because his policies said NO PO Boxes. I was a good buyer and READ the stuff. Now, if I ding him on DSRs for communication and shipping time (he delayed shipping to me for many days), he will probably think I'm an unreasonable jerk when he SHOULD be asking himself (or ask ME – why not try follow up surveys with buyers) what I might not have liked about that experience. Where did what he did not match the expectations he set up for me in his listing and policies? I have an answer, and it's not that I'm an arbitrary, bitchy buyer.

But sellers don't always see that. From speaking to sellers, it sounds like anybody who ever gave them less than a 5 on DSRs is just a jerk. Statistically speaking, we can't all be jerks. Some of us have good reasons for what we chose.

Posted at 07:54 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Renting Things for Conferences

I'm working on the final planning for our upcoming conference, and I have to say that I don't understand who is the target audience for renting stuff from conference centres.

They was over $300 per day (after tax and service charge) per laptop computer. My event is 3 days. I have a client who sells refurb Dell laptops, some for under $400. Why would I rent a computer for $900 when I can buy it for $400?

They want nearly $800 per day for 4 wireless microphones, their belt packs, and the transmitter. My event is 3 days, so that's $2400. I can buy a name brand wireless mic with belt pack and transmitter on eBay for under $200 per microphone set. Why would I rent four for $2400 when I can buy four for under $1000?

I just don't get this stuff. If I were in the rental business, I would price things so that it's attractive to rent... so that it makes more sense for me to rent it there than to bring it with me or ship it back and forth. At these prices, I'm better off BUYING these things, shipping them or flying with them, and hoping I find more ways to use them down the road.

It's just bad marketing.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Psycho Hershey's Kisses

I visited a friend who had some Hershey's Kisses out for snacking. I snacked!

The white tab coming out of the top had weird messages. I know for Valentine's Day, Hershey's does lovey dovey messages. I have no idea what Kisses set these messages came from. They included:

• You love me (that's forward!)
• I miss recess (how old are we?)
• I like you (non-committal)
• Ouch (ouch!)

Are these Kisses for 2nd graders or something? Who is the target audience here?

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Anti-Perspirant Effectiveness

The Today Show, in their 47th hour one day last week, had a segment that included a tip on how to make your anti-perspirant more effective.

Put it on the night before.

Evidently, scientifically speaking, it will be more effective the next day because it's had more time to settle into pores. OK, but that means that you're sleeping through the night and starting your next day without washing your underarms. You might even get into a hot shower and get wet but not wash off the anti-perspirant, if you're following this advice.

I'm starting to think that this advice could lead to other things... like not washing. Like going into a hot shower, raising your body temperature, possibly sweating, possibly not washing your underarms since you wouldn't want to wash off last night's antiperspirant. and then not putting an anti-perspirant because hey, that's what The Today Show said.

Boooo.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Write What You Know...

I went to college with a girl I won't name since I'm not writing this to embarrass her. I didn't really know her, but she was in my Creative Writing - Poetry class. Please do not continue reading if you can't deal with a word used for certain private body parts. I'm going to use it a LOT. Please don't be offended. It is the correct term for this part.

No matter what the assignment was, she wrote a poem that was clearly about a vagina. There were many poetic descriptions of the physical landscape of said part. Lots of poems. Finally, the class asked her to write about something else. She had no idea what we were talking about. Evidently, every poem was about vagina without her noticing.

She wrote a play the school performed. I didn't see it, but my friend still says lines from it as a joke. Something about if a dog had bitten you, it would have given you its name.

I lost track of her (as we weren't friends) but I saw her name pop up when she was a writer for... wait for it... Sex and the City. Yep! Vagina again.

After that gig ended, I remember seeing her on some website offering her writing services to people who wanted a professional writer to write their bios for dating websites.

?!!?!?

Vagina again, nonetheless. I lost track of her again, but she just popped up last week when I found an interview with her about something she just wrote. I won't say what it is so you can't find her. But in the interview, she referred to being a novelist. Really? I looked her up on Amazon.com.

Well hold on to your vagina, but she's written a book about vagina. Yes, in 2006, she wrote a book about a teenage girl DYING to lose her virginity, and what she goes through I guess to accomplish that. Evidently this book is for "grade 9 and up." Amazon ratings from Sex and the City fans were high. Ratings from real people who might have teen children were quite low. They were fairly appauled by the subject matter and how it was approached. I didn't read it, but from what was written there, it sounds like it may not be the right message to today's teen girls.

So I told a few friends about this person and her whole story as witnessed by me in blips, and they decided to list the Top Ten Self Help Books if written by this person. 10 is the best, so imagine you're counting down...

1. I'm Vagina, You're Vagina
2. Men Are From Mars, Women Have Vaginas
3. Chicken Soup for the Vagina
4. The Seven Vaginas of Highly Effective People (I think this would be funnier as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Vaginas)
5. The Four Hour Vagina (Four Hour Workweek, people, don't go there)
6. Rich Vagina, Poor Vagina
7. Freakovagina-ics
8. DaVagina Code
9. The Secret (Vagina)
10. Who Moved My Vagina?

And there you have it! Sorry to use such language, but all I can say to that author, once again, we ask you to find another topic! Surely, you must know something else you can write about! They say "write what you know," but that poetry class was in like 1990! Let's move on!

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Female Impersonators Holding A Benefit...

I'm still trying to make sense of this. Evidently, local female impersonators are holding a benefit to support young horseback riders who need money to go to a national competition. ?!?!!

I can't tell if this is good or bad marketing since I don't know what the target audience is for young horse riders needing fund raising.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Life and Business Coaching

I remember a few years ago, so many people seemed to be Life Consultants or Business Consultants or Life Coaches, insert similar title here. At first I thought it was great. People will be helping people get organised, make better decisions, etc... People are taking their natural talents for helping people and making it into a business. I thought this sounded good.

Now, I am a bit confused. Evidently, you can now train to be a Life Coach. So maybe you don't have a natural talent for it, but you can pay so-and-so $XXXX (usually 4 figures) to learn how to be a Life Coach or some kind of Success Coach. Some programmes have famous names attached to them, some are offered by people possibly none of us know.

This page will tell you how to build your client base and "passive income" using the internet.

Some people have created their own Certified Life Coach certificate, which I guess you can show to people to prove you are great at this.

And now, you can train to do Personal Coaching, Business Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Spiritual Coaching, Mentor Coaching, Executive Coaching, Career Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Corporate Coaching, or Success Coaching. So someone who went into Coaching for the $opportunity$ is going to coach executives? People on their personal life matters and relationships? Isn't this what therapists and psychologists are for?

This all makes me a little sad. I had always thought that a Life Coach was someone who was naturally good at helping people, and turned it into a business. Now, it looks like it's something that is advertised out there as an "income opportunity" and an "elite club" that you need to pay thousands to join. This means that people are certifying people who may or may not be good at this.

I mean, how do they train you for this? Do you get scripts of what to say to people? Do you learn the ethics of dealing with people's private issues and concerns? Can you do Executive Coaching if you've never been an Executive? Are there any barriers in any of these programmes, or can anybody just do this?

I guess this explains why I go to small business meetups and other meetups in town, and when we all say what we do, it seems like 1/3 of the people there are some sort of "Coach." Well, Coaches, the economy is down. Spending and in some cases stupid spending is up. Businesses are struggling. People make poor relationship choices. There are more Coaches than ever before. So get out there and help people so we can turn this all around!

Posted at 07:10 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

NFIB Summit?

At eCom Forum, inside our swag, was a promo for the NFIB Summit. I hadn't heard of the NFIB, but the promo piece said they're the voice of small business. One trip to the website about this event cleared that up!

After a speech by NFL Hall Of Famer Roger Staubach (small business?), here is the agenda:

I'm supposed to register for an event where people were invited but may not be attending or speaking? This also seems VERY Republican, and may not be for everybody.

Well, it seems like a lobbying thing. If you're into that, you can go to that!

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What eBay Should Change

I was reading a bit of an AuctionBytes interview yesterday with the guy from IMA, and he said something about how eBay should accept everybody's payments (or something like that). It made me think about the changes I think eBay should make to solve certain problems...

Problem: Buyers can be deadbeats.
Solution: eBay should treat every BIN, fixed price item, and Store item as IPR (immediate payment required). That way, the FVF isn't charged and the listing not ended/decremented unless the buyer pays. Anything that's an auction, eBay should be watching when the payment is made by being some part of the checkout process, even if the checkout is redirected to a third party site. eBay wouldn't collect the payment like Amazon does, but it would push people to PayPal to pay up.

Problem: Sellers want to know which buyers are slow to pay.
Solution: If eBay knows when every buyer pays, the buyer can get a rating of, on average, how many days it takes them to pay. The lower the better! Buyers who tend to pay within 24 hrs of the item ending (including the IPRs) would get a rating of 1. eBay averages all of their payment times, and comes up with a rating. Sellers can then set from their Preferences if they don't want bids or buys from buyers with a PayItNow :) rating of let's say more than 7. That means the seller is willing to wait for a buyer who tends to pay within a week but doesn't want a buyer who takes 8 days to pay. I'd probably pick 15 as I'm more patient. :) Sellers who like to check bidder feedback for negatives can use this rating. The feedbacks left in each direction should be marked with how many days it took the buyer to pay.

Problem: Buyers feel like sellers have leverage over them. Sellers want leverage over buyers to make sure they pay and aren't jerks. The feedback system ranges from meaningless to dishonest.
Solution: Other sites on the web do not collect buyer ratings. Your ecommerce website doesn't. Best Buy doesn't rate you. Amazon sellers don't rate you. And somehow, we all get along just fine. I can live with removing the ability for seller to rate buyers if sellers have a new process for reporting an "abusive" buyer. Sometimes, things don't quite make it to the point of Feedback Extortion, but we've all had that unreasonable buyer. Like UPIs, you should get a certain amount of Abusive Buyer marks before you and all of your current and future IDs are suspended. We don't want you, Abusive Buyer!

Problem: There is no standard for what shipping should cost. Sellers get in trouble for their shipping not being appropriate while sellers with higher shipping on the same items don't get in trouble. Sellers break the fee circumvention rule by charging too much for shipping. Buyers  are so used to free or nearly free shipping on other sites that anything they pay for shipping seems unreasonable. Yet, eBay sellers are supposed to pack and ship with the best materials, and they should charge buyers for that. Buyers respond with low DSRs for shipping, leading to good sellers being disavantaged in search or losing their PowerSeller status.
Solution: If eBay regulates shipping, people will go insane. But eBay should standardise shipping in some way. Maybe switch to an "all inclusive" pricing, especially for items over a certain value, where shoppers would just see their total price to their location. So seller A with a $15 item and $10 shipping would look "the same" pricewise as a seller with a $20 item (the same item) and $5 shipping. The "all inclusive" price would be item + shipping + handling + any mandatory insurance. Optional insurance as taxes would be calculated later.
        You'd then need to charge FVF on the "all inclusive" price, and I'd then want to see FVF percentages go back down since eBay will now get a percentage of a higher number. Yes, sellers would have to scramble to re-price things, but at least we remove buyers' perceptions of shipping and handling prices (which means no more shipping price DSR at all - that would go away), and we remove the fee circumvention that comes with sellers manipulating their item and shipping prices.

Problem: Shpping price DSRs are killing good sellers. The "low" ratings, even when buyers are giving them a 4 for "reasonable," are going to lead to sellers seeing their items disadvantaged in searches or lose their PowerSeller status... which would lead to a loss of the new fee discount amongst other things.
Solution: Two solutions here. First, have the cut off be 4.2 and not 4.6. If eBay tells buyers that 4 is a good rating, then let's not hurt people who mostly get 4's. eBay is using 4.2 as their search disadvantage cut-off, so use that here too. Second, I know that many sellers may not want to pay FVFs on their shipping and handling prices, but look again at my above idea about "all inclusive" pricing. I believe that it could be well worth it if the sellers see lower FVFs and no more shipping price DSR.

Hands up, who wants no more shipping DSR? See? :)

I think that eBay is on the right track with their changes, but they're only half of what needs to be done for the whole site to highlight better sellers, disadvantage or remove worse sellers, get rid of bad buyers, and improve trust all around.

Posted at 08:11 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

It's on eBay Discussion Forums

Someone barked at me the other day that anything any decent eBay seller could ever need to know can be found for free on the eBay discussion forums. Evidently there is no use for any classes, seminars, meetings, or conferences covering eBay topics because anything anybody could know or say is for free on the forums.

I didn't agree.

But someone just showed me a link that made me joke to myself, OK I do agree. Someone I won't name is evidently updating one of the books he has published. He went to the eBay forums to get information on certain changes. http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?messageID=1011683923&anticache=1201473729564

So I guess if you DO want to know about those, you can find them for free on an eBay discussion forum, and you actually don't need that guy's book!

Interesting. Bad marketing. You'd think he could contact a few people he knows just quietly.

Posted at 05:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Seek and Ye Shall Find

I believe that if you are looking for something, you will find it. Whatever you find, it will support whatever you were looking for. It's another flavour of "what goes around comes around" in that I believe that if you put a thought or intention out there, you'll find something that "proves you right." So someone who complains that something bad "always happens to them" will probably see that keep happening to them. It comes around!

The example I was thinking of today was about going to listen to someone speak. Let's say that there's a guy who does seminars, and I think he's a jerk. Maybe I met him once or I read him online, and I've developed a certain impression. And let's say the person sitting next to me doesn't really know the speaker, but came out of interest in the topic.

At the end of the talk, we might stand up, look at each other, and express what we thought. I might say, "See, just like I thought, that guy is a jerk. Doesn't know what he's talking about, and the whole audience knows he's a sham." The other person might look at me and say, "I thought he was great! He gave me so many good ideas, and I'm going to go buy his book."

What happened? We both heard the same talk. Did I really hear NO good ideas? Maybe I didn't let myself hear good ideas because I had already decided that I don't like this guys... and we all like to be right... so we find "evidence" that supports us. We'd rather look in the mirror and prove to ourselves that we're right about that guy than to "flip flop" and have heard something good from him.

People don't like when other people change their minds. We call them flip-floppers and ruin their credibility. I dated a guy who used to tell me that he found it impossible that I could change my mind how I sometimes did, so he had to assume that one way I believed was a lie. Those are strong words! I used to tell him that I changed my mind because I got new information that made me change how I saw something. Nope, he told me I must be lying. OoooooooK.

So seek something good and find that! Seek the best in people. Seek yourself on your best day. Seek good information from a speaker. :)

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)