eBay is enhancing its feedback and buyer protection programs:
5-star DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings) given automatically for free and fast shipping
Buyers leaving feedback now reminded of your specified item condition and delivery dates
Streamlined hub makes it easier to report your experience with a buyer. You have access to it at your fingertips—in the Feedback flow, Feedback Forum, from your Seller Dashboard, Contact Us and in the eBay Buyer Protection hub. New Seller Dashboard module shows the number of times Feedback and Buyer Protection cases were removed from your account as a result of your report and eBay’s detection systems
Added checks prevent buyers from opening Buyer Protection cases too soon
Escalated Buyer Protection cases found in your favor are removed from your performance record
Threatening to use Feedback to get refunds, goods and services not included in an item description is now specifically prohibited by eBay policy
Over the last couple of years there have been many feedback changes designed either to protect buyers or to raise the standard of service that sellers give. It’s good to see some rebalancing to protect sellers from the odd rogue buyer.
eBay is trying to participate in the new trends of the season by allowing users to see what items are hot on eBay using "hot trends on eBay". Often times the products popping up in “Trends on eBay” are Black Friday sales elsewhere.
Consumers are posting Black Friday 2010 deals on eBay as soon as they are finding the deals in the stores. Consumers are looking for Black Friday Ads on these deals on eBay or at retailers. Another option for finding good Black Friday Deals in 2010 is to take a close look at the overseas deals on eBay for items like LCD TVs and other electronics. Sales for Black Friday are often supplied by the same manufacturers that are selling their wares directly on eBay.
Buyers are earning a few hundred dollars by also becoming sellers: they are buying during Black Friday specials, Cyber Monday sales or during the Thanksgiving 2010 specials and turning around and selling them on eBay.
Many newcomers to eBay simply do not know how to make their items sell at eBay auctions. People who auction off a big ticket item, such as a car, land or house, will often employ the services of an eBay Trading Assistant, because it is a one time event and they probably will not sell again on eBay for a period of time. For serious trading assistants these items could add up to Huge commissions!
Most of the time trading assistants would be responsible for all aspect of the eBay auction, which would include shipping the item to the customer and collecting the money. For higher ticket items, the people who hire Trading Assistants get access to all trading assistant marketing materials which are very helpful. An approved trading assistant must have sold at least ten items in the last 90 days, a feedback score of 100 with 97% positive feedback or higher, and your eBay account must be in excellent standing.
eBay will be introducing a bar code scanning software to its iPhone app next month. Australians will soon be able to compare in-store prices with internet shopping prices by scanning items with their cell phone camera.
The Red Laser technology, acquired by eBay in June from Amazon, would also be used to refresh barcode promotions, marketing campaigns and discount offers. Steve Yankovich, global VP of eBay mobile, said iPhone users would be able to scan a barcode and see if the item was being sold on eBay. Sellers could also quickly list items by scanning barcodes, which would automatically fill in description details. He added that eBay is working to establish a database of Australian barcodes and items.
"That's our job, to build a catalog of items, so when a barcode is scanned it is connected to a series of keywords or the correct model number", Yankovich said.
"Users can also scan a car barcode and it will bring up a list of parts and accessories available online."
CraigsEasy is a free tool that helps visualize any classified website - thereby improving the search experience. It is optimized to work with Craigslist and eBay, but is not affiliated to CraigsList and works with any website. This is yet another example of businesses springing up around Craigslist / eBay (Ref: WeGoLook)
How it Works: Drag and drop the application in your favorites. Then search the classified website. When search results are shown, click on downloaded application from favorites. CraigsEasy will go through all the links, extract the images, and display them on the same page. Click on any of the images and you’re taken back to the original posting to which it belongs.
PayPal is on track to eclipse the "core" auctions business of its parent company eBay. And over the past couple of weeks, it has solidified its position on several fronts — transactions on mobile devices, within Facebook, via micropayments, and for point-of-sale (i.e., "real world") purchases. Over the past year, eBay's online-payments business, which includes Bill Me Later as well as PayPal, grew from 30% of the company's total revenues to 37% ($838M).
Mobile payments represent the biggest area of growth for both the industry as a whole and for PayPal. MasterCard and Visa are both assembling systems for mobile payments. There are rumors that PayPal will become the default payments method for Android apps on Google phones.
eBay, Amazon and other fashion brands are entering mobile shopping space
These companies are reaching out to mobile customers by enabling interactive mobile shopping experiences
Amazon is favoring browsing (category selection) versus search (i.e., typing a keyword search) as a necessary part of the shopping experience
For eBay, mobile commerce is the future; they expects mobile commerce to surpass traditional ecommerce sales. eBay mobile team has increased from 3 to 70 people in last 1.5 years
eBay joined a host of mass-customization sites that enable buyers to create outfits by opening its “Fashion Vault.” Now, with an innovative product configurator that they call an “outfit builder,” eBay has enabled shoppers to create outfits by mixing and matching the millions of garments available on eBay. The Vault recently opened for business on mobile devices, enabling users to “try the clothes on” by taking a snapshot of themselves and adding shots of the clothes to the image.
Amazon, meanwhile, has introduced a similar service to the iPad – although the application experiments with enhancing the product discovery experience with touch-screen navigation. iPad users can now shop for items at the online retailer without relying on conventional keyword search. The application optimizes for the mobile environment by allowing users to easily scroll via touching and swiping – without the need to type.
In addition to ecommerce juggernauts eBay and Amazon, swaths of fashion brands and startups have entered the mobile shopping space. These new mobile services are a clear indication that the worlds of fashion, ecommerce, social media, mass customization and the mobile Internet are all colliding. Specifically, these vendors are finding opportunity by:
Focusing on mobile: These companies are reaching out to mobile customers by enabling interactive mobile shopping experiences. Mobile is no longer an experiment – it is as important as the Internet.
Focusing on browse rather than search: Amazon especially is favoring browsing (category selection) versus search (i.e., typing a keyword search) as a necessary part of the shopping experience.
In the context of a touch-screen, browse can be more visual, faster and more intuitive than a conventional keyword search.
Social sharing and recommendations: EBay’s service allows customers to recommend products to friends – and even group fashion outfits together to recommend as gifts that can be paid for collectively by groups of friends. As ecommerce becomes more mobile, it inherently becomes more social.
Virtual try it on: For the first time, eBay is letting users virtually try on clothes via a mobile device.
The inability to try on clothing over the Internet has been the Achilles’ heel of ecommerce. Many companies are now innovating in the digital shopping space by experimenting with virtual fitting rooms.
And how big is mobile shopping going to be for online retailers? EBay expects mobile commerce to surpass traditional ecommerce sales. As put by eBay product manager Oliver Cockcroft: “For eBay, mobile commerce is the future, and our plan is to innovate and hit the gas pedal – we don’t see the steep growth trajectory of mobile commerce changing.”
“We went from three people on the eBay mobile team to 70 in the last year and a half. … In the future, we will see our mobile commerce business surpass our ecommerce business, especially when you take tablets into account.”
Nov 11, 2010
Angie's List today announced that it has closed on $2.5M in additional financing from its most recent round. Multiple institutional investors contributed to the $22.5M announced last month. The additional infusion comes from San Francisco-based Saints Capital.
Angie's List, the nation's premier provider of consumer-focused information and reviews, will use the additional investment to expand its Health and Wellness consumer reviews product, as well as its "The Big Deal" local group coupon program.
Angie's List launched in 1995 with a focus on local home, yard and car services, gathering information door-to-door and offering service through a telephone call-in and a monthly magazine. Angie's List now serves more than 1M paid members, primarily via the angieslist.com website, but still offering a call-in service and the monthly magazine.
Angie's List holds a unique position at the intersection of local search, user-generated content and subscription-based services. Further setting the company apart is the complete focus on the consumer. Angie's List is dedicated to serving as the "honest broker," providing information and buying power to its members. Angie's List does not allow anonymous postings and service providers cannot review themselves.
Angie's List's latest expansions include offering group coupons marketed as "the Angie's List Big Deal" in more than 30 local markets. The company expects to offer local group coupons in more than 50 markets by the end of 2010. Angie's List Health and Wellness continues to grow dramatically as members embrace their ability to research local doctors, compare and negotiate prices for medical treatment.
Angie's List collects consumer reviews on local contractors and doctors in more than 500 service categories. Currently, more than 1M consumers across the U.S. rely on Angie's List to help them make the best hiring decisions. Investors include Aquent, BV Capital, Battery Ventures, Lighthouse Capital Partners and Wasatch Advisors.
Whenever it comes to getting an excellent deal on a used vehicle, purchasing from a private seller is definitely the way to go. In these difficult financial times, many Americans are turning to websites such as craigslist.org to buy their next vehicle.
Craigslist has been around for many years and is an excellent source for finding "For sale - by owner" vehicles. Here you can search for sale section by city and take a look at hundreds of postings in your local area. In some major cities, hundreds of new listings are posted each day on craigslist. You can purchase anything from a television to a new home. When it comes to peer to peer trading, this website is king.
Buying a vehicle on craigslist is fairly straightforward but requires a little bit of effort. You must first search for a vehicle that meets your needs and budget. Craigslist is broken down into several different categories for each city in the United States and around the world. Simply choose the city that you live in and get to the cars and trucks for sale section. You can search craigslist by keyword and/or price range. Enter your search criteria and start looking for your next used vehicle.
If you are not sure how a used vehicle should operate, bring along a friend who has automotive knowledge. Before buying a vehicle in craigslist, you will want to have the vehicle inspected by a mechanic.
eBay previewed its new eBay Motors app that is set to launch in 2011. In addition to giving iPhone owners the ability to search and bid on cars and parts, eBay has polished up the search feature and added a 'garage' feature that car store information about cars your currently own so that you can find parts or list the car for sale with ease.
With the search feature, creating custom searches based on make, model, year will be cooler thanks to a custom home screen search. Once you put in all of your search criteria, you can save that search as a home page that will shuffle through search results as soon as the app is opened. Similar to the website, if you find a vehicle and want to know more information, full vehicle history, reports, images, and the ability to contact the seller and bid on the item is available. Additionally, users can share items on the popular social networks.
Another major feature will be the ability to store information about the cars your currently own via your 'garage'. You can choose to manually add your car's information, or scan the VIN barcode to automagically populate your garage with your car's info. From there, you can search eBay Motors for parts (and store custom searches), create to-do lists and projects, and share your garage on your social networks.
oDesk, the largest and fastest-growing global employment platform, announced today (Nov8) findings from its October Online Employment Report. Most notably, demand for Android skills has grown an astonishing 710% in October 2010 as compared with October 2009, reflecting the rise in popularity of mobile applications as well as the Android platform itself. The report, which tracks trends in online employment, also shows a steady increase in online contract work overall, underscoring the critical role it continues to play in a post-recession economy. Contract work at oDesk increased 121% in October relative to October 2009.
The boom in demand for Android skills appears to be the result of two distinct trends. First, mobile business applications are emerging as an important tool to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Across all platforms, the number of jobs requiring proficiency in mobile applications is growing. Second, the introduction of a variety of new mobile phones on multiple carriers over the past year has generated huge momentum for the Android platform. Add to this the launch of the Android Market -- along with the easy access to mobile applications it provides to millions of users -- and developing for the platform has become very attractive to businesses of all sizes. While iPhone development is still very much in demand, the recent rapid growth of interest in developing for the Android platform is positioning it for ongoing expansion.
According to oDesk, roughly 350 Android positions were posted on oDesk during 2009. That number has more than doubled in the past month alone.
Key findings from the oDesk Online Employment Report showed:
Employers spent nearly $12M on contract work in October. Correspondingly, the number of hours online contractors worked rose 121% over October 2009
Workers familiar with Facebook have 190% more job opportunities today vs. the same time last year, illustrating social media's developing role in businesses
Demand for translators in the SMB market has grown to 340% over 2009. President Obama made a call to action for SMBs to grow and expand overseas, which may be a key driver in the growing interest for translation workers
Occam's Razor blog details his experience with using Craigslist to find a handyman. He notes how Craigslist has morphed into a powerful economic force of the 21st century. As Occam was searching for DIY tips, Google suggested to have someone else do it and this was how the ad was posted on Craigslist.
Within ten minutes of posting the ad, someone was bidding on it. Over the course of several days, close to three dozen people expressed an interest in the work. Not knowing how much something like this would cost, Occam guessed at least $50 and invited bids from contractors. Some were insulted and wouldn’t do it for less than $200. Finally, he was able to zero in on a guy (Shawn) who had done a lot of handyman work and even had a web site, who bid $85.
"Shawn may have been one of three dozen bidders for my little project, but he earns most of his money from Craigslist. “I used to put out flyers to get business,” he told me, “but Craigslist works much better.” Craigslist pretty much is his market these days. He’s a guy with an aging van who lives in an apartment in Maryland and keeps most of his gear in a public storage locker. Anonymous people on Craigslist pay him money to do odd jobs like this. From the looks of him, he probably doesn’t have any health insurance, but he manages to scrape together a living of sorts from Craigslist."
eBay and Amazon.com are fighting for customers willing to buy clothes via the Internet this holiday season, hoping to boost their results in this lucrative segment. Apparel is currently the single largest category of online sales in the U.S. but was virtually ignored by both companies in favor of electronic products like in previous years.
Although eBay says it is the largest Internet seller of clothing in bulk, not in values, comparisons with Amazon.com are not simple to do. Online sales of clothing at retailers such as Nordstrom or the Gap are growing at a double digit rate, but these units are still relatively small.
The category of clothing and accessories must represent 14% or $25B of the total $173B in projected sales over the Internet in the U.S. in 2010, according to Forrester.
Web Experts believe that Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, is favored to win the battle, while eBay is still trying to reorganize its businesses to have a picture of a business environment for new product sales, not just an auction site for used items.
With the proximity of the holiday season, both companies are betting that improvements made for the experience of buying clothes over the Internet – better viewing on your pages to partnerships with designers – will ensure growth.
The number of merchandise listings on eBay has risen dramatically over the past few years from around 1B in 2003 to around 2.9B in 2009 driven by increasing online retail penetration and rising Internet use globally. eBay charges an intermediation fee for offering sellers access to a large audience with cost effective marketing. As a result, nearly 40% of the 2.9B listings on eBay's Marketplaces platform in 2009 converted into actual sales.
Additionally, comScore reported that Q3 2010 retail ecommerce spending was up 9% vs. prior year ($32B vs. $29.6B).
There are other related businesses springing around the Craigslist / eBay model, trying to cover up for the gaps in the current system. One such company is WeGoLook. It essentially offers local people who can go and take a look at the product you want to buy through Craigslist/eBay, and submit a photo, verify model number, and for an extra charge, test out that the product is in basic working condition.
The company has 5,000+ nationwide "lookers" who are background check verified. They will primarily look at automobiles, boats, antiques, cycles, trailers, heavy equipment, rental properties, vacation properties, etc. They provide a "Basic Look", "Preferred Look" and "Field Look" and charge $49 per report.
WeGoLook.com was launched in Jan 2009 and is based in Oklahoma City, OK.
eBay recently started requiring sellers to provide automatic payment information (credit card, debit card or PayPal) to pay fees. Earlier, eBay generated an invoice after the sale and sellers had a certain time within which to pay the amount due. This change will require sellers to link their PayPal account to a credit, debit or pre-paid card or to a bank account.
This change seems to be forcing out many sellers who are not interested maintaining an automatic payment method on file. Specifically noted by some small hobby sellers:
"I totally understand your reluctance to allow this unsafe payment method & their lackeys access to your money, what with Paypal known for "Piggybacking" any chargebacks on recurring payments. Be very sure NOT to use a debit card, do NOT link them to your main bank account, and if possible use a credit card you have a good relationship with, so you can dispute any wrongful fees, since Ebay has double billed sellers before.
I REPEAT: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, ALLOW PAYPAL ACCESS TO YOUR DEBIT CARD! AND DO NOT USE PAYPAL FOR RECURRING CHARGES! These are the 2 biggest no nos, the horror stories clutter Ebay boards with sellers that have been dunned & gotten bounced checks after Paypal stole funds without permission by Piggybacking!"
Unlike Craigslist, eBay isn’t closely associated with local sales. But the company says it views itself as an ideal platform for local sellers to extend their reach online, to mass numbers of consumers. In fact, the online retailing giant sees local sales as one of three big trends it intends to pursue over the next two to three years. (The article hints that eBay will focus more on the B2B space, providing a platform for local merchants to reach mass consumers. Craigslist operates in the B2C space.)
In the future, when people search eBay for items, the site could present results in two different ways: online listings from sellers located anywhere in the world and local listings from nearby stores, said Marks. Currently, the site only does the former, though there is a “local pickup only” option that sellers can use to avoid the hassle and expense of shipping goods.
To facilitate local sales, these local listings would show up as virtual “pins” on a navigable map. Information on the stores’ locations and operating hours would help consumers decide whether to purchase something online or in person.
The two other areas of future focus are social commerce and digital goods. In early November, eBay unveiled a beta service called Group Gifts that helps groups organize purchases of big-ticket items for holidays, thank-you’s, weddings and other events. Groups can be set up via Facebook, giving these purchases a new, social dimension.
The digital goods opportunity relates to PayPal, eBay’s payments subsidiary. Marks said the proliferation of digital goods, such as online games, would boost PayPal, which can license its payment infrastructure to developers and media companies. Though PayPal has been doing similar work for years, eBay sees new potential in bringing the technology to mobile devices and integrating it inside digital products.
CNN.com ran a weeklong series on smartphones and their impact on lifestyles and culture.
One such interesting snippet was about Bud Kleppe, a 32-year-old real estate agent in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bud said he can't be away from his BlackBerry for any amount of time. He's more likely to sell a home, he said, if he responds to client e-mails within 20 minutes and to texts instantly.
