ChannelAdvisor Users: Your store of choice?
I know I have a few ChannelAdvisor customers reading my blog. This post is for you!
We are developing some automation tools for ChannelAdvisor customers, and to assist with a development roadmap I would LOVE some feedback on whether or not you use the ChannelAdvisor Store or another store altogether…
I put together a quick poll in the ChannelAdvisor Support forums, here is the link :
http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1418
Thanks for your vote!
eBay Australia Backs Down on PayPal Push
eBay.com.au released a statement yesterday notifying of their intent to withdraw its notification to the ACCC regarding the removal of other payment options from the eBay.com.au website.
This didn’t come as a big surprise.
Going to court over the matter would indeed have been a long and painful process, not to mention the amount of stress and anxiety it would cause eBay’s poor old PR team in Australia. The lesser of two evils was to withdraw the notification. Good move. They should now make some more publicly satisfying changes to try and get some goodwill back!
PayPal still remains a compulsory payment option at this stage. No doubt this will still cause some animated discussion. In fact, one website has already questioned the validity of the PayPal requirement in relation to the ACCC notice…
ChannelAdvisor Premium Stores - What will they be like?
We are currently part of a beta test group for ChannelAdvisor, testing their integration into a new ‘premium’ storefront.
I was pretty eager to put my hand up for this, as the old store has a lot of limitations and shortcomings. It certainly isn’t a best of breed product. Is the new premium store going to be worth the wait?
eBay Australia In Lose/Lose Situation
Time to change all your listings back to include all payment options?
Today eBay announced it would postpone its (now) 15th July deadline for changes of listing payment options to PayPal only, citing its requirements to wait until the review process of the ACCC regarding its recent draft notice is complete.
It seems fairly inevitable to me that the outcome will not fall in eBay’s direction.
eBay Australia seem to be in a lose/lose situation. If they struggle and fight against the ACCC, Google, and other companies and individuals that have submitted complaints to the ACCC they don’t come out of the situation looking good. If they ‘win’ they still look like the bad guy in the media, given the attention this whole situation has received.
And, if the ACCC ends up halting their effort for PayPal only, they lose again. They may then be judged as having made a poor decision to attempt to limit payment options to begin with, and they will lose (more) face with plenty of buyers and sellers.
Its a sad situation, head shaking stuff. I can’t help feeling that if they took smaller bites from the apple over time there wouldn’t have been a public and media reaction as strong as we have seen.
I do hope that other site improvements that they have planned (check out playground.ebay.com.au) ensure the sales and buyers continue to come and purchase…
Importing From China - Need Some Help?
Each day I answer emails about importing product from china. It seems that when you search in Google now for ‘Importing from china” my blog ranks pretty highly.
I have one particular buyer in China that I trust and have used for years now. He actively works with me and for me to source a few ranges of product, and I have successfully used him to source new products.
If you want to import product from China, and want to get in touch with a good agent over there to assist you, then by all means send me an email, and let me know:
- What you are looking to import
- How much of it you want to import
- Some detail on your existing business.
To put it simply I will see if you and my agent will be a good match, and if so I will be happy to forward some business to him. Any extra business I can generate for him means better bargaining for myself! Win Win.
cforms contact form by delicious:days
eBay to Phase Out 3rd Party Checkout
eBay annouced that it is to phase out 3rd party checkout.
This is a move that will impact many thousands of (usually large) eBay sellers.
It will affect us, as we use ChannelAdvisor, as do many larger sellers. ChannelAdvisor’s main markets are US and UK, and they have some very big eBay sellers using their systems.
For us, ChannelAdvisor offers the ability to:
- manage inventory and SKUS
- manage listings/ads templates
- automatically schedule and maintain ads in eBay (and soon, Trading Post)
- capture customers
- upsell on checkout
- sell into other channels like Shopping.com, Getprice
- have an online store
I was thinking about how the eBay decision to remove 3rd party checkout would affect us.
We don’t get too many upsells in checkout (where a customer can add another item to their sale on the way through payment) so there will be little impact there.
One thing it will stop is the ability to capture customers from eBay. We offer newsletter signup on the way through checkout (which can be incentivised if you like), and also promote the ability to visit our online store to buy from a wider range of items. eBay customers are not easy to convert. They tend to like shopping on eBay, and buying at auction.
Both of these things, although not contributing greatly immediately, offer some long term benefit as you grow a customer base. And you can pick up eBay customers in your mailing list and get them to buy direct. Many sellers do it, and if you aren’t you should be.
All this decision does is provide us even more incentive to grow our business outside of eBay, in more cost effective sales channels. We have received some sales from Tradingpost.com.au auctions already, and although the turnover is slow there at the moment the cost of sale is very appealing.
The ACCC proposes to revoke immunity for eBay’s PayPal only policy
This afternoon the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, an independent statutory authority formed in 1995 to administer the Trade Practices Act 1974 and other acts in Australia, issued a press release regarding it’s intent toward the pending PayPal only policy change from eBay.com.au.
The press release says:
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a draft notice proposing to revoke a notification* lodged by eBay International A.G. on 11 April 2008. Under the notification, eBay proposes to mandate the use of PayPal for almost all transactions on the eBay site.
“The ACCC is concerned that the notified conduct will allow eBay to use its market power in the supply of online marketplaces to substantially lessen competition in the market in which PayPal operates,” ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
“PayPal currently competes with a range of other providers to supply online payment services to users of online marketplaces. If the notified conduct is allowed to go ahead, there will be no competition for the supply of such services to buyers and sellers using eBay.
“Given eBay’s position as Australia’s leading online marketplace, the notified conduct will substantially reduce competition to supply online payment services to users of online marketplaces more generally.
“The ACCC acknowledges that having PayPal as the only payment provider has the potential to deliver some benefits to users, such as increased buyer protection insurance in certain circumstances. However, the ACCC believes that consumers are in the best position to decide which payment method is most suitable for them.
“The notified conduct denies them that choice. Accordingly, the ACCC considers that these benefits do not outweigh the anti-competitive effects of the conduct,” Mr Samuel said.
eBay proposes to implement the conduct in two stages. From 21 May 2008, all sellers on eBay were required to offer PayPal as one of their accepted payment methods. The second stage of the conduct is due to commence on 17 June 2008, with the requirement that all transactions on eBay must be paid for using PayPal or cash on pickup.
“In light of the serious competition concerns raised in the draft notice and the significant concerns raised by interested parties, I have asked eBay to delay implementation of the second stage of the conduct until a final decision is made by the ACCC,” Mr Samuel said.
eBay and interested parties now have time to lodge submissions in response to the draft notice, before the ACCC decides whether to issue a final notice revoking the notification.
So, big news for eBay buyers and sellers in Australia today. This doesn’t put the nail in the coffin just yet though, it’s a stall for more time to make a better informed decision. The ACCC will take a little more time and listen to both sides of the story in a little more detail.
As it stands though, I think it is likely the ACCC will bloke eBay’s policy change plans.
eBay Australia Offering Some Sellers Cash to Help Change Listings
Seems that eBay Australia is offering some ‘eligible’ sellers some funding to assist in the modification of their listings prior to June 17th to remove any payment methods that will be disallowed after this date.
I asked my TSAM (Top Seller Account Manager ) about it, but they did not know who was made eligible or how the amounts were calculated.
Cynics will view this as some sort of bribe, but I think given the policy changes on the 17th will impact sellers with large volumes of listings, an initiative like this will help.
I for one will find it hard to say no to an offer of assistance. We will have to change our listings anyway as we are not going to simply stop selling on eBay (like I hear many smaller sellers threatening to do).
eBay still makes up the majority of our sales (although this percentage continues to drop) so if the marketplace decides to throw some money our way to help us sell in their marketplace (by their rules) then I will take the offer thanks very much.
I haven’t heard of many sellers getting the offer, and I admit I was quite surprised to hear the spiel from my TSAM and the generous amount offered…
Oztion.com.au Australian Auction Site Acquired For Over $1 million
The Australian online auction space is a hive of activity at the moment. eBay Australia is making big site changes, Tradingpost Auctions launches and now we hear the second biggest online auction site in Australia, Oztion.com.au, has been acquired today by Jumbuck Entertainment for $1million in cash, and $1million in Jumbuck shares.
Earn-out is based on revenue achieved for 2009/2010.
Owners Philip Druce and Kelvin Yip have 2 year management contracts with Jumbuck.
Link to Jumbuck : www.jumbuck.com
Xoobie.com.au - Another Australian Auction Site
Looking for aAnother Australian auction site to check out, xoobie.com.au.
So, what is it like?
First impression is : What the heck does that name mean?! Xoobie is a wierd one. BUt these days, names for products are either going to be descriptive, or bizarre and hopefully catchy and memorable. What is Xoobie? Its bizarre alright, but catchy and memorable? That depends on how big they get I think…
