Online Retailer 2009 in Sydney – the State of Online Retail in Australia
I just got back from Online Retailer in Sydney. It was the first event of it’s type in Australia, attracting over 2500 attendees and a good number of exhibitors.
I had opportunity to talk to many of the attendees, catch up with many other online retailers and also interviewed people like Armand , VP of Global Sales at Verisign and Jeff and Bobby Beaver, founders of www.zazzle.com.
What I really wanted to find out was the level of interest in online retailer from some of the bigger bricks and mortar retailers (did they attend?), and the opinions form exhibitors as to the mix of attendees there.
What I discovered was interesting, and exciting for the industry.
A Quick Summary of PeSA 2009 in Sydney (+ some pics)
PeSA Sydney 2009 was a great event. A full attendee list of 300+ eBay sellers were there. Here is a brief summary of the event from my perspective. (for more info on the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance, click here).
Well, what a great conference. PeSA conferences are usually a focused get together of like minded sellers, but this year the attitude that I received from sellers and attendees was just great, better than the year before I think.
My staff and I travelled up to man our sponsor booth (www.readytoship.com.au) and I had some PeSA responsbilities and a panel to MC as well. Sure was a busy few days but it was certainly worth it for us.
The ‘one on one’ sessions that some of the PeSA staff and I (and Jonathan Garris from Gothamcityonline.com) had with attendees were well received I think. It can be tough to really give out a lot of advice in 15 min, its a good challenge!
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Does your business fulfill ALL it’s promises?
I had a short holiday to New Zealand the other week. A time to relax a little, spend some time with family and count sheep.
Recently my business life and thought process has been influenced a lot more by the consulting we do these days, and my Directshop business is getting more involved in consulting and development for online retailers so it is with this mindset that I start to view other businesses in the world.
I look, think, collect ideas and try to process these thoughts into something constructive to apply to my own business, or maybe yours.
I felt compelled to write a post about Jucy Car Rentals. they are a New Zealand car rental business that specialise in renting slightly older vehicles. I admire the model, and their marketing strategy is all about fun. Their promise seemed good…
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DealsDirect.com.au acquires DinosaurDeals.com.au
DealsDirect.com.au, Australia’s largest online retailer has announced the acquisition of DinosaurDeals.com.au.
I suspected we might see some form of consolidation in the online space this year, and there could be more to come in future, although the press release indicates that perhaps you need some special business qualities to encourage an acquisition to take place. I fear that there are too many copycat sites in the market that aren’t unique enough, or don’t have enough special qualities in their makeup to put themselves in a great position for future purchase.
In any case, here is the full press release (provided courtesy of Chris Hitchen of Getprice, http://twitter.com/hit_ch):
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eBay Australia Pricing Changes – a Positive Move!
eBay this morning released some news regarding their upcoming pricing chances. In summary, no changes will be made to auction fees but store fees and insertion/final value fees will change.
Also, store listings will again appear in core search (mixed in with auction listings) using Bestmatch, eBay’s search algorithm in use in various ways around the world.
eBay’s pricing change information is here : Changes to stores and search on eBay.com.au
and they have a nice section for sellers on what is changing, and how to change with it here : The Big News
Also, PeSA Australia released a statement about these changes this morning, and I have included it below :
A Really Clever Use of Twitter
I have been using twitter for a little while. I started using it for a few reasons. Mainly to see how it works (the dynamics of tweets, conversations, and the social aspects), and what can be done with it for personal and business reasons.
What better way to find out about it than start an account and see what happens?
So, I have posted in a variety of topics, not just business. I have about 120 followers now.
I noticed one really good use of Twitter the other day though, and wanted to share it.
I had recently found out about a friend from school (we were best friends in Primary School, but had drifted into other cliques in High School) who had committed suicide. I sometimes write on this blog about personal things and I decided I would ‘tweet’ this information on my twitter account.
I wrote
Just heard my best friend at primary school and friend through high school committed suicide. Hadn’t kept in touch at all. Still, very sad.
Soon after I had a direct message sent to me from an American association for suicide and prevention, simply offering condolence and hoping that I could offer the family some support.
What a fantastic way to get in touch with people in this situation. I could imagine other twitter users tweeting about many emotional issues, in various emotional states, and having well timed messages from support groups willing to help.
A very clever and effective use of twitter.
Getprice.com.au introduce category bidding
In a smart move, Getprice have introduced a category bidding system for their customers.
Now, if you want to appear at the top of a category or search, you can bid more to appear there. With enough customers feeding products to the site now (they say 1.5 million products online), this is a move that should enable them to generate more revenue.
I have included their email to feed customers below.
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List of Australian Magento Stores
Magento is popular in Australia.
Here is a list of Australian Magento stores that I built up a little while ago, just as a reference. This list is a few months old, there are probably more aussie magento stores active now.
I don’t intend to actively maintain this list, but if you come across any other good sites, then please add a comment below.
Click read more to see the list…
Want to grow your eBay business?
Want to grow your eBay business?
Then consider attending this years PeSA event in Sydney, called ‘Survive & Thrive’.
PeSA is the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance and the Australian arm is holding this year’s seller event in Sydney. Last years was a great success with hundreds otf attendees, and I think this years will be even bigger.
Tickets are $199 for attendance, and includes access to exhibitors to help you improve your business, and also speakers, workshops and more.
Last year I ran some one on one sessions with sellers (and I think we might do it this year too). It was great to meet smaller sellers looking to grow!
From the www.pesa-events.com.au site :
The agenda is taking shape and bookings are now open for the 2009 PeSA Summit.
Register to attend today and take advantage of our earlybird price of only $199 for the FULL two day Summit.
Check last year’s feedback if you want to know if this will be worthwhile to your business. And see what exhibitors you’ll be able to vist.
Ill be up there, exhibiting our ReadytoShip shipping automation product, so if you go to the event, be sure to say hello!
Woopra – Sounds wierd, but it’s addictive!
What the hell is Woopra? That’s exactly what I thought when I first heard the name.
(BTW, What is it with Web 2.0 products and brands seeming to require some sort of zany name? Bing? Woopra? Or make your own name)
Anyway, Woopra is basically a real time analytics tool much like Google Analytics though with a different twist.
Getting an account and setting up is easy, and they have a very flash dashboard enabling you to see in real time who is browsing your site, where they came from (and what they typed in a search to find you) and much more.
In fact, you can even start a conversation with a user as they browse around (but would that scare you if you were the user? It would totally freak me out if a conversation box popped up and said ‘so, why didn’t you finish reading my article, huh!?)
I don’t think you get a lot more user intelligence than a package like Analytics, but the ability to see how your users interact with the site, the popular incoming search terms for the day and some custom reporting makes it worth having a look at.
That, and I just love stats. Watching them live can be addictive.
Woopra dashboard
woopra
