Growing Your Online Business

Brands for Google Base/Froogle

Has your Google-referred website traffic dropped in the last month? It may because of recent changes to the required information for the Google Base file feeds. If you haven't filled in the required fields, then your products aren't being fed to Google. Products supplied to Google Base (aka Froogle) show in the shopping portion at the top of the page of your Google search results. If your products aren't being fed to Google, then they aren't going to show in that highly prominent space.

Infopia supplies Google Base with product feeds for all active storefront items for all merchants using our Marketplace Manager software. Infopia's Google Base feeds are compliant with the new guidelines mandated by Google at http://www.google.com/base/products.html. This means that new attributes values are required fields in order for the products to be inserted on your Google Base file feeds. We are automatically generating four of the five fields on your behalf, but this is just a reminder to Infopia merchants to get values entered for your products' Brands (a field whose values we cannot generate automatically). Do this by creating a Custom Field called "Brand" or "Google Brand" (either field name works) and enter the brand for the product. Any product that does not include a brand will not be included on the Google Base file we generate and send to Google automatically.

Google Base files are currently free, so take advantage of the offering and Infopia's automated feed service by filling in the required information.

Jessica

eBay Town Hall Meeting Today

eBay is holding a Town Hall meeting today at 4 p.m. PST. Bill Cobb, president of eBay Marketplaces North America, will lead a panel of eBay executives in answering questions submitted by users on the Town Hall forum. In addition, you can call in to ask questions by dialing 877-474-3302.

For detailed information and to submit questions:  http://pages.ebay.com/townhall/

See you there.

Are You LinkedIn?

Are you LinkedIn?

Long before MySpace, professionals used social networking just as effectively and with far more personal interaction. As the pace of business has increased and technology has become an indispensable part of the workday, sites like LinkedIn have flourished. I have been a member of LinkedIn for quite some time, although in the past year I have spent more time looking up colleagues and friends with the intent of keeping my network up-to-date – basically keeping tabs on where people are working, what they are doing, and how we might work together in the future.

I recently reconnected with a friend with the intent of having lunch to catch up. It turns out he was in the process of changing jobs – at the same time Infopia was in the process of interviewing for a position that might be a good fit. A few weeks later he decided to join our team – and we are excited to have him.

Over the past few days I have been exploring LinkedIn Answers. This feature allows you to post questions to your network and lets your network respond with insightful business experience. I read some very helpful responses to questions about running an effective focus group – and this got me thinking… All of Infopia’s clients are business owners, and business owners are consistently faced with challenges, personnel & service needs, etc… What better way to approach these challenges than with the help of your network?! I encourage all of you to create a profile, expand your network, and get a jumpstart on growing your personal and business connections in the coming year!

Be sure to also check out Guy Kawasaki’s blog entry about how to use LinkedIn in the coming year: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/ten_ways_to_use.html.

eBay Fees Announcement

Bill Cobb has announced fee adjustments for 2007 in eBay.com and eBay Motors.  Here is a summary.  What does this mean for your business and your 2007 business plan, better get that Excel spreadsheet cranking........

Core Auction-Style and Fixed Price Listing Fees:

Insertion Fees
We're increasing the Insertion Fee for the $1.00 to $9.99 level from thirty-five cents to forty cents.

Final Value Fees
We're increasing the Final Value Fee for the $25.01 to $1,000.00 level from 3% to 3.25%.

Please note that there are no fee adjustments for eBay Stores or Store Inventory listings.

eBay Motors Fees
The Insertion Fees and Final Values Fees mentioned above will also apply to eBay Motors Parts & Accessories categories.

For eBay Motors Vehicles categories, we are making these adjustments:

• The Transaction Services Fee for both Motorcycles and Powersports is increasing from $30.00 to $40.00.
• The Transaction Services Fee for Cars & Trucks and all Other Vehicles & Trailers categories is increasing from $40.00 to $50.00.
• The Motors Reserve Fee is changing from a flat $5.00 to 0.1% of the reserve price, with a minimum of $5.00 and a maximum of $10.00. (The Reserve Fee is refunded when bidding meets the reserve price.)

See full details in the eBay Announcements at:  http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200701.shtml

Quick Survey of eCommerce Challenges

I often talk with clients about their goals and their business. I recently asked a few what they thought were the biggest challenges facing eCommerce sites today. Here are some of their thoughts.

Operations–Managing inventory, managing customer data, managing business across multiple platforms and multiple channels and collecting and parsing all the data to understand exactly what is happening. It’s pretty safe to say that many in the ecommerce industry are “flying blind.”

Traffic and SEO–Finding a way to stand out amongst the ever-increasing crowd of competitors and information that is inundating the web and ensuring your store shows up in front of the people looking for your product.

Expansion–Growing out of your comfort area to expand and diversify into new marketplaces and channels to reach new customers. Managing your business in a way so that you can scale and grow is also critical.

Software/Systems Integration–Getting disparate systems such as QuickBooks, POS, inventory management, order processing, payment processing, and CRM to talk to each other.

There are myriad other challenges facing eCommerce professionals today. In the auction arena these include sourcing product, rising fees and shrinking margins. I think the key is to tackle them one at a time, starting with the challenge that most effects your business performance.

It surely doesn’t make sense to worry about expansion when your business operations are not in order. Prioritize based on biggest impact and start from there.

What are your thoughts? Moving forward to 2007, what are the biggest challenges waiting for you?

eBay Stepping Up Against Counterfeit & Fraud

Expect eBay action to come shortly to limit fraud and counterfeit activity.

eBay is stepping up against this activity and the frequent return of violators once they are banned from eBay. Focus of the action is on deeper seller registration requirements to stop the "coming back" and catching the often used 1-day auction to avoid detection.

According to various sources, the actions for certain items (list of items not available at this time) will include:

• Better Seller Information:  Paypal verification will be required to list more than one item that is often counterfeited.
• Limited Seller Activity:  Sellers will be limited to listing a small number of items until the sellers account has undergone an initial review by eBay.
• No 1-3 day listings for high counterfeit items.
• Restricting of cross-border trade:  Specifically with China, a source for much counterfeit merchandise.

Look for specifics from eBay.

Good in the long-term for sure.  Will it affect Holiday Q4 sales?

eBay - 20cent Listing Day.....AGAIN

Forget everything I ever wrote, just get it all up there........kidding.

Here are the specifics:  One day only, starting Tuesday, November 21, 2006 between 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second on Tuesday, November 21, 2006) and ending that same day at 23:59:59 PT(11:59 PM plus 59 seconds).  All listings are $.20.

More info:  http://pages.ebay.com/promo/20centpromotion/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB

Interesting to note that this is the 4th $.20 listing promotion day in 30 days for eBay.

Happy selling.  (I will be on the other side, shopping for my holiday gifts.)

What is the right channel & tool for me?

I get this question a lot form new and from seasoned online merchants.  Where is the best place for me to sell?  That depends on what you are selling, to whom, and for how much.  There is no universal answer for this. 

But there are some key steps:

1.  Define your target customer!

2.  Define your target customer!

3.  Define your target customer!

(you get the idea)

4.  Now tackle the Marketing, the 4 P’s:  Product, Price, Place, Promotion

If you spend the time and effort to define your customer, these 4 P’s of marketing will fall into place. This way you will know that rather than find a customer to fit what you want to sell, you are finding an offer that customers want to buy.

Take a quick listen to an interview I had with Mitch Bettis from Practical eCommerce a few weeks ago about this topic.  http://www.practicalecommerce.com/podcasts/

Direct Link: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/podcasts/media/11_2006-RalfVonSosen.mp3

Bad Boys, Bad Boys....What you gonna do...

Security, Fraud, and Enforcement are hot topics these days on eBay and other marketplaces. 

Online criminals use automated scripts, or "bots," to create vast collections of user accounts with positive feedback records. Those accounts can then be used to attract buyers by offering high-value items that are never delivered after the bot-master criminals have received payments.

The bogus accounts typically sell virtual items such as wallpapers and e-books through a "buy it now" auction for 1 cent and no shipping costs. Those items are then bought by another fraudulent eBay account, all in an automated fashion.

With that 1-cent rate, building 100 accounts with 15 positive feedbacks each cost $15. And 100 accounts is a reasonably solid base to set up a good deal of bogus auctions.

This high level of fraud and phishing activity is causing security to be stepped up.  So watch out!!  Both the Good Guys & the Bad Guys are out in full force.  Drive the speed limit & watch out for the Dangerous Drivers.

eBay 1-Day Promotion - Keep a close eye on all marketplaces

While the new higher eBay fees is all the news, eBay is holding a 1-day promotion.  It is becoming ever more important to keep a close eye on all marketplaces and their special pricing and promotion opportunities. Just as everyone becomes more creative with promotions and pricing, so do all the online marketplaces.

The promotion is for eBay.com, eBay Canada (eBay.ca) and eBay Motors - Parts and Accessories listings only. Insertion fees for Auction-style listings will be 50 percent off, and capped at 50 cents. The maximum sellers will pay for eligible listings will be 50 cents, regardless of the item starting price. eBay is running the promotion on August 1, 2006.

All other fees apply, see website for details and restrictions:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200607311703582.html

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/50OffAuction