Question
Hi Folks,
This is my first post to here so a big hello to all.
The reason for the post is to ask for some input on what you feel an alternative auction venue would need in order to establish a realistic foothold on the Internet. I have been an Ebay member for years now and understand that there is call for an alternative site and also feel that just about all others have failed to gain momentum.
I would appreciate any realistic feedback that you could give.
To make it easier ( and to give me a base to evaluate priorities ) could I sk you to just give me your top three priorities. Such as the examples below.
No Seller Fee's
Reduced Seller fee's
Aggresive off line marketing
Offline marketing directed more towards buyers
Fast site
Simplified site
etc..
etc...
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully respond.
Kind regards
Kasilof
Answer
Present and expanding potential buyer traffic.
A site could offer completely free listings, even for life, or pay me to list and I would have reservations.
Every listings takes time and has some additional administrative functions connected to the process.
There needs to be some realistic expectation that the time invested will be productive either now or, at least, in the future.
Sellers understand that sites will have to start small and develop.
They also have participated in or watched as sites like YAHOO, Amazon and MS have promised opportunities, called for support and eventually did not perform in a manner that proved productive for most sellers.
Small sites without established traffic, such as Gold's, have also asked for participation, were responded to with significant seller effort but eventually failed.
At any time there are likely 50 or more existing smaller sites attempting to expand, some of which have a track record like Bidville or an established online presence like Overstock.
I and, I expect, many other sellers have strong feelings about wanting alternative venues, realize that what we have to offer is mostly time and experience, know we can't exhaust our energy on every opportunity, no matter how well intentioned, and try to make the best of eBay while exploring niche markets and/or developing websites.
I'm constantly encouraged by the number of people who want to develop a better marketplace but my opinion, correct or not, is that in today's business climate it will take experience, established structure and deep pockets to build a successful site with broad appeal.
I have a short list of candidates, with Google as the first choice.
I know things will change (I can easily remember when TWA owned the skies and no one had heard of JetBlue) and sincerely hope several smaller sites will grow and provide productive opportunities for all their users.
Sellers want alternative venues and are willing to support them with their time and efforts during development.
I just don't answer the call anymore when someone says "I'm going to try" and offers free listings.
I would rather pay from the beginning but need to believe there are realistic reasons to expect the specific venture may succeed.
Answer
Hi Kasilof: Welocme to here!
First bit of advice is to listen to Ray - he's an old pro and keeps up with times and trends.
Having said that, I've been selling on eBay since 1997 and have tried most of the other 'venues' that come and go without great success.
I've currently set up two new stores at blujay and made my first sale there this morning. I have no idea how the site owners are going to make a go of it by offering a free service, but it is a lovely site, easy to use, and allows cross-promotion links to your website, eBay feedback etc. I hope the site catches on as it is a real joy to use compared to egadbay!
Once I get my stores tweaked I will consider posting a link. I still have lots of work to do on them, but so far I have really been impressed with the whole shebang over there.
Edited to add: Listings on blujay show up in froogle the next day. If froogle ever takes off I think it will pull a lot of buyers away from eBay. (To test this out for yourself, do a google search for chalkware string holder and see if you can find my blujay store. I have a counter on the bottom left hand side of my listings, so you can see how many hits I'm getting, too.)
Answer
HI Kasilof,
No Seller Fee's
Aggresive off line marketing
Offline marketing directed more towards buyers
Fast site
Simplified site
I think you are describing alot of attributes of blujay. Our site is fast and simplified. We are planning some aggressive offline marketing, and we have no seller fees.
blujay
http://www.blujay.com
Answer
Look very closely at existing established sites - there are lessons to be learned.
Avoid these failing false assumptions:
1 - If you have low fees, you will attract sellers.
2 - If you have lots of listings, buyers will come.
3 - If you do lots of SEO, search engines will send buyers to you.
All three of these assumptions have been proven false.
1 - The existing sites with the largest number of sellers, also charge some of the highest fees - listing and/or FVF. (Ebay, Ioffer, Bidville, Overstock). Most totally free sites have very few listings.
2 - Outside of eBay, the sites with the most listings - Yahoo, Overstock, Bidville, and Ioffer - have very very low sell thru rates - in the 1-3% area.
3 - Ioffer has some of the best search engine placement I've seen - but these lookers are not buying. (My personal research has shown that my website with the same exact listing, on the same Google page as the same Ioffer or eBay store item, gets 2-4x the clicks. My personal theory is that people don't use Google to find auction items - they are looking for webstore items).
I think the magic formula to success will be the site that has some unique way of bringing in real buyers. Sellers aren't looking for simple sites, or cheap sites, or glitzy sites - they are simply looking for buyers.
Answer
There are two excellent sites already out there and my personal opinion is to support them instead of trying to create yet another small acution site.
The two sites I highly recommend are Blujay.com (classifieds format) and Bidzig.com (auction format). Both sites are very easy to use and the customer service is second to none. They deserve to do well.
I'm not affiliated with either site.
Answer
blujay.com is very unique. We are not an auction but rather a venue or gathering where sellers manage their own stores. We are only a few months old but have had phenominal growth within the past month with over 10,000 items listed and many sales (info provided by sellers). We don't make false promises but rather encourage our sellers to market themselves. We provide the tools and immediate presence for sellers to make their goods available and professionally presentable to prospective buyers. We are looking to the future not the present and we feel strongly that Froogle will emerge as an alternative way for buyers to look for items. For this reason we upload our listings to the Froogle search engine nightly. All blujay seller's items get posted and show up on Froogle the day they list the items on blujay.com. We also allow a compare feature for buyers who search blujay that shows typically we offer the lowest and best prices around.
blujay
Answer
Hi Folks
Thanks to all of you for the input on this thread. All of your comments have been carefully read. I am actually based in the UK and feelings on this side of the water are very similar.
At this point I can't let much information out but suffice to say we are working on a start up site to enter into this arena.
After years of experience with Ebay etc... we feel that we have a pretty comprehensive grasp of the current situation but none the less are eager to hear from others. Especially USA based as we feel that developments in this field are more advanced over there than in the UK.
The main questions that we have had to ask ourselves is what would make it work for us , when it hasn't worked for others.
Naturally we have to believe in ourselves, however we must learn from and be responsive to others opinions and experiences.
We have recognised the need for a solid business experience to make a venture like this stand at least a fighting chance. So the first goal was to put together a team that brought expertise that ensured the whole venture was not stacked on a single persons shoulders.
This is a lesson we learned naturally from Pierre Omidyars experiences of delegation in the early days of auction web.
So our team not only has strong experience from the clients side of the fence, we also have creativity, a solid business mind, IT and programming expertise, and most of all realistic funding. We have bitten the cost bullet to ensure we have the best legal partners and advise. This also follows through with our payment /banking partners who will be leading us in site security etc..
Because the site will be unique ( I know you have heard that before ! ) it is taking a lot of programming. So eventually we will have a comprehensive package, we know we can't take the likes of Ebay on. In all honesty we don't intend to, as the site will be very different in many ways and yet similar in others. In short we are moving the goalposts slightly.
I am pleased to see that your comments fall very much in line with our thoughts with regards to buyer activity. Once again it is difficult at this stage for me to relase any more information but our logic and concept lends itself to an active marketing campaign designed and targeted at buyers. I know that buyers become sellers and vice versa however we feel that the buyers are crucial componant and our system allows us to target this area.
Pricing structures are naturally crucial and this is another reason I placed the thread to get a feel of peoples opinion. Community values are also of prime importance as without our community we will be nothing.
Anyway, thanks for your comments. We will be launching in the USA as well as the UK but are keen to get the package right , and well tested before we launch.
thanks again
Kas