ECOM Insight - Cutting Edge News and Strategies

No More Updates...

2009-01-01T00:29:00.001-05:00

Sorry everyone! This blog has reached the end of its life. Over at redstage, we're working on bigger and better things. Come check us out!

We acquire AE3Interactive, Change name to RedStage, Awesome new Websites

2008-12-05T14:51:00.002-05:00

Looks like I'm finally allowed to re-join the social public.

After a whole lot of negotiating, debating, and postponing, I can finally say, we're Redstage Networks! *waiting for cheers*

Check out our new company websites at:
www.redstage.com
www.redstagesolutions.com
www.larisonline.com

and to read more about the acquisition of AE3 and the name change, head to:
http://www.redstage.com/archives/category/news

Grab your Name with UsernameCheck before the Squatters

2008-10-13T07:20:00.000-04:00

Getting into with web 2.0 world to promote your business? Find it very annoying to sign up for a million sites and keep them up to date? Me too!

Here's a little something that can help reduce your frustration level--check out usernamecheck.com to snag your name before you throw something at your screen when squatters steal your brand. I'm working on it right now...

Thanks to Pete Cashmore from Mashable for the tip!

Google Chrome Struggling in Browser Market

2008-10-10T07:59:00.002-04:00

Seems that Chrome is having some trouble getting off the ground. The early adopter experimenters are putting it down, and we're not seeing the masses pick it up.

Google Chrome had some benefits. I was looking forward to seeing how their attempts at multi-tab, multi-window, heavy browsing would turn out. However, I now have 6 browsers on my computer, and I'm getting a bit tired of testing browser compatibility for every new project. I'm sure other web developers and entrepreneurs are feeling the same.

Blackberry Counters iPhone App Store

2008-10-09T07:08:00.000-04:00

The release of the iPhone App store was an incredible opportunity for the first movers in application development. It might be time to start seeking business opportunities for the upcoming Blackberry Application Center.

Whether or not you think the new Blackberry Storm iPhone competitor is going to have the cult following the iPhone has, I think the Blackberry market penetration alone should be enough to see this opportunity knocking. I've always been a huge fan of the Blackberry products from RIM, and I guess we'll see whether I regret my iPhone choice this year.

YouTube, the next E-commerce platform?

2008-10-07T23:42:00.002-04:00

That's right, YouTube is getting us one step closer to Bill Gate's 1990's vision. Soon you'll be able to purchase products "as seen on YouTube" right from the video.

Next time Tony Soprano is saying "I need a f*ckin Coca Cola," you might find yourself buying a case.

Check out what YouTube has to say about it.

Anthony Comments on ClickTale: Spy on your Website Visitors

2008-09-25T01:17:00.001-04:00

Our very own Marketing Director just tipped me off about a great tool he discovered called ClickTale. It lets you spy on your visitors by taking actual videos of their interactions with your site, in real time! This is seriously a game changer for the marketing world.

He was excited enough about it that he wrote a blog post right after telling me about it. Check out his post here: http://www.dailymarketingblog.com/2008/09/click-tale-analytics-tool-spy-on-your.html

Dammit. URL redirection for SEO blunder...

2008-09-24T00:56:00.002-04:00

Well, we just had one of those "Splat! Coulda had a V8" moments. We didn't realize our clients' e-commerce platform was not avoiding the duplicate urls SEO problem. Here's a quick background on duplicate content and url redirection.

Duplicate URLs
Google hates duplicate content. They also happen to consider http://www.yourdomain.com completely differently from http://yourdomain.com. So that means you could possibly be splitting your google juice betweent the two domains without even knowing it, making it twice as hard to do SEO work.

Soltuion: URL Redirection
Now, this is not a journey for the feint of technology. If "Apache" and "Mod_rewrite" sound like a helicopter followed by some techno-babble, make sure you hire someone for this.

You'll want to PROPERLY redirect your urls in a way that google can understand. To do this, you'll tell them that the site has permanently moved to another url. In other words, you'll send google spiders a "301" error. Just like 404 means "not found", 301 means "permanently moved".

Well, in our case, the urls were being redirected, but not using the proper 301 designation. So it looked like it was working, when in fact we were getting screwed and our SEO efforts thwarted. Even fooled the silly SEO tools that show SEO friendliness.

Moreal of the store: Check google to make sure that "site:yourdomain.com" has the same amount of pages indexed as "site:www.yourdomain.com". If the number is different, you probably have a url redirection problem.

Live Blogging from Rocketplace in Vegas

2008-09-10T12:37:00.003-04:00

Just got out of the first session with a rep from eBay. I missed the first 30 mins but it sounds like be was just going over recent changes and some to come.

The questions part was interesting. Not quite as fierce as I would have imagined. Here's the concerns sellers expressed:

1. Even free shipping is not improving dsr's enough. eBay rep suggested they must be doing a lot of international, and he was willing to do an analysis to find out.

2. eBay's email correspondences still say "tracking number" for usps. Many sellers expressed buyer confusion and bad dsr's because they expect more traking info than the DC number provides.

Will update this post further later in the day. Off to the next session

Sent via iPhone

Adam Morris speaking at RocketPlace Conference Next Week

2008-09-03T16:41:00.000-04:00

Do not miss your chance to register for the AsWas RocketPlace Conference! If you want to hear some of the most cutting edge information about eBay sales and growing your business, this is the place for you. Even our own Adam Morris, CEO of Sell Center, will be presenting, along with an All-Star List of other experts. There are tons of learning sessions and ample opportunities to network over the 3 day conference.

The conference starts Wednesday, September 10 and ends Friday September 12. You can click here for Pricing details. The event is being held at the beautiful Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Don’t miss out on this incredible event! Hope to see you there!

P.S.! Debbie just sent me a discount for being referred from us. If you use the Discount Code ROCKET when registering, you’ll receive $100 off the registration price!

Major EBay Shipping Policy Change for Non-US Sellers

2008-09-03T16:33:00.005-04:00

eBay just changed a fundamental feature regarding their shipping policy. Now, sellers need to use the integrated eBay calculator or flat-rate shipping. You can read more here:

http://auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y08/m09/i02/s02

What wasn’t specified in that article is that the rules changed further for International Sellers. You can see the following chat with an eBay representative confirming that international sellers can only use fixed or flat rate shipping.

This is a very significant change for many sellers all over the world. One of our customers said it best,

“…they are not that stupid at eBay… They do understand that it does not cost the same to ship to NY and California, and therefore, displaying with a fixed rate is almost impossible”.

It will be very interesting to see how this affects international sellers’ profitability.

Catalog Mailings Down 20%

2008-06-13T00:57:00.001-04:00

Multichannel Merchant reports that catalog mailings for March 2008 were down 20% from the same month last year. They speculate that a depressed economy and increase in paper and delivery costs have contributed.

I think this leaves somewhat of an opening for e-commerce merchants to include mini-catalogs, highlighting their products, inside shipments. I've always been a big fan of this strategy as a great way to foster long term customers. Just make sure to give them a great buying experience so they pick up your catalog as their Sunday morning reading.

The Best FREE SEO Research Tool - GTrends

2008-06-10T09:28:00.004-04:00

What's the tool that the SEO experts turn to first before starting any SEO project? Gtrends!.

Why do I need Gtrends?

Your SEO efforts will be completely wasted unless you start with the right words to optimize for.

One of the biggest SEO mistakes I see from new clients is trying to optimize for keywords that have insignificant search volume. Most business owners know an awful lot about their business, but the "right" words to search for are not always the words people are actually searching. You must make sure that your SEO efforts are based off of keywords that have enough search volume to be worth it.

What can Gtrends tell me?

Search for a broad word of phrase that relates to your business. Gtrends will come up with the top search (by approximate average searches per day) and related searches. Be sure to also click the graph icon to the right. The popup will show you how many websites you'll be competing with on that keyword as well as how many clicks you can expect for being #1 in Google for that term.

I can't reiterate this enough. Your SEO efforts will be completely wasted if you're not choosing the right words to optimize for in the first place. Gtrends is the most important SEO researh tool on the net. And it's free!

UPDATE: Gtrends Temporarily Broken

Well it appears that Gtrends is a little under the weather. They've been having some problems on and off due to inconsistencies with Google's own Trending system. Gtrends is not giving an accurate reading for projected hits on #1 spot (highlighted in red).

Take a look at the screenshot below:

Hopefully it's back up soon!

Save Time on your Social Media Marketing

2008-06-09T09:18:00.001-04:00

Everyone should know by now that I'm a HUGE advocate of SMM (Social Media Marketing) as a driving source of traffic and search engine rankings for your business. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read my blog article "Why your website needs a Blog" and our Learning Center Article "Social Media - What Is It and How Will it Drive Traffic to Your Business?"

Well, I've come across an awesome tool to organize and streamline your SMM efforts. It's called flock, and it's actually a web browser based on Mozilla Firefox. It aggregates your social websites into a side panel for easy access and updating. I'm currently using it to manage my blogs, Digg, Twitter, Youtube, and del.icio.us. It's lacking a few major ones for now, but I'm sure they'll come. Make sure you check it out at www.flock.com.

Ebay Makes Paypal Mandatory for Sellers

2008-06-04T02:51:00.000-04:00

Scared you, right? Well if you're a seller on eBay AU or eBay UK, you've already been met with this fate. Yesterday, eBay announced that all sellers on the ebay.uk site must accept PayPal to sell on the venue. eBay AU's announcement came just a month earlier.

What does that mean for US sellers? Historically, eBay tests new features and/or majors changes on eBay UK about 6 months to a year prior to introducing it on eBay.com. So.....

eBay.com sellers MUST EXPECT that PayPal will be a required payment method to sell on any of their auction sites in the next couple of months.

What does this mean?

Well, probably not all that much. eBay has been trying to make themselves into Amazon.com for quite a while now. Amazon only processes their own payments, but it's included in their fees. EBay, on the other hand, will allow other payment methods other than PayPal.

In fact, our most successful clients all accept PayPal. Yes, there is a bit more fraud to deal with, but you should already have a third party insurer to back you up in case this happens. We still see that when presented a choice between CC and PP, over 80% of eBay purchases (on average) will go PP.

The only thing to worry about is if PayPal will be raising their rates. I doubt it, since PayPal is ever trying to expand their off-eBay business, and trying to compete with other merchant service providers.

Bottom line? Not much to worry about here...

Experimenting with Twitter

2008-05-29T17:44:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been playing with a relatively new social networking technology called Twitter. If you're unfamiliar with twitter, here's what it is:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

-Twitter.com

It wasn't long ago that we'd be throwing a football around the office mocking the uselessness of basically a glorified AOL away message...

What a fool I've been! It turns out that twitter is actually a great way to bring awareness to your business and an extremely rapid way to develop your professional network.

I'll be following up this post over the next few weeks discussing the benefits and my results in more depth.

Till then, check out my twitter at twitter.com/AdamMorris.

Your Lack of Vision can Kill

2008-05-28T16:12:00.000-04:00

After reading the article in Fast Company "Dead Man Walking," I was inspired to emphasize the importance of Mission, Vision, and Core Value statements. If you're asking, "Why in heck would I need that corporate meaningless jargon for my real-life business?" I'm going to try to answer that question.

Firstly, we should answer, "What are Vision, Mission, and Core Value Statements?" To answer that, I'll have to borrow some info from the experts...

Mission Statement

The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise's purpose for existence. It should incorporate socially meaningful and measurable criteria addressing concepts such as the moral/ethical position of the enterprise, public image, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and expectations of growth and profitability.

Ford Motor Company (early 1900's)
"Ford will democratize the automobile"
Sony (early 1950's)
"Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products"
Boeing (1950)
"Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft and bring the world into the jet age"
Wal-Mart (1990)
"Become a $125 billion company by the year 2000"

-Business Resource Software, Inc.

Vision Statement

A Vision Statement is a written declaration of the Strategic Vision of a firm. It contains the desired future state at which a company hopes to arrive and is articulating the dreams and hopes for the business. It reminds the people in your firm of what you are trying to build.

Ideally, a vision statement has the following characteristics:
Focus on the future

Inspirational, hopeful

Provides clear decision-making criteria

Long-term oriented and timeless

Clear, not ambiguous

Memorable, easy to remember

Realistic, achievable

-12manage

Now let's skip all the research that says successful companies have clear, concise mission and vision statements, and move to practicality for our every day entreprenuerial lives.

Without Vision and Mission, we get distracted from our true purpose by the daily grind. If you read the Fast Company article, you'll understand how difficult it is to drive forward, to progress, to grow without a clear understanding of the direction you're headed.

Make your vision broad enough for growth, differentiated enough to peak interest, and simple to stick in the brain. You want your vision and mission to be pervasive enough that you and/or your employees can spit it out on the phone with customers or out at the bar with friends. You want your product sourcing decision makers to ask themselves how their next mix progresses your company further toward delivering that vision and mission.

Just remember, before sitting down to hammer out that new strategy, new product line, new site design, remeber to think about where the company has been and where it should be going. Make sure you're answering "How can we continue to enhance this message simply and understandably?" Keeping this in mind will keep you from that same fragmented fate of Time Warner's $99 billion dollar write-off: AOL.

Oh, and get subscription to Fast Company!

Where do I get FREE Articles to Improve Sales?

2008-05-27T22:47:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted anything original in a little while. We're gearing up for some major releases over at Sell Center (stay tuned!). For now, check out our Learning Center. The Learning Center is where we stick all the quality free stuff. Go check it out!

Worried about Best Match? Check out BayEstimator

2008-04-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

The little tool that helps you build eBay titles that rank well in best match is back!

If you're worried about how your listings are ranking in best match, and you haven't check out this tool, get a move on (click)!

Side Note: Take a look at the huge terms and disclaimers section they've added at the top. It's amazing the flak you get when you offer a free tool!

EBay Sellers: Check out SquidBids from Squidoo

2008-04-22T19:29:00.000-04:00

I remember when MySpace pages were all the rage on the eBay Powerseller forum. Turns out that I was witnessing the beginnings of proof that social networking can drive a significant amount of traffic to your eBay business.

Well now web2.0 allstar Squidoo has Squidbids, "The place for trusted eBay sellers to strut their stuff, showcase their auctions and stores, and get more traffic." I think it'll be worth spending a few minutes creating a SquidBids profile. At the very least, another valuable incoming link to your business can only help your search engine rankings.

Time to Tell Amazon.com What You Really Think

2008-04-21T14:45:00.000-04:00

Amazon has recently put up a survey to help it improve the Amazon Marketplace. If you've been following this blog, you probably already know that I'm not the biggest fan of their selling experience. If you're currently selling on the venue, I encourage you to head to the Amazon Seller Community and take the survey!

Famed eBay Hacker Vladuz Finally Arrested in Romania

2008-04-20T22:18:00.000-04:00

If you've been a participant of the eBay seller community through the past couple of years, you probably heard of a hacker named Vladuz. He taunted eBay and other users by posting lists of usernames and addresses and logging into administrator accounts. Take a look at the auctionbytes article for a more in depth account:

http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m04/i18/s01

My only question here is, did eBay learn anything? Have the security holes been patched? I can't seem to find any type of response to that question on the net yet. If you find anything, leave me a comment. Thanks!

EBay Powersellers: Don't Forget to ENROLL in Expanded Seller Protection

2008-04-01T01:38:00.000-04:00

Early February, PayPal announced it would be giving special benefits to powersellers. Especially of interest, transactions without confirmed addresses would qualify for Paypal Seller Protection.

Well, it's finally come to pass. Just remember...you have to sign up for it! Enroll for expanded seller protection here.

Read the following excert from the eBay Powerseller Program Benefits page to learn more:

PowerSellers that reside in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Hong
Kong with a registered PayPal account in one of these countries that is linked
to their eBay account are eligible for expanded PayPal seller protection against
claims, charge backs, reversals for unauthorized payments, and merchandise not
received. The expanded protection covers transactions on eBay paid through
PayPal. It's free, there's no annual limit, and transactions no
longer require confirmed addresses to be covered.

What Sellers Should Know about EBay's Latest Shipping Announcement

2008-03-31T00:19:00.001-04:00

Ebay's Kristina Klausen recently posted a "Shipping Update" that implys some heavy hitting changes.

Beginning in the next "few months," all sellers will be required to use eBay's shipping calculator instead of other 3rd party tools. Let's touch on the pros and cons...

The Good:
Ebay has been focusing on improving and standardizing the buyer experience. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

The Bad:
Ebay's calculator is very limiting in both shipping carriers (only supports USPS and UPS) and concurrent service level offerings. Is eBay expecting all sellers to ditch DHL and Fedex?

The reality is that many people still distrust buying on eBay. With all the heavy changes lately, eBay has obviously decided that it will no longer be entrusting the important aspects of the buyer experience to its sellers. And, while it's causing a lot of drastic changes for sellers, remember that eBay's end goal is increased traffic, ASPs (Average Sale Prices), and STR (Sell Through Rate).

As a side note, Amazon doesn't even let sellers specify their own shipping rates on most products.

Here's a quick summary of the points in the announcement:
1. Reiteration of shipping costs factored into best match
2. New policies to require specified shipping through eBay instead of description
3. USPS Large Flat Rate Box integrated into calculator

Extra Note to Laris Customers: We're opening up the eBay shipping calculator beta integration to current customers to help get ready for the change.

Amazon.com, a Seller's Nightmare Video

2008-03-21T23:31:00.000-04:00

Shortly after I posted Selling on Amazon.com, a Seller's Nightmare, I decided to sign up with Amazon again to see if they had improved. The answer, of course, is no. Here are the results...