When Egos Fly! 3 Jerks and A Lady March 19th, 2009 2 PM ET
Listen live Thursday March 19th at 2 PM ET
Small Ecommerce Business Get’s The One Two Punch From Google And eBay In One Day
eBay Analyst Day
Much has already been and more will be written about the first eBay Analyst Day held in 3 years. eBay executives did their best to put on their smiley faces in an attempt to encourage the folks from Wall Street. I will not attempt to regurgatate most of what is already out there, however here are two things that I took away from the event:
- PayPal is the leading money maker of the company. Some of you will remember I wrote about this last August in a blog post. One of the things I found almost laughable was the talking point eBay made that PayPal’s integration into the eBay platform had risen several percentage points over the past 6 months. Of course it did! eBay made it almost (this is as close as I can come to saying Monopoly) mandatory. Who were they really trying to kid?
- eBay will now be focusing on the “Secondary Marketplace”. First this is not a term that has been used before that I am aware of. What it really means is the liquidation marketplace. Out of season or end of live product. It was said, and I paraphrase here, “We are interested in attracting those businesses that have stuff in warehouses that they need to dispose of”. This certainly does not seem to include the small sellers that have one of’s.
While eBay continues to state that they embarce the small seller, in my opinion the only reason for this is the increased search engine visibility they receive by “allowing” these sellers on the site. Once buyers are on the site they are directed to the sellers that eBay wants them to see, not necessarily what the buyer wants to see.
eBay told analysts that 2009 would be very difficult on the eBay site, only slightly better in 2010 and incrementally better in 2011 IF the economy improves. eBay also said that it’s focus is now on the current customers and less on attracting new buyers.
Bottom line is lower volume sellers are in for a tough couple of years based on the current direction of the company.
For complete analysis of the eBay Analyst event check out http://www.ebaystrategies.blogs.com by Scot Wingo CEO of Channeladvisor.com
Google announced yesterday, during the eBay Analyst event (maybe to hope to sneak it out there with little attention????) that effective in May 2009 there would be a significant increase in fees for those merchants using Google Checkout.
Again, the small seller takes it on the chin with these fee increases.
Colderice did a fee increase comparison on his blog, and I think it brings home the point very well.
Every company needs to make a profit. I do not blame either eBay or Google for making these moves. They need to do what they think will improve their position in the marketplace and ultimately their bottom lines. This is what their stockholders expect.
All users of either eBay or Google need to decide whether their businesses can adapt to the changes or not. If not, the answer is simple. Change your marketing strategies to other venues or payment options.
Auctiva Corrects Trojan Problem
After receiving a report on Twitter, I was able to confirm that Google and FireFox have cleared Auctiva.com of the threat warnings they have been reporting.
This is great news. Auctiva offers a good product and service, they just need to work on their communication a little better.
Auctiva Trojan Troubles Compounded By Suggestion To Turn Off Security Warnings
What Is Auctiva Thinking????
According to forum posts the 3rd party eBay solution provider Auctiva.com suffered an attack on their servers last Friday afternoon. This attack apparently allowed the insertion of Trojan scripts on some of Auctiva’s 200+ servers. This malware or whatever it is apparently took buyers or viewers of items listed with the Auctiva software to Asian sites. Google has marked Auctiva with the following warning: This site may harm your computer” based on this infection and FireFox browser users receive a warning as well.
Colderice.com reported on this issue and it’s widespread implications. Today Auctionbytes posted an article quoting Jeff Schlicht President of Auctiva who said the affected servers have been removed from service and the site is safe, yet Google and Firefox are still showing the warnings.
Who Do We Believe
Schlicht says that it will take some time (unknown how long) for Google to re-spider the site. While all this is going on, the Auctiva forum posted a work around to the FireFox warning by recommending to Auctiva users :
Update - If you are using the Firefox browser and are unable to use your account because you are receiving a warning stating the Auctiva is an “attack site”, you should be able to workaround it by selecting “Options” from the “Tools” menu and disabling the “tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected attack site” setting under the “Security” tab.
Now I am not an internet security expert but to me and many others who have read this it sure appears to be a very dangerous action to take. The entire incident has raised concern from sellers and buyers alike.
I don’t know who to believe, Google or Auctiva. What I do know is that recommending that users disable security settings is not the most intelligent thing Auctiva could do in this situation.
As of the time of this post, requests for comment from both Auctiva and eBay have gone unanswered.
UPDATE: 7:30 PM ET 2/22/09
John “Colderice” Lawson is reporting that the eBay Daily Deals which features items submitted through Auctiva are now showing the danger warnings as mentioned above.
As I stated above requests for comment from both eBay and Auctiva have still gone unanswered.
Liquidity Services Inc Announces Q3 Financials
Liquidity Services Inc. parent company of Liquidation.com and GovLiquidation.com and other sites has released their Q3 financials. In the report, Liquidity Services shows a 35%+ growth.
“The Company’s ability to create liquid marketplaces for wholesale, surplus and salvage assets generates a continuous flow of goods from its corporate and government sellers. This flow of goods in turn attracts an increasing number of professional buyers to the marketplaces.”
Liquidation.com and Govliquidation.com provide internet sellers with opportunities to buy and sell products. Sellers on such sites as eBay and Onlineauction.com can find product for resale on both sites.
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