» eBay

HONG KONG, August 24, 2010 – Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688.HK) (HK.1688), the world’s leading e-commerce company for small business, has entered into an agreement to acquire Auctiva, the leading third-party developer of tools for eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) sellers. With more than 170,000 active users, Auctiva provides a variety of listing, marketing and management tools as well as image hosting and online storefronts that make it easy for small businesses to sell successfully via e-commerce on sites like eBay.

The acquisition of Auctiva, as well as Alibaba.com’s purchase of Vendio in June, combined with Alibaba.com’s strength in sourcing, will create a significant source of tools and resources for U.S. small businesses looking to leverage e-commerce. The combination of both the Auctiva and Vendio acquisitions brings more than 250,000 new customers to the Alibaba.com family of products, and significantly expands the size of Alibaba.com’s U.S. operations.

Through its recent acquisitions, Alibaba.com is building the world’s first global e-commerce supply chain. This end-to-end network connecting manufacturers and wholesalers with e-tailers and consumers will allow small businesses to easily source from suppliers all over the world, then conveniently manage and sell those products through popular online channels like eBay, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), their own online storefronts and more. 

“Time and money are the two most important things to me as a small business owner,” said Don Pinard, owner of www.peggsbargains.net, an Auctiva and AliExpress customer. “I spend a lot of time online looking for products I can sell. I used to use liquidation sites, but AliExpress is much better, and more reliable. If I can trim the cost of purchasing items by just 7% that will cover all store fees and shipping costs, which will really increase my profit.”

The online merchants who use both Auctiva and Vendio will have direct access to almost 1.5 million supplier storefronts on Alibaba.com’s sourcing platform andAliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), a wholesale transaction platform operated by Alibaba.com. This new connection from supplier to online merchant represents significant potential cost savings to customers. By sourcing their products directly from the manufacturer, reducing travel and taking advantage of global markets, Alibaba.com hopes to help small merchants increase their profit margin in the long term. For example, a jewelry retailer can sell a silver bracelet with black agate stones for US$12 on eBay and make a profit of US$7.09 if he/she originally purchased their inventory on AliExpress for US$4.91 per piece. These savings combined with the additional efficiencies of sourcing online will represent significant savings for the average online merchant.

With the acquisition, Auctiva’s platform will be integrated with AliExpress, allowing Auctiva users to connect to AliExpress via a tab on the Auctiva Web-based platform. This will enable customers to easily search for suppliers, acquire merchandise and list those products on eBay through their Auctiva accounts. Exclusive promotions and special deals on AliExpress products will be available to Auctiva users.

“Small online retailers are just starting to see how they can use international sourcing to their advantage, and we have seen the significant opportunity through customer reaction to our initial integration with Vendio,” said David Wei, chief executive officer of Alibaba.com. “Many small business owners never even thought that they would be able to source their products from overseas, as they didn’t have the staff or technological resources to do so. We are bringing both sides of the equation together to make international sourcing as easy as possible for any business.”

“Our mission has always been to help users sell more successfully online, particularly through the eBay channel,” said Jeff Schlicht, founder and CEO of Auctiva. “With more than 10,000 new users joining Auctiva each month, we are constantly looking for new ways to serve our customers and drive value for them. Joining Alibaba.com and connecting our buyers to the vast supplier base on Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com is the perfect way to help them grow and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.”

The acquisition closed on Aug. 18, 2010, and is part of the US$100 million investment plan for AliExpress that Alibaba.com announced in April 2010. Auctiva will operate as a new business unit within Alibaba.com and will retain its own brand name and operations.

Rothschild was the financial adviser to Alibaba.com for this transaction and Morgan Joseph was the adviser to Auctiva for this transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

eBay is in its 15 year anniversary and Facebook just announced it has over 1/2 billion members. It’s amazing to me when I think back on all the things that eBay did over its 15 year course. Pretty amazing how this site changed the face of ecommerce on the web. However, one of the things that it did in the last few years, I find really interesting. Since John Donahoe become the CEO, what’s most interesting about eBay is to compaire its growth to others. If you look to the last few years of eBay and the last few years of Facebook, you can see how one man’s trash became another man’s treasure.

Facebook is right now the number one site on the internet with over five hundred million users in social media. It’s getting more traffic now than Google, as a landing page, and just a few years ago it was not even on the radar. What made Facebook grow so fast? It was the community. What made eBay grow so fast in the 90’s? It was the community. The last eBay Live I attended was themed “the Power of Us All” which was recognizing the power of the community.

Yet recently, eBay and John Donahoe have decided that the community is no longer important for their platform and they even rolled out the founder of eBay to help them trashed it. eBay told their community to basically f*ck off, we are NOT going to keep things fair and balanced. I think John Donahoe refers to the eBay community principle, as a “sacred cow” in this video with Pierre. At one time Peirre valued and treasured that cow, but guess they missed the meaning of the word “sacred” and messed with the magic formula. The new eBay says nope, we got other things more important to us than our community. They trashed all of the tools that the community would use to communicate with each other. Bought Skype and then figured out that they did not want the community to talk to each other. They changed all the open chat forums and boards and locked them down tight. So tight, that the community could no freely interact with one another the way they did in the past.

Donahoe and crew even removed the ability to blog on their platform, discouraged the sharing of photos in ads. Now just a few years later and all

of these kind of things that eBay threw away basically became Facebook, now you see how community is so important to a business model. They are building a business model around the community the same way that eBay built its business model via a community. The community is the most important nucleon of any business.

I remember back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, one of my most favorite shows was a show called “Cheers” and they had a song, and in the theme

song it said “A place where everybody knows your name” and no matter how good or bad the economy was or how good or bad people’s lives were. They always communed at this little bar called Cheers. So, cheers never had an episode about it going out of business or having money problem, because they could always sell liquor to their community.

Community is probably one of the most important factors in business so get it, understand it and use it for your benefit in your business. Don’t trash your community; learn from the mistakes of companies like eBay and from the successes of companies like Facebook. Embrace your community!

WOW!!! Two countries, four cities, three presentations and 40+ hours in airplanes makes for ONE tired black man. The experiences we had in Sydney, Melbourne, Kansas City and Hollywood (that was just for fun) have been amazing. It is way too much for a blog post, but I hope you will join me TOMORROW evening for a very special Late Night BETA show, register now FREE.

I will be recapping all the information, tools and fun of my trip to Australia for the Professional eBay Sellers Association (PeSA) event there and also the Bonanazle Up event in Kansas City. Two selling communities and some really great people. Join me on the show and make sure you bring a drink! This is Late Night BETA, we kick it on a whole different vibe when I go late night. See you there, guys…

Register now for the PeSA eBay Summit highlights 2010 Show

Come back here during show time and I will be LIVE!!!

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

Today eBay released the 2nd quarter earnings. Banter was raised as eBay Inc. has a 6% increase over last year and Paypal has some strong earnings for the quarter…yippee, "whoop d sh*t". Sorry if you don’t find me too impressed. There is holes in this Swiss cheese and the real deal is this. eBay.com that’s the US marketplace is down from 6% growth in the first quarterly to a tiny 2% this quarter and overall down -12% from 2008. So they have suffered a -4% decline on the platform, had NO growth in ASP and zero performance with conversion.

The patron saint of Best Match has not blessed us with the promised land. Wow, am I to be surprise? Yeah, but wait to you hear all the other issue surrounding this news. Look it is too long for me to type here, so I lay it out in plain English for you. Is it just me? Are my assessments here wrong? This seems so ridiculously bad to me, I dunno?!?

Links to the earnings reports for 2010 (released today)  and 2009 for comparison.

Back in 2009 an ecommerce store solution hit the market with at BANG! Immediately I took note of it because of the innovative way it was designed. BigCommerce.com (use our link and you support our blog) hit the floor running and just 9 months later they are the #1 rated ecommerce platform in the industry. I am honestly a fan of this company and its co-founder/marketing manager Mitchell Harper (on the right pictured below with his co-founding partner Eddie).

Right now your potential customers are scouring the Internet to make a purchase. They are doing Internet research on products trying to make a decision on where to buy their products. Today’s Internet shoppers are looking for a buying experience that is both informative and familiar.

The internet retailer that is providing both the information that the buyer is searching for in a unique yet comfortable experience can enjoy a significant advantage over other retailers competing for the shoppers purchasing dollar. Now is the time to get your online commerce store in-shape.

So after testing the platform during beta in ’09 I began a chase to get this guy on a ColderICE.com interview. Mitchell has a strong background in ecommerce and even makes informative videos explaining good practices at the companies’ ecommerce blog.

So you are asking yourself, hey John (ColderICE), why do you like BigCommerce so much? Besides the new integration with eBay (coming in release 6, now in beta), here are just 3 of my top reasons for suggesting folks looking for a store should look into this as a possible tool for your ecommerce solution…

1) BigCommerce includes dozens of built-in marketing tools to drive traffic to your online store, including advanced search engine optimization and the ability to sell your products on Facebook.

2) Simplicity of design with over 60 store designs and you can Drag & Drop Design Mode to customize the layout of their your store without needed lots of upfront cash spend on designers.

3) Better rankings for you on Google and other search engines. BigCommerce is the only ecommerce software reviewed by the world’s #1 SEO guru Aaron Wall. Aaron’s feedback was incorporated into the software.

Now after you hear this interview with Mitchell you too will see why I am so excited about their new release coming up which will include eBay seller integration. You will now be able to push and receive orders through a BigCommerce store with release 6. I have completed my personal testing and investigative research of this company. So my friends the initial launch promoted me to take a SERIOUS look at this store solution over these past months. And I am comfortable and confident recommending it as one of our vendor partner resources to ColderICE.com readers

Listen to the Interview NOW!

(press play button and be patient, it takes a minute to buffer)

OR Click to Download

BigCommerce Partial Feature List

With BigCommerce anyone can quickly and easily create their own online store without any technical experience. Unique features such as Drag & Drop Design Mode make it easy to completely customize the look and layout of your store using just your mouse. BigCommerce has built-in search engine optimization features which help your online store rank at the top of all major search engines including Google and Yahoo. Below is a complete list of BigCommerce features:

Features are constantly updated, the latest feature list can be found on the BigCommerce website.

Press "Play" to listen now

Be sure to subscribe so you do not miss an episode.

ChannelAdvisor and Bongo International Partner to Extend
International Shipping to Online Retailers

New offering creates additional revenue opportunity for ChannelAdvisor customers

Research Triangle Park, NC – July 13, 2010 – ChannelAdvisor, a solution provider that enables online retailers to improve efficiency and increase revenue, today announced a partnership with Bongo International that enables international shipping for ChannelAdvisor’s online retailer customers, effectively opening up the global marketplace. ChannelAdvisor Webstore customers can now add international shipping capability to their checkout in just hours, allowing them to provide shoppers with real-time international shipping costs, local currency, language translation and an expected delivery date.

“Many of our retailers receive interest from international buyers, but they don’t have the bandwidth to manage the intricacies of shipping internationally,” said ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo. “We’re partnering with Bongo International to equip our customers to sell more by expanding their target market from the U.S. to the global online community.”

Handling all taxes and customs rules, and taking no longer than a week to ship products, Bongo International can send products immediately or hold the goods to be consolidated with other U.S. purchases, saving the shopper up to 82 percent off common carrier rates.

“We strive to offer value to both the U.S. retailer and the international customer simultaneously,” said Greg Sack, president of sales with Bongo International. “We currently help more than 800 retailers expand their business around the globe, and we’re looking forward to extending that service to ChannelAdvisor’s 3,500-plus customers.”

SnowSportDeals.com has activated Bongo International shipping on its ChannelAdvisor Webstore checkout. “When our international customers order online, we simply ship the order to Bongo in Connecticut, who then ships it on to the buyer,” said Chris Chapman, owner of SnowSportDeals.com. “Since adding international shipping capability, we’re able to reach an entirely new demographic that our products have never been exposed to before. We’re thrilled to offer an additional service to our customers, and we’re eagerly anticipating the business opportunity this presents for our company.”

Bongo International also screens international shoppers to prevent fraudulent orders, resulting in an impressive 0.00 percent fraud rate throughout company history. For international buyers, Bongo offers a one-off purchase plan or a subscription plan that provides additional shipping savings.      

For more information on adding Bongo International to your ChannelAdvisor checkout, tune in to a joint webinar being held Tuesday, July 20, 2010. To register visit www.channeladvisor.com/webinars.

Key Points From comScore’s June U.S. Traffic Release

June and Q2 U.S. Online Retail Traffic Trends Largely Neutral —

• Overall U.S. Y/Y Traffic to Online Retail sites was modestly positive
• Q2 traffic (up 13.0%) very modestly better than Q1 trends (up 12.7%)
• comScore tracked 21% Y/Y growth to Amazon’s U.S. Website
• comScore tracked a 5% Y/Y decline to eBay’s U.S. Website

And the icing on the cake for me was this quote "…these trends as Neutral to both a Bullish AMZN and a Bearish EBAY…" Wow, does that say alot? These stock analyst are looking at Amazon increasing and eBay decreasing as a NEUTRAL trend.

Dayam! This like like eBay is on the "short bus" and they just expect it to stay that way. I mean, wow they don’t expect too much from eBay these days I guess. Dude that has got to suck for eBay.

Some key points to recognize are that Amazon and eBay are looking somewhat neutral. However, Amazon is very bullish while eBay seems to be very bearish and of course that means that Amazon is up, eBay is down. if you look at the chart, the chart data is showing that Amazon continues to see double digit increases in online traffic, while eBay is seeing single digits decreases in the negative, April saw down -7%, May down -3%, June down -4%.

If you couple that same data and take a look at same store’s sales data that was just released for June from ChannelAdvisor and their block of customers, it looks like the changes from eBay continue to take its toll on eBay sellers because the eBay same store sales declined 5.2%, after being up a little bit, around 4% in May.

eBay - The changes from 3/30 continued to take their toll on eBay sellers.  eBay declined to -5.2% vs. -4% in May.  Customers continue to be frustrated by the BestMatch algorithm, constant eBay tweaks to that algorithm and the very high eTRS bar.  If there is a silver lining to this problem, it has lead to more expansion in other channels (Amazon, Buy and webstore are the primary beneficiaries)
                                                                                        — Scot Wingo

So, now, we’re seeing that becoming a little negative, I’m not seeing a whole lot of rainbows in here for the eBay squad and I’m one of them. We need to see some change, some optics in the eBay numbers because they cannot continue bleeding this heavily while the rest of the country and the rest of the eCommerce economy seem to be turning the corner and moving forward; even though to double digits, eBay is still seeing the negatives. Not good.

This is a constant trend, if you want to see a silver lining in the cloud well at least eBay is not down 15% or 23% down, like a year ago; they’re bleeding less…Yeah?

Next lets turn our minds to the user interaction on the web.  Interesting point is that Google Sites are still seeing an increase and an income, but Facebook is also catching up pretty quick.

If you look at the total number of views and the total time spent, Facebook is starting to catch up and make a big profit. Facebook had a share of 8.6% where it used to be 7.8% and they are expecting Facebook to capture the number one spot in time spent before the year ends, which means that Facebook will be number one by year’s end. Who would’ve thought that crown would switch hands? If you rewind the clock back to just 3 years ago, no one would have predicted Facebook would out do the King Google?

Today Twitter has announced a new "daily deal" called @earlybird Exclusive Offers, this will be time-sensitive deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. People can follow that account to get access to the deals.

The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which Amazon.com recently acquired), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like eBay, which attributes volumes in sales to posting deals on the Daily Deals, are already doing.

The deals could be on products, like iPods or diapers, or on events, like concert tickets or travel. In a post on a company blog, Twitter hinted that it could filter deals by category, like apparel or gadgets, in the future. Twitter stressed that it would be selective about which deals were offered and “try and make these deals interesting and of value to you.”

The retailers will determine the price of the items and how many are available. Twitter will earn money from the sales. It is experimenting with different models, like a cut of each sale or a fixed price per deal, said Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman. The retailers will collect shoppers’ credit card numbers and otherwise fulfill the transaction.

Many of you use Twitter to stay on top of timely, relevant information, and lots of businesses are already sharing special offers on Twitter. We believe that surfacing deals through the @earlybird account will help you discover the best of those deals, as well as find and follow accounts that consistently provide exceptional value.

Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account. We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community. Our advertising partners determine the terms of the offer, including availability, amount, and price. As with other forms of advertising from Twitter, we are focused on bringing value to our users and will keep your interests in mind as we develop this program.

How does @earlybird choose these deals?

Every couple days, our Earlybird at Twitter HQ lays a golden egg. Inside this wondrous egg is a piece of parchment with the day’s magical deal.

Seriously… how do you get these deals?

Ok, ok, we partner with advertisers to choose exciting deals we think our users (that’s you!) will like. If you have suggestions of a product/event you want to see featured on this account, feel free to @reply to @earlybird.

Does Twitter make money from this?

Yes, we earn revenue through our relationships with advertisers. Our focus will be to try and make these deals interesting and of value to you. We take pride in being selective about the type of deals we highlight and hope they will be an exciting way to start your day.

Editor Update: The team at AdCommerce contacted me with the following for clarity…”saw your adcommerce post and wanted to respond. You are right about the timing of the launch. That was an oversight on our part and we appreciate you pointing it out. AdCommerce did launch in 2008, not 2009 as we indicated in the blog post. We will update the blog post accordingly. It was always, however, a beta product. The beta logo has always been on the site. Just thought you might want to know…”

eBay has announce the end of the AdCommerce program. What I do find interesting is how they made it “LOOK” like it was a beta program. At some point in the last few weeks they added this little beta sign to the logo?!? I interviewed Alexis Van De Wyer who is the Dir. or Marketing for eBay back in late January 2010 and I know for a fact that “beta” sign was NOT there?

What else is odd is that in the official announcement on the AdCommerce blog they state “As you probably know, the AdCommerce pay-per-click ad program launched last year as a trial to test various ad placement opportunities on eBay…”

BUT in reality this was launched in November of 2008. That is kind of odd behavior.

November 12, 2008 | 01:36PM PST/PT

Hi everyone…I’m Caroline Malifaud with eBay’s Advertising team. I’m pleased to let you know that our new advertising program eBay AdCommerce (announced earlier) is now live at www.adcommerce.com.

AdCommerce is a pay-per-click advertising solution that allows eBay sellers to advertise their listings and eBay Stores via a text ad on eBay search result pages.

Top that with the fact that just a couple of weeks ago, eBay suggested that sellers use AdCommerce in response to the ending of the Featured First program. Why would eBay make the AdCommerce program look like it was in Beta and that it was only started last year? Not sure why they did it that way, but I thought it was kind of weird. So anyway, here is the full announcement from eBay on the official ending of the program…

AdCommerce Placements for On-eBay Promotion to be Discontinued

July 1st, 2010

As you probably know, the AdCommerce pay-per-click ad program launched last year as a trial to test various ad placement opportunities on eBay.

During that time, we’ve determined that providing the best possible experience for eBay buyers and sellers means highlighting in Best Match search results the most relevant listings from sellers who offer the best prices and service.

In order to focus on the best selling and shopping experience, the specific AdCommerce program that allowed eBay sellers to purchase pay-per-click advertisements on search result pages linking to their eBay stores and listings will be retired for eBay.com and eBay.ca as of August 4, 2010. The service will continue for eBay sellers using AdCommerce in Europe and Australia.

We understand that you may be disappointed and that these AdCommerce ads may have provided an advantage to your business. However, we are confident that consistently displaying the most relevant items highest in the search results is in the best interest of buyers, sellers and the eBay marketplace overall.  We appreciate you participating in the AdCommerce beta program to date and wish you continued success with your eBay businesses.

If you have recently purchased AdCommerce ads for your store or listings, you do not need to do anything at this time—the AdCommerce placements you have already purchased to appear on these sites will automatically expire on August 4. Your final billing will be sent out in early September.

In the meantime, to continue to ensure maximum exposure for your listings in Best Match, the best thing to do is focus on sound business practices and on delivering great value and service to your buyers. Here are a few best practices:

• Provide great service to your buyers
• Retain or achieve eBay Top-rated seller status on eBay.com
• Offer good prices and reasonable shipping
• List in the right format and the right categories
• Write accurate and relevant titles
• Write clear item descriptions
• Include great photos
• State your terms clearly

Thank you,

eBay AdCommerce team

Alibaba.com Acquires Vendio, Continues to Advance Global E-Commerce Platform

Acquisition integrates AliExpress and Vendio e-commerce services into a complete solution for small businesses in the U.S.

SAN MATEO, CA, June 24, 2010 – Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688.HK) (HK.1688), the world’s leading e-commerce company for small business, has entered into an agreement to acquire Vendio Services, Inc., a multi-channel e-commerce company providing a one-stop solution for small businesses that are selling online across multiple channels . From the Vendio Platform, merchants can source products from Alibaba.com’s trusted supplier network and sell through channels such as eBay, Amazon, and their own Vendio-supported store. This platform is offered on Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud-computing model to help businesses increase their sales while managing costs to enhance their profit margin.

Through this acquisition, Alibaba.com gains access to more than 80,000 targeted small businesses in the U.S. with potential sourcing needs from suppliers on Alibaba.com’s sourcing platform and AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), a wholesale transaction platform operated by Alibaba.com. In addition, the acquisition will provide access to e-commerce storefronts and multi-channel selling services for AliExpress customers looking to reach consumers online through the Vendio Platform. AliExpress and Vendio customers are able to source efficiently from the 5 million+ products available on AliExpress and then sell goods through Vendio on the retail marketplaces of their choice around the world.

With the acquisition, Alibaba.com will connect AliExpress directly with Vendio through back-end integration, creating an AliExpress tab within the Vendio Platform. This integration allows Vendio users to easily access a private sourcing experience within their Vendio inventory and sales management interfaces. Exclusive guarantees, promotions and special deals on AliExpress wholesale products will also be available to Vendio users.

AliExpress complements Vendio by strengthening the first step in the business cycle for small businesses: how to locate products for sale. According to a recent survey, more than 80 percent of Vendio customers have never used online supplier services and nearly 90 percent have never tried to take advantage of import-export. This integration creates an opportunity for Vendio customers to expand their supply chain and lower their cost through instant, free access to the more than 1.4 million supplier storefronts on Alibaba.com and AliExpress. Now Alibaba.com and Vendio members have access to complete e-commerce solutions to meet their sourcing, buying and selling needs through an integrated set of tools and features.

"At Alibaba.com, our goal is to make it easier for our customers around the world to do business by providing solutions that increase margins, productivity and competitiveness through e-commerce," said David Wei, chief executive officer of Alibaba.com. "We continue to look for synergies and investment opportunities to grow our customer base, acquire additional technology and add new applications that will help our customer base grow and prosper.

Vendio is our first acquisition in the U.S. and a strong strategic fit across all three areas, and I am confident that our complementary businesses will create enhanced opportunities for our customers."

"We identify with Alibaba.com’s vision of creating a seamless global e-commerce experience for business owners," said Mike Effle, COO of Vendio. "We are particularly impressed by Alibaba.com’s deep commitment to creating immense value for small businesses. Efficiently integrating Alibaba.com’s extensive supplier base will allow Vendio’s merchants to earn higher profit margins while providing unique and competitively priced products from around the world to their customers. The increased efficiency and product breadth will yield additional positive effects for the marketplaces we support and throughout the entire e-commerce ecosystem."

The acquisition is part of the US$100 million investment plan for AliExpress that Alibaba.com announced in April 2010. It is expected to close in July 2010. After the closing, Vendio will become a new business unit within Alibaba.com and will retain its own brand name and operations. Mike Effle, current Vendio COO, will assume the role of the Vendio CEO and Rodrigo Sales, current Vendio CEO, will become a strategic advisor to the company.

Rothschild was the financial adviser to Alibaba.com for this transaction and Pacific Crest Securities was the adviser to Vendio for this transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.