» scot wingo

On Monday, John Donahoe the CEO of eBay declined to give out much information on eBay sales for the holiday season. At the investors conference, Donahoe was giving most of the hype to PayPal which has seemed to be the song and dance of 2009. You talk about the moving ball to keep all eyes off the one that is sitting and not moving. I have noticed this a lot from the CEO in his most recent appearances, eBay does seem to be second to PayPal on the hype meter right now.

Donahoe is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article saying, “There’s no killer item this year. There’s no Xbox or item that’s out of stock that everyone has to have,” he said. Zhu Zhu pets, the stuffed hamsters that have become intensely popular in recent months, are an exception and are doing brisk business on the site.

We do know that Amazon reportedly topping the list as the most visited retail website on Cyber Monday, seeing a 44% increase in visits compared to 2008. Amazon received 15.53% of the visits among the top 500 online retail sites.

On the flip side, eBay released a eBay “heat map” for Black Friday on its website and that caused many to ask well how much was sold for real? The visuals are cute and all, but why all the techno crap? What were the NUMBERS? That was my question.

With Donahoe’s continued interest in luxury brands and the new out-of-season mentality of eBay 2009, I want to know if it is WORKING? Do the numbers show that eBay is more successful than in the past? Is the number moving the needle to the left or right? Guess we will not know?!?

However on Monday, Scot Wingo (CEO, ChannelAdvisor.com) decided to break out a calculator and do some "Fun eBay Math" and concluded that…

If that math is correct, Black Friday’s 1m transactions were actually 25% below average and Cyber Monday was a paltry 3% above average.  Of course our assumptions could be off here, but they’d have to be off pretty significantly to change these results.  Also they are based off of real-world data points so they are far from guesses.

Company continues to add key Internet Retailer 500 customers including Blue Bay andTool King, launches next-generation Amazon solution

Research Triangle Park, NC– November 3, 2009 – ChannelAdvisor, a solution provider that enables online retailers to improve efficiency and increase revenue, today announced another strong quarter with $2.6 million in bookings and 229 new customer additions.  Further, for the 12 months ending September, 2009, ChannelAdvisor achieved for the first time in company history a full year of positive EBIDTA (earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortization).  New customers are driving this growth by signing on for multiple e-commerce channel solutions to maximize their revenue potential.  Notable new customers include Foot Shop Limited, Green Cartridge Company Europe BV, Solaris Sport S.L.R. and Tory Burch.

“While our third quarter brought us continued growth across all channels, there was significant escalation among apparel, consumer electronics and media, which are in many cases necessities for consumers,” said Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor CEO.  “Whether shopping for essentials or luxuries, more than ever we are seeing consumers using comparison shopping sites and bargain hunting across multiple websites, leading our customers to embrace a multi-channel selling approach to maximize visibility.” 

The third quarter also saw the release of ChannelAdvisor’s next-generation Amazon solution.  The solution has been well-received due to its ability to provide online retailers control over the Amazon sales channel with actionable information, eliminating the need for online retailers to involve their IT department in every minor change.

“Within one week of implementing ChannelAdvisor’s new Amazon solution our sales increased 34 percent,” said Steve McCarty, president of Ultimate Paintball.  “We’re anticipating continued growth and a successful holiday season with ChannelAdvisor’s support of the Fulfillment by Amazon program.” 

Highlights of the next-generation Amazon solution include:

• Product Match technology that discovers which Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) to select for products based on the listing’s title, price, sales rank, whether or not Amazon is a competitor and more – folding all the variables needed to make a decision into a sleek, simple-to-use interface
• Categorizer technology that offers intelligent recommendations and dynamically populates Amazon’s complex item classification keyword requirements, categorizing each product as accurately as possible and saving hours of manual data entry
• A revised dashboard that, for the first time, presents a simple, dynamic, birds-eye view of the status of listings to ensure that all products are live and that all listings are fully optimized for maximum visibility and sales
• Full integration with the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program to create, track and modify products, shipments and orders, which are then fulfilled by Amazon’s shipping service

Additional third-quarter product updates include the following:

• Comparison Shopping
  • Full support for Bing Shopping Cashback, including transaction reports

• Paid Search
  • Advanced network targeting for Google campaigns
  • Negative keyword support for Google ad groups
  • Bing Search Cashback support including transaction reports

• Rich Image
  • URL-based commands to easily resize and apply filters such as image quality, sharpen and contrast
  • Watermarking and dynamic text overlaying for merchandising
  • Automated cropping for image files
  • Ability to summarize workflow actions into a single URL-based command

• RichCatalog
  • New message panel allowing images text and external links to be inserted anywhere in the book; the text and links are used to display instructions, highlighted products, vendor offers and signup fields

Wow man, I just got myself back together after this weeks Ecommerce Summit in Atlanta. I had a really good time, seriously. This whole event from start to finish was 1000x better than I  could have ever expected. From signing eBay execs (Usher Lieberman) doing karaoke at Joe’s College Park Tavern to the great presentations that I attended and the poker tournament that I sucked at.

What made this year so much fun and valuable was the networking. Sure the presentations were TOP NOTCH, the vendors were informative and the staff very friendly…but the members and the guest were ALL here to network and share with each other. That had a lot of power and always does at these events. This was NOT about exclusivity, it was ALL ACCESS inclusivity.

After the presentations were done, you could find all the presenters and attendees mixing it up TOGETHER throughout the hotel, restaurants and bars. You got to meet, greet, shake hands, ask questions and pass out cards to everyone. It really was a chilled out atmosphere. There was a poker tournament and casino tables set up for some after hours activities. So a good time was guaranteed by all.

I got SO MUCH footage to comb through and some cool information to share with our readers, as ColderICE has some exclusive nugget to dispense for you guys. But right now, please enjoy these photos that Joe Cortez (PeSA Founder) made available.

Dave White of eBay and Beyond with Melinda and Kat too!!!

Peggy Duncan presents on time management for business owners

Brandon Dupsky Executive Director of Ecommerce Merchants

(From left to right) Brent Leary, Jay Berkowitz, Chuck Hester and James Wong

Joe Cortez (PeSA Founder) Jonathan Garriss (Executive Director)

Richard Brewer Hay and Usher Lieberman of eBay.com

Scot Wingo, Jonathan Garriss, Michael Levit

Randy Smythe helps sellers get familiar with Buy.com

"Your Boy ColderICE" was in da house too

Mr. Scot Wingo just launched new blog the other day at www.amazonstrategies.com   So if you are  looking for someone to cover many of the interesting strategies being developed for sellers on Amazon, look no futher!

As this 3rd party platform from Amazon begins to really take hold in our ecommerce circles it is GREAT to see a new place for Wingo to post and evolve his thought and insight on this growth marketplace.

On this blog we’ll be covering news, analysis and most importantly – selling strategies – all around Amazon’s seller business and related services.

We’ll be spending the bulk of our time talking about Amazon’s ProMerchant service (also known as Merchants@ or Amazon’s 3P) business and all of the strategies that have developed for that platform.  We’ll talk about how to own the buy-box, advanced pricing strategies, merchandising on Amazon and of course how the Amazon search engine works and how retailers can optimize for increased exposure.

But also, retailers are increasingly interested in Amazon services such as:

• Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) – While you may have heard of FBA from the outsourced fulfilment angle, at ChannelAdvisor, we’re finding the killer app that is driving FBA adoption in reality is access to the Amazon Primecustomers as well as SuperSaver free/discounted shipping promotions.
• Product Ads -  With the ProductAds platform you can essentially treat Amazon like a comparison shopping engine.  This PPC program allows you to send a feed of products to Amazon where they are seen by buyers and then traffic is sent to your website.  This program is really getting traction and we have some case studies and best practices to share here.
• Checkout By Amazon (CBA)-  While still a relatively new addition, retailers are watching this service and wondering where it fits in with options out there like PayPal, Google Checkout and of course credit-card merchant services.
• Webstore and ecommerce – Amazon’s webstore offering is an interesting way to leverage what you may already be doing on Amazon into an ecommerce platform.  The primary use-case is for those smaller merchants without an existing ecommerce site. 
• Vitamin C -  Forrester’s Brian Walker has tweeting and tellilng the press about an Amazon effort he’s been briefedon called Vitamin C evidently internally at Amazon.  Brian suggests this is a mid-market ecommerce offering that is more independent of amazon than Webstore.

Phew, that’s a lot to cover, but if I missed anything – please let me know in comments and I’ll make sure it is on our radar.

Scot Wingo CEO ChannelAdvisor

So I am kicking it around in the hallway and then guess who walks by? OMG, it is Scot Wingo the CEO of ChannelAdvisor. He just got off the stage and my eyes are still burning from the SMOKE!

Dude, his presentation was seriously smoking. He brought out all the charts and graphs and laid out the landscape of the ecommerce platform for 2009. It is always the #1 reason that I will make the trip simply to get this direction from Scot Wingo. Year after year he delivers.

Sure, I am in the "fan club" so what, I know I make good choices, LMAO. But seriously, numbers tell stories and Scot is real good at bringing those number to the forefront. So here is a quick interview I was able to grab with him right after his keynote presentation at Catalyst 2009…sweet!

The first session out at CA Catalyst last week was probably one of my favorites from last year and I am SO HAPPY that they brought it back again this year.

They have a panel of 10 randomly selected internet shoppers brought out on stage to answer audience questions. Some people will poll them and get them to respond on how they shop, what they look for in a online shopping experience and what is most important.

This is some of the most insightful information you can get to make your site experience POP, in the customers eye. What makes a buyer buy? How do they find your sites? Are coupons important? All this and more was address and the the results are MORE than shocking on a few of the responses.

Dude, I had so much fun and go so much LUV at ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst event this week. I must send thanks and shout-outs. You guys know how to throw an event!!! This year was FANTASTIC, it simply rocked.

Well, eBay has made its changes and boy it is a lot of work AGAIN for eBay seller to deal with. I guess if you constantly change directions you will ultimately end up somewhere right? LMAO.

I am not sure what direction eBay wants to go in right now, but they seem to have a glimmer of hope. eBay hopes that making the changes which they should have made back in 2004-2005 will help. What would have been “major” advancements in ecommerce 5 years ago, now seem rather hoo-hum. These moves at eBay are sort of like throwing out the ugly shag carpeting in the guest room, FINALLY.

But I must admit, I hated that ugly carpet so I think the changes would help too. I am just not to sure it will help that much though, but they sure can’t do much worse than they did in 2008 now can they? Or can they? That still remains to be seen. Remember eBay normally falls flat on its face when they actually IMPLEMENT change, not when they make simply make announcements of change

So to help you along, our geek squad leader, Scot Wingo just made a new guide available for download. You can get it for FREE here. 

eBay Spring Changes white paper now available – HERE

Now being the “cool ass, bro ham” that I am, the “dudes” sent over a few angles they learned so I could share them with the ColderICE readers. See they know that you guys are cool as hell too!

• This is really eBay trying to Amazon-ify the secondary market.  They haven’t been able to win in primary / mainstream products, so they’re taking cues from Amazon and applying them to secondary market products. 
• Look at the Amazonian history: free shipping, fixed prices, trust improvements, and now catalog pages, better item pages, multi-SKU, the BUYING GUARANTEE…more proof of this in the eBay analyst day slide we included in the report
• Look at the New York Times story titled “Undoing Meg Whitman’s eBay” 
• Auctions are REALLY falling out of favor. Multi-SKU will probably become another death-blow as the number of listings really dries up (more consolidation, less focus on listing coverage). Look at the 12% fixed price growth, -20% auction growth
• Blackthorne and other eBay tools may not support multi-SKU until OCTOBER!  This is going to hurt a lot of sellers and really delay their transition to parent / child.
• eBay’s changes make it easier to go multi-channel — they’re finally adopting the parent / child structure that everyone else has (Amazon, Buy.com, Web Stores, etc.)

Just to be complete, I did not want to skip over the Paypal presentation. The days events spanned nearly 5 hours of stuff and about 4 and a half of them I really don’t give a crap about.

My ONLY investment in eBay is via selling on the platform. I am not investing in their stock and do not  plan too. Having said that, I do not invest in ANY stock. So that is not a dig on eBay. I invest in 2 things, inventory and Michael Jordan collectables. Both of which have outperformed eBay, Amazon, and Walmart stocks combined, so I am cool with that, LMAO

Paypal and its move are somewhat interesting to our business so it does get some attention and I will go through that now…