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Revolutionizing How Mobs.pk is Online Shopping in Pakistan
How Mobs.pk is Revolutionizing Online Shopping in Pakistan | E-Commerce Transformation
Quick Sale Hints
Hello to our many new sellers! This once-tiny site is starting to feel like a real live marketplace with such a variety of merchandise (and increasing sales of said merchandise) fleshing out our category counts over the last couple weeks. Of course, with an increasing number of great looking booths and items on Bonanzle, the challenge becomes how to get item views and sales for your particular booth? To help sellers deal with this most vexing of problems, we recently added a collection of pages that describe some ideas on how to drive traffic to your booth. They live here: http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/booth_promotion Not like you could miss them, since they're also prominently featured on the "My Bonanzle" page. I know that as a seller it's nice to think that you can just sign up, post some items, and let the site take care of driving traffic to your items. To an extent, this is certainly possible -- Bonanzle's traffic has tripled in the last month, and there are more buyers than ever perusing the site in search of booths to love. But we're not yet eBay (thank God), so if you want to maximize exposure for your items, consider trying some of the ideas on the list. It was designed to provide simple ideas for driving traffic your way. And keep all the great feedback coming! I hope to see some more Bonanzas get scheduled for later in August, I don't want to see Mark go into withdrawal. I think he's become wholly addicted to cheap Bonanza baseball cards.
Q. Where does a ghost go on Saturday night? A. Anywhere where he can boo-gie.
Right now, I am dancing! We now have well over 2000 items on Bonanzle! More importantly we have a wide range of some very unique items. To give you an example of the variety of items available at Bonanzle I wanted to bring attention to our 1000th and 2000th items! Item # 1000 Nose Cuffs, Genuine Austrian CrystalWhat is a Nose Cuff? Well if you have a teenager that wants to pierce their nose, this is a good alternative. A Nose Cuff is a piece of jewelry which clips to your nose and gives the appearance of a true piercing. What is so special about this Nose Cuff is that it is made with Genuine Austrian Crystal. Austrian Crystals are among the principal objects used to clear energy blockages in the ancient Chinese art of placement called Feng-Shui. Retail price for this is $ 69.95 but you can score on this closeout for $8-$15 each! Item #2000 Twinkling H2O's Shimmering Watercolor PaintsTwinkling H2O's are excellent paints and are extremely versatile. The colors are bright and the shimmer is a proper "Shimmer" and not a glittery finish, making these paints ideal for a range of products. The colors are deep and the paints go a long way. These are non-toxic acid free, lightfast and safe for all ages to use! Unique shades include English Lavender, Wine and Roses, Dreamsicle, Lemongrass, Mediterranean Blue and Blushing Rose. Six different colors for only $10.99! Check back soon, item #3000 will be here in no time!
eBay Alternatives Comparison - Why Bother With Second Best?
OK, so if you're here, I'm going to assume that eBay did you wrong. You're in good company. Between the February eBay boycott, the scoop at Henrietta's excellent blog, and eBay's declining traffic and listings, it has become conventional wisdom that eBay is in some dire straits right now. But it's one thing to hate eBay, and it's another to choose and use an eBay alternative. Usually once people start thinking about whether they can realistically ween themselves of their eBay habit, they learn there are some serious tradeoffs that need to be made. This post will discuss some of those tradeoffs in regard to how each of the current eBay alternatives compare to each other. Established Sites Amazon Marketplace: OK, full disclosure -- I've always had a soft spot for Amazon. Shopping there doesn't make me think, it makes me happy. Strengths: Good user base and great user experience. Amazon inspires Bonanzle's obsession with making things as utterly intuitive as possible. Weaknesses: You can only post items for sale that are in their inventory, so unique collectibles and such are out. Also, since Amazon gives so little information about each item, the only two metrics you can differentiate on are price and feedback. For users that don't want to sell their items at bargain basement prices, or for users that haven't already sold hundreds of items, this is a problem. iOffer: iOffer has been working hard over the last few years to try to become the next eBay. In my mind, they have succeeded in doing so from a user experience standpoint. Strengths: Good sized user base, lots of items. Allows users to group together items into offers. User experience that feels extremely similar to where eBay was a year or two ago. Or is that a bad thing? Weaknesses: User experience that feels extremely similar to where eBay was a year or two ago. Prices hover amongst highest site not named eBay site. Excluding multi-item offers, little in the way of positive improvements compared to eBay. For my part, I prefer eBay's user experience to iOffer's as of today. Etsy: Who doesn't love Etsy? It's beautiful, its user experience is second to none, and creativity abounds. Strengths: Presentation is superb. You don't need to be a web wizard to realize that many of the ideas for Bonanzle's presentation were adapted from seeds planted by Etsy. Lots of fun Flash widgets to play with. Good user and item base. Weaknesses: If you aren't selling homemade gifts, you're out of luck. Also, their prices aren't that low. But as you'll see in the next group of shopping choices, low prices can be a mixed blessing anyhow. Up and Comers Herein lies a scrum of sites with big dreams but not as many items or users. These are not sites for Powersellers looking to liquidate thousands of items by the end of the month. Yet they play an important role in the buying and selling ecosystem, because for these smaller sites need to survive, they've got to have creativity and a certain pluckiness. Remember in 1998 when you thought that Yahoo! had solved the problem of Internet search, and then Google arrived? Even though you the behemoths above have been "good enough" so far, the up and comers are where you'll see the hope that a significant step forward is still possible. Bonanzle: OK, who did you think was going to start this list, Einstein? I would subjectively say that, moreso than almost any other entrant on this list, Bonanzle is different than what you're used to. This starts from Bonanzle's founding principle of "Relentless Simplicity," which itself is a pretty big leap from the 90's way of thinking that "the more features the merrier." The implications of this mantra are far reaching for the product that's evolved. Strengths: User experience and focus on gathering user feedback comparable to Etsy and Amazon, respectively. Focus on real time deal making and interaction. High emphasis on sociability and community. Relentlessly simple. eBay/Craigslist item/feedback importers built in. Integration with all IM clients built in. Offers and counteroffers built in. Real time sales (Bonanzas) where buyer and seller interact built in. Can search for local items that are able to be picked up same day. Store-centric approach equals item synergy. No pre-registration to set up a store. Weaknesses: If you like auctions, you won't find them here -- too slow and unsimple. If you like cents, you won't find those either, we think they're so much mental clutter. Tradeoff for community-centric atmosphere means generally less anonymity than eBay. eCrater: This is almost what I'd consider an "Established Site," but with only 20% of the inventory of iOffer, I think it still belongs as an Up and Comer for now. They're scrappy. They probably like it. Strengths: No fees of any sort to setup your store. Decent traction with items and users. Reliable and been up for a long time. Weaknesses: I was playing with my eCrater store yesterday to see how they'd setup Google Checkout. After a couple minutes, I was done setting up my store and decided I wanted to see the home page again. I clicked on the "eCrater" logo. Nothing. I look at the top of the left navigation bar. Nothing. I went into deep thought and scoured their interface for a way... any way... to escape from the selling part of the site. No dice. I left the site. Long story short: because they're free, and have nothing to lose, it feels like there is some accountability missing for designing an intuitive experience or good presentation. Also, eCrater has been up for enough years now (5ish I think) that it's hard to imagine it suddenly breaking through and gaining the mass of users to be a leader. BluJay, ePier, Wagglepop: Some of the sites on the trail of eBay/iOffer. I bet there are some great features on these sites, and if any of the developers of those sites stop by this blog and can concisely explain how they are different and better than eBay (excluding fees, any site can be cheaper than eBay), I'll include their feedback here. Auction Goons Google "eBay alternatives" and you won't have any trouble locating more than 100 sites claiming to be "the next eBay." These are the sites that you visit and you think to yourself, "if this is the next eBay, maybe I could learn to put up with current eBay after all." These sites go up and down regularly, and aside from cheap entertainment value, they provide little of value to the eBay alternative seeker. I'll refrain from arguing that the goons do a disservice to the serious up and comers, because it's so easy to make a lame auction site that who could blame a bored person for doing it as a fun side project. But they do generally clutter up the space and make users more (rightfully) skeptical of the legitimate eBay alternatives. Oh well. Maybe if you ask really nice I'll give you a couple links to some of the most amusing of the current crop of goons. But as a rule, you must Beware the Auction Goons. So, Why Bother With Second Best? In essence, the choice to try an Up and Comer is the choice to sacrifice a known quantity in hopes of a better buying and selling experience. For many eBay users, this is a no-brainer, they're sick of eBay fees, or they're sick of draconian eBay user policies, or they're bored of auctions, or they're tired of it taking 10 minutes to post an item, or they don't feel like wading through pages upon pages of gaudy HTML to find a quality item. Some people are just curious about what life might be like after eBay. Still other users (the Google generation) feel personally responsible for implementing the "Don't be Evil" mantra, and avoid eBay on principle. Whatever the case, the reality that eBay has lost more than 10% of its listings since last year (after growing every year prior) attests to the fact that more people than ever are willing to go out on a limb to find something better. For the Up and Comers sake, the challenge is to prove to these free agent users that the risk is worth it. Bonanzle is ready to prove it to you.
Seattle Craigslist vs. Microsoft Expo: Don't Ape the Mojo!
If there's one constant in this life, it's change. If there's two, they're "change" and "people that think they can beat Craigslist at its own game." Scientists at NASA recently proved a theory that describes the unshakable power that Craigslist wields. It's called the Theory of Craigslist Mojo, henceforth "TCM." Being mostly "math guys," the scientists have asked me to explain the major tenants of TCM here, in hopes that I might be able to save others from thinking they can ape the mojo. Listen, you can't ape the mojo. It's a violation of TCM. On behalf of NASA, I will now try my best to illuminate the findings of their life's work. Google "Craigslist alternatives," and at any given time you will find 20 companies, most of which are less than a year old, trying to out-feature or out-gimmick Craigslist. You forgive these entrepreneurs for trying; better that the momentary lapse of judgment led them to believe they could out-feature Craigslist than that they could drive home after twelve beers. After all, the common mantra in software for the last ten years has been that "more features = better." By this standard, a seventh grader could build a "better" Craigslist over the weekend. If it weren't for TCM, a new and better Craigslist would dominate the market every few months. It is thus TCM that ensures the stability of the Internet, and in turn, the universe. Why did you think NASA got involved with this, anyway? Not understanding TCM, Microsoft Itself recently challenged its tenants. Could they debunk TCM? They brought the resources (both in money and users) to stand a chance, it seemed. In 2005, they launched their "Expo" service (later renamed "Live Expo", because, as you know, the word "Live" makes any web service irresistible) to much fanfare... on the Microsoft campus. While Expo experienced rapid adoption inside of Microsoft, it's launch was greeted by a mixture of curiosity and apathy for everyone else. How could that be, they wondered, when Expo had all the features of Craigslist, plus pictures in the search results? I remember when I first heard from a friend that Microsoft was in the online classifieds space, and thinking I had somehow missed the existence of a powerful competitor. I rushed home to enter "expo.com" into my browser, and was taken to a home design site. OK, so they can't get their own domain name. That's fine, seattle.craigslist.org isn't exactly the catchiest URL either. So I Googled "Microsoft Expo," and found it... SECOND PLACE on Google for its OWN NAME. I clicked on the link and got my first glimpse of a multi-billion dollar company that did not understand you can not ape the mojo. How do you spot a company that doesn't understand the tenants of TCM? Scientists have boiled it down the following -- go to site's home page, and count how many of the following elements the page has: Home page is pure text (or very nearly so) Home page has an event calendar, services, classifieds, and message board Home page lets you conduct a local-centric search in a particular city If the site you're looking at has two of the three, you are at a site that thinks it can beat Craigslist at its own game. By the principles of TCM, this site cannot continue to coexist with Craigslist. "You know, like matter and anti-matter," I was instructed to explain. This site will probably fold within the next year or two. When I went to Expo, and saw they had gone three for three, it was clear to me they hadn't received word of TCM. They were doomed from day one. And sure enough, after having forgotten about Expo for a few months, I stopped by a month ago and saw a notice on their site that they were throwing in the towel. Expo would be closing at the beginning of July 2008. They got tired of losing money when they realized can't nobody ape the mojo. TCM is why journalists love to write about Craigslist. Craigslists' very existence defies the known laws of commerce, logic, and many branches of quantum physics. When Craigslist launched 10 years ago, if you would have asked 100 people which they thought was more likely: that Craigslist would dominate local selling for the next ten years, or that the Internet itself would prove to be a fad, you'd probably have gotten an even split. These days, TCM assures that Craigslist occupies a mythical, nearly unassailable status amongst much of its enormous user base. What does this mean for the Kijijis and Backpages and OLXs of today that have not yet given up the fight to ape the mojo? It is the ultimate field test of TCM, because with eBay pumping as many millions into promoting Kijijjiji as it is suing Craigslist, they are desperate to prove that TCM can be violated by the rival theory of Millions of Bucks Buys Users (MBBU). For my part, I hope they're wrong. On Bonanzle, you'll notice that though we want to help people sell items locally, and though our #1 priority is simplicity, we have no aspirations to ape the mojo. Craigslist's model works fine for the type of person that likes total anonymity, or for a person that has only an item or two to sell. However, we think there is space in the universe for a marketplace that's easier and more social, and when we do reach the critical mass that Craigslist takes us seriously, I hope that we can collaborate with them to share listings and let people be able to search and use the sites interchangeably. So long as the laws of TCM are at work, the world shall remain forever safe from the otherwise powerful Theory of Inevitable Fee Increases.
Two Items in Two Minutes
Here you have it, Bonanzle's first YouTube video! It quickly shows what its like to post two items for sale. The item posting takes less than 90 seconds, but with blabbering and arguing about the best video game ever, it'll take two minutes of your time to witness in total.
Is Your Booth on Steroids? Optimizing Your Booth for Success
Is Your Booth on Steroids? Optimizing Your Booth for Success
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Q. Where does a ghost go on Saturday night? A. Anywhere where he can boo-gie.
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