Comments on: eCommerce Trends for 2010: How many are you embracing?

By: Robert Cook

Robert Cook — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:13:43 +0000

A very interresting and insightful post. Its fascinating to see how these new trends are evolving at such a fast pace. Do you see this dramatic expansion of e-commerce to have a direct impact on the traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ shopping sites and what effect do you think this will have on real estate?

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:21:02 +0000

@Henrietta I’m curious how you define meaningful analytics? For the most part, I agree with you; though, what we’ve found at Outright is that there is a big delta between what is available now and what eBay sellers want and need.

There are acquisition related analytics with which the industry has just scratched the surface of what is possible and should be available. Then too though, there area still fundamentals missing for many; data points that one needs to just know how they’re doing.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:07:27 +0000

“Thank you for giving us some hope for 2010. It was nice meeting you in ATL”

By: Henrietta

Henrietta — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:42:25 +0000

#2 I don’t think you will see an increase in drop-shipping among lower than diamond level sellers on eBay. Without exceptional volume the risk factor is too high to gamble (ultimately) your ability to sell on the platform at all, on your manufacturers diligence.

#3 & 4: Smaller sellers on the whole have always excelled in personalized and superior customer service. This is an ingredient that has been discounted and all but lost in the new Marketplace. Not, I believe intentionally, but incidentally due to lack of practical knowledge. It is possible to service high volume sales with a personal touch, Zappos is an example, but it does require a certain mindset and flexibility which does not meld with current management policies on the eBay platform.

#5 This is something that is simply not attainable for eBay sellers. Too much of the data is considered proprietary for any kind of meaningful analytic process to be available to sellers. An example in point, the DSRs. Without better metrics no real improvement is possible because isolation of individual factors within and at the transaction level is all but impossible. The shotgun approach only takes you so far. Fine tuning is more a matter of luck than judgment. I am not criticizing, this is just the way it is.

Interesting and thought provoking post Richard, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

By: Bruno M

Bruno M — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:08:14 +0000

Thanks for an interesting post. I am excited to see all these ideas take shape and it’s not a stretch to say they’re probably ‘right on’. Although I’m particularly interested in ramifications of #5 I understand it’s also coming about in part because of greater forces. I’m seeing the ideas around #5 becoming more ‘mainstream’ as more and more analysts/bloggers are talking about predictive analytics and the skill sets that a new analytics will bring. For example see Eric Peterson’s recent whitepaper sponsored by SAS called “The Coming Revolution in Web Analytics”. I’m not saying Eric is ‘mainstream’, but I think it’s telling that those 2 have come together to do a whitepaper on this topic at this time (given the major changes we’re seeing out there). I imagine Ebay will continue to be a leader in this area? Can you talk more about what Ebay is doing in respect to #5?

Best,
Bruno