Are off-site ads really worth their price?

November 17, 2007

This post was written in November 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Picture the Scene:

I arrive at my local market on a crisp Monday morning to purchase my fruit and veg and as I slowly wander around I start to notice something strange. Above each stall is a large BIG BOLD advert, which I have to read twice as its import catches my attention:

“Have you tried the new OUT OF TOWN shopping centre? Morriscos sells these oranges MUCH cheaper than this stall!”

As I wander around, I notice more and more of these strange adverts:

“Buy this item at our new shiny OUT OF TOWN shopping centre… Morriscos!”

“Do not buy this kettle here; Morriscos will sell it to you at cost!”

As I am a long-standing regular customer of the market, when I spot the owner walking around, I go to find out what he’s playing at.

“Why do you tell your customers to go elsewhere?” I inquire with much curiosity and incredulity.

“Well,” he replies, “after much in-depth calculation, we have realised that we get £100 a week from our stall holders. The advertising will generate an additional £10 a week, so our revenue will increase to £110. We have a hundred stalls, so now we are making £11,000 a week instead of £10,000 a week.” Looking at me smugly, he goes on to say, “Don’t you think that’s a stroke of GENIUS?”

I decide not to discuss an obvious flaw in the plan and continue to listen to his rationale. After a little while, I find out that his big brother owns an advertising firm, “ShippingOverThereAdvertising.com”, which also gives another insight into the decision that has been made.

As I wander out of the market, many dark looks and unhappy faces meet my inquiring gaze.

So not thinking much of it, I come back a couple of months later (The new Morriscos really is superb you know, it sells all of the same stuff, maybe at different prices, but they just LOOK so much more professional) and I see my friend the advertising guru looking not quite so smug.

“What’s wrong” I ask, “you don’t seem as happy as last time I saw you…”

To which he responds with a pained expression, “Well I have to be honest, you know that advertising trick I tried?” He continues after a nod of ascent from myself, “Well those traitorous stallholders of mine took advantage!”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Twenty of my stall holders went over to Morriscos and opened small shop units over there! So now we have £8,800 as revenue, and more of them are threatening to move as they say there are fewer established customers here now, and people like the air conditioning and gentle music over THERE!”

The conversation carried on for a while, but the owner finished on this interesting observation:

“Why oh why did I let Morriscos have a foothold in our marketplace, we had a captive loyal customer base of shoppers, but now they have all deserted us and saying we are old hat, not only that we are bleeding sellers faster than we can replace them as they are moving over to Morriscos where all the customers are…”

This would be the obvious flaw in the plan that I did not mention earlier. So I wander away and consider the moral of the story…

Don’t tell the cows the grass is greener on the other side, as they tend to jump the fence when they find that out!

Written by Mark Timberlake · Filed Under Uncategorized | 17 Comments 

UK Best Offers missing the point

October 23, 2007

This post was written in October 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Many of you are probably aware that on eBay.com the Best Offer function has counter offers available. This basically means that you can negotiate a price with a customer who is interested, if there first offer is a little low.

Now in the Antiques Trade this is so inherent in the culture that to not have it is like setting out a stall at a fair with a big sign saying:

“PLEASE DO NOT NEGOTIATE MORE THAN ONCE WITH US, IF YOUR FIRST OFFER ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH, THEN PLEASE LEAVE THIS STALL, WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE WITH YOU OR DISCUSS OUR DECISION, SO GOOD BYE!”

Now that makes no sense does it? Yet eBay UK have adopted this sales strategy with their version of Best Offer.

It seems to us that not allowing counter offers is madness of the most incredible kind, the sales leverage they give us on .com is astounding, the results fantastic. This is one reason why eBay.com is so much better than eBay.uk is for selling Antiques and Collectables on.

It is a shame that eBay UK have been so determinedly head stuck in the sand with this one. Is it because they do not really believe that “People are basically good”, and that to allow this would allow back door transactions offsite? If that is the case, the only thing that a buyer needs to do is send an email, and the off-eBay sale occurs. If this is the reason for eBay UK’s rationale, it seems a shame that their mistrust of their customer base, over-rides a negotiating feature that is second to none on the Internet.

Is this a case of eBay UK’s not seeing the wood for the trees?

So well done eBay.com, for providing such a fantastic feature. A big round of applause!

Thumbs down for eBay UK, (mild booing would be acceptable and probably beneficial at this point).

Written by Mark Timberlake · Filed Under Uncategorized | 14 Comments 

Royal Mail Account Holders – Watch Out!

July 20, 2007

This post was written in July 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

On the 1st of September 2007 Royal Mail will be introducing surcharges for their Epro and “Posting Cheque/Docket” Business Account services. Our current understanding (after talking to the Business Unit) is that if you use the paper based system (posting cheque/docket); you will be held to a minimum of £20.00 on an order. If you use Epro you will be held to a minimum of £5.00 on an order.

But wait a minute, you say, I send £50 a day in total with Royal Mail, so I will be alright, right?

Wrong.

If you only send one item First Class Recorded you will be charged the surcharge. This is because it is on its own “docket”, so you will be charged the minimum order.

For Example:

If I send £45 of postage in one day through Special Delivery, and £2.30 on First Class Recorded, the First Class Recorded will be rounded up to £5.00 in charges on Epro and £20.00 in charges on a Posting Cheque/Docket. It’s the service that gets rounded up, not the day’s postal costs.

So it does not matter your total for the day, it is done by docket. Though the docket to you and me is a line on a piece of paper, to Royal Mail it is an individual service. We learned all this by speaking to the Business Unit at Royal Mail.

Now there is a solution thankfully…

If you migrate across to the new Online Business Account, you can register for a new service which has no dockets and is fully online. Your current postage rates will be the same as before, so it is just a change in system for you. This service will not be subject to minimum orders as the rationale is that you do all the administration according to the Business Unit. You do have to register though.

So our advice is get yourself registered and save yourself a little money…

Written by Mark Timberlake · Filed Under Featured | 1 Comment 

Auctions On Ebay – Do We Need To Rediscover The Format?

July 11, 2007

This post was written in July 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Mark and Philomena are full time antiques and collectables dealers trading on eBay as Classic-Quality-Collectables. Today Mark discusses if eBay auctions are still viable in todays market.

The correct question would probably be: Do auctions work?

The answer then would be: Yes and No…

With 4 years of selling on Ebay (3 years full time) collectables and antiques, we have come to some very definite conclusions about our area of selling.

1. Low start Auctions work when your item is rare and desirable.
2. Low start Auctions “do not” work when your item is not rare (but possibly still desirable).

Point 1 is quite simple, if demand for an item is there (i.e. there is not 50 of them listed on Ebay or “elsewhere”), then an item will find a good price using the Auction Format.

Point 2 is also quite simple, if demand for an item is not there (i.e. there are 50 item listed that week and only 10 potential buyers), then you are going to sell at pretty much what you list at.

To sell a “genuine” auction item is quite easy, you list it correctly for the longest term possible and people bid. Nothing complicated…

Now to sell an item that “demand” is not there for, we have BIN and SIF.

This means we can now market to a different customer base. This customer base is not looking for the thrill of an auction but the means to buy something NOW (for various reasons).

Two completely different subsets of customers, with two completely different sets of needs.

So can we just use auctions? What purpose does it serve? It might make Ebay attractive to a buyer, but if you have just lost £150.00 in one week in listing (if not more), how have you benefited?

Auctions are not for everyone or everything in our opinion, what about you?

You have to make up your own mind…

Some final mysteries to ponder whilst we consider selling on Ebay:

  • Mystery no 1: Why is that Ebay.co.uk do not have multiple offers like Ebay.com (we use both sites so tend to notice which system works)?
  • Mystery no 2: Why is it that when no search results return on Ebay.com, Ebay Shop items are not shown (before people are whisked away to various other websites)?

Written by Mark Timberlake · Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments