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The buySAFE Revolution?

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On February 18, 2007

In buySAFE, Comparison Shopping, eCommerce, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

Could 2007 be the year for The buySAFE Revolution?  I obviously hope so.

Brian Smith at Comparison Engines recently did a comprehensive post analyzing buySAFE’s prospects in 2007, and I thought you might enjoy the read.

"The buySAFE Revolution – 2007" by Comparison Engines

Brian writes a terrific blog, and if you are interested in eCommerce, you need to regularly check out his insights.

We obviously have a lot of work in front of us, but so far this year, buySAFE has added numerous distribution partnerships that enable tens of thousands of merchants to use buySAFE.  In addition, some of the largest merchants in eCommerce are now using buySAFE on their websites.  I hope I can report back to you this time next year with news that 2007 was, in fact, the year of The buySAFE Revolution!

Related blog posts:
"buySAFE News Update" by Jeff Grass, buySAFE Blog

buySAFE for MIVA Merchant 5

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On February 16, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Internet Hosting, MIVA, Trust and Safety

Miva_logo_1 Yesterday, buySAFE and MIVA launched buySAFE’s trust and safety solution for all MIVA 5 Merchant customers.  This is exciting news for buySAFE, MIVA, MIVA’s hosting partners, and most importantly, MIVA’s merchants. 

If you are a MIVA merchant, you can begin using buySAFE on your website store with just a few minutes worth of effort.  Not only will you be able to drive up your store’s conversion rates by bonding your eCommerce sales with buySAFE, you can use buySAFE for FREE!  It won’t cost MIVA’s merchants one penny to use buySAFE on their website stores. 

In addition, if you upgrade your buySAFE account from a Trial account to a Full account (it is still free!), buySAFE will pay you a revenue bonus on each and every bonded transaction going forward.  Yes.  You heard me right.  Not only is buySAFE free for MIVA Merchant 5 customers, but buySAFE will pay merchants to use buySAFE. 

Finally, James Harrell, General Manager of MIVA Small Business, also announced additional incentives of up to $5,000 for installing and using buySAFE.  Obviously, we seriously believe that once merchants try buySAFE, they will love buySAFE!

This is exciting news for MIVA because it provides MIVA’s merchants with a proven tool for driving higher conversion rates and sales.  MIVA is dedicated to giving its merchants cutting edge services, and this is simply the latest initiative on their part to do that.

If you are a MIVA hosting partner (premier or standard), this is big news because the buySAFE for MIVA Merchant 5 product can provide a significant new revenue stream for hosting companies.  You should contact MIVA or buySAFE for additional details on how you can take advantage of this new revenue opportunity.

For buySAFE, this is exciting news because this morning thousands of MIVA merchants can roll out of bed and, with a few easy steps, activate buySAFE on their websites!  I think that is all I need to say.

Congratulations to the buySAFE and MIVA teams for a job well done.

Survey Reveals Shoppers Are Nervous

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On February 14, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Marketing, Trust and Safety

I often hear people suggest that since eCommerce is growing so fast, shoppers are obviously perfectly confident and comfortable shopping online.  In my opinion, that is naive, and it ignores the facts. 

During the recent holiday shopping season, a new survey was published confirming that consumers are, in fact, nervous shopping online, and that these concerns are growing, not abating.  buySAFE commissioned an independent firm, InsightExpress, to survey 1,000 random, online shoppers for their views on trust, safety, security and eCommerce.  The eCommerce survey reveals that small and medium-sized retailers without well-known brand names are the big losers when it comes to nervous shoppers.  More than 1/3 of shoppers, 35%, feel "unsafe" when considering purchasing from unknown retailers.   

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International Visitors Drive eBay Traffic

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On February 2, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Google, Microsoft, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety

This AuctionBytes article by Lissa McGrath is a couple of months old, but I find it to be quite fascinating. 

During this past holiday shopping season, about 70% of eBay’s website traffic came from beyond the United States’ borders.  Wow!  Obviously, the international Internet is the real deal in 2007.  I haven’t spent any time independently analyzing this traffic data, but if true, it provides a fascinating view of how the eCommerce marketplace is evolving.

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eBay and Seller Certification

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On January 16, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Economics, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety

Skip McGrath is the CEO of Auction Seller’s Resource – a terrific newsletter for professional eBay merchants and for those folks aspiring to make a living on eBay.

Skip recently posted a series of interesting articles on the subject of seller certification on eBay.

Part 1
Can Seller Certification Bring Buyers Back to eBay

Part 2
eBay Selling Tools To Build Your Business by Preventing Fraud

Skip has done a nice job of laying out a number of things to consider, and I encourage you to give his posts a read. 

I believe Seller Certification is part of the answer for eBay (and eCommerce in general), but my big fear is that a bunch of eBay marketing folks will get together and roll out a new "seller certification" program, and that the program will fail to actually do anything meaningful for buyers or the economic health of the eBay marketplace.  Tough, effective "seller certification" programs actually require that you have to tell some sellers that they CAN’T be "certified".  In my experience, marketing folks don’t like to tell current or prospective customers that they can’t do business together.  Tough, effective certification programs are designed to limit the players on the field, and this is usually counter to everything the marketing folks think about each and every day.

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Every Breath You Take

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On December 27, 2006

In Thought of the Week

A friend recently shared with me this YouTube clip where Columbia Business School’s Dean Glenn Hubbard sings about wanting Alan Greenspan’s job that went instead to new Fed Chair Ben Bernanke.

It is obviously a parody of "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, and it was created by Columbia Business School students.  I am constantly amazed at how talented some folks are, and this video is certainly creative.

Nice work!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u2qRXb4xCU]

Google’s Universal Gadgets

By

On November 6, 2006

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Google, Web/Tech

Buysafeshoppinggooglegadget Last month, Google expanded their Gadget product so that you can now add Google Gadgets to any web page on the Internet.  The Google Universal Gadget is a big step beyond the previous incarnation that simply allowed you to add the Google Gadgets to your Google Homepage and Desktop.  I didn’t notice this improvement when it was first expanded, so I am bit late to the game.  However, I wanted to point it out to you because I love the product.

Interested developers can build Universal Gadgets by using Google’s API, and then users can take the Google Gadget and put it on any web page.

Here is an example using buySAFE’s Google Gadget.  All I had to do was go the buySAFE Shopping Google Gadget page, tailor the look and feel of the Gadget, and then cut and paste the following HTML code into my post.

<script src=”http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.
buysafeshopping.com/bss_module.xml&up_showSearch=1&
up_showCategories=1&up_showWatchList=1&up_searchTerm
=diamond&up_category=-1&up_lowprice=&up_highprice=&
up_sellerName=&up_sort=1&synd=open&w=320&h=450&
title=buySAFE+Shopping&border=%23ffffff%7C0px%2C1px
+solid+%23595959%7C0px%2C1px+solid+%23797979%7C0px
%2C2px+solid+%23898989&output=js”></script>

Voila! The buySAFE Shopping Gadget is up and running on my blog page.  Go ahead and do a quick buySAFE Shopping search via the Gadget below.  In my opinion, this is very cool.

It was very easy to create the buySAFE Shopping Google Gadget, and some developers are reporting that it can take less than 5 minutes to create simple Gadgets.  Check it out and have fun!

Related links:
“Google Universal Gadgets for your website released” by Jason S
“Add and Embed Google Universal Gadgets Modules to Websites and Blogs” by My Digital Life

Google acquires Jotspot and its Wiki service

By

On October 31, 2006

In eBay, Google

One of my favorite online services, JotSpot, was just acquired by Google.  JotSpot provides a robust do-it-yourself publishing application enabling anyone to create, publish, and share collaborative and personalized wiki applications.  JotSpot powers the wikis for thousands of businesses, and many of them are major brands including eBay.

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The “Beltway Money Man”

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On October 19, 2006

In buySAFE, Core Capital, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Forbes Magazine recently called Core Capital‘s Jonathan Silver the "Beltway Money Man".  Jonathan is an investor in buySAFE and on our Board of Directors, and so I thought the article was a pretty interesting read.  Here is the link to "Beltway Money Man: Jonathan Silver".

PayPal to the rescue

By

On October 18, 2006

In eBay, eCommerce, Web/Tech

Q3 financial results were announced today, and eBay’s profits were up 10%.  That is good news for this battered stock, and it appears that lower taxes and PayPal were the major contributors.

Read More

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