Category: Entrepreneurship Page 4 of 8

Chicago Will Host eBay Live 2008

On June 1, 2007

If you are an eBay fan (as I am), and you live in the Midwest, you will be very happy to learn that eBay Live 2008 will be held in Chicago. eBay has not yet announced the decision, but Ina Steiner, a very authoritative source on all things eBay, has broken the story in her "eBay Live 2008 to Be Hosted in Chicago" blog post.

There are a number of major companies in the e-commerce ecosystem, both merchants and third-party service providers, that have decided to skip eBay Live 2007 in Boston in the interest of attending other prominent e-commerce conferences (buySAFE is one prominent example). All of of us who own equity in eBay are rooting for them to regain their shine, and so perhaps Chicago and 2008 can be a resurgence opportunity for eBay and their ecosystem.

Scam of the Month – Judge Judy Punishes an Idiotic eBay Fraudster!

By golf

On May 27, 2007

In buySAFE, Counterfeits, eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Surety Bonds, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

In this "scam of the month", Judge Judy takes on an eBay fraudster and ultimately hands out the maximum punishment. In spite of the fact that this scam seems audaciously ridiculous, it is actually quite common online. Bottom-line, there are a lot of folks out there that lack any semblance of a moral compass.

My inspiration for starting buySAFE was a similar scam that I fell victim to on eBay during the summer of 2000. The only major differences that I can point to are that I purchased a $400 PDA, and instead of taking the scammer to court with Judge Judy, I decided to instead start a company dedicated to making every online transaction trusted, reliable and risk-free… buySAFE!

Next time, I hope these two innocent victims limit their purchases to buySAFE merchants. It will save them a whole lot of anguish and effort!

Watch this video. It is quite enlightening.

Related articles:
"Judge Judy Episode on eBay Trust & Safety" on Psychohistory blog

The Wharton School and Entrepreneurship

By golf

On May 23, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Steve Woda, Venture Capital, Web/Tech, Wharton

The Wharton Business Plan Competition took place earlier this month, and NP Solutions was the big winner for 2007. The new venture took home the $20,000 grand prize for a business that provides a polymer based injectable hydrogel treatment for back pain. Obviously, I wish these folks a bunch of luck with their new business.

As you may already know, I am a big fan of these collegiate competitions. buySAFE (formerly known as BondMyAuction) is a product of the Wharton Business Plan Competition, and so I can speak from experience when I say that these events can be very useful in getting entrepreneurial ventures launched. I actually entered the business plan competition in 2000 and 2001 with different ventures as a student.

Then after graduation, I teamed up with Peter Niessen, a 2002 MBA grad, to enter BondMyAuction in the 2002 Wharton Business Plan Competition (You need at least one current student on your team to participate, but the rest of the team can be alums, etc…). Peter was a terrific teammate, and he and I were able to make it to the Finals of the competition. Again, it was a great experience, and you can read about it in this recent article by the New York Times – "Beyond Grades: Business Students Put Their Start-Up Ideas to the Test"

One last interesting note for you…

Jeff Grass, buySAFE’s CEO, was also a finalist in the Wharton Business Plan competition in 1999 along with his business partner, John Tedesco (John is currently the CEO & President of Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems). Jeff and John launched PayMyBills.com shortly after graduation, and they ultimately sold the company to PayTrust in 2000. Today, the company’s service is owned by Intuit, and it powers the bill payment and management solutions for some of the country’s largest financial institutions.

Needless to say, collegiate business plan competitions can provide aspiring entrepreneurs with a generous leg up on the formidable challenges of starting up a company out of school. For me, the Wharton Business Plan Competition experience was invaluable.

eBay Merchant Economics

By golf

On May 14, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Economics, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety, Venture Capital

I recently asked Michael Beveridge, buySAFE’s Sr. Director of Business Intelligence, to share with us some of the interesting eCommerce data that buySAFE has developed over the last eighteen months. We consider data and analytics to be critical to buySAFE and our merchant customers’ businesses, and obviously, every merchant is interested in having solid, reliable data on the ROI associated with buySAFE. At the request of hundreds of our merchant customers, buySAFE has invested heavily into developing an amazing data and analytics platform that can deliver incredible insights beneficial to buySAFE Merchants. We will be sharing some of our new insights with you over the coming months, and I hope you enjoy the content. With that intro, here is Michael Beveridge’s first contribution to this blog…

Important eCommerce Trust and Safety Statistics

By golf

On May 8, 2007

In buySAFE, Counterfeits, eCommerce, Economics, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

At the PESA Summit this past week, there was a lot of talk about how to improve e-commerce conversion rates. I believe there are three critical drivers for conversion: product selection, price, and trust. Each of these issues would provide substantial content for an article, but I thought I would dedicate today’s post to a number of very important trust-related statistics.

If you have any doubt about the role of trust and buyer confidence in your e-commerce business success, please take a quick look at these stats.

55% of online shoppers say trustworthiness of the merchant is most important (vs. price, convenience, pleasure, other)
(Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, August 2006)

65% of online shoppers buy only from sites they know and trust
(Source: VeriSign Secured Seal Research Review 08/06)

72% of online shoppers are becoming more cautious when buying online
(Source: Gartner Research, 5000 respondents, May 2005 survey)

73% of online shoppers are concerned about the item being misrepresented (inaccurately described, counterfeit)
(Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)

76% of online shoppers are worried about never getting their purchase
(Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)

81% of online shoppers are concerned about merchant return/refund policies not being honored
(Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)

84% of online shoppers are concerned about merchants not treating them fairly
(Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)

85% of online shoppers are concerned about identity theft
(Source: TNS Research, 08/06)

And, amazingly, over 50% of all U.S. internet users still don’t buy online (even from Amazon.com!).
(Source: Bear Stearns, September 2006)

With respect to this last statistic, "trust" issues are the primary
driver of e-commerce non-participation. Amazingly, more than 50% of
your potential customers will not buy online because they are nervous!
Are you kidding me? That is a huge number, and obviously, the time has
come for the e-commerce industry to take this issue seriously.

buySAFE and eBay Live 2007

By golf

On May 4, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce

It’s official. buySAFE is going to throw a terrific event in Boston the second week of June. However, the company has decided to skip exhibiting at eBay’s annual conference, eBay Live. Instead, buySAFE has decided that it would rather participate in a number of other e-commerce conferences that it believes provide better return on investment including the huge Internet Retailer Conference in San Jose. You can read about buySAFE’s eBay LIve 2007 decision on the buySAFE blog article – "Are You Going to eBay Live?".

I have a lot to say on this subject that I believe you will find quite interesting. However, in the interest of time this morning, I will have to revisit my eBay Live thoughts in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned.

See you in Boston!

Where Can You Meet the Largest Merchants on eBay?

By golf

On April 18, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Infopia, MIVA, Steve Woda, Web/Tech

Every couple of months, the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) pulls together a collection of eBay’s largest, most successful merchants. These events are always terrific opportunities to meet experienced e-commerce professionals, and to get an insider’s view of how the e-commerce market is developing. Next week, PESA will convene its sixth PESA Summit in Chicago.

buySAFE has attended every one of these remarkable semi-annual events. In fact, we have sponsored every PESA event since the organization’s inception, so we are obviously a huge supporter of this organization.

Therefore, I wanted to give next week’s PESA Summit a mini-plug. If you are a professional merchant or simply interested in e-commerce because you are a member of the media, a financial analyst or a third-party service provider, you should attend this event. You won’t be sorry. You will meet amazing folks and get the inside scoop on where e-commerce and eBay are headed. Christie Hefner of Playboy Enterprises will be giving the Keynote Address.

As a side note, I will be speaking at the PESA Summit on an interesting panel of e-commerce experts including Jonathan Gariss (CEO for GothamCityOnline), Sloan Gaon (VP of Global Strategy for MIVA), and Jimmy Duvall (Director of e-Commerce Products for Yahoo! Small Business). The Website Design & Web 2.0 panel should be very interesting, and I will provide a summary of the discussion on this blog after the event.

I am looking forward to it, and I hope you can find your way to Chicago for this terrific event.

eMarket for Lemons at Baruch College

By golf

On April 11, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Economics, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Steve Woda, Trust and Safety

I was recently invited by Dr. Karl Lang to be a guest lecturer at Baruch College on the subject of buySAFE and my experience starting an e-commerce business. I always love speaking to folks about buySAFE and its important value proposition (Making sure that buyers get what they pay for, and that merchants get paid what they deserve.), but I especially enjoy speaking with college students (in this case they were MBAs) about what I believe is happening with e-commerce today.

As many of you know, I believe there is a fundamental problem emerging with e-commerce. Specifically, the problem is that buyers have a very difficult time reliably telling the difference between good sellers/product and bad sellers/product. In economic terms, this is called "information asymmetry". Sure, if you are large, recognizable brand, buyers know they can trust you. However, if a merchant is unknown to a buyer, how in the world can that buyer reliably figure out if everything is going to be 100% okay? The answer is that it is very difficult for them to do so confidently.

When a marketplace suffers from information asymmetry, it inevitably develops into a "Market for Lemons". You can read my previous blog post on the subject at "What is a Market for Lemons?"

Obviously, buySAFE solves this major e-commerce problem, and as of Q2 2007, there are thousands of online merchants that have signed-up for the buySAFE service in order to help mitigate this issue for shoppers.

I thought you might like to see the presentation I gave the MBA students at Baruch. You can download the "eMarket for Lemons" presentation here, or you can view the presentation below.

I want to thank give a special thanks to Dr. Lang for inviting me to speak at Baruch College, and I especially want to thank the MBA students for their fascinating questions and additional insights.

buySAFE Founder Guarantees Delivery by The Washington Times

By golf

On April 8, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Steve Woda

The Washington Times recently did a nice article on buySAFE, and of course, I appreciated the generous coverage as well.

"buySAFE Founder Guarantees Delivery" by The Washington Times

I hope you enjoy the read.

Related articles & blog posts:
AuctionWire
TMCnet

buySAFE on The Today Show!

By golf

On April 4, 2007

In buySAFE, Counterfeits, eBay, eCommerce, Google, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Surety Bonds, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

The past few days have been quite exciting here at buySAFE. Last week, buySAFE was featured on The Today Show. The "Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" segment, reported by Today’s consumer affairs reporter Janice Lieberman, discussed the growing e-commerce problem of counterfeit luxury goods. As expected, buySAFE was showcased as a terrific solution to the counterfeit goods problem.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3lCsN3YzJs]

Counterfeit/fake/stolen goods are obviously becoming a major issue for e-commerce, but in my opinion, this problem is actually a symptom of a much larger, more important, fundamental problem… Online, buyers have a very difficult time discriminating good sellers/product from bad sellers/product. The REAL problem is that the Web suffers from major information asymmetry issues. That is why bad guys are successful at defrauding consumers.

Please think about my diagnosis for a moment… If consumers could tell the difference from the good guys and the bad guys, would shoppers ever unknowingly buy a counterfeit item? Of course not! Fraud happens because of information asymmetry.

I think you will find the "Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" news segment very interesting. However, as you watch this clip, please understand that the counterfeit/fake/stolen goods fraud problem is due to a more fundamental e-commerce problem… Buyers can’t reliably tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys! In economic terms, this is called information asymmetry, and it is causing legitimate, professional merchants millions of dollars each and every day.

Kudos to Jeff Grass, buySAFE’s CEO, for a job well done!

Related blog posts and e-commerce articles:
"Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" by Janice Lieberman on The Today Show and iVillage.com
"buySAFE Invited By the French Government to Help Stop Online Sales of Counterfeit Luxury Goods" by Travis Brown on the buySAFE blog
"eBay Bonding Service buySAFE Featured on Today Show" by Ina Steiner on AuctionBytes.com
"buySAFE Appearance on 3/20/2007 Today Show" on AuctionBytes.tv