Ways of attracting new buyers to eBid

[stopusingebay]

I was going to respond to a thread about advertising eBid, but with the number of ideas that I came up with, I thought it would be better to have them as an original post. Some of these ideas can still be used as a basis for an advertising campaign.

Something needs to be done to attract buyers. Having a huge number of sellers doesn't help if something is keeping buyers away. Advertisements help, but the biggest obstacle is getting a customer to register for the site and make their first purchase. Getting them to come back again is easier. Here are some ideas:

1) Have a 1st time customer discount that is managed by the site. For example, a new user would get $5 off on their first purchase, and it would be tied to their shipping address to prevent abuse.

2) Have a site managed escrow system, where the item is inspected and photographed by employees of eBid prior to being shipped on to the customer. Some users are scared away from Internet auction sites for this reason alone. The buyer would pay extra for the escrow service. It could be a unique feature that no other major site offers.

3) Have a loss leader. A partnership with a Chinese company that sells something like SD cards at slightly below market value might bring a lot of people in. It could be limited to something like 5 units per customer. Sales of cheap electronics from Asia is a huge part of eBay. There are even warehouses in the US that stockpile Chinese items just to eliminate the several week delivery time.

4) Make a deal to have a unique item available only on eBid. Having a unique item from a popular K pop band or celebrity only available on eBid could suddenly make eBid extremely popular. Perhaps an agreement could also be made with an inventor of a new product. Imagine if an invention that was featured on Shark Tank was only available for online ordering through eBid? Look at how many new movies are only available through Netflix. That must be a huge success for them.

5) I thought of another way than would involve writing some software. It's kind of a lot of work but it just might make a big difference. It would be better if I didn't say what it is though.

6) Hop on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Let all purchases be possible using Bitcoin (or another coin with lower fees less pyramid scheme lure). EBid would keep the crypto payments in its own wallet so that the sellers wouldn't have to do anything more than check a box to allow crypto payments. When they get enough crypto in their accounts, they could send it out to an exachange or wallet of their choice. Imagine being able to say NOW ACCEPTING BITCOIN in an advertisement for eBid?

[kodakfish]

the trouble is that if eBid ran an escrow system or held crypto they would need registering and have to meet certain banking regulations. The guys used to run PPPay [that had escrow] as a paypal alternative - but think it was too much aggro meeting international legislation. A lot of people find they prefer to stick to what they know and don't like sharing too many details.
Not sure about Chinese sellers - from what I've heard it's a major bug bear with sellers on evilbay.
Exclusive items they occasionally have running charity auctions for the US womens soccer team.

[tony41]

I think that announcing that Bitcoin or any other cryptic currency was acceptable would make most potential buyers run away.

[ebidewithme]

I was going to respond to a thread about advertising eBid, but with the number of ideas that I came up with, I thought it would be better to have them as an original post. Some of these ideas can still be used as a basis for an advertising campaign.

Something needs to be done to attract buyers. Having a huge number of sellers doesn't help if something is keeping buyers away. Advertisements help, but the biggest obstacle is getting a customer to register for the site and make their first purchase. Getting them to come back again is easier. Here are some ideas:

1) Have a 1st time customer discount that is managed by the site. For example, a new user would get $5 off on their first purchase, and it would be tied to their shipping address to prevent abuse.

2) Have a site managed escrow system, where the item is inspected and photographed by employees of eBid prior to being shipped on to the customer. Some users are scared away from Internet auction sites for this reason alone. The buyer would pay extra for the escrow service. It could be a unique feature that no other major site offers.

3) Have a loss leader. A partnership with a Chinese company that sells something like SD cards at slightly below market value might bring a lot of people in. It could be limited to something like 5 units per customer. Sales of cheap electronics from Asia is a huge part of eBay. There are even warehouses in the US that stockpile Chinese items just to eliminate the several week delivery time.

4) Make a deal to have a unique item available only on eBid. Having a unique item from a popular K pop band or celebrity only available on eBid could suddenly make eBid extremely popular. Perhaps an agreement could also be made with an inventor of a new product. Imagine if an invention that was featured on Shark Tank was only available for online ordering through eBid? Look at how many new movies are only available through Netflix. That must be a huge success for them.

5) I thought of another way than would involve writing some software. It's kind of a lot of work but it just might make a big difference. It would be better if I didn't say what it is though.

6) Hop on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Let all purchases be possible using Bitcoin (or another coin with lower fees less pyramid scheme lure). EBid would keep the crypto payments in its own wallet so that the sellers wouldn't have to do anything more than check a box to allow crypto payments. When they get enough crypto in their accounts, they could send it out to an exachange or wallet of their choice. Imagine being able to say NOW ACCEPTING BITCOIN in an advertisement for eBid?

Might work stateside but not in l'il ole Britain.

[madelaine]

Right,after spending most of July sitting on my hands with respect to eBid boards I return.

Making suggestions to eBid management is a waste of time. It's their business and most of us have only the vaguest idea of the work/money/implications of these suggestions. eBid management also have shown little inclination to take up such ideas.

[ebidewithme]

Right,after spending most of July sitting on my hands with respect to eBid boards I return.

Making suggestions to eBid management is a waste of time. It's their business and most of us have only the vaguest idea of the work/money/implications of these suggestions. eBid management also have shown little inclination to take up such ideas.

Good morning Madeleine

As a onetime managing director of a company, probably the major requirement of any director is to work in promoting their company to achieve success; there are other requirements all of which are legal requirements.

[tony41]

Right,after spending most of July sitting on my hands with respect to eBid boards I return.

Making suggestions to eBid management is a waste of time. It's their business and most of us have only the vaguest idea of the work/money/implications of these suggestions. eBid management also have shown little inclination to take up such ideas.

I agree. Also Gazza laid out the managements thinking on advertising in a post recently. Unfortunately the thread has been removed (I think by the original poster) but from memory he said that Google and Bing shopping would be the method of getting publicity for eBid. As Madelaine says it is their business.

[theElench]

I agree. Also Gazza laid out the managements thinking on advertising in a post recently. Unfortunately the thread has been removed (I think by the original poster) but from memory he said that Google and Bing shopping would be the method of getting publicity for eBid. As Madelaine says it is their business.

He did and as I can't find his post agree that the thread has been deleted. So (sort of) quoting from memory, I agree with his views on the subject. Which were (I hope reflect accurately) that ebid has trodden a fine line of using what seems useful to the site, without allowing "Organised Money" to take over. Which it would do if given the opportunity by enlisting their financial backing to finance the vast cost of national publicity campaigns.

You only have to look at what's become of the three largest selling sites as they steadily become clones of each other. Business seller oriented (preferably big-business) and all pushed by the backers to provide ever increasing profits for them to share out.

Personally I hope ebid continues to tread that line and stays well away from the likes of Vanguard and Blackrock. Once they get a foot through the door, they soon become the only ones making any significant money from on-line selling.

[Policequilts]

From the ?deleted? posts it was also mentioned that the eBid team has a lot on their hands.
eBid is programming the sale tax requirements of USA and that has to be a pain.

[ebidewithme]

He did and as I can't find his post agree that the thread has been deleted. So (sort of) quoting from memory, I agree with his views on the subject. Which were (I hope reflect accurately) that ebid has trodden a fine line of using what seems useful to the site, without allowing "Organised Money" to take over. Which it would do if given the opportunity by enlisting their financial backing to finance the vast cost of national publicity campaigns.

You only have to look at what's become of the three largest selling sites as they steadily become clones of each other. Business seller oriented (preferably big-business) and all pushed by the backers to provide ever increasing profits for them to share out.

Personally I hope ebid continues to tread that line and stays well away from the likes of Vanguard and Blackrock. Once they get a foot through the door, they soon become the only ones making any significant money from on-line selling.

I guess they may have known about that well in advance.