Howdy everyone! Beautiful weather today in Vegas - the sky is blue and the mountains are gorgeous.

Yesterday consisted of walking the tradeshow and meeting up with other IMA members at the Hospitality Suite. I think just about everyone was there, or so it seemed from the roar! The Events Committee did an excellent job making sure there was plenty of food and drinks for everyone.

I met a gentleman from TalkMarket last night and discussed their marketing strategy. It sounds like they have a great concept with video listings being marketed to hotel guests. We will learn more today at their presentation.

Steve introduced me to Kimberly Maul, writer and editor of MerchandEYES Blog, the officisal ASD/AMD blog. We are discussing linking our two blogs in order to bring more information to readers of both blogs.

Today will be a busy day with more tradeshow walking in the morning and then seminars in the afternoon. I will post again tomorrow morning with information from the seminars.

Cyn

The following is the transcript with IMA President Steve Grossberg & Vice President Ben Mandrall with Wall Street Analyst Jeentil Patel. The following interview was held February 6, 2008.
deutschebankpatel020608.pdf

Congratulations to all the members of IMA who sell on Amazon. According to the Nielson ratings, Amazon had more unique visitors than Ebay for the month of December.

I was not one of the top 200 Ebay sellers invited to the Ebay Ecommerce Summit last week where Ebay announced the changes to Fees, Search, and Feedback. I was one of the lower volume Ebay sellers on the sidelines at home waiting to hear the long awaited announcements about fee reductions. As we all know now, the fee changes will probably hurt more Ebay sellers than they help. The changes overall made me ask myself how the new CEO designate of Ebay, Mr. John Donahoe, can make changes to Ebay’s platform that blatantly copy the Amazon platform without feeling a bit unimaginative. Mr. Donahoe has been at Ebay since March 2005. If you would like to check out his salary click here. Is Ebay going to become Amazon Lite?

This is a question that most full time Ebay sellers will be asking themselves over the next month or two. The “best match” finding 2.0 changes to Ebay’s default search in March 08, and the May 08 removal of a sellers “mutual feedback” privileges will cause unknown changes to many Ebay sellers bottom lines. (I am leaving out fee changes because they can be calculated.) I know of one seller locally who has already closed his doors, and started selling off his inventory. He felt it was too big a gamble with three small children to continue counting on Ebay as his sole source of income. Buy out companies have been quick to take most of his stock of brand new Budweiser mugs off his hands.

Last month I signed up as a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB). One of the reasons I joined is they allow you to use their emblem on your website. They also don’t let any random person file a complaint against you without documentation of a transaction, and without giving the store owner a chance to refute the complaint.

Why do they do this? Because they do not want to hurt a persons business. A lot of investment goes into a business. Especially a true solid physical store front. You have contracts that last for years with other vendors. Security systems, utilities, advertising, product, etc. If your business goes under, a lot of other businesses are affected. In addition, if someone publishes false negative information about you for the public to read, they could be sued for defamation of character.

Why would I make these comparisons? In May 2008 Ebay plans to let anyone post negative information about my Ebay business without any regard to how it may affect that business. As far as I know, I will be given no chance to refute any negative information that a buyer leaves me, and that negative information will remain there for anyone to read for 12 months.

This would be comparable to someone picketing outside my physical store for 12 months without my being able to do anything about it. Is this fair? Ebay thinks so. They think that if a buyer has a negative experience in any way in my “Ebay” store, that the buyer has the right to harm my business for 12 months without giving me any hearing or even reviewing the facts. They feel it is the same thing as the bad word of mouth a physical store owner receives from a buyer who has poor buying experience.

The difference is that a buyer who has a bad experience in a physical store isn’t allowed to publish defamatory information about a store to a public forum without proof, or they are left open to a libel suit. The BBB knows this, and reviews all complaints. So welcome to Ebays new neighborhood where anyone is allowed to post negative information about a business, without allowing a store owner any rights. Perhaps Ebay management feels that an Ebay store owner has nothing invested in that Ebay store, or no obligations to other people with businesses?

All I know is that I hope I find more friends than foes in the “new” Ebay neighborhood starting May 2008.

Jennie