eCommerce and

• Multiple sites including Twitter and Facebook were hit by denial-of-service attacks this week.


• Google Base eliminated the single upload option, merchants using this option will need to switch to a data feed in order to continue inserting their products on Google Shopping.


• Will automatic, high-tech products that are popular in other countries have the ability to take America by storm?  One manufacturer, TOTO, seems to think so.


• Even Rand is talking about Twitter this week.  This week’s Whiteboard Friday, brought to you by SEOmoz is all about how to get Re-Tweeted.


• Google Webmaster Tools is soliciting your videos for their YouTube channel.

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EBay merchants prepare! Several changes to EBay's marketplace will be going live late September and will affect sellers of varying sizes alike. These updates will be taking place during the weeks of September 22, 2009 and October 1, 2009. A full list of these changes can be found right on EBay's July 2009 update at this link: www.EBay.com/July2009Update.

Of all the changes, two are of great interest to me, the new way in which eBay is deciding to look at detailed seller ratings (DSRs) and the new eBay Top-rated seller status.


DSR Focus Adjustment

EBay has announced that their research shows the buyer experience is more accurately portrayed through lower seller ratings. They have also decided that volume isn’t what sets apart the good sellers from the bad sellers, it’s the consumer experience (that’s a pat on the shoulder for the little guy/gal aka small retailers). This statement simply means that EBay has changed the focus on how ratings are measured within their marketplace.  Merchants will need to be under a certain threshold to be eligible for benefits, such as Top-rated seller status or monthly discounts. Metaphorically speaking EBay has put out a wanted poster for the head of all sellers that don't improve on their reviews that come back with ones and twos. Here is a link to how the DSRs will be calculated based on how many transactions you have in a certain period vs. the amount of bad reviews.

Example Calculations of Low DSRs

New Method to Obtain Top-rated Seller Status

How does the new look into calculating DSR's effect the Top-rated seller status?  Well, this means the status is no longer simply obtained by having a large amount of inventory and selling a bunch of stuff.  It’s based upon competition in category or vertical and the merchant’s ability to provide a quality consumer experience. The buyer experience is directly correlated to the DSR calculations. So larger merchants with high sales volume and robust product offerings will find it more difficult to manage the consumer experience at a more detailed level than the smaller merchants.  This levels the playing field for merchants looking to grow through eBay and obtain a PowerSeller Status, smaller merchants will be able to compete on experience rather than size.  Larger merchants will have to adapt to these changes much like they have had to do over the past two years as eBay have made multiple adjustments in their marketplace transformation.

In Summation, merchants need to start matching their focus with EBay's or they may see sales drop if they keep their current sales strategy past September. Get to Work!

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Early this morning Microsoft and Yahoo made the official announcement of their plans to “join forces” in internet search marketing.  The partnership would effectively give the pair a 30 percent market share of U.S. search advertising, a little less than half of what Google’s current market share is, but a considerable increase for Microsoft’s present 8 percent stance in the market.  According to news sources under the arrangement, Microsoft Bing would "power" Yahoo search, while Yahoo would sell premium search advertising for both companies, using Microsoft's AdCenter system.  This deal will affect staff at Yahoo.  While neither company admitted that layoffs would continue the mention was hinted at in conversations with reporters and advertising for both companies will now be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform.

How do marketers feel about this though?  Zach, fellow blogger and manager of marketing, search and content at the Gordian Project says “This agreement displays the power of online search advertising and the dollars behind it, but what’s interesting is that Yahoo has opted to integrate someone else's search technology instead of their own therefore actually reducing the number of search competitors in the marketplace. Even though there is one big name in search, Google, I don’t know if fewer competitors is actually better? Has Yahoo really given up on search technology? Had search gotten to a place where it can't be improved? Will this alliance be able to take on the almighty Google? We will all be waiting to see, but it seems like they are so fixated on the dollars and the revenue aspect of search technology that they may be forgetting about all of the other aspects that can be incorporated into improving their technologies."

The two companies are still going to have to go through regulatory hearings, but seem to be prepared as they are already making claims that data will not be shared.  Either way marketers need to be prepared.

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• CIT is looking for investors, and the NRF (National Retail Federation) is feeling the pinch.  Without factors like CIT taking on the financial burden between suppliers and retailers, supply chains will struggle to continue to produce at a rate that consumers want to see product on retailer’s shelves.  As the holiday season approaches both suppliers and retailers have begun to panic as they realize that this couldn’t be happening at a worse time.


• Future or hopeful entrepreneurs may want to look to this roadmap to see if they have what it takes to make it.


• Yahoo! rolled out their new homepage and with high-quality reviews, which is good considering it was supposed to debut last year.


• Increase creativity by distancing the group from the problem.


• This is a to be continued blog but I have complete faith that the copywriting tips that are going to come from the follow up are going to be worth linking to the initial post.  It helps that he references one of my favorite childhood movies throughout the post as well so the post in general is thoroughly enjoyable.


• Amazon bought Zappos this week and the price keeps updating.


• This quote was brought to my attention courtesy of Contrast Blog
  “Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other.”
  -Joel Spolsky
  -From his book User Interface Design for Programmers
  

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I’ve been thinking about something lately and I need your help. Can someone please tell me why every article, blog post, news report, or ANY informational piece in our space has had recession tunnel vision?  Entrepreneurs in eCommerce have quickly shifted focus from the latest fads and trends in user interfaces and vendor partnerships to best practices in hiring, strategic cash plans, etc. and all as a result of the recession.

It seems that the recession is the driving factor behind the influx of attention made on best business practices.  This just cracks me up – as if these things should not be a major focus in BOOM times.  We should be doing this (concentrating on efficiencies, market share, employee retention rates, etc.) all the time!!  I have to admit, I am guilty of writing posts like this myself.  Just imagine if all of the business owners, politicians, whoever should be named, crunched these same numbers when the economy wasn’t forcing everyone to pay attention and do so?  What if we were motivated and “entrepreneurial” enough to make these meticulous calculations when things were going well?  If we all acted as if “economic Armageddon” (as we all like to call it around here) was just around the corner, just think about how much leaner and meaner our businesses, industries and economy would be as a result.  Those that are successful, those that survive and move through these difficult times are those that are proactive, those that are prepared and ready for what’s next, they create their own competitive advantage in doing so.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand that different times call for different strategies, but it just seems like strategies such as particular hiring, sensible cash plans and market share maneuvers are important regardless of what the economy is doing.  How about from now on, don’t just ride the market cycles, drive them.

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• Shop.org released their 2009 State of Retailing Merchandising Report this week: 
  • “Specifically, retailers this year are setting the following as priorities for their Web sites:
    Checkout process redesign – 79%
    Improved content on product detail pages – 73%
    Site search and browse results – 71%
    Home page – 60%
    Redesigned help section / FAQ”

• Clickthrough rates can change when language and experience are factored into the equation; if you don’t believe me take a look at this experiment.


• Optaros is offering a complimentary eBook on social eCommerce.  The book "5 Winning Strategies in Social Ecommerce" can be found here.


• Social media is only effective if it’s based on trust, transparency and ethical business practices, luckily I work for a company where this isn’t a problem.  Unfortunately there are still, as I suppose there may always be, companies out there that don’t operate in this fashion.  The New York Attorney General isn’t standing for it, in fact he has fined a company $300,000 for encouraging fake reviews.


• Entrepreneurs are powerfully positive.


• Google announces second quarter 2009 financial results.
  

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Microsoft and Google seem to be dominating business and web announcements over the last few weeks and the trend doesn’t look like it is going to end any time soon.  Google’s big announcement last week was the Chrome operating system, which came right off the heels of the seemingly overwhelming Bing craze.  Microsoft has started out this week notifying us of an up-and-coming release of a free version of Office software that will be available over the web.  The programs will be similar to the MS Office suite and work in the same fashion as Google Docs.  Microsoft stands to lose by offering the product for free as they currently report an operating profit of $9.3 billion after the first three quarters of this fiscal year.  The company plans to push traffic for the online version of Office through Bing. 

As Google Docs continue to improve and consumers continue to adopt, it's likely put additional pressure on Microsoft to offer a complimentary service as well.  What’s important about what these two companies are doing is how it is going to affect business for eCommerce and entrepreneurs alike.  Marketers may have to consider Bing as a larger player than they would have (or at least, the spoiled child of very wealthy parents) and adjust ads and spend accordingly.  It will be important to pay attention to where each company spends their time, resources and focus; each announcement could mean big changes this year.

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• Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, wrote this blog recently and I think as far as eCommerce blogs go, this title is the best so far this year “Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian & Telling Stories With Data”.


• Search Engine Journal shared a tool this week that shows you how your page listing might look within Google SERPs, and it’s really sweet.


• Are your landing pages in need of a makeover?  Copyblogger released an insightful case study on how they could assist Cars Helping America.


• The big story this week was the announcement that Google is working on the Google Chrome Operating System!


• Reviews are one of my favorite website features, but only when they are true.  One suspicious lawyer investigated and found that Amazon’s system is still dealing with frauds.
   

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

I recently read Jason Calcanis’ newsletter regarding the current hiring environment entitled, "How to Hire – and Get Hired – in a Recession".  This newsletter spoke mostly of how important it is to be a hard worker and how important it is to hire someone who is willing to work hard. He admitted that it sounded a little obvious, but still had many legitimate and important suggestions regarding the subject. I would like to advise readers of Jason’s newsletter that our economic position can cause a lax attitude when it comes to the subject of hiring and reply with a few things to consider before making any drastic changes.

1. Understand what the unemployment numbers are really saying:  Yes, the overall unemployment rate might be 10%, but that doesn’t mean the employee you are looking for necessarily comes out of that unemployment pool. High school grads have the highest unemployment rate at (10-15%), while college grads are in the middle (7-9%), and graduate degree earners have little unemployment problems at all (2-3%).  Jason said he received 200 resumes for one $10/hr job posting. That would make sense considering that the $10/hr job would most likely (not always) be picking from the high school graduate pool with the highest unemployment rate.  So the next time you’re thinking, “I know the pickins are good and I can just replace that person”, think of what group that person comes from and how hard it might really be to replace someone. This leads to my next warning…


2. Don’t let your attitude turn into “my employees are dispensable”.  Remember that your employees are the people that you have entrusted to run the day to day functions of your business and these responsibilities shouldn’t be taken lightly. They can mean the difference between profits and losses. If you treat your employees as if they are dispensable, they will treat your business as if it was dispensable. This leads to my next point…


3. Pay the Price: Jason talks a lot about hiring someone who is obsessed with work and who is willing to work late, extra hours etc.  Remember that type of employee comes with a price and you better be willing to pay that price for that type of commitment.  This doesn’t mean that you have to pay more money necessarily. Really, paying the price can be as simple as recognizing that your employees are working hard.  I’m not sure any staff member would appreciate being told that they are replaceable let alone the “work-a-holic”.  Rarely being recognized for the hard work that they do can be a larger detriment than monetary compensation to some.  Individuals that are that dedicated to their work, who spend their personal hours to improve your business, look for recognition.  A little encouragement goes a long way.

Jason is right; I agree that hiring the hard worker will be the best for your business.  Please remember however, not to take advantage of these people or let the unemployment rate change your appreciation of your employees.  Your employees are the ones running your business. Treat them with respect and they will keep making your company a profitable one.

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I finally get to say it, “The Lakers are NBA Champions!”  I did so much smack talking last year that I ended up losing my bet and the Lakers lost in the finals, so this year I decided to not say anything until it was all over.  So, Father’s Day is this weekend, and other than that it’s time to move on to the week in eCommerce.

• Google changes public stance on PageRank Sculpting with nofollow, Matt Cutts gives a detailed analysis here and Marketing Pilgrim gives a synopsis here.  Changes to be aware of: Distribution of link juice is either passed on or it vanishes, SEO’s no longer have the ability to allocate PageRank value using nofollow.


• Has Bing raised public interest?  Yes.  Does Google fear Bing, like the New York Post reports?  I doubt it.  I tend to lean more towards Clint Boulton’s opinion that Google’s respect for Bing was revealed when they launched “Explore Search”, a page that features many of Google’s functions in an easy to read format.



• Online shoppers plan to spend more on dear old Dad this Father’s Day than offline shoppers.


• Social media can be used by marketers to engage and acquire focus groups. 


• Writing headlines sounds so simple, but getting started can be the difficult part for the writer; Copyblogger offers nine proven formulas for these troublesome times.
  

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