Brandon's Take

eBay's 2009 Holiday Marketing Campaign - Did They Get IT Right?

Brandon_D — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:13:00 GMT

I just finished listening to a podcast interview that Ina did with Greg Fant VP of North America marketing for eBay and it was a great interview. If you are selling on eBay, I highly recommend you listen to this one as it provides great insight into how eBay is focusing on connecting buyers and sellers together. Here is the link: http://podcast.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/podcast/pod.pl?/pl/2009/11/1257987233.html The more I hear what they are doing the more I like what I hear as a seller. You will...(read more)

eBay Opening a Physical Retail Location - Good or Bad for eCommerce Merchants?

Brandon_D — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:23:00 GMT

Recently, the news came out that eBay will be opening a retail location ( yes a physical location ) on 11/20/09 for the holidays in New York City. Here is a link to the information for your reference. My good friend John from ColderICE got noisy on this announcement focusing on if JD (John Donahoe) lied at Shop.org saying that eBay is not a retailer and then here they are opening a physical retail location. John's post: http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/2009/11/03/ebay-to-opening-physical-retail...(read more)

eBay Ghostbusters!

Brandon_D — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:33:00 GMT

If you were lucky enough to catch my dramatic story about my eBay Powerseller coffee mug last Friday, you know I was really freaking out. Here is a link in case you missed all the drama. Click Here At this point I was totally worried that my office building may be possessed by ghosts because the un-imaginable happened. I’m really not much of a believer in ghosts drinking coffee and stuff, but at this moment I was seriously re-considering my beliefs. I guess you could say my stomach saved me...(read more)

A Yahoo! Ghost Story: The Missing eBay Coffee Mug

Brandon_D — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:39:00 GMT

Some of you may be thinking I have lost my marbles before reading this while the other half of you will think I have after reading this post. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned in a twitter post that my favorite eBay Powerseller coffee mug was not as shinny new as it once was. Months of coffee and tea will do that you know, and yes I wash it. Yesterday, I received a special delivery from the UPS guy and opening the box with anticipation as if it was Christmas all over again, I am surprised to find 2...(read more)

Are eBay Buyers Angry?

Brandon_D — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:55:00 GMT

As most of you know, I have a fairly automated system setup to manage my sales, orders, and shipping. Today, I was reviewing customer notes real quick and this one really jumped out at me. " Hello! I pay for my items very quickly. In turn, I would appreciate getting the item "exactly" as advertised, also good safe packing, and fast shipping. Thanks in advance for a Great transaction! Good honest people need "not" read any further. z-dave ---------------------------------...(read more)

Is eBay Still Shallow?

Brandon_D — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:23:00 GMT

I’m referring to sales volume for a SKU. Scot Wingo posted a great blog post on Seeking Alpha about one of his customers getting great volume on one SKU from the deal of the day on eBay. It is a good post and receiving a lot of comments. (Go here to check it out: http://seekingalpha.com/article/110639-is-ebay-s-strategy-working? ) I’ve been doing a test on the same topic and decided now is a good time to share my results. For this test, I took a very hot toy item and listed this item...(read more)

eBay's $1.00 Door Prize Promo = Free Marketing for eBay?

Brandon_D — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:47:00 GMT

Think about this for a minute. How many people do you think were sitting at their computer yesterday logged into eBay.com, the day before, the day before, the day before, and the day before hitting refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh,.......... trying to win a $1.00 door prize? I confess, I tried winning a $46k Corvette ( Check it out ) yesterday during lunch. We all know how that ended if you read our member forums . Is it 1,000's, 10,000's, 100,000's, even 1,000,000's of people?...(read more)

Do Free Samples Work? They Did For Me! Part I

Brandon_D — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:26:00 GMT

I attended the INC 500 conference in Washington DC about a month ago. Actually with our partnership, we ( www.ecommercemerchants.org ) managed the eCommerce Pavilion offering a great selection of educational presentations from companies like Yahoo!, Amazon.com, Vendio, PhiConnect and others. Tons of great information! While browsing around visiting the various booths of service providers and INC500 companies you know how it goes, you get to play a game, get a freebie, talk about their service and...(read more)

My Visit to Snow Sport Deals

Brandon_D — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:12:00 GMT

A fun part of my job is I get to travel across the country to visit with people about their online retail business talking secret tips and new strategies at conferences and summits. Many times when I am traveling to these conferences I get an invitation from a fellow online retailer to come and visit their operation. I really enjoy visiting these operations to see what they are doing and to learn ways they have developed their online business to be efficient for selling their merchandise online....(read more)

Join me for today's webinar with eBay executives about recent changes

Brandon_D — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:16:00 GMT

Join us for a Webinar on September 3 https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/680758308 On August 20th eBay announced some bold changes to the marketplace going into the busiest shopping season ever. Please join PESA as we welcome eBay management to discuss these changes and the impact they will have for PowerSellers. eBay management will be joining our webinar from various departments such as Finding, Trust & Safety, Seller Development, Shipping and Safe Payments. We will highlight key changes...(read more)

Check out my interview with Colder I.C.E.

Brandon_D — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Here is a link to my recent interview with John Lawson at Colder I.C.E. http://tinyurl.com/67cr3n Cheers, Brandon...(read more)

Brandon's Trip to China

Brandon_D — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:26:00 GMT

I posted this in the PESA forum 3 weeks ago. Thought I would share it on my new blog as well. **** Hi All: Just finished attending an amazing summit in Hangzhou, China and I want to share my thoughts with everyone while I had a chance here in my hotel room. It was a joint summit between APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) http://www.apec.org/ The 2nd APEC Business Advisory Council SME Summit & Alibaba with their 5th e-Business Conference It was a packed event with around 4,000 attendees...(read more)

eBay Changes = A HUGE Leap of Faith for Everyone!

Brandon_D — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:02:00 GMT

Hi Everyone: You need to be hiding under a rock or possibly in a remote Chinese province without Internet access to not know about the recent eBay changes. If so, welcome back and here are some links to help get you caught-up: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/Overview/ http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/BasicFees/ http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/ConfidentBuyers/ http://pages.ebay.com/sell/August2008Update/OtherFAQ/index.html Being an early adopter and very experienced...(read more)

Brandon's Take Blog post

Brandon_D — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:11:00 GMT

Here is a blog post on Brandon's Take...(read more)