On the promise of a live link from thelondonpaper.com to this here my blog and a possible plug for me old book (Make Serious Money on eBay UK), I obliged a journo from The London Paper with comment and copy the week before last on the occasion of eBay UK’s Tenth Birthday. I was present …
Things have moved on a little since I wrote my first post about Michael Jackson tickets and the situation regarding refunds for people who had bought tickets for the ‘This is It’ concerts at the O2 arena on eBay and paid with PayPal or credit card. eBay has made several announcements and the concert promoters …
The sudden death of Michael Jackson yesterday raises questions for people who have bought tickets for planned concerts this summer at the O2 arena. I’ve had a few emails from people asking what they should do. Here’s my perspective: First, don’t panic. You may have spent a great deal of money on a ticket in …
“Help. I bought Michael Jackson Tickets on eBay” Read More »
Every now and again I get asked to comment on eBay and ecommerce. A request a few weeks ago, resulted in a quote in The Independent. But as ever, I submitted much more than was used. So here is the Q and A in full: Has it become easier or harder to make money on …
This is a fairly disorganised selection of stuff I’ve been reading over the past few weeks. Imagine this: people make social judgements about the emails they receive. It’s an obvious observation with real importance for marketers and worth reading. This article examines the mistakes that many business owners make when they embark on building a …
Meg Whitman was the CEO and President of eBay from 1998 to 2008 and is now pursuing a bid for the Governorship of California. She led one of the biggest technology-based companies in the world, taking it from start-up to global dominance. In many ways she was the most powerful woman in Silicon Valley and …
Anyone with an interest in eBay could do worse than make some time to work through Scot Wingo’s post on what he terms ‘eBay 2.0’: a future, flourishing eBay. Scot is the CEO of ChannelAdvisor and an all round ecommerce sage. His thoughtful post on a possible path for eBay is the most comprehensive analysis …
eBay really ought to understand classifieds by now. It has (at least) two phenomenal businesses in the portfolio that are exemplary playbooks to emulate: Gumtree in the UK and Marktplaats in Holland. So why is eBay fannying about with eBay branded launches and seemingly half-ditching the Kijiji brand? In the 1990s, eBay was touted as …
Just went to bag my ticket online for the Great Escape festival in Brighton in May. It was great fun last year and the 2009 line-up is shaping up nicely. But I was astonished by the additional charges being applied to fans buying tickets online. £9.95 in postage and processing fees. It’s a fair additional …
Meg Whitman announced today that she’s seeking the Republican nomination in the 2010 California Gubernatorial election. A political ingénue, it’s the first time she has sought public office but she has a distinguished business career behind her. Most notably as eBay CEO for the decade that saw it become one of the most successful internet …
Stephen Robertson Director-General of the British Retail Consortium was the Eeyore of business yesterday as he spread doom and gloom across the media. Offered a chance by interviewers to say something positive, Robertson would effortlessly bridge and make a point even more dire than the one before. Don’t we need some cheerleaders as the downturn …
British Retail Consortium doesn’t like good news Read More »
Shouldn’t eBay be recession-proof? eBay in Germany has been a phenomenal success over the past decade and for much of that time DE was in actual recession or not enjoying growth like the US and UK. (It’s a shame the team that made that happen have been let go because I’m sure there were lessons …
Sometimes I get contacted by a journalist looking for a view or quote. Here’s a Q&A I did earlier today. Do you agree? How do you think the recession will affect eBay businesses? eBay sellers are retailers and, as we’ve seen in the headlines, retail is one sector that is being affected by the economic …
Here’s some stuff I’ve been reading: The fourth quarter is critical for eBay. Rather like Woolworths that apparently used to make 90% of it’s profits in December, ‘the holiday season’ is vital. It looks like eBay hasn’t had the Q4 it must have hoped for. But we shan’t know for sure until the results are …
Some eBay Links… Christmas 2008, 2009 Predictions Read More »