Congratulations goes out to Jessica (who likes to be called Jess) who will now be a frequent blogger for Vendable. To read more about Jess, check out her impressive BIO.

We had a lot of great entries and want to thank all those who entered!

Below is her winning entry (and you can see why we were unanimous in our decision to select Jess as our winner).

The Winning Entry:

Vendio – The New Kid at School
As a “web tech” type gal, I get the opportunity to help clients with a lot of different types of projects. Because of this, I get to experiment with all different types of products. E-commerce is a great example. Many clients come to me with a store already on a platform that they need me to configure. Mostly I’m configuring storefronts, but sometimes I am inputting products as well. And it’s because of this experience that I can advise future clients on which product is right for them.

For example, the Ecwid storefront is very LARGE. The type is large, the photos are large, and the shopping bag icon, etc. are all large. If my clients’ audience is an older crowd, sometimes I recommend that store. Yes, I can change the code on the back end to make it smaller or fit it to any specification, but out of the box, Ecwid is a great solution for them.

Shopify is a very feature-rich solution. They have so many features, in fact, that unless you have worked with it in the past, it can be downright impossible to find what it is you need to do, even for the most tech savvy. (a.k.a ME) Just finding where to change something simple like header color took me 20 minutes for a client. I tend not to recommend this service, and when a client comes to me with a project already in there, I know it’s going to be time-intensive.

WP e-Commerce is a nice solution if clients want a website and store solution all in one. I really only design WordPress sites these days, and I like the idea of clients being able to manage everything all in one spot. The downside there is that if something goes wrong on the server, or within the WordPress site, the store could be wiped…whereas keeping the store separate means you could still get business even if the site itself breaks somehow.

Today I saw a new solution I had never seen before, Vendio. What’s amazing about this solution so far, at least for THIS gal, are the following: they allow you to make a store just based on what’s already on eBay or Amazon; and 2. they allow you to upload your own code to design the site. I’ve never seen a solution with either of those features, and for a designer/digital business consultant, those are both game changers for me. It DOES also allow for sales on Facebook – something I only remember seeing from Ecwid.

Vendio is hiring an e-commerce writer and I think I’d be the perfect person to write about e-commerce for them. Having had experience actually struggling through different issues with Ecwid, WP e-Commerce, Shopify, eBay, CafePress, Zazzle, and more, I can offer a point of view different than the average blogger, because I’m actually in the trenches on a regular basis, trying to configure these products for clients.

My mission, as it is with my business, would be to help readers with honesty and integrity, and hopefully they’ll be able to benefit from my experience and expertise. Because the products are not even half of what needs to be considered when choosing an e-commerce solution that’s right for them.

What type of e-commerce solutions are YOU currently using, and what do you like or dislike about them? Have you heard of Vendio? If so, what do you think? Comment below and let me know!

We enjoyed talking to all the Merchants attending the show and look forward to attending the next conference.

With so many great features and benefits, we know the Vendio is the right choice for your business. To help you get off the ground, we would like to invite you to attend our Getting Started Webinars. You can attend one or both of these Free Webinars!

This week, we are offering two Webinars – Getting Started with Vendio and Building your Vendio Store.

Building a Great Store Webinar

Date: Friday, December 3rd
Time: 10:00 am (PST)

1. Building your Store and adding a Logo
2. Customizing your Template
3. How to Save, Preview and Publish
4. Creating Categories and Subcategories
5. Adding Items
6. Optimizing SEO for your Store

Getting Started with Vendio Webinar

Date: December 3rd
Time: 11:30 am (PST)

1. Setting your Vendio Preferences
2. Create simple Shipping, Payment, and Tax Profiles to use across Items
3. Managing Your Items across Marketplaces
4. Inventory Management and customization
5. Creating Listings and customizing Vendio for your business
6. Importing items from eBay, Amazon and CSV File (Excel), and much more!

To attend these Webinars, please email webinar@corp.vendio.com and let us know which Webinar(s) you would like to attend, and be sure to include your Vendio ID! We’ll send you a personalized invitation as soon as we receive your request.

We look forward to seeing you at the Webinars!

Vendio Sellers will also receive an exclusive 10% rebate in addition to these discounted prices!

Time is limited, and these exclusive offers will expire at the end of the day! Take a few minutes to stock up for your holiday sales or for your future selling opportunities.

As always, we appreciate you letting us help you sell more and more profitably online.

Ready, Set, Source!!!

Here at Vendio, we certainly work hard and play hard.  Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and we go all out – the office is decorated in a slew of webbing, spiders, scary monsters, and bloody hand prints.  This year, we had a equally delicious and morbid potluck theme:  bring your last meal on earth.

And, of course, what’s a good party without a few games, contests and prizes? We had six different categories: most funny, cute & creative costume, tastiest, cheesiest and “saddest/most lame excuse for your last meal”.  Yours truly won the last category – hey, I think McDonald’s french fries & chicken nuggets is a perfectly fine last meal.

Lastly, we had a pumpkin carving contest.  Though in the end, our dev team won the grand prize for CODING (see, work…play…same thing to these guys) a new “beta” product, I would love to know who you think should have won.  Leave a comment or send us a tweet.

Ops Team Pumpkin (Husky Howloween)

Marketing Team - Alibaba Logo (spot the joke & we'll send you a prize)

Customer Service Team - Husky face (hmm, trying to sway the contest judge aka husky mom?)

PM Team (spooky Dealio and Vendio logos)

Finance Team (sad 49'ers)

Dev Team (You had to be here to see it in action...pretty nifty)

Have a safe and spooky Halloween!

The Vendio Team (including our Chief Morale Officers… Angelus & Storm)

If you’re searching for new products to carry – then the free ASD Las Vegas show is where you should go.  You’ll meet 3,000 suppliers under one roof and learn how to grow your business through education seminars.

Come meet the Vendio team inside of the Alibaba.com pavilion (follow the orange signs).  This is our first appearance after the acquisition and we’re excited to share this trade show experience with our new family.  Stop by the pavilion to relax, play a few games of pool and, of course, learn about how Aliababa.com, AliExpress and Vendio offers everything you need to sell online.

In addition, we’ll also be presenting a seminar in conjunction with the Internet Merchants Association (IMA).  Look for the IMA seminars in room N109.  Michael Levit, our VP of Marketing will be sharing a presenting on how to follow the customer.

Details:

Las Vegas Convention Center
August 8-11, 201

Seminar: Monday, August 9th @ 2pm , Room N109

Presented by Michael Levit, VP of Marketing

Follow the Customers – Sell on Amazon, eBay and Your Own Store
E-commerce businesses need to be where the customers are. Selling on branded sites like eBay and Amazon are part of the business plan for many successful e-tailers. Is selling on eBay still a viable option? What are the different ways you can sell your products on Amazon? Learn the answers to these questions – and much more – during this informative session.

Registration is free!  Click here to sign-up and learn more.

For those of you who haven’t taken advantage of the AliExpress.com, please do so soon because the coupon expires by 7/8 (midnight, so technically 7/9) or upon reaching the budget threshold (whichever comes first).

After you redeem the Vendio2010 coupon, you’ll be issued five $20 coupons.  You will then have until 12/31/2010 to activate and use those coupons.

As part of the Vendio acquisition, Alibaba.com (the parent company of AliExpress) and Vendio have paired up to give you up to $100 worth of free merchandise that can be ordered directly from AliExpress. This enables Vendio merchants to buy “sample” items of products that they may wish to source and is a great way to test out AliExpress.

You can only get this offer by going to a special landing page and entering a Vendio coupon code. Once you do so, you’ll receive FIVE COUPONS worth $20 each. Each coupon is valid for any order more than $20 (no maximum). An order can consist of multiple items. The only catch is that you can’t use all five coupons at once, but you can place five separate, successive orders.

Here’s How:

1. Log into your Vendio Account, or Sign-Up* for Vendio by clicking on the Get Started button.

*Please note – This offer is also available to NEW Vendio account and applies to any Vendio account, even those with a FREE store or any other free Vendio product. So you can sign-up today to take advantage of this offer.

2. Click Here to go to the special landing page.

3. Enter the Vendio coupon code: Vendio2010 and click on the SUBMIT button.

4. Once you have completed registration, select the CLICK HERE link to activate your coupons. (Please note that since Alibaba.com and AliExpress are the same, your new account will be branded Alibaba.com.)

5. You will see a pop-up box that states that you will receive a verification email click on the ACTIVATE NOW button. You must verify your email within 48 hours. Check your email (look in SPAM folder too) for your welcome message. Click on the link in the welcome email to verify your email address

6. Start Shopping! Click on the “Go To AliExpress” link or shopping cart icon.

Using the AliExpress coupon:

Each coupon is worth $20 and is valid on any order greater than $20. Therefore, to maximize the value of this you simply need to create an order that’s $20.01 or more. Keep in mind that because you have 5 coupons, you can place 5 different orders for up to $100 of free stuff!

AliExpress has a great search function that enables you to find deals fast.

Here’s How:

1. Choose a category or subcategory.

2. In the “Price and Quantity” search box, choose the value $20 and $21. Also select the “Show Free Shipping” box. This ensures that you’re only looking at items that cost between $20-21 with shipping included.

3. Find an item you want to purchase. Click on the “Buy Now” button.

4. You’ll then be asked to fill in your shipping information.

5. You’ll next be taken to the “Review Order” page. Please note that the coupon will not be applied until the next step.

6. Next you’ll see the “Payment” page. Here the coupon will be applied. As you can see in my example, I only need to pay the balance of $0.62. You can pay via PayPal, credit card or bank transfer.

Have questions? Drop us a comment below.

Acquisition integrates AliExpress and Vendio e-commerce services into a complete solution for small businesses in the U.S.

SAN MATEO, CA, June 24, 2010 — Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688.HK) (HK.1688), the world’s leading e-commerce company for small business, has entered into an agreement to acquire Vendio Services, Inc., a multi-channel e-commerce company providing a one-stop solution for small businesses that are selling online across multiple channels . From the Vendio Platform, merchants can source products from Alibaba.com’s trusted supplier network and sell through channels such as eBay, Amazon, and their own Vendio-supported store. This platform is offered on Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud-computing model to help businesses increase their sales while managing costs to enhance their profit margin.

Through this acquisition, Alibaba.com gains access to more than 80,000 targeted small businesses in the U.S. with potential sourcing needs from suppliers on Alibaba.com’s sourcing platform and AliExpress, a wholesale transaction platform operated by Alibaba.com. In addition, the acquisition will provide access to e-commerce storefronts and multi-channel selling services for AliExpress customers looking to reach consumers online through the Vendio Platform. AliExpress and Vendio customers are able to source efficiently from the 5 million+ products available on AliExpress and then sell goods through Vendio on the retail marketplaces of their choice around the world.

With the acquisition, Alibaba.com will connect AliExpress directly with Vendio through back-end integration, creating an AliExpress tab within the Vendio Platform. This integration allows Vendio users to easily access a private sourcing experience within their Vendio inventory and sales management interfaces. Exclusive guarantees, promotions and special deals on AliExpress wholesale products will also be available to Vendio users.

AliExpress complements Vendio by strengthening the first step in the business cycle for small businesses: how to locate products for sale. According to a recent survey, more than 80 percent of Vendio customers have never used online supplier services and nearly 90 percent have never tried to take advantage of import-export. This integration creates an opportunity for Vendio customers to expand their supply chain and lower their cost through instant, free access to the more than 1.4 million supplier storefronts on Alibaba.com and AliExpress. Now Alibaba.com and Vendio members have access to complete e-commerce solutions to meet their sourcing, buying and selling needs through an integrated set of tools and features.

“At Alibaba.com, our goal is to make it easier for our customers around the world to do business by providing solutions that increase margins, productivity and competitiveness through e-commerce,” said David Wei, chief executive officer of Alibaba.com. “We continue to look for synergies and investment opportunities to grow our customer base, acquire additional technology and add new applications that will help our customer base grow and prosper. Vendio is our first acquisition in the U.S. and a strong strategic fit across all three areas, and I am confident that our complementary businesses will create enhanced opportunities for our customers.”

“We identify with Alibaba.com’s vision of creating a seamless global e-commerce experience for business owners,” said Mike Effle, COO of Vendio. “We are particularly impressed by Alibaba.com’s deep commitment to creating immense value for small businesses. Efficiently integrating Alibaba.com’s extensive supplier base will allow Vendio’s merchants to earn higher profit margins while providing unique and competitively priced products from around the world to their customers. The increased efficiency and product breadth will yield additional positive effects for the marketplaces we support and throughout the entire e-commerce ecosystem.”

The acquisition is part of the US$100 million investment plan for AliExpress that Alibaba.com announced in April 2010. It is expected to close in July 2010. After the closing, Vendio will become a new business unit within Alibaba.com and will retain its own brand name and operations. Mike Effle, current Vendio COO, will assume the role of the Vendio CEO and Rodrigo Sales, current Vendio CEO, will become a strategic advisor to the company.

Rothschild was the financial adviser to Alibaba.com for this transaction and Pacific Crest Securities was the adviser to Vendio for this transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

About Alibaba.com Limited
Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688) (1688.HK) is the global leader in e-commerce for small businesses and the flagship company of Alibaba Group. Founded in 1999 in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba.com makes it easy for millions of buyers and suppliers around the world to do business online through three marketplaces: a global trade platform (www.alibaba.com) for importers and exporters; a Chinese platform (www.1688.com) for domestic trade in China; and, through an associated company, a Japanese platform (www.alibaba.co.jp) facilitating trade to and from Japan. In addition, Alibaba.com offers a wholesale platform on the global site (www.aliexpress.com) geared for smaller buyers seeking fast shipment of small quantities of goods. Together, these marketplaces form a community of more than 50 million registered users in more than 240 countries and regions. Alibaba.com also offers business management software and Internet infrastructure services targeting businesses across China, and provides educational services to incubate enterprise management and e-commerce professionals. Alibaba.com has offices in more than 60 cities across Greater China, Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States.

About Vendio
Founded in 1999, Vendio Services, Inc. (www.vendio.com) helps small to medium-sized merchants (SMM’s) succeed by offering them an integrated solution to manage their sales seamlessly and cost-effectively across multiple online sales channels including their free online store, Amazon.com, eBay, Google, Shopzilla, and more. Each year over 80,000 merchants use Vendio’s award winning multi-channel platform and applications to sell nearly $2 billion in merchandise. The company also operates Dealio (www.dealio.com), a shopping and coupons site for consumers. Vendio is headquartered in San Mateo, California with a development office in Romania.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For Alibaba.com media inquiries:
Linda Kozlowski
Tel: +852 9028 5150
Email: lkozlowski@hk.alibaba-inc.com

For Alibaba.com investor inquiries:
Lindy Lau
Tel: +852 2215 5215
Email: lindylau@hk.alibaba-inc.com

For photos and broadcast-standard video supporting this press release, please visit www.thenewsmarket.com/alibaba. If you are a first-time user, please take a moment to register. If you have any questions, please email journalisthelp@thenewsmarket.com.

To learn more, go to the Vendio Acquisition FAQ.

1. Setting your Preferences with Vendio – Simply set it and forget it
2. Create simple shipping, payment, and tax profiles to use across items
3. A quick look at your items/ inventory and how to customize your view
4. The meat of the matter – creating listings and customizing the form
5. Importing items from eBay and Auctiva and much, much more

When: Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
Time: 3pm (PST)

Click here to register!

1. Setting your Preferences with Vendio – Simply set it and forget it
2. Create simple shipping, payment, and tax profiles to use across items
3. A quick look at your items/ inventory and how to customize your view
4. The meat of the matter – creating listings and customizing the form
5. Importing items from eBay and Auctiva and much, much more

When: TODAY! Friday, July 10th, 2009
Time: 3pm (PST)

Click here to register!