posted on March 30, 2002 10:52:08 PM new
I want to tell everyone about a new marketplace that we're starting called iOffer.
iOffer is a trading community that will allow you to use the Internet to sell and buy in the way people have done for thousands of years -- through negotiations. We're not another auction site. iOffer allows buyers and sellers to negotiate in an open, anonymous, secure and entertaining format.
We've made the site extremely intuitive to use. Sellers list items for sale. Buyers can then make an offer or simply Buy It. Accept the buyer's offer and it's a done deal. Or make a counter-offer to the buyer. And you can see offers from all buyers so you can compare them. You control the process, the price and have direct interaction with buyers, which means more sales.
Buyers also have the ability to post Want Ads. And sellers can sign-up for our Buyer Alerts and receive free leads from buyers.
We were former employees of eWanted.com. eWanted shut-down a few months ago. eWanted grew into a selling community of close to one million member, but we knew there were many things we could have done better. We decided to take on that challenge and build what we believe will be the best marketplace on the Internet. We're going to merge the eWanted and iOffer sites once we launch.
Right now we're looking for sellers to post items for sale prior to our launch. You can go to our sign-up page and we'll contact you shortly about our Pre-Launch Seller Promotional program.
http://www.ioffer.com
I'd love to hear thoughts, comments or questions...
posted on March 31, 2002 05:31:35 AM new
I was just going to say...it sounds like Bargain and Haggle. I have never tried that format, I will check it out, sometime
posted on March 31, 2002 07:52:33 PM new
Yes, both sites have negotiation as their basic format. However, iOffer is quite different from B&H. Our system will be much more intuitive than any out there. For sellers we allow you to see all offers from buyers. This means that you are not locked into a negotiation with one buyer. We also give you free buyer leads, which come from our Want Ads. These are just a couple of our advantages. And don't forget that we're not starting from scratch. Some new marketplaces talk about marketing initiatives that never materialize. We, on the other hand, already have a community of close to 1 million members, which means buyers will be there to see your listings as soon as we launch!
posted on March 31, 2002 11:58:37 PM new
We were formerly known as eWanted.com. eWanted.com was a markeplace that allowed buyers to post Want Ads. We also sent sellers leads from buyers based upon the category and/or keywords for items they sold. The new website will be a combined site -- eWanted.com and iOffer.com. eWanted had a very large community -- they spent quite a bit to get it -- tens of millions of dollars.
We were former employees of eWanted who saw many things that we could improve upon on in the eWanted marketplace. At the same time we wanted to give our members the ability to negotiate.
Today we're a small company, but we have some of the advantages of a big company, such as a large user base. The small company advantage is our ability and desire to be responsive to the needs of our members -- the most important aspect of any marketplace.
posted on April 1, 2002 07:26:42 AM new
I hate to say it but the negotiation or haggling over auction-type items never really caught on. It's not truly negotiating and haggling as it's not spontaneous and if the seller or buyer or both do not frequently visit the site that aspect is greatly diluted. On most auctions sites the bidder simply places a bid or proxy bid or snipe bid and that's it. Sweet & Simple.
The very fact that ewanted and Bargain & Haggle spent millions to promote their sites yet still failed ( B&H is barely hanging on IMHO ) is proof that that concept is too greatly flawed or the internet buyers are too set in their ways, for that concept to ever succeed.
Good luck though, you'll never know if your modifications would have worked unless you attempt the effort.
posted on April 1, 2002 11:26:28 AM new
You bring up a few good points. First you talk about "auction-type items". I think most items that are found on auctions are actually better suited for a negotiation or fixed-priced format. You are seeing this from the auction sites themselves as they move closer to fixed-price for many items. The items that are best suited for auctions are those that are in very high demand with very little supply, such as JFK's diary. Before eBay most people would have never thought of bidding for a laptop. You would have either bought it at a fixed-price or you negotiate. In fact, most people never even participated in an auction before eBay. Most items people buy in the real world are either through negotiations or fixed-price.
Remember that eBay was not the first auction site on the Internet. And just a few years ago there were dozens of auction sites competing. For quite some time people didn't think the auction format would work on the Internet. eBay proved them wrong. However, eBay's success imho is not due to their pricing format. They had some great innovations like the feedback system and their sense of community. eBay was able to bring like-minded people together.
Not only is negotiations the way people are used to buying and selling, but our site will be the first to truly combine community and commerce. As a seller, the best thing a site can do for you is to give you direct interaction with your customer. With our site, you can negotiate, answer questions, convince people to buy your item (at your price), learn more about your customers and generally interact with people who are interested in your items (especially good if this is also a passion of yours and not just a business as it is with us!). And this is all in one, easy-to-use area on our site. You can also limit your interaction if that's what you want to do...the point is that you can control this process. I think most sellers would want to interact more with their customers and convince them why they should do business with you.
To your point about proxy-bidding, etc., the auction format is actually quite time-consuming for most users. Buyers generally don't put in a proxy bid and then wait until the end of the auction. They generally keep checking the auction every day for 7-10 days. And sellers cannot just close the auction when they have a buyer. How many sellers have received emails from buyers "I'll pay you X dollars right now for the item" or "would you consider X dollars for your item". This is the buyer trying to negotiate. The auction format does not truly allow you to interact with your buyers and sellers don't have control over the process once they launch the auction. They have to wait (with some minor exceptions) for the auction to end. We give you back control over the process.
As for eWanted, it was not a negotiation-based marketplace. It allowed buyers to post Want Ads and sellers to receive notifications of these Buyer Leads for free. This was actually very successful and we will still give you these advantages on iOffer (and buyer leads are a big advantage for sellers). The problem with eWanted was that it was caught up in the dot-com mania. They raised an awful lot of money and then brought dozens of people on board. The original people who brought you the site were people who were avid users of eBay, Yahoo! Auctions, etc. They understood the needs of the users. The site won award after award (right alongside eBay) as one of the best sites in the person-to-person marketplace. The company spent too much money on marketing and couldn't sustain itself. And it lost focus on the needs of its users. Everyone here today lives and breathes our business. Our only concern is the needs of our users. Feedback is taken seriously.
Thank you for the "good luck." We are working very hard to satisfy the needs of our members, but luck is always welcomed.
[ edited by jen2002 on Apr 1, 2002 01:42 PM ]
posted on April 1, 2002 02:26:13 PM new
My belief is that 90% of all bidders simply place their proxy bid in on an auction item then forget about the item and only view the bod on items when they visit their My eBay page.
Almost every auction now ( even Half.com ) have question/answer formats for bidder/seller interaction and many sellers have their email address in the item description or user ID. I believe that 20% of all eBay transactions are conducted offsite and it riles eBay to no end to not get a cut of that pie. They are constantly trying to close as many loopholes as possible to ban offsite "deals".
I still see the major obstacle of the B&H model being no seller or buyer together at the same time to conduct genuine bargaining. Also you say that real life is full of haggling and all I ever see is fixed prices. Even the Saturn cars are fixed priced. The only haggling that comes to mind is garage sales or flea markets or new or used cars ( except Saturns ). New items, other than cars, are non-negotiable in almost every case.
You are correct in saying that auctions and especially ebay are heading to fixed priced formats. Half.com has over 100 million items and those items are being woven into the auction site. Soon we will see messages like "You are about to bid on the Mario Brothers Fun Fest cartridge. Did you know that this item is available from a Half merchant for $39.25? The clickable link will be there and the sale is simple since all 42 million eBay registered users are now registered at Half as well. There will be a lot of angry sellers but eBay will take the 15% comission on a Half sale any day over a 5.25% ebay comission.
Good luck with your try at the internet sales with a twist. Maybe it will be a success. You will never know unless you try.
posted on April 1, 2002 04:04:47 PM new
Some good points! Most buyers don't actually forget about the auction once they place their bids. Once they place their bid there is little they can do, but most buyers actually watch the auction regularly (perhaps in the My eBay area) to see if they are still leading. This is precisely the reason why eBay's page views are extraordinarily high. And, of course, there is often the flurry of activity in the final couple of minutes. What's the point of bidding $1 on an item that's worth $100? Of course it's a good tactic to get bidding activity, which is essentially a way to market the listing -- but it doesn't make sense for the parties.
Also, historically negotiation was the main form of commerce. You see little of it in areas where there is an agent in the middle of the transaction who does not appear to have the authority to negotiate with the end buyer. For example, you don't think that the salesperson at Macy's has the authority to negotiate (in fact they have some wiggle room). This is a phenomenon of mass merchandise department stores, etc (which is relatively new). However, you do think that the owner of a stereo store has the authority to negotiate. It is very common for people to negotiate in this setting. There is also less negotiating going on in this country. Go to Europe and the rest of the world and people would not understand if you didn't negotiate in many setttings. However, this is not because people don't want to negotiate. This is because people either think they shouldn't or can't negotiate. Who wouldn't want to get a better deal. And on the seller's side there is something equally powerful going on -- who wouldn't rather have direct interaction with their buyer.
Yes the link between eBay and Half will grow. It should. We think that there are three viable alternatives -- negotiation, fixed-price and auctions. All three have their place for a given item. eBay has proven its model using auctions and now with Half.com they've proven fixed-price. Our goal is to prove negotiations as another leading format.
