I know that the internet retail business has skyrocketed as more and more brick and mortar businesses create or expand their internet business so I don’t know why I was so surprised to note the very low numbers of vendors that would appeal or apply to small to medium sized businesses. Many of the vendors that I talked to were only interested in merchants with GAS (gross annual sales) of $1M or more. While talking with several attendees, I find them to be business development managers, IT specialists and business owners seeking CRM solutions.

What appeared to me to be one of the hotest items on the vendor floor was multi-dimensional photography for the apparel industry. I counted at least 10 booths featuring this technology and it is truly amazing. Another large group of vendors were promoting data collection. As one vendor told me their technology knows what the buying customer is interested in before the customer does. All based on the customer’s previous internet travels and purchases. This allows this specific company to suggest your items that fit the buyers previous internet buying history in nanoseconds! This all comes at a cost, of course, generally well beyond the means of the small to medium sized marketer.

A few of the vendors that I did see that might have applications or product that would fit with my target audience were Stamps.com(a sponsor of my podcasts), Shipwire.com, Yahoo.com, Channeladvisor.com, PayPal.com, and DOBA.com. I should say that notably missing was eBay.

Simply from what I saw, this event while probably great for the RETAIL marketplace, it may not fit the bill for the small to medium sized ecommerce businesses.

I will be editing the recorded interviews I conducted over the next few days and posting them on my podcast.

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I had an opportunity to sit down with Marc Gorlin from startup Kabbage.com at the eCommerce Summit 2010 in Las Vegas this past week. While I am sometimes hesitant to endorse startups simply due to their inherent failure rate, I believe this dot com is going to be BIG!

The entire Kabbage.com team was in attendance at eCommerce Summit 2010 in Las Vegas and I got to meet them all. When I talked with Marc, it was apparent that this is a well thought out operation.

What is Kabbage.com

Kabbage.com quite simply is a lending site for small to medium sized ecommerce businesses that need short term cash for whatever the reason. Purchasing inventory, equipment or whatever to allow businesses to take the next step to growth. Typically these small to medium sized ecommerce businesses find it difficult to obtain funding from conventional lending institutions, and Kabbage intends to fill this void.

Initially, the service will be available only to eBay sellers, but Marc explained that Kabbage does intend to expand to allow sellers on other venues in the future. Still a few weeks away from actual operation, Kabbage will look at the more than just credit scores of the applicants. Gorlin explained that along with credit scores, Kabbage will also look at the sellers experience, feedback ratings, and PayPal volume history to determine eligibility for loans. The loans that Kabbage offers typically range from 1 to 6 months in duration.

Gorlin explained that the application process is all done online, and normally a decision is made, and funds available in the applicant’s PayPal account within 10 minutes! This totally blew me away!

While certainly not for everybody, I believe Kabbage has hit upon a niche that potentially can help those that need short term loans to expand their businesses take that next step.

Disclosure: Kabbage.com was a partial sponsor of our podcasts at eCommerce Summit 2010.

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eBay has long had a feature in place for fixed price listings (Buy It Now or BIN) that allow sellers to require immediate payment as an option. However, auction type sellers do not currently have this option. I say currently because there is speculation that in the near future eBay will require immediate payment for all transactions on the site thus eliminating the non paying buyer problem. This will mean that buyers will have to provide their billing information in the form of PayPal or credit card information to be used when they make a purchase. This will be a much welcomed feature to some sellers.

I have seen what seems to be an increase in the number of reports of buyers not completing their transactions. Personally I have just this past week been a victim of a non paying buyer. The biggest issue here is the time involved in processing a refund request for the eBay FVF fees associated with the transaction.

Bonanzle.com does not require immediate payment for transactions however according to my source, the process for requesting a refund for the transaction is much simpler than on eBay.

Onlineauction.com also does not require immediate payment however since there are no listing or final value fees, the only loss to the seller is their time.

While I have had just a handful of problems with non paying buyers, it seems that this issue may be on the increase on some marketplaces. Until marketing venues implement immediate payment requirements for all transactions, it still will be an issue we as ecommerce marketers need to deal with.

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June 3-4, 2009

SMB’s are constantly looking for useful information and networking opportunities to improve and increase their businesses, and Ecommerce Merchants Trade Association (ECMTA) and their sister organization Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PeSA) have teamed up to create just such an event. The two day event scheduled for June 3-4 2009 at the Atlanta Airport Marriott will feature some of the largest and most influencial businesses and experts in the internet marketing world.

From Amazon and Buy.com to eBay and Yahoo, some of the largest ecommerce marketplaces will be represented as will many ecommerce platform providers such as Channeladvisor, Infopia, Vendio and more. The current agenda show 22 sessions in the two day event. All sessions are single sessions so attendees will not have to choose between concurrent programs.

This type of agenda provides ample time for attendees to network as well as gain useful information from the presenters. Having covered last years event in New Orleans, the content and opportunity for individual “face time” with ecommerce leaders and executives was much appreciated and utilized by the attendees.

ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business will again be broadcasting live from the event for what looks like 8 hours each day (maybe more)! Log onto www.basicstobusiness.com and click on the Talkshoe player on the top of the page to hear us live and check out our live video streaming from the Summit at http://www.justin.tv/ebayandbeyond.

Special thanks to Netspray.com for sponsoring our broadcasts from the Summit.

PS. There is still time to register at the EXTREMELY low price of $99.00!

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In a press release posted by BusinessWire.com this move was taken to better the customer experience of both buyers and sellers as eBay rolls out new service programs (eBay recently announced it would be taking over dispute resolution services from it’s PayPal company).

At the time I am writing this post, there is no posting of this announcement on either the eBay.com or eBay.ca announcement boards. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

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Do you read the fine print? Most of us don’t.

In today’s economy internet sellers need to take advantage of tools and services that can enhance their business. One of the most important of these services is the ability to accept payment for our goods or the services we offer for sale. In the early days of ecommerce, payment by cash, check or Money Orders was the norm for most online businesses. Some had their own merchant accounts, but these were in the minority. Along came services like BillPoint, PayPal, Revolution Money Exchange and Google Checkout.

The growth in the online payment systems market grew dramatically as more and more online businesses sprouted. Sites such as Amazon, eBay and Google played a huge role in creating the growth of these online payment services. Eventually all three of these ecommerce giants created their own payment systems, seeing the income potential in ecommerce.

Not Necessarily A Business Owners Friend

With the creation of online payment services, small to medium sized business owners were anxious to take advantage of the ability to accept credit/debit card and electronic funds transfers as forms of payment, and did this in huge numbers. Now, in a trouble economy, many of these businesses are finding out that they may have blindly agreed to terms that can potentially put their business at huge risks.

Researching the payment systems I am most familiar with, Amazon, Google Checkout and PayPal, I find one huge universal similarity. We as business owners are at THEIR mercy! They are not in business to make friends with us, these services are in business to make money and limit their exposure at OUR expense. We are allowed to use these serices to enable purchases to be made at their sole discretion. At any time they can shut us down, withhold our monies, and deduct funds from our credit/bank accounts for any reason at any time.

For small to medium sized businesses this can effectively cause immediate and devastating consequences. The inability to pay for products or services, postage and other related business expenses because accounts have been frozen WITHOUT prior notice can cause an immediate collapse. Imagine, waking up and finding an email in your inbox telling you your account is frozen and you have NO recourse. We have all heard the horror stories. This is not isolated.

5 seemingly simple words

We at our sole discretion

Remember it is important to read the fine print. We may still need to use these services, but we need to know the consequences associated with depending on them!

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