wagglepopCC1 Tue 04/10/07 3:25 am  Â
Hello Members,
An interesting thread, though I must admit a bit discouraging to hear that we are not meeting expectations for many.
Statistically, we have over 12,000 active members and our traffic outranks both OnlineAuction and Bidville, two similarly positioned established sites.
I'd like to add some open and honest dialogue
In many regards, our similarity to eBay may be creating unrealisticly high expectations.
eBay is one of the most powerful and well known enterprises not only online, but in the history of business as we know it. They actually "invented" a completely new way to bring buyers and sellers together, and they enjoy all of the benefits of being both first to market and extraordinary revenues from that.
We feel there may be a disconnect between the cost of participation and what we can provide for that cost. It is a connection that must be made, as the exposure and features we can provide as a company are a direct reflection of revenues collected from participation.
A recent example we published in The Revolution was to compare eBay fees to WP fees:
"A Store seller with 1000 active listings at $9.99 with a $14.99 BIN and Thumbnail Gallery Image weekly (and including the monthly Store subscription) with main site exposure would have the following insertion fees charged"
eBay = $3,415.95
Wagglepop = $9.95
It is a startling difference to look at and consider.
Perhaps we have made the cost of participation too affordable?
Our feeling as a company was that we needed and wanted to make participation possible for everyone by making it as close to "free" as possible, while at the same time calculating that increased participation based on that would generate the revenues needed to cover costs, growth, and marketing.
It is interesting to observe that many sellers still think in terms of "listings", and compare sales to inventory. That convention started because eBay created that convention of charging for "shelf space" on a weekly basis, and per item. In general, businesses think in terms of "inventory", and the cost to carry it. On WP, you can carry 10,000 items or 2 items, it's always $9.95 for SSP subscribers.
One of the things we never, ever anticipated was that the $9.95 could possibly be consiered anything less than an incredible opportunity and almost sublimely affordable. We anticipated thousands of sellers to this point, but that has not come to pass. There seems to be a kind of "eBay-think" that many sellers have only operated under to this point that is very difficult to overcome.
We could always make the site completely free, but how then to support the site? Customer Care would cease to be available daily (hey, that's me LOL), creation and implementation of new features would naturally go unsupported, and the entire dedicated server array, backup system, and support contracts would need to be radically changed or eliminated.
Then what would we have? An Overstock? A Bidville? Questions to Customer Care that get canned responses in 72 hours?
The investment to bring Wagglepop to this point and the amount of work involved has been absolutely incredible. Anything can be done in the world of programming, provided enough money for development, coding, testing, and implementation. There's a reason that Wagglepop "works", and it's because as a company we have made those investments of time and money. That's the commitment we have to membership and our vision.
Advertising is expensive and as many will agree, oftentimes fruitless online. What we need is a grassroots support, a culture shift that demands attention and let's eBay, eBay vendors, eBay third-party support channels, and eBay media contacts know that we are here, and we can provide a good experience for less.
It's about people, not the venue, wherever that may be.
Wagglepop buys nothing. Wagglepop sells nothing. We simply offer buyers and sellers all the tools they need to do those two simple functions: buy and sell.
If every Store that opened had stayed, we would have over 1,000 Stores and likely 500,000 listings. If everyone had stayed and paid, perhaps over 2,000 Stores and a million listings.
Now that would get someone's attention, and the PR train would begin chugging along.
Suppose for a minute that we could instantly duplicate every Store and every listing that is on eBay here on Wagglepop.
Don't you think buyers would find us? They certainly would!
As we have been saying all along, it's up to you, as the representative buyers and sellers who built eBay, to make that happen.
We as a company cannot list, and we cannot sell. Every single day we see the logs for searches that turn up no results.
It all starts with the sellers.
Populating the site is like glue; visitors who come will "stick" once they find what they want or a variety to choose from. We have no other "magic wand" for this. "Advertising" cannot do that. Only sellers can build this marketplace and only buyers can support the marketplace, in terms of the dynamic.
We are ready and willing to build whatever features and functions that membership demands, but we are at the point now where the site must begin supporting itself in that regard in terms of overall revenues, with increased participation. Upper management cannot continue to issue "blank checks" for monthly cost overages and new features and functionalites.
Besides it pragmatically being impossible, it is fiscally irresponsible for myself and Andrew (Director of Business Development) to continue to ask for that. I lead Customer Care because I like being "on the front lines" and am constantly thinking where and how we can improve site participation. We need to start showing that we can indeed support the site and generate the revenues need for that. Your successes are our successes.
For those who support us daily, we are so very thankful and we appreciate it far more than we can ever relate.
The power is in the people, and nothing else
Karen - WP Customer Care