12-13-2006, 11:48 PM
Jan 26, 2005 From OTWA about WP1
Quote:I'm not exactly sure what all the fuss is about wagglepop - a site that's not even up..LOL.
Some of Ray's statements don't seem to make sense, at least based on my own experience. For example, people are asking about whether WP will combine mutiple auctions on an invoice. His answer is basically that WP wants to "keep out of the seller's way" and allow us to handle things as we see fit. His philopsopy is that "automation kills online sales".
This just doesn't seem right to me. Automation is the essense of online sales - I've found that you have to do more than merely put a buyer and seller together. You need to make the transaction as smooth and foolproof as possible. The process has to instill confidence or the customer walks away (sometimes after the purchase too). eBay's combined invoices and shipping, for example, has resulted in much much quicker payments - and I haven't had someone short me on shipping in months.
He was also asked about a bulk lister. His response was that the early sellers would have to put in some work. Then something about listing 10 items a day for 30 days and having them auto-relist for 30 days...blah blah. Which misses the point entirely. Volume sellers - particularly those that specialize - have already spent hours setting up auctions and are ready to upload them. Lack of a bulk lister will mean lack of listing volume, and avoidance by a lot of powersellers (including myself). Why in the world would I invest hours of my time to manually cut/paste 600 aucition items to a site with no buyers???
There's a bit of arrogance to the guy that just hits me the wrong way. His premise is that "he's a seller, he's talked to sellers", but he's awfully quick to poo-poo ideas and suggestions from experienced sellers.
And the last thing that really irked me after reading over his forums - his reliance on SEO for site promotion. If that's how he thinks he's going to get business, he hasn't actually done the research he's claimed. I currently sell the same items on eBay, eBay Stores, Ioffer, and my own website. My items show up countless times, under many keywords, and across all venues. The best SEO - by far - is occurring thru Ioffer. Someone there really knows SEO, cause their links usually beat out everyone else's - both in placement and quantity. But interestingly enough, my Ioffer items see relatively little traffic. But even worse, the conversion of hits to sales on Ioffer is poor. My website, with a lot less SEO, has excellent conversion and outsells Ioffer about 10 to 1.
So I guess my point is...what does Waggle offer in addition to this? It won't have the features, functionality, or traffic of eBay OR my own website (come on...Ray thinks that a "shopping cart" of multiple items will "complicate" his system), nor will it have the ease of use of Ioffer (Grabber is why I started using Ioffer) or eBay (which my auction management program and lister supports).
Is the point of WP just so seller's ticked off by eBay have yet another place to waste time and effort?
And why oh why are so many people over there slathering over this guy like he's the auction messiah? I actually haven't seen him say anything that would lead me to believe he was ever a professional online seller, or that he has any ideas to bring in buyers.
What I DO see is a salesman and promoter with a little bit of technical knowledge and just enough online sales experience to sound convincing. But it really just sounds like every other eBay-wannabe site owner - "ebay started with just an idea and a single pc - it's the new frontier - we can compete with your help".
I don't know why anyone falls for it.