It seems like ages since we've spoken here. We've all been mad busy here at vzaar towers preparing to go live (we're calling it v-Day) and telling the world about us. Which brings me to today blog post.

Those of you who are steely eyed will notice that we have an addition to the about me page. Our number's have grown and we are now 5.

The new addition to vzaar is our fabulous Online Herald. The Online Herald started with us two weeks ago, and it feels like she has been here forever. In a good way. It's fabulous to have some start on the team, and feel like one of the team by the end of the first day.

We're counting ourselves very lucky that we have been able to get the Online Herald. She really impressed us all greatly before she started and has exceeded our expectations by several orders of magnitude since then. In face she is so ingrained and important to the team, that when she is off for a few days next week myself and the Social Wizard aren't entirely sure how we'll cope. The office is certainly going to feel a whole lot duller. I'm sure her old boss and team is missing her greatly and rather jealous of our good fortune.

So what's an Online Herald here to do? Well when I said above that we are preparing to tell the world about us, I really meant that she is.

However I'll let her tell you more herself, so look for a post soon. She might even tell you how she came up with v-Day over a pie. Or maybe just what the pie was.

Posted by Chief Geek at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Using videos on eBay means that you can show off what you’re selling in an engaging way with greater detail than is possible even with a clutch of brilliant images.

But as I discovered the other day when I was making some vzaar videos to sell some CDs, it’s easy to give away more than you intend. As I flipped over the reflective disc I not only showed off my scratch-free CD, I also inadvertently provided my viewers with a fleeting glimpse of my flat’s interior and a good look at my boat race.

Thankfully, I was fully clothed and had nothing to hide. If I had been nude, it would be called reflectoporn and for some of the great examples and a giggle, check out this page on snopes.

The most famous incident was the portly gentleman selling a copper kettle that had been burnished to a gleaming sheen. His nude body was clearly visible in the shiny surface of the kettle.

So as vzaar starts getting the world talking about and using videos in their eBay listings, I do wonder whether we’re about to embark upon a golden age of reflectoporn. Intentional and unintentional. We’ll see and we’ll be keeping an eye out for anything that crosses the boundaries of decency: we don't want anything on vzaar that breaks the eBay rules!

Posted by Social Wizard at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I recently sold another DVD on vzaar. I got this back from the buyer.

Hi.

Thanks for that. I am trying to get all the Coens films, yours makes 6 now.

The video idea is excellent it should negate any chance of bad feedback. The camera video is great I felt like buying it myself but I have just bought one on eBay (a duff one at that !!). V.G feedback will be left.

All the best J___

Emphasis is mine.

But it's good to hear buyers responding to video reflecting our thoughts on it. One of the strengths of video is that it makes it a lot easier to make sure the buyers no what they are getting. Far less disputes, far less items significantly not as described.

We think know that less confusion over what the buyer thinks he might be getting is better experiences for all. And better experiences makes for a better eBay all round.

The more we see of feedback like this, the more we know we're onto a good thing, and can't wait to enhance vzaar and do more.

Posted by Chief Geek at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our vzaar business cards are not normal business cards. They are of course the best thing to happen to business cards since business cards began. They are moo mini cards.

There are several reasons we went for moo cards

• The product is great. We love the small format and the thicker cards
• Moo lets us have different cards. Each of our cards come in 5 different colours
• Everyone we hand a card too notices it. Normally with business cards you forget it as soon as we get it. Everyone we have given a card too has commented on the cards and how cool they are. That's extra attention for us. Thanks Moo.
• We like to think the funkyness of the cards reflects that vzaar is a funky company too. We know moo is no ordinary company and we think neither are we. Moo cards are a statement by us that we want to stand out.
• Richard Moross was one of the speakers at Future of web apps earlier this year. There was a lot in his presentation that gave us thoughts and ideas for running vzaar.
• They say copy from the best. Moo has built it's concept by using other winning sites (i.e. flickr). We're doing a similar thing with eBay and this has given us a lot of inspirations
• And of course, moo cards are really really cool

We're also really excited about Moo's upcoming product stickers. We're already thinking of great ideas of how we can use stickers to help our customers and how we can send stickers to our favourite eBay sellers. Watch this space after moo launches.

I'm also going to Moo's Hot and Sticky Summer party next week. It should be a total blast.

Posted by Chief Geek at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It's really important to use your own products and to know your own platform. I'm doing about one listing a day on vzaar at the moment. Real world listings, not tests. This helps me find problems and bugs and issue or just learn how things can be improved. As a result we have a long list of things we want to improve and are working through them as fast as we can.

One of the reason Arena did such a good job with helping me pick flowers for my date (see my last post) was because they knew their products really really well. Had they just recommended roses or some generic flower I probably wouldn't go back in a hurry, not only because they didn't help me out but because they clearly don't think enough of what they sell to know everything about what the sell. But this is not the case and Arena is going from strength to strength.

The same thing can be said of almost anything, even smoothies or coffees.

I used to get a lot of juices and smoothies from Crussh when I worked on the Old Bailey which was near a Crussh. They really knew their products and always had something to recommend or advice. Buying something from people passionate about what they do and their products makes one want to buy them again.

No more so did I see this when I used to get coffees from Taylor Street Baristas when I worked in Richmond. These guys would throw a way a coffee if they didn't make it just right. And just right was complicated, with lots of tapping of the coffee thing and compressing it get just the right amount of pressure. They were good, and they made some of the best coffee I have ever had. But not only that, they loved coffee. They talked about it, they chatted about it, they were passionate about their product. I bought a lot of coffee from them.

Contrast that to Coffee Republic who have tried to rebrand themselves as a deli. All good, except they don't know their products and have no passion. I just ordered a smoothie with vitamin C booster from them. I had to point it out on the board as the person serving me had no idea they even did vit C boosters. The guy had no interest and really looked like he would rather be somewhere else.

No passion. Doesn't know his products. I'll be going somewhere else next time.

Posted by Chief Geek at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The current online video landscape has gone from nothing to super competitive in a very very short time. The list of online sites and companies that have something to do with video is getting a bit rediculous. One of these reasons we've been pushing really hard at vzaar to get our beta live, as we know the competition is tough and we want to be leading it in a short while.

Selling on eBay has also got rather competitive in the last 5 years, going from a small (well smaller than it is today) marketplace to a viable business for tens of thousands of people.

So what do you do when you're in a competitive business market? You look to stand out from the crowd, and look at what other people are doing and you learn from them.

We're helping eBay sellers stand out from the crowd, with video really having the ability to enhance an listing, and change the way people buy on eBay. And anything that helps your buyers helps you.

For us, as vzaar we also want to stand out. We want to make sure that we're better at helping people put video on eBay than anyone else, as well as well as make sure the experience we give our users is top notch. Using the flower deliver service of a friend of ours this week reminded me how improtant to understand and meet the needs of our users (that's you).

Selling flowers online is a competitive business. A cut throat stem business you might say (we're not afraid of bad puns here at vzaar towers). Recently I had a blind date and so decided (with the help of gentle hint by the mutual friend setting us up) to take a flower. So I hopped online to Arena Flowers to see what I could find.

I scrolled down to the romantic flowers section but they didn't have quite what I was looking for (you can't take a big bunch of flowers on a blind date when you are going to see a show). So I popped across to Arena's contact page to drop them an email. And I was pleasantly surprised at the great work Will had done here. Well not all that surprised because Will is a smart guy, but given how bad the state of things can be on the web, good work always stands out.

Not only can you contact Arena but a variety of methods (just about everything but carrier pigeon) but you get the felling the actually care about their customers (a lessons some of the bigger guys could learn). Clicking on email gave me a choice of three addresses. However rather than confusing customers trying to figure out who to speak to (is it sales or presales I want? Is is technical or support?). Arena makes this easy and obvious. Normally I wouldn't have known if I want to contact customer services or the florists to ask about suggestions, but each email address has a little explanation. Now I know I contact customer services to ask for advice about what to get, the florists to ask about advice as to how to get the flowers to live longer and feedback to let them know that I think they should add a blind date section to their occasions list.

I emailed customer services and got some great advice, from an incredibly helpful Jackie (not only customer services, but Will's mom too). Several emails back and fourth, we had ruled out roses (too cliched), normal lilies (smells of death according to one friend) and gerberas (absolutely beautiful but not even zazz). Then Jackie suggested cala lillies and assured me they weren't the same as normal lilies, and even went to the effort of taking some pictures of some to send to me.

The flowers arrived in perfect time a few hours before my date. Exquisitely prepared with a bit of water in the bottom to keep them alive through the date, and a text to let me know they had arrived (in case they hadn't and then I could fix the problem)

So what did I learn from Arena that I want to carry through to vzaar?

It's all about your customers.

Arena helped me figure out who to speak to. They had someone to speak to. They understood my problem. They sorted it out. At every step of the way they were focused on me and making my experience a better one.

They knew it wasn't about making money of a bunch of flowers. Anyone can do that. What it was about was making sure I had a good date. Now instead of selling me one bunch of flowers, they'll probably have my custom for a long time. They need to be successful as a business, but they know that's not about selling flowers. It's about making sure that the when people buy flowers from them, they really do have a good experience, and the flowers are something that makes a difference.

And the date loved the flowers.

Disclaimer: Will who runs Arena, is a friend and colleague of ours from our days at eBay. Arena also is now selling flowers on eBay and using vzaar videos to enhance their listings

Posted by Chief Geek at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)