Since 2002 sellers from far and wide have been meeting at the annual shin dig that is eBay Live in celebration of all things, well, eBay. This year is no different except that for the first time the guys and gals from vzaar will be there excitedly telling the world about our video service.

So in three weeks time we'll be boarding a plane and flying to Chicago where the three day event is being held. Now, in my previous role at eBay I once manned the International Stand (I think it was a convenient way of making all the overseas staff look busy) and I'm not afraid to say that it was a exhilarating experience. 10,000 eBayers can create quite an atmosphere and in America, where people generally like to share in one another's success, Live acts as the perfect event for bringing all that bubbling to the surface. It promises to be a great few days.

So what does the vzaar kit list look like for three days in the Windy City?
- One rather large stand with vzaar branded all over it (Sneak peak below)

- 4 laptops and plenty of plugs
- A DVD full of video demos
- Team shirts. Black is in we hope
- A pocketful of business cards
- A wind breaker (just in case)
- A crate of Red Bull for keeping the energy levels up!

In fact we won't be the only Brits abroad come June 19th. Our good friends at Frooition, Channel Advisor UK and Tamebay will also be making the trip so look out for our evening drinks invite! In fact if you plan on attending eBay Live and want to meet with us then do drop us a line in advance.

Plus, without quite letting the cat out of the bag, we'll be uncorking a couple of bottles of champagne as we have something rather exciting to share with you all at Live. See you there!

Posted by Business Man at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We're gearing up for the Bank Holiday and inevitable downpours and when it's wet outside you want something to watch indoors. Here are some great vzaar videos on eBay right now that have caught our eye.

Andy Burrows, the drummer with popular beat combo Razorlight, is auctioning his drum kit for charity. He seems like a very nice man indeed.

Need a new spoiler for your Lotus Elise? Of, course you do. Who doesn't? Spoilers. We've got spoilers.

A bit of DIY on a bank holiday is traditional. But what if you need heavy duty equipment? You know the drill.

Posted by Social Wizard at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has recently published evidence that demonstrates “that users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.” And the more writing there is, the less people read. You can read his article in full here. Amusingly he explains his findings with reams and reams of text, most of which I haven’t read, which just shows how right it is.

Of course, to the average eBay seller this is hardly a surprise. And if truth be told, my first reaction was “as much as that?” But it does reinforce the need to trim down the text and ensure that your eBay listings are as lean as possible. For some great tips on how you can ensure that less is more, check out Sue’s post on Tamebay.

Bullet points, pithy prose and intuitive formatting are the order of the day. But it does also reinforce our firmly held belief at vzaar, that the written word and still images are not always the right way for sellers to get their message across. Buyers, at best, consume a third of the text on a listing. Is video more efficient? We think so.

People absorb information in different ways and providing people with moving pictures and audio with a video might be the way to get more of your message across. Rather like when you’re in a pub and your eyes are drawn to the TV playing in the corner, a video can be a more alluring and addictive information source.

Posted by Social Wizard at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the major gripes from the eBay sellers who are striking regards the removal of their right to leave negative feedback for buyers. If truth be told, very few sellers leave negative feedback for buyers and even fewer sellers use feedback as a way of assessing the suitability of their buyers. For most busy, professional sellers this change is not important (the changes to DSRs are, though) but a small, vocal group of (typically) small time sellers are up in arms at what they perceive to be an unfair change.

Until the last week or so, I haven’t really understood the rationale for removing the right for sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers. It didn’t seem like a fight worth having. That is until I encountered a seller who changed my mind. I bought three things from this seller in an order totalling about £25. It wasn’t a flawless transaction and although I left positive feedback, I was quite stingy with my DSRs and referred to the seller’s poor communication and unprofessional manner in the feedback comments.

The seller was furious. Not only did he retaliate with aggressive responses to my feedback, he sent several abusive emails. The experience wasn’t pleasant and I certainly won’t be going back to that seller again. But my experience was the tip of the iceberg. I noticed that the seller has nearly 200 mutually withdrawn feedback and responds to every neutral and negative feedback he receives with an automatic negative. Some of the comments he’s left are offensive and personal.

I contacted some of the buyers who had received negative feedback in the past month or so. They had left negative or neutral feedback for the seller and had all received negatives in return. The seller had also asked all of them to go through the mutual feedback withdrawal process to have the feedback nulled.

But most worrying of all, of the five people I communicated with, all say that their experiences have changed their view of eBay. Three say that they will never use eBay again. Two say that they will be wary of using eBay again but might. A quick trawl through the negative feedback that the seller has left shows that lot of people who received a negative feedback haven’t shopped on eBay again: he has personally alienated dozens of buyers.

Every eBay seller should be cross about the way this seller behaves: he is chasing away your future customers. And how many other sellers are there out there who practice the same principles? Not many, in the grand scheme of things, but enough to warrant action. Those who are striking need to decide whether the right to leave negative feedback for buyers is worth the inevitable misuse by some dubious sellers who are driving buyers away with their unprofessional behaviour.

Posted by Social Wizard at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)