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eBay Live Chicago video

2008-07-01T15:30:52Z

Hello All, For those of you that missed eBay live! in Chicago this year - I've put together a small video of our trip to give you a taste of what you missed. ...Dan says it looks like a holiday video - but I promise I was working extremely hard and I thought it important to give a taste of Chicago too!

A Life for Sale

2008-06-27T08:40:05Z

We’ve all dreamt of chucking it all in and building a whole new better life at some time or other (haven’t we?) and Ian User is doing just that. He’s selling his life on eBay: a sort of Reggie Perrin 2.0. You’ve probably seen it in the press (see the coverage on the BBC and in the Telegraph and Metro by clicking the links). When the sale concludes he’ll walk away with the money, the clothes he’s wearing and his passport. At the airport, he’ll get the first ticket to anywhere and head off in to the wild blue yonder. The bidding has been frantic and it looks like Ian is well on his way to getting the price he wants for his ‘life’. Check out the lovely vzaar videos to get a real sense of what he’s flogging.

The sale includes his three-bedroom home in the Western Australian city of Perth and everything in it, including a car, motorcycle, jet ski and computer equipment. You can also win Ian’s job… although you’ll have to pass an initial trail. It all seems a bit crazy. But on this grey and rainy day, with doom and gloom on the news, escaping to the sunny beachlife of Perth seems rather attractive.

Keeping the British End Up

2008-06-21T20:28:37Z

It’s day three and we’re back on the eBay Live Exhibition floor for more meeting and greeting and getting the word out about vzaar. Last night we had a lovely shindig at Chicago’s premier English theme pub, the Elephant and Castle. With our friends from Frooition, Channel Advisor and Tamebay, we welcomed dozens of chums from all over the world to raise a pint and celebrate in the time-honoured British manner: by having a few drinks. And, it must be said, that a splendid time was had by all. Thanks for coming. How was your head this morning? I was still scratching mine and wondering why any English theme pub thinks it’s typical to have a huge picture of Mrs T. on the wall. As the exhibition closes in less than an hour, we’re still signing up punters and selling vzaar. We’ve had a good day. There seem to be a lot of day delegates making the trip in for Saturday only and our stand has been brisk. Sometimes working a stand and talking to dozens of people a day can be a gruesome trial. You can be rebuffed by negativity or dispirited by a lack of interest. But that hasn’t been our experience at all in Chicago. There is an easy, American enthusiasm for experimentation and taking on new things that is great news for vzaar. Most people are sold on the notion of video and keen to give it a try. eBay Live! draws to a close this evening with the Gala (apparently pronounced 'gay-la') and a star performance from Chris Isaak (does it get any cooler?). And, needless to say, Team vzaar will be tucked up in bed long before the witching hour. Adieu.

eBay Live Keynote 2008

2008-06-20T14:00:56Z

So here we are, team vzaar loaded on caffeine and colourful looking doughnuts, at the eBay keynote address, and its not even 9am! This is the pivital moment for the eBay management. A golden opportunity to set the mood, not only for the remainder of the event, but the year ahead as they layout their roadmap for success. It's what the seller particularly will go away ringing in their ears and what will define in part how much inventory they commit to the site. So with one eye on video and it's future adoption on eBay what did we learn? - Feedback is still very much the currency of eBay. Sellers are driven by it and we need to ensure that video is seen as an emerging tactic that helps to improve a seller's feedback DSRs. - $60bn worth of goods were traded in 2007, three times their nearest competitor. eBay remains the right marketplace to launch vzaar on. Phew! - Trust remains at the heart of all eBay transactions. Seller Protection is now expanded to all US sellers (will inevitably roll out internationally). We're confident that video helps inspire trust in one another. It eliminates doubt. - eBay wants more of your inventory. To that end we need to continue to work hard on ensuring that video integration is as seamless and easy as possible. In part, that is why we are here in Chicago, to meet with the 3rd parties that help sellers manage their inventory. And so that was pretty much it. You can read a more thorough update here on the eBayink but it leaves me to tell you that the doughnuts have been eaten, I have sugar all over my laptop and now its time to get back to the vzaar stand for day two!

vzaar Live from eBay Live! - Day 1.

2008-06-19T21:38:37Z

I write with my laptop perched on my knees on a bench as a small crowd starts to gather for PayPal’s pizza party at 5pm. I have chosen the worst ‘quiet spot’ in the whole building. But I’ll be first in line for a slice of nice. The first day of eBay Live began with a flurry of activity at 9am on the dot, as the doors of the Solution Center were opened and thousands of eager eBayers flocked to the various exhibitors, stalls and attractions housed in one of the cavernous halls in McCormick Place. As always, the scale of eBay Live is staggering. They choose venues on a grand scale and quite unlike anything in Britain. There is an eagerness to learn and a willingness to succeed and there are just so many people. Hundreds of eBay staff, hundreds of members and eBay sellers and buyers from all over.
Team vzaar. eBay Canada's Moose. Obviously. Although Chicago lacks some of the dizzying excitement of eBay Live in previous years (are there really 10k people here?), and there certainly seem to be fewer exhibitors, the expo (that runs alongside the classes and speakers) was brisk and bustling. It’s really valuable to meet sellers face to face and pitch them vzaar and, delightfully, it’s not much of a hard sell. Old hands and newbies alike were positive about video in general and vzaar in particular. We’ve already spoken to hundreds of people and look forward to meeting hundreds more. If you’re in the Windy City, look us up. Booth 224.

We see this as a challenge to do even more

2008-06-18T02:36:40Z

A proud day for all of us vzaarians today as we picked up an eBay Star Developer award for Best Design at eBay DevCon. Kyozou got the top prize and we're runners up: the first and only video company to do so out of the 14 permitted video providers for eBay even though we're the youngest. Which confirms, rather nicely, recent research we've done showing vzaar to be the largest bespoke video provider on eBay too. What was most gratifying were the reasons we won the award. When we got the call, a few weeks back, eBay said that they really liked how we had designed our player and system around eBay. We know that video itself improves the buyer experience, but eBay liked how we were also improving the seller experience too and doing more than "just putting video into eBay". It was this "more" bit where they felt we really shone and made the difference. I'm really proud of what the team has accomplished here. Everyone in the team has contributed to that little bit of "more" in vzaar, from pure design elements to customer insight (and related product improvements) to technical tweaks to get it right. Design as Steve Jobs keeps telling us isn't about how it looks, but about how it works. And Steve knows a thing or two about iconic design. (We like to set our goals high.) My first thought, however after winning this award and looking down the list of great companies that also have picked up awards is, "Next time I want to pick up the winner's award". We're not resting on our laurels here at vzaar towers, and we have plans and ideas that are really truly exciting. Some things we want to bring to you, beyond making the platform quicker and easier and better all round are things like, HiDef videos, wides-screen players, multi-channel players for those of you who sell off eBay and custom skins to fit even better with your chosen templates. Watch this space is what I am trying to say, as we have lots more coming. The office was already buzzing with the announcement of the eBay Echo platform. vzaar in Selling Manager...hell yes! We're already thinking of what great functionality we can bring to you right into your my eBay pages. I'm already tracking down the right eBay chaps to get into the alpha program. What a great way to start off eBay Live, and the next few days are going to be fantastic fun. Stop by at booth 224 and say 'Hi' if you're in Chicago this week.

Drinks at eBay Live!

2008-06-13T10:19:28Z

So eBay Live! is just around the corner (in case we haven't mentioned it much already...) As many of us might be a long way from home and in much need of refreshment after the long and busy days in Chicago, vzaar has teamed up with Channel Advisor, Frooition and Tamebay to host some drinks on the Friday night. We'll be at the Elephant and Castle Pub on Adams street and if you should find yourself thirsty in Chicago, please do pop by. We'll be there from 7.30pm and if you come and visit us at our stand at eBay live we might give you a little Moo card that will get you a free drink or two! We hope you’ll be able to join us and we look forward to seeing you then!

vzaar on the Move

2008-06-10T14:44:33Z

vzaar's all about showing off eBay items at their best. In particular, if it moves or makes a noise, vzaar brings an item to life much more than a picture and text. Here's my pick of the pops. Check out this muck spreader, doing what it does best! Move on up with this glorious union flag Lambretta. Ideal for all you mods out there. From Swinging London to Greendale. It's Postman Pat!

New Features. Round 2.

2008-06-04T16:22:26Z

We're always so grateful to our customers for their feedback. At vzaar we know video and we know eBay but what we don't always know is how you run your business, what you need to be as efficient as possible and what you'd like to see from vzaar. We believe that a good company listens to what it's customers need. It's because of the time you've taken to let us know these things that we are able to give you what you need rather than what we think you need! Here's a quick overview of some of the new features our developers have been building for you: Automatic re-listing. This is the one that most of you have been after. Being a hugely complicated job meant it took a little longer than we first thought - "automatic re-listing" means the video player, with all of it's dynamic information about your auction, will update on it's own if it re- lists. There's now no need for you to let the system know. So if you use automation to relist your items - the vzaar videos will be present and correct in all your listings ad infinitum. Copy and pasting embed code. You should now easily be able to find the code needed to manually embed your video - both on and off eBay. On eBay, this is very helpful if you have a smart template you want to place a video neatly in. And quoting from Tamebay, who reported on this a couple of weeks ago "It makes life very easy for sellers using a standard “About Me” video in all of their auctions as it can be inserted in their auction template and then the template used for all future listings." (This should help you with html code and embedding if it's not your strong point) Buy Now button. Many of you found the Bid Now button unhelpful as it wasn't relevant to the listings that were of the "Buy Now" variety. Our player now has the added ability to recognise what type of auction it is sitting it and display the correct call to action.

The last 30 mins. While your listing is in it's last half hour the count down timer and Bid/Buy Now call to action turn red. The aim of which is to instill a sense of urgency on your buyers to encourage bids. Seller Profiles. You will now be able to see a vzaar seller profile which will serve to better promote your other items on eBay. So those are the next round of vzaar features we hope you'll like. Please continue to give us feedback - both good and bad (dare I say it) as it's all extremely helpful and much appreciated!

User Satisfaction: What Can You Tell Us?

2008-06-04T16:18:01Z

I evolve but I don't...er...revolve? [Alan Partridge] Here at vzaar HQ we couldn't agree more with the man. It's all about refining your product to suit the needs of your customers and so having developed an approved service that supports eBay sellers we are keen to improve on what we have built to date. Call it our evolutionary plan. To that end we've created a very short and ever so simple online survey that we'd like your views on. It is a short and snappy little survey so if you have 30 seconds spare and a coffee to hand then we'd love to hear what you think of the service to date. You can participate in the survey here. Many thanks

How vzaar became a 'dolphin'

2008-06-02T14:12:31Z

We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when we discovered last week that vzaar’s eBay trading account had been prevented from selling and buying for 30 days under eBay’s new seller non-performance (SNP) rules. We sell a few bits and bobs on the account, often for charity, but one of our buyers wasn’t happy. To their credit they got in touch and conversed but, nevertheless, left 1 positive, 1 negative and 2 neutral feedbacks. We’re not angry with the buyer: it’s their right to do this and it’s justified. Equally, we understand what eBay’s trying to do and support efforts to improve the buyer experience. We can also afford to be phlegmatic because we don’t depend on eBay sales for our bread and butter. And so we’ve become what many eBayers are calling ‘dolphins’: sometimes a dolphin is unintentionally caught in a net that’s trawling for tuna. In an eBay context it refers to an essentially good seller who falls foul of rules to kick out bad sellers. If you make quite a small number of sales in a month, even one dissatisfied buyer can blot your copybook. Tamebay blogged it here. We hold our hands up: one of our buyers wasn’t happy and left justified feedback. But it’s obvious from the Tamebay debate that lots of sellers are afraid they’ll become a dolphin too. For full time sellers, 30 days without sales could be disastrous.

eBay Live Here We Come!

2008-05-28T15:07:27Z

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!

vzaar Videos We Like

2008-05-23T11:26:18Z

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.

What Buyers Don't Read

2008-05-12T14:52:37Z

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.

Why negative feedback + bad sellers = unhappy buyers

2008-05-02T15:34:40Z

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.