Apparel February’s Top Selling Product Category

From Internet Retailer:

Apparel and accessories led all product categories in number of online purchases in February, and eBay led the category with a market share of 47%, followed by Victoria’s Secret with 9%, Nielsen Online reports. Apparel and accessories led all product categories in number of online purchases in February, with 9.87 million, or 16% of all online purchases, Nielsen Online reports in its MegaView Online Retail report. It adds that eBay led all retail web sites in number of online purchases in the apparel and accessories category, with 4.6 million, 47% of the market , followed by Victoria’s Secret, with 870,000 purchases and a 9% of the market.

Following are the top five product categories in February, with number of purchases in millions, market share and average spend per buyer:

• Apparel & accessories, 9.87, 16%, $95.85
• Toys, games & hobbies, 8.45, 13%, $65.20
• Home & garden, 7.07, 11%, $143.48
• Books, 6.75, 11%, $32.80
• DVD/video, 4.61; 7%, $42.01

Following are the top five online retailers by purchase volume in the apparel and accessories category, with number of purchases in thousands, category market share, average spend per buyer, and average number of purchases per buyer:

• eBay, 4,610, 47%, $42.81, 2.72
• Victoria’s Secret, 870, 9%, $310.28, 2.73
• J.C. Penney, 343; 3%, $79.41, 1.13
• QVC, 322, 3%, $138.87, 2.13
• Lands’ End, 287, 35, $114.44, 1.15

Takeaways from Catalyst Conference: by Citi Group

Last week was our annual conference at Pinehurst, NC.  If you are a golfer, you know all about Pinehurst and its infamous turtleback greens…well I didn’t play #2 this year, but I did play the newly renovated #1 and maybe the best course, #4. Just don’t ask me how I shot (the answer is often and poorly).

A number of industry analysts attended (as always) so I thought I would share their takeaways about the state of E-Comm in general:

 Another well attended ChannelAdvisor conference – Trends remain surprisingly positive – Last week we attended the ChannelAdvisor (CA) Catalyst Conference 2008 in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Per the company, attendance was up over 50% to roughly 500 people, with participation from companies like Amazon, eBay, Google, Overstock, Facebook, Buy.com and many large, medium and small retailer clients.

• Takeaway #1: ChannelAdvisor clients not yet seeing macro-economic slowdown — Biggest surprise to us was the general consensus among the retailers we spoke with that they were not seeing much impact from macro-economic headwinds (…yet?). Consumer spending remains strong in many categories and sellers were confident that their multi-channel strategies can continue to fuel growth.
• Takeaway #2: eBay appeared confident that changes are working despite vocal seller pushback — eBay is determined to make the changes necessary to reaccelerate Core Marketplaces. Representatives from the company sounded resolved on eBay’s commitment to improving buyer experience and seller transparency. Per the company, the desired impact from fee changes, “best match”, and detailed seller ratings (DSRs) appears to be working.
• Takeaway #3: Amazon strengthening its 3rd party offering — Upbeat presentation by AMZN focused on 3rd party seller opportunities was well received. AMZN provided an overview and demonstrations of the company’s services, highlighting how the program is 1) driving increased selection, 2) improving customer experience, 3) increasing traffic and 4) lower prices.
• Takeaway #4: Strength of Google position continues to widen lead over competition — While we didn’t hear anything incrementally new from the Google presentation, consensus among sellers we spoke with who had added search marketing was very positive on both traffic and ROI trends.
• Bottom Line – Conference was incrementally more positive on eCommerce/Search trends than expected.
• Link to our full note:  https://www.citigroupgeo.com/pdf/SNA17593.pdf

Catalyst Conference

Warning corporate shill at work =).  

If you’ve ever wanted to pick the brain (and play golf at Pinehurst) of some of the smartest and most connected people in the industry like:

 Chris Shimojima, Vice President, Global Electronic Commerce of Nike

Stephanie Tilenius, General Manager, eBay North America

Mary Anne Gillespie, Vice President of Sales of PayPal

John Mracek, Vice President and General Manager, Distributed Commerce of Shopping.com 

Vince Monical, Director of Commerce and Analytics of Google  

Sebastian Gunningham, Senior Vice President, Merchant Services of  Amazon.com      

Ben Ling, Director of Platform of Facebook

If the health and direction of e-comm is your thing, then stop by to network and get the opinions of Deutsche Bank, Bears Sterns, Goldman Sachs and Stifel Nicholaus.

Then I’d encourage you to attend ChannelAdvisor’s  Catalyst conference in Pinehurst, April 1-3. It’s only $349 and that includes the conference itself as well as golf, transpo to and from the airport, drinks and meals, parties, etc..  And unlike other company sponsored events….ChannelAdvisor doesn’t pitch its own products…no really! I wouldn’t lie to you.

If you email me and let me know you are coming, I’ll even take you out for an additional round of golf!

Ebay Boycott

Today is the third day of a seller’s boycott against Ebay’s recent decision to eliminate sellers the ability to give buyer feedback ratings.

Ebay listings seem to be down 3%  but an Ebay spokesman says that the boycott isn’t having an impact.

My question to you is, ‘ Did you know there was a boycott?’ ‘Do you care?’

Ebay Scams: Please Steal…errr…Buy this Notebook From Me

Love Ebay? Hate the scammers? Well so does “Class It“, it seems. Class It lists a notebook for sale and all the ways you can scam it from him.

“DIFFERENT WAYS YOU CAN STEAL THIS LAPTOP OFF ME:

PAYPAL: Paypal is currently ebays preferred method of stealing high value electrical items off sellers. There are a number of various ways you can use to steal this laptop using paypal.
1: A Fake “Item Not Received” (I.N.R) Claim – All you simply have to do here is purchase my item using an unverified paypal account. Then when you receive the laptop, simply claim that you didn’t receive it at your registered (credit card) and paypal will give you all your money back !
2: A Fake “Item Significantly Not As Described” (S.N.A.D) This is a great way to steal items off sellers. Simply start a dispute after you get the laptop making up some lie about the item being damaged etc – You could use Photoshop to make up fake pictures of damage. Paypal will ask you to send the item back to me, but don’t bother – they never enforce that on buyers and after a short wait you will get all your money back and you will still have the laptop.
3: A fake “Unauthorised Use” Claim – This is a super way of stealing items on ebay and is widely used. Simply claim that someone hijacked your account (paypal & ebay) and that you didn’t order the laptop. Then in conjunction with a fake I.N.R claim you can simply steal the laptop and of course, get your money back.
4: A Stolen Credit card – Of course, ebay make no real attempt to vet any of its buyers, so hey, just register a new ebay account using fake ID information and link it to a paypal account set up with a stolen credit card – and hey presto – A free laptop.

WESTERN UNION
Although officially banned on ebay, fake western union payments are the preferred way for Nigerian Scammers to steal high value electrical items. Simply email me (using pigeon English) telling me that you would like to buy this item using Western Union – Tell me that you would be happy to pay over the odds for the laptop and that it is a present for your mother in law. Then send me a fake western union payment notification and I send you the laptop – Perfect. This method of stealing items off sellers is very widely used on ebay and of course, as ebay do not properly verify buyers its easy to do. Make sure you use Pigeon English as I am really really stupid and it’s bound to fool me.

MUGGING
If you are a traditionalist like me you may prefer a good old mugging. Simply offer to meet me on some dodgy housing estate somewhere and have a load of you mates hiding behind a hedge with a few iron bars. Again, offer to pay me over the odds as there is nothing better than using a sellers greed to bait them into a scam. I would be grateful if you could avoid killing me as this will cause bad publicity for ebay which would be terrible.

GENUINE BUYERS
In the unlikely event that you are actually a genuine buyer then you really should be shopping in a real shop and not this scammers paradise. However this laptop does really exist and is really for sale. You can email me or skype me with suggestions on how we may actually transact this item to both our satisfaction – with both our safety in mind. Don’t even think of buying it using paypal. I’ve only listed it as accepted because ebay run a protection racket that means I have to accept it. If you do pay by paypal I will simply refund your payment and give you a nice new shiny NEG.

FEEDBACK BLACKMAIL
Of course you will no doubt be aware that from May onwards you will be able to blackmail sellers into giving you free P&P / discounts etc. You will be able to give them neg feedback and they will not be able to give you any.. I regret to advise you that because this rule does not come in until May this option of scamming me is not open to you yet.

AUCTION WRECKING
I would grateful if some sad failed traffic warden could report this auction for two reasons
1: Ebay will see this listing and will hopefully close my account, saving me a 180 days wait to do it myself.
2: You will save me listing fees, making this a free advert.”

 Hat Tip To Andy Beal

Ebay Buyers Save Billions

Independent research by two statisticians from the U of MD’s Robert H. Smith School of Business found buyers saved $7 billion that might otherwise have been paid in a study of eBay auction behavior in 2003.Using 2004 buyer data, consumers saved $8.4 billion. Rough numbers suggest that the # might be 19 billion in 2007.

The study seeks to calculate what economists call “consumer surplus” which is the difference between the top price buyers were willing to pay and what they actually paid.

Ebay CEO To Leave March 31

By AMANDA FEHD, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

Meg Whitman will soon step down as chief executive of eBay Inc., the online auction company that went from wobbly startup to multibillion-dollar household name in her 10-year tenure.

Whitman, 51, will be succeeded by John Donahoe, 47, who has been heading eBay’s core auction and e-commerce businesses. The transition will happen March 31, the company said Wednesday.

Whitman said she will remain on eBay’s board of directors.

“With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives. We’re all enormously grateful that Meg dedicated herself to stewarding eBay through its 10 most formative years,” said Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder and chairman.

Donahoe came to eBay in 2005 from Bain & Co., where he had previously worked with Whitman.

From Internet Retailer:

“More consumers are buying gift cards, mostly in stores but also online, and using them online and off. Two initiatives announced this week by Shopping.com and eBay illustrate the growth and multi-channel character of gift cards.

Comparison shopping site Shopping.com, which has sold gift cards in the past, has now created a section devoted just to gift cards that can be used at specific merchants. The landing page for the section, shopping.com/gift-cards, unveiled this week, highlights cards from 20 well-known merchants, and links to thousands of other gift card offers. Consumers can sort through those offers by price and retailer name. The gift cards typically can be used both in stores and online. “

Full Story: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=24281