This week in the Bloggosphere and beyond …news is a bit fragmented with the world’s focus diverted by the American election result and the global economy.  As a result, Sunday Papers is a bit short this week.

Bloggosphere

I’ve never seen it so quiet in the ecommerce bloggosphere as it has been this week.  It reminds me of watching BBC news in August when Parliament is closed, and all the controversial newsmakers have zooted off to Caribbean Islands for a fortnight to exhibit themselves to Paparazzi with yard-long camera lenses.  Perhaps it’s just a case of the world is taking a breather to see what President-elect Obama is going to do?  More likely they’re all waiting to see what breed of puppy he buys for his daughters, which no doubt will then cause a supply shortage worldwide and prices to soar online - hoo-rah for celebrities eh?

Multi Channel & Cross Border

If you’re an eBay seller who is declared on eBay.fr as a business seller, reside in France, are enrolled on eBay PowerSellers France, and you’re selling on eBay.fr between 1 November 2008 (from 00: 00:01) and Dec 31 2008 (23:59:59) then you’re eligible for a free subtitle for your listings.  Whooppee doo - I guess to the French this is such a great offer they wanted to make sure that it’s absolutely clear that it’s yet another of eBay’s “no bleedin’ foreigners” type promotions?  However, full marks for not obfuscating the eligibility (unlike les Anglais are fond of doing).  Remember that on France, whatever you put in the subtitle is picked up in search, unlike on the UK site.

eBay.com.au »”>eBay.com.au released a couple of small but important announcements this week.  They’ve finally extended the Best Offer feature to the Antipodes, and they’re extending the reach of off-site adverts on the site - a sort of “Hurrah, oh poo” week downunder then?

eBay.ie have reminded sellers that the discount for the e-Parcel Service will finish on December 31st, and eBay.uk have launched a new system for buyers to add a GBP 1.00 charity donation during checkout - early worries are that seller feedback and DSRs are going to get dinged when they refund a buyer and that extra 100 pennies are not included in the refund.  There are also legal worries that a credit card or bank initiated chargeback situation needs clarified.  Strictly speaking, by law, the whole payment (including the charitable donation) must be refunded - I wonder if eBay and PayPal will see it that way?  After all, Mission-phish/eBay for Charity get to keep 5-pence for every Pound donated, and of course, there’s the PayPal cut of the payment too.  Plus we all know how eBay have demonstrated their desperate need for every penny possible this year?

Money Matters

Consumer watchdogs Which? and the BBC have been probing the vagiaries of the PayPal Protection Policies for Buyers and Sellers.  Which? are not amused, and raise some alarming issues regarding the supposed protection policies.

Online Channels & Venues

I’ve been having a nosy at Wigix this week, and tasked Gaz to investigate their affiliate program that launched a couple of weeks ago, at around the same time as their new Storefronts facility.  We’ll both be back with more detail and reviews of this new Web 2.0 marketplace.  In brief it has a unique approach in that everything on the site is in a standard catalogue (similar to Amazon) managed by community member “Catalogue Experts” who create the categories and items in them, approve catalogue item submissions from other members, and earn money for doing so.  It’s an interesting concept and methodology, but we want to look into it more before giving you the info.  Watch for our findings here in the blog and in our forums, where we’ll be classifying them with the Mall/Shop sites due to their fixed price only, sales format.  (We’ve also moved the Bonanzle board into that category as it’s not really an auction house).

Suppliers & Services

Not a lot to discuss in this topic this week - most people are reporting that the media have talked the consumers into a paranoia about spending, so restocking and adding new ranges might not be a good move right now.  A better strategy would be to start dusting off the abandoned stock on the top shelves and under the stairs, and polishing it up ready for a good clear out of the items that originally made eBay so great.  At least nowadays there’s a broader choice of venues for shifting it onwards.

Webifying

If you’re using the Simple Machines forum engine, note that there’s been a security patch released this weekend.  The install is a simple 2-click insert via the “packages” menu in the admin back-end.  It will upgrade your forum to SMF version 1.1.7

I’m starting to really like the OpenX ad server I’ve been chuntering about for the last few weeks.  As I gradually clear down all the hard-coded ads, moving them into OpenX, the admin side of life is starting to show significant time savings, both on BuildaSkill, and on our other sites.  Well worth spending the time to learn this package.

Looking Ahead

Ummm - looking ahead is always a good idea, it stops you walking into lamp posts or tripping over those annoying yappy rats-on-strings that the yuppies like to call “lap dogs”, and which are usually attached to expensively over-coiffured trophy wives and mistresses.

Seriously, the main “look ahead” in anticipation is due to a comment from Gaz - he picked up on an Obama comment that he intends to empower and enable America’s small business sector as the driving force for revitalising the economy.  Now if only he’d yank eBay’s leash and get a lot of this year’s changes reversed, the 1.3 million small businesses using eBay could empower and enable themselves without further government assistance.  May the Force be with you Obama - use it on eBay and Darth Donahoe.

It’s getting too chilly for the hammock, so I’m off to make a large cocoa, and watch a movie on TV.

Ed