Posts filed under 'IMA'
The Internet Merchants Association has announced their conference agenda for 2009 in Las Vegas, NV in conjunction with the ASD/AMD Trade Show. There is still plenty of time to register, so be sure to go to www.imalasvegas.com right now and get signed up. You do not want to miss this conference packed full of information for increasing your online sales!
AGENDA: Updated 3/11/09
NOTE – The IMA is still adding more speakers, so times and speakers are subject to change. In addition to the agenda below, there will be a Networking Suite open at Bally’s on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights where you can meet the speakers and ask more questions!
March 16-18 Internet Merchants Assn. Las Vegas register @ , www.imamerchant.org & www.imalasvegas.com Don’t miss out – Register TODAY!
Continue Reading March 5th, 2009
The Internet Merchants Association is pleased to announce their third annual conference being held in Las Vegas, March 17-18, 2009. This leading e-Commerce conference is presented in conjunction with the ASD/AMD Variety Merchandise Show, the ASD/AMD Gift Expo and the ASD/AMD Jewelry Show being held March 15-18th. Register Here
“With the economy being a challenge to many in business, this year IMA is proud to offer free classes in conjunction with the ASD/AMD show on Monday, March 16th,” announced Steve Grossberg, IMA President. “We are excited to offer the free classes such as ‘Marketing My Website on a Budget’, ‘Successful Email Marketing’, ‘Make Shipping Easy Online’ and ‘Understanding Search Engine Marketing.” Registration with ASD/AMD is required for these free classes.
Continue Reading January 20th, 2009
The Internet Merchants Association recently announced the launch of their new website – LeavingFeedback.com.
This new website is a Public Service Initiative to give all eBay sellers a one stop link to include in their correspondence with eBay buyers in order to help educate buyers on the effects of eBay’s new feedback system, including DSR’s and neutral feedback.
From what I can tell, the only education eBay has done to help buyers understand the new feedback system is to include a pop-up when a buyer leaves feedback, that encourages them to leave negative feedback by pointing out the seller can no longer retailiate in kind. That’s eBay’s kind of buyer education.
The Internet Merchants Association felt that more education was needed and took the initiative to publish the LeavingFeedback.com site which has been received very positively in the seller community. IMA is encouraging sellers to include the link in their correspondence with buyers and post it on various sites in order to get it out to the public at large.
Auctionbytes has picked up on the leavingfeedback.com site and Ina’s blog post can be read here.
After the site was posted on various eBay boards, IMA was asked permission to have it reposted in Dutch, French and other languages. Several eBay Certified Education Specialists have requested permission to print the site and use it in their classes. We are pleased to oblige!
July 10th, 2008
Like individuals who make New Year’s resolutions, most business owners take time to set new goals and/or revise old goals at the beginning of each year. As more and more consumers and sellers become comfortable with ecommerce, merchants are branching out and adopting a multichannel selling approach, whether branching out to sell on Amazon (or another site or sites) in addition to eBay or whether opening a brick and mortar or starting up their own website.
One of IMA’s most recent polls asked sellers what their business goals were for 2008. The poll choices were:
Expand into other online selling venues
Expand current product line/number of listings
Add new products to business
Open up or expand brick and mortar retail store
Continue Reading June 4th, 2008
In my opinion, Best Match is one of the most significant changes that eBay has introduced in the last few years. It is designed to change the Buyer experience in a big way. And every time the buyer experiences changes, it presents a challenge for sellers.
There are three types of people in the world of ebay; those that watch a change, those that complain about a change, and those who find a way to make that change work to their benefit. For those of you in the third category, I strongly suggest you listen to a podcast that I had the pleasure to record with Ina Steiner of AuctionBytes. Here’s a link to the article, which will allow you to connect to the podcast:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m04/i11/s01
The runtime is almost a half-hour, which, if you look at Ina’s podcasts, you will note is one of the longest ones she’s ever done. There’s a reason for that. Ina understands how important Best Match is to eBay sellers, and wanted to make sure that we provided as much information as possible to her listeners.
But for those of you who absolutely refuse to invest a half-hour of time in your business, let me give you a couple of key thoughts. First, Best Match is an algorithm, and it’s new. So it’s going to change on a pretty regular basis. What’s NOT going to change is eBay’s commitment to Best Match being the tool that will optimize buyer search. So you need to find the best way to exploit Best Match now, and then you need to regularly go back and re-test, to make sure that those findings are still operative. Second, you must, you MUST, you MUST think like a buyer. That’s a fundamental part of any marketing campaign. But it’s absolutely crucial with Best Match. Remember, eBay is trying to optimize the buyer experience. So they’re going to watch buyers, and they’re going to tweak the algorithm based on buyer reaction. If you can get into your buyer’s head, you can get into their pocket. Third, don’t trust the tools that are out there. While they may give you some general guidance and good ideas, the algorithm is constantly changing, and some tools will not keep up with the pace. So do your own testing. Do comparisons with your competition. Run two of the exact same ad at the exact same time, with only one variable, and analyze the results.
There is one other thing you should consider doing. And that’s joining the IMA (you didn’t think you were going to get away without a quick sales pitch, did you?). We have a very active discussion forum with lots of experienced (and well connected) sellers, complimented with giants in the service provider industry like Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, Brian Lawe, President of MyStoreRewards.com, and others. As changes are made, the Forum is always buzzing with the latest information. The information and ideas you will receive about Best Match alone can make you enough money to pay for your dues ten times over.
So listen to the podcast, understand Best Match, and DON’T JUST SIT THERE!! MAKE IT WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE!!
Larry
April 11th, 2008
Good morning from San Antonio. It is good to be home, but now I have to get to work putting all this new information to work in my business!
If you missed the last day of the conference, you missed out on some great information. Michael Levit from Vendio was the first presenter “Cross Channel Selling Costs and the Effects of eBay’s New Pricing.”
Mike spoke about the importance of creating and running your own website store. Get your webstore established now, as internet retailing is only going to get more competitive in the future. He gave us valuable information on how to market a webstore through SEO, SEM and CSE’s (comparison shopping engines).
Next up was David Platt from Infopia presenting “Converting Browsers into Buyers”.
David cited a survey done amongst internet shoppers that pinpointed the 6 Problems Encountered Shopping Online. He also gave us several do’s and don’ts on creating a website as well as how we can learn from the websites of the big companies who spend thousands of dollars on research.
The last presentation I was able to attend was presented by Suzanne from AGenius Marketing on “Building a Successful Website.” Suzanne gave a great presentation about keeping your website fresh, how to choose a designer and shopping cart and the importance of continually testing your site.
There was so much information presented in these seminars that I am glad I took detailed notes as I know that I gained thousands of dollars worth of information from just these three speakers. I hope everyone reading this blog will seriously start making plans for IMA’s conference next year. Your investment will be returned tenfold.
Cyn
March 6th, 2008
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