This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Internet Marketing
New eBay Design Offering for 2012 and Girl Geeks in Birmingham!
118 days
On Saturday I decided to go to the launch party for Birmingham Girl Geeks.
It was a unique experience as you are immersed in a room filled with people JUST LIKE YOU.
On my table were business women, photographers working in e-commerce, web designers, social media experts, mobile web designers and even people who had just started at technology companies.
Girl geek meetings are not just for us to let our inner feminist out (men do come too along with their girl geeks) but to understand and provide support, stories and mentoring to each other in a typically male dominated industry.
Denise Jacobs was our first speaker and told a story about her rise to becoming a public speaker, writing a technical book and basically becoming a web diva of extraordinary proportions.
She reminded us to stop beating ourselves up for being female and thinking we can’t progress in this world. She indicated that actually, most of the barriers we feel are self generated and no one will stop us…however male dominated we think the technology industry is.
Us girls of a geek nature also need to shout about what we do. If we are too understated (I suffer from this affliction) and don’t say ‘ Hey, I can do that’ we will never get where we want to be.
We know more than we think we do 
Want to feel inspired? Pop over to youtube: http://youtu.be/FTTj7DWABes
Second up was Karen Strunks from the 4am project – She detailed about using social media to promote her photography at 4am from a insomniacs walk about to a global photography project showing our world at this unique time.
This is Karen’s video (shot by me as I was sitting there): http://youtu.be/v1B18U_KgiY and see our world at 4am on flickr!
Our final speaker was Rachel McCollin taking about mobile web and how she got into the industry from working with the environmental agency.
Her video is here: http://youtu.be/ZzWFCSV365o
So all in all it has inspired me to become more active again, on this blog (and meeting with my fellow girl geeks will give me more content to write again) and also is public speaking. Hey I may even offer to speak at a girl geek event.
IN OTHER NEWS >>>>> (shameless self promotion segment)
A new eBay design offering is hitting the web-o-sphere. A smart phone optimised solution for the SME market with dynamic navigation to die for. Full details will be in the new Tamebay Tools and services guide coming out on the 31st of Jan.
Want a sneak peek of new clients taking advantage of this?
Check out: http://stores.ebay.de/outdoorsportshop24 (still updating hislisting templates), http://stores.ebay.de/HHV-MUSIC (still updating his listing templates) and http://stores.ebay.at/123boerse (who has actually updated his item templates!!)
With a set up fee of 1500 Euros (plus monthly subscription based on volume) this is an ideal solution for eBay sellers.
More info to come of course but if you want to get in touch about this product please contact us via info@widshop.com.
Pro’s and Con’s of offering choice…
482 days
This year I am attending an Anime/Manga convention called Kitacon as a vendor. What am I doing? Well, in a nut shell kimono dressing and also promoting Hairfreax to cosplayers.
So we (a group of 5 kimono dressers and photographers) will offer 3 types of kimono dressing on the day, however we are offering specialist dress up Geisha, Samurai and Wedding/Formal as a booked only venture so we can manage what we need to task on the days and the time needed.
Ideally, we would like to offer Geisha Cosplay/Henshin for people that turn up but the equipment and time needed is manic. One half of the group believes choice is best, the other believe we should keep it simples. So pre booking more complicated kitsuke (kimono dressing) is the half way house.
Everyone wants choice, but sometimes you just can not hold all the stock and options needed. However, restricting what you sell offer can impede your growth as a business, especially if your competitor stocks the whole range of something.
Customers are impatient, so making them wait on pre-orders/special orders increases the chance of charge backs! Grrrrr…is the word.
Personally I would use seasonality when thinking of stock a little more and maybe get in a few different pieces to suit the season/trend in order to grow and complete.
So for our first event we will be using forums and facebook to get advanced bookings for the event on the more complicated dress ups by providing a photo book portfolio and price list prior to the event.
I will let you know how online promotion works for an offline event
Why you should sponsor Channeladvisor Catalyst…
768 days
I did think about writing what was learnt at CA catalyst this year, but as Tamebay do this already – I thought I would put my sponsor head on and detail for potential new sponsors why Createyourtemplate has bothered these past 3 years
1. The food – you are always fed ‘n’ watered well as a sponsor and attendee at Channeladvisor events. This year we had more time for the feeding process (which so happened to be in the room with all the sponsors) so as people eat they like to talk, so potential clients will wander round with their coffee chatting to other attendees and to the sponsors.
2. Other third party providers – Catalyst is always good to catch up with our fellow third party providers and competitors (Grrrrr…arrrrg) to see how they are fairing in business and exchange experiences.
In the Channeladvisor world the third party provider space is not that huge, so we all get to know one another. When you have a network of trusted service providers you can recommend to your existing clients, we all bounce off one another. Even companies who on the face of it are direct competitors, are not normally carbon copies of each other. They can offer and lend services so that the client gets what they need.
3. Other third party providers, that don’t sponsor also attend the event – I negotiated a nice deal and introduction to a newer marketplace (playtrade) that would suit the direction one of my clients is taking. He will be happy with this
4. Potential clients – it’s why us sponsors go really, to get business. The good thing with potential and current ChannelAdvisor clients is that they are pre qualified. When you are speaking to a potential they are interested in moving forward and contracting a company to make this happen.
5. Networking – Talking e-commerce with a few free alcoholic beverages in you is fun. You meet new friends and clients in a more relaxed atmosphere.
6. Ideas – potential clients are brimming with ideas, information and enthusiasm after all the seminars and speakers. They are in the MOOD, and ready to make waves with the help of us sponsors perhaps?
7. CA Staff – I spoke to lots of CA staff, to catch up with personally and to speak about clients. Lots of new introductions too. I had a demo of their new ‘salesforce’ offering which a client of mine wants us to integrate in his store and eBay design. I also got a pair of fresh eyes on a clients SearchAdvisor account because it is driving sales and traffic to a store designed by us. We want the store to be excellent in all things and we take conversion very seriously
Well that is what as a sponsor and eBay/E-commerce design company, CA catalyst means to me.
Thank you for all your emails!
780 days
Thank you to the people that have email though in recent weeks – sorry I have been slow replying. I always read and reply to email’s personally and still love to hear your thoughts. I will blog about the following support topics as soon as I am able:
1. De-bunking the ChannelAdvisor Premium store set up process – a guide for those with little concentration.
2. Breaking down eBay’s changes for real people.
3. How to be the client in a web project (I like this one, no one ever tells the client what they need to do – and you are so important to the development process)
Thanks!
Web Development and Customer Trust
829 days
There are far too many web development and design horror stories – and many of my clients have had serious trust issues with a previous developer. Re-cultivating this trust can be difficult, even for the most dedicated and well thought of web developer.
The world of eBay design has had its ups and downs, eBay designers springing up out of nowhere and disappearing just as fast. Customers were hard pushed to see the quality difference between two developers in a basement and a seasoned team of 20. The situation is slowly improving and clients are beginning to understand why they were comparing apples to bananas.
Keeping the client out of the development process destroys trust and clients should not be treated as intruders on development.
The best way to deliver a successful web project is to use more inclusion techniques with your clients, don’t let things be a big secret.
Clients have the right to:
- An overall plan.
- To make changes (and be told what is reasonable and what is not)
- To get value
- To see progress
- To be informed.
This will break down walls between the customer and developer and build trust.
Using this as a selling point is crucial, even in your quotes – breaking down the elements into bite sized chunks will let the client know exactly what they are getting and consequently the developer/designer the project is passed onto.
*Client bill of rights based on XP programming methodologies.
