Steve Woda's blog

eCommerce's "Shoot the Messenger" Strategy

When it comes to online fraud, the e-commerce industry seems to hate looking itself in the mirror.  Specifically, e-commerce executives cringe at the mere mention of the existence of online fraud.  Their first reaction is almost always to blame the messenger for sharing tough information about the industry rather than actually tackling the core issues driving the online fraud that victimizes consumers for millions of dollars every day.

I ran across the following quote from Scot Wingo of ChannelAdvisor in this blog post regarding eBay's VP of Trust & Safety appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show:

"Unfortunately it's never a positive when there's someone with Oprah's reach out there associating eBay+fraud so I think it was a net negative."

I have learned from experience that Scot Wingo is a very smart guy, and he has proven to be a vocal educator regarding the e-commerce industry.  When necessary, he has also had the courage to stand up and point out what isn't working in the e-commerce industry.  My interpretation of Wingo's comment is that Chestnut's appearance wasn't a good thing for eBay's short-term prospects or stock price.  I would agree with that.  However, I do not believe Wingo was suggesting that coverage and discussion of online fraud problems are a bad thing for eBay or e-commerce in the long-run.  If that was his suggestion, I would disagree with that.

Scot's comment did make me think about an alternative point of view that I have heard many times from e-commerce executives over the years. I often the hear the following question from execs almost verbatim: 

"Don't you think that by talking about online fraud you are blowing the issue up way beyond proportion and scaring consumers away from e-commerce?"

When I hear that question, I cringe because it displays a fundamental lack of wisdom.  Wake up everybody!

Today, more than 50% of all online surfers don't buy ANY merchandise online!  That is a ridiculously high number, and when surveyed, these non-buyer internet surfers overwhelmingly cite distrust of and nervousness about e-commerce transactions.  Is that because the industry talks about the online fraud problem too much?  No!  It is because online fraud is, in fact, a huge problem as reported by many sources including the Federal Trade Commission.  Almost everybody knows somebody that has been burned on the internet.  Don't you?  The 50% of internet surfers that avoid eCommerce do so because, to date, the industry hasn't solved the problem for consumers. 

The industry consistently takes half-steps so that it can tell the press and consumers that "we are doing something".  My honest opinion is that it is a bit of joke (You will want to tune in tomorrow for a very specific example that will probably shock you.), and any smart e-commerce executive knows that is true.

Buyer protection plans and merchant rating systems are simply not enough.  If, for example, eBay's Feedback Rating system and PayPal's Buyer Protection were enough to make it completely safe for consumers, why does Chestnut have to go on Oprah and explain the issue?  Well, of course, he wouldn't.

If a crime happens in your neighborhood, most people want to know about it immediately so that they can take specific steps to protect themselves in the future.  It is no different in your online neighborhood.  Ignoring the problem of online fraud and shooting any messenger that points out that a problem exists is not going to help solve the problem.

In the long-run, Oprah's coverage of online fraud is a very good thing for eBay, e-commerce, online merchants and consumers!  Let me say that again... Disclosure, coverage, and discussion of the online fraud problem will help and inspire the industry to identify solutions that will be critical to the success of this industry in the long run.

The minute an effective, comprehensive solution to online frauds is adopted, consumers will buy merchandise on the internet like never before.  The minute we stop blowing smoke and we start solving the problem will be the minute e-commerce starts to tap into the ~100 million internet surfers who we can't currently count as customers.

Consumers want us to make it completely safe for them to buy online.  We owe it to folks to do just that. Don't shoot the messenger!  Understand the problem.  Discuss and debate it.  Then solve it!

Proposed solution to e-commerce-related fraud:
A trusted, objective, regulated third party needs to investigate the backgrounds, history and financial stability of online merchants and then, if the third party is willing to endorse the merchant, the trust & safety company needs to put its money where its mouth is by fully protecting consumers for any deviation from the promised terms of sale.  Obviously, that is what buySAFE does.

Related blog posts:
"buySAFE Invited By French Government to Help Stop Online Sales of Counterfeit Luxury Goods" by Travis Brown
"Stop Worrying! How to Solve the eCommerce Trust Problem. (A must read if you sell or buy online!)" by Jeff Grass
"What's Wrong With eBay? It's Simple Economics" by Steve Woda
"What is a 'Market for Lemons'?" by Steve Woda
"What's Wrong With eBay? It's Simple Economics" by PowerSeller King

Where Can You Meet the Largest Merchants on eBay?

Every couple of months, the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) pulls together a collection of eBay's largest, most successful merchants.  These events are always terrific opportunities to meet experienced e-commerce professionals, and to get an insider's view of how the e-commerce market is developing.  Next week, PESA will convene its sixth PESA Summit in Chicago.

buySAFE has attended every one of these remarkable semi-annual events.  In fact, we have sponsored every PESA event since the organization's inception, so we are obviously a huge supporter of this organization.

Therefore, I wanted to give next week's PESA Summit a mini-plug.  If you are a professional merchant or simply interested in e-commerce because you are a member of the media, a financial analyst or a third-party service provider, you should attend this event.  You won't be sorry.  You will meet amazing folks and get the inside scoop on where e-commerce and eBay are headed.  Christie Hefner of Playboy Enterprises will be giving the Keynote Address.

As a side note, I will be speaking at the PESA Summit on an interesting panel of e-commerce experts including Jonathan Gariss (CEO for GothamCityOnline), Sloan Gaon (VP of Global Strategy for MIVA), and Jimmy Duvall (Director of e-Commerce Products for Yahoo! Small Business).  The Website Design & Web 2.0 panel should be very interesting, and I will provide a summary of the discussion on this blog after the event.

I am looking forward to it, and I hope you can find your way to Chicago for this terrific event.

Does eBay Have a Credibility Gap With Merchants in 2007?

As 2007 begins to come into focus, I thought it might be interesting to revisit an experienced PowerSeller's perspective on eBay.  Frank Ross writes the Common Sense eCommerce blog, and in November 2006, Frank provided his commentary on eBay's evolving relationship with e-commerce merchants.  Please give his blog post a quick review - "eBay Credibility Gap 2007".

Obviously, 2006 was a tough year for eBay and its merchants.  We regularly get emails on this subject from readers of this blog as well e-commerce merchants that work with buySAFE, and I don't believe 2007 is turning out to be much better.  However, I would love to hear from our readers.

If you are an e-commerce merchant, we would love to hear from you on this subject.  Please leave a comment on this post if you have thoughts on eBay and its evolving relationship with e-commerce merchants.

Technorati Tags: eBay, eCommerce, Economics

Antitrust Lawsuit Filed against eBay over PayPal, Payments Policies

AuctionBytes' Ina Steiner reported this week that an anti-trust lawsuit was recently filed against eBay.

'Michael Malone filed an antitrust class-action lawsuit against eBay this week under the Sherman Act, alleging eBay "utilizes its nationwide monopoly of the on-line auction market to monopolize the available forms of payment that sellers can use on eBay." eBay controls which payment methods sellers may advertise in their listings, and this year, it eliminated buyer-protection for non-PayPal transactions. eBay owns the PayPal payment service.'

The article also references the old conflict between PayPal and eBay.  Before eBay purchased PayPal, PayPal's management team prepared an anti-trust lawsuit against eBay and threatened to pursue the action.  Ultimately, PayPal did not file the anti-trust lawsuit, but it is ironic given the current lawsuit's claims.

Very interesting stuff.  We will have to keep an eye on how this develops.

eMarket for Lemons at Baruch College

I was recently invited by Dr. Karl Lang to be a guest lecturer at Baruch College on the subject of buySAFE and my experience starting an e-commerce business.  I always love speaking to folks about buySAFE and its important value proposition (Making sure that buyers get what they pay for, and that merchants get paid what they deserve.), but I especially enjoy speaking with college students (in this case they were MBAs) about what I believe is happening with e-commerce today.

As many of you know, I believe there is a fundamental problem emerging with e-commerce.  Specifically, the problem is that buyers have a very difficult time reliably telling the difference between good sellers/product and bad sellers/product.  In economic terms, this is called "information asymmetry".  Sure, if you are large, recognizable brand, buyers know they can trust you.  However, if a merchant is unknown to a buyer, how in the world can that buyer reliably figure out if everything is going to be 100% okay?  The answer is that it is very difficult for them to do so confidently.

When a marketplace suffers from information asymmetry, it inevitably develops into a "Market for Lemons".  You can read my previous blog post on the subject at "What is a Market for Lemons?"

Obviously, buySAFE solves this major e-commerce problem, and as of Q2 2007, there are thousands of online merchants that have signed-up for the buySAFE service in order to help mitigate this issue for shoppers.

I thought you might like to see the presentation I gave the MBA students at Baruch.  You can download the "eMarket for Lemons" presentation here, or you can view the presentation below.

I want to thank give a special thanks to Dr. Lang for inviting me to speak at Baruch College, and I especially want to thank the MBA students for their fascinating questions and additional insights.

buySAFE Founder Guarantees Delivery by The Washington Times

The Washington Times recently did a nice article on buySAFE, and of course, I appreciated the generous coverage as well.

"buySAFE Founder Guarantees Delivery" by The Washington Times

I hope you enjoy the read.

Related articles & blog posts:
AuctionWire
TMCnet

John Edwards Feeling Pretty

A bit of a digression today...

Regardless of your political party affiliation, this John Edwards video is pretty funny.  I don't envy the folks running for President.  Quite literally, they can't let their hair down even for a minute.  :)

buySAFE on The Today Show!

The past few days have been quite exciting here at buySAFE.  Last week, buySAFE was featured on The Today Show.  The "Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" segment, reported by Today's consumer affairs reporter Janice Lieberman, discussed the growing e-commerce problem of counterfeit luxury goods.  As expected, buySAFE was showcased as a terrific solution to the counterfeit goods problem.

Counterfeit/fake/stolen goods are obviously becoming a major issue for e-commerce, but in my opinion, this problem is actually a symptom of a much larger, more important, fundamental problem... Online, buyers have a very difficult time discriminating good sellers/product from bad sellers/product.  The REAL problem is that the Web suffers from major information asymmetry issues.  That is why bad guys are successful at defrauding consumers. 

Please think about my diagnosis for a moment... If consumers could tell the difference from the good guys and the bad guys, would shoppers ever unknowingly buy a counterfeit item?  Of course not!  Fraud happens because of information asymmetry.

I think you will find the "Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" news segment very interesting.  However, as you watch this clip, please understand that the counterfeit/fake/stolen goods fraud problem is due to a more fundamental e-commerce problem... Buyers can't reliably tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys!  In economic terms, this is called information asymmetry, and it is causing legitimate, professional merchants millions of dollars each and every day.

Kudos to Jeff Grass, buySAFE's CEO, for a job well done!

Related blog posts and e-commerce articles:
"Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" by Janice Lieberman on The Today Show and iVillage.com
"buySAFE Invited By the French Government to Help Stop Online Sales of Counterfeit Luxury Goods" by Travis Brown on the buySAFE blog
"eBay Bonding Service buySAFE Featured on Today Show" by Ina Steiner on AuctionBytes.com
"buySAFE Appearance on 3/20/2007 Today Show" on AuctionBytes.tv