Fididel World

Product search optimization-elaborated

2008-07-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, we're making several enhancements to provide a positive user experience for buyers and sellers. In this post, I want to elaborate on one of our enhanced features, product search optimization.

The search box on our site is now equipped with multiple capabilities, including but not limited to matching of searched keyword in product titles, product descriptions and product categories. Once a search query result is generated and displayed, users can also sort items according store names and product names, which make brand associated queries, such as Dell laptop, easier to find.

This new enhancement has several benefits to both buyers and sellers.

For Buyers
You can now quickly locate an item and refine your search with numerous functions, which include an ascending price sorting option. More matching capabilities increase the relevancy of your searched keyword to our inventory, thus generating a good result the first try.

For Sellers
Every product that is listed with consistency from product title to description, properly placed in a category will increase its visibility to buyers. In addition, your inventory also enjoys other benefits as follow:

Timely inventory upload or update when using Fididel's provided inventory template (in Excel format), thus making your products readily available on the portal. Weekly inventory update can be automatically uploaded using a secured FTP, eliminating time-consuming manual edits and associated human errors.
Accurate product description and pricing as the template is formatted to integrate seamlessly with our database, which increases the product's chance of populating a search result.
On-time inventory adjustment to provide buyers a positive shopping experience, thus retaining their loyalty to your store on Fididel.

If you haven't already taken advantage of our FTP process or make good use of our inventory template, contact us today and we'll be happy to assist you.

On a side note, the product search enhancement is the first of many pending enhancements we have planned for the portal, including a Search Engine Optimization enhancement to promote and improve Fididel's product search on search engines. Therefore, if you're on board with us from step one, you'll also enjoy the benefits once the entire process is fully implemented.

Profile of a Fididel Seller - Auction Direct USA

2008-07-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

Today, we are highlighting one of our fididel sellers - Auction Direct USA
They are an innovative online and site based auto dealer that is very successful and growing rapidly. We are speaking with Auction Direct USA IT & Web Director, Eric Miltsch. Eric is also the author of the very cool blog WhyBuyUsedCars.com

Fididel Wizard: How about telling us about Auction Direct USA and what's different about it?

Eric: Auction Direct USA is a Used Vehicle Superstore committed to changing the way people buy quality, low-mileage, late-model used cars and trucks. Our difference is the low, no-haggle prices on every vehicle. Our discount pricing beats the traditional dealership pricing every time.

Fididel Wizard: What value do your customers get from buying from you?

Eric: The biggest part of the value our customers get when they purchase one of our vehicles is the incredible savings. Our customers typically save between two and five thousand dollars off of retail prices. From the moment you walk in the door you realize this isn't like any other car dealership; our customer-driven sales process is fun because of the open atmosphere and the tremendous selection of really low-priced vehicles.

All of our vehicles are certified by our 85-point quality inspection, are CARFAX certified, come with clean titles, are priced below KBB values and include a 3-Day/500-Mile satisfaction guarantee. Our customers also have access to the best financing solutions available, quality after-market products and have access to our certified service departments.

Fididel Wizard: Who do you see as your main competitors?

Eric: Our business model is so unique; our only competition are those dealers trying to provide no-haggle pricing. However, nobody has the total experience that Auction Direct USA offers.

Fididel Wizard: What kind of growth has Auction Direct USA seen since it started?

Eric: Auction Direct USA has seen consistent growth from the flagship store since its opening just over 2 years ago; in this time the NY store acquired 15% of the Rochester used car market. This growth has led to the opening of three additional used vehicle superstores in Atlanta, GA; Jacksonville, FL; and Raleigh, NC.

Fididel Wizard: Why do you think that is?

Eric: Very easy - automotive consumers are fed up with the traditional sales methods seen in dealerships everywhere. Our new approach is a refreshing change to an outdated business model.

Fididel Wizard: What do you like most about what you do for Auction Direct USA?

Eric: I'm very lucky in that I get to do what I love every day; I enjoy all things tech and web related, plus I'm a car fanatic. Put simply - I love managing our website and our IT infrastructure. I'm passionate about building our brand online and providing solutions which enable our business to grow efficiently. Creating something from scratch and seeing positive results is so rewarding.

Fididel Wizard: What do you like least about what you do for Auction Direct USA?

Eric: That there just isn't enough time each day to do all of the things that I'd like to attack...

Fididel Wizard: How do you use e-marketing?

Eric: Our e-marketing engagements are very extensive. We use the traditional automotive channels such as Cars.com, CarsDirect.com and AutoTrader. Our reach continues with our weekly eNewsletters to our website visitors and our market specific email campaigns to prospective and current customers. An extensive SEO campaign ensures top search engine results; our SMO initiatives also expand our footprint by leveraging our successful blog, WhyBuyUsedCars.com and other sites such as FaceBook, Squidoo and CarTango.com. We push the envelope further with newer strategies such as our mobile website marketing, our live online auction listings and building our followers on Twitter.com

Fididel Wizard: How do you know if you're successful?

Eric: The numbers don't lie. We rely heavily on analytics and the intelligence it offers. We need to know how many visitors we get, what they're doing within our sites and how effective we can make the pages. We're always looking to drive more qualified traffic, improve conversion rates and provide our customers with exactly what they're looking for.

Fididel Wizard: What made you try the Fididel model for Auction Direct USA?

Eric: Fididel's unique sales method compliments Auction Direct USA. We're both looking to provide smart consumers a unique shopping experience and quality products at the best possible price.

Fididel Wizard: What haven't I asked that you'd like our readers to know about you?

Eric: Its important for your readers to know how Auction Direct USA tries to provide the most unique automotive shopping experience every single day; everyone does their part to change the way people buy used vehicle. We all believe in the business model...I've told all of my friends about it and even purchased two vehicles there myself!

Fididel Wizard: Eric, thanks for your time... its pretty apparent that you love what you do and that's always a good thing!

Fididel World! New Name, New Focus

2008-06-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the launch of our new blog – well, it’s really the combination of our Sellers blog to one directed to both our buyer and seller communities. So to our new buyer members, welcome to the world of fididel!

As I'm sitting at my MacBook, listening to jazz streamed through iTunes, I'm thinking of all the cool new things we've been doing to make fididel the best experience a buyer and seller could have online.

There are a few enhancements and improvements to our site I’d like to point out.
First, we’ve made some significant improvements to our search function at the top o the page.

Your search for products just got a lot simpler and quicker. We’ve added more intelligence and intuition to our search capabilities, so you can find what you want quickly and simply. Try it out here!

You’ll also see that we’ve added a Join Now link and a Jobs link at the top to highlight the current job openings we have at fididel. As we continue to grow and add to our staff, you can check out our current openings here.

Next, we’ve made it clearer to a buyer when they are ready to buy. They will now get a confirmation window that pops up asking if they want to confirm their purchase or cancel.
Since we are a new site, we’ve had many buyers try out our negotiation window and find that they accidentally “bought” something when they placed their latest bid and a fidideler accepted it.

Now, they can back out before purchasing if they are just testing out our cool new process.

Speaking of cool, we are very active on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Check out the links at the side to visit.

Also, you’ll note the RSS buttons on this blog. To be sure you know when the latest update posts, click on this button and follow the directions to learn how to be notified when the next Fididel blog update is posted.

We will shortly add a video on how to use RSS for this and any other blogs or websites you follow.

We continue to add more sellers to our site and we will periodically highlight one to interview about their business, what their keys to success are and why they chose fididel to market their products. Stay tuned for an interview with Eric Miltsch of AuctionDirectUSA, an exciting new fididel seller.

By the way – if you haven’t tried out our real time negotiation window yet, give it a try now. And if you enjoy the experience, tell a friend!
Cheers!

Fididel Wizard

Fididel Chooses TargusInfo to Insure Ecommmerce Trust & Safety

2008-06-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a press release from last week by Targusinfo that might be of interest.

Fididel Chooses TARGUSinfo to Accelerate Engagement Commerce Approvals

First real-time negotiation site chooses On-Demand Verification to confirm
transaction information

VIENNA, Va., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- When it launched the first online
marketplace based on real-time negotiation of sales, Fididel wanted to
ensure that it was creating the safest environment possible for buyers and
sellers. Fididel has chosen TARGUSinfo to drive that assurance by providing
verification services for buyer contact information.

"Fididel made up-front investments to develop proper trust and
capabilities so we could get it right from Day One, not Day Two," said
Fididel CEO Hal Wendel. "TARGUSinfo offers exceptional real-time coverage
of accurate consumer contact information. It's a key piece of approving
transactions quickly and ensuring buyer and seller satisfaction while
keeping fraud at a minimum."

Fididel fills a gap in the ecommerce market by moving the online buying
experience from an "auction" or "fixed price" transaction to real-time
negotiation, a universally accepted way to buy and sell products in any
real-world marketplace. Fididel launched on May 5 with more than 50,000
consumer products for sale.

On-Demand Verification(SM) services from TARGUSinfo confirm the
accuracy of consumer and business name, address and phone-number
information -- and the relationship between those three pieces of data --
at the instant it is submitted. TARGUSinfo customers have used this
quicker, more cost-effective decision making to release more revenue and
increase productivity.

On-Demand Verification services help retailers to instantly verify the
millions of transactions incorrectly red-flagged by their approval systems
as high-risk orders to suspend for review. With TARGUSinfo services,
retailers reduce false positives that cost billions in lost sales and
customer loyalty.

"From the start, Fididel has brought to the market an impressive
combination of an innovative buying experience and best practices to
deliver this experience effectively at any scale," said Joy Nemitz,
TARGUSinfo SVP of Market Development. "TARGUSinfo is proud to help Fididel
make the on-demand approval decisions that keep buyers and sellers engaged
in its ecommerce environment."

About Fididel

Fididel is revolutionizing ecommerce through the power of "real-time
negotiation," giving buyers and sellers the immediate satisfaction of
negotiating the purchase price and closing the deal in real time. It's the
first online marketplace that reflects the commerce and communication found
in any street market worldwide -- the thrill of negotiation to secure the
best deal. Fididel is headquartered in San Jose, CA. More information may
be found at http://www.fididel.com.

About TARGUSinfo

On-Demand Information(SM) services from TARGUSinfo provide unique
identification, verification, qualification and location solutions that
enable retailers, call-center operators, Web-based marketers, communication
service providers and others to dramatically increase the quality of their
services and the effectiveness of their marketing. A privately held
company, TARGUSinfo is headquartered in Vienna, Va. For more information,
visit http://www.TARGUSinfo.com.

Fididel 101

2008-06-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Since our model is quite different from anything out there today, thought it would be good time to give some tips on pricing your products on the fididel site.

fididel's strength lays in these five points:

1.) Sellers can sell to different people at different prices. Give us your real costs and we will sell to everyone above that price. (In economic terms, this is elasticity of demand for different pricing equilibriums)

2.) Sellers are able to turn inventory to more buyers. Unlike auctions, which have days before completion, inventory is able to be turned more often and to more buyers.

3.) Buyers have a better end user experience when shopping because they are engaged with both the seller (or fidideler) and the product. This leads to a higher rate in conversion of traffic to sales and quicker inventory turnover.

4.) Sellers are able to sell their products quickly , which previously were not able to be sold successfully online.

5.) fididel strives to provide sellers a new platform and opportunity to sell their goods and services, free of constraints and heavy handed policies.

So... lets evaluate these further.
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1.) Sellers can sell to different people at different prices. Give us your real costs and we will sell to anyone above that price. (Elasticity of demand for different pricing equilibriums)

Different people place different values on goods or services. For example, some people think a good milkshake is worth $5 or more, while other people think a milkshake is never worth more then $5.

The point is, most everyone has a different price point at which they are willing to buy the milkshake. (In economics, this phenomenon is an extension of the concept of elasticity of demand.)

The seller, on the other hand, has but one hard price point, which is their cost to get the product and sell it.

Lets graph this out:

As you can see, the equilibrium is the price where most buyers are willing to buy the highest number of milkshakes for the most profit to the seller. So, sellers price their goods at one price and they get, or produce, as many goods as needed to reach this equilibrium.

In the milkshake example, lets say the happy equilibrium for the seller would be to price his milkshake at $4.25.
This means anyone who's willing to pay more then $4.25 would happily buy this milkshake.

But, what about that guy who's willing to buy the milkshake for $4.00 but not $4.25?

Well, he can't buy it under the traditional pricing model since he can only buy it at $4.25 and he's not willing to pay that much. BUT, what if it costs the seller $2.75 to make the milkshake and sell it?

That means the seller loses out on a $1.25, or roughly 40% margin, of potential revenue!

The seller deals with this loss in potential revenue because they cannot change the price for everyone without lowering the price down to the lowest price offered.

This is where fididel's strength comes in to play.
Because each transaction takes place privately through our negotiation platform, anyone who is willing to buy a milkshake for more then the seller's cost of $2.75 become possible customers.

This means the guy who would not pay more then $4.00, $3.50, or even $3.00, all become real customers and realized revenue instead of lost potential revenue!
This becomes even more significant when we consider the second strength of fididel, which is the ability to turn inventory.
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2.) Sellers are able to turn inventory to more buyers. Unlike auctions which have days before completion, inventory is able to be turn more often and to more buyers.

In continuing our milkshake example from above, sellers are now able to turn inventory to more buyers. Because seller's are now able to sell their milkshakes to people at $4.00, $3.50, or $3.00, they are able to increase their number of potential customers and thus increase the frequency of sales, which uses the sellers inventory. There are many benefits for both the buyer and seller to inventory turning more frequently.

Lets use the milkshake example again.

-Milkshakes are typically made with milk and ice cream. Well, because the seller has more customers, they are able to consistently use the inventory of milk and ice cream stored to produce milkshakes.

I don't know about you, but I know I'd prefer a milkshake with fresh ingredients than one with a carton of week old milk and a tub of month old ice cream! So, the quality of the goods tend to improve.

This is especially true with goods that expire. BUT, this is also true with things like basketball shoes and even video games because quality is something people perceive, and when it comes to new products, people perceive the newer to be better.

That's typically why the newest pair of basketball shoes or video games sell for retail at first, and six months later they've been reduced by 25 - 60% in price or more.

-Inventory turn means the seller's cash is not stuck in maintaining inventory and therefore is better able to manage their cash flow by turning their goods. Lets take the basketball shoes example.

If a newly released pair of basketball shoes costs the seller $55 dollars, and they can sell them for $100 then they stand to make $45 in profit from the sale.

6 months later however, when a newer model has been introduced, if they have to reduce the price to $75 to move the shoes, they stand to only make $20 in profit. Lets say a year and a half later, they have to sell the shoe at cost or below just to get some of their original money back. What is the real cost of the original $55 the seller used to keep this good in stock?

Its actually $55 + interest they could have made by buying things like government bonds. At today's rate, the $55 spent to buy the shoes, is actually worth around $57.80 two years later.

However, another reality sellers have to consider is inflation. Today's rate of inflation is typically ~2-3%. If we take the conservative 2% then their $55.00 is only worth $52.8 cents two years later! That means by holding onto this inventory, the seller has tied up their money from making profit or interest, and instead lost some of the value of their money because of the evils of inflation!

Had they sold the shoes for even their $55 cost one year after stocking them, they could have then turned around and stocked the newest pair of shoes that had the high 45% margin and demand the customer and seller were looking for!

This is the dilemma all retail businesses must consider when thinking about inventory. The above example doesn't even take into account how much the seller has to spend to advertise and store the product, which is not cheap either! Therefore, turning inventory, or the act of converting inventory back into cash is so critical for sellers to continue to make profits.

-More inventory turn leads to better cash flow, which in turn means new high margin inventory that customers want!

-The last advantage from high inventory turn is that the seller is able to get better pricing on their inventory by buying in bulk. (Economies of scale for those of you who like economics!)

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3.) Buyers have a better end user experience when shopping because they are engaged with both the seller and the product. This leads to a higher rate in conversion of traffic to sales.

When a buyer initiates a negotiation on a product, they engage the seller and the good by creating a connection to both. People see something and they want it. If they try negotiating for it, they're going to want it more because they will be more in touch with how they truly feel about buying the product.

This means people are more likely to buy the product, as the only reason they initiated the negotiation was because they have an interest in buying the product, and as they negotiate, they become more in touch with their desire for the product, resulting in more sales.

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4.) Sellers are able to sell their products, which previously were not able to be sold successfully online.

Since fididel empowers sellers to sell at different price points, goods that typically have their prices negotiated are now able to be sold online through our negotiation platform!

So businesses like car dealerships, art galleries, oriental rug galleries are able to sell online the way they have always done business!

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5.) fididel strives to provide sellers a new platform and opportunity to sell their goods and services, free of constraints and heavy handed policies.

fididel's goal is to empower buyers and sellers to participate in world commerce, free of heavy handed restrictions, policies and content. We believe that sellers should be free of burdensome policies that inhibit their abilities to sell, and that buyers must have absolute safety and comfort to buy. We believe in keeping things as simple as the user desires. We believe we can't succeed without our users succeeding, so we only believe in fees based on success.

2008-06-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings and welcome to the fididel seller's blog. I want to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on the progress we’ve made at fididel. As our seller partners, I want to give a huge thank you for supporting us through our beta launch. We have learned quite a lot and continue to get several requests each day from new sellers to join us. Our inventory continues to grow, which is vital to attracting buyers to fididel.
We currently have over many high quality, experienced sellers and over tens of thousands items for sale.
Now its time to drive buyer traffic to fididel. We have several methods we’ll be using in the weeks ahead to drive traffic, including several emarketing campaigns.

(I hope you’ve seen our videos on YouTube – if not, check them out at the right)

We will also be doing special promotions with our some of our sellers, highlighting their special products and, again, driving buyer traffic to the site.

This will also be the place to go for tips on how to best upload your inventory and the latest news specifically for sellers.

Finally, many of our sellers put a few items on fididel to ‘test the water’ so to speak. Many are now putting more (and in some cases, all) of their inventory online to give buyers more choices. If you haven’t added more of your inventory recently, please consider putting more, or all of it on fididel. For more details, contact your sales representative.

As always, feel free to contact me anytime with suggestions or any comments at all.
Again, thank you for supporting fididel - the exciting new way to sell online!

Regards,
Hal