September 3, 2010

Meet Doba Certified Integrated Partner 1Shoppingcart.com

by
Jared Sidwell
Categories: Doba Partners
0 Comments »

Shopping cart companies have long been able to integrate with Doba through an Application Programming Interface (API). But for those companies that complete a technical integration between their business and our database of wholesale products, the opportunity arises to become a Certified Integrated Partners.

Meet longtime shopping cart provider 1Shoppingcart.com. Established in 1999 and owned by Web.com, 1Shoppingcart.com has become a Certified Integrated Partner (CPI) with Doba, enabling 1SC customers to add thousands of Doba products to their web store with just a few clicks of the mouse. As a result, 1Shoppingcart.com’s customers can easily maintain data integrity between their store and Doba, and are able to process orders automatically — and practically right out the gate.

1ShoppingCart.com offers shopping carts and online marketing tools to small and large businesses around the world. Its products enable small to mid-size companies to create, launch and market their online business affordably and effectively. And now 1SC has become a trusted reseller of Doba’s services, and its customers have the advantage of easily adding Doba to their hosting subscription.

This partnership enables 1Shoppingcart.com to Continue reading »

by
Jared Sidwell

VP of Business Development
September 2, 2010

Drop Ship Supplier Highlight: Doba Suppliers Dove and Santis

by
Ashlee Toney
Categories: Doba Suppliers
0 Comments »

Continuing with our seasonal selling theme (see seasonal merchandising tips for more info), I’m pleased to tell you about two drop ship suppliers who have exactly what you need to take advantage of the upcoming college / pro football season.

Doba supplier Dove specializes in stainless steel kegerators, portable ice makers, and built-in wine and can beverage coolers. To help protect your profit margins, at the time of this posting, Dove does not charge a drop-ship fee! Just as impressive is Dove’s Doba Supplier Scorecard, boasting three-day shipping and more than 300 units of each item in stock and ready for delivery to your customers.

Doba supplier Santis carries NCAA college and university outdoor canopies, foldable chairs, stadium seating, and tables… all of which are required for any respectable tailgate party or college football game. Santis charges only $1.00 for shipping & handling and maintains a healthy inventory of at least 24 units of each item available via Doba.

For more information on either this month’s highlighted suppliers, please Continue reading »

by
Ashlee Toney

Supplier Account Manager
September 1, 2010

“So these three online retailers meet in a bar…” Using humor as a marketing tool

by
Wes Lapioli
Categories: Online Marketing
0 Comments »

Humor sells.

Thank you. That concludes my blog post for today. Please tip your waitress on the way out and drive carefully! OK, I agree. That’s a lame intro. In fact, it’s more than lame, but you get the point, don’t you? You’re still reading my post, so my work here is done.

Humor can be a powerful marketing weapon! In fact, let’s go ahead and upgrade that notion and describe humor as a marketing ninja. We’re all familiar with humor in advertising campaigns. It’s been a staple of print, radio and television advertising for decades. Make your audience laugh and not only will they remember you, they’ll keep coming back for more.

What you need to ask yourself as an online retailer is this: “What am I doing to stand out in a crowded marketplace?” No punchline here — it’s a good question. Let me give you an example. My wife and I recently returned from a summer vacation in a foreign land. One day we went walking along a beach that was crowded with booths and vendors everywhere — a commercial zoo. They were all selling the exact same things — jewelry, woodcarvings, shells, art and clothes. Most of the merchants would step in front of us and start pushing items in our faces. After saying “no thanks” a thousand times, we spotted a man resting under a palm tree with items for sale on a table in front of him. He stood out  from all the other sellers because he wasn’t standing out! We headed to his area and I actually bought some earrings for my wife.

Hanging out and waiting for customers to find your business might have worked for that clever merchant, but it’s a luxury you can’t afford. Nobody’s going to just stumble upon your website or auction listing. You need something to catch a customer’s attention — something that separates you from the crowd. Continue reading »

by
Wes Lapioli

Account Consultant (SMB)
August 31, 2010

Doba Deals for the Week of August 30, 2010

by
Jason Cook
Categories: Doba Deals
4  Comments »

Apple iMac 20" (Refurbished)

If you’ve been keeping up with our weekly Deals, you may have noticed that as of late, each week’s offerings have taken on more of a themed merchandising format. This week’s lineup features items geared toward providing your customers with opportunities to take advantage of the upcoming fall season:

If there are specific products you’d like to see included in future Doba Deals, let us know by emailing me (Jason Cook), contacting our Customer Service team by email, or by leaving a comment on today’s blog entry. While we cannot make any promises, we will look for opportunities to work with our suppliers to include the items you recommend.

Finally, if you’ve tried accessing our weekly deals without a membership, you’ll notice prices are available to Doba members only. If you’re interested in joining Doba or learning more about our award-winning product sourcing platform and educational resources, please sign up for our FREE 7-day Trial..

by
Jason Cook

Marketing Technology Specialist
August 29, 2010

Doba Sponsors eBay on Location San Jose

by
Doba
Categories: Conferences, eBay
3  Comments »

If you’re serious about selling products sourced from Doba and elsewhere on eBay, you already know about eBay: On Location. If you’re new to selling on the world’s most popular and successful online auction marketplace, or if word about this extraordinary event somehow didn’t make it across your desk, eBay: On Location is a series of eBay Inc.-sponsored events across the U.S. designed to provide you – the online retailer – with powerful and timely tips, tools and guidance to grow your online retail business.

The last of four eBay: On Location events in 2010 is scheduled to take place this Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 1 & 2) in San Jose, Calif., and as the title of today’s post suggests, we’re pleased to announce that Doba is one of the conference’s five sponsors (other eBay: On Location sponsors include United States Postal Service, Pitney Bowes, Endicia, and three of eBay’s leading partners: ProStores, eBay Green Team, and eBay Giving Works).

It’s an honor to sponsor eBay: On Location – San Jose, especially since the event is being staged so close to eBay’s world headquarters, where this year eBay is celebrating is 15th anniversary. According to our sources at eBay, eBay: On Location San Jose should Continue reading »

by
Doba

doba
August 27, 2010

Meet the Team: Doba’s Director of Finance & Operations – Ryan Zirker

by
Doba
Categories: Meet the Team
2  Comments »

Ryan Zirker, Doba's Director of Finance & Operations

Every company has one. Some call them bean counters; others refer to them as staff accountants. At Doba, we simply refer to ours as Zirker… Ryan Zirker — Doba’s chief bean counter and so much more.

For the last four-and-a-half years, Ryan has headed up Doba’s finance department. Recently, he was promoted from Manager of Finance to Director of Finance & Operations, and now oversees all of our Finance, Supplier and Retailer Support, and Fraud Prevention programs.

To say we’d be a little lost without Ryanaround would be an understatement. In addition to possessing a great sense of humor and nose-to-the-grindstone approach to work, Ryan has that rare ability to mentor the people under him, as well as be exceedingly patient with those of us who don’t know the first thing about corporate finance.

With those thoughts in mind, let’s meet Ryan:

Doba: What did you do prior to coming to work for Doba?

Ryan Zirker: Prior to Doba I was a financial auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Portland, Oregon.

Doba: What attracted to you to Doba?

RZ: Gravity. Doba and I were like star-crossed lovers set on a collision course by destiny. It was unavoidable.

Doba: When you’re not working, what do you like to do in your spare time?

RZ: I spend all my spare time with my darling wife and my two adorable kids. We enjoy building with blocks, playing My Little Pony Memory and watching Cinderella.

Doba: What’s your all-time favorite Doba Deal? Continue reading »

by
Doba

doba
August 26, 2010

Financing for Online Retailers and eBay Sellers

by
Doba
Categories: Financing
0 Comments »

Editor’s Note: One of the concerns we hear from new and emerging online retailers has to do with capitalization (namely, that being under capitalized makes it difficult to fund a promising business). With so many of you wondering where online retailers can go – especially in this economy – to secure a business loan, we thought it might be good to hear from Marc Gorlin, Co-founder of Kabbage, a company that provides working capital just for online sellers. Take a look at what he has to say, and feel free to leave a question for Marc in the Comment area of today’s post.

Financing for Online Retailers and eBay Sellers
By Marc Gorlin, Kabbage

I’ll just go ahead and say it: Banks don’t understand online sellers.

I recently spoke with an online seller who generates more than $600,000 a year in Internet sales. His local bank told him his application for a business loan was denied because, “This Internet thing is just a fad.” We’re not talking 1996 here. This happened this year.

At the risk of sounding redundant and repetitive – banks don’t understand online sellers.

Fact is, banks are definitely missing a big boat.  Goldman Sachs reports that online retail is growing five times as fast as traditional retail, and they predict that online retail will overtake brick and mortar retail in the next decade.

So what’s wrong with banks? Obviously not all bankers think the Internet is a fad, but they are hamstrung by old technology. Their existing credit models only consider retail businesses, and their underwriting process is largely manual. They can’t electronically verify factors like recent inventory sold or online seller ratings at sites like eBay. And these are factors that can be just as important, if not more so, in determining the success of an online retail business. Continue reading »

by
Doba

doba
August 25, 2010

Affiliate Marketing 101 for Online Retailers

by
Doba
Categories: Affiliate Marketing, Doba Partners, Online Marketing
0 Comments »

Editor’s Note: There’s absolutely nothing we like to do more on this blog than share valuable marketing tips and advice to help you – the small and independent online retailer – maximize your business. Today we present a guested blog post by Wade Sisson, Director of Marketing at Schaaf-PartnerCentric, one of the largest outsourced affiliate program management (OPM) agencies in the industry. Here, Wade writes about the power of affiliate marketing and how it can help your online retail business live long and prosper.

How Affiliate Marketing Can Help Grow Your Business
By Wade Sisson, Schaaf-PartnerCentric

Affiliate networks can be powerful business tools.

Think of affiliate marketing as a two-way street. On the one side, it enables retailers (advertisers or merchants as they’re called in the affiliate marketing industry) to recruit an online sales force to promote and sell products or services. On the other side, it enables website owners (affiliates or publishers, as they’re called in the affiliate marketing industry) to promote the advertisers’ products and earn commissions for all sales or leads they refer to the advertiser’s site. That relationship between the advertiser and affiliate is the basis for affiliate marketing.

To put it simply, an advertiser creates an affiliate program, providing text links and banners to be used to promote products and/or services. An affiliate uses these creative elements to promote the products and services, and for each sale referred to the merchant, the affiliate earns a pre-determined bounty or commission.

How affiliate marketing helps you as an online retailer

The numbers are in – and so is the proof — that retailers who have an affiliate program perform better than competitors who don’t. Continue reading »

by
Doba

doba
August 24, 2010

Doba Deals for the Week of August 23, 2010: The Football Edition

by
Jason Cook
Categories: Doba Deals
0 Comments »

University of Michigan Canopy

Recently, we’ve blogged a lot about the importance of seasonal merchandising and how if you’re not updating your product line to stay on top of seasonal selling trends throughout the year, you’re not doing yourself or your business any favors.

With that simple thought in mind, America’s new favorite pastime – football (we’re talking both the college and pro varieties here) – is about to ‘kickoff’ (sorry, pun intended… I couldn’t help myself). That’s right, the 2010 football season is rapidly approaching, and before you know it, football fans everywhere will be eagerly looking for items to display their allegiances and enhance the game-day experience. Take advantage of this merchandising opportunity now. Offer your customers a variety of pro and college football items starting today. If you’re not sure what to provide, here’s a small selection to get you started (note: if you don’t see a particular team’s items listed below, check the Doba catalog, where you’re bound to find what you believe your customers are looking for):

As you may have noticed by the “Login to See Price” notices above, Doba Deals are a benefit of Doba membership. For more information about setting up a Doba account, visit Continue reading »

by
Jason Cook

Marketing Technology Specialist
August 23, 2010

Publishing a Catalog Could Lift Online Sales

by
Doba
Categories: Offline Marketing, Online Retail
5  Comments »

Graph from Charles Nicholls, www.SeeWhy.com

Editor’s Note: Here at Doba, we’ve consistently advised new and emerging online retailers and entrepreneurs to actively differentiate themselves from their competitors. From choosing a niche and writing detailed and compelling product descriptions, to providing world-class customer service and designing and maintaining a great website, if you want to make it as an online retailer, you have to stand out.

In today’s blog post, Charles Nicholls, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at real-time shopping cart recovery service SeeWhy (www.SeeWhy.com), points out that recent research shows that online retailers who mail hard-copy catalogs have significantly higher sales. Now before you go and click the button to close this browser window on account of the notion that you couldn’t possibly afford to compile, print and mail a catalog, read what Nicholls has to say (below) and then consider for a moment if mailing a small double-sided postcard or a hard-copy flyer could help increase your online sales.

How Old-School Catalogs Help Drive Up Online Sales
By Charles Nicholls, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer – SeeWhy

I recently received an email from Internet Retailer promoting a piece of research which suggests that online shoppers that received a catalog in the mail spent on average 163 percent more than those that didn’t.

One hundred sixty-three percent? That’s a big difference.

This prompted me to go back to the research SeeWhy did into the Lessons Learned from the Top 10 Converting Websites, which revealed that 9 out of 10 of the top converting websites in the U.S. also have catalogs. These companies have visitor–to-sale conversion rates averaging 23 percent, compared with an industry average of 2-3 percent. However, this cannot be attributed solely to having a catalog.

Most online marketers strive to maximize their website conversion rates. When setting out on this path, the usual starting point for conversion rate optimization is data. Now, I’m a data-driven guy who lives in the analytics world, but it’s important to remember that Continue reading »

by
Doba

doba