The Official OfferMe Blog » Uncategorized

Thanks Mum

offerme — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:07:09 +0000

Mother’s Day is a time to really thank mum for everything she has done. From cutting the crusts off our sandwiches to making our favourite dinner when we aren’t our usual selves, Mums play a special role in most people’s lives. This Mother’s Day, let mum know how much you appreciate her.

Chrysanthemum’s are the obvious choice for Mother’s Day but why not think outside the box this year. If you have children so your mum is also a grandmother you can’t go past some home made gifts. Paddle pop jewelry boxes and glittery cards are timeless keepsakes.

If your mum lives overseas or interstate make sure you send your Mother’s Day card well before. If you’re sending a parcel send it even earlier to make sure it arrives on time. Remember:it’s ok if a card arrives early, not so good if it’s late. Threw in a bit of card etiquette my mum taught me there.

Most importantly, don’t forget to see mum or get in touch with her this Mother’s Day.

If you yourself are mum, we would like to wish you a wonderful and happy Mother’s Day from the team at OfferMe.

Author: Katie Preston Toepfer

Posted in Uncategorized

Easter is upon us

offerme — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:22:07 +0000

It was during a trip to my local grocery store a few weeks back when I noticed a large display of colourfully wrapped goodies. It was then that I realised, Easter was upon us. Gradually over the next few weeks this display will keep growing in size, filled with chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies. Ever so subtly, these delights will work their way into our trolleys and eventually…onto the thighs.

One Easter phenomenon I want to mention is the creation of the Easter Bilby. The Australian distant relative of the Easter bunny. I think we should support our native species and I applaud the chocolate manufacturer who started creating the Easter Bilby chocolate range. Not only are they delicious but they also support the ‘Save the Bilby fund’ which has been helping the survival of the Bilby since 1999.

We have our own version of Santa clad in shorts, thongs and a wife beater, why not have our own version of the Easter bunny too?

We all know Easter is not just about over-eating and Easter egg hunts. It’s a time to be spent with family and friends. Whether it be a trip with the family up the coast over the long weekend, or a quiet seafood BBQ feast in the backyard. From the whole team at OfferMe we would like to wish you all a very safe and happy Easter…We’ll deal with the over-indulgence at a later date.

All the best

Author: Katie Preston Toepfer

Posted in Uncategorized

Why should we sell anonymously online?

offerme — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:52:26 +0000

I am a regular visitor of smartcompany.com.au, I saw an article called “Why online retailing is a dead-end: Gerry Harvey” the other day, quite a starement from Gerry, isn’t it? A lot people has reacted strongly against what Gerry has claimed, feedbacks flew in expressing that maybe Gerry is too old to understand what online is all about.

Think about it again, maybe Gerry do have the resource to make such a statement. Australia has a relatively small market, distribution channels sometimes do have a lot of power over the suppliers, especially over the major brands. With Harvey Norman in its current size, it can easily put pressure over suppliers, not allowing them to sell cheap to other small operators, especially the ones that are selling online. With such power, it’s understandable that Gerry can make such a statement. But for small operators, who are selling or are going to sell online. What can we do to avoid the channel pressure then? One way I thought of is finding a place online where we can sell anonymously.

This is one of the reasons why on OfferMe, until the deal is done, seller’s ID is hidden to they buyers, the offer does not show to people who is not interested in buying. So if sellers do have something in stock that need to cleared, they can sell any price they want on OfferMe, they don’t have to worry about damaging their hard building brand value or the price tag they have put up in their stores, which is a majar problem a retailer will face when selling the same product online at the same time.

James

Posted in Uncategorized

OfferMe can offer you great savings this Christmas

offerme — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:28:19 +0000

Some of you will look at the title of this blog and say, What? Christmas already? Others will be way ahead and have revised their Christmas card list from last year. Wherever you’re at with your Christmas preparations, www.offerme.com.au can offer you some great benefits. Not only helping to ease the stress of shopping centres, but also to help you retain some cash, helping to prevent the dangerous maxing out of high interest credit cards.

Firstly lets take a closer look at the way OfferMe works. If you are looking for a specific product and cannot find it in the search, OfferMe enables you to list it on the website and helps sellers find you, offering you the product you want and also at the price you are wanting to pay. So you can rest easy while OfferMe collect offers from sellers and sends them directly to you. No calling around, no driving from center to center in 30 degree heat. List what you want, and let the sellers come to you.

Feel like you spend half of your Christmas shopping time in the post office? What is so handy about OfferMe is that all sellers offers include postage. So just say you want to send an item overseas as a gift. You can simply pay for it and give the seller the mailing address. No more post office ques and unsuspecting postage and handling fees. It couldn’t be easier.

For those of us who are wary of buying online, OfferMe verifies all Australian sellers ABN numbers and credit card details when they register as a seller. This is to ensure optimum buyer safety when making a purchase. We want to make sure that every transaction you have on OfferMe is a pleasant experience.

There is no shame in saying that you perhaps are a little out of touch with the latest in ipods or mobile phones. If you want to surprise your 16 year old daughter with the latest and most popular ipod this year you can use OfferMe as a research tool. Here you can view all of the products that have been most popular over a period of time or the items which most buyers are requesting. We have done all of the research for you.

This year we hope to help you enjoy the festive season just that little bit more. By taking a lot of the hassle out of the seasonal ritual that is Christmas shopping.

Author: Katie Preston

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: bargains, cheap, discount, ebay alternative, online shopping

What can YouTube do for your business?

offerme — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:52:00 +0000

People are becoming increasingly more aware of the effect of social media sites on their business. We have realised that not only are they an important presence to have on the Internet, they provide an effective way to reach our target audience for a minimal cost.

According to the Morgan Stanley Internet Trends, March 1st 2008, 51% of all YouTube users visit the sight weekly and 50% of users watch videos until the end. 52% of YouTubers between the ages of 18-34 years old share videos with friends and colleagues ‘often.’5So we have a dedicated large portion of the population visiting a site that is free to upload videos to and anyone can have access to them. Individuals and business’s have become ‘Internet stars’ overnight and attribute their business success to YouTube.

How can your business benefit?
There are several ways to use YouTube to your advantage. At OfferMe, we have built a YouTube page for our business. It’s a place where we can create videos on areas of our business using it as a marketing tool, help area or user information centre. Customers who have a YouTube account can subscribe to our channel on YouTube and add us as a friend. YouTube allows business’s to create a community in a similar way to a Facebook or Myspace page. You are able to send messages to friends and subscribers of your page, letting them know of competitions, new videos, events or other user information.
Furthermore, YouTube offers its users a tool that allows you to see the statistics of the viewers of your videos. YouTube Insight allows you to see the number of views your videos receive per day, how popular your videos are compared to other videos in a given period of time and where your viewers are in the world. Using graphs the information is presented in an user-friendly, easy to read format.
Business’s can also use it to get people interacting with their business. Here at www.OfferMe.com.au we have just launched a YouTube video competition. People can enter the competition by creating a video and uploading it to YouTube. The content can be anything they like as long as they have the URL www.offerme.com.au showing on the screen at all times. The video with the most views by the closing date wins $10,000. We want our customers to interact with us, have the chance to be creative and have fun when they visit our website.

Many companies have made videos instructing people on how to use their products. A Canadian small business created a video to promote their blender.To show just how powerful the blender was they put an ipod in it. This creative idea gave the business a new found success.

The key to using YouTube as a marketing tool is to be creative. Get out that camcorder and start rolling! These days, anyone can be a director. We have only just launched our YouTube competition and have already seen users becomes friends of OfferMe, viewing our videos to see what we are about. Embracing all kinds of social media sites and creating a presence is vital in staying in tune with our customers.
Check out OfferMe’s YouTube video competition at www.offerme.com.au/competitions. Or visit our YouTube channel at http://au.youtube.com/user/offerme12.

Author: Katie Preston

Multi-channel’s and increase in online activity incorporated into the buying experience

offerme — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:56:00 +0000

With rising petrol prices, it’s no wonder more and more people are turning to the Internet to do their shopping. According to an American cross-channel retailing expert, by 2012, almost half of all retail purchases will in one way or another involve the Internet. Whether that be to initially compare prices before going to a store, or simply making the whole decision and transaction online.

But it’s not only greener attitudes that are pushing Internet sales onward and upward. People are beginning to trust the methods of payment online as shopping over the Internet is becoming more and more common place.Third party payment systems such as PayPal,which are engineered to assist with making payments over the Internet along with retailer guarantee’s of delivery, ensure that consumers feel comfortable with purchasing over the web. Businesses are also now giving people return options for their purchased goods with no return fee for delivery.

The Hitwise Industry Snapshot Report for Shopping and Classifieds details in terms of visits, the top ten websites for Shopping and classifieds for the month of February,2008. At number one we have eBay, holding 29.57% share of the market.

Far be it for me to harp on and on about SEO but The Hitwise Report revealed that,’42.39% of all visits to the online ‘Shopping and Classifieds’ industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of February, 2008. 48.10% went to the top 20 websites and 63.24% went to the top 100 websites.

The report, Multi-channel Retailing, ACRS Secondary Research Report, August 2007 released by the Australian Centre for Retail Studies revealed that 86% of all store catalogues included a URL and 80% of retailers are using email to promote their business and advertise promotions. As noted earlier, many retailers now offer easy return offers for online purchases. 87% of retailers accept returns in-store for online purchases.

The ACRS Secondary Research Report references Shop.org which states that 34% of consumers use a minimum of three channels when making a purchase. These consumers who use multiple channels spend up to ten times more than those consumers that use a single-channel when shopping.

Of course, the presence of a ‘real’ store can not always prevail over online, and nor should it. Some things are better experienced in the flesh. However some items such as electronics are a great seller online. People know what they want and they know they can get it at a reasonable price too.

An online presence is vital to maintaining consumers, even if you are not selling online. Multiple channels are now an important way to inform, retain and excite your customers with the retail experience you provide. Of course, no-one can ignore the decrease in labour costs when selling online either. Especially when it’s through a third party website.

www.OfferMe.com.au has engaged it’s growing number of supporters through facebook, blogs and its pre-launch site. By acknowledging the significance of online presence, not just through your own website, doors open and awareness becomes viral. Something the Internet can do for your business at minimal cost.

The Internet has become a great tool for retail businesses. If used in the right capacity, it can generate more business than using traditional modes of marketing and advertising.

Author: Katie Preston

Consumer trends making it hard for businesses to keep up

offerme — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:08:00 +0000

There was a time when being in big business meant having access to technology to keep ahead of your consumers with the power to ‘wow’ them with technological advancements. These days, consumers have access to cutting edge technology and the gap between consumer and business technology is narrowing.

With Facebook and YouTube page views increasing by as much as 40% over the past two years, its no wonder we are seeing an increase in businesses having a strong social networking presence. The USC Annenburg School’s Digital future report ,2007 revealed that 80% of people saw the Internet as the most valuable and trusted source of information, over all other types of media such as television, newspapers and radio.

The report going on to prove that the king of social networking sites is Facebook. With 250 K new registrations daily and more than 50% of their users returning every day, it has become a must-have for businesses.

Facebooks success would have to be at least partly due to its early acknowledgement that the user could change and add applications to the social networking site that would only increase user activity and give individuals the power to customise their profiles. By giving the user the power, they opened up social networking sites to a whole new world of personalised features with an incredible potential for successful and targeted advertising.

When comparing Facebook and MySpace, we can see why consumers prefer using Facebook. Firstly, there are less intrusive ads on the web page. The ‘friends’ section of the page is prominent and stands out. It also offers a strong sense of security for users. People can share their lives with their peers and don’t have to worry about spammers.

Widgets are fun mini applications that can be added to your web page, social profile or blog. These widgets can link your page to other favourite sites.Another goldmine for businesses on social networking sites. For example, lets look at BBC News. They have their own Facebook and also clips within YouTube. By not relying solely on their website and having a direct link to their social networking sites on their web page, they increase the amount of people who view their news features. Their presence is strengthened by having a social networking presence.

When we look at who is purchasing what online, it is no surprise that websites like Amazon.com have come up with a way to show browsers what items people bought after they purchased specific products and where they went to on the site after they purchased. There are also customer reviews and discussions so people can ask what others think of certain products. As we all know, no form of advertising beats customer referral!

Facebook is a business’s heavily artillery if you know how to use it. One of Facebook’s features is a mini-feed. It gives you a list of the current Facebook activity by those who are your friends on Facebook. So if someone became a fan of your site, anyone who is friends with the person who became a fan will be notified. When they log in it will read, ‘John became a fan of OfferMe.’ If a friend has reviewed a restaurant, it would state, ‘Alex has reviewed yummy restaurant and has given it 4 stars.’

Every day more and more businesses log on to Facebook and take a vital business step and set up an account. Nutella is a prime example of how you can use your Facebook page to make your customers interact with your brand. www.OfferMe.com.au now have a Facebook page and we encourage people to come join us and be apart of our network. It is constantly being updated with news feeds and images so check it out! We also welcome you to post your own comments and images on our site.

Social networking sites for business is not just a trendy fad. The type of interaction between users on Facebook is priceless. It’s true what they say, money can’t buy everything.

Author: Katie Preston

With a revolt brewing, why is eBay still laughing?

offerme — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Since eBay increased its fees and banned payments other than PayPal, most eBay sellers are furious about the decision. If you go to the eBay power seller’s forum, http://www.powersellersunite.com, you can feel the heat and clearly see there is a revolt brewing against eBay. Some sellers are even asking sellers to boycott eBay on May 1st to deliver a strong message. You rarely ever see a revolt of this scale, against a business by it’s own members!

On Wednesday, 16th of April, on the morning 2GB’s special eBay topic talk-back show, almost 100% of the callers condemned the changes. An eBay spokesperson was also on hand to defend their policy. When faced with a sea of furious callers, this extremely well spoken guy (probably good looking as well) cited improved security as one of the main reasons for its decision. Compared to the stressed out and angry callers, he was so calm, confident and delighted, behind his well organised words, you could feel his true attitude: “just shut up or piss off if you are not happy!” You could sense he just thought all of those stressed out angry sellers’ were a joke.

As an eBay Powerseller, I truly understand the feeling of sellers, it’s just an extra cost for us to bear and extra income for eBay to enjoy. A friend of mine recently spent a lot of money not too long ago implementing an online payment system for his eBay buyers. Now with the change to the PayPal only system, all his money’s been wasted and for the sake of his business, he needs to employ an extra 4 people to handle the payments section before any alternative system can be set up. With extra labor costs and extra payment settlement costs, eBay sellers are getting squeezed too hard. Although sellers are extremely reluctant to increase their prices when they realise it’s an inevitable cost for everyone, they will be forced to by either increasing the Buy It Now price or raise delivery charges to offset PayPal fees. Although buyers are making less noise at the moment, in the end it will be ALL eBay users who with suffer.

I now have to ask this question, how can eBay think they can simply defy the odds by pressing even harder, even with this kind of resistance and not worry about losing customers? How can they possess this kind of super power other business don’t have? Honestly, I have to say they deserve it. After years of superb work and marketing, they built the best auction site on earth. In terms of online auctions, they are the Mt. Everest. Almost nobody can compare.Those who have tried to overtake them have often fallen to the wayside. Other sites are happy to sit by, and watch eBay users be squeezed, get angry and suffer, because they know that some eBay users are glutton for punishment and will come back to trade on eBay despite how they are treated. EBay knows they hold all the cards! Without eBay, where can sellers go? Some eBayers have tried to organise boycotts to deliver the angry message and stop eBay from pressing too hard.eBay knows they are big enough to weather any storm and sellers that boycott will only be hurting themselves! After using the Australian market as a Guinea pig, they will push PayPal to all global sites! Their profits will soar indefinitely. It doesn’t matter how eBay users are.

eBay users and competitors must be wondering, are they truly invincible? Like human beings trying to reach higher altitudes, after reaching the top of Mt. Everest, they just can’t go any higher unless someone thinks of something revolutionary. But by inventing the aeroplane, man can go higher than any mountain! Look at Kodak film. No other film makers can come close to Kodak, but they were replaced by a new format almost overnight. Kodak, the most well known film company nearly drowned in its own developer due to the invention of the digital camera.When we look at this scenario in comparison to eBay, you can see that it won’t be replaced by a more user/seller friendly auction website, it will be replaced by an all new concept of online trading.What once worked for everyone now is starting to not work. It’s time for a new idea.

Beside extremely low fees, OfferMe has all the other advantages eBay doesn’t and a concept that makes eBay look out-of-date in this new, next generation way of selling. I just wonder if OfferMe will stop eBay laughing?

Author: Albert Yang

Frightening fees for e-commerce businesses, what can be done?

offerme — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Trading online is a great way to make a living or some extra money. However sometimes it can be so costly that you only just break even after SEO and SEM costs. People are increasingly looking at alternatives to hosting their own site online and are now registering with sites that can do it all for them.

When trading online, there is less emphasis put on the location of your business therefore rental costs are much lower. You will also require less staff with an online operation than you would with a traditional retail store.However the costs associated with running your own e-commerce site can add up unexpectedly.

After setting up and paying for a domain name, paid a developer to create the website you then have to look at online marketing strategies. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing ) can be extremely costly and not always effective. When we look at google Pay Per Click for example, people are spending from 25 cents up to more than $2.50 to have someone simply visit their website. The statistics are that only 1 in 50 of these visitors will become a registered user.This makes the average cost of acquiring a register user on your website anywhere between $12.50 and $50. We haven’t even started on the cost of traditional forms of marketing such as print advertising and other media campaigns.

In the early stages of e-commerce marketing, savvy business owners could handle the google ad-word program(PPC) by themselves just by following the guidelines provided by google. Now as more people purchase and search online, online buyer behavior and usage of search terms has become a very complicated topic. Only professionals and extreme online business proprietors can handle Google ad-word themselves. Most of the new comers to the online business will complain that their PPC program just doesn’t work. Smart business owners generally hand over their PPC programme to a SEO company because they realise that hiring a full time in house team will not be able to compete with professional SEO companies. Not only will it cost more to have a team in house, but it will most likely not be as effective as outsourcing to a SEO Company.

But the real war zone is google organic key word rankings. When it comes to hot key words and getting on google’s first page in one of the top 5 positions, many SEO techies work day and night using methods they think will work,to try and push their client’s website to one of the top 5 positions. I have to say, in some highly competitive industries, to achieve coming up on google’s first page, is nothing short of sheer brilliance. It seems these days businesses will spare no expense to come up on google’s first page top five ranking. When online business owners realise this, they know the cost of running an online business isn’t necessarily cheaper than running a traditional store.

The Internet should make doing business easier. It can if you have the right systems in place. As the price of running an e-commerce businesses increases, it’s time we realised that we need to create new models for doing business online.

What can you do to loosen the load of fees for trading online?At OfferMe.com.au we aim to make the cost of selling on the Internet minimal. Through us there is no barrier between buyers and sellers.There are no listing fees and no time wasting-searching for customers. We have a ‘no sale, no charge’ policy. So you don’t pay anything unless you make a sale. Gone are the days of eBay anxiety.

OfferMe is the first step towards eradicating high online marketing fees for businesses. An important step towards the ecommerce of the future.

Author: Albert Yang