The new policies, most of which will go into effect in July, are aimed at improving the buying experience, rewarding top sellers, and keeping users from leaving the site. Let’s take a gander at the key policy updates:

• Sellers will no longer be permitted to link to any non-Ebay websites selling goods or services. Linking to Ebay owned companies like StubHub or PayPal, however, is still a-ok.

• Rather than creating multiple listings for similar items (think 10 pairs of jeans in 10 different sizes), sellers will be able to include size and color options in one listing.

• The 15-listing limit on identical product listings will be lifted.

• Discounts for Power Sellers.

• A new primo Power Seller level, Diamond Seller, will be initiated for sellers with over 50,000 items sold per month or $500,000 in sales per month.

• Sellers will be required to include more detailed info in their listings, including their processing and handling time, return policy, and item condition.

While surely well intentioned, the changes aren’t going over too well with a large contingent of users. During a town-hall type meeting, sellers got the chance to step up to the mic and voice their – strong – opinions. Check out some of the emotional “feedback”:

Like it or not Ebay is making changes this summer and dedicated users are going to have to go along for the ride. Time will tell if the updated policies prove beneficial or if they backfire and drive folks away – it’s very curious to what changes sellers are going to have to make to their business model in this latest Ebay era.

(Las Vegas, NV) <05/20/2008> – As the warmer weather approaches, the glow of the spring and summer season can be seen in flowers in bloom, our wardrobe and even our makeup hues. The dark, heavy colors of winter can be removed from makeup bags, leaving room for a more natural palette.



Michele Kish, inventor of Go-Natural® – The All-In-One Cosmetic®, offers tips on maintaining the low maintenance makeup trend this season. “Each year during the warmer-weather season, one makeup trend remains as a rule-of-thumb: low maintenance makeup. No one wants to deal with the mess of applying lots of makeup and trying to master the skills of a professional makeup artist,” said Kish. “The key is to choose a product so simple and basic, it doesn’t look like makeup at all.”

Kish offers the following advice when attempting the natural look this season:

• Find a product that stays on all day long without the need for touchups
• Makeup should soften and blend away any imperfections and/or scars
• Diminish the appearance of under-eye circles, fine lines
• Neutralizes redness and blotchy areas
• Go for a light, fresh, no-makeup feel, never dry or flakey

In an effort to offer women a natural look without filling up their cosmetic bags and overwhelming them with instructions on how to apply them, Kish invented Go-Natural® – The All-In-One Cosmetic®. The product is a unique blend of true colors, translucence and selected undertones that are inspired by nature and based on the theory of the color wheel. According to Kish, it was designed to blend with individual skin tones to produce true, natural results while blending away imperfections. Go-Natural® picks up on the bone structure to emphasize the cheekbone and open up the eye.

“This compact goes beyond just a makeup offering that complements the natural-look trend; it’s an all-in-one, which takes the fuss and stress out of applying makeup each day,” Kish said. “You can be a trendsetter with one single compact!”

For more information on Go-Natural®, please contact Michele Kish at (702) 449-2097, or visit www.go-natural.net.

This cash-back-for-clicks shot across Google’s bow would benefit retail and consumer search engine users far more than the pay-per-click search advertising that helps buyers and sellers find each other in the B2B wholesale merchandise industry. (For one, savvy wholesalers do their search marketing through industry-specific vertical search engines. And for two, the cash-for-clicking program was designed for retail-level e-commerce through a general consumer search engine.) 

Still, Microsoft is tossing an interesting business grenade into the competitive battleground of search marketing, because what Bill Gates announced is a PPA (pay-per-action) business model for Microsoft Live Search. Pay-per-action – or pay-per-purchase as it’s also called – is a method of charging the advertiser only for searcher clicks that result in a certain action, like a merchandise sale.

This PPA plan from Microsoft Live Search works a little differently. It rewards a consumer searcher who (1) is loyal to the MS Live Search engine; (2) clicks on Live Search’s pay-per-click ads; and (3) buys something online from that click-through. That pay-per-action searcher gets a bonus or cash rebate back, a kind of “Thanks for clicking with us” incentive. 

Neither pay-per-purchase advertising, nor this new plan to pay cash to the click-through purchaser, has ever been a feature of The Big Three GYM (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). It does not bounce back cash for any purchase through the search engine; participating merchants have to be lined up. And the search engine has to be willing to share search ad revenues with those merchants’ customers.

Then there is the question: What happens if it works? Even if the cash-back incentive drives thousands of new search users to MS Live Search, would Google — which takes 50% or more of the search marketing revenue pie in domestic and international operations – would Google notice? Reduce its pay-per-click search advertising rates? Offer pay-per-action advertising, too?

Alternative Outcome: It might be more like giant Goliath (Google) stubbing a tiny search ad revenue toe … and our hearing the small, third-ranked David (Microsoft) howl from either revenue loss, or not keeping enough click-and-buyers coming back for more to keep the program going.

We’ll keep tracking this pay-per-purchase experiment by one of The Big Three consumer search engines. Maybe it’s the Next Big Thing in search engine marketing.

Boho-Biker Style 1 keeps the Tough Rebel Biker Look, with black, dark brown and grey leather apparel colors; plus the usual metal studded or grommeted boots, belts and bracelets. But for this Fall/Winter season, look for Boho-Biker Style detailing — leather jackets that are cropped to the waist, fitted into body-hugger shape, and ornamented, with more detail zippers but fewer buckles, more asymmetric jacket fronts and grommet design detailing.

Boho-Biker Style 2: Leather pants for men and women are classic black but modern skintight. And they are likely to be tempered this Fall by pairing the tough leather look with romantic blouse-ons, flowing mini-dresses, gauzy cardigans and hippie tops. Gucci’s Gypsy-Rocker Fall Collection 2008 matches flowing short dresses with hardware-studded belts; it ornaments knee-high leather boots with long, swinging fringe.

Boho-Biker Style 3: Moody and dark iconic biker wear – like dark colored fitted jackets, tight straight pants and lace-up tall boots – are lightened up in Fall collections with accessories such as fingerless gloves in candy colors, and peep-toe pump shoes lined with tiny and “delicate” studs. The leather boots may be typically and heavily metal studded; but they are also likely to be soft, supple leather and fold over at the ankle. Another example of the hard/soft mix of Boho-Biker Style in women’s apparel is to cover industrial zippers and buckles with more feminine link belts and jewelry.

Boho-Biker Style even invades hard-core Hog Lovers accessories. Moschino lent its heart trademark to a co-design project with an Italian helmet manufacturer, softening headgear safety fashion for riders of both motor scooters and Ducati Motor Bikes. And a designer from West Coast Choppers has come up with a leather men’s accessory that straps onto the back of the bike to hold grooming supplies and personals. (Not exactly the accessory of choice in olden outlaw biker days, huh?)

Hold the Bike. America’s classic moto-manufacturer, Harley-Davidson, has seen a slip in domestic sales of almost 13 percent in 1Q 2008, and it is going back to basics: Nostalgic cycle designs from post-World War II. Called Dark Custom and Night Rod Special, the new-old bike models feature zero chrome and are painted matte black, in order to appeal to younger Harley riders. (Median hog-rider age had crept up to 46)

Of course, we all know that when it comes to moto-chic leatherwear and biker apparel, owning a bike is way beside the point, anyway. It’s the cool styling this Fall that counts.

Reported in the Wall Street Journal the average American home is approaching 2300 square feet in size. You would need 104 of those homes to fill the new colossal warehouse Via Trading has just moved into this past weekend… 240,000 Square feet of wholesale liquidation merchandise!

Started back in 2002, Via Trading has become an industry leader wholesaling name brand liquidation merchandise. Growth of this magnitude is not by chance, in fact after interviewing Alain Stambouli, CEO of Via Trading this last week I know exactly why this company has prospered….

Would you say Via Trading is different than other wholesale liquidators?

Via Trading has always conducted business with a long term view and vision in mind. We aim to offer a professional level of service in the salvage and liquidation industry – where for the most part it is lacking. We also do not oversell goods or try to ‘embellish’ offers. Browsing our website you will see descriptions are realistic and aim to realistically set customers expectations.

What do you attribute your success to in such a short time [6 years]?
Maintaining a long term approach when dealing with vendors and customers. Making a real and sincere effort to understand our customers’ needs and offer them appropriate goods. We “Step Up” when things go wrong to resolve issues in a quick, simple and hassle-free manner.

In addition we have taken a very aggressive marketing stance. We advertise heavily on line in all major search engines and in vertical search engines such as TopTenWholesale. For the last 3 years we have exhibited in 4 Vegas shows a year – both the Off-Price and the ASD shows. We also advertise and have a presence in all major wholesale magazines. We have also done several bursts of radio advertising and this August we are launching a TV ad campaign in some Los Angeles districts and surrounding area.

Via Trading receives a lot of repeat business…how can you explain this?

Our dedicated sales team is rewarded based upon criteria like customer retention & customer re-activation. This quarter for example in addition to regular objectives and bonuses – the account managers who have the most repeat business from last quarter will receive a new PS3 in addition to regular monetary incentives. Furthermore – account customer survey results are monitored and Account Managers are rewarded or penalized based on customer service feedback. After each sale to a new customer – we send out a personalized, signed letter thanking the customer for the order as well as a “money off” voucher for the next purchase.

We have all made mistakes in business..What about Via Trading?

In the beginning- when we first opened up – and not really knowing much about the liquidation industry - I believe the biggest mistake we made was treating our customers like we were being treated by our vendors. This obviously lasted about two months until we re-evaluated our whole approach and began implementing a new way of doing business.

A big “Thank You” to Via Trading and Alain Stambouli for sharing a few inside secrets from one of the fastest growing privately operated companies in Los Angeles- Reported in the Los Angeles Business Journal.

The only question left to ask is, “How long will it take for Via Trading to outgrow 240,000 square feet?”

The industry is happily welcoming the new partnership. JP Communications is a leading producer of wholesale industry web sites and the ASAP Show is the longest running sourcing show in North America, where US wholesalers go to meet global ready-made garment manufacturers. This alliance will help manufacturers from abroad showcase their products and services to US companies, while giving US wholesalers and resellers many more sourcing options.

JP Communications, Inc. presently handles online advertising for over 2,000 wholesalers with the majority being US-based wholesalers. The new partnership with ASAP will make it simpler for wholesalers to find superior, dependable, cost-efficient suppliers. In addition to its thousands of clients, JP Comm. boasts over 30,000 daily visits from wholesale buyers to its properties every day who are looking for products to resell. By giving wholesalers better sourcing power, they will be able to offer the resellers great savings and price cuts previously hard to find.

ASAP Show, Inc. is a trade-show organizer and B2B international trading company focused in the apparel industry. Their shows feature hundreds of manufacturers from all over the world. Traditionally, buyers had to rely on agents or travel overseas to locate factories to produce their goods. The ASAP Show’s main goal is to ease this burden and bring the manufacturers under one roof. The new partnership with JP Communications, Inc. will help the show and its exhibitors reach more exposure to the US Markets and allow the manufacturers to connect with wholesale and retail buyers 24/7.

JP Communications, Inc. and the ASAP Show, Inc. will offer an incredible amount of information and services to the industry that were previously unavailable to buyers. The agreement includes numerous cross-promotional efforts that will provide a premium web platform for the overseas manufacturers trying to break into the US markets.

Customers who choose CTS Wholesale Sunglasses as their wholesale supplier are buying direct from the manufacturer so they are ensured that they’re getting the lowest prices available to boost their profit margins. And with their designer inspired sunglasses, finding popular styles will never be easier. Aside from their hot selling replica sunglasses, CTS Wholesale Sunglasses carries a huge selection of shutter shades, fashionable reading glasses and styles for kids.

Take advantage of their monthly specials and package deals starting as low as $60 for 36 pairs.

TopTenWholesale.com is bolstering its search features to compensate for human errors made while searching and to lower the search failure rate from wholesale buyers searching for suppliers.

An example of how S.A.S.E.© works: If a buyer visits TopTenWholesale.com and performs a search for the keyword “hanbags”, a common misspelling for “handbags,” the terms are connected manually, as to provide the most relevant results, and to bring wholesalers the most targeted and highest qualified traffic. The new feature will decrease search failure rates due to typos, commonly misspelled words, and synonynmous keywords.

The staff at TopTenWholesale.com has been collecting the data on the most popular misspelled words and failed searches for the last 3 years throughout the entire network. Often, buyers accidentally hit the space bar where they meant to type “c”. Or they may search for a product using its abbreviation. Throughout the years, there have been millions of misspelled searches and failed searches where no wholesalers are showing up. S.A.S.E.© is 100% human generated and employees at TopTenWholesale.com continuously monitor the searches across the network to connect misspellings, irregular searches, and typos with the proper synonyms in an attempt to increase targeted response for both wholesalers and buyers with no effort on their part.

JP Communications, Inc. claims to be the information superhighway of the wholesale general merchandise industry and says S.A.S.E.© will help support the company’s main goal of connecting buyers of general merchandise wholesale products to manufacturers, importers, distributors, auctioneers, independent retailers, flea marketers, drop shippers and any reseller of new and closeout merchandise.