Getting New Buyers to Webidz.

[librarian42]

Hello Webidz,
I have been talking to many people I know about Webidz (especialy buyers - those that I know are into buying things online and often those that have bought items before on "other online sales site"

I have experienced a bit of resistance from buyers to "experiment". There seems to be a relucance to try another place. They give reasons such as time, security of having another place have their credit card information and is it as secure in protecting buyers as the "other online sales site".

On the other hand, a number have checked the site out - so far all that I have received back are questions from people directly. I have tryed to answer what I can - and will send people with any serious questions to Lara and Admin.

The two questions that I have so far gotten - it hasn't been that long - are:
1). Why doesn't the search engine work? I have seen this problem myself. I try to search something and get a LOT of items that don't seem to relate. I don't know the methodology of the seach engine, but I put in the actual title line of one of my listings and got it and many dozen other items that didn't even seem to have the words in the search field or where related items.

2). One person came and looked yesterday - 2/13/08 - at the exact time that it appears you doing some mainanance and was wondering why there where -2 books listed. I know it was glitch, but just wanted to let you know.

I'm curious about what other sellers have experienced on talking to other people about Webidz, especially buyers.
Thanks and Keep up the Good Work, Drake.

[admin]

Hello Webidz,
I have been talking to many people I know about Webidz (especialy buyers - those that I know are into buying things online and often those that have bought items before on "other online sales site"

I have experienced a bit of resistance from buyers to "experiment". There seems to be a relucance to try another place. They give reasons such as time, security of having another place have their credit card information and is it as secure in protecting buyers as the "other online sales site".

On the other hand, a number have checked the site out - so far all that I have received back are questions from people directly. I have tryed to answer what I can - and will send people with any serious questions to Lara and Admin.

The two questions that I have so far gotten - it hasn't been that long - are:
1). Why doesn't the search engine work? I have seen this problem myself. I try to search something and get a LOT of items that don't seem to relate. I don't know the methodology of the seach engine, but I put in the actual title line of one of my listings and got it and many dozen other items that didn't even seem to have the words in the search field or where related items.

2). One person came and looked yesterday - 2/13/08 - at the exact time that it appears you doing some mainanance and was wondering why there where -2 books listed. I know it was glitch, but just wanted to let you know.

I'm curious about what other sellers have experienced on talking to other people about Webidz, especially buyers.
Thanks and Keep up the Good Work, Drake.

Drake,

1) Our current search uses Boolean search, which is somewhat limited. The easiest and most effective search method is to use the basic search (from the toolbar), and enter single descriptive terms.

Searches will return results with any of the words entered... So a search for "pioneer sterio" would return results for both "pioneer" and "sterio". So if you are looking for brand specific, you should just search "pioneer". If brand is not a big deal, then you should search "sterio". Basic search (from the toolbar), will return results from the title only. Advanced search will return results from the title and description. So if auction descriptions have many words, the chances for innacurate results are higher. That is why we recommend basic searches.

2) We refresh our counters about once a week. So it was probably during this refresh that the category count did not display the correctly. When we do this, it only takes 1-2 minutes, so most do not see this. But all the auctions would still be showing... Just the count would be off.