phpAuction

Nace SocialBid, primera empresa dedicada a convertir productos en fondos para ONG a través de eBay

Hoy se presenta a los medios de comunicación SocialBid, la primera empresa española dedicada a la gestión de subastas benéficas para recaudar fondos para las ONG.

Social Bid nace con la misión de ayudar a las ONG a recabar fondos a través de la venta en eBay.es de productos donados por empresas y particulares. El objetivo de SocialBid es crear un gran mercado solidario de donativos en especie, en el que productos con poca utilidad para el donante como un ordenador usado o unos palos de golf, puedan ponerse de nuevo en el mercado y convertirse en alimentos, medicinas o infraestructuras básicas para los más desfavorecidos.

SocialBid es, además, una entidad con un fuerte compromiso social, que se materializa en tres ámbitos recogidos en sus propios estatutos: Es una empresa que apuesta por las ONG y por potenciar su labor en nuestra sociedad; y por ello, destina un mínimo del veinticinco por ciento de sus beneficios a las mismas.

Es una compañía comprometida con el desarrollo de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa, que cree que las empresas pueden y deben hacer mucho por el desarrollo de las sociedades en las que operan; ya sea desarrollando prácticas respetuosas con el medio ambiente o dando oportunidades de trabajo a colectivos más desfavorecidos.

De cara a los donantes, SocialBid obtiene para ellos certificados de deducción fiscal de hasta un cuarenta por ciento del valor conseguido por los productos, y en el caso de las empresas realiza, además, labores mediáticas que aseguran la visibilidad que merecen por sus donaciones.

Con la finalidad de maximizar el impacto y buen fin de este servicio, SocialBid mantiene estrechas colaboraciones con eBay.es, Caja Navarra, Fundación Lealtad, Fundación Chandra y Fundación Valora.

“Fuente de recursos relevante para las ONG”

Para María Calvo, Directora General de eBay.es, SocialBid es un modelo de subastas sociales que supone una fuente de recursos relevante, independiente y estable para las ONG de este país. Además, celebra que su plataforma suponga un canal estratégicamente perfecto para estos fines.

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We want to thank Pat Bockenstette, Founder & CEO of All Sports Trader to share with us and all our users their experience.

1. Why you decide to start an auction site?
I decided on an auction site one afternoon as I was standing in my garage looking at the 12 baseball bats that were in a barrel. I had paid on average approximately $225 apiece for these bats. My son had now outgrown them and I just didn’t want to give them away or sell them in a garage sale. I looked at different auction sites and even free classified sites. I knew the bats still had value, but it would be difficult for me to compete with Ebay and Craig’s list so I would need a niche and a hook. The bats are still worth a minimum of 50% of their original cost.

2. How did you define your niche market?
My goal was to combine the best and most information for sports minded people in the Southern California market. All Sports Trader includes all the things I needed and wanted for a very sports minded family. I can easily look up events, tournament information, check out the auctions, the weather, driving directions, a streaming sports live feed, post Blogs and forums and current Southern California sports news. What sets us apart is that it is designed to be market specific. For example; the auction is for Southern California and if you win an auction you can drive and inspect the item before you pay and pick it up yourself to save delivery costs. Southern California, because of its climate is the ideal place to play almost any sport year round. Because of this, some of the country’s best athletes come from the area. The site is a great place for players to look for new teams and for coaches to recruit new players.

I see the site ever expanding as it has captured my passion for tremendous future possibilities. We are currently working on duplicating the “All Sports Experience” in other major US markets. International expansion has been discussed and will be on the agenda for the next board meeting.

I must give a tremendous amount of credit for the site to Pam Barrie, the CEO of OC Sitemasters. Together we have built a world class site and will continue to build more sites in the years to come.

3. Briefly describe your marketing campaign
There was a series of Press Releases that went out over Business Wire at the end of July. This same Press Release was seen in several area newspapers. We have a tremendous amount of momentum with the local Southern California sports associations we look to partner with in the coming months.

4. Were your expectations fulfilled?
Yes  / No , why? What was missing?
Being a man of very little patience, I must admit that at first my expectations were not filled. I have very high standards and expectation in everything I get involved with. This project started out slowly and really didn’t gather continuous momentum until about the 4th month into it. Looking back, I can honestly say that it was my initial lack of experience in the auction industry that caused most of the frustration. So, I did what most successful entrepreneurs do; I asked a lot of questions from experts and read a lot about past successes in the industry. Today, I am confident in the team we have built that we can compete with the best sites out there.

5. Which are the next steps?
The next steps… that has always been clear to me:

1. Open a new US market on our scheduled dates
2. Consistent marketing efforts
3. Create a brand
4. International opportunities
5. Sell to the highest bidder

By: Anastasia Paprocki

In hopes of attaining a grasp of the hype surrounding eBay, phpAuction has researched the popular aspects of the site along with its downfalls. In combination with a survey taken by eBay users, we have developed a strategy to improve the online auction business and encourage users to create their own site.

EBay is still the number one online auction site even after the competition tried to wear it down. How has eBay sustained its popularity after all this time? EBay is not just a place for users to list items for sale. It has developed itself into a community and a place with endless options. EBay has worked hard at creating a business on a global scale while maintaining the small town feel. Buyers and sellers communicate through feedback, ask the seller, and other options to keep contact simple. On their site features like member blogs, neighborhoods, discussion boards, chat rooms, answer centers, and news updates continue to build a community for everyone involved. All of these features creates a level of trust among users and continues to expand the company. In addition to building a community, EBay has created options to help users expand their business. Users can become powersellers or develop their own store. These benefits allow for more visibility and have helped users increase their revenue.

In our survey taken by eBay users, traffic, international presence, payment options, and usability were the top listed items when asked about what they liked about eBay. EBay is easy to use, draws heavy traffic, and highlights many buying and payment options. The site has developed many special features to keep their users pleased and to create a new audience.

As with all sites, eBay is not perfect. Users with smaller inventory and not labeled as powersellers, get overshadowed by stores that draw a larger user base. The recent increases in fees have hurt everyone on eBay, especially small sellers. In our survey, eight-nine percent of eBay users said fees were high while the other eleven percent said they were average. Small users have been the ones left out in recent developments. What happened to the goal of creating a community including all users?

When eBay users were asked to state why they haven’t created their own auction site in our survey the top answers was that it was too complex, they were not sure how and where to create it, that it wouldn’t draw a lot of traffic, and that they didn’t have enough technology experience themselves to do it. Creating a personal auction site doesn’t require users to implement certain rules or restrictions in fees and payment options. If the user already has a large base of buyers, developing their own site is perfect because it eliminates the fear of creating traffic. All technological support will be provided by phpAuction so users can focus on selling their products. By creating an online auction site, users develop the site exactly how they envision it without facing the barriers implemented by eBay and other large sites.

Gianluca Baldo, phpAuction founder, died Saturday, August 9, at the age of 47.

‘Baldo’ was an extremely creative and talented person. Known in the ‘www’ as phpAuction founder he also had other facets as a frame drummer and a painter. He was born in Verona (Italy) on July 7th, 1961 and moved to Barcelona (Spain) in 1999.

We were lucky to share his passion and precious life moments.

Thanks Ana, Miguel and Samuel for a great experience and sharing your time. We were really glad to have you here. I hope you enjoy your stay as we enjoy having you for this time. We will miss you.

One year after launching its Amazon Payments offering as a web service for developers, Amazon.com has launched Checkout by Amazon and Amazon Simple Pay for merchants. The new services allow online retailers to easily offer Amazon Payments on their websites without the need for software development.

Analyst Scott Devitt of Stifel Nicolaus said the new services are expected to compete with Google Checkout and PayPal and wrote, “We do not expect Amazon’s initiatives in the payments area to have a near-term impact on PayPal’s Merchant Services business but continue to believe the service warrants monitoring by investors for profit pool risk at PayPal.”

http://payments.amazon.com