What does an ecommerce job mean to you? Is it a technical job, where someone has skills in HTML programming? Or is it just about any job working in an online business.
This week I've been asking myself just what people mean when they advertise an ecommerce job.
The question has become quite pressing now that I've added an ecommerce jobs page to my www.ecommercereport.com.au web-site.
I find that the jobs I'm listing, which are selectively culled from those listed at the big generalist Australian job sites (like Seek, Careeone, My Career etc, (and some smaller niche ones like LinkedIn) are very diverse.
There are marketing jobs, technical jobs, project management and indeed a wide variety of other management jobs.
Now thats a problem because the people looking for technical jobs, involving programming, coding, design etc, are very different from those looking for marketing jobs, and/or those looking for management jobs.
I'd like to break down my jobs pages into separate sections, so as to make it easier to find those jobs they're interested in.
And I'd like your help to let me know what would make sense.
What should the categories be?
Friday, October 16, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Expired domains - a business worth up to $1.5million?
Dark Blue Sea's chief executive, Greg Platz, has just told me that yes, the expired domains business they've bought is Domain 8.
And yes, he confirmed the purchase price is potentially worth as much as $1.5million if all the earn-out conditions are satisfied.
However he also confirmed that DBS has only bought Domain 8's expoired domains business.
It hasn't bought the entire Domain 8 company, and it hasn't therefore bought the Australian registrar license that Domain 8 holds.
Thats importrant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Domain 8 still has some very valuable assets.
Its also important because it throws the spotlight on the value being placed on Domain 8's expired domains business.
Dark Blue Sea's deal tells the world that Domain 8's expired domains business alone, could be worth as much as $1.5million if it reaches the profitability targets being forecast.
Now seeing as Domin 8's top selling expired com.au domain thus far has been printing.com.au at $8000, that a big call.
Indeed it raises as many questions as it answers.
Why pay so much, at least potentially, for what, at the moment at least, is such a small such a new business.
Of course, the payment isn't being made in cash; its being made wholly in new DBS shares.
So thats a consideration, as too is Photons latest attempted takoever.
(Any DBS share issuing will dilute Photon's current stake and make it harder for them)'.
Even so, this is a very odd deal.
For more information go to
www.darkbluesea.com
www.photongroup.com
www.domain8.com.au
And yes, he confirmed the purchase price is potentially worth as much as $1.5million if all the earn-out conditions are satisfied.
However he also confirmed that DBS has only bought Domain 8's expoired domains business.
It hasn't bought the entire Domain 8 company, and it hasn't therefore bought the Australian registrar license that Domain 8 holds.
Thats importrant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Domain 8 still has some very valuable assets.
Its also important because it throws the spotlight on the value being placed on Domain 8's expired domains business.
Dark Blue Sea's deal tells the world that Domain 8's expired domains business alone, could be worth as much as $1.5million if it reaches the profitability targets being forecast.
Now seeing as Domin 8's top selling expired com.au domain thus far has been printing.com.au at $8000, that a big call.
Indeed it raises as many questions as it answers.
Why pay so much, at least potentially, for what, at the moment at least, is such a small such a new business.
Of course, the payment isn't being made in cash; its being made wholly in new DBS shares.
So thats a consideration, as too is Photons latest attempted takoever.
(Any DBS share issuing will dilute Photon's current stake and make it harder for them)'.
Even so, this is a very odd deal.
For more information go to
www.darkbluesea.com
www.photongroup.com
www.domain8.com.au
Friday, September 04, 2009
eCommerce Awards - just a publicity stunt?
This week I've been looking at some new ecommerce awards down-under. Industry association, the Australian Interactive and Multi-Media Associations (AIMIA) AMBER awards and Smart Company's web awards.
Regrettably, some of the AIMIA awards, such as best online retailer, are unlikely to produce credible results.
A flawed process of nomination has produced a list of 20 contenders, probably half of whom should not be on the list at all. And some who definitely should be included are not.
Moreover the judging process is not transparent, and the results are going to be partly refelct and online poll, with all the usual issues associated with such polls.
(Such as multiple voting by contenders themselves and their associates)
Of course, in as much as the awards are primarily marketing gimmicks for their promoters, their lack of credibility is neither here nor there.
And the winners will doubtless get plenty of marketing value out of their awards.
But it is disappointing that the awards won't be credible and true high achievers in online retail down-under won't get due credit or recognition for their efforts.
The Smart Company web-awards, which also includes a best ecommerce site category, is also problematic, but for different reasons.
This time the self-nomination process involves a set of questions doubtless designed to provide marketing leads to the award sponsor, Webfirm (formerly known as Answearch).
Certainly it is hard to see why nominees should have to reveal their website revenues, and what bearing this has on the evaluation of which is the best e-commerce site down-under.
Of course, arguably some ecommerce awards are better than none, and so my criticisms might be said to be sour grapes from someone who could have, and perhaps should have created an ecommerce award with some credibility.
Or in other words, awards for most popular ecommerce site, most user friendly, most innovative and/or most appealing design.
Regrettably, some of the AIMIA awards, such as best online retailer, are unlikely to produce credible results.
A flawed process of nomination has produced a list of 20 contenders, probably half of whom should not be on the list at all. And some who definitely should be included are not.
Moreover the judging process is not transparent, and the results are going to be partly refelct and online poll, with all the usual issues associated with such polls.
(Such as multiple voting by contenders themselves and their associates)
Of course, in as much as the awards are primarily marketing gimmicks for their promoters, their lack of credibility is neither here nor there.
And the winners will doubtless get plenty of marketing value out of their awards.
But it is disappointing that the awards won't be credible and true high achievers in online retail down-under won't get due credit or recognition for their efforts.
The Smart Company web-awards, which also includes a best ecommerce site category, is also problematic, but for different reasons.
This time the self-nomination process involves a set of questions doubtless designed to provide marketing leads to the award sponsor, Webfirm (formerly known as Answearch).
Certainly it is hard to see why nominees should have to reveal their website revenues, and what bearing this has on the evaluation of which is the best e-commerce site down-under.
Of course, arguably some ecommerce awards are better than none, and so my criticisms might be said to be sour grapes from someone who could have, and perhaps should have created an ecommerce award with some credibility.
Or in other words, awards for most popular ecommerce site, most user friendly, most innovative and/or most appealing design.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
50+vendors at OnlineRetailer trade show
There were more than fifty companies and businesses exhibiting at the trade show for the Online -Retailer conference in Sydney earlier this month (18-19 August).
Most enjoyed strong and even enthusiastic interest from the more than 2,600 people who attended.
And indeed the whole event suggested something of an industry finding and recognizing itself for the first time.
(Certainly the industry backed the event much more whole-heartedly than the Onlineshop conference and expo your editor organised in Melbourne back in 2007.)
So its worth looking in some detail at the companies who were exhibiting at OnLine Retailer, to help identify who are the newbies and the johnny come latelies, and who are the real deal, here for the long-term and likely to be there next year.
To start with, it was impossible to go past IBM, who paid handsomely for the prime spot for its booth, immediately in front of both the doors exiting the conference halls, and directly in the line of sight for those entering the conference venue.
IBM has, at least in Australia, has never previously shown any interest in the local industry, and despite all their glitz, had no local retailers as examples in their brochures.
Definitely newbies.
Other major exhibitors who clearly spent big on their booths were eBay and PayPal - both clearly well known in the local industry and significant players.
Larry Bloch's company got my vote for the cheekiest and most innovative display and marketing materials - faux breakfast cereal boxes, and they too are definitely significant players.
Melbourne IT, had a largish booth for their Advantate joint-venture with Fairfax. But most of the punters appeared to be not that interested and this Newbie looked a little out of place.
New Zealand company, eStar Online, by contrast, had a big booth in the centre of the expo, and their people were confidently spruiking a impressive list of corporate clients who've adopted their web solutions. Obviously the real deal.
Of the two banks there, the Commonwealth, with their evolve service, were prominent, popular and well-prepared. You might question the evolve service itself, because it has a number of confusing variants - one of which bundles cart and payment gateway - but their show presence was clearly well-prepared.
In comparison, the NAB's booth was unimpressive, and the fact that it was tucked away doiwn the back made it look like a marketing afterthought.
Still, neither the ANZ or Westpac had any presence whatsoever, and their absence was conspicuous.
Other payments players, such as eWay, Transaction Network Services and even Paymate were however present in the show. Matt Bullock's eWay, as always, stood out with a big and bright booth featuring plenty of staff and lots of enthusiasm.
Verisign too, did well, with a large booth that featured an educational game inviting people to pick the difference between a phishing site and a legitimate web-site.
A number of paid search advertisers and agencies such as FirstRate, Permission, Amblique and others were also prominent in the show.
I was surprised too, by the number of logitics and freight companies exhibiting. It wasn't just Aussie Post there; DHL had a big booth, and others I hadn't come across previously such as Temando, Exalt and e-Go.
Various market researchers were there too, such as Coremetrics, Experian Hitwise and Webtrends, Panalysis.
Salmat's Lasoo and Rob Wong's Catalogue Central both had booths promoting their online catalogue and shopping services, whilst The Yellow Envelope too, was there promoting its direct marketing services.
The boys from Powerseller had also clealry spend big on the show but were still playing hard to get, saying that they can't say more ahead of the launch later this year.
There were lots of others I didn't get to visit, and some who were telling interesting, or perhaps I should say curious and unlikely stories about their products and customers.
But generally speaking the show was informative, well-prepared, and useful to those attending.
It was surprising not to see Microsoft, or Google, or Yahoo there.
But maybe next year.
Most enjoyed strong and even enthusiastic interest from the more than 2,600 people who attended.
And indeed the whole event suggested something of an industry finding and recognizing itself for the first time.
(Certainly the industry backed the event much more whole-heartedly than the Onlineshop conference and expo your editor organised in Melbourne back in 2007.)
So its worth looking in some detail at the companies who were exhibiting at OnLine Retailer, to help identify who are the newbies and the johnny come latelies, and who are the real deal, here for the long-term and likely to be there next year.
To start with, it was impossible to go past IBM, who paid handsomely for the prime spot for its booth, immediately in front of both the doors exiting the conference halls, and directly in the line of sight for those entering the conference venue.
IBM has, at least in Australia, has never previously shown any interest in the local industry, and despite all their glitz, had no local retailers as examples in their brochures.
Definitely newbies.
Other major exhibitors who clearly spent big on their booths were eBay and PayPal - both clearly well known in the local industry and significant players.
Larry Bloch's company got my vote for the cheekiest and most innovative display and marketing materials - faux breakfast cereal boxes, and they too are definitely significant players.
Melbourne IT, had a largish booth for their Advantate joint-venture with Fairfax. But most of the punters appeared to be not that interested and this Newbie looked a little out of place.
New Zealand company, eStar Online, by contrast, had a big booth in the centre of the expo, and their people were confidently spruiking a impressive list of corporate clients who've adopted their web solutions. Obviously the real deal.
Of the two banks there, the Commonwealth, with their evolve service, were prominent, popular and well-prepared. You might question the evolve service itself, because it has a number of confusing variants - one of which bundles cart and payment gateway - but their show presence was clearly well-prepared.
In comparison, the NAB's booth was unimpressive, and the fact that it was tucked away doiwn the back made it look like a marketing afterthought.
Still, neither the ANZ or Westpac had any presence whatsoever, and their absence was conspicuous.
Other payments players, such as eWay, Transaction Network Services and even Paymate were however present in the show. Matt Bullock's eWay, as always, stood out with a big and bright booth featuring plenty of staff and lots of enthusiasm.
Verisign too, did well, with a large booth that featured an educational game inviting people to pick the difference between a phishing site and a legitimate web-site.
A number of paid search advertisers and agencies such as FirstRate, Permission, Amblique and others were also prominent in the show.
I was surprised too, by the number of logitics and freight companies exhibiting. It wasn't just Aussie Post there; DHL had a big booth, and others I hadn't come across previously such as Temando, Exalt and e-Go.
Various market researchers were there too, such as Coremetrics, Experian Hitwise and Webtrends, Panalysis.
Salmat's Lasoo and Rob Wong's Catalogue Central both had booths promoting their online catalogue and shopping services, whilst The Yellow Envelope too, was there promoting its direct marketing services.
The boys from Powerseller had also clealry spend big on the show but were still playing hard to get, saying that they can't say more ahead of the launch later this year.
There were lots of others I didn't get to visit, and some who were telling interesting, or perhaps I should say curious and unlikely stories about their products and customers.
But generally speaking the show was informative, well-prepared, and useful to those attending.
It was surprising not to see Microsoft, or Google, or Yahoo there.
But maybe next year.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
AIMIA announces eCommerce Awards
Australia's Interactive and Multi-Media Association (AIMIA) has announced a new awards competition for ecommerce and online services.
The awards are to be known as the AMBERS. Entry is free and larger companies, with more than 1 million users a month, will be entered automatically.
Entries close on August 20 so make sure you get your site or service entered.
If you can't find the link at the AIMIA web-site or via a Google search you can find it at the foot of my eCommerce Report story.
The awards, which are being promoted in partnership with publishers - Online Banking Media -
are in seven categories.
They include best online banking site, best online insurance, best only travel site, best online retail, best mobile commerce service and best online application process.
AIMIA's awards for web-sites, the AMY's, are now well-established and highly regarded in the web design and hosting industries.
So this new award is hoped to do the same for ecommerce.
Thats probably unlikely, at least in the first year.
For starters, AIMIA has relatively little presence in the ecommerce sector, and it is doubtful if many online retailers or online travel businesses see it as very relevant.
The online travel sector, in particular, is already well served by a large annual conference event - No Vacancy - and associated online travel publication - Travel Trends produced by Martin Kelly.
Likewise the online retail sector is gathering next week in big numbers at the Online Retailer event in Sydney.
Of course, with onlinebanking media's solid presence in the finance sector, the online banking site and online insurance site awards will be keenly contested and worth having.
But I'm not so sure about the rest.
Likeiwse I'm not so sure about the proposed judging of the awards which is in two parts.
In the first part an online survey is going to find which sites the online surfers pick as the top 5 sites in each category.
The survey is to be conducted by a Sydney based company - Brandmanagement, or, more accurately, its wholly owned subsidiary - Coredata.
In the second stage of the award judging, the top five are going to be evaluated by another Sydney company -Access Testing - for usability.
The winners will be determined by some weighted combination of the results in the two stages.
The final 5 at the end of stage one will be announced in an onlinebankingmedia publication, and the winners will be unveiled at a dinner in Sydney on October 15th.
Of course the whole awards initaitive is a commercial venture for those involved.
There are four platinum sponsorships being offered for the awards at $9000 each, and 6 gold sponsorships at $6500 each.
If all the sponsorhips are sold that'll makes $72,000 in revenues for the awards, most, if not all of which is belived to be going to AIMIA.
Certainly Brandmanagement and Access Testing are beleived to be providing their services gratis. And as dinner tickets are priced at $199 each it is hard to believe that the awards dinners is not going to be a profit maker too.
Anyway, eCommerce Report is considering whether we should inject some of our expertise into these awards to make them more credible.
Let me know how we could be remunerated for donig so and why these awards might be worth supporting.
The awards are to be known as the AMBERS. Entry is free and larger companies, with more than 1 million users a month, will be entered automatically.
Entries close on August 20 so make sure you get your site or service entered.
If you can't find the link at the AIMIA web-site or via a Google search you can find it at the foot of my eCommerce Report story.
The awards, which are being promoted in partnership with publishers - Online Banking Media -
are in seven categories.
They include best online banking site, best online insurance, best only travel site, best online retail, best mobile commerce service and best online application process.
AIMIA's awards for web-sites, the AMY's, are now well-established and highly regarded in the web design and hosting industries.
So this new award is hoped to do the same for ecommerce.
Thats probably unlikely, at least in the first year.
For starters, AIMIA has relatively little presence in the ecommerce sector, and it is doubtful if many online retailers or online travel businesses see it as very relevant.
The online travel sector, in particular, is already well served by a large annual conference event - No Vacancy - and associated online travel publication - Travel Trends produced by Martin Kelly.
Likewise the online retail sector is gathering next week in big numbers at the Online Retailer event in Sydney.
Of course, with onlinebanking media's solid presence in the finance sector, the online banking site and online insurance site awards will be keenly contested and worth having.
But I'm not so sure about the rest.
Likeiwse I'm not so sure about the proposed judging of the awards which is in two parts.
In the first part an online survey is going to find which sites the online surfers pick as the top 5 sites in each category.
The survey is to be conducted by a Sydney based company - Brandmanagement, or, more accurately, its wholly owned subsidiary - Coredata.
In the second stage of the award judging, the top five are going to be evaluated by another Sydney company -Access Testing - for usability.
The winners will be determined by some weighted combination of the results in the two stages.
The final 5 at the end of stage one will be announced in an onlinebankingmedia publication, and the winners will be unveiled at a dinner in Sydney on October 15th.
Of course the whole awards initaitive is a commercial venture for those involved.
There are four platinum sponsorships being offered for the awards at $9000 each, and 6 gold sponsorships at $6500 each.
If all the sponsorhips are sold that'll makes $72,000 in revenues for the awards, most, if not all of which is belived to be going to AIMIA.
Certainly Brandmanagement and Access Testing are beleived to be providing their services gratis. And as dinner tickets are priced at $199 each it is hard to believe that the awards dinners is not going to be a profit maker too.
Anyway, eCommerce Report is considering whether we should inject some of our expertise into these awards to make them more credible.
Let me know how we could be remunerated for donig so and why these awards might be worth supporting.
Monday, July 27, 2009
TABCorp to buy Tasmanian TOTE
It hasn't been announced yet. But there is no doubt that Australian gaming giant, TABCorp, is trying to buy TasTOTE, operator of the Tasmanian TAB.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission(ACCC) web site shows that it is looking at a TABCorp merger proposal. Indeed it has been since Friday the 24th July.
(Presumably TABCorp didn't submit the proposal until late Friday afternoon, so as to avoid media scrutiny at least until Monday.)
The Tasmanian government announced its plans to sell the TasTOTE earlier this year, and ever since speculation about who would buy it has been rife.
So too has speculation about the potential price.
Anywhere from $A50million to $A300million or more has been touted.
A sale is big news for both the local racing and the online gaming sectors, given that an ever increasing proportion of punting is done as ecommerce, i.e. online. We recently reported (on 11th June 2009) that at least 16% of Australian punting is being done online. (See our story at www.ecommercereport.com.au/story126.php )
Indeed the Tas Tote has recently been said to have built a healthy business amongst Asia based online punters.
The TasTOTE sale is also significant because the Victorian government has apparently backed away from its plan to announce, this year, who will run the Victorian TAB after 2012, when TABCorp's current license expires.
Note: A directory of Australian online bookies and associated online gaming news is being published at www.betsport.com.au
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission(ACCC) web site shows that it is looking at a TABCorp merger proposal. Indeed it has been since Friday the 24th July.
(Presumably TABCorp didn't submit the proposal until late Friday afternoon, so as to avoid media scrutiny at least until Monday.)
The Tasmanian government announced its plans to sell the TasTOTE earlier this year, and ever since speculation about who would buy it has been rife.
So too has speculation about the potential price.
Anywhere from $A50million to $A300million or more has been touted.
A sale is big news for both the local racing and the online gaming sectors, given that an ever increasing proportion of punting is done as ecommerce, i.e. online. We recently reported (on 11th June 2009) that at least 16% of Australian punting is being done online. (See our story at www.ecommercereport.com.au/story126.php )
Indeed the Tas Tote has recently been said to have built a healthy business amongst Asia based online punters.
The TasTOTE sale is also significant because the Victorian government has apparently backed away from its plan to announce, this year, who will run the Victorian TAB after 2012, when TABCorp's current license expires.
Note: A directory of Australian online bookies and associated online gaming news is being published at www.betsport.com.au
Friday, July 10, 2009
Intabill dead - in voluntary administration
John Parks, from KordaMentha, has confirmed that the business known as Intabill is, in Ausralia at least, dead and defunct.
The controversial Brisbane headquartered business that provided payment processing services for some of the world's leading poker sites, has gone under.
Reputedly, the business owes its creditors around $80million.
Parks said that the administration is formally for BTProjects Pty Ltd, the company through which Con Sciacca and Daniel Tvetzkoff ran their Intabill business operations in Australia.
Intabill Inc, is itself not an Australian company.
It is actually registered in one of the Caribbean island tax havens.
News of the voluntary administration appeared in the Australian media today after the administrators were appointed yesterday.
Readers of eCommerce Report will not have been surprised by the news, as we have been reporting for some time not just on Intabill's woes, but also on its various claims and the issues they raised.
One obvious issue is an Australian regulatory framework that allows a payments processor to evade any regulatory oversight whatsoever because it is formally incorporated off-shore.
The controversial Brisbane headquartered business that provided payment processing services for some of the world's leading poker sites, has gone under.
Reputedly, the business owes its creditors around $80million.
Parks said that the administration is formally for BTProjects Pty Ltd, the company through which Con Sciacca and Daniel Tvetzkoff ran their Intabill business operations in Australia.
Intabill Inc, is itself not an Australian company.
It is actually registered in one of the Caribbean island tax havens.
News of the voluntary administration appeared in the Australian media today after the administrators were appointed yesterday.
Readers of eCommerce Report will not have been surprised by the news, as we have been reporting for some time not just on Intabill's woes, but also on its various claims and the issues they raised.
One obvious issue is an Australian regulatory framework that allows a payments processor to evade any regulatory oversight whatsoever because it is formally incorporated off-shore.
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