Having got the cameras it only seemed fitting that the very first film should be of Scot, so here he is talking from Catalyst at Vinopolis:

Video is becoming increasingly important as a differentiator on eBay and the web in general so it was no surprise that vzaar were one of the Catalyst sponsors. They told us “vzaar had great fun at Catalyst connecting with PowerSellers and demonstrating to them how beneficial video can be for eBay listings. We were particularly pleased to partner with Monday’s presenters Red Letter Days who have just started to include experience videos on eBay in association with Channel Advisor”

We’ll be making good use of the Flip cameras so look out for more video on TameBay in the future. A huge “Thank you” to Scot from Sue and myself for bringing the cameras over for us!

Now if someone can start importing the Flip cameras there’s a ready made market for them… I could have sold mine about ten times the first evening (and yes Nick, I’ll try to remember to get you one when we’re in the US for eBay Live!)

Knowing he was due to visit London, I promised to buy him a Skypephone to use at Catalyst UK this week. Billy loved the idea of being able to keep in touch with his family, and more importantly for his kids to be able to phone him whenever they liked.

He explained that Christian (aged 9) and Sully (aged 6) had really missed their mom when she visited the EU. While she was in London and Italy there was no way for them to easily keep in touch. For this trip Billy explained to Christian and Sully, before he left, that they’d be able to call him on Skype whenever they liked.

His kids have been really excited and have called Billy two or three times every day, as they’ve been off school. Having them gathered around the home PC on speaker phone has enabled the whole family to chat at the same time. The best part of all, is that calls to Billy didn’t have to be pre-arranged and of course were free.

With calls for eBay to sell Skype, investors would do well to look at Skype outside the US. 209 million users can’t all be wrong, Skype is making good money, and the applications and potential for growth is immense. Tools like the Skypephone whilst great for keeping in touch with family are even more powerful when used for business, such as for buyers to contact sellers instantly from eBay listings or websites.

Skype is continually innovating and generating new tools and interfaces to communicate, the Skypephone is just one of them. eBay would be mad to dispose of the fastest growing communications company in the world, it’s an asset they could never replace.

When asked if PayPal in the UK would be increasing buyer protection cover upwards from the current £500 maximum he explained that the level of protection doesn’t influence buyers more buyers to use PayPal. Generally if a buyer is wary of spending online it doesn’t appear to make a difference if all or just part of their purchase is protected.

However the long term aim is to increase covereage, the first step will be to bring the £150 level up to match the £500 coverage, and from then on to increase the total coverage level which is expected to be between £2,000 and £10,000. We should see this in six – twelve months time.

1) Velocity

Give customers what they want as quickly as possibly. Customers don’t want to be impressed with a complex site, they just want to come, buy and go. 31% of abandoned shopping carts occur when buyers are forced to register with a site and 27% because the checkout process is too long.

2) Visibility

Don’t surprise customers on your website, 36% of abandoned shopping carts are due to hidden charges such as shipping or VAT. Keep all the information a customer needs to make a buying decision easily available.

3) Provide Value

Value isn’t just the price products are offered at, but includes customer reviews, discounts and free shipping. Equally don’t add features that don’t add value for customers.

4) Variation

Always continue to optimise your website – both the design and promotions. Offline retail outlets constantly rotate stock and offer discounts, you should be doing the same with your website.

Google summed up the presentation with the principle of their own website – “Build a business by getting people away from your website as quickly as possible”. If a buyer visits your site to buy a product make sure that there are no barriers between them landing on your site from a search engine, adding the product to the shopping cart, checking out and paying. Some may want to browse, but many buyers simply want to complete the purchase and your aim should be to make this as easy and fast as possible.

They are working to offer great economics linked to sellers success and are working to reduce insertion fees. Having already reduced them in January this year they are looking towards a pricing structure which would include free insertion fees to enable sellers to list all of their inventory on the site.

There are no timescales, but free insertion fees are definately on the agenda for some products / catagories / listing formats.

Bookings this year are up 100% compared to last year, which may be in part due to no eBay Universities being scheduled for 2008. If you want to attend an eBay related event this year (without travelling to eBay Live! in Chicago) there are a few unannounced events we know will take place. ChannelAdvisor will be running their Insite and Academy events and The Conference People are expected to announce an event for eBayers to take place in September.

If you were still debating whether to book for Catalyst your only chance to attend will be to email UKteam@channeladvisor.com to go on the standby list and you’ll be contacted if a place becomes available.

When booking simply enter the code “VIP” into the discount box when checking out to activate the £30 per person saving.

For anyone who is attending and looking for “affordable” accomodation in London the best I’ve been able to locate are the easyhotels (Mind you, the rooms are tiny and they charge extra if you want a TV remote, but the prices are amazing for central London!)

Currently there are two ways to advertise products, but that’s all about to change with the launch of a new application enabling real e-commerce. Facebook already have the Gifts application, which allows users to send personalized messages with icons to their Facebook friends.

The cost to send a virtual gift (in reality an electronic item of no tangible value) is $1.00. Facebook plan a similar application where real products can be purchased.

They already have a credit card facility to collect payments, but will be implementing a new payment processor when the application goes live.

There are no indications on which payment processor will be used, options could include PayPal, Microsoft, Google Checkout and Amazon, two of which already have ties with Facebook. Previously Ben Ling was a product management director for Google and oversaw the launch of Google Checkout. Microsoft are a significant investor in the Facebook platform.

With the active Facebook developer network it is likely that once the first application is enabled many more will rapidly follow.

She told the Catalyst conference to expect to see bold change and faster change in the future. Pricing, seller standards, incentives and feedback are only the start but are already driving sellers to raise their game in the race to get products to the top of Best Match search results.

Pricing will be rebalanced again and eBay.com are to introduce category specific pricing across the site. Stephanie said that by this time next year eBay.com will be unrecognisable in comparison to today.

eBay.com are behind eBay UK on pricing, the UK were first to introduce specific pricing for media and technology categories. In the future pricing will be much more sensitive to the different markets, and the expectation is that insertion fees will drop further with emphasis on aligning eBay’s success will seller’s success.

Buy.com are a fixed price marketplace similar to Amazon, majoring on consumer electronics, jewellery and home & garden products. They have a marketplace product where you can checkout on site, as well as offers through a comparison shopping engine where merchants can pay for visibility on the site.

Neel Grover, CEO of Buy.com said “ChannelAdvisor clearly understands the rapidly evolving needs of today’s online retailers and this shows in the retail-focused solutions they have developed”.

According to Scot Wingo “By integrating Buy.com into our platform, ChannelAdvisor continues to provide online retailers the solutions they need to become mutli-faceted and innovative retailers”. The integration is expected to be completed by summer 2008 and ChannelAdvisor will waive all fees associated with selling on Buy.com for a promotional period which is sure to be welcomed by sellers.