November 29th, 2005
Alibris
made a small cameo at the tail end of a Wall Street Journal article today about Cyber Monday.
“… Another site reporting strong orders was online bookseller Alibris. Its sales appeared likely to end up at least 50% higher than the same day last year, says Brian Elliot, the company’s chief operating officer. The site also saw “great” order volume over Thanksgiving weekend, up 60% compared to last year, he says.”
Pui-Wing Tam, “Cyber Monday Sales Were Strong, Web Sites Say,” Wall Street Journal, 11/29/2005, B9.
EDIT: Alibris’ was conservative when talking to the WSJ, they have informed me that sales were up 100% - not 50% - with then entire weekend (Friday-Monday) up 70%.
November 28th, 2005
The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published a study (Study: pdf-longer, html-brief) regarding selling goods online. There are a few interesting findings here and some painfully obvious ones as well. The most stark statistical fact, for me, was that nearly twice as many people from the $50,000 income level sold goods online than the under $30,000 income level. Given the broad scope of the study, it is not surprising that they find that classified sites (Craigslist) and auction sites (eBay) are the most popular methods of selling online.
November 27th, 2005
I tried to avoid the blog for the long weekend, but had to break down today as I really got inundated with tips, questions, and news stories about the new USPS Rates. The rates, effective 8 January 2006 should not be a surprise to anyone, especially the new Media Mail rates. Despite our encouragement to do so, no listings service has taken the initiative to reassure its sellers that the increase will not burden them. Those listings services offering sellers the opportunity to set their own shipping prices will certainly gain a competitive advantage over other websites (like Alibris and Amazon) until an official statement is made regarding this matter. Cross your fingers for good news.
See also, opinion/column on this issue, a career government employee’s take, new USPS extra service rates.
