What better then to have an e-commerce Super-Hero to protect the nation’s on-line shoppers from high prices?
We are happy to introduce you to BuyaPowa, a new player in the social commerce scene. It’s very interesting to see how they position the “Co-buying” concept – watch this short introduction video:
In their own words:
Co-buying is a brand new form of online shopping that harnesses the collective buying power of shoppers.
BuyaPowa sources their co-buys based on requests from the BuyaPowa community. You can nominate products you want to co-buy, or vote on others requests from the rest of the community. Once we capture enough interest we’ll do a deal with the brand and set up a co-buy.
BuyaPowa also loves sourcing hard-to-find products.
If you’re a tech-savvy entrepreneur or business owner, you probably know that a CNAME record or Canonical Name record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies that the domain name is an alias of another, canonical domain name.
In plain English, it means that you can use your own domain name for the marketplace you run and host on Pikaba. (In case you’re new to the marketplace concept, take a look at this article on our blog.)
Now your web address can be something like http://www.professionalwashington.com - i.e. without the “pikaba” mention. By the way, the Professional Directory to Jewish Washington is a great networking and business development community – check them out.
Creating a CNAME record:
First of all, you need to configure your web address to point to your marketplace that Pikaba is hosting for you. For this, create a CNAME record within your DNS provider’s administration panel and configure it to point to your Pikaba.com host. Say, if your marketplace is currently located at http://marketplace.pikaba.com, you should create your CNAME – for example, http://yourdomain.com – and point it to http://marketplace.pikaba.com.
Each hosting provider has slightly different ways to create CNAME records. You can consider the following guidelines of some popular hosting services. If you need any help with the transition, just let us know.
According to a new study called “SocialShop,” by Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide, success is not measured by visibility on all social media channels, but by leveraging the strengths of platforms that cater to your shoppers’ needs.
“Fifty years ago marketers figured out that Broadcast media drove awareness and print media added depth of communication,” said Nick Jones, EVP, Head of Retail Marketing for Leo Burnett. “Now we have all of these new social communication channels but no one has identified the optimal role of each. That’s what this study and this set of tools solves.”
The study points out to 6 shopper archetypes that reflect the needs and habits of today’s social shoppers. Based on the findings, brands should tailor their strategies to serve these archetypes.
Dollar Defaulters. They look for the lowest prices and ready to share the best deals.
Efficient Sprinters. They buy the most popular items.
Strategic Saver. These shoppers prefer following and buying from their favorite brands.
Quality Devotee. They only want the best products.
Opportunistic Adventurers. They demands timely and relevant deals on Groupon and other daily deal sites.
Savvy Passionistas. They use social media to express feelings and stay relevant.
“Not all shoppers have similiar social shopping needs.” - Lynsey Roumell (@LynseyRoumell).
Web analytics, campaign tracking and reputation management in one place? Yahoo! Small Business enters this highly competitive market by launching a free, easy to use marketing dashboard. After recent Google move on adding social media reporting in Analytics, it sounds like great timing for Yahoo.
Watch this short video to see how this new tool will change the way you manage marketing, sales and reputation.
“We created the Yahoo! Marketing Dashboard to help small business owners who feel overwhelmed by online marketing options and monitoring a wide range of sites and social networks to keep up with customer feedback.” said Shannon Parker Hane, Director of Product Marketing, Yahoo! Small Business.
Business listings – Find out how many search engines and directories include your business and discover new listing opportunities.
Online business reputation – Learn what customers are saying about you across the Web.
Web site traffic – Discover how many people are visiting your site and where they are coming from by viewing Yahoo! Web Hosting, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, or Google Analytics site traffic reports.
Marketing campaigns – Track key metrics from email marketing, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click campaigns, so you know what is working.
Online sales – Know how your daily sales are doing with order and revenue reporting from your Yahoo! Merchant Solutions online store1.
Keep in mind that to set up your Marketing Dashboard and to create a free business listing on Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions account will be required.
Yahoo! Small Business helps small businesses get online, sell online, and grow online.
When it comes to listing a product or service, the majority of Pikaba sellers choose our bulk importer. It allow them to conveniently schedule updates or import their eBay listings.
However, smaller sellers need a quick way to add products – one at a time. If you’re one of those sellers, our new Add Item form will guide you easily through the listing process while offering several time-saving features.
But first things first. Before you sell on Pikaba, you need to create a merchant’s account. Then, to get started, go to Merchant Center > My Products > Add Product or Add Service - marketing, design, photography and any other service providers are encouraged to join us.
There are several required fields to fill out when creating your product (as you can see on the above screenshot). The sections are:
Title. Choose the name for the item you’re selling.
Price. Buyers on Pikaba will pay you directly to your PayPal account when making the payment.
Enable Buy Now. Select this option if you want to sell the product, for example, have it in stock.
Category and Subcategory. It helps shoppers find your listing.
Add a Picture. Use a picture you already have in your Pikaba account or upload a new one.
Tags. Separate tags with commas.
Item Status. If you’re not sure whether you want to make the item live on Pikaba right now, select the Disabled option.
Before publishing you can now click the Preview button to get a sneak peek at what your new listing will look like.
