Oztion Is About To Be No More

[bnwt]

Last year you were invited to take part in a user survey where it was identified that we needed to address the OZtion name so that it was easier to pronounce and promote.  After immense consideration we are changing the name of OZtion.com.au to quicksales.com.au, which will go live on the 7th February, 2011.  Please rest assured that the site functionality you've come to know and love will not be changing, this is simply a name change.
Why quicksales.com.au?
This new name is not only representative of what OZtion does, but is easy to pronounce and is consistent with the carsales family of 'sales' brands, of which OZtion is a valuable member.
More importantly, this name change allows us to take advantage of the carsales network customer base of over 4.3million* unique users every month and millions of page impressions daily.  The carsales network promotion will be seen as early as our launch through links across the carsales sites as well as within banner and newsletter promotion including carsales.com.au, bikesales.com.au and boatsales.com.au to name a few.
What happens to OZtion?
The OZtion heritage remains important to us and will continue to play an important role as the site will be identified as quicksales.com.au - Powered by OZtion.  All of the OZtion features and functionality will be maintained.  All existing OZtion links will also be maintained and simply redirected to quicksales.com.au when clicked, to ensure there is no loss of sales for our valuable sellers with the name change.
The Road Ahead
Since OZtion's move to carsales, we have experienced tremendous support with additional business development, design, marketing and site development resources.  We are 100% committed to delivering you more buyers and sellers than ever before, and we strongly believe that this name change will further help our efforts.  Moving forward, you will now receive all communications from quicksales.com.au, formerly OZtion.  As mentioned earlier, we are still the same team and website, we just have a new name.  

We look forward to the exciting times ahead with you in 2011 and should you have any queries at all please don't hesitate to contact our customer service team.

Happy Buying and Selling,

The all new quicksales team

*Nielsen Online: Market Intelligence, Auto Publisher, November 2010

[*Yibida*]

Snipe !

[*smee*]

quicksales  

oztion ....quicksales .............oxymoron if ever I saw one , to the extent that they could probably get sue'd for misrepresentation of the English language ..or false advertising or innappropriate use of keywords or somebleedingthing !

quicksales    that is a ripper

[*Brum6y*]

There are a couple of us over here that are bemused by the name, too!

Quicksales .... soon to become: Quick! ... Sales!!!!!!!! as sellers desperately try to turn some stock over.

[*CountessA*]

I suppose "PleaseSales.com.au" just wouldn't have worked as a name change...

Well... I wish the site luck.

[*smee*]

yes , well credit where credit is due , at least the new owners are trying something

[*Brum6y*]

Pity they don't backpedal on the insertion fees - at least until they had the traffic to substantiate them.

10% of fees of eBay with 6% of the traffic of eBay doesn't make a lot of commercial sense to me. Nor did it with my seller friend who has abandoned Oztion because it was not earning its keep.  Free listing and only FVF was, I thought, a very sensible way to get off the ground with the essential support of business sellers.  Yes there was the risk of flooding, but there are other ways of dealing with that - such as a 'duplicate listing' policy for starters.

I see that move on fees as too greedy, too soon.  It killed off a lot of impetus that fell their way out of the 'Paypal only' debacle at eBay.

In fact, I believe that fee change has set Oztion back 3 years - with an unwelcome clutch of baggage.

Before, there were hopes and questions that were given life and answers that allowed OZtion to grow a bit - when it needed it. 'Paypal only' was a godsend.

Now..?  Well, now there are bad memories, real costs and fading hopes.  My seller friend occasionally reflects on Oztion as an option, but it is now a matter of too much outlay and too much risk for them.  That reflection evaporates almost instantly these days.  EBay and their own website are much more attractive options and even if the Oztion ship comes sailing in, they are now less inclined to consider it a viable option.

[*smee*]

I didnt know they even had insertion fees on O .... I certainly have never paid any and I have about 30 listings there that just keep renewing , I thought I read someting somewhere that after the first 60 days? that each listing would cost 4 or 6 c per 30 days but I have never actuallly been charged a cent in fees other than fvf for the 2 items that accidently sold

[*Brum6y*]

Last I knew - if you listed things manually they were free - but if you used ExpressLister (OZtion equivalent to Turboblister), there was an insertion fee.

If you are going to run 500 items, you need a bulk tool...



... and I think they threw in a couple of extra twists, too.

[*smee*]

oh ok ...well I would never use a tool like turbolister or equivelant so thats why it doesnt effect me I guess
...but I spose they feel the need to charge insertion fees as they only get fvf when stuff sells so on that basis they would collect about tuppence ha'penny a year based on the last 10 years sales or however long they have been going , so I spose they are between a rock and a hard place

[*Brum6y*]

I see the application of fees as follows:

Insertion fee - Commensurate with the ability of a site to expose your goods to a prospective market, thus increasing your opportunities for sales and healthier margins - that is, traffic.
Final Value Fee - A simple commission on the sale.

Now, I have no argument about the FVF. A seller has made a sale with (hopefully) a profit margin - and shares a portion of that profit margin with the service provider. Simple.

The insertion fee is something else. It is, essentially, a fee which can be commanded ONLY where the reputation and appeal of a site are such that viable traffic (as in buyers with money to spend) already exists. EBay has that, Oztion doesn't.

If Oztion really wanted to put insertion fees on business sellers, then they have (IMO) overestimated what their site can justify.  In my seller friend's case their sell-through rate on Oztion was 6% of what it was on eBay, yet the inventory to generate that, cost 10% of the equivalent eBay fees to list.  When the numbers were scaled, it came down to this: To generate 'X' number of sales, the insertion fees for Oztion were $160 but on eBay, they were $100.

So, listing on Oztion jumped from a cost of 0% to 160% compared to eBay.  My seller friend found this very demotivating. I think they would have hung in there if it were only 50% - but such is not the case and now the damage is done, they aren't showing any signs of interest, let alone enthusiasm, for Oztion.


I'm certain there are some who have found Oztion effective enough and if you can manage your inventory with manual listings, then you won't have insertion fees to worry about - but as modest as these fees from Oztion appear, they did not have the traffic to justify them.

[*smee*]

Yep I agree , no spending traffic whatsover, which in turn has a snowball effect as people cant run the risk of auctions with low starting price so most items are bIN's at inflated prices .

How do the store fees compare ? or is that what you were working on ?  I believe the basic store fee on eBay is $20 per month with 40c listing fees for 30 days in most cats compared to $5 per month store on O ,  is there listing fees on top of this for O if so do you know what they are ? 

[*Brum6y*]

My last involvement was helping my seller friend with the analysis I just mentioned.

I've been out of the OZtion loop for so long, I just don't know any more.

[Poddy]

An alternative to Quicksales

"Quicksand"

[bnwt]

oh dear oh dear

last night I wrote to quicksales to voice my concerns

judge for yourself


I have quite a successful business on eBay selling wallets, handbags etc and would love to set up a store on quicksales

however

I refuse to do so when the site is over run with fake designer handbags

do a search for any brand name LV, chanel, gucci ........... you'll be astounded at how cheap "genuine" handbags that normally sell for $1000+ and being sold for

for a start it's illegal and second it's just in poor taste and lowers the tone of the whole site


good luck


regards

reply

Thank you for raising your concerns with us.

We work closely with many organisations such as: AFACT (Australian Federations against Copyright Theft), ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority), TGA (Therapeutic Goods Association), Nike, GHD, Tiffany & Co, Chanel Ltd, Chloe, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ed Hardy, Christian Audigier, Apple Inc and many others when we receive reports regarding alleged counterfeit items listed. We do require an authority expert to advise us of any breaches as we cannot be certain based on member reports alone. There are many factors to be considered prior to the removal of a reported listing, and unless the report has been received from the actual copyright owner, all care must be exercised to ensure that only those listings which are in breach are actually removed.

When we receive a report from any company or individual or their authorised representative that holds intellectual property (IP) rights, the listing(s) will be promptly removed. The seller will receive an email outlining the reason for the removal such as: counterfeit item or copyright infringement. If the seller's details are requested by the company or individual or their authorised representative that holds intellectual property (IP) rights, they will be promptly provided in line with our Privacy Policy. The seller's account may also be suspended and any listing fees (if applicable) will not be refunded.


I read that to say ............... we'll keep doing it for as long as we can get away with it

[*Brum6y*]

BNWT - I understand where you are coming from, but when I read that reply, my impression was that they weren't just going to pull listings because someone said so, especially when that person holds no more legal authority than your average consumer.

In particular, I took it as a direct opposite to the eBay mechanism.

[*CountessA*]

I've got no idea how the right balance can be achieved... to act when it's a legitimate breach, and to refrain from acting when it's just an over-zealous or jealous other.

eBay has a bad history of suspending innocent users and letting blatant abusers still list, although they do act immediately when there's a VERO report, apparently.

[bnwt]

Brumby


here are some interesting points to consider when making a decision about the handbags being fake or not

1 .. companies like LV, chanel etc do not wholesale and if they did they would not allow their stock in a low rent outlet like Oztion

2 .. these handbags retail for huge sums ... many are several thousand dollar a pop

now go an look at Oztions and you will find sellers with hundreds of these bags on offer all brand new all claiming to be "authentic" and all for sale But It Now $55 - $75

if you had a genuine new LV handbag worth $2500 would you be selling it for $55 on Oztion? .... and not just one but 900 of them

surely blind freddy can see there is something sus ........... why can't Oztion ask the seller to show an invoice to prove the bag are genuine??

have a look for yourself

http://www.oztion.com.au/buy/auctions.aspx?type5=yexuemao

http://www.oztion.com.au/buy/auctions.aspx?type5=atoz

http://www.oztion.com.au/buy/auctions.aspx?type5=sell88

plenty more where these came from

[*Brum6y*]

BNWT - I understand you point, and, yes, such cases are ludicrously obvious - yet the mechanisms currently in place do not seem to react to that very well.

They seem to be as ambivalent as a seller offering an item at $299 RRP for $150 - something which is not as obvious.

I have posted a thread with an idea that could address this problem (I think) in a way that would allow immediate action whether it was a $2500/$55 disparity or a $299/$150 one.


But back to your comment - yes, it is excruciatingly obvious.