We recently had a release. Decided to finally update the Shopster's Insider's Blog. Looking for inspiration, I talked to the developers. I talked to our marketing department. I talked to our CEO. I have nothing to write about.
All my work this month has been internal. SQL 20005, reports, accounting. etc. Woo hoo. I spend a long time to try and get 'infinite drill-though' to work, until it was pointed out to me that it requires the Enterprise Edition, not Stardard Edition.
The majority of other people's work is under the 'Top Secret' category, and will be released pretty soon, but is currently hush hush.
If you are a heavy user of Shopster, especially looking at products in the Virtual Warehouse, you'll notice a significant performance improvement, especially paging through products deep in the list.
If you have a lot of products in your RShop, you notice improved searching capability for your customers. It allows drill down by category.
So, a very boring Shopster Insider's Blog entry. Next month though, wow, watch out.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Don't mess with my baby!
I'm pretty sure my boy was trying to flip me off.
He's quick to forgive though!
Friday, July 27, 2007
A Little Something More Personal
It’s very hot, and very sunny here in Calgary at the moment. Walking outside, everything is vivid. Cars (not of the modern muted tones) are cartoonishly bright. The lines on people’s faces are drawn in sharp relief, adding too much depth to the context of every smile or furrowed brow. Smells walk around. A low contrast cloudy day would be nice, a chance to wander through life glossing over the details. As a more introspective person, I am feeling overwhelmed by the volume of external information that is forcing its way in.
When I was young, emotions were intense, primary. How I felt was exactly described by short, precise words: happy, sad, angry, upset, calm. As I grew older, describing how I feel requires longer, fuzzier words, like melancholy, grateful, respectful, overwhelmed, appreciative. Feelings become less delineated, both in description and intensity. As I sit here now, I find no easy words to describe my current state of mind. I try to conjure phrases, prefixing to try to differentiate one shade of gray different from another. Future regretful, tempered happiness, awkward contentment, tense appreciativeness. I think I need a holiday, to get back to happy, relaxed, joyful.
Although I get a couple of hours with my son almost everyday after work, I am missing some parts of his progression through life. A few days ago, when I tried to sit him up by himself, he could only manage staying upright a few seconds. Today, he seems to balance quite well. It’s like seeing a home movie of Lance Armstrong learning to ride a bike with training wheels, immediately followed by clip of him winning the Tour de France for the seventh time. You get the gist of what happened in between, but it still would have been nice to see it. My wife has always been understanding when I stay at work late, but now, I’m finding it harder to find the balance, as staying late at Shopster & missing Elliot’s bedtime, means missing irretrievable moments. Do I really want to be the cliché father, always to busy at work to come to little Johnny’s baseball game? On the other hand, I know I can never be someone who at 5pm, shuts down all thoughts of work.
When I was young, emotions were intense, primary. How I felt was exactly described by short, precise words: happy, sad, angry, upset, calm. As I grew older, describing how I feel requires longer, fuzzier words, like melancholy, grateful, respectful, overwhelmed, appreciative. Feelings become less delineated, both in description and intensity. As I sit here now, I find no easy words to describe my current state of mind. I try to conjure phrases, prefixing to try to differentiate one shade of gray different from another. Future regretful, tempered happiness, awkward contentment, tense appreciativeness. I think I need a holiday, to get back to happy, relaxed, joyful.
Although I get a couple of hours with my son almost everyday after work, I am missing some parts of his progression through life. A few days ago, when I tried to sit him up by himself, he could only manage staying upright a few seconds. Today, he seems to balance quite well. It’s like seeing a home movie of Lance Armstrong learning to ride a bike with training wheels, immediately followed by clip of him winning the Tour de France for the seventh time. You get the gist of what happened in between, but it still would have been nice to see it. My wife has always been understanding when I stay at work late, but now, I’m finding it harder to find the balance, as staying late at Shopster & missing Elliot’s bedtime, means missing irretrievable moments. Do I really want to be the cliché father, always to busy at work to come to little Johnny’s baseball game? On the other hand, I know I can never be someone who at 5pm, shuts down all thoughts of work.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Sleepless Nights
It's so hot here in Calgary, it's very hard to get a good night's sleep. Maybe we should have sprung the extra $4K for air-con when our place was built. Naw, that's crazy.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Boy-O
Although Rosie has cornered the the market in boy-o updates (boy-o.vox.com), doesn't mean I can't post a picture now and again!
Here he is with his Jungle Chime ball (the first toy I ever bought for him), and the highly reviewed Freddie the Firefly. He loves to sleep on his front now, which at first freaked us out, cause of the whole "Back to Sleep" campaign. I did a little research about it, and am really not worried about him sleeping on his front now, after looking at the statistics.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Shopster Insider's Update #2: Avoid Order Cancellations
It's very frustrating when you make a sale, only to see Shopster cancel it. Obviously, it doesn't benefit use to cancel sales. There are two main reasons why orders get cancelled, fraud and stock issues. Fraud, unfortunately, is something we all have to live with. You do have control over the order cancellations though, by being selective in the suppliers you choose products from.
Up and Coming Suppliers
As you may know, Shopster does 'boot' suppliers from the system which have poor fulfillment rates. However, we must balance supplier performance with product diversity. Generally, the larger suppliers who do a lot of drop shipping have the highest fulfillment rates, but if we only used these suppliers, you wouldn't have access to unique products (that aren't already all over eBay and the rest of the Internet).
That being said, there is no easy way in Shopster to see the rankings of all the suppliers. So, here's an up to date list of the best suppliers in the warehouse. Clicking on the supplier name will take you directly to their newest products in the warehouse (after the required login).
Top Suppliers in Shopster
- Housewares & Gifts 2
- Pet Products 1
- Computer Games & Software 1
- Outdoor Accessories, Skateboards
- Electronics & Accessories 5
- Bath & Beauty 6
- Health Products 2
- Electronics & Accessories 11
- Digicam, Stereo, TV & More
- Bath & Beauty 7
- Sports Memorabilia 1
- Sporting Goods 1
- Audio, Mobile, Gaming & More
- Poker, Tools, As Seen On TV
Up and Coming Suppliers
- Religious Toys & Games
- Games & Toys - Educational
- Housewares & Electronics
- Health Products 8
- Candles 1
- Etched Coffee/end tables
- Beachware
- Sports Memorabilia 3
- Bath & Beauty 1
- Hand Painted Glassware
- Baby & Infant Products 1
- Electronics & Accessories 8
- Outdoor Furniture
- Candles 2
- Car Seats & Cosmetics
- Tools 1
- Giftware 4
- Health Products 4
- Pewter Goods
- Tools 2
- Health Products 1
As you may know, Shopster does 'boot' suppliers from the system which have poor fulfillment rates. However, we must balance supplier performance with product diversity. Generally, the larger suppliers who do a lot of drop shipping have the highest fulfillment rates, but if we only used these suppliers, you wouldn't have access to unique products (that aren't already all over eBay and the rest of the Internet).
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Blogspot versus Vox
I must say Vox is much easier to use. Uploading of pictures, formatting of the posts. For the last post, I had to do some manual HTML coding. Crazy.
That said, blogspot seems to be much better for SEO and ranking stuff. Google Analytics is really wicked. You know, I always thought that Search Engine Optimization was some mystical art form. It's not. Want a good ranking when people search for 'shopster blog' in Google? Put 'shopsterblog' in your URL (shopsterblog.blogspot.com), and host your blog on the preferred blog platform of Google.
I mean it's crazy, on Vox I had routine posts about Shopster since January, and I didn't make it past 7th on the Google rankings. With just the one post before here on Shopster's Insider's Blog, I already jumped up to 4th.
That said, blogspot seems to be much better for SEO and ranking stuff. Google Analytics is really wicked. You know, I always thought that Search Engine Optimization was some mystical art form. It's not. Want a good ranking when people search for 'shopster blog' in Google? Put 'shopsterblog' in your URL (shopsterblog.blogspot.com), and host your blog on the preferred blog platform of Google.
I mean it's crazy, on Vox I had routine posts about Shopster since January, and I didn't make it past 7th on the Google rankings. With just the one post before here on Shopster's Insider's Blog, I already jumped up to 4th.
Shopster Insider Update #1
Shopster v1.13, More than a Fresh Coat of Paint
If you'ved logged into Shopster recently, you'll find a totally reworked interface! Instead of a really cool code name like 'Jaguar', or 'Whistler', internally this release was called 1.13, and it is a whopper.
Shopster Home Page
Ooohh, shiny!
But there's a whole lot more that got improved other than the color scheme. In my opinion, there are two major features which have been under discussion a very long time, and I am overjoyed to see them released. There are a few companies who are partially our competitors, and have dubious practices to say the least. I, and many others on the inside, have been pushing for more transparency for our retailers, to prove that we are different.
View Customers
We've always said that Shopster doesn't own your customers, you do. Finally, as a retailer, you have access to customer's email address, phone numbers, and personal details. Although incredibly valuable, Shopster has always believed that the customer belongs to you. We've never contacted them beyond keeping them updated on their order, and now you can market directly to them yourself.
View Customers Page
Pricing Change
In the forums, over and over again we heard retailers complaining about pricing. Sometimes justified, sometimes not. The major problem was, in the past, the price you saw in the warehouse was not the 'wholesale' price from the supplier. It was the the wholesale price, plus the payment gateway fee (more about that in a sec), plus any applicable handling fees. These are all costs you would have incurred even if you had bought the product directly from the supplier, but it was a mistake on our part not to make the pricing stack more transparent.
When you browse the warehouse now, the product details are displayed in popups, as not to break navigation:
Electronics and Accessories 11
Here's a product from Electronics and Accessories 11 (an excellent supplier by the way). Here I've clicked the 'Supplier' tab to see the Handling Fee (if applicable).
Wholesale Price: $114.99
Transaction Fee:$4.17
Total Price: $119.16
Handling Fee: $3.00
The wholesale price is exactly the same price we see when we get the product updates from the supplier.
What is this 'transaction fee'? Here's a hint, calculate transaction fee divided by wholesale price. Yup, 3.62%. Sound familiar? It's the first 'half' of the transaction fee which is charged by the payment provider to process the transaction. The second 'half' is on the margin you make on the product (the fee that gets deducted from your profit checks). Both the transaction fee and handling fees are charged by Shopster to purely cover the cost of the transaction, and we make nothing from them.
So, notice that the MSRP on the product is around $140. To make this product attractive, I've added it to a margin goup of 17.48%, to bring the price up to MSRP, and then added a 10% sale:
When the user checks out, here's what he sees:
And there's the $3.00 handling fee we saw earlier.
It nice to finally see features being released which bring the product closer to how I originally envisioned it. I hope we will continue to be able to grant more and more transparency into the system for our retailers.
If you'ved logged into Shopster recently, you'll find a totally reworked interface! Instead of a really cool code name like 'Jaguar', or 'Whistler', internally this release was called 1.13, and it is a whopper.
Ooohh, shiny!
But there's a whole lot more that got improved other than the color scheme. In my opinion, there are two major features which have been under discussion a very long time, and I am overjoyed to see them released. There are a few companies who are partially our competitors, and have dubious practices to say the least. I, and many others on the inside, have been pushing for more transparency for our retailers, to prove that we are different.
View Customers
We've always said that Shopster doesn't own your customers, you do. Finally, as a retailer, you have access to customer's email address, phone numbers, and personal details. Although incredibly valuable, Shopster has always believed that the customer belongs to you. We've never contacted them beyond keeping them updated on their order, and now you can market directly to them yourself.
Pricing Change
In the forums, over and over again we heard retailers complaining about pricing. Sometimes justified, sometimes not. The major problem was, in the past, the price you saw in the warehouse was not the 'wholesale' price from the supplier. It was the the wholesale price, plus the payment gateway fee (more about that in a sec), plus any applicable handling fees. These are all costs you would have incurred even if you had bought the product directly from the supplier, but it was a mistake on our part not to make the pricing stack more transparent.
When you browse the warehouse now, the product details are displayed in popups, as not to break navigation:
Here's a product from Electronics and Accessories 11 (an excellent supplier by the way). Here I've clicked the 'Supplier' tab to see the Handling Fee (if applicable).
Wholesale Price: $114.99
Transaction Fee:$4.17
Total Price: $119.16
Handling Fee: $3.00
The wholesale price is exactly the same price we see when we get the product updates from the supplier.
What is this 'transaction fee'? Here's a hint, calculate transaction fee divided by wholesale price. Yup, 3.62%. Sound familiar? It's the first 'half' of the transaction fee which is charged by the payment provider to process the transaction. The second 'half' is on the margin you make on the product (the fee that gets deducted from your profit checks). Both the transaction fee and handling fees are charged by Shopster to purely cover the cost of the transaction, and we make nothing from them.
So, notice that the MSRP on the product is around $140. To make this product attractive, I've added it to a margin goup of 17.48%, to bring the price up to MSRP, and then added a 10% sale:
When the user checks out, here's what he sees:
And there's the $3.00 handling fee we saw earlier.
It nice to finally see features being released which bring the product closer to how I originally envisioned it. I hope we will continue to be able to grant more and more transparency into the system for our retailers.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Happy Canada Day!
Here's a pic of me and boy-o at Moraine Lake in Banff National Park on Canada Day. He's in what's known as a Baby Bjorn. We were kinda limited on what we could do, so no major hikes this time round.
So long Vox, Hello Blogger!
'Oh, hello, American investor. I see you are interested in distributing Shopster in you home prefecture. You have chosen wisely.'
This blog is a continuation of 'Shopster, Babies, and Bah!' blog over at synch.vox.com. It's all about touting my own horn, giving an insider's view into Shopster, as well as some personal posts now and then.
Here's the first 'manifesto' post from the previous blog:
---
January 13th, 2007
Between Shopster and the baby, this may be the most interesting year of my entire life.
At Shopster, we are starting to garner some interest and some press now. Well, I shouldn't say we, I should say, the 'Top 3'. If you see a picture of three people in a magazine article about Shopster, that's my arm at the side in the frame, or possibly the back of my head if they did an 'action' shot, with employees in the background.
Alas, if my name is to be recorded in the annuals of computer history beside Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and, um, that Moore guy that got his own law, my greatness will have to be touted by one lone horn, this voximighty blog. (Moore's lesser known, but equally accurate law: "My sexiness will double every 24 months." It really seems to work for him, either that, or his net worth of 3.7 billion dollars. You know, either / or.)
By the way, as the first employee of Shopster, I have stock options, so if you are making investing decisions based on this blog, well, don't. And two, you can't really jump start an alien spaceship by attaching electrodes to a bunny rabbit's ears. I know, cause it says 'dramatization' right at the bottom of the commercial. At most, you'd get a really angry bunny, and nobody wants that.
This blog is a continuation of 'Shopster, Babies, and Bah!' blog over at synch.vox.com. It's all about touting my own horn, giving an insider's view into Shopster, as well as some personal posts now and then.
Here's the first 'manifesto' post from the previous blog:
---
January 13th, 2007
Between Shopster and the baby, this may be the most interesting year of my entire life.
At Shopster, we are starting to garner some interest and some press now. Well, I shouldn't say we, I should say, the 'Top 3'. If you see a picture of three people in a magazine article about Shopster, that's my arm at the side in the frame, or possibly the back of my head if they did an 'action' shot, with employees in the background.
Alas, if my name is to be recorded in the annuals of computer history beside Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and, um, that Moore guy that got his own law, my greatness will have to be touted by one lone horn, this voximighty blog. (Moore's lesser known, but equally accurate law: "My sexiness will double every 24 months." It really seems to work for him, either that, or his net worth of 3.7 billion dollars. You know, either / or.)
By the way, as the first employee of Shopster, I have stock options, so if you are making investing decisions based on this blog, well, don't. And two, you can't really jump start an alien spaceship by attaching electrodes to a bunny rabbit's ears. I know, cause it says 'dramatization' right at the bottom of the commercial. At most, you'd get a really angry bunny, and nobody wants that.
Monday, July 2, 2007
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