Soldsie Looks To Turn Facebook Comments Into Dollar Signs

Imagine being able to sell stuff directly from a Facebook post, and all your customer had to do was leave a comment saying “sold” in order to make a purchase. It would be magical right? I think so too.

I could see this being especially useful for bands and musicians of all types.

Via SocialTimes:

“The purchasing method mimics the natural interactions that people have with their friends on Facebook. ”It’s fun, it’s conversational, and it’s visible,” said Soldsie CEO Chris Bennett in a phone interview.

Merchants, brands, and small business owners can use Soldsie to post their items for sale on Facebook. When shoppers type “sold” into the comments, the item goes straight to their shopping carts. The shoppers will then get an email prompting them to complete the purchase through Paypal or credit card when they’re ready.

Both buyers and sellers have to register for the service in order for it to work, so no erroneous sales will be made by people who are merely sold on an idea rather than an actual product…” [Continue Reading]

Mobile Shopping Increased By 81% In 2012

Now that 2012 is done and over with, the final numbers are in on mobile shopping.

CNET reports:

“The phrase “shop by phone” took on new meaning in 2012, with U.S. consumer spending via mobile devices nearly doubling over 2011 levels.
Shoppers used their smartphones and tablets to make $25 billion in purchases last year, an increase of 81 percent over the previous year, according to data released today by market research firm eMarketer.

The researcher estimates that mobile devices accounted for 11 percent of e-commerce sales last year and expects that number to increase to 15 percent in 2013…” [Continue Reading]

Here are some great tips on how to plan for mobile commerce well beyond the holiday season!

(Image Source)

Paypal vs Merchant Account: Which Should You Use On Your Website?

So you’ve heard the horror stories about Paypal suspending accounts for questionable reasons, but you’re not sure if you want to spend the money and go through the hassles of setting up a dedicated merchant account. Well, let Webtys.com help you decide:

“Which is better, PayPal or a merchant account? We get asked this question… a lot. Each has its benefits and its drawbacks. To make your choice as easy as possible we’ve created a side-by-side comparison below.

The first thing you need to know is that there are two components to processing credit cards with a web site. There’s a gateway which connects your web site with the credit card processor, and the credit card processor which actually processes the transaction. You always need both elements to accept credit cards on your web site.

Now that you know that, let’s compare both below and see what’s best for you and…

PAYPAL:
Low budget, easy to install.

What is PayPal?

PayPal is an all-inclusive external payment solution. This means that people leave your web site to pay their bill, and then come back to your web site when they’re done. PayPal handles all the security for you which is nice. All you have to do is tell PayPal how much to charge, and they do the rest.

How much does PayPal cost?

PayPal doesn’t have any upfront costs. There is no application fee, no setup fee and no monthly fees for the basic package. PayPal will deduct a percentage from each payment people make. This way if you don’t make…”

Continue “Paypal vs. Merchant Account” here.

Stipple Could Alter The Way We Browse And Buy Things Online

This could get very interesting for both advertisers and consumers alike. This just may open a whole world of opportunities especially if you’re in the fashion industry.

TechCrunch reports:

“So what is Stipple now? Well, there’s still the people-tagging element for sure. And that’s still really cool. If you tag a person in a photo on the web, you can enter their Twitter name or Facebook name and then anyone can see their most recent updates as overlays on that picture. But the much bigger idea is that Stipple is teaming up with photo services, fashion brands, publishers, and others to possibly alter the way people browse and buy things on the web.

Think of it this way: right now when someone is browsing the web and they see a shirt they like on a random photo, they probably resort to doing a Google search for something similar. Or maybe they open the website of their favorite store to see if they have anything to match that look. But what Stipple offers is a way for each photo to show you exactly what piece of clothing the person in the photo is wearing — to show you who makes it, how much it costs, etc. And it allows you to “Want” it (save it to look at later) or “Shop” for it via two overlay buttons right on the picture itself.

It’s an idea that clearly resonates with web browsers. How do I know? Because Stipple co-founder and CEO Rey Flemings had some data to share with us. Stipple has actually been serving these product dots (the overlay used to show an area of the picture contains more information) for a while now — enough for over 10 million data points. He says that people mouse over a photo with a dot 46 percent of the time. And those users touch the product dot 12.48 percent of the time — that’s actually more than people use the people dot (4.9 percent of the time).

Think about that for a second. That mousing over the dot is basically an ad impression — with a strong level of intent. And it’s happening 12.48 percent of the time on Stipple-tagged images. Further, 1.75 percent are clicking the Want button. While 1.9 percent are clicking the Shop button. Advertisers would kill for those types of rates…”

Continue @ Techcrunch

Lijit: Adsense Alternative For Mid-Sized Publishers

This looks promising. I too hate the fact you can never reach Google when something goes wrong. How refreshing it would be if we could actually reach a real live person!

WebProNews Reports:

“Not surprisingly, many businesses use Google’s AdSense platform to make money. It has given many publishers a tried-and-true monetization model to fall back on, so they can focus on the editorial side of the business.

Although Google has been very successful with its AdSense platform, it is known for targeting, primarily, large publishers. For this reason, Lijit Networks is aiming to provide an alternative to AdSense and reach out, specifically, to mid-sized publishers.

The company has provided publishers with audience engagement and analytics tools since 2006, but it added a monetization feature earlier this year. Since Q4 2010, transactions on the advertising platform have grown 74 percent. Lijit also recently closed a $10 million round of financing in order to expand its platform and compete directly with Google.

Todd Vernon, the CEO and founder of Lijit, told us that publishers, especially in the mid-sized marketplace, tell them that Google isn’t performing to its users’ expectations.

‘What we hear, time and time again, is, ‘when there’s something wrong, I can’t get a hold of Google… they only provide me error messages… I can’t actually talk to a human,’’ he said.

Because Lijit is reaching out to a niche market, it believes it can take on the advertising giant.

‘At the end of the day, they’re [Google] vulnerable in this area,’ pointed out Vernon. ‘Google’s not known for customer service,’ he added.

As for how Lijit plans to take on this endeavor, Vernon said, ‘We just want to have more relationships with more publishers in niche content areas that we know how to monetize that others probably won’t do as good a job with.’

Do you think Lijit can successfully take on Google?”