| May 2008 
Wagglepop Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
5/2/08
We are very pleased today be be able to
officially announce the sitewide participation and policy changes that
will ensure not only a solid ongoing future for Wagglepop the company,
but benefit the entire Wagglepop community of buyers and sellers. The
participation structure changes announced today (and effective starting
6/1/08) mark an extraordinary "break" from online auction
convention, and will do much to help support the continuation unabated
of our existing high standards for features, functionality, and
performance.
Our foremost intention is to create and
support an environment that allows for and rewards successful sellers in
the most meaningful of ways - the bottom line. At the same time, the new
structure will help buyers find the very best in pricing and product and
all members transact in an environment of fairness, respect, and trust.
After much internal debate and
considerable restructuring, we are all very happy to announce that there
will be no cut in any of the services, features, or functions on
Wagglepop. All of our existing dynamics will remain in place,
including most notably the BusinessBuilder Advanced Selling Tools. While
the proprietary and legacy features we offer are quite "maintenance
intensive", we simply did not and do not want to compromise the
"package" that has come to represent Wagglepop. High standards
of operation reflect who we are and what we wish to be and I am
personally very proud to announce that we will continue to support that.
All announced participation and policy
changes are effective 6/1/08. We will continue to operate under the
existing dynamics until that date. The breakdown below is sectioned by
subject.
1. Introducing SmartSell Enterprise Package
As of 6/1/08 the existing SmartSell Pro
Package will be retired and replaced by the SmartSell Enterprise
Package - a package that at $29.95 per month supports not only unlimited included access
to the Wagglepop Marketplace through a complete marketable storefront
featuring the BusinessBuilder Advanced Selling Tools, but unlimited
included selling as well.
SmartSell Enterprise represents a 21st century approach to online
selling that allows sellers doing to the work to keep more of their
earned profits - 100% in fact! Starting 6/1/08 the new base for
participation and entry into the Wagglepop Marketplace will be SmartSell Enterprise.
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SmartSell
Enterprise Package
A
21st century online selling solution by
Wagglepop |
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SmartSell
Enterprise Package Features
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SmartSell
Unlimited Listing Pack
| Unlimited
Listings - No
Insertion Fees!
All listing
formats |
| FREE
Thumbnail
Gallery Picture
Upgrade |
| FREE
Buy
Now Options -
All prices |
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Basic
Wagglepop
Store with BusinessBuilder!
| Featuring
the value-packed
and innovative BusinessBuilder
suite of Advanced
Selling Tools:
>
Buy More Now with
DynamicDiscounts
> Red Carpet
Customer Program
> OnTarget
Cross Promotions
> InStore
Promotions
> Merchandising
Manager
Plus
a complete
storefront with up
to 100 custom
categories,
unlimited custom
pages, a custom
URL for your
Store, available
Store Listing
Header, and much
more!
Learn
more about
Wagglepop Stores
featuring
BusinessBuilder
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SmartSell
Independence Pack
| Tired
of sharing your
profits? Declare
your "independence"
from Final Value
fees! NO
FINAL VALUE FEES!
Sold
listings are not
subject to any
percentage
commission as
Final Value Fees
under SSE are not
applicable -
meaning no more
penalties for
success - a
"freedom"
in online selling
that is long
overdue.
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There is no action that existing
Wagglepop Marketplace merchants must take. Existing SmartSell Pro
accounts will migrate automatically starting 6/1/08 to SmartSell
Enterprise. All posted charges to
accounts prior to 6/1/08 will reflect SSP, while all posted charges on
6/1/08 and beyond will reflect SSE.
SmartSell Enterprise comes with a Basic
Wagglepop Store as under SSP, and the Store component can continue to be
upgraded to Featured or Showcase under the existing upgrade costs.
Existing upgraded Stores will migrate and continue at the same Store
subscription level.
The introduction of SmartSell Enterprise
marks the start of a dynamic that allows sellers to focus on their
customer base and businesses in the most meaningful of ways while
spending less time on the bottom line - a fixed cost under SSE. We
feel strongly that any comparison to listing on eBay, or to quality
independent shopping carts will continue to show Wagglepop as an
extraordinary value and uniquely effective offering.
Welcome to the New Wagglepop and the
future of fair and effective online selling.
2. Introducing Wagglepop Marketplace Marketshare
In the coming weeks we will be
introducing Wagglepop Marketplace Marketshare. Marketshare has the sole
purpose of "completing" the Wagglepop Marketplace by offering,
direct through Wagglepop LLC via dropshipment and other agreements, the
items and products that we do not currently offer within the Marketplace
through lack of population from the online selling community. Basically,
we will be "in the trenches" with our existing Marketplace
Merchants attempting to fulfill the wants and needs of our shoppers. We
owe the very best experience possible to those that consider and visit
Wagglepop, and what the online selling community has not provided we
will provide ourselves through a variety of methods.
As per existing policy, we are proud to
state that we do not and will not accept outside advertising within
Wagglepop for competing items and products as on eBay. Our Marketplace
Merchants have earned and deserve that protection from outside
competition - the Wagglepop Marketplace is for Wagglepop Merchants'
items and products, and the items and products from Marketshare.
When people come to Wagglepop looking for
something - we want them to find and buy it - and
Marketshare will help to build that.
3. Wagglepop Marketplace Access
As many of our most successful sellers
know, participation within the Wagglepop Marketplace as a merchant is a
valuable commodity. Access to the Wagglepop Marketplace will continue in
the current "open" format at this time, but we will be
introducing "closed" format over the next few months. The new
format will require verifiable online selling references and/or upfront
payment along with a few other requirements that will do much to attract
what will serve all membership best - dedicated and trustworthy sellers.
There may even be a short period where we will not accept new sellers
into the Marketplace. Expect announcements as appropriate in the coming weeks and months.
4. New Search and Browse Results Displays
Over the next several weeks we will be
testing a new set of search and browse results displays that better
reflect the expectations of shoppers and further differentiate us from
the typical "auction site" look and feel. Shoppers we believe
will find the new displays easier to navigate and interpret, and in
doing so make for a better overall experience which can lead to more
sales.
Look for them in the next few weeks and we
will have public polls posted for membership input.
5. New Selling Opportunities through Expansion
Based on some preliminary investigation
into the buying behaviors of the online buying community, we are
exploring the idea of expanding Wagglepop into a "family" of
related but independent ecommerce shopping sites that could mean more
opportunity for sellers to expand their customer bases and sales. The
changes we make today to ensure the viability of Wagglepop moving
forward may allow us through revenues to support development of
additional smaller "specialty" sites with highly targeted
focuses. Our ability to effectively rank in search engines is a dynamic
worth optimizing through expansion.
At some point we will conduct public
polls to gauge the validity of and need for expansion that existing
membership would be a part of and support. Should support be pronounced
for Wagglepop under the new structure, we envision completion of
existing Wagglepop projects at some point (such as Wagglepop Checkout)
as a part of the new expansion initiative.
In Conclusion and Our Commitment
I would like that thank all of our
membership - buyers and sellers alike - for your support to date that
has helped build our small but powerfully effective community. The very
existence and success of Wagglepop is something we can and should all be
proud of. Wagglepop was built out of "thin air", from a single
idea and a desire to make a difference for online buyers and sellers and
to break away from the limited effective options available and the
unfair dynamics that came with that.
While we leave the "eBay
competitor" vision behind, I am struck by the fact that Wagglepop
proves that good people working hard and together can achieve something
real and lasting for the benefit of everyone - for buyers, for sellers,
for community friends. Together, we have made and continue to make a
little part of the online world a better place - not through criticism
but through positive attitudes and action. Achievement on any level is a
joy that no critic can or will ever know, as few critics know anything
of hard work or sacrifice.
How much we achieve is not nearly as
important as who we are and what we did and continue to do working
together in respectful trust-based environment. I am proud to be
associated with such good people, and hope to continue that association
for many years to come.
Andrew Pittino
- Wagglepop Director of Business Development & Vice President,
Wagglepop LLC
April 2008
InventoryDirect Bulk Listing Tool Retired
4/1/08
As part of the preparations for our upcoming
site restructure towards October, we are retiring the InventoryDirect bulk
listing tool effective today 4/1/08. InventoryDirect is a very powerful
but greatly underutilized resource with high maintenance requirements
both in Customer Care and technical support. As current participation
and utilization statistics do not support the continued offering of
InventoryDirect we have as noted above retired this listing tool.
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