Innovative Online Retail: A Review of Ztail's eBay Resale Offering

“Global Recession” happens to be the most daunting of words these days, and online e-commerce sales are taking a hit as a result of the current economic crisis, but perhaps it’s true that With Crisis Comes Opportunity. The online business model of Ztail may indeed be emblematic of such an opportunity, and on the outset, my preliminary review of the site’s offering indicates that it may be a promising venture.

Ztail’s new online offering is built around an upstream trusted network of online vendors (listed here) who have partnered with the website to sell their products, and the site uses eBay as its downstream channel for resale. Essentially, Ztail provides a simple limited insurance policy that guarantees that customers will be able to resell the items they purchase through Ztail’s business partners at a substantial price through eBay within a certain time period after their purchase.

Buyers can visit the Ztail online catalog (an aggregation from various partner merchants) where they can browse products, and for each item, the buyer will be presented with the item’s normal price from the merchant, as well as its Ztail price (difference between the sale price from the merchant and the guaranteed resale price). When a buyer purchases an item through Ztail’s catalog, the site will guarantee that a within a certain time period after the purchase date, Ztail will be able to resell the item on eBay for a certain amount. For example, for the item shown in the picture below (item details available here), Ztail is guaranteeing that a $300 MP3 music system through Cambridge Soundworks will sell for at least $135 on eBay (within a year of the purchase date).

What I really like about the service is it’s automated workflow. Once buyers completes the purchase transaction, Ztail emails them a link that they can click whenever they’re ready to re-sell the item. The link is also accessible through the buyer’s online Ztail account. The resale workflow uses the eBay auction wizard to post the buyer’s item on eBay, and all auction settings are configured behind the scenes to maximize the buyer’s return. Other than entering your eBay and Paypal information, it’s a hands-off process!

It can get even better if your auction price ends up being higher than the guaranteed resale price, in which case, you get to keep the extra money. You also need not worry if the auction ends with a final selling price below the Ztail’s guarantee, as Ztail will refund the residual.

So what do you think?

I personally think the idea has great potential for products that require frequent upgrades or things that you might not need to keep forever. The one year time limit is a major restriction though, but I suspect this will be increased as the service gains more traction, and Ztail builds a critical mass of buyers and sellers.

From the buyer’s perspective, the service sounds appealing because it gives them some confidence in the product and offers them an alternative down the road if they don’t like the product, or want an upgrade. Also, the hands-off approach to the resale process through eBay is a plus - I personally never get around selling unwanted items on eBay because of time constraints.

Also, only time will tell whether there is a particular category of products that this service is more suited to… high priced products? fashion accessories? technology products with a short life-cycle?Only time will tell if the service proves to be viable, at which point, I wonder whether we’ll see Ztail’s offerings being integrated with major online storefronts – i.e. rather than having to purchase through Ztail’s catalog, we’d be able to purchase directly from the online retailer and choose Ztail as an additional option. How will that business model work? Further food for thought…

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My Speedtile Shared Bookmarks

I often get asked by my students about my favorite search engines, my favorite help sites, my favorite e-commerce information pages etc. - so, I thought this might be an opportunity to share my bookmarks with not only my students – but the world at large.

In searching for a good bookmarking service, I came across Speedtile.net – a visual bookmarking service which is just freaking awesome! and with its firefox plugin, all I need to do is right click the web page I want to bookmark, and its done (as long as I’m logged into my speedtile account). For those who haven’t used Speedtile before, I really encourage you to give it a try. You can organize your bookmarks in different categories (structured as tabs on the website) and decide which specific ones you’d like to share by simply dragging and dropping the snapshots into the shared tab.In your profile, you can also select a label which will be used to personalize the URL for your shared bookmarks. In my case, I created two accounts – one to share my search engine and help sites bookmarks, and the other to share my ecommerce bookmarks.

The respective URLs are as follows:

• http://www.speedtile.net/informatician


• http://www.speedtile.net/ecommerce

The other good thing about speedtile is their fast and easy sign-up/registration process. I can’t remember the last time I gave out information only relevant to the service I’m signing up for. The registration form only asks for an email address and a password ! yeap… that’s it – check it out for yourself.

So check out speedtile, and check out my shared bookmarks at the URLs above. Let me know if I missed anything big from these bookmarks. I suspect I’ll be updating these on a regular basis.

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CanPages brings Street View to Canada - Move over Google!

Like many other people I know, I’ve been waiting anxiously for Google Street View to be launched in Canada. It seems that Google has had some difficulty in complying with the federal privacy legislation in Canada, and that’s the primary reason why the service hasn’t made it here just yet.





The main issue here is the high-resolution personal images and other identifiable information (e.g. car license plates) that have sometimes accompanied Google’s street view in the other countries where it was launched previously (including U.S., U.K. and France). Collecting personal images without the explicit consent of the people in those images is a prohibited practice under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

So while Google is getting ready to start filming Canadian cities, Canadians have another alternative to check out. We now have our own Street View equivalent in some cities - thanks to the partnership between the British Columbia-based yellow pages directory service provider CanPages.ca, and San Francisco-based MapJack.

By my own initial assessment, the street view service offered by CanPages is a strong contender for Google Street View. In fact, I’ve seen features in Canpages.ca that I haven’t seen in Google Street View – e.g. high resolution full screen mode, pedestrian pathway views, image configuration, and did I mention pedestrian pathway views. The virtual 360 degree panning works pretty well too.

The service has been launched in Vancouver and some other parts of British Columbia, perhaps rightly so, given the timeline for the Winter Olympics in 2010. I suspect the service will be a hit with the tourists!

To check out the various features myself, I decided to virtual walk the part of the city that I’m most familiar with from my last visit to Vancouver. Since the CanPages.ca service is primarily a yellow pages service, I had to supply a business name or a landmark to get started, and I searched for the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel in Vancouver where I’ve stayed previously. Once the listing was displayed, I clicked on the Street View option and panned 180 degrees to get to the front view of the hotel building (see screenshot below).

Notice the various visual aids such as zoom, pan, and full-screen options, as well as the inline blue dots where more views of the street are available. Also, a small cartoon figure (let's call him virtual voyager) appears on the street map for orientation and reference (pretty cool!).

Here’s a screenshot of the full-screen view (size reduced for posting here of course). It truly allows users to immerse themselves into the cityscape.

In terms of its business model, the new Street View offering is aligned with CanPages’ yellow pages service, as it provides advertisers – especially local businesses an innovative means of reaching the website's visitors. Specifically, when a user clicks on a storefront in Street View, he/she will get to see a local profile of the business, and possibly other relevant links to video advertisements, website URL, and general information such as hours of operation or restaurant menus in the case of food service locations.

Overall, I think it’s a sound business offering as it comprises enough originality to spark end-user interest and also presents long-term functional value to the consumer.

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