CHRIS: But for somebody who's browsing and looking, being able to drill down into a very granular attribute or set of attributes, it's extremely important. Frankly, if you're in a B2B eCommerce space, you're typically looking for very specific things, and nothing else will do in many cases. So this is key. Like you said, Ron, being able to compare is really powerful, because then we can see apples to apples without having to physically go do a lot of manual work on the site to go look at comparison. Think about it, we have different sellers listing items, so it's going to be challenging if the governance of the site, and if the mechanics of the site, don't allow for comparison or this not built into the DNA.
What you really want to look for is this idea of things going into category and subcategory-based attributes that are consistent. The data itself needs to be normalized, as it's called, so that it's consistent across that category and subcategory of products and auctions. This really allows the user to mechanically take advantage of the eAuction software that has the compare capability.
A user can easily see, “Hey, if I want to look at this divider set from this company, it looks really similar to this one. What's the difference? Oh, [it’s] made out of completely different materials. This one has relatively bad reviews. OK, if we need something that's really cheap that works, we may go with this for a time. But we need to set the expectations internally. This stuff might break down.” You know, same thing for really expensive mechanical parts. Maybe there are really specific parts that we need to replace. And having a comparison can be really helpful to see whether or not they have the right properties and details that we need to actually fulfill the requirements.
RON: Yeah, I think where most people make a mistake when they wonder how to start an online auction business—that is on the person that built the site that is on the person that manages the site. It's all on them. So, for example, if you and I were both listing an identical item and we didn't have many required fields when you and I went to list our eAuction item, and I went and put a hundred attributes and you went and put five. Well, now when that person comes to compare, the likelihood of them finding yours is way lower because, if they're looking for something very specific and they're saying, “Well, I'm looking for that exact item, but mine has to be stainless, yours is also stainless, but you didn't mark it stainless. They see mine, they don't see yours, right?
So when Chris mentioned the word governance, it's not just rules and regulations on the online auction site like we talked about in the last webinar, it's really about forcing the normalization of those items. So when somebody goes and lists an item, it makes sure you get all the attributes.
Can you imagine somebody going in looking for a property and they didn't list the number of bedrooms and bathrooms? It'd be ludicrous, right? But what if they also didn't list how many miles it was to the local school or to the grocery store, and that was really important to a family? I know when we moved here to Texas, the first thing my wife did was start researching all the schools, and we wanted to find a place close to the best school district. That was really important to her. For me, obviously, I wanted to put in a pool here in Texas. Completely different.
So let's say you and I are selling the same thing on a B2B auction site. And because they're brand new, they are identical. Well, now the comparison moves to ratings, doesn't it? So the platform has to be very capable of ratings. And I don't know how the governance is. I think in a previous webinar, I told you guys I bought something on eBay the other day and the seller decided they didn't want to sell it. I think that I got it at such a steal, they're like, “Oh, I don't want to sell it.
So the second after I bought it, even though it was an as is auction website, it was used item, they immediately refunded my money and said, “Oh, sorry, I saw more marks on it.” And I'm like, “It's used. Of course it has marks on it,” but they didn't have to [ship it]. For me, I was worried about rating them bad, because I think they're cheating the system. But because they'll turn around and then rate me bad. So was it worth the $20 vinyl record to leave a bad review? And I decided no.
So the governance didn't work, it failed the system. And so we have to make sure that the governance works with digital storefront reviews. So the ratings and the reviewers of the sellers, as well as potentially the buyers, right? You know, this person bid and won three items for me and then never paid and it cost too much to go after them. So I just let them go.
But I have to relist the item now, and I have to try to go through selling it all over again. I mean, I've dealt with that on Craigslist, try to put things on Craigslist and people then say, “OK, great, I'll buy it,” and then they don't show up. And then it's like I literally just spent 8 hours on Sunday trying to get rid of this and now I have to deal with it all over again.