Find Everything but the Ordinary

Greetings Bonanzlers! Most of you will probably notice a few changes on the home page and in the logo today. I wanted to take a minute to explain what the changes mean and why we made them.

What the Changes Are - At a Glance

We changed the text of the title bar, the founder's quote, and the tagline (in the logo, under the word "Bonanzle"). Previously, the title and founder's quote mentioned that we were the best alternative amongst lookalike eBay alternatives. The tagline said "Real people. Real Deals. Real Time." Real catchy stuff, you betchya. The gist of the new messaging is that Bonanzle is the best place to buy and sell unique items with friendly people.

Why the Change?

With more than 100k items (where's the blog about that, anyway? Slackers!) posted, the continuation of monthly traffic tripling, and more positive press streaming in, it's high time that Bonanzle makes some important decisions about its future. Our most important business goal is to create an environment where sellers sell their items. It's one thing to build a great inventory of items and sellers, and we've succeeded at that beyond, I think, most anybody's expectations. But with that inventory comes a responsibility on our behalf to do everything within our power to help those items sell so that our sellers not only enjoy themselves but make sales and become filthy stinking rich, in a small time seller kind of way. So what we needed was a reason -- preferably a damn good reason -- that buyers would visit Bonanzle. And I think we've found it in branding Bonanzle as a place to "find everything but the ordinary." We've written up what it means "to find everything but the ordinary" here. The gist is that we're going to focus specifically on making Bonanzle a great place to sell items that aren't new, shiny, and mass-produced, because we think Amazon does a great job at selling those items already. Our goal is to continue to emphasize the categories that sellers have already come to associate as Bonanzle's strengths: collectibles; clothing, shoes, and accessories; rare/old books and magazines; jewelry; toys; crafts; and antiques. (No, that's not an absolute list of categories we'll allow -- just a list of the categories we have the most items in right now) What's the benefit of this emphasis to buyers? Simple: when a buyer thinks to themselves, "Where do I go to find cool, unique items," the answer is now "Bonanzle." Period. Because that's what we're going to focus on providing moreso than any other marketplace will. It's no coincidence that we're declaring this as our emphasis at the same time that eBay continues set its sights on competing with Amazon via its Buy.com listings and policy changes. eBay was originally founded upon being the best place to find the unique items that Bonanzle sellers have brought with them. As eBay continues to move away from these supporting these sellers, we're going to move toward supporting them.

Why Else the Change?

We now avoid what I'll deem "the iOffer syndrome," that is, the condition that befalls a site where the only distinction in a busy buyer's mind is that the site has less items than eBay. You could try to argue that iOffer has worked in spite of the iOffer syndrome, seeing as how iOffer now has 1 million items and a decent base of users. But I would argue that iOffer has had to spend many, many years, and many, many millions of dollars to arrive at the point of being a so-so alternative to prospective buyers. Compare this to Etsy, which, by differentiating the type of items it specializes in, has taken off like a rocket with far fewer resources than iOffer.

I Have Shiny, New, Mass-Produced Items for Sale on Bonanzle. What Does This Change Mean to Me?

It means that selling your items won't be the emphasis of our marketing efforts, but you're welcome to stick around if you're enjoying yourself. Chances are that you were going to have a tough road to hoe anyway, given that when buyers want your items their first thought will be "Amazon sells those!" You should probably be thinking the same.

What Ever Happened to that Talk that Bonanzle Didn't Need a Category Niche?

Oh, you mean the blog from a few weeks ago that too many business people assume that every marketplace needs an Etsy-like niche? I argued at the time that we didn't need such a niche, because we already had a niche: a friendly community. There's no question that our community sets us apart from other marketplaces, and is itself a niche. But that is a niche that appeals 80% to sellers. Often times, buyers will be far less involved in the community of a site -- they just want to buy an item and move on with their life. That's fine by us. But it does mean that we need a niche that makes buyers crave Bonanzle the same way that simplicity+friendly community have made sellers enjoy Bonanzle to this point. Let us know what you think of the changes in the comments section below! We know that not everybody will be crazy about this move. But ultimately we know that focusing on the non-generic will drive increasing sales for all in the months to come.