Week 5 Blog 3 -- last bloggg

So after my listing ended, I immediately contacted Mark because I wanted him to place the order as soon as possible to get the product to my customers but also because score was about to end!  The glasses came in much faster than I expected (faster than Mark expected too) which was nice because I had some time to distribute them all before score was over.  Packaging was kind of a pain because I had to go home depot and buy the correct size boxes.  The first ones I bought were too small so I had to go back and buy slightly larger, and more expensive ones.  The packaging itself was not too bad because the Maui Jims came in a nice and tight box that was sealed, so all I had to do was put the prepackaged Maui Jim box into the home depot box.  It was honestly more of a pain writing down all the addresses from all the buyers because some people had very exotic addresses.  I haven't physically shipped the items yet because I only finished packaging them all at night, but I plan on going to the post office tomorrow and shipping them off.  I do feel slightly accomplished and like a business man because I have been buying and selling product and I actually made Mark a decent amount of profit because most of the people who bought paid close to retail for my listings.  Mark was really happy with what I sold and reiterated that he'd love to have me come work down at the Cape for a week in the summer.  I think it would be fun but still have not given him a definite answer yet.  See ya later score, now its just prom, six flags, and graduation.  Stay classy San Diego.

Week 5 Blog 2

At this point in my internship I really can't do much because Mark is constantly busy at work and I am just waiting for the rest of my listings to finish up.  I sold a couple pair of Ho'okipas and several other pair, which I am excited about.  I was actually shocked at how high they sold for, almost full retail price which is ridiculous.  I think the fact that someone will buy a pair of sunglasses for almost retail price on eBay shows the trust people have in eBay, even more than the actual website that sells the glasses.  Ebay is a giant in the buying and selling business and people would actually rather search for a product they desire on eBay than search for the product on the internet or google or something.  I called Mark and he said he only wants to make the order for the glasses once ALL my listings are done, which is kind of a pain, because I would like to start boxing and shipping off the products I sell as soon as they are sold.  At this point I now have to wait another day until my last listing is done, THEN mark will make the order and I can get shipping.  It's really too bad that the Maui Jim rep wont let me return unsold product because if he had, I could have just bought all the glasses I was selling before I sold them, and that way I could have already had them all packaged and ready to go as soon as they sold online.  Meh...

Week 5 Blog 1

I was supposed to go into the office today but Mark called and said he could not meet.  Mark also told me the date of the tradeshow which was june 3rd.  Unfortunately score was over by then so I couldn't participate--I think it would have been pretty cool.  I checked my listings as well and found that a lot of them had bidders and watchers.  Bidders were people that had actually pledged money and put down a bid whereas watchers were people who had bookmarked my listing for future consultation.  It was getting down near the end of many of my bids and I was excited to sell some product.  Mark said that by this time it was not worth listing any more items because I wouldn't be able to get them until after score was over.  Mark did say though, that if I wanted to continue selling sunglasses for him after score was over, I could do so and he would give me a commission on the products I sold.  It was another interesting proposition and I considered it because having some side money would be nice until my summer job started in late June.  I had also seriously considered going down to Martha's Vineyard with Mark in the summer because I thought it would be fun and a nice changeup from my camp counselor job for a week.  I was excited for the upcoming days to see how my listings would do and how much they would sell for.

Week 4 Blog 3

Back to Mark's office again to do a little website work.  I also told Mark about my progress with the listings online.  He said he would talk to the rep at Maui Jim and tell him that he needed an order soon.  Mark also spoke to me about two kind of exciting things.  First of all, he said there was a trade show coming up and that if I could go, he'd love for me to go with him and the crew to sell glasses all day.  Mark said that they made most of their sales from these trade shows because they had one of the only licenses to sell Maui Jim at the shows in Massachusetts.  Mark went on to explain that for each show, only a couple vendors were allowed to sell their sunglasses.  This meant that Mark and MV shades would be there selling Maui Jims, while one guy was selling Oakleys and the other guy Ray-Bans.  There weren't multiple vendors selling the same sunglasses, which meant minimal competition and good profits, because Mark could also return all the glasses he didn't sell, meaning no loss.  The other proposition Mark offered was that I spend a week in the summer with Mark and the guys in Martha's Vineyard selling sunglasses at MV Shades' retail store.  It was definitely an interesting offer and something I had to think more about.  The website work was kind of tedious honestly because there were soooo many little things that needed to be done.  My appreciation grew further for the really nice looking websites because I finally understood how much time must have gone into those sites.

Week 4 Blog 2

So after posting my first listing, I added several more.  It took a little while to find all of the correct photos and to fill out all the specifications on the listings page, but I was starting to get it down to a science.  After listing severeal Ho'okipas, I listing some freight trains and some dawn patrols, two other models that had had success in the past on eBay.  I wanted to get as many up as possible because it would take about a week for Mark to get the sunglasses from Maui Jim and score was ending fairly soon.  Mark said the more the better as well because his rep didn't like making really small orders that were time consuming and not that profitable.  I wanted to make the end sale time fairly short too so that I could sell, receive, and ship the product before score was over.  I decided on two days for each listing, which would give me sufficient time to do what I had to do.  The internet kept going up and down as well which was extremely frustrating for me because I would be almost ready to finish a listing then the screen would freeze and I had to wait until it went back up.  Apparently Comcast was doing "maintenance" or upgrades or something.  Stupid Comcast...  I talked to Mark also to try and schedule another time I could get in to work on the website.  Mark said that I could come in Friday because he was free after 12 and could help me work on it.

Week 4 Blog 1

So I finally am listing items on eBay now which is exciting.  My first listing was the Maui Jim Ho'okipa, the item I had observed as the highest selling pair of Maui Jims and the ones that had the best selling history on eBay.  The procedure for selling items on eBay isn't terribly difficult.  First off, I had to choose a name for my listing--something that would attract the customer's attention and accurately advertise my item--for example "Maui Jim Ho'okipa Brand New In Box" was the title of my first listing.  I decided to indicate that the item was "New in box" because many people who browsed eBay listings were looking for new or used, so I wanted to make that clear off the bat.  Next I put some filters on my listing so that if people were browsing eBay by category, my listing would show up.  Somehow eBay already knew what filters I should put just from the title of my listing, so that was nice.  Because I was selling sunglasses, my listings would go under things like "Mens Accessories > Sunglasses" and "Vision Car > Sunglasses." After these indications came the details part: Condition, condition description, UPC, Style, Brand, Frame color, Lens color, Frame material, protection, etc."  The next, and maybe most important step was choosing photos to show in the listing.  Based on my experience with eBay in the past I knew that people liked a lot of photos and wanted to see exactly how the product they were bidding on looked.  Because I wouldn't have the sunglasses until I sold them, I used stock photos of the Ho'okipa and photos from other similar listings.

Week 3 Blog 3

I finally got to meet with Mark again to work on the website development.  The software is extremely confusing which has hindered my work but I am definitely getting better with it.  Today we did a lot of work with formatting the website to see how it would look when someone types in the address on the internet.  Choosing a background, fonts, logos, and overall style was much more difficult than I imagined and actually getting the photos and text I wanted on the website was not easy at all.  To be honest, after working with some of the software that is used to design websites, I have a lot more appreciation for the people that make websites for a job, because it is not easy, and very time consuming.  I did enjoy working with the software though; I am always on the internet and always browsing sites so to be behind the scenes and see the work that goes into making websites run and look cool was enjoyable.  The hardest part of the web design was mapping out the click paths--that is to say the directions a user of the site can go when clicking on different links.  This entails programming the software to tell each click a specific command.  For example when the buyer clicks "Contact info," I had to program the software to take the user to the contact info page.  It is things like these that I have taken for granted in my time on the internet, but it is definitely something I enjoy doing.  Hopefully Mark will let me use the software more often in the future.  I also hope to get selling ASAP.

Week 3 Blog 2

Equipped with all the knowledge and information needed to start listing, I took to eBay the next day.  I had had significant experience with eBay in the past selling things like Pokémon cards and Legos, so I already kind of knew what I was doing as I started to list sunglasses.  Essentially the process goes as follows: I create a new listing on eBay with a descriptive title and tags that will lead a buyer whowants my  product to my listing; next I have to set several prices: the beginning bid price if I choose to have a bidding war for the glasses, and/or a buy-it-now price (a much higher price) that is a one time price that, if bought by a customer, automatically wins the listing for them; I then have to make a shipping fee that correlates to how much I have to spend to ship the item; lastly, I have to include all the product details, photographs of the product, information about the product (lens type, serial number, year made, color, etc), as well as my personal contact information in case a customer wants to contact me.  Another thing I had to keep in mind was how long I was going to hold the listing for--I didn't want the listing to be for too long because then it wouldn't show in the "time ending soonest tab" frequented by eBay users, but I also didn't want to make the listing too short because then there was a chance it wouldn't sell.  I decided on a listing time of about one week, with the best-selling models at a slightly shorter time and vice versa.

Week 3 Blog 1

Mark finally got back from his trip to Jamaica, so I was able to go meet him in Woburn again on Monday.  We finalized the models I would be selling based on the spreadsheet I had made and talked    about what my next steps were.  Because we didn't want to risk having excess product (i.e, I didn't sell all the sunglasses I ordered) and Mark could not get refunds on unsold items, Mark wanted me to list the sunglasses on eBay as pre-sales.  We had spoke about this method before but I had some questions.  First, if I didn't have the physical model in my hand, how could I list it without photos?  To this Mark responded by telling me to use stock photos of each model either off of google images or the Maui Jim website.  My next question was how I should label the sunglasses--brand new, used, etc.  Mark assured me that all of the models I would be getting were brand new, in box, directly from Maui Jim.  And my last question was about shipping: how was that going to work.  Mark said that once I had sold the model on eBay, I could make the order from him through Maui Jim, Maui Jim would then ship the model to Mark, and then I would ship the model to the buyer.  With this information I was ready to sell.  I was interested to see how long it would take me per listing asthis would   impact the nunber if listings I could post.

Week 2 blog 2

Week 2 so far has been relatively boring to be honest.  Mark, my boss at MV shades is in Jamaica of all places with a couple of his buddies so he has been out of contact.  He wanted me to finish up the excel spreadsheet so that when gets back we can get into selling and I am almost done with it.  I would have liked to have been doing some more web work but without Mark at his office I cannot because I do not have the software on any of my computers and it costs several thousand dollars :(.  The spreadsheet is not bad though.  I was shocked to see how many Maui Jims were being sold on eBay.  Literally every single day hundreds of different models are being sold, something that made me optimistic for Mark's return, when I could start actually selling.  I typed in every single model sold on MauiJim.com into eBaay and checked out how many were sold.  It was interesting to see that several models were definitely the top sellers for Maui Jim, so I marked those down as definite models I wanted to sell.  But the clear cut leaders were only about 3 in number, so for the rest of glasses I had to use my judgement.  Out of the next maybe 10 highest selling models on eBay, I ended up with a combination of the models that sold for the highest price and the models that I liked personally the most.  Looking forward to Mark's return!

Week 2 Blog 1

On monday after school I went to Mark's office in Woburn again because Mark would be leaving for Jamaica for the whole week and he wanted to meet with me before he left so I would have something to do while he was gone.  The main thing he wanted me to do was finish the excel spreadsheet I had been working on and choose which model sunglasses I would be selling.  This way, once he got back from his trip we could get right into contact with Maui Jim and place an order so I could get selling.  We also talked a little bit about how I would be selling.  Mark thought that the best way for me to sell would be to list sunglasses as pre-orders with a longer shipping time so I would have no leftover product.  When Mark ordered sunglasses he couldn't ship them back for a refund so he only wanted to order glasses from Maui Jim if he knew that I could, or already had sold them.  So by doing presales, we could make sure that we were only ordering the number of glasses we needed, taking some of the risk out of the operation.  I was a little hesitant about Mark’s strategy though, because I thought it might hurt sales as potential buyers could get turned off by the long shipping time, but Mark said that if I priced the glasses right then the price should outweigh the longer shipping time.  This was another factor I had to consider when pricing.

Brian: blog 3, week 1

After spending a couple days researching what models I would be selling, and at what price, I stopped back into Mark's office in Woburn to discuss the web design aspect of my internship.  Mark’s goal was to eventually have a website that sold Maui Jims and other sunglasses at discount prices online, essentially a more legitimate version of what I would be doing on my MV Shades eBay store.  Mark introduced me to his brother, Jean Bogosian, who was in charge of all the accounting and money things that had to be done for MV Shades, and also the brother who was working on developing the website.  Jean gave me a quick rundown of the software he was using to create the website, called Adobe Dreamweaver, and showed me some of the planning sheets he had created that were foundations for the site written on paper.  For example one sheet had all of the branches that clicking could take an internet-goer on the website.  For example if he or she started at home and clicked on “shop,” and then clicked on “Mens” and then clicked on “Under 200$,” where would it take him/her?  The software was hard to learn but Jean said that he would help me out and if I could get a good handle on using the software, I could really do some work with the site,

It was a little intimidating using the website-building software, but at the same time cool to see the backbone building tool for the websites that make up the internet.  

Brian: blog 2, week 1

The next two days, 4/16 and 4/17, was primarily spent doing research about Maui Jim sunglasses so that I could best sell them on eBay.  I had several things that needed addressing: first, I had to see which models of Maui Jims were selling the best on eBay and throughout the internet.  Mark said I could get any model that was currently being sold on the Maui Jim website, but the Maui Jim website had hundreds of different styles, and selling all of the styles was an impossibility.  So I combed through stores online that sold Maui Jims, patrolling comment sections and “Best-Seller” tabs on the major retailers.  I also searched eBay to see which models were selling there.  Not only did I check sales that were live, but I also checked the “sold listings” to see what models had been selling, at what frequency, and at what price.  It started to become clearer which models were the best sellers, classics like the aviator style “Maverick” and the all black “Freight Trains.”  I decided that I needed to get a list of about 10 models I could sell because it would be difficult to buy  and sell a huge number of models in the limited time I had for S.C.O.R.E.  As I decided that I wanted to sell a certain model, I checked the going rate for that model new, new on eBay, used, and used on eBay, to see what price I could use to make the maximum profit.  I mainly checked other sold listings on eBay of new models because that was what I would be selling.

It was difficult to comb throught the pages of Maui Jim models and select certain ones I wanted to sell, as well as selecting viable prices, but the process had begun and I was narrowing down the choices and getting better and determining prices.

Brian: blog 1, week 1

For the first real day of S.C.O.R.E, 4/15/12, after attending the meeting at school, I left for Woburn to meet my new boss, Mark Bogosian, a recent graduate from the Carroll School at Boston College.  Me and Mark discussed the details of my internship and went over what I would be doing on a day-to-day basis.  The majority of my internship would be spent with Mark and his team on two things: webpage design to continue working on creating a new webpage with online sales for Mark’s company MV Shades and eBay sales.  As an intern for MV Shades I would be creating a store within eBay that sold MV Shades eyewear, mainly Maui Jim sunglasses as well as learning and helping out Mark with creating an MV Shades website.  Mark and I spoke for a long time about the inner workings of the company and what he thought was the best plan for selling his sunglasses on eBay.  Essentially what it came down to was that I had to, based on Mark’s deal with Maui Jim that gave him a significant discount off retail price, set a selling price on eBay that would be in line with other prices for the same Maui Jims, while also generating a profit.  It was interesting to learn about the backroom deals that make companies work as well as how personal connections mean everything.  It was only through his parents, who were both optometrists, that Mark could get his Maui Jim hook up.  Mark also spoke to me about attending several of his trade shows, that entail Mark setting up a booth at a local event, something like a boat show, and selling sunglasses from there. 

It was a really good first day and productive meeting and I had a good sense of direction going into the week and the rest of S.C.O.R.E.  

Brian McAuliff's Outline

Brian McAuliff

3/15/13

MERHS S.C.O.R.E. Thesis and Outline

Thesis:

In the modern global marketplace, the need for e-commerce is bigger than ever.  Companies who penetrate into virtual marketplaces have shown greater success as well as a trajectory towards a prosperous future in which technology will take center stage.  Companies, even small businesses, need to understand the relatively new, but very strong “online shopping” phenomenon to maximize sales.  Without addressing the online demographic, businesses are missing out on potential customers.

Point 1:  Overall discussion of what e-commerce exactly is, importance, what it entails, types of e-commerce, my focus                                   

·      Statistics showing the growing virtual market (% of retail sales that are online, surveys showing that with the new technology and easier online shopping experience, people would rather shop online in many cases than make the effort to go to the store)

·      Different avenues of e-commerce, online stocks, online shopping, online services.  My  presentation is mainly focused on the online shopping and online store aspect of  e-commerce

·      Examples of online shopping and online stores: eBay, Amazon, Zappos, Zumiez, etc.  including stats about net worth, revenues>>these online stores are making money.  Also look at brands like Nike, Oakley, Volkl, and other small retail businesses similar to MV Shades that have online stores as well>>analyze the successes and failures (and why) of the transfer to the e-commerce markets for these companies.

Point 2:  Companies that have good online stores, accommodate the online shopping experience and utilize current technology are most in tune with their customer base and reap the benefits.

·      Compare good websites to bad ones along with financial statistics that correspond to these good and bad sites respectively.  (companies who spend the time to create good online stores that are customer friendly create more profit than ones who make half-hearted attempts to penetrate online markets)

·      When someone buys something at an online shop, or participates in something at a certain site, if these people are satisfied with their experience, they will come back for more=more business and more loyal customers for companies. 

·      These people stated in the bullet above are people that most likely would never have been customers to the business ever.  Good online websites create a loyal fanbase that continues to come back based on their past good experience>>look at backcountry.com, many loyal users because of return policy

Point 3:  E-commerce and especially online shopping opens up huge possibilities for the future.

·      People who would usually be unable to attain an item they want for whatever reason (no shops closeby to where they live, items are sold out at stores, desired colorways are not there, etc) can get these items online.  This is good news for companies trying to sell a product.  Online stores mean BIGGER demographics>>more people have access to what the company is trying to sell=more revenue because the radius of those able to buy greatly increases.

·      A person who would normally be unwilling to participate in something like buying and selling stocks may be more willing to participate if they are able to do so from the comfort of their own home, instead of going out and hiring a stock broker.

·      Websites like Kickstarter allow the global community to contribute and help fund smaller businesses and startups.  (examples of successful Kickstarter projects that have generated funds-“Best Hoodie Ever” as one example.

·      Global funding and global participation in small business allows people and especially entrepreneurs, young and old, to have a more realistic shot at starting a business and seeing their dream become a reality

·      The power of the internet and the global online community is huge.

Point 4: E-commerce creates a global marketplace that allows companies who would have to rely only on a retail land based-store and whoever can get there for its business to a massive demographic that encompasses everyone in the world who can access internet.

·      Getting involved in e-commerce is only good for companies that are willing to do it.  Relatively easy to create an online store, shipping can be tricky but if organized well is a fairly smooth process.

·      Getting into online markets allows businesses to attain customers and clients they previously would never have been able to get.  A person ordering a ski jacket from an online store based out of Colorado would most likely not be a customer to that shop in Colorado if the online shop did not exist.

·      The internet community is growing every day, creating a constantly growing demographic of people who are able to access anything, any shop, any service that is found on the web as long as the company is willing to deal with international customers

Works Cited

Beal, Vangie. "35 Open Source and Free Tools to Manage Your Online Store." Cio.com. N.p., 6 Mar. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.

Brynen, Rex. "Virtual Economies and Development |." Virtual Economies and Development. Paxsims, 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://paxsims.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/virtual-economies-and-development/>.

Dragani, Rachelle. "Showrooming Shoppers Send EBay Soaring." E-Commerce Times. The New York times, 17 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.

"E-Commerce Summary." E-commerce. Harvard.edu, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidtrade/issues/ecommerce.html>.

Kensky, Annalyn. "Internet Accounts for 4.7% of US Economy." Money.cnn.com. N.p., 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. <http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/19/news/economy/internet_economy/index.htm>.

Levchin, Max. "What's Next For the Virtual Economy?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 4 Jan. 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/04/virtual-economy-gaming-technology-breakthroughs-levchin.html>.

Reynolds, Janice. The Complete E-commerce Book: Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Web-based Business. San Francisco: CMP, 2004. Print.

Roger McNamee on Social and Mobile Technologies. Perf. Roger McNamee. - Roger McNamee. Charlierose.com, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

Weber, Steve, and Julie Bird. EBay 101: Selling on EBay : For Part-time or Full-time Income. Lexington, KY: Weber, 2011. Print.

Weiss, Robert M., and Ajay K. Mehrotra. "Online Dynamic Pricing: Efficiency, Equity and the Future of E-commerce." Virginia Journal of Law and Technology 1.1 (201): n. pag. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.

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