Inspired by our Chicago neighbors, I thought it would be fun to do a Year In Review post to go over all the things we've done and the progress we've made at Dawdle.com this year. We've done a ton of things this past year, and made a lot of changes. The changes seem to be for the better - sales, users, etc. are all up dramatically. But, no, we're not going to give you raw numbers. Sorry. :)
The Big Change
- We essentially did a 180 on how the site works. Prior to May, Dawdle essentially was Priceline for video games and gear. You could name your price, but you couldn't see what prices sellers were willing to sell at. We did it this way to solve the sniping problem on eBay. If you can't see what other people's bids are at, you can't outbid them by just a penny at the end. And, if you know that other people can't see your bids, you could bid whatever you really felt the item was worth to you. We called this our Intelligent Matching Engine, as we matched buyers and sellers the same way that eHarmony matched men and women. The idea was that people could come to Dawdle once, name their real price, and then wait for the listing to expire to see if they won or not, saving them the hassle of having to come back over and over again to up their bid by a quarter.
From day one, however, we've handled all the payment processing. We've always used intelligent credit card processing and direct deposit to not only make sure that sellers get paid, but that it happened automatically. So we got some of it right.
User Experience (UX) Changes
- When we launched out of beta in October, we had a brand new redesign, courtesy of Naz Hamid at Weightshift. This design was much more inviting and a celebration of gamers. The previous design was functional, but really just wasn't as professional as what we have now. (Needless to say, the previous designer was me.)
- In addition to Naz's redesign, we launched the most powerful search on any marketplace site on the web. Not only can you search by keyword, but you can screen listings by pretty much any category imaginable. Dawdle is the only site that lets users screen listings by price and by Seller Rating (which is our improvement on basic feedback ratings on other sites) from the get-go. If you want to find Sega Genesis games under $10 listed by sellers with at least a four star Seller Rating, go right ahead.
- Even after Naz's redesign, we didn't rest on our laurels. We never stop making the Dawdle experience better! Just last week, we totally revamped our Product Pages. Now, you can choose the seller that you're going to buy from (even as a fixed price marketplace, the Intelligent Matching Engine still matched you to a seller). It's a small UX change that took a massive amount of work on the back-end. It's not too much by itself, but it is a predecessor step to some major new features we'll be releasing early next year. :) We also added suggestions for other items you might want to buy, and moved around the descriptions and details of the product based on user feedback. (And we love your feedback - just Contact Us!)
Professional Seller Changes
- Bulk uploads - by far, the number one feature request from our professional seller partners was bulk upload. (Pro sellers are people who make a living selling video games, either from an independent retailer in a strip mall or mall store somewhere, or online as a seller on marketplaces like Dawdle, eBay, Amazon, and other web stores.) Based on seller input, Dawdle has the best - and we don't say that lightly - bulk upload process of any site. We require less data, and are smarter with what you give us, than any other site. We just require UPC, quanity, Comes With, Condition, and price in a simple CSV file. And we use a "wipe and replace" methodology for our bulk upload. This means that whatever you send us in your most recent file is what's up on the site - no need to track what you've given us before and create a complicated DIFF file. Just send us the latest! And if you want to take all your listings down, just send us a blank file - it's easy peasy. Just e-mail us at pros@dawdle.com for all the documentation your heart desires and to get set up with FTP access for bulk upload.
- Self-service refunds: because our professional sellers sell a lot of product on a lot of sites, sometimes an item sells somewhere else before it sells on Dawdle. Based on user demand, we built a simple refund program in MyDawdle to allow professional sellers to handle refunds to customers quickly and easily. At Dawdle, we believe the customer belongs to the seller, not to Dawdle. We want to provide tools, then get out of the way. This is an implementation of that policy. We want sellers to feel empowered, not boxed in.
- Partnerships with FillZ, Wolf Track Software, and Extreme POS. At Dawdle, we want to make it as easy as possible to help sellers get their inventory listed on Dawdle. As part of our launch in October, we announced partnerships with FillZ, Wolf Track Software, and Extreme POS. These partners are the best of the best. FillZ has a rabid focus on helping media sellers sell online, whether it's a large online-only seller or a small pawn shop. Extreme POS and Wolf Track are the leading providers of point of sale systems to independent retailers and regional chains. With Extreme POS or Wolf Track, retailers will be able to list their products on Dawdle in seconds - with no external software or exports - from right within their existing POS systems. This is the first time any marketplace has integrated so closely with retailers. Credit for this goes to Dawdle's crack technical team, who has lots of experience in the niche area of integrating in-store POS with online commerce.
- A dedicated site - because we know that professional sellers have special needs, we created a special section of our website at http://www.dawdle.com/pros/ . We want professionals to feel "at home" and welcome on Dawdle and we constantly are looking for partnerships and features to make Dawdle the best place to sell your inventory online. This microsite is an example of our dedication to the professionals who make it easy for gamers to find that obscure Dreamcast game or that childhood favorite on the NES.
There are so many other new things on Dawdle - Dawdle's affiliate program, our fancy new (expensive) servers to deal with all the load, our very successful fundraiser (co-sponsored by Midway Games) for Child's Play charity, but I've already gone on long enough.
Thank you so much for all your support of Dawdle, and please - do let us know what we can do better and how we can make selling on Dawdle in 2009 the best experience you can possibly have!
Cheers,
Sachin
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