ETD: 716 How does one establish a store on eBay?;All the taxes
we pay;Where to Incorporate;E-mail Marketing Holds Steady in Q2
2003;Amazon Sues Spam Spoofers
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post@gapent.com
Thu, 28 Aug 2003 07:07:14 -0400
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0716 August 28, 2003
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem@gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] How does one establish a store on eBay?
[3] All the taxes we pay
[4] Where to Incorporate
[5] E-mail Marketing Holds Steady in Q2 2003
[6] Amazon Sues Spam Spoofers
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
We're coming to the end of the summer here in the Northern
Hemisphere. What are you planning for the Fall and the Holiday
season? How is August doing for you?
My thanks to those of you who replied to my request for special
reports. If anybody need more information, let me know
mailto:georgem@gapent.com?Subject=ETD_Need_Info_Special_Reports On
Tuesday, I will be heading for London. Tuesday's digest should be OK, but
I can't guarantee Thursday (unless, of course I get a special report).
Today we have a member's experience creating and using an eBay store. And
we have some more information on the history of the taxes we
pay. Interesting stuff.
Are you ready to incorporate? Look at Nevada which gives you the same
benefits that offshore incorporation does - anonymity and favorable
taxes. Of course, Delaware is still a viable alternative. For those
outside the US, what do you find to be most favorable for incorporating?
Interesting article in CyberAtlas that says e-mail marketing is working
well. They do address the spam issue also. And along those same lines,
Amazon is suing companies who use their name in spam spoofing. Yes! Maybe
we need more companies to do the same.
If you are flying at any time between September through December, don't
forget to listen to SkyRadio, especially the section on Sarbanes-Oxley and
the interview with Jim D'Arcangelo.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem@gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] How does one establish a store on eBay?
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Our moderator wrote...
> How does one establish a store on eBay? Does anybody
> have personal experience?
Yes, I got my start on eBay, grew into Power Seller status, opened a retail
web site with a host who makes launching and managing eBay auctions a
breeze. A year later I compared eBay profits versus my web site profits
and dropped eBay.
Originally eBay was a community of up-scale, educated, early adopters but
that audience has been replaced. Your customer base may or may not be
surfing eBay.
If you plan to use eBay to find new customers, forget it. Retailers have
little success converting eBayers into web site customers (the forums at my
web host were filled with tales of woe). EBayers like the auction format,
the feedback system and will forgo the convenience of your retail store.
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you may find eBay policies
extremely restrictive. Of course, if you are monster big box retailer, you
can avoid some of the problems that haunt mom and pop eBay stores.
My advice, launch a few auctions so you can understand eBay procedures and
the customer mentality in your product category.
Fran Greicius
landplanfran.com
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[3] All the taxes we pay
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Please remember that 100 years ago we had an almost entirely hands-off
government policy, except for a few powerful people who had the resources
to personally lobby elected and appointed officials. There was almost no
social security, no workman's compensation, lax product safety standards,
etc. While we would all like to pay lower taxes, there is a concept of
common good that makes decent societies, not an every-man-for-himself wild
west (indeed, that **IS** why we called it the wild West -- whatever you
could get away with was law, because there were few around to enforce what
law there was.) Consider: we could have absolutely no budget deficit in
the school department if we spend absolutely nothing on education. As
often as I hear business people complain about various taxes, they are
also the first to appeal to explicit and implied law, contract enforcement,
fairness standards, regulatory policies, demand decent transportation
systems, etc. Even now, our problems with the recent blackout indicate
that it is specifically BECAUSE an over-arching authority was NOT involved
(read: resources were not devoted to the responsibility) that we had a lot
of development in power generation without similar development in
transmittance capabilities.
Again, this is not a defense for being taxed through the nose, but there
should be arguments for the case that an advanced, decent society has needs
in common that require taxes.
Regards,
Jan Owens
School of Business and Technology
University of Wisconsin - Parkside
jan-owens@wi.rr.com
owens@uwp.edu
(and with an undergraduate degree is history, specializing in the history
of business and commerce.)
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[4] Where to Incorporate
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I'm sure everybody is aware that you need not incorporate in your own home
state. But do you know which states are more liberal with their
incorporation laws? Two stand out: Delaware and Nevada. I have registered
a number of corporations in each state, and it is very easy. I use
MyCorporation who registers the corporation, provides the Corporate Record
book and acts as registered agents, which means you don't need an office in
a particular state.
Incorporating in Delaware is generally less expensive than most other
states (initial charge for incorporating in Delaware can be as low as
$89.00; the annual franchise tax can be as low as $65.00). There is no
Delaware corporate income tax for corporations that are formed in Delaware
so long as they do not transact business in Delaware.
Delaware also has a separate Court of Chancery (business court) that does
not use juries, but instead utilizes merit-based (not elected) judges.
Because there are no juries, decisions from the Chancery Court are issued
as written opinions, and as such, Delaware has a large body of written
legal precedent to rely upon.
In Delaware you can also incorporate as a Serial LLC, a Limited Liability
Company which is similar to the formation of a sole proprietorship or a
partnership, but also provides protection of the corporate shield as a
limitation of liability. Unlike regular LLCs, Delaware's "Serial" LLC
allows different lines of business to be treated separately from each other
from a liability standpoint.
Nevada began with corporate statutes based on Delaware, and went further to
establish a corporate structure that allows investors and owners of Nevada
corporations to remain completely private. The Supreme Court of Nevada has
consistently taken a very strong stand in the protection of corporate
privacy, even when a corporation fails to adhere to basic corporate
formalities.
The protection offered in Nevada is the same as that offered in offshore
countries like in the Caribbean. Nevada does not require corporate
stockholders to disclose their information. In fact, the information is not
kept on file with the state.
Additionally, to ensure privacy, Nevada allows its corporations to use
bearer stock certificates, which make it virtually impossible to prove the
ownership of a Nevada corporation.
Nevada also does not tax the income of its corporations or its state's
citizens. A Nevada corporation is also not subject to any other hidden
taxes such as franchise taxes, capital stock taxes, or inventory taxes.
Sales tax applies only to products sold within the state.
For further information, visit MyCorporation
http://www.mycorporation.com/affiliate.asp?resellid=11624584
For those outside the US, what do you find to be most favorable for
incorporating?
George
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[5] E-mail Marketing Holds Steady in Q2 2003
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An article in CyberAtlas by Brian Morrissey states that e-mail marketing
seems to work quite well.
E-mail marketers continued to see open and click-through rates hold steady
in the second quarter of 2003, according to figures compiled by DoubleClick.
The advertising technology company's second-quarter e-mail trends report
found that open rates averaged 38.8 percent, a 3.2 percent increase from a
year earlier and virtually unchanged from the first quarter. Click-through
rates were 8.3 percent, a 10.7 percent increase from the year-ago period
and 7 percent lower than in the first quarter. Delivery rates remained
mostly unchanged at 88.5 percent with bounce rates declining for the third
straight quarter.
DoubleClick collected the data from the more than 2 billion marketing
e-mails it sent out for clients during the quarter.
In industry categories, business products and services saw open rates fall
4 percent, from 47.4 percent to 45.3 percent, but click-through rates rose
a healthy 24 percent, from 7.5 percent to 9.3 percent. Retail and catalog
campaigns increased open rates 11.4 percent to 37 percent and click-through
rates by 9.8 percent to 6.7 percent. Travel e-mail saw both key rates hold
slight improvements, with an open rate of 44.5 percent and a click-through
rate of 9.3 percent.
E-mail marketing began improving its productivity, too. On average, the
DoubleClick campaigns saw orders per e-mail delivered coming in at .29
percent versus .25 percent a year earlier. The average order size, however,
decreased 4.1 percent to $98.48 from $102.
Details, including some performance charts are here...
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,,5941_3068351,00.html
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[6] Amazon Sues Spam Spoofers
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"The nice thing with this lawsuit and with spoofing in general is that
Amazon is [relying on] enforceable law," IDC research manager Jonathan Gaw
told the E-Commerce Times. "It's commercial fraud. It's different from the
anti-spam laws, which haven't been tested."
Amazon.com has sued 11 entities in the United States and Canada for forging
its domain name in their e-mail spam messages, the company has announced.
The lawsuits represent the latest salvo in Amazon's fight to suppress and
eradicate such spoofing.
The company filed suit in seven U.S. federal district courts and in the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Canada, seeking millions of dollars in
punitive damages as a deterrent to other spammers. Companies cited in the
legal action include Rockin Time Holdings and Matrix Consulting Group LLC,
both sellers of "Gain Pro Penile Pills"; several unidentified defendants
hawking human growth hormone through Healthproductsnow.net;
Cheapfilter.com, seller of a pay-per-view scam device; and
GrantGiveaways.com, purveyor of "Free Cash Grants, Never Repay."
"The actions taken today by Amazon.com and by the state of New York will
send a strong message that [this conduct] will not be tolerated," David
Zapolsky, Amazon vice president and associate general counsel, said.
After all, although Amazon has expanded its offerings over the last couple
of years, the company has yet to begin selling human growth hormone, free
cash grants or devices that allow users to receive free pay-per-view channels.
Untarnished Image
Gartner research director Maurene Grey told the E-Commerce Times that
Amazon potentially has a lot to lose from a credibility perspective because
the accused spammers all allegedly infringe on its integrity.
Amazon "is purely an e-commerce site, where credibility is paramount," Grey
said. "Everyone is afraid of doing business on the Internet ... and so
Amazon needs to untarnish its name and let the public know, 'That's not us.
That's a bad spammer.'"
She added that although the new lawsuits probably will not stop spammers in
their tracks, they will give Amazon a means to publicize that it is a good
corporate citizen doing all it can to protect its customers.
"Spoofing is a problem faced by any company with a trusted domain name that
uses e-mail to communicate with its customers," Amazon's Zapolsky said.
"It's not just spam. It's consumer fraud."
Details at...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31433.html
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Links to follow
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1999 http://etailersdigest.com/archives/index.htm
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