Richard Maven

Richard Maven helps run the E-consultancy blog as well as contributing to our Buyer’s Guides and other reports. He’s 29 and has several years’ experience in the telecoms/media/ecommerce space, both in the UK and the Middle East. You can contact him at richard@e-consultancy.com.

uBid preps European launch

uBid, the US-based online marketplace for discounted products, is preparing to enter the UK in the coming months following a reorganisation of its business.

The company joins rival Overstock in targeting Europe for the first time this year as US merchants look to get their hands on more foreign currency. It will also provide more competition for the likes of eBay and Amazon in the battle to attract buyers of cheap goods.

uBid CEO Jeffrey D. Hoffman told E-consultancy: “We are looking to acquire both buyers and sellers in European markets and are setting up an office in Europe. It will likely be in the UK.”

by Richard Maven 15 May 2008 12:55pm 0 comments

Q&A: Media Corp's Justin Drummond on online advertising

Justin Drummond is a well-known dotcom veteran and the founder of Media Corp, the LSE-listed business that includes online ad network Eyeconomy and various in-house websites.

The company has been diversifying away from its gambling investments after the US ban last year and is now looking to expand into Europe and the US.

Despite several interruptions from Justin's PR person, we managed to ask him a few questions about the highly competitive ad network space and where he sees the industry heading.

by Richard Maven 20 May 2008 12:37pm 0 comments

Q&A: Livebookings’ David Norris on restaurants and e-marketing

Livebookings Network is a real-time restaurant booking service whose clients include The Ritz, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, La Tasca, Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Café, as well as portals like Time Out London and lastminute.com.

It bagged £6.5m in funding in a round led by Balderton Capital earlier this year and is planning to expand its presence in the UK and Europe.

Here, we speak to COO David Norris about which types of restaurants are making the best use of online marketing and what other opportunities are out there for its aggregated reservations model.

by Richard Maven 03 June 2008 11:35am 3 comments

Q&A: Dyscern’s Bill Frischling on online marketplaces

US-based consumer electronics retailer Dyscern is a great case study of how to make serious money on online marketplaces like eBay.

The company, which started up only five years ago, is now sixth in Inc. Magazine’s list of America's fastest growing retailers and is reportedly the most rapidly expanding eBay Powerseller on the other side of the pond.

We spoke to Dyscern COO Bill Frischling about the pros and cons of eBay as an e-commerce channel for merchants, and how the firm is looking to ramp up its European sales.

by Richard Maven 13 May 2008 12:14pm 1 comment

Q&A: Dailymotion's Kate Burns on monetising UGC

Kate Burns was recently appointed UK MD of video sharing site Dailymotion as the French start-up looks to expand internationally.

We asked the former Google exec about the challenges of monetising user generated content and how she is planning to build up the site's appeal to users and brands.

by Richard Maven 07 May 2008 12:52pm 0 comments

Q&A: GE Money’s John Wyllie on Web Analytics

John Wyllie is the global web analytics manager at GE Money – a role in which he advises and directs the analytics activities of the company’s numerous international businesses.

We asked him a few questions about how analytics can best be managed within organisations, and how the financial services industry stacks up against other sectors.

by Richard Maven 29 April 2008 11:14am 0 comments

eBay – a channel to drive sales offline?

Reserve and collect services are all the rage at the moment as retailers integrate their online and offline businesses. But few – if any – have developed an equivalent offering for marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

One company that is looking to do so, however, is footwear chain Schuh; one of the most prolific sellers on eBay UK.

by Richard Maven 21 April 2008 15:56pm 2 comments

Yahoo in search ad trials with Google

This evening has seen an intriguing announcement by Yahoo, but not one that will necessarily please marketers - it is to run an experiment with Google to see if it can boost its search ad earnings.

A release from the company said it would begin a limited test of Google's AdSense for Search service, which delivers contextual ads to third party sites.

by Richard Maven 09 April 2008 21:50pm 0 comments

Facebook - an e-commerce opportunity?

Facebook’s platform boss Ben Ling was speaking at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst last week and had some interesting stuff to say about the social network’s e-commerce strategy.

One thing that stood out was that it has seemingly not given up on the 'Beacon' ads for online retailers that caused such a furore last year.

by Richard Maven 08 April 2008 11:03am 2 comments

Q&A: Nike's digital boss Chris Shimojima

Chris Shimojima was brought in to steer the online business of Nike in 2006 – a position in which he oversees the direct-to-consumer digital sales of Nike and its sister brands, such as Converse and Hurley.

He recently spoke at ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst event about how the company was generating business online through its Nike+ community and Nike iD, its system that allows shoppers to create customised trainers online and in store.

After his speech, we asked Chris a few questions about Nike’s e-commerce strategy, internal structure and future social media plans. And why its website is 100% Flash.