Web 2.0 Stores > Fast, Simple, Search Engine Friendly Ecommerce

I don’t watch much TV, and when I do it’s on my DVR so I can skip the commercials. But with the return of football I find myself watching live television again, and with live TV comes advertising. Thankfully the Pets.com sock puppet and GoDaddy’s scantily clad spokesgirl are gone, but I have noticed a resurgence in online retailers on TV.

The first ad I noticed was for eBay express, their site for selling new items. (just like every other ecommerce site, how novel) You can see all 22 commercials at whatisit.com. My favorite is in the top right corner, because everyone knows car chases and explosions are integral to the ecommerce experience. Wait, maybe a sockpuppet dog isn’t a bad idea after all.

eBay does a better job than Buy.com which thinks putting Scott Blum, their founder and chairman, on TV for 30 seconds is anything close to a good idea. Seriously, go watch the commercial. It’s creepy in a robotronic-kids-of-disneyland way.

This fall’s Buy.com commercial is actually the third they have run promoting 10% off of Amazon’s book prices. Compete.com analyzed the effect these commercials have had on visits and conversion rates for Buy.com and Amazon, starting with the introduction of the promotion last September. The analysis was published on Seeking Alpha. While the commercials raised awareness and increased the amount of Amazon customers visiting Buy.com, they did not help raise conversion rates.

Marketing is important, but dropping millions of dollars on national TV campaigns seems to be just as smart as it was in 2000 when Pets.com came out with that memorable sock puppet dog. From a 2000 Forbes’ article about the demise of Pets.com:

So indelible was the puppet that it was reportedly Pets.com’s best-selling product.

Of course, that should have been a warning. When your commercial mascot outsells your company’s actual products, you may need to rethink your business plan.