Another giant in online retailing is moving closer to the online party concept. Ebay announced a new group gift giving application for sharing gifts.

Retailers understand that gift giving in the US is a 100-billion dollar market, and that families and friends support each other in groups. Millions of groups gather every week to celebrate birthdays, weddings, baby births and more. Right now we do the gathering in homes and businesses, but in the future we will do more gathering and giving online.

Ebay is taking a step in the right direction with this gift purchasing idea. The cost of gifting and the increased expense of travel makes online solutions to sharing practical.

Ebay is finding ways to join these groups together in an online group activity that centers on gift giving. You get the social interaction and the added personal reward of being supportive to someone you care about.

It is a party that we do when we want to join in gift sharing. Now Ebay is suggesting ways to link with others in the shopping experience. Ebay has always been a good source for white elephant gifts so taking the next step makes perfect sense.

All of this gift sharing, gift shopping and gift exchanging with online tools will someday make the delivery of gifts to distant groups be like giving UPS drivers a party hat…

Google just hired an advocate for game developers. This follows Apple’s opening of a Game Center.

Both companies have witnessed the success of social gaming on Facebook and want to promote game development for their products as well.

The new Google hire, Mark DeLoura, a games industry veteran, suggests that “Clearly there are a number of initiatives going on at Google that can relate to games in some way” (read Android and OpenSocial).

It has been suggested that Apple’s Game Center is an attempt to compete with Facebook’s dominance over the hugely popular and incredibly lucrative area of social gaming.

What we are witnessing is the leading edge of the trend to use gaming to sell or support consumer goods.

Apple and Google know that an engaging or addictive game application can ring a cash register, if applied correctly. Active gamers use hardware to facilitate the fun, so creating games for iPads and Androids will build demand for these products.

But the real winners of this online gaming trend could be e-Retailers…. So Amazon and Ebay should be paying attention to this trend!

Consider the value to Amazon of games that resulted in the sale of a variety of consumer goods….

Do you think Ebay would want to hire a Game Developer Advocate if it meant more sales for their merchants?

Google and Apple are investing in the minds and hearts of game developers and game enthusiasts. Maybe Amazon and Ebay should take a page from this game plan.

Launching a new business concept is a challenge.

Most people run from this type of struggle, but I am a addicted to the adventure. This pioneering journey is where we discover what we are made of and where ideas move from thought into reality.

In 1995 most auctions were local events where people drove to an auction site to make their bids with several other bidders. Today, thanks to the internet and the forward thinking of eBay, we do much of our bidding from our computers. Auctions are now common virtual experiences, where real items are bid upon and sold to the highest bidder.

In 2010, most of us attend parties down the street or across town. In the future we will have virtual parties, where even the most distant friend can be a part of the fun.

This is the journey that we have chosen for AlbinoPhant and the PartyWeDo online party network.

You can now begin to pass out your gifts using a party on your computer… All because online auctions have shown the way.

There is a growing feeling that Facebook and other social properties will begin to join forces with online retailers to sell real products on their networks.
In fact when Catharine Taylor asked thought leaders to consider what is ahead for 2010, John Dudley, an editor at Hampden-Sydney College suggested that “At least one major retailer will develop an e-commerce Facebook app that will replace its entire “traditional” e-commerce Web site.

What does this really mean?
Can it mean that retailers will just increase their efforts by beefing up their fan page or throwing up some additional advertising on the walls?

No.. Mr Dudley is suggesting that e-commerce will move an actual sales channel into Facebook. This effort would require that a retailer build a storefront on the Facebook super highway. With a social network based store, users could stop and shop without leaving the Facebook system. They could use their regular profile, their recognized PayPal account and have UPS deliver the goods to their door. They would find shopping and sharing with distant family and friends a seamless experience.

What type of retailer would take that risk?
We suggest that gift merchants are the perfect group for the move toward an e-commerce/Facebook partnership, and here is why:

* Gift giving among family and friends sends about $115 Billion dollars into cash registers every year, in just the US alone.

* The concept of sharing gifts (virtual, at least) in Facebook is not a new concept, so selling real gifts through this space is not a giant leap.

* Facebook users have demonstrated that they want to stay connected and supportive to even the most distant contacts.

* Established affiliate sales systems provide the framework to track and administer the sales efforts.

Adding to this concept of e-commerce on social networks, a year end discussion on advertising trends suggest that; “Social media will provide a new sales channel for establishing product awareness and commercializing brands to better support traditional advertising or text-based ads”.
The keyword in this statement is the mention of a new sales channel, supported by advertising and other internet based tools. The integration of retail sales and online tools will provide the wise e-commerce pioneers with a head start into this emerging opportunity.

Which e-commerce retailer could take advantage of this emerging trend?
Amazon should be on the list, and so should Ebay. But Wal-Mart or Target could make a big move with this effort as well. Then there is Buy.com, Overstock.com and other 2nd tier online retailers, who might be looking for some differentiation from the big dogs in e-commerce.

It might be interesting to explore the possibility that an e-commerce retailer could use an engaging Facebook application to assist in gathering family and friends together to purchase gifts and share with each other.

We really like this idea…!!!

Along the Oregon Trail

We live just south of were the Oregon Trail ends at the ocean. The trail and its historic trailblazers represent one of the pioneering achievements in American history.  It speaks to the strength and determination of our predecessors, who sacrificed so much to build the west.

Today we can cover the distance that Lewis and Clark spent a lifetime traversing, in mere hours by plane.  These and other pioneers blazed the trail with guts and brawn and laid the foundations of many of our great western cities.

The pioneering responsibility falls upon those who see something in the distance that has never been reached before. The trails aren’t prepared for pioneers, and the route is never clear.  But nevertheless, the pioneers must trudge on, or discovery fails. The investment of time and resource falls upon those who blaze trails for the future to the benefit of all followers.

There are families in the world for which distance is like a great prairie without a trail, or a forest without a clear path.  They long for a trail to closer relationships and a path that leads to better personal connection.

In many ways the pioneers of social networking have carved a passageway for connecting families, separated by distance.  They blazed a trail that has now become the super-highway of interaction over the great divide. Like all pioneers, the internet explorers used guts, determination and vision to lead the way.

In this fast-pasted world of technology, we sometimes forget to thank the modern Lewis & Clark teams that look beyond today and push forward toward the opportunities just out of normal view.

We can thank Amazon for teaching us to shop in places all over the world… eBay for building the bridge to distant sales opportunities… Google for delivering information for us without boundary…  PayPal for surmounting the many trust issues between strangers…  And, Facebook for carving the roadway between family and friends…

As the pioneers on the new path of internet gift-giving, we take heart that others have endured the tough times and have prepared much of the needed infrastructure for this journey.  We thank the internet pioneers that have made our journey easier.

We stand ready to blaze the trail for better gift-giving over any distance.

THEY ASK:
How do you take a regular group activity and turn it into an online mimic of the real thing?

Further; how do you turn the mimic of a traditional gifting venue into a revenue source for online sales activities?

Let’s look at eBay…

First… Look at what it takes to do a regular off-line sales auction:

The auction requires that many details are completed for a successful sale.
* There is gathering of the items for the sale.
* There is the cataloging and detailing the descriptions of each item.
* There are preparations for storing and then displaying the items for sale.
* There are the bidder lists and the invitations to come for bidding.
* There is the auctioneer who must be scheduled and compensated.
* There are the preparations for the auction ring and the bidding area.
* There are the multiple functions that support the day of the actual sale.
* There is the money exchange between sellers, bidders and the auction house.
* There is the out-bound freight of all the items that are sold.

How could all of these complex traditional activities be translated into an online version of a real auction?

Ask eBay!

Before eBay proved that some very complex tasks could be organized and understood by online bidders and sellers, nobody considered it possible.

Today, do we question if a traditional selling venue, like an auction, could be built and work effectively online?

No… We point to eBay!
Who would have believed in 1995 that the auction niche would become such a powerful force in today’s internet?

Now… Let’s talk about parties…

Let’s look at what it takes to host a party for a group who want to share real gifts:

* There is the scheduling of the date.
* There is the invitation list and the distribution of the invitations.
* There are the gift shopping and wrapping tasks.
* There is organizing and decorating the room for the event.
* There are refreshments and maybe some desert or drinks.
* There might be party favors or prizes that need purchasing.
* There are the party activities to plan and organize.
* There are the welcoming and the other host duties at the event.
* There are introductions; there is crowd control and some small talk.
* There is the gift table to manage.
* There is the clean-up and the thank you notes to send out.

How could all of these complex traditional activities be translated into an online version of a real gift party?

…Get inspiration from eBay… Then proceed to demonstrate that online parties can mimic the same experiences that family and friends enjoy when they gather together to share real gifts.

In 2009 AlbinoPhant is demonstrating what is possible for the gift party niche.
PartyWeDo seeks to leverage the positive experiences of Ebay, Amazon, PayPal, Facebook and others to build a catalog of online party activities to support the gift selling and giving processes.

Moving the traditional party online will take some time to develop, as people learn that it is possible. But eBay has demonstrated that even complex traditional activities can be converted into web success.

There are over 300 million people in the US that purchase or receive gifts several times each year. PartyWeDo is positioned to help many of them buy and pass gifts around in a fun-filled party atmosphere.

Ask eBay if that can be done…