To speed up the buying process on Ahwooga, we are going to add in a redirect script from the registration page so new buyers no longer have to navigate back to the product they wanted to purchase.
Currently when a non-registered buyer decides they would like to make a purchase from a site vendor, they are first directed to register for the site so the site can pass along shipping and billing information between the two parties involved in the transaction. Once the registration has been completed, the new user was redirected back to Ahwooga’s main page.

The challenge we kept seeing while viewing our live traffic feed was, sometimes a buyer had a hard time navigating back to the product they wanted to purchase. With that double negative, it’s time for a change.

So within the next couple weeks, the buyers after completing their registration page will be redirected back to the original product page they left to go to register from.  This of course will solve the navigation issue we were seeing.

We will keep you posted.

Over the next week or two our customers may be contacted by one of our staff members to see if there is anything we can help you with for your Ahwooga store, If you have not been on the site lately now is the time to come aboard and grow with us totally FREE.

Our main goal has always been to have an automotive site large enough to compete with the majors that has the flexibility sellers need. The only way to do this is to have the parts on Ahwooga that buyers are looking for.

Our staff can either re-activate your listings already within our database or we can re-duplicate your listings you have on eBay currently.

We also have big plans for SEMA this November. We are very excited of the new changes and hope to chat to you soon.

Google product search announced that they require more information for every product submitted to them. Here at Ahwooga HQ we redesigned the information extracted from the sites database to create a proper feed.  Each feed is then reviewed by a staff member to verify it complies with Google’s guidelines for product search and uploaded. We are still in the progress of the uploads to be finished prior to their deadlines.
The uploads we have completed appear to have an increased amount of traffic to their listings so we are moving quickly to complete the massive task.

The A2PI (Ahwooga Application Programming Interface) This will allow us to create applications that will connect the site to other areas of opportunity such as third party providers like Channel Advisor.

The AP2U Ahwooga Products/Parts Uploader. This will be a desktop tool where new sellers to the site can either start from scratch or use existing listing from other market place sites. With this tool and an internet connection, sellers will be able to bulk upload products from their computers to the site. There will also be modification to sellers admin areas for bulk changes.

Talks have already begun with third party providers to add Ahwooga as another sales channel for their sellers. With these progressive changes in the works, growth for Ahwooga will be guaranteed for years to come.
As always we will continue you to keep everyone posted.

Unlike other marketplace sites that only have product appear in their search results, Ahwooga also delivers classifieds. This gives our buying users a more robust result when performing a search.

Classified ads on Ahwooga have a wide variety of options to best fit a sellers needs to project their offering.  Products, Vehicles, Services, Events, Employment opportunities and so on, can require these specific options.

Prices for classifieds;
90 day ads for Wanted, Services and Events are Free
Non Member Sellers – Listing a product or vehicle is only $1.00
Membership Sellers – Each listing is included with in you membership level.

If you have any questions about putting a classified ad on Ahwooga.com, please contact me at don@ahwooga.com

To Don and all the folks at Ahwooga.com,

I just wanted to personally take the time to wish all of you a Very Happy and Prosperous 2011!  And to thank you for all your help and support in 2010, you guys are the best and no one has more commitment to, or better customer service then Ahwooga.  You guys go the extra mile and do it in such a minimal time frame.  It could not have been any easier to begin selling on your site.  Not to mention the immediate traffic and sales too!  I could not be any happier with ahwooga.com and hope to continue to have such a wonderful relationship and experience in 2011.

Sincerely,

Darrell Kiehm

DK Superstore

Darrell, Thank you for the kind words, we sure do appreciate you being on Ahwooga.com.

We knew from the beginning that it was going to take having a diverse inventory of products on the site to make Ahwooga.com successful. While we have no way of tracking sales and inquires  that have been through telephone contact, we are able to view reports from on-site sales.

We have tallied up total site sales among all vendors by month and quarter. The following is what has us so excited.

The forth quarter represented 56% of total year sales for dollars and 41% for number of all items sold.
December so far has produced 24.8% of total dollars in sales and 16% of number of items sold.
Site sales began to accelerate in October which represented 14.3% of the annual. November continued the trend with 17.3% of the annual and December should end at close to 26%.

The last 90 days also represented 44% of all new registered users on the site. That is also a tremendous forecaster for future growth.

We would like to thank all of our vendors who have helped in the creation of the site. We look forward to continuing the relationships we have built and the future growth of  ”Ahwooga Your New Online Automotive Marketplace”.

Wow,

It’s hard to believe it has been a year already.

We launched Ahwooga with the idea of creating a place where people could buy and sell their motor vehicle related items without all the rules and the un-even playing field. It’s really nice when something goes just as planned. The rapid growth in the number of items listed on the site is a testament to the vision we launched this site with.

The experience for both buyers and sellers has been beyond positive. We have actually made friends in the industry and with our open door, hands on approach we’re sure to make many more as we move into year two.

Starting a site like Ahwooga is a very difficult thing, especially when facing giants in the industry but our grass roots approach has proven to be popular and profitable for many of the sellers on our site. Each month has exceeded the sales of the previous month and there is no sign of that train slowing down anytime soon.

The growth potential of the site remains extremely high and as we move forward we know that our pricing model won’t put a tremendous burden on the people that sell on our site and that in turn will present a more cost friendly environment for buyers on Ahwooga.

Just think, in November 09 we were hauling our Packard Wagon and 1000 shop towels to Scottsdale for our first Good Guys show, with only an index page on the site to a mere 11 months later we were at SEMA with 160,000 parts on the site!

To be able to establish a footprint in a field that is dominated by many big players is a direct result of the great people that sell and buy on our site. If it wasn’t sincere, it wouldn’t be successful and of that we are proud.

We would like to thank all of you who have taken the time to grow with us. Your faith in what our site stands for is truly a blessing to us.

We look forward to the future with great excitement.

Have a wonderful holiday season! We will see you all next year.

-Team Ahwooga

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NU3b7GDgPc

There are times when you need to insert html into a spread sheet to prepare it for bulk uploading into a website. We wanted to show you how it can be done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qpzvMgB6Ls

These are some simple excel formulas you can use to create listings for marketplace sites or newer websites that have bulk uploading though csv or tab sheets. I hope these tips can help you.

In preparation for the upcoming SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the core staff at Ahwooga HQ sat down to map out our plans for the show. As usual our conversations turn to discussions about long-term goals and ultimately, how do we take care of our sellers as the site continues to grow.

This encompassed two phases, rewarding existing customers for their loyalty and recruiting new members. So after some kicking, screaming, arm wrestling and name calling we all agreed on a new, less expensive and simpler pricing structure.

Existing customers account levels have already been adjusted to the new accounts and all are either going to be saving money or able to list higher quantities for the same amount. Some of our customers actually benefited both ways, and that made us feel pretty good.

Next week we will be at SEMA, having fun and getting the word out about the site. We hope our efforts bring many many new members on board and we’re glad we were able to do something to take care of our existing members too.

We will be away from the office all next week, but still available by e-mail.

Follow us on Facebook to see our first SEMA experience.   http://www.facebook.com/Ahwooga

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e62mVUw1-0k

Like any site, once you get used to the functionality they are easy to use. I created a video that explains how to use the advanced search feature built in to Ahwooga.com.  Have some fun with it and give it a test drive.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=74rcyzhC-o0

For sellers on the site, one of the best admin option that are available to you is the editable invoice. This makes it so you can adjust the amount a buyer will pay you if they want to add a product or adjust the way you ship the product to them. This option also creates a way for you to accept an offer that a buyer makes. Here at Ahwooga HQ, we want to make sure it’s easy for you to sell your products.
As always, if you have any questions, please get a hold of me.

Both of these were top level and did not have sub-categories and they were becoming hard to navigate with the amount of products they had in them. The staff at Ahwooga HQ moved the products into the correct sub level categories already.
Here are what they look like now with the new Sub categories in place.

Site speed has been the other issue we have been dealing with here at Ahwooga HQ. So along with the hardware upgrades, we also needed to tweak some of the setting that actually deliver the site to your browser. Here are some of the results in the short time the changes have been in effect.

The Good;
(Week to week comparison)
Pageviews  +20.73%
Bounce Rate  - 1.46%
Page Per Visit  +13.42%
Avg Time on Site  +5.87%

The Not so good;
Sessions IDs were timing out too quickly. (Friday & Saturday Morn)
This news blog and the new Ahwooga warehouse crashed. (Saturday Night)
Saturday morning we had an image delivery issue. (Saturday Morning)
All of these issues were fixed by Saturday by 9:30am.

I hope we didn’t inconvenience any one too bad during these important changes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBqUpXNl4x4

There are some new features with in My Account>Listing>Preferences. A user can now preform bulk changes to certain components of their listings in bulk.

The Changes that can now be made are to the;
State
Zip Code
Currency accepted
Pay Pal address
Payment process
State tax rate

This is perfect for the person who moves their business or want to use another pay pal address. We even had a customer in Arizona who had to change their tax rate since the state added a few percent on. He was able to delete the old rate and bulk change  to the new rate.

If anyone has any questions about these changes, feel free to get a hold of me.

Team Ahwooga is constantly looking for ways to not only improve the site but also improve the user experience. We feel that these 2 things will improve the seller performance and increase seller visibility.

To that end we have created a web based portal of information we call the Ahwooga Warehouse. The warehouse combines a full blown forum, tech articles and manuals, an interactive calendar and a picture/video gallery.

Visitors can take in all the information we put into the site and they can also contribute by adding additional content to the site.

How can this benefit you?

By participating in the forums, galleries and the creation of content, you will be helping to generate more traffic to you through increased visibility before a wide potential customer base. Through your minimal efforts the entire site can benefit greatly, so please click the following link and join us in the warehouse.

The site also features a banner management system that is set up to drive traffic to the main Ahwooga site and to seller storefronts.

Please take a few minutes to browse around. We are open to any suggestions, so feel free to contact us.