The Commodity Factor

The Commodity Factor is my 2007/2008 project.It was my first flirt with the idea of an e-shop and I am happy to say that dream is still alive in my head.It might not be on top of my priority projects,it being 2 years cold (not old).Commodity Factor is one of those projects which as the concept source I must admit I did not plan for it and I mismanaged it.

The Factor was created to trade in general commodities but mostly in electronic products.For starters to trade immediately it had to be an e-bay shop to start with then I would spread it to an agent on Kalahari and then at some point it would become a stand alone e-shop.

The first mistake was going into ebay without much knowledge than the millionaire stories told by faceless people.Nothing wrong with ebay especially but there is a lot to learn before one plunges.This is why they have what they call the ebay university and it makes sense that one acquaints themselves with it before going far.Knowledge must be stage one in not only my projects but yours too.

Then after ignorantly setting up the ebay part of The Commodity Factor I ordered some bulk goods which consisted of home phones .It was two huge boxes ,so huge the delivery man just left them in the front garden ;all full of 100 phones.I had to stock take which was easy but also resolved to test each and every phone that it basically could call and receive.That done I took photos of each type and uploaded and set the products up.

My first critic was my friend who thought the pictures (some taken from a mobile )were amateurish.Some Products were not too clear.Anywhere bids and purchases came up and so were problems .I then realised with ebay costs and all not selling was not just zero income but actually negative income.I still paid ebay fees and subscription for the shop and disaster was visible even before long.

Then the reality of human patronage took over,Suddenly I had plenty of products reported not working despite testing each product before dispatch.Naively I would just send a replacement and that meant selling two for the price of one..a definite loss.The Commodity Factor just had to suspend trade to go to school.It was becoming a PR disaster and was slowly creating a rogue trader out of itself.Products up into the loft and Commodity Factor bid farewell to ebay even after collecting some certificates for reaching certain targets.