ChannelAdvisor said over 200 online sellers attended its second Marathon conference held May 11-12, 2005, in Research Triangle Park. Marathon 2005 was devoted to small and medium sized businesses, key online marketplaces such as eBay and Overstock, and shopping engines and paid-search providers including Yahoo Search Marketing, PriceGrabber, CNet Networks and Shopzilla.
Attendees came from North America, Germany and Japan to strategize future business needs, learn new technology, functionality and preview the latest small business solutions including FedEx, BuySafe and PayPal.
The conference program featured a keynote from Rock Bottom Golf on taking your business to the next level. General sessions were held on Small Business Search Strategies, eBay and PayPal, Shipping and Fulfillment, Staffing Your Business for Growth, Multi-Channel Marketplace Trends and Overstock.com. In addition, there was a panel discussion on Shopping Engines and Strategies to Increase Traffic and Acquire New Customers.
Expert roundtable discussions focused on Shopping Engines and Paid Search, Shipping and Fulfillment, International Expansion, Overstock.com, Merchandising Strategies, ChannelAdvisor Stores, Implementation, Integration and Launch, Scheduling, Non-Paying Buyer / Unpaid Items, PayPal, and Ethical Technologies. Sponsors of the Marathon conference included Overstock Auctions, BuySafe, PayPal, eBay Keywords, FedEx and CyberSource.
Overstock reportedly revealed at the conference a somewhat stealth program that gives a limited amount of free basic listings to select powersellers as a prelude to a monthly subscription service that will be rolled out in the future.
