This marks the third instance in which Terapeak data has been used by the Journal. Last year WSJ called upon Advanced for data support on a Tiger Woods article, as well as in 2009 when it initially asked for input regarding a high-end Dallas clothing store selling its excess merchandise on eBay. Advanced is proud to be a trusted source for accurate and timely pricing information on items sold in secondary markets. Click the above links to view the articles, and consider the limitless applications for Advanced’s data and APIs and how they can be put to work in your business.

Advanced board chair Mr. Ian Stewart, QC, announced this investment today on behalf of the board of directors of the company. “This investment by Georgian Partners represents a significant recognition by the investment community in the future value of our business,” commented Mr. Stewart. “Also, we welcome the addition of two representatives of Georgian Partners to our board of directors.”

“We support Advanced’s vision of providing e-commerce merchants with valuable insights into real-time online product popularity, sales and pricing trends along with advanced sales reporting, proven to help increase GMV,” said Mr. Simon Chong, Managing Partner of Georgian Partners. “We have been impressed by the global adoption of Terapeak solutions as well as the company’s demonstrated ability to aggregate massive amounts of data in real time and deliver this as an SaaS solution to over 450,000 merchants.”

“AERS chose to work with Georgian Partners because of their specific market knowledge of big data and applied analytics as well as their team of operational domain experts from the enterprise software and information management space who can support the management team in accelerating growth,” said Fred Speckeen, CEO of AERS.  “The funding and guidance from Georgian Partners will allow us to expand our product offering and truly establish ourselves as a global leader in real-time ecommerce analytics.  Our goal is to become the single source for aggregated, real-time, on-demand data that represents a large percentage of all online commerce. Together we are bringing what were formerly ‘big company’ data analytics and market research to all ecommerce merchants.”

About Advanced

Advanced is a leader in ecommerce market research and payment analytics and is the sole licensor of eBay data globally. The company provides Terapeak-branded SaaS solutions to e-commerce merchants around the world.  Terapeak products aggregate over 20% of all online commerce sales data to help merchants make faster, more-profitable business decisions based on real-time market trends, pricing, and transaction data.

www.terapeak.com
www.analytics.terapeak.com
www.researchadvanced.ca

About Georgian Partners

Georgian Partners is a growth equity firm investing in expansion and later stage information intensive software and information aggregation companies. Georgian Partners leverages its capital and its team of strong global operators to support the growth objectives of its investments. Georgian Partners is based in Toronto, Ontario. For more information on Georgian Partners, go to www.georgianpartners.com.

For more information:

Tim Dubroy
Director of Marketing and Communications
AERS and Terapeak
778-224-1002
tim@aers.ca

Terapeak is like the Billboard of eBay thanks to its Hot Media search feature. Above is this month’s Top 5 Music list which you may find either outrageous or validating. That’s the beauty of this list, it’s based entirely on pure, unbridled sales without dwelling for a moment on what some hipster might consider “good.”

Rounding out the number five spot is arguably the most talented individual ever to wear a lampshade for a hat, the one and only Lady Gaga. She probably should have gone on Dr. Phil long ago but she sure can belt out a tune.

In fourth, Susan Boyle is the 49 year old contest winner who dreamed big and put on a jaw-dropping performance for British television. She sang her way to stardom without the typical sexuality angle played by most. Seriously, like none whatsoever.

Kidz Bop Kids sing their little hearts out in 3^rd, and if that surprises you keep in mind that child singers have had a firm place in our world since The Jackson 5.

The boys from Sgt. Pepper’s are staying legendary in the number two spot and it should also be noted that they never drop below the top five. So if you ever swing by and don’t see The Beatles on our list you should look up – the sky might be falling.

Finally at number one is the incorrigible Eminem. You may find his subject matter to be in the absolute poorest of taste, but you can’t deny his success.

Retail store sales are one thing, but eBay is the biggest, broadest online marketplace on the planet and Terapeak is the score keeper. Items that are in high demand here are truly selling above the rest.

Tera-Speak: We want to know your Top 5 artists, leave a comment with your list!

Android has finally conquered the smartphone market in the United States. Smartphones running Google’s Android operating system accounted for one-third of all smartphones purchased in the April-June period. Terapeak Market Research confirms this and drills deeper into the smartphone market. The average eBay sale price for an Android phone is $305 dollars and the rate of successful sales is 70%. Compare this to the average price of a Blackberry device, $103 dollars with a successful sales rate of only 33.5%, and it’s easy to see how Android has edged its way to the top. The graph below compares the sales trends of the two brands over a 90 day period.

Terapeak can also provide insight into consumer interest. By examining the top searches on eBay we find that the iPhone is the third most-popular search overall. Despite this high ranking, Apple still lags behind Android and Blackberry in phone sales. But with eBay and every brick and mortar electronics retailer selling premium-priced iPhone accessories by the truckload, and the booming app store, it’s clear that Apple is interested in more than just selling phones.

A quick glance at Terapeak Market Research could have allowed one to predict this news well before it was reported. The chart above lists the top four searches on eBay.com. Apple products occupy three of these coveted spaces and the iPhone holds strong in third amid controversy.

In the midst of what has been called “Antenna-gate,” an antenna malfunction with iPhone 4, Terapeak provides a clear indication that interest in the iPhone isn’t slowing down. As eBay is an ideal sample market to draw insight from, it’s easy to predict a company’s revenues when they hold rank in the top search positions.

According to Terapeak Market Research, which tracks listings and sales on eBay, more people are selling the game on the auction site after the incident, but more people are also buying them, albeit for slightly less ($35.90 vs $36.68).

This is not the first time the WSJ has used Terapeak to illustrate a sales trend; in April 2009, the publication mentioned Terapeak in an article about a high-end Dallas clothing store selling its excess merchandise on eBay.

Last week, it reached the top.

This is a proud moment for AERS and Terapeak, and yet another positive reflection of all the hard work done by all parties involved over the years. It is an honor to be considered among the class of so many terrific Victoria-based companies, and to be recognized by a community like Techvibes.

Congratulations, team.

This new service, available exclusively via the eBay Selling Manager Applications platform, will pair AERS/Terapeak’s data analysis expertise with WorthPoint’s “Worthopedia”, an extensive online database that compiles antiques and collectibles data from eBay, auction houses, and other online marketplaces. Terapeak Collectibles will operate much like Terapeak’s existing eBay research tool, which allows users to search for specific products, and then see valuable analytics to help optimize his or her eBay listings.

Because antiques and collectibles require such specialized research—that is, it can be difficult to price an item that exists only in small quantities—the pairing of WorthPoint’s rich database with AERS/Terapeak’s delivery channel should be beneficial to all relevant sellers. Now, with access to the entire Worthopedia, sellers of ceramics, coins, stamps and other collectibles will have a market research option specifically suited to their needs.

To access Terapeak Collectibles, sellers must first be subscribers of eBay Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro. The application may then be added at this link.

A valuable asset to both professional and non-professional eBay sellers, the Terapeak iPhone app allows users to see average prices, listing totals and sell-through rates for each search. Results are viewable and sortable by end price, start price and number of bids, and can be filtered by category, minimum end price and maximum end price. The application is the first and only eBay market research tool available to iPhone users, and is being launched as a holiday gift to all North American subscribers of Terapeak Marketplace Research.

“The iPhone platform has reshaped the face of business, and we’re excited to reward our users with this exciting new tool,” says AERS/Terapeak CEO Fred Speckeen. “eBay, especially, is a massive liquid market, where consumer appetites change more rapidly than anywhere else. Sellers need to be able to run their businesses in real time, based on real data, and that’s a field Terapeak has been specializing in for years. Our research shows that Terapeak users enjoy significantly higher profits than non-Terapeak users, and now, with this iPhone app, that advantage has been mobilized. Terapeak is in the hands of subscribers anytime, anywhere: at garage sales, trade shows, thrift stores, wherever. And these million-dollar opportunities exist each and every day.”

Fred Speckeen, AERS CEO, explains: “There is tremendous value locked up in every ecommerce merchant’s transaction data; information that could help every merchant make more timely and more profitable decisions. These new SaaS products from AERS will facilitate unlocking that value in ways that help merchants make quicker, better and more profitable decisions based on their own real-time transaction data. Having proven similar products and services focused on the eBay merchant community, it makes sense to expand our offering to provide similar services and applications to the even larger community of PayPal merchants.”

AERS PayPal Merchant Applications will include Terapeak Mobile Merchant(TM), a real-time business analytics application for the Apple iPhone, and Terapeak Merchant Analytics(TM), a real-time business monitoring and analytics SaaS application. Speckeen says, “Both of these apps are designed to provide Merchants with insights that support faster, more profitable decisions. They do so by allowing PayPal merchants to monitor and view their businesses and crucial analytics in real-time from wherever they are.”

“We’re thrilled that the leader in eBay seller research is now expanding its services to non-eBay businesses,” said Osama Bedier, PayPal’s vice president of platform. “AERS is using PayPal’s information and reporting APIs to turn a merchant’s data into powerful and actionable analytics that can even be accessed on your iPhone. It’s a great example of our developers building on each others’ ideas and creating services for the developer community.”

Founded on proprietary, very large database techniques and well-honed development skills, Advanced Ecommerce Research Systems Inc. provides ecommerce-targeted PaaS and SaaS services. Established in 2004, AERS is a profitable and rapidly growing company. Its brands include Terapeak, the number one eBay seller research tool (www.terapeak.com) and ResearchAdvanced ecommerce data licensing, providing the global market research and finance communities with fresh, daily data and insights into ecommerce transactions and trends (www.researchadvanced.com).

For more information on PayPal Innovate 2009, please visit https://www.paypal-communications.com/innovate2009/index.html