Bonanza, which launched as an alternative to eBay in 2008, has a new owner. Quincy Faison acquired the online marketplace from Bonanza’s parent company, Alloy.dev.
Bill Harding launched “Bonanzle” in 2008 and, 2 years later, raised funding, changed the name to Bonanza, and acquired handmade marketplace 1000 Markets.
Harding said he decided to sell Bonanza now because he couldn’t give it his full attention since he’s been focusing on two other products, Amplenote and GitClear, since 2020.
Quincy Faison will take on the role of CEO, running Bonanza with Katy Ward (head of HR and compliance) and Sarah Tranum (General Manager of Bonanza Marketplace), “with Bill remaining an ear to talk to,” Faison said.
The new CEO plans to shift Bonanza to be more marketing focused. “We are going to drive more traffic. We are going to embrace social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok,” Faison said. The company will also help sellers produce more videos to get more eyeballs, and it will give sellers more tools to run their business on and off the Bonanza platform.
Bonanza plans to launch an ad program that will allow sellers to reach potential buyers at an affordable rate. The Demand Side Platform (DSP) is an automated programmatic advertising platform where sellers can purchase and manage ad inventories across multiple ad sources.
“This is important because this allows us to advertise on non traditional ad sources,” Faison explained. “Our sellers have unique product in which some cases there’s only 1 in inventory. Traditional advertising can be too expensive, so our goal is to get their product seen on these non traditional sites that target the consumer who have a high propensity to purchase their product, in a cost effective way.”
He said because those ad sources have less competition, it will bring down the Cost per Click significantly.
Bonanza will also create a program that allows sellers to borrow working capital to invest in revenue-generating activities that structure the payback strictly based on revenue generated that month.
Bonanza’s new owner and CEO began his career with IBM over 20 years ago, focused on small and midsized businesses. He launched his first business at the age of 25, which in time built an ERP system focused on helping ecommerce companies manage their businesses — from financials to purchasing to inventory optimization to warehouse management to manufacturing to selling online via their own websites and marketplaces.
Why Bonanza? Faison said it shares the same DNA of focusing on helping smaller to midsized merchants, being customer-centric, and not afraid to go up against the big boys. “The staff genuinely loves their sellers and the consumers that purchase from them.”
And the feeling is mutual – “Sellers love Bonanza,” he said, “and we are going to continue to be the company that Bill started 14 years ago with his vision and mission.”
As for Bonanza’s founder, Bill Harding, he will continue to work on Alloy.dev’s remaining products, Amplenote and GitClear, which have been growing 2-3x per year. “It’s my hope that it will only be a matter of time until we can create an audience for “better note taking and task management” and “better programmer code review” the same way we created an audience for sellers that wanted a friendlier alternative to eBay.”
He said Bonanza has a stellar team that shone during the pandemic. “Quincy and I are very aligned in wanting to emphasize stellar customer service and maintaining Bonanza’s reputation as the most seller-friendly online marketplace. But unlike me, he will be able to dedicate a great deal of attention, focus, and monetary resources into making those things happen.”
Harding said Bonanza has had year-over-year positive growth in sales for the past few months and noted that Bonanza is and has been a profitable company for the past five years.
Faison said the transaction was backed by Revtek Capital and a few private investors; his holding company, Hanson Enterprises, retains over 80% of the ownership. The selling price was not disclosed.
The company informed its users of the new ownership on the Bonanza blog this afternoon.
The big shame about the ecommerce world is that nice sites such as Bonanza and eCrater are virtually ignored while the troublesome sites get all the traffic.
Sounds like a reincarnation of Fleecebay. Just a different name.
Hello Quincy
ADVICE :
Don’t be an Ebay or an Etsy.
Don’t get listed on the Stock Market.
Be the New Money Engine of the People.
Take NO MORE than 3% of the selling price of the Item Only.
Allow Personal Check and Money order payments along with Credit Card.
Let us hook up Our choice of payment processor.
Recognize that the Sellers and Artists are OUR customers.
WE are Your Customers.
I’m available if you need more positive input…..
@The End;
About a month ago I left a snarky comment on Bonanza’s website with regards to how they could do better and also how I wasn’t too confident that they would. A week ago, mid-March, I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize and ignored it like I do all the time, assuming it to be spam.
That caller left a voicemail which I happened to listen to and it turned out to be none other than Quincy Faison, asking me to call him so he could tell me (a Bonanza seller since 2015, when I left evilbay) how he was going to improve Bonanza.
I texted him in reply saying that if he wanted to hear how us sellers felt, he should read ECommercebytes.com, referring him to this article in particular and to your comment (The End) in specific.
He never got back to me, a sure sign that:
A) He probably doesn’t read or follow this website
B) He probably wasn’t interested in what we sellers had to say.
It was a good try…
PS: We are probably brothers from another mother as I’ve been echoing your comments for YEARS now, especially your postscript about how we SELLERS are the REAL CUSTOMERS…..
Correction :
Recognize that the Buyers are OUR customers. WE Sellers and Artists are Your Customers.
More marketing focused…
There’s a big disconnect here
I can put a ball on my nose but I’m not going to do it.
I will be back
I would really like to know what their sales are. I have 10,000 items on bonanza (transferred from ebay). ZERO sales on bonanza, even when I signed up for their 30% promoted ad option.
I have had items listed out on Bonanza for several years and have sold probably four items. People keep saying eCrater and Bonanza are where we should be selling. But do a Google search for any item you’re looking for. You will not find Bonanza or eCrater items. You WILL find eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Etsy etc.
I tried Bonanza for an ENTIRE year, and had zero sales, despite having a robust inventory, along with great pictures and item descriptions. I had zero support from Bonanza staff. We need another strong marketplace,not sure if Bonanza is it.
Been on Bonanza since they started as Bonanzle. Have sold a total of 4 things in all those years, even though I always have hundreds of items for sale on the site. Unfortunately, the reason more sellers don’t go there is there just aren’t the buyers.
Seems Ebay and Etsy have some kind of Special Deal with Google.
Hence the special Trick Etsy Product Links that instantly remove 12% of our profit when someone clicks on the blasted link.
eCrater and Bonanza can easily get more people to our shops only if Father Google lets us.
This whole internet selling thing has to be executed Very Carefully so as not to infect the eCommerce Eco System.