Let's make eBay the second banana
Those who visit Bonanza after this March will notice that we've put a new look and feel on the site. Our old logo (and name) had remained unchanged since late 2010, when we moved from "Bonanzle" to "Bonanza." Over the past year, we've analyzed how we might replicate the 10x jump in traffic & sales since the name change. Is there an even bigger leap to make, to take us from hundreds of millions up to billions?
I'm very excited to peel back the curtain and present to you the new marketplace we think you'll go bananas for: bananaza.com!
"your most fruitful shopping experience"
Changing our name is not a matter we take lightly, and we will be transitioning gradually from the casual "banana" background you see today, to the fully realized bananaza.com.
Do the math.
In spite of our reservations, the points in favor of this move were too compelling to ignore:
- Freshen up stale identity (unchanged since 2010)
- Piggyback off a well-known concept (the banana) to help people's brains easily remember our brand
- Ready-made color scheme
- Favorable connotations: convenient, well-priced, delicious
- Lets us also freshen tagline: "Your most fruitful shopping experience"
Even with all these points in favor, we were still tentative about the technical overhead and distraction that this change would bring. If we were going to do this, we'd need hard proof that this improvement was going to drive serious sales growth for our sellers. That's when our intern happened to run a bit of math:
As of 2013, the sales of apples to bananas were similar within 10%. If we then use this ratio as a proxy to project Bananaza's future growth, the resultant $658bn market cap is nearly 10x eBay's current market cap of $70bn. Our sellers would be the world's most successful.
Of course there are no guarantees in business -- there's still much work to drive Bananaza to the $658bn juggernaut it can become -- but many were skeptical about Steve Jobs when Apple started.
Rollout plan
We have begun the rudimentary rollout of our new branding. You can check it out in the logo, from the Background Burner, and whenever you login.*
Happy Background Burning!
From here we will need to gradually transition the color scheme, start redirecting pages to the new domain, and do more surfing for free downloadable clip art. We anticipate the total time for transition could range from 6-12 months, but we do not anticipate any action to be needed on your part to enjoy the fruits of this update. All existing booths will be transitioned automatically.
* Only implemented for users who have logged in at least 10 times in past
Can you help?
Changes this big don't happen without feedback from our community, so we are looking forward to hearing your ideas on how we can make this transition as smooth as possible for you.
Do you have favorite fruits that we should consider for adding to the new cart (aka "fruit basket")? Maybe someone with a brother at Chichita, Dole or one of the larger banana manufacturers who could be tempted to make an investment in Bananaza?
We've got the seed planted, but we'll need your help for it grow big and yellow.
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78 responses to Let's make eBay the second banana
I like it. The stalking banana will help drive home the message. Since today’s culture is more receptive to meme’s and text talk this looks like it will get noticed. Other than changing business cards and domain names, I think this might be the new “fresh” approach to help market this site.
April fools day???
April Fools (I sincerely hope!)
If it’s the 1 April joke, that’s nice, great, you’ve made us smile.
If NOT – you’ve just terrified us, really!
A lot of people would not be very happy with new bananaland (uff, ba-nana, naanaaa, BAN-ENOUGH).
Bonanza from Bonanzle was a perfect change – shorter name, with very well known meaning, perfect for an upcoming market.
Just play 30 seconds TV advertisment of Bonanza site with original “Bonanza” film music and you will have here all Selleres and Buyers you wish:)
The banana cursor is stupid! Epic fail! I will not return until it is gone. I wish people would grow up! Trying to run a business. Not play childish games.
I think it’s great,may be a joke but i think plain banana
just like apple would actually bring people in and make them remember
April Fools…
I never know what to expect on April Fool’s Day. Good one!
The banana cursor really took me by surprise and gave me a good chuckle, I called all my family to look at it. But not so keen on the name Bananaza.
April Fool’s (I hope)
I don’t know about the rest of Bananaza users, but I’m going “ape” for it.
Cute April fool’s day joke! Love the banana cursor.
A “Bonanaza” tradition! :-)
I would hope that you would have spent money on promoting Bonanza to get more people to this site instead of changing the name if you are serious and this is not an April Fool’s joke.
The new roll out plan sounds very a-peel-ing.
Happy April Fool’s Day!
LOL knew you all wouldn’t disappoint Love the stalking banana
P.S. I still miss Bizzy maybe you could someday resurrect her just for old times sake.???
Brilliant branding with Bananas. The possibilities are endless…A home page banner could read “Welcome to the Banana Republic of Bonanza.” at least for a while during the transition. And it might be a good time to reintroduce Banana Money for payments. Oh, and Banana Chips instead of tokens!
Suddenly have the craving for a bowl of cereal
There’s really no comparison between apples and bananas
I’m not sure about a name change yet. We live in a different generation, so maybe it will click.
Love the tagline! That says what and who Bonanza (Bananza) is!
Is the banana cursor for April Fool’s Day? I believe we should lose it or lose people. It’s frustrating and inhibits navigation.
The banana curser is driving me bonkers over here. I have been thinking about eating a banana all morning over here.
It is so awesome to be back on Bonanza just in time for April 1st. Settled down with coffee and came straight to the blog this morning.
But one must consider, did you run the numbers on an apple and oranges comparison as it relates to the concept of the banana/apple comparison?
Phaedra
Love the banana cursor.
I think it stinks. Hope it’s a joke otherwise it will cost some Bonanza users extra expense to have to change all their advertising. And I for one will not continue to list Bonanza in my advertising if I have to change all my advertising formats…….
Thanks for the laughs on this very punny day!
What ever happens,we can float on by on the “banana boat”,up stream.April fools joke ,me thinks!
Happy April Fool’s Day!
At first, I thought, “Oh dear! We will sound like a crazy grocery store!”
Get to work and stop playing with the computers or we’ll put you in “time out!”
Happy April Fool’s Day!
Love the banana cursor!
Good to have an excuse to chuckle today.
Happy Day! Make the banana cursor a permanent option. 
Sure beats stuffing the live dog in a mailing box! Remember that one?
Boyz just wanna’ have fun!
Just now reading this, I had already made a post about the bananas cursor, I love it!!!
where is a link to do background burns?
Maybe you could get some co-op advertising funds from Dole and Chiquita.
Love the banana cursor and even if it’s your usual April Fools joke, rather like the idea. We all know that Ebay is the pits!
Only if Bizzy is the top banana and we get a discount on banana bunkers
Thankfully this years April Fools joke is a cute and harmless one. Thanks boys.
I remember when I logged in years back and the site looked exactly like E*ay on April 1st! :-)
I find this fruit offensive in the least as an advertised logo. It’s sexual implications are a down-turn. How do I turn the banana cursor off? Not only does it not highlight information correctly, the miss-clicks it causes are aggravating. This might drive me right back to Ebay.
I loooove bananas! So too the banana tagline and the banana cursor! They made my morning! Bill, you are the banana of my eye.
The cursor is driving me crazy. Not a fan of it, but can adjust. I hope
I hope this is indeed and April Fool’s joke. The logo is unattractive. The banana cursor is annoying. Looking forward to April 2nd and this all goes away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not liking it both the logo and cursor!
I hope this is just an April Fools thing! I hate the banana cursor…
I would assume this is an April Fools Prank which is hilarious!
I’m so bummed I’m not getting the banana cursor with IE.
PLEASE DON’T CHANGE THE NAME TO BANANA
I LIKE THE BANANA LOGO THOUGH
“We’ve got the seed planted, but we’ll need your help for it grow big and yellow.”
Wild banana trees originally had seeds and they were large and made the bananas hard to eat so humans bred this out of them.
Commercial banans don’t have seeds. Instead of using seeds, commercial banana trees are reproduced by using banana pups. The word “pup” is used for the offspring of banana trees. The pups form as rhizomes off the main trunk. Once they have developed roots of their own, they can be dug up and planted as new banana trees.
I was so confused when my mouse was a banana, u got me.
LMAO…not falling for this
The curser is annoying, funny April Fools joke though…right?
I KKNOW this has to be an April Fool’s joke..made me laugh, so thanx for the endorphin release!
You Guys need to reconsider Your use of
Medicinal Marajuana,
for all the Stress and Emotional turmoil of running this site.
Sometimes, i feel April Fool’s Jokes are really abusive ; }
TV COMMERCIALS BONANZA U NEED SOME TO GET NOTICED MORE.
Finally the banana cursor is not here, what a relief!
Dear bharding, now we know that you have quite a lot of spare time (since you’ve prepared all this bannannannaza staff), so here are our kind requests:
1. Please, add extra option for international sellers from outside of US
(a feedback awaiting moderation approval (sic!) from February 7, instead of this we had a banana cursor, which made our yesterday’s work here really difficult)
http://feedback.bonanza.com/forums/149038-bonanza-com/suggestions/7064017-add-the-option-standard-shipping-from-outside-us
2. Please, add ‘up page’ links in every Bonanza page
And there are more smaller or bigger issues that could be taken care of.
I’m sure other members can add some of them too.
I thought this was a great, harmless April Fool’s Day joke.
Some people need to lighten up a bit.
Great April Fool’s joke! (I hope)
Loved the fun banana cursor and enjoyed the hand-picked list….
Thanks for another super duper April 1st…..
back to business – it’s April 2nd….
April Fools Video Prank in Math Class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2SsIYEbCio&feature=youtu.be
I second what BookBinEtc said times 1,000
Mercy me @ some people. One life to live, let’s try to have fun and smile or heck, even laugh once in a while……
:):):):)
Darn – I would have liked one of those reusable shopping bags with the new logo on it.
Ok, I don’t check in here often since they banned the forum, but I am horrified. Can someone tell me authoritatively whether this IS or IS NOT a an April Fool’s joke. I remember having a horrible time trying to adjust from -zle to -za. And last time I looked closely the -zle was still popping up on this site. Maybe it was me, but it seemed sales on the site went downhill from there. I hope management will put us out of our misery and make some kind of authoritative statement – except how do we know what to believe any more??
Bonkers Bonanas. Oops, I think I slipped on a banana peel.
You only need ONE banana.
Can’t wait for you to be the 600 lb gorilla and wipe that superior smirk off the collective face of that place that shall not be named lolol
I hope we can all make Bonanza a site where FeeBay will be LAST banana. Maybe if all the good honest sellers leave Ebay and come here, they will bring buyers with them.
I think their new insertion fee credit only “if an item sells” is a JOKE! It’s supposed to entice sellers to only list items that will sell. How do you know if an item will sell unless you are a fortune teller?
I have read a lot of comments from upset Ebay sellers and many of them have suggested to other sellers that they should come to Bonanza; so I think we CAN overtake FeeBay and teach them a lesson :-D
Im going ape over it!!!! Is this the man who put the banana in the tailpipe??
I have been known to frequent a few casinos and the casinos found out that machines with a Yellow color scheme (much like the Yellow Banana) did not get very much play as people avoided them in droves for whatever reason. We dont need buyers to avoid us for the same reason. Please leave it alone. (Just stating my 2 cents worth but if you know anybody in the casino industry, check with them and see if I speak the truth about the yellow color thing. Another way to verify is to go to any casino and try to find machines with a Yellow background).
So all the advertising I have done to get people to bonanza is now been a waste of time? Gotta change all my ads?
William! Did you eat all the bananas mom brought home?
I can say I am not “going bananas.” In the last two days, I decided to give your site a try and imported some of my items. Now, I am having troubles and have yet to receive a response back from anyone on this site and it has been over 24 hours. At this point, I am watching all my hard work at revising items go down the drain. If you expect anyone to want to help build this site, then customer service is a must! I am a medium-sized on a competitor’s site and thought this might meet my needs but before investing money in a store on your site, or even another level, I thought I would try it out and see how things work. They are not working!
Thank you for letting us know. We have just responded to your request. Thank you for being patient and for giving us the opportunity to assist.
Welcome, eclectic_educator. You’ve done a great job in your booth, congratulation!
If I may suggest, until you have CS response, you can try to get a quick answer from B. more experienced members on Community Help Forum: http://www.bonanza.com/community_help
The way I see it, Bonanza
-as its meaning, in Spanish -is the state of “a good thing”, so I don’t know that I would want to sell my merchandise in anything connected to “bananas”… no matter how much I actually like bananas. As far as ebay becoming “the second banana”, no entity can become what it already is. There’s too many good selling sites, and they don’t look for tricks to get more money out of you, as ebay does. The only good thing ebay has is the shipping system — that you can also get from PayPal. I have read on your “fine print” that buyers actually have 90 days to return merchandise. You’ve got to be kidding! I am forced by PayPal to tend the buyers a couple of weeks, and I believe that’s more than sufficient. Let me study further whether I want to sell with you. I’ll say that I am impressed to see that you don’t expect your sellers to sell their merchandise for a few dollars — as ebay does — but then, ebay is, in fact, the garbage dumpster of ecommerce. Have you seen how fakes are constantly featured? Supposedly, “authentic designers merchandise” with ripped seams and full of stains. Give me a break!I think its confusing and won’t work.
I think its confusing and won’t work.
I hate bananas!
It’s beyond ridiculous and consumers will not take you seriously. Does Ebay and Amazon periodically change their names? NO, they don’t have to because they have a recognizable brand. If you would spend money on building your current brand, then you would not have to worry about refreshing it.
lol, Ardis7 It was a JOKE that was done for April Fools Day!!
Great idea! I hope it grows Bonanza!
eBay wants sellers who are just like them – shady with poor costumer service. Let’s make eBay obsolete:) Looking forward to selling and buying on bonanza!!!!!
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