Create FAQs and Reduce Buyer Email with Hosted Support's ezSupport

Listen on eBay Radio as Hosted Support discusses how their ezSupport for eBay is an Advanced FAQ system reducing buyer emails. Let your buyers answer their own questions!

ezSupport for eBay offers:

• Customizable creation of your own FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
• Create an extensive knowledge base
• Searchable FAQs
• Easy to create!
• And more...

Infopia Continues to Provide a Robust Solution for eBay Sellers

We’d like to clear up some confusion about eBay’s recent announcement regarding Third Party Checkout and eBay Certified Solutions Provider, Infopia. Infopia was approved by eBay to continue to provide Third Party Checkout to their eBay sellers. Infopia made the decision to discontinue offering Third Party Checkout and move to eBay Checkout by June 15th.

eBay Sellers currently using Infopia, you will be able to continue to use Infopia for eBay listing and management of inventory, customers, etc…after June 15th. The only difference will be after June 15th all items purchased on eBay will go through eBay Checkout instead of the previous approved Infopia Checkout.

Benefits to eBay Checkout are:

• Ability to require Immediate Payment on Fixed Price listings
• Reduce Unpaid Item Claims
• Simple, easy checkout for eBay buyers
• Supports all eBay coupons and buyer incentives

If you are currently an Infopia customer or considering Infopia, we encourage you to contact Infopia directly and discuss your selling needs and how their planned move to eBay checkout will help your eBay sales.

Founded in 1999, Infopia provides (Software as a Service) eCommerce solutions—helping eBay sellers grow their business efficiently and effectively.

Read here for more information on eBay’s recent announcements on Third Party Checkout.

eBay Selling Manager Applications (Project Echo) Workshops and Forums @ eBay Developers Conference

Join us at eBay Developers Conference June 16-18th in beautiful San Jose, CA, and find out how to take your application to the next level on the eBay platform!

eBay is now open for business! eBay Selling Manager Applications take our Platform to the next level by allowing developers to embed applications directly into "My eBay", where hundreds of thousands of eBay sellers manage their online business.

Come learn about developing Selling Manager Applications along with:

• The Selling Manager Applications Opportunity
• A demo of the seller discovery and subscription experience
• Technical details and considerations to help you develop and integrate your application
• Q&A with eBay Project Echo team (now known as Selling Manager Applications)

Although eBay Developers Conference is aimed at developers and software engineers, eBay sellers interested in attending can take advantage of a unique opportunity to network and discuss selling needs and inefficiencies directly with the companies and individuals creating tools and solutions for eBay.

Terapeak Announces New International Search Feature for eBay Sellers

Terapeak, an eBay Certified Provider, launched a new feature in their eBay market research tool allowing sellers to easily search and view reports on the success of items across six eBay international sites.

Previous to the new International search feature, eBay sellers had to search each available international site individually and then compare each report. Now, an eBay seller can perform one search, choose to include all six available international sites and receive one comprehensive, detailed report on the success rate of their item across multiple countries.

Terapeak's International feature will compare item sales in terms of successful listings by:

• Sell-Through
• Average Price
• Buyer Country Sales Distribution
• Seller Country Sales Distribution
• Transaction Site Sales Distribution

You will know which site your item is likely to sell for a higher price or greater success in overall sales. Below is an illustrative of the new search feature.

eBay sellers can search the following sites:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• Australia
• Germany
• France

The new International feature is included in the Terapeak All-Sites subscription.

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

Advanced FAQs Reduce Buyer Email for eBay Sellers

eBay sellers will be able to reduce the amount of time they spend answering buyer emails with eBay’s new Smart FAQs. Some sellers may need more functionality and features in an FAQ beyond what Smart FAQs offer, consider the Advanced FAQs solution known as ezSupport for eBay by Hosted Support.

Benefits of ezSupport (Advanced FAQs):

• Create an extensive knowledge base
• Unlimited questions
• Auto respond to buyer inquiries
• Customizable FAQ categories
• Natural Language Search
• Retrieve and archive all eBay messages indefinitely
• Maintain buyer contact records
• Support multiple logins
• Share FAQ knowledge base across multiple ezSupport accounts - Great for eBay sellers with multiple eBay IDs

Please contact the Certified Provider direct and fully discuss your needs to decide if they offer the right tool for you. Or you may post a question on our eBay Certified Provider Discussion Board.

eBay Workshop - Product Trends for 2009

Workshop: Product Trends for 2009 & Beyond

Host: WhatDoISell
Date: Tuesday, April 28th
Time: 11AM PST

Description: What will your customers buy? Next week? Next month? Next year? The answer to these questions can be found in looking at emerging product trends. No matter what category you sell in, product trends will influence the inventory you buy in 2009 and beyond.

Please join Lisa Suttora, Founder of eBay Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com, as she discusses the 7 product trends that will impact your online sales this year. A noted trend authority, Lisa will introduce you to the year’s top consumer trends and show you how to apply them to YOUR business!

Nominations Accepted for eBay Star Developer Awards

eBay sellers, we want you to nominate the company/solution/tool helping your eBay business succeed! If you are using a tool or solution for eBay and have found this tool to greatly benefit your business by saving you time, increasing efficiency, creating great customer service, etc...then nominate them for an eBay Star Developer Award!

eBay Star Developer Awards are awarded each year at our yearly eBay Developers Conference.

The five categories for our 2008-2009 awards are:

• DSR Rockstar (improving customer service)
• Most Innovative
• Early Adopter
• Service to the Developer Community
• Rapid Evolution (boosting seller efficiency in a dynamic marketplace)

Please send your nomination to us via email - developer-relations@ebay.com, by May 15th. Be sure to include:

• “eBay DevCon Star Developer Award” and the category name in the subject line of your message
• your name and contact info
• the nominee’s name and contact info
• the award category
• and a brief explanation as to why you think the application is worthy of consideration

We are excited to see which companies and developers offer the tools and solutions benefiting our eBay sellers!

Bulk Up Your eBay Profits

By Chris Malta, CEO and Founder of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tip #1

While many people use Drop Shippers successfully on eBay, many more people misuse them, and hurt their profit margins. Drop Shipping (where your wholesale supplier sends products one at a time to your customers for you) is best used for testing product markets without laying out cash in advance. It's a safe way to find out whether or not a product sells before investing more serious time and money in the product market.

However, the profit margins you get from selling Drop Shipped products are always going to be slimmer than the profits you earn from buying products in bulk and shipping them yourself. That's because wholesalers do more work when they ship one product at a time for you, and they are forced to charge you more for the Drop Shipped product.

You're always going to earn better profits when you buy wholesale products in bulk and ship them yourself. However, it can be costly to buy in bulk, because wholesale suppliers often require you to buy large quantities of products at a time. Several years ago, I coined the term "Light Bulk Wholesale", and set out to locate wholesale suppliers who would create special bulk product deals for $500 or less, instead of requiring thousands of dollars in bulk purchases. My company has successfully convinced a very large number of wholesalers to provide this service.

So, testing your product market by using suppliers like these as Drop Shippers first and then buying in Light Bulk quantities from them once you find products that sell is the best way to ease into a product market with very little cash investment, and yield the best profit margins for your eBay business.

Working with Light Bulk wholesale ordering also has the added advantage of better Buyer Feedback, since you control your inventory and don't have to rely on a third-party Drop Shipper to deliver promptly for you. If you've noticed that you have competition that offers lower prices on their auction listings than you can get from your Drop Ship wholesaler, this is what they're doing. They're testing with Drop Shipping first, and then lowering their wholesale costs by buying in Light Bulk or Bulk quantities. You can do the same thing, if you learn how to use Drop Shipping properly...as a test mechanism, not a permanent solution.

This article was written and provided by Chris Malta, CEO and Founder of Worldwide Brands. Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing product sourcing information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Shipping Made Fast and Easy by eBay Certified Providers

Following up on the topic of Shipping from eBay’s Webinar, we’d like to provide more information on how eBay Certified Providers provide the tools and assistance eBay sellers need.

Our Certified Providers have created tools completely automating the shipping work flow, shipping communication and posting of tracking information into My eBay. Their solutions offer features and options not available through eBay and PayPal.

Benefits:

• Support multiple carriers
• Endicia and Stamps.com integration
• Bulk package tracking
• Bulk label printing
• Bulk invoice printing
• First-Class Mail International printing
• Auto email to buyer with tracking info
• Auto email to buyer and seller confirming package delivery
• Post tracking info into My eBay for seller and buyer
• Support international shipping
• Shipping carrier cost comparison
• Email management
• Package shipment auditing – claim entitled shipping refunds

Certified Providers:

ShipRush
ShipWorks

Please contact the Certified Provider direct and fully discuss your needs to decide if they offer the right tool for you. Or you may post a question on our eBay Certified Provider Discussion Board.

Easy Listing Revisions for eBay – Bulk Editing

Following up on the topic of Bulk Editing from eBay’s Webinar, we’d like to provide more information on how eBay Certified Providers provide the tools and assistance eBay sellers need. Particularly on the topic of Listing Revisions and Bulk Editing.

While all Listing tools offer bulk management of eBay items, some eBay Certified Providers offer the ability to bulk search and replace, allowing you to efficiently change your listings to adhere to eBay policies.

Benefits:

• Bulk search and replace in Item Description
• Ability to edit any section of an eBay listing
• Edit stored, scheduled and live inventory
• Edit and update listings for multiple eBay IDs

All tools adhere to eBay policies on revising listings, and keep your recent sales where policy allows. See our listing revision policy for more information.

Certified Providers:

inkFrog
Mercent
Monsoon
Vendio

Please contact the Certified Provider direct and fully discuss your needs to decide if they offer the right tool for you. Or you may post a question on our eBay Certified Provider Discussion Board.

Clearing Confusion on Third Party Checkout

There's been a lot of discussion about Third Party Checkout today, so our VP of Seller Experience, Dinesh Lathi, posted a clarification on the current situation.

In essence, no, Third Party Checkout is NOT going away. As a matter of fact, for those that are losing theirs (some CPs are removing it on June 15), we've built resources for you to find an alternative.

Sellers: first thing you should do is check directly with your provider. Find out what their plans are. Then decide which checkout is right for you. What' the difference?

1. eBay Checkout: Pre-integrated, on-eBay buyer experience, and full support for all buyer incentives
2. Third Party Checkout: Some PayPal integration work, tax calculation, ship-to country exclusions, and some additional features.

Either way, sellers win. Why? By June 15th, those that are still offering Third Party checkout will have a new improved buyer experience, which will lead to less UPIs (Unpaid Items) and better DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings).

eBay Spring 2009 Announcements

eBay announced today upcoming changes that will launch the week of June 15, 2009. This release focuses on driving more sales and improving seller efficiency. To summarize the changes:

• New View Item Page
• List in Variations
• Buyer Incentives and Loyalty Programs
• Smart FAQs
• New Resolution Process
• Package Tracking in My eBay
• Return Policy and Handling Time required
• Customize Item Specifics
• Bulk Editing Tools
• Selling Manager Pro FREE for all eBay sellers and coming soon new Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro applications!

eBay Certified Providers providing a listing tool or other solution that may be impacted by these changes will be ready and able to accommodate the changes by June 15th.

In addition, if you would like more information on these announcements and discuss how to best optimize your business with these changes, eBay Certified Consultants can help! Check out As Was, WhatDoISell and The Queen of Auctions for professional and experienced consulting.

eBay help resources available are: eBay Radio, eBay Discussion Board, Webinar, Seller Checklist and Best Practices.

We will be posting more information on how eBay Certified Providers can help you incorporate these changes to better your business.

You can read the full announcement here.

Kyozou Integration with Geckobyte Provides More Options for Tire and Wheel Sellers

Kyozou, an eBay Certified Provider, announced an integration with Geckobyte providing a visual search and shopping experience on eBay in the Wheels and Tires categories.

By integrating with Geckobyte's powerful wheel and tire matching technology, eBay sellers using Kyozou can now offer an intelligent matching mechanism to pair their items precisely to a buyer's vehicle. The matching mechanism can be displayed in their eBay Store and or eBay listings. Wheel and tire shoppers will be able to simply enter the year, make, and model of their vehicle, and are instantly presented with all available options from the seller's inventory.

"When combined with the tools offered by Kyozou, sellers have a very powerful tool to increase and manage sales." says Tiegen Fryberger, President of Geckobyte. "This synergy with Kyozou and Geckobyte empowers online sellers by creating an exact-match wheel/tire fitting tool for their customers - a first in the industry."


Based in Toronto, Canada, Kyozou provides a robust application to help eBay sellers manage their sales online and offline while increasing efficiency.

eBay Radio to host Certified Providers 4/7

Call in to this week's live broadcast of eBay Radio on Tuesday, April 7th, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific time (3 hours) to hear from eBay Certified Providers and get more about the upcoming eBay Developers Conference. Griff's guests this week include

• Colette Marshall: from Worldwide Brands will discuss sourcing from liquidators.
  
• Michael Levit: from Vendio will show you how to compete effectively using their research products
  
• Delyn Simons Senior Manager, Platform Marketing with eBay will highlight the upcoming eBay Developers Conference.

Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community.

Don't miss Thursday's "Ask Griff" show
Join "Ask Griff" Thursday, April 9th, 2009, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.

If you can't catch either of the shows, you can always subscribe to the podcast , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

Select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives. You can also join the eBay Radio eBay Group for more information on eBay Radio.

Channeladvisor Catalyst April 28-29

Certified Provider Channeladvisor will be holding a conference for online sellers April 28-29 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Experts will be on hand to help sellers understand how they can streamline their business, increase profitability, and succeed in a competitive market.

eBay Vice President of Seller Experience, Dinesh Lathi, will be speaking at the event. Come learn how to stand out in a time of transition on eBay where Fixed Price formats and great customer service are king. You'll learn how eBay is bringing you more buyers through trust, value and selection.

Come see how you can succeed in consumer-driven eCommerce at Channeladvisor Catalyst.

http://www.channeladvisor.com/catalyst/

Seeking Seller Guest Writers for Certified Provider Blog

Are you an eBay seller? Do you use a Certified Provider? If so, let us know. We're looking for sellers using Certified Provider software and services to write guest articles about their experiences. This is a great chance to tell your story about how you saved time, acquired more buyers, and grew your business using solutions that make you more efficient.

We'd love to know how the Certified Providers you use help you:

• Reduce emails from buyers
• List more
• Automate your pick, pack & ship processes
• Turn shoppers into your buyers
• Find products buyers are looking for

If you have a story to tell, let us know by emailing us at certifiedprovider@ebay.com