eBay Workshops Past, Present and Future Contain Information You Need to Save Money, Save Time and Grow

eBay Workshops are a great learning experience for sellers to learn about the different opportunities available to them to help their eBay business grow and at the same time streamline their manual processes to be more efficient.

In the eBay workshops, we invite a Certified Provider to host a workshop on a topic they are well versed and experienced with. Certified Providers are third party companies, partnered with eBay, and have the expertise and experience to assist an eBay seller in growing their eBay business.

Upcoming Workshop:

• Save Time & Money Shipping and Increase Repeat Purchases August 13th- hosted by ShipWorks

Past Workshops: *review the workshops at any time, even after the scheduled timeslot*

• Save Time Listing and Gain Insightful Understanding into Your Buyers - hosted by Auctiva
• 5 Easy Steps to Increase Your eBay Profits w/Market Research - hosted by Terapeak
• Easy Listing Revisions - Edit LIVE eBay Listings in Bulk - hosted by inkFrog
• Selling on eBay using Drop Shippers: How to Make a Profit - hosted by Worldwide Brands
• Turn Your Household Items Into Cash on eBay - hosted by The Queen of Auctions
• Product Trends for 2009 and Beyond- hosted by WhatDoISell
• Keeping Up With the Latest eBay Strategies - hosted by As Was
• Saving $ When Shipping - Are you getting the most out of First Class Mail? - hosted by ShipRush

If you have questions about the past workshops in 2009, post your questions in our Certified Provider Discussion Board.

Comic-Con Sales Trends on eBay by Terapeak

Post provided by Terapeak

Every year, San Diego hosts an event called Comic-Con (”SDCC”), one of the world’s largest comic book conventions. This year, thousands of fans converged on the San Diego Convention Center between July 22nd and 26th to meet creators of their favourite comic books, games, movies and television series. Attendees were shown previews for popular TV series such as Dollhouse and Lost , as well as movie trailers like Iron Man 2 and Tron Legacy.

Perhaps most intriguing to eBay sellers is the litany of products available exclusively to SDCC attendees — many of which, according to Terapeak’s research tools, have seen high eBay demand since the event ended last week.

In the past seven days, more than 2,500 items using “SDCC 2009″ as keywords (not counting tickets and passes) have sold on eBay.com, accounting for over $130,000 in total sales. Some of the most popular products include Green Lantern: Blackest Night figure sets, He-man reissues, Twilight figures, Kidrobot vinyl toys, and Star Wars collectibles. And despite the high prices (many are already selling for over $200), the sell-through rate on these listings is an impressive 76%.

As always, Comic-Con will be back next summer, so if you’re an eBay seller focused on collectibles, perhaps it’s worth making the trip to sunny San Diego!

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.

Understanding MSRP When Purchasing Inventory from Wholesalers - by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #12

eBay sellers interested in sourcing inventory from a wholesaler or currently doing so, need to understand the wholesale term: MSRP - ”Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.”

Once an eBay Seller sets up an account with a real wholesaler, they will receive a Confidential Dealer Price List from the wholesale supplier. The Confidential Price List typically has prices in columns. If there is a column headed: "MSRP," this term refers to the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. The manufacturer is suggesting the level of price you would do best to sell the product at. The MSRP is a suggestion for where you can set your price levels. The online retailer does not HAVE to sell at the MSRP. eBay Sellers can modify their prices up or down to compete. It all depends on what value the eBay Seller will provide.

Why be the lowest price seller? Dropping prices just starts price wars that erode profit margins. Nobody wins this way. If you do not find an MSRP on the Price List, ask your wholesaler for an MSRP List. The MSRP is often a guideline as to which products on the Price List offer you better profit margins than others.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

eBay Certified Provider Spotlight - CHANNEL VELOCITY

Channel Velocity helps brand name manufacturers, large retailers and distributors sell on eBay by providing a fully turnkey outsourced listing management solution since 2002.

Basically, it translates to a manufacturer or large retailer handing over their inventory to Channel Velocity to manage:

• Warehousing
• Listing
• Payment Processing
• Customer Support
• Shipping
• Returns and Replacements
• Marketing

Options available to sellers interested in outsourcing their eBay selling to Channel Velocity are:

Full Outsourcing: Channel Velocity can sell items for a manufacturer or large retailer on eBay under the current company name. The eBay Store and eBay items will fall under the company’s brand. (i.e. Channel Velocity warehouses, manages, sells and ships items for Phillips Electronics on eBay under the company name of Phillips. The eBay buyer is unaware Phillips has handed off their eBay selling to a 3rd party).

Or, Channel Velocity can take on inventory from a manufacturer, retailer or distributor and warehouse, sell and ship those items on eBay under Channel Velocity’s eBay account. This is to help manufacturers get the best value for their liquidation merchandise without appearing to compete with their resellers (aka no channel conflict).

Partial Outsourcing: Typically involves Channel Velocity working with a manufacturer or reseller client who has fulfillment and operational capabilities. Often, the client also can handle customer support and warranty handoff. Channel Velocity will generally oversee the listing and marketplace management, marketing and design, payment processing and technology as the core services.

Benefits of Channel Velocity:

• Quickly and easily add eBay as an online channel
• Turn excess inventory into cash
• Value added services include testing and repackaging of products that are refurbished to ensure buyer satisfaction
• Save time by outsourcing: just ship the product and receive a check and a report from Channel Velocity

Consider Channel Velocity if you are a manufacturer, retailer or distributor interested in eBay as an added sales channel but unable to manage eBay selling. Also, Channel Velocity is a good fit for large eBay sellers who may need a service to warehouse, ship items and manage returns for them.

Channel Velocity is an eBay Certified Solution Provider providing the services and software multi-channel businesses need to increase profitability, ease of adoption, and efficiency. Channel Velocity has solutions for asset recovery for used and excess inventory, multi-channel management software, online trade-in programs, and branded outlets on eBay.

eBay Workshop July 30th - "Save Time Listing and Gain Insightful Understanding into Your Buyers"

Workshop: Save Time Listing and Gain Insightful Understanding into Your Buyers

Host: Auctiva
Date: Thursday, July 30th
Time: 11AM PST
Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: In this workshop, we'll look at how Auctiva can help sellers:

• List efficiently with one page lister and profiles. One-page listing tool automates much of the eBay listing process. Profiles save commonly used listing information.
• Market Items with cross-promotions and super sized photos. Showcase your other items for sale and up-sell.
• Understand your visitors, buyers and sales with tracking and reporting. Learn which search terms generate the most traffic and purchases for YOUR eBay listings.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help eBay sellers.

Monsoon Wins "Most Innovative" eBay Star Developer Award - Video Interview

Monsoon, an eBay Certified Provider, was awarded the eBay Star Developer Award for "Most Innovative" at eBay's 2009 Developers Conference in San Jose, CA June 17th.

The eBay Star Developer Awards are awarded each year to the eBay developers recognized for building applications on the eBay API platform and for their achievements in enabling sellers to improve customer service and keep pace with eBay's dynamic marketplace. Monsoon was recognized by eBay for their "Dynamic Pricing" feature.

Dynamic Pricing automatically searches for competitive items on eBay and will re-price a seller's inventory to beat their competition. Automatically reprice items up or down as demand fluctuates. Sellers can maintain the best price realization possible by leveraging their great DSRs and maximizing visibility in eBay search.

"For our customers, we found that conversion -- if you have real-time, accurately priced inventory -- jumped up between 5X to 15X compared to where the sellers had been previously -- a huge, huge increase in sales." - Clark Hale, VP of Product Managment for Monsoon

Congratulations to Monsoon for this distinguished honor and for their ability to assist eBay sellers with competitive pricing, maximizing the value of their items based on competition and demand!

Monsoon is an eBay Certified Provider assisting sellers with an end-to-end solution for the management, processing, pricing, and reporting for successful online selling. Monsoon supports eBay.com, eBay Motors and Half.com.

Easy Listing Tool and Great Template Design for eBay from Seller Sourcebook

Listen on eBay Radio as Seller Sourcebook discusses how their listing tool for eBay is easy to use and saves sellers time! Seller Sourcebook offers many benefits and features for eBay sellers.

Benefits:

• One-page eBay listing tool
• Over 2500 listing template designs
• Image Hosting
• Mac and PC compatible
• Great customer service
• and more...

Founded in 2003, Seller Sourcebook provides an affordable eBay listing tool, image hosting and a large selection of attractive templates to assist sellers in creating professional listings on eBay.

Establishing Credit and Purchase History with a Wholesaler by Worldwide Brands

by Chris Malta, Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands



Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #11

“Net 30” is a term used in association with payments. It specifies the credit terms your wholesaler allows you. When Net 30 appears on your order and invoice, you have been extended 30 days of credit from the date of the invoice before you have to pay for the goods listed on the invoice. There’s an advantage to having terms of payment. The payment terms allow you time to sell the invoiced products, and receive the cash from your customers, before you must PAY the wholesale supplier for the goods.

New eBay Sellers cannot expect to get Net 30 terms from the wholesale supplier from the start. Wholesale suppliers credit departments determine credit terms based on your business credit HISTORY. Your personal credit history might help you secure an account but it’s your buying performance that secures you terms. Online retailers must typically start by paying cash up front for all purchases or by using a credit card. Once you have developed a good purchase and payment history, your wholesale supplier will consider your request for credit terms. The volume you buy will determine if you can get Net 30 or better.

You begin building your business credit history from the point you first order and pay for goods from the wholesale supplier.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Make Use of eBay Buyer Incentives in Your Checkout

eBay is working hard to bring you buyers by offering purchase incentives to buyers in the form of eBay coupons, eBay Bucks and cash back rewards with other online partners. All at no cost to you!

eBay sellers may be using a Certified Provider offering additional checkout features through their own checkout (Third Party Checkout) instead of eBay checkout.

Benefits:

• Verification of buyer incentive support right in View Item Page
• Reduce contacts from buyers
• Improve DSR scores
• Increase sales through more visibility and greater buyer savings
• Reduce unpaid items by requiring Immediate Pay (coming in October)

It’s important to note which Certified Provider you are using or considering and which version of PayPal checkout the Certified Provider supports to ensure your eBay buyers are able to maximize and use their eBay coupons and other incentives.

Some third party checkout users may not be able to accept certain eBay incentives depending which version of PayPal checkout they use. View our detailed chart here.

To take advantage of all buyer incentives eBay has to offer, we recommend using the latest version of PayPal Express Checkout with your Third Party Checkout from an eBay Certified Provider.

Certified Providers:
Auctiva
ChannelAdvisor
Infopia
Kyozou
Vendio

If you are a seller using eBay checkout, there’s nothing you need to do. All incentives are compatible.

Tools to Help You Easily Update eBay Listings to Include Return Policy and Handling Time

Update - Sellers on eBay are now required to specify a return policy and handling time when they sell items. This is true even if the seller's return policy is not to accept returns.

eBay sellers can easily update all their listings to comply with eBay’s new policy with the help of our eBay Certified Providers. Easily revise listings in bulk and add your return policy and handling time. Including live listings and stored inventory.

Benefits:

• Bulk search and replace text 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
• Will not lose Recent Sales score

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.

Certified Providers:

ChannelAdvisor - Premium
inkFrog
Mercent
Monsoon
Vendio

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.

eBay Certified Provider Spotlight - CHANNELADVISOR

ChannelAdvisor helps eBay sellers and retailers sell online with solutions designed to efficiently distribute products across multiple online channels and drive shoppers to those products. They provide multi-channel inventory management, online ad creation, shopping comparison site feeds and all post-sale activities (on eBay and other channels).

ChannelAdvisor offers two packages for eBay sellers -

1. Marketplaces: Application centralizes eBay inventory, image hosting, listing creation, listing to eBay and automates re-listing inventory based on rules and amount of product sold.
2. Premium Marketplaces: Application includes features in the Marketplaces application along with lowering costs and increasing profits for retailers selling on eBay by automating time-intensive tasks such as Best Offer and Second Chance offer. eBay sellers are also able to reduce business costs through more efficiency and reduce headcount while retaining buyers through automated feedback, shipment tracking, profit and loss reports by category and manage sales on multiple online channels.

Benefits:

• Automate messaging to buyers and winning bidders
• Maximize ROI on listing fees with Best and Second Chance Offers
• Accurately track and share inventory across multiple eBay accounts and marketplaces
• Create custom shipping zones and provide applicable rates to offer flexible shipping policies and enhanced customer experience.
• Order history tracking builds a record of customer relationships for future marketing efforts
• Checkout (Third Party Checkout) includes automated invoicing calculating shipping, taxes and up selling additional eBay items
• And more…

ChannelAdvisor is an eBay Certified Solution Provider helping eBay sellers manage, grow and report on their eBay and multi-channel businesses since 2001.

Harry Potter Trends on eBay - by Terapeak

Article provided by Terapeak

Summer blockbuster season is well under way, and so far we have seen the release of such box office giants as Star Trek, Transformers 2, GI Joe, and Up, all of which seemed near-perfect from a merchandising standpoint, and all of which we’ll be re-tracking once DVD-release-time rolls around (holidays, anyone?).

But later this week comes the granddaddy of them all: the sixth film installment of the adventures of Harry Potter, the half-muggle half-wizard who’s an industry all his own.

It should go without saying that now’s a good time to gather anything Potter-related and see what it’s going for. Just take a look at the following 30-day total sales trend for “Harry Potter” (and keep in mind that this data extends only to July 11th — nearly a week before the movie’s release):

Now you probably can’t see clearly (unless you’re really good at squinting), but that graph shows Potter selling tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods every day… and it’s not such a stretch to imagine the release of Half-Blood Prince shooting that number up significantly higher.

And to show that it’s not just sellers affecting Potter’s eBay ascension, here’s a similar 30-day All-Sites trend for “Harry Potter” bids per listing:

We’ve got a few Harry fanatics in the office here ourselves, but those of us who are not waiting in ticket lines all weekend will surely be tracking this up-tick going forward…

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.

Drop Shipping is a Low Cost, Low Risk Way to Start Selling on eBay by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, CEO & Founder of Worldwide Brands



Wholesale Tip Series: Tip #10

When you are new to selling on eBay, you may not have a lot of money to buy in Light Bulk quantities, store inventory and manage your own shipments. Drop Shipping used to be a popular wholesale option that lets you avoid a lot of start up expense or risk. eBay is finding that eBay sellers who carry their own – even small – inventory are providing an excellent buying experience to their customers because they are always in control from the time of the customer’s order to the time of delivery to a happy customer.

You need to select your drop ship supplier carefully. Purchase one of each product you plan to list and sell regularly. Check and make sure the drop shipper picks, packs and ships within two days, preferably the same day. Test to ensure you have a good buying experience for yourself!

If you are starting out short of cash, you can work with those wholesale suppliers who offer drop shipping. Remember most wholesalers are not set up to sell single products at-a-time. Finding a good drop shipper is difficult. Typically, most web sites advertising drop shipping - especially in the search engines – turn out to be a wholesale scam.

With a REAL drop shipper, the process works like this: You establish an account with the drop shipper. The drop shipper provides product pictures and descriptions to use in your eBay auction listing and on your eBay Store. When someone buys one of the products you have listed, you immediately email your drop shipper, who picks packs and sends the item from THEIR warehouse to your customer's address, on your behalf. You have already received payment of the retail price from your customer. You now pay the wholesale price to the drop shipper once they ship the product. If you have sold at the right retail price, you make a profit! And you haven’t even touched the product you sold. The drop shipper typically includes all the out-of-pocket expenses in their drop ship fee.

Drop shipping is NOT a perfect permanent solution. Drop shipping products requires you pay a slightly higher wholesale price than you will be charged if you purchased those same products in volume. Wholesaling is a volume business. The wholesale price for a single item is higher than your wholesale price when buying in bulk or even Light Bulk. The drop ship wholesale supplier typically has to maintain a separate warehouse for inventory assigned as drop ship inventory. In addition they must pay employees in the warehouse to pick, pack and ship each individual product for you. Because it costs the drop shipper more in handling, your drop shipping costs are going to reflect that.

Drop shipping may be an excellent entry point into selling on eBay because it is a very low-risk way to test new products without having to invest in inventory that may not sell. Worldwide Brands recommends eBay sellers only use drop shipping to identify products that sell well from their eBay auction listings or eBay Stores. As these generate cash, the eBay seller should use the cash to start buying those better-selling products at least in Light Bulk to increase profit margins. Your business will start to grow. This is how most successful eBay sellers got started, and it should work for you!

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Auctiva Provides Easy-to-Use and Cost Effective Solutions for eBay Sellers

Auctiva, an eBay Certified Solution Provider, offers a low cost listing tool for new to medium size eBay sellers. Most eBay sellers may be familiar with Auctiva for their scrolling galleries in item descriptions cross-promoting a seller’s other eBay listings.

Examples of Auctiva Gallery (scrolling gallery)






Auctiva provides a simple listing tool comparable to the eBay SYI. The advantage of Auctiva over SYI is that sellers can create custom profiles.

For example: A seller of books and computers will have different shipping costs and information for their books than they will for computers. The seller can create a shipping profile for their books specifying medial mail shipping costs and a separate profile for their computers with shipping costs set for UPS ground. Once a profile is created, when sellers list with Auctiva they just need to click the profile they want to use and add their pictures and the listing is done.

Benefits of Auctiva:

• One-page listing tool
• Up to 1GB (10,000 images) of image hosting
• Image protection through watermarking
• Scheduling and auto-relisting
• Checkout – optional to use eBay Checkout or Auctiva Checkout (More on Third Party Checkout)
• Consignment features for trading assistants
• Sales tools and reports to understand transaction status
• Save time with scheduling and automation of your listing management process
• Increase traffic to your listings or eBay Store with their scrolling gallery

Check out Auctiva if you are new to eBay or a seller interested in an inexpensive listing tool to help you save time and increase eBay sales.

What to Expect when Purchasing from Legitimate Wholesalers by Worldwide Brands

by Chris Malta, CEO & Founder of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tip Series: Tip #9

Some wholesalers do sell directly to consumers. They act as their own retailers. Wholesalers may even sell on eBay and their own retail sites on the Internet. For new eBay Sellers this can be an upsetting discovery. No-one wishes to compete with their wholesaler. You’d expect the wholesaler is in the perfect position to undercut your prices - or, at least, that is what you may think.

Be reassured wholesale suppliers cannot afford to hurt their retailers' selling success. A wholesaler with eBay listings or a store, will typically sell their products to their own retailers for approximately 30% less than they will offer them to consumers in their eBay listings or website. A wholesale supplier’s main goal is to sell their inventory AT wholesale price levels. If they sell their inventory at lower prices than they sell to retail customers, they will destroy their own business. No genuine wholesaler wants to do that.

It does happen however. Typically it is done by middlemen caught with inventory they cannot move. "Wholesalers" you find via search engines are so often NOT real wholesale suppliers. Genuine wholesale suppliers don't advertise in the search engines. If you find a company in the search engines claiming to be a wholesaler and they have their own retail site, watch out for a wholesale scam artist.

Don't Worry about Wholesalers with a Retail Site. When you find real wholesalers through trusted sources like Worldwide Brands, and the wholesaler has a retail site, you should not worry. They don’t have a goal to undercut you or restrict your ability to sell competitively. Typically, they will offer you prices discounted around 30% below their retail prices, when you are buying at wholesale. You will be able to compete. You can both survive.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Stand Out from the Crowd with Advanced Photo Features for eBay

You can increase buyer confidence and capture more bids with great pictures. Make the most out of your eBay item pictures and provide a visual shopping experience for eBay buyers. Pictures attract attention. Put your best “picture” forward and give your buyers a clear and detailed view of your eBay items.

eBay Certified Providers can help you show your product in its best light through Advanced Picture Services:

• Image hosting
• Bulk image uploading
• Super sizing
• Zoom ("zoom" in to view sections of the image in detail)
• Watermarking
• Image protection
• Image management (organize)
• Image editing (crop, resize, rotate and enhance color)

Benefits:

• Increase bids, conversion and DSRs through accurate and informative product representation
• Reduce Unpaid items and “Significantly Not As Described” (SNAD) claims
• Save time and money by optimizing your listing and image workflow

For photo hosting, easy uploads, image protection, image management and more, check out our eBay Certified Providers.

Certified Providers:

Vendio

inkFrog

Monsoon

Auctiva

Infopia

Kyozou

ChannelAdvisor

Seller Sourcebook

Established in 2004, the eBay Certified Provider Program recognizes third party companies excelling at providing the tools or services an eBay seller needs to grow their business and increase efficiency.