eBay Certified Provider Program

eBay Workshop August 17th - "Holiday Sales 2010: Tips & Prep for a Successful Selling Season"

2010-08-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Topic: "Holiday Sales 2010: Tips & Prep for a Successful Selling Season"

Host: Lisa Suttora , ecommerce strategist and Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com

Date: Tuesday, August 17th

Time: 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Description: Holiday profits come to those who are prepared, and now is the time to gear up! From inventory selection to marketing there’s a lot to do over the next few months to maximize your holiday sales.

Please join Lisa Suttora, Founder & CEO of WhatDoISell, and learn how to showcase your best holiday inventory, how to reposition “everyday” inventory into hot holiday sellers and creative ways to market your merchandise this holiday season!

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Thanks,

Ginger

eBay Certified Provider Program

http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/

Top 5 Music Artists Selling on eBay

2010-08-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Terapeak is like the Billboard of eBay thanks to its Hot Media search feature. Below 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 3rd, 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.

Post from the Terapeak blog.

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a full, 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.

eBay Certified Provider Spotlight - MERCENT

2010-08-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Mercent delivers inventory management and marketing technology services for retail merchants across many online channels. As an eBay Certified Solution Provider, Mercent provides a solution for retail merchants to integrate eBay as a sales channel or for existing eBay sellers to optimize their sales and efficiency on eBay.

Mercent Retail for eBay is an automated solution allowing retailers and eBay sellers to launch and manage high-volume, fixed-price, and multiple-quantity sales on eBay. Mercent Retail is integrated and able to support eBay Fixed Price listing formats and PayPal.

Features:

Complete product and order feed integration –

Ensure product listings are always synchronized with back-end systems
Automated, no manual downloading of order reports or uploading inventory figures
Accurate real-time product data, inventory and price information

Streamlined product catalog management –

Map products and categories to the best performing eBay categories
Automated content rules to apply content changes

Comprehensive analytics –

Track and report on the revenue, profits, cost-per-order, and other key retail advertising metrics associated with orders on eBay and other online shopping channels
View performance by category, individual product SKU and more
Generate reports by channel or across channels

Benefits:

Large retailers can easily add eBay as an online selling channel
Tight integration with existing retail systems for accurate inventory tracking, pricing, fulfillment and order information
Automated monitoring and management of transactions across all channels
Reach maximum revenue and profitability

Large retailers SmartBargains and Altrec have successfully incorporated eBay as a sales channel through the technology and assistance of Mercent.

Mercent is a great fit for large retailers or manufacturers to add eBay to their multi-channel solution. They are also a good fit for Diamond and some Titanium eBay PowerSellers.

If interested, contact Mercent at:

Sales Inquiriessales@mercent.com 206-832-3924
General Inquiriesmailto:Inquiriesinfo@mercent.com

Mercent is an eBay Certified Provider integrating large retailers with eBay using the new Large Merchant Services (LMS) API, providing the ability to handle the scalability requirements of large sellers, including catalogs and transaction volumes and back end integration with current systems including POS.

Vendio Launches Free Item Condition Reviser for eBay (Update all your eBay listings!)

2010-08-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

In order to help sellers comply with the new eBay item condition rules, Vendio has launched a free easy-to-use reviser that can revise the condition of your live eBay items based on the new required condition.

This is available by logging into your Vendio account and selecting Channels > Revise. This does require a Vendio account as you will need to log in and set an eBay token so that we can make these changes on your behalf.

If you are not already an eBay seller using Vendio, you can create a free Vendio account if you sign-up for one of their free products listed here and you will be able to use Vendio's free products including their new Item Condition Reviser.

You can set your eBay tokens by selecting the Preferences link (top-right) and selecting “channels” from the drop down menu. If you do not have a Vendio account, you can sign up for any premium or free service in order to access the special reviser.

Note that Revisions to your live items on eBay are not automatically reflected in your inventory item definitions on Vendio. You will need to edit the condition field in these item definitions before future launches.

Below, we’ve added instructions to help you use the new Item Condition Reviser

Log into your account and select Channels>Revise

Find & Revise: Find the items where you want to change the item condition by selecting the Find and Revise button.
Find Items to Revise (by Category): The easiest way to find and replace for the Item Condition reviser is to revise by category.If you do not know your category number, select choose and find your category.
Find Items to Revise (by Other Conditions): Find items that contain any or all of specific conditions you define. For example, find all my items that have “Blue AND Ring” in the title or find ANY of my items that have either “Blue” OR “Ring” in the title.
Available “Find” Fields: Find item by any of the fields displayed in the drop down menu. Find fields are also depicted below.
Select the Category: After you have defined the conditions you are using to locate the items to revise, you will need to select the category for the Revise field. Because all item condition values are category-specific, please enter choose your category FIRST. Once the category is entered, the item condition menu will populate.
Select the New Condition: Once the condition menu is populated, you can select the new condition.
Review your Revisions: Review your revisions by clicking Review.
Revise Your Live eBay Items: Click the Revise button to finalize the revisions of your live eBay items.

If you have questions or need some help, contact Vendio customer support.

An eBay Certified Solutions Provider since 2004, Vendio provides an ecommerce solution for eBay sellers of all sizes. Vendio offers a series of applications which can be installed on a standalone basis or used to extend the functionality of the Vendio's eBay listing and inventory management solution.

How to Use Social Media as a Marketing Opportunity for Your eBay Business

2010-08-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

As an eBay seller, it is easy to get caught up in the everyday tasks of just keeping your operation running. You might be drowning in brown tape and jiffy bags and making sure you make it to the post office in time, but remember there’s a whole world out there.

eBay is a walled garden. It’s busy and has millions of buyers out there for you. But there is more to the internet than eBay. You can boost your eBay sales by marketing online. One of the most talked about opportunities is social media. That means sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and other activities such as blogging.

Twitter has grown phenomenally in the past year or so and is now a mainstream website used by millions at home and abroad. If you have opened a newspaper in the past year you can’t have missed it. The same is true of Facebook. Both Twitter and Facebook offer the best options to eBay sellers who want to have a go at social media.

Blogging is also a great opportunity. A blog is basically a website where you can write about anything you like and also publish other content such as videos and photos. Setting up a blog can be free and easy, depending on what service you choose. Open source software Wordpress comes highly recommended and is free: you just need to pay for the hosting and design.

If social media seems scary, you’re right to be cautious: time is your most valuable commodity and wasting any of that or getting behind in the essential tasks of running your business would be a bad thing. But by approaching social media with discipline and a clear idea of what you want to achieve, you can reap some benefits.

There are two key benefits of social media to an eBay seller:

The first is traffic. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have a massive following with millions of visitors every day. It’s possible to get a little bit of that action and increase the number of people viewing your listings.
The second benefit, especially if you already have your own website, is SEO (search engine optimization). Blogging, in particular, is a good way of building your site content and creating valuable inbound links to build the prominence of your site in web searches.

Here are a few ideas that you can try:

Build a Facebook fan page for your eBay sales. Even your granny is on Facebook these days so it’s a great audience to plug into. Your easiest option is to build a Facebook fan page for your business including links to your eBay shop and items you are selling. One of the best ways to utilize Facebook is to offer discounts and deals exclusively to Facebook fans to tempt them.
Twitter and Tweets: Get started on Twitter and gradually build your network. Succeeding on Twitter can take time but the best way to attract attention is to provide links and information that other people find useful. That could be sharing news stories, your own content or making wry and amusing observations. You will also get a lot out of Twitter if you connect with people you admire and trust.
Blogging: Blogging is something that rewards you the more you do it. If you start a blog, write about things that really interest you. Establish yourself as an expert in your field and as someone who people turn to for insight and interesting comment If you’re not much of a writer, try a picture blog or video blog (vlog).

What you want to avoid, whether on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or any other social network or blogging, is mistaking not working for networking. If you’re just jabbering away to your fellow sellers, friends or people who aren’t buying from you, it could be a waste of time. You need to approach social media as a marketing channel. It should be fun but it does have a very serious purpose: promoting you, your sales and your business.

And the good news is that Frooition can help as you take on social media. It’s essential that your eBay brand is extended to your other online profiles. A consistent look and feel makes your buyers and customers feel reassured, makes you look good and inspires trust. Frooition can help you with custom made-to-order design, expertise and plenty of past experience. Get in touch with Frooition and we can help you extend your eBay brand so it includes social media.

Article from Frooition's Blog.

Frooition is a leading provider of eBay store and listing designs. Frooition provide design services for most other online sales channels as well as website design. Frooition has been working with the eBay platform more than 4 years and has clients in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Christmas Profits Begin in July: Your Holiday Planning & Prep Starts Here

2010-07-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Blog post by Lisa Suttora, CEO & Founder of WhatDoISell.com

Christmas Profits Begin in July: Your Holiday Planning & Prep Starts Here

Ready to make some money this holiday season? Then grab a glass of lemonade and sit down to read this post. Because what you’re about to read will be key to your holiday income success.

Starting on July 5th, with the kick-off of the back-to-school shopping season, the countdown begins to 2010 holiday sales. There are almost 9 weeks from July 1st to September 1st, when 38% of online shoppers will begin their holiday shopping.

If you wait until Fall to starting thinking about and preparing for the holidays, you’ll find yourself in catch up mode from September to December, and as a result leave a lot of holiday money on the table.

Preparing begins with the actions you take in July.

Every year at this time, I begin helping people prepare for holiday sales.

Unfortunately not enough people take action early on. And there’s nothing worse than rounding the holiday bend in November and watching sadly as your holiday sales slip by.

Don’t let this happen to you! The time is now…

To get you started, I’ve listed some of the holiday prep steps you’ll take this year:

Creating a holiday inventory list
Choosing your affiliate products & signing up for the programs
Creating a holiday marketing plan
Ordering last-minute inventory
Organizing your physical products
Snapping up packaging supplies on the cheap
Creating holiday advertising graphics
Planning your website and blog “seasonal decor”
Creating holiday gift sets
Setting up your holiday blog/ sales pages if you are an affiliate marketer
Setting up your email marketing campaign
Bringing in seasonal help

Now if the thought of putting together a plan for the holiday selling season feels overwhelming to you and you’re wondering how you’re going to find time to add yet another thing to your already overloaded schedule, there’s relief in sight.

With 15 holiday selling seasons under my belt (whew!) – 7 offline & 8 online! I have the planning and action steps for holiday income success down to a science. Stay tuned, for the upcoming announcement about this year’s Holiday Selling Guide and use this link to sign-up for announcements.

eBay Workshop July 29th - "How to Use Content Marketing to Attract, Engage & Retain More Customers!"

2010-07-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Topic: How to Use Content Marketing to Attract, Engage & Retain More Customers!

Host: Lisa Suttora, ecommerce strategist and Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com
Date: Thursday, July 29th
Time: 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: Content is still king on the web! Unfortunately many online sellers overlook this free, highly effective marketing strategy. Discover how to use content to:

Drive targeted buyer traffic
Convert more sales
Retain existing customers
Give your business a unique presence on eBay

Join ecommerce strategist Lisa Suttora, Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com, as she discusses several creative ways to use content marketing to successfully promote a business in any online niche market.

You’ll learn how to integrate content with eBay’s marketing tools, as well as how to leverage your content on today’s top social media sites.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Preparing for the Back-to-School Sales Rush on eBay

2010-07-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Back-to-School is just around the corner. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), American consumers will be spending $38.4 billion on back-to-school merchandise in 2010. Meanwhile, the National Federation of Retailers are pegging it at a higher amount, approximately $55.12 billion with each American family spending $606.40.

Here are some tips for starting your eBay marketing campaign for back-to-school season:

Discounts. Discounts. Discounts. One of the prime reasons consumers will want to buy from you is because you are offering a good deal. Create promos for products, give special discounts on themed items and offer savings on bulk shipping.
Advertise early. Back-to-School season marks a big event for most retailers. It is also the start of the third quarter of the year as well as the fall season. Several advertisers will start their online marketing efforts early and so should you. The second week of July is the ideal time to start. (Start now!)
Communicate to your customers why they should buy from you. Competition can be tough and the big retailers will definitely be your major contenders for school supplies and other must-haves. So, hype on what makes your eBay store/inventory different – be it the price or your delivery options.
Target the right audience. During Back-to-School season, you actually have two major audiences: the students and the parents. Between the two, it’s the parents that have control of the budget, but do not discount the purchasing power of the students.
Highlight the right products. School bags, backpacks, shoes, shirts and school supplies are the top sellers during this season. Make sure you are offering a good deal on the bare necessities such as pens and paper products.

Happy selling!

Article from the Shopster blog

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through drop shipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service drop shipping to both the United States and Canada.

eBay Workshop July 20th - "Create eBay Motors Parts Compatibility Listings with Auctiva"

2010-07-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Topic: Create eBay Motors Parts Compatibility Listings with Auctiva

Host: Auctiva

Date: Tuesday, July 20th

Time: 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: Auctiva has added support for eBay Motors Parts Compatibility!

Learn about Auctiva's new Parts Compatibility Tool, which gives users a fast and simple way to create parts compatibility listings on eBay Motors. We'll walk you through two different ways to create these listings, including screen shots of what the process looks like.

Get all your questions answered about Auctiva's new Parts Compatibility Tool as well as their other products and services.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

eBay Sales for LeBron James Items Increase After New Team Announcement

2010-07-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

After an incredibly successful 8 year career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James announced he would be changing teams. On July 1st James effectively became unemployed and held millions of basketball fans in suspense while he deliberated over which team – of the handful that were courting him – he would move to. On July 8th people finally got their answer, James will join the Miami Heat for the 2010-11 season.

For us, the effect of the decision is just as interesting as the decision itself. So how has the team change affected merchandise sales? Below is a trend of all the Lebron James eBay listings over the last 30 days – taken from Terapeak Marketplace Research. All seems normal until the day the news breaks and listings more than double in the aftermath.

Its fascinating to watch the market after a major event, and as the NBA raked in about $4 billion dollars this year – it’s safe to say this is big. In less than a decade, LeBron has become one of the most prominent players of his time – and he is certainly among the biggest player franchises.

According to Terapeak, eBay has sold nearly $5 million dollars worth of LeBron James merchandise over the last year. That’s a whole lot of jerseys, hats, and action figures. A trading card from 2003, James’ rookie year, sold one week ago for $30,000 dollars – not bad for a little piece of cardboard.

Blog post from Terapeak Blog.

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a full, 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.

eBay Workshop July 14th - "How to Alter/Edit/Update Your eBay Listings in Bulk, in Seconds!"

2010-07-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Topic: How to Alter/Edit/Update Your eBay Listings in Bulk, in Seconds!

Host: Frooition
Date: July 14th, Wednesday
Time: 10 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: Making changes to live eBay listings can be a daunting and expensive task, especially if you have hundreds/thousands of listings to alter. This workshop will show you how to take the pain out of bulk revising items using Froo! Bulk Revision. We will also introduce the new eBay Parts Compatibility functionality in Froo! Bulk Revision tool.

The Froo! Bulk Revision tool will save you time and money – we will show you how! The workshop demonstrates how to use the app as well as explaining how the app can improve your listings.

Topics include:

Introduction to Bulk Revision
How to find and replace (Titles & Descriptions)
Adding Item Condition to your listings per new eBay policy
Bulk altering prices
Altering your PayPal address
Change quantities
Add eBay Parts Compatibility to your listings
Typical scenarios

Frooition has currently developed three eBay Apps; check them out in the eBay App Center.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Why Keywords Still Count on eBay and in Search

2010-07-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

Why Keywords Still Count
Keys to making the 55 characters in your listing title add up to profit

What's in a word? Well, when it comes to the titles of the items you post for sale or bid on eBay, there could be gold in them thar' words—or not. The truth is your potential to get your item seen—or, better yet, bid on, or purchased—depends upon how well you choose your words.

In listings on eBay, "keywords" are those words and terms that buyers search for, found within your listing title. If you haven't given much thought to this aspect of marketing your goods, or if you wonder whether you're making optimum use of your item titles, consider these keys to choosing keywords, why they're critical to your sales success and why you should literally make every word count.

Understanding searches and indexing
At eBay (as well as within the major online search portals), listings are "indexed" in a search engine that identifies the words within the item title. When a user performs a search using a particular word or term, the search engine uses the index to locate and return a listing of items that match the user's search terms.

You're listing in the vast sea of offerings at eBay. Your challenge is to be seen among the millions of other items up for bid or sale.

55 characters or less
When you list on eBay, your listing title is limited to 55 characters, including spaces. Each word needs to serve a purpose, both as an effective search keyword and also as an accurate descriptor of your item for sale. Yes, you'll want to include a bit of marketing "pull" in your title to help encourage potential buyers to take a closer look.

For now, begin crafting your title to include as many pertinent keywords shoppers are likely to search for. Here, you need to know your commodity well, and know what terms buyers are using to locate these sorts of items. Review other active listings or closed listings to see what words others have used—did those words translate into a sale? Also, look for effective keyword combinations and other details that will help your listing get more hits.

As a guiding principle, you'll want to include as much of the following information within your listing title:

Brand name
Item origin
Year (or period) of production
Manufacturer
Item color, size and other descriptive attributes
Item condition

While that may seem like more than can be communicated within 55 characters, consider this example:

Polar Lights Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine model kit 2000 MISB

In the above example, a model kit of the iconic Mystery Machine van from the Scooby-Doo cartoon is being offered. Note that the title includes manufacturer (Polar Lights), item identification (Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine), item type (model kit), year of production (2000) and item condition (MISB, or Mint In Sealed Box). And, after all of that, there are still four characters of the available 55 left to use.

Don't get cute
Simply enough, don't waste valuable title space on words that do little to describe your item or properly identify it to buyers. Useless words like "cute," "adorable," "desirable" and the like often do little to help attract, let alone convince, any buyer. Words like "rare," "hard to find" and so on are not only unneeded (especially when buyers are already aware of the scarcity of an item) but they can also expose a seller's misguided (or, at best, misunderstood) attempt to wrangle a higher price. And, visual come-ons like "L@@K" and its sort are nothing short of obnoxious and should be avoided always.

Remember you're working to specify recognizable and understandable terms within your item titles, the sort that search engines have indexed and for which buyers are searching.

Condensed blog post from Auctiva Education

Auctiva is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider offering listing management solutions and features for beginner -to mid-to high-volume eBay sellers.

World Cup Fever on eBay - Vuvuzelas and Can Jersey Sales Predict Who Will Win?

2010-07-07T11:33:00.001-07:00

World Cup Fever on eBay - Vuvuzelas and Can Jersey Sales Predict Who Will Win?

It is interesting to find out what impact world events have on the eBay marketplace. We can look at the impact by researching the eBay marketplace and see where there is an increase in searches, sales and price of items related to a world event. Market research gives us the opportunity see the ecommerce sales reach of recent world events on eBay, almost in real time.

Let’s look at the World Cup. Obviously this is a huge event. I know this because most people I know have stopped working to watch or are Tweeting game results and Facebooking "Gooooaaaallll". It is easy for one to stay in touch with the event without actually being there or even watching the game thanks to social media. We can also stay in touch with the World Cup when we research the eBay marketplace and find out the impact here.

I will be using the Terapeak for eBay market research tool to look at trending and sales on eBay for World Cup related items.

Let’s start with the Vuvuzela. What is it? The vuvuzela is a long plastic horn producing the annoying sound heard at soccer matches in South Africa. The noise or sound it makes is similar to a giant swarm of bees. One South African columnist even described it as "the horn from hell."

Where can you get one? Here in the States, it seems to be pretty hard to come by unless you go online, which is great for eBay sellers!

Look at the chart below, we can clearly see the rise in listings and sales for the vuvuzela around the time the World Cup started on June 11th. Although I am looking at this data on July 7th, this information is/would have been available to me to view back in June. An enterprising eBay seller with vuvuzelas to sell could easily have researched this information and potentially jumped on the hot sales trend. I am sure many eBay sellers did exactly this.

As the World Cup starts to come to a close and they enter the finals, vuvuzela sales do seem to be declining. Who is buying all the vuvuzelas anyway?

The majority of vuvuzelas purchased on eBay came from Germany. The German team is still in the World Cup (as of the time when this blog post is written) and their fans are rallying around and making noise with their vuvuzelas.

World Cup Team Jersey Sales. Can they predict who will win?

Looking at the charts below, we can see Spain has more World Cup jersey sales than the Netherlands. Could this be an indicator of who will win?

Team Spain

Team Netherlands

It will be interesting to see if these numbers spike in the next week or so, depending on which team wins.

Promoting Your eBay Store Offline

2010-07-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Article from the Shopster blog

Having an online eBay store shouldn’t limit your world to just the web. One of the most effective ways to deliver traffic to your eBay store is to do a bit of offline marketing. And it’s not just about traffic, we’re looking at increasing credibility and customer trust. Knowing you have a physical presence can help you make a connection with customers who aren’t as comfortable with buying online.

Here are a couple of tips on advertising your eBay Store via traditional means:

Include the eBay Store web address in marketing collaterals such as brochures, mailing labels, posters, letterheads, fax cover sheet and more.
Add your URL to your business card. Don’t just give away your number when you hand out business card, send them that message that you want them to visit your site as well.
Give out promotional products to your existing client base as well as to potential new clients – of course all displaying your website address. Pens, bags, bumper stickers, promotional products go a long way in the advertising world. They often have an extended reach, not just to your target audience but to their friends, family and other people who see the product when being used.
Display it in your physical location. If you have an actual retail store, put the URL up on your store window or have signage made indicating the time of business operations and hat you’re also open 24 hours on the web.
Include the URL in your newspaper / magazine ads and even in radio and television ads. You’ll have the tri-media effect working for you and you’re doubling the effect of traditional advertisement you are already paying for.
Update your phone book listing. Most businesses are listed in a telephone directory, other take out a bigger space in them. If you’re one of the businesses that has paid for a bigger or a highlighted listing in the local yellow pages, you might as well list your web address there.
Give out printed discount coupons or gift certificates for use on your website. How you deliver this to your intended audience is entirely up to you. You can have it done as a cut-out add in the newspaper, you can send it by snail mail, however you do it, it should only be claimed on the website.

Let your creativity go to work in exploring ways to advertise your eBay Store and make your brand more visible in the real world.

Happy Selling!

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through drop shipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service drop shipping to both the United States and Canada.

What You Need to Know to Take Advantage of eBay's Best Match

2010-07-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Best Match on eBay is a complicated search algorithm that helps buyers shop from the best sellers on eBay first. It has been eBay's default search for more than a year now.

The main criteria that affect your ranking for any type of listing in any category via Best Match are:

Seller track record
Competitive pricing and shipping costs
Relevance of the listing to what the buyer is looking for

eBay says there is no "silver bullet" that will get you ranked on page one, but I guarantee there are some definite areas that you need to look at and fix if you want a fighting chance at beating the competition. These variables are not consistent across all categories and eBay constantly updates them as it learns more about how the buyers search and what they are looking to purchase.

Auction-style listings are treated a bit differently than fixed-priced listings in Best Match search. The main ranking factor for auctions would be time ending soonest. This means that doing research using a tool like Terapeak on "best ending times" is still in effect for this type of listing.

For fixed-priced listings, the main factor is sales-to-impressions ratio, also called "Listing Performance Score." An impression is when a buyer sees a page that includes your listing. Newly listed fixed-priced items get a temporary bump in search to help level the playing field. Also, time recently listed is an important factor for fixed-price listings in the following categories: Art, Antiques, Coins & Paper Money, Collectibles, Dolls & Bears, Pottery & Glass, Toys & Hobbies, Stamps, Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop and Entertainment Memorabilia. Hey, I didn't say this was going to be easy.

Grouping identical items into one listing not only helps you save on fees, but it may also increase your sales-to-impressions ratio.

Best Match love
Here are some factors that will help your items get some Best Match love and a possible bump in search:

Price competitively: You can utilize the completed listings on eBay to find out what successful listings similar to yours are selling for on eBay.
Shipping cost: This doesn't always mean free shipping, although that helps in many categories. This also has to do with keeping your shipping costs within an acceptible range.
Impressions versus sales: Grouping identical items into multi-quantity/multi-variation fixed-priced listings not only helps you save money on fees, but it may also increase your sales-to-impressions ratio for your listing.
Relevancy: This refers to keywords in your title and attributes. My last article talked quite a bit about locating the right keywords to have in your title. You can pick up a refresher course here. Also make sure you fill out as many item attributes as possible using Item Specifics.
Your seller rating: Seller ratings include Top-rated, Above Standard and Standard. Being a Top-rated seller will give you an increase in search. Now, that doesn't mean that someone who isn't a Top-rated seller won't be ahead of you due to relevancy, pricing, or other factors, but it does give you a competitive advantage.

Even with all of this there is no guarantee, but these are the factors we know are included in how you rank in eBay's Best Match. Your best option right now is to utilize your built-in Store and eBay Reports and completed listings to consistently check on these factors and test them on your inventory. Of course there is another way…

Use the eBay Search Visibility Analysis tool in My eBay to find out how a specific item of yours is being ranked on the first page of search for:

Price range
Shipping cost range
Free shipping (or whether you need to offer this for a page-one bump)
Format (should you offer auction-style or fixed-priced?)
Seller rating (for this item, in this category, will being a Top-rated Seller provide you small advantage or a big advantage for showing up on the first page?)
Catalog product details (is this an item that utilizes features from eBay's catalog?)

Search visibility analysis provides information on factors that affect where your listing ranks in search results.

Condensed blog post from Auctiva Education.

Auctiva is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider offering listing management solutions and features for beginner -to mid-to high-volume eBay sellers.

The Pivot Points in Your Online Business (Critical Points Where You Must Make a Change in Your Strategy)

2010-06-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

For those living in the U.S. the 4th of July is a long holiday weekend – but for eBay and online sellers July 4th is a “Pivot Point” for your 2010 online sales.

In sports, a pivot point can set an athlete up to make the winning shot or run the distance for a touchdown. In business, “Pivot Points” are critical points where you MUST make a turn in your strategy in order to stay AHEAD of the needs of your online buyers.

I first identified the concept of Pivot Points(tm) in my own business back in 2002.

I realized that there had been several selling opportunities I’d missed because I wasn’t prepared. I started charting these Pivot Points on my business calendar my first year in business so that the following year they didn’t sneak up on me OR even worse, I didn’t miss them completely.

From that point on, JULY 4th was one of the most important Pivot Points in my online sales success. In fact, by acting on that one Pivot Point alone, I more than doubled my holiday sales that following year.

The next Pivot Point for etailers is the change of focus from summer sales to planning for fall and holiday sales.

So even though you’re currently in the middle of summer sales – it’s time to TAKE ACTION on this Pivot Point and shift a part of your attention to prepping for what you’ll sell this fall.

Here are Your Pivot Point Actions
==> The Back-to-School selling season starts July 5th.
==> 69% of holiday shoppers START their holiday shopping in SEPTEMBER.

Pivot Point Action #1: Take a look at what Back-to-School related merchandise (or information) you are selling. The beginning of July is the time to move that merchandise front & center. You have to start advertising this merchandise now. Capture the early bird sales. Don’t wait for the procrastination shoppers. Or you’ll lose a ton of income.

Pivot Point Action #2: What Fall/Holiday merchandise do you CURRENTLY have in your inventory? Start grouping that merchandise together on a spreadsheet so you can see where the gaps in your inventory are and determine what inventory buys you want to make this month. If you wait to order holiday merchandise, your suppliers will be sold out of their hot selling seasonal merchandise by Sept.

Benjamin Franklin, a very successful entrepreneur in his own right once said: “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” Taking action at Pivot Points will prepare you to SUCCEED!'

Instead of chasing the seasonal sales, start early with preparation and watch your sales soar while others are playing catch up!

Blog post by Lisa Suttora, CEO & Founder of WhatDoISell.com

Since 2004, Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business on eBay.

eBay PowerSeller Increases Customer Satisfaction with ShipRush

2010-06-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

eBay PowerSeller soldbymarriott, has improved customer satisfaction and reduced the amount of time they spend on printing out shipping labels with ShipRush.

"The nice thing about ShipRush is that we ship faster. Before we used ShipRush, we were cutting and pasting addresses and names...took us three times as long." - Jim Marriott, soldbymarriott.

ShipRush is able to integrate with eBay, the seller's database and FedEx for a seamless and easy handling of shipping and buyer notifications.

eBay sellers will find ShipRush can speed up their shipping processes by -

Print shipping labels with just a click or two
Auto print packing lists
Tracking numbers automatically uploaded to Buyer's My eBay
Tracking numbers automatically uploaded to Seller's My eBay
Automatic email to the buyer with tracking number

ShipRush is free! Check out ShipRush today.

Founded in 1992, Z-Firm has been making ShipRush since 1998. The ShipRush mission is to bring big-warehouse shipment automation to small businesses. ShipRush is "FedEx Compatible," "UPS Ready," "UPS OnLine Compatible," and DHL Certified.

eBay Workshop June 29th - "How to 'Jump Start' eBay Motors Sales with Parts Compatibility"

2010-06-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

Topic: How to 'Jump Start' eBay Motors Sales with Parts Compatibility. A “how-to” workshop with solutions & services for all eBay Motors sellers

Host: Infopia

Date: Tuesday, June 29th

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: Shifting your business to utilize eBay Parts Compatibility can be an intimidating prospect. This “how-to” workshop presents 'Jump Start' services for Infopia and non-Infopia eBay sellers.

The workshop will also include demonstrations of Infopia’s unique manual fitment functionality, including the ability to map the fitments of Brand Name parts to their generic equivalents. Infopia Fitment products have been designed for ease of management and long-term maintainability.

Topics and demonstration will include:

One time and on-going EPID Matching to both
Manufacturer or Brand for any Seller
Structured fitment data upload for manual fitment
Use of “similar to” capabilities to match fitments of Brand Name parts to Generic Equivalents
Creation of new fitment-enabled listings utilizing
Ad Factories and Custom Schedules
Using Product Catalogue
Auto-generation of multiple listings optimized for eBay maximum fitments per listing.

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

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Thanks,

Ginger Leishman - eBay Certified Provider Program

Get to Know Your Business with Transaction Data from New Terapeak for PayPal

2010-06-23T12:19:00.001-07:00

Recognizing the need for online sellers to better understand their transactional data, customers, and the effects of marketing and seasonal changes, Terapeak for PayPal was developed by Advanced.

Advanced, (Advanced Ecommerce Research Systems) recently announced in addition to their market research tool for eBay (Terapeak) they now provide analytics and data for PayPal (Terapeak for PayPal).

The new Terapeak for PayPal market research tool analyzes millions of raw PayPal transaction data to provide direct and relevant reports to an ecommerce merchant on their business and PayPal transactions. eBay sellers and ecommerce merchants of all sizes can use Terapeak for PayPal.

“...This new toolset allows sellers to put a microscope over their accounts and gain a thorough understanding of their customers...When used in combination with our Terapeak for eBay research, sellers can further increase the efficiency of their online stores.” - Fred Speckeen, Advanced/Terapeak CEO

Benefits of Terapeak for PayPal
Determine which platforms are most profitable - Compare your sales from eBay and other channels in a simple to read report. Evaluate taxes, net sales, fees, refunds and payments per platform and understand where your buyers are making their purchases.

Review your sales at the category level - Currency reporting, by country - understand which currencies are you receiving, and how much they cost in fees and conversion costs - Evaluate your global business and find opportunities to save money.

Get to know your customer - View sales, payments, average prices and sales growth by gender and target your demographic more specifically.

Marketing and selling strategy, have you made a change? - Try new marketing opportunities or change selling strategies and view the impact to your business as-it-happens for each platform. Evaluate the results of your marketing and strategy changes on sales instantly.

Performance and Benchmarking goal setting - Set a goal for sales, payments, refunds, and other metrics to track your company's progress. Determine the amount of sales, payments, fees, refunds, average price or taxes you wish to target, and receive to-the-minute updates on where you are en route to goals.

Check out Terapeak for PayPal now!

Terapeak for PayPal is an additional market research tool to Terapeak for eBay. If you are already subscribed to Terapeak for eBay and would like to add Terapeak for PayPal, you will need to sign-up for Terapeak for PayPal here.

Terapeak for PayPal has a “lite” version you can try for free.

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a full, 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.

eBay Certified Provider, Auctiva, Now Supports eBay Motors Parts Compatibility

2010-06-21T10:58:00.001-07:00

eBay Certified Provider, Auctiva, Now Supports eBay Motors Parts Compatibility

Benefitting Auctiva eBay Motors Sellers

Parts Compatibility for eBay Motors is a more efficient way for sellers to list vehicle parts and accessories fitting many makes and models. Sellers no longer have to create and manage multiple listings of the same item in order to include the names of all compatible vehicles in the listing title for search exposure.

Instead, sellers can now create one listing describing a single part and add an extensive list of compatible vehicles in the new Compatibility tab eBay added in the listing description. The information included in the Compatibility tab will be searchable.

Listing with parts compatibility also helps buyers find parts that fit their vehicles more easily, because buyers will see more precise search results containing exact parts for their specific vehicle.

Auctiva, an eBay Certified Provider, now fully supports the new eBay Motors Parts Compatibility feature. eBay sellers can quickly create listings with parts compatibility right from Auctiva’s easy One-Page Lister tool. Users can find and select their part using eBay's catalog and compatibility data, or enter the information manually. Read more about Auctiva’s parts compatibility feature in Auctiva's Help section.

Getting the right fit
Parts compatibility listings will allow sellers to focus on describing the item they have for sale and not all the vehicles these parts are compatible with. Before parts compatibility, sellers would often create several listings for one product, knowing that buyers expected to see which vehicles these parts were compatible with in a listing's title.

"You can only fit so much into a title. You can't fit 20 different cars," - explains Mohan Patt, eBay Motors Senior Manager of Product Development. "Our sellers are very creative, so they would create 10 different listings for the same product."

Now sellers can create just one listing, pay one listing fee, focus on the part itself in their title and description, and add the compatibility information from eBay’s catalog or manually enter it. Sellers who use parts compatibility will also get a boost in Best Match.

"We are delighted to provide Auctiva sellers the ability to create these listings fully integrated with all of Auctiva tools. We strive to be the listing tool of choice for eBay sellers, and delivering parts compatibility listing capability is an important part of fulfilling that objective." – said Tony Maxey, Auctiva Senior Product Manager.

More details on the updates included in this latest release are available in this Auctiva Community Forum post.

Auctiva is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider offering listing management solutions and features for beginner -to mid-to high-volume eBay sellers.

Is eBay Shopping More Fun with ZippyQuiz?

2010-06-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

eBay shopping can be more fun, engaging and exciting for eBay buyers when they purchase from a seller using ZippyQuiz. New to the Open eBay App center is ZippyQuiz by MyStoreCredit.

ZippyQuiz brings a seller’s eBay listings to life with the use of fun quizzes in the listing to engage the buyer, plus buyers have an opportunity to earn cashback when they purchase from you.

An eBay buyer will take a fun ZippyQuiz and if they buy within the time you set (say 15 minutes after taking the quiz) they win cash-back after they complete purchase. You choose the amount of cash-back reward for right and wrong answers. Only buyers who BUY earn cashback. The quiz is fun and prompts buyers to make the purchase now in order to receive cashback.

How does ZippyQuiz work? Sign-up and either create your own quiz or use a quiz in their library. ZippyQuiz will automatically add a few lines of HTML code to your listings (or you can paste the HTML into your own template). The HTML code will show an interactive, fun trivia type quiz. Your buyer takes the quiz and finds out the cashback reward they will earn if they make a purchase from you.

eBay sellers can try out ZippyQuiz for free!

Video of Brian Lawe, CEO of MyStoreCredit, discussing new ZippyQuiz in the Open eBay App Center.

MyStoreCredit is an eBay Certified Solution Provider delivering a buyer loyalty and rewards program for eBay sellers and PayPal merchants known as, MyStoreRewards. In addition, MyStoreCredit also provides a solution to help sellers reach international buyers with the fun and visual application of MyStoreMaps.

New "Smart Lister" from inkFrog Combines an eBay Listing Tool with Research from Terapeak

2010-06-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Do you want to create eBay listings quickly while getting the research you need at the same time?

Then check out inkFrog’s new “Smart Lister” tool for eBay. Smart Lister combines inkFrog’s eBay listing tool technology with built in research data from Terapeak. The Smart Lister can provide the research a seller needs while they create their listing to determine the best listing strategy and pricing of the item.

“Let our Smart Lister optimize your listing to ensure it is listed with the optimal keywords, at the correct price point, duration, and time. Listing management is no longer just about templates and images. It's about using smart technology to ensure your items are found in searches and priced correctly.” – Greg Sisung, President of inkFrog

Smart Lister Features:

Smart Category Suggestion (find the best category for your item)
Title Optimizer (maximize the keywords in each item title)
Prime Words (learn what the top keywords are for each eBay category)
Takeoff Calculator (find the best date, time and duration to set your listing at for maximum exposure and profit)
Elite Examples (research similar sold items and learn from your competitors)
List to eBay.com, eBay.ca, eBay.co.uk, eBay.au, eBay.de and more
Add an unlimited number of images to your eBay listings
Choose a professional inkFrog template or use your own
And more…

“The Smart Lister was created to empower you to sell more effectively and increase your sales. Our goal is to ensure inkFrog sellers are the most effective sellers online.” – Sisung

inkFrog’s Smart Lister is compatible and utilizes their other eBay centric offerings such as the prefilled profiles, image hosting and design templates.

Check out inkFrog’s Smart Lister today! Try it free!

Founded in 1999, inkFrog, inc. is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider that helps save online sellers time, money, and sanity through inventory management, eBay listing tools, image hosting, and more.

Vendio Wins 2010 eBay Star Developer Award

2010-06-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

Vendio, an eBay Certified Provider, won a 2010 eBay Star Developer award for "Rapid Evolution" at eBay's 2010 Developers Conference in San Jose, CA June 9th.

The Star Developer Awards are presented annually to recognize the talent and solutions of members of the eBay Developers Program. The eBay Developers Program, established in 2000, is a community of more than 112,000 developers who utilize the program’s standards-based, easy-to-use development platform. These third-party developers have access to the eBay marketplace, enabling them to seamlessly integrate their ideas and e-commerce tools.

“eBay’s developer community continues to create innovative applications on the eBay platform that help improve the experience for buyers and margins for sellers, while driving profitability for themselves,” said Sri Shivananda, senior director of eBay’s developer program. “The eBay Star Developer Award winners have built powerful applications that bring new ways of doing business to the eBay marketplace.”

Vendio earned the eBay Star Developer Award of "Rapid Evolution" (boosting seller efficiency in a dynamic marketplace) for their Vendio Reviser tool.

Vendio Reviser was developed as a scalable solution enabling eBay sellers to update thousands of live listings in order to comply with eBay’s selling policies or make a change to their selling strategy.

“We are very proud to receive our third Star Developer Award, especially in the Rapid Evolution category,” said Mike Effle, COO of Vendio. “It shows that not only are we an established eCommerce software provider helping merchants sell more productively for over 10 years, but that we can also adapt quickly to meet our customers’ needs. As one of eBay’s first development partners, this award is especially meaningful because it reinforces our continued commitment to innovation and our customers.”

To learn more or sign-up today, please visit: http://www.vendio.com/ecommerce/reviser

How to Sell on eBay: The Things We Wear

2010-06-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

How to Sell on eBay: The Things We Wear

Clothing, Shoes & Accessories is one of the top-selling categories on eBay.

If you're like most people, you have clothes in your closet you no longer wear. And it's a good bet there's at least one item lurking in there that still has the tags on it. There's nothing wrong with that. We've all made purchases that we've later had second thoughts about, or bought a garment, stored it away and forgotten about it.

But these pieces don't need to be forgotten forever—especially with millions of potential buyers online who would be happy to give them a new home. So why not try selling them on eBay? We'll help by giving you the background necessary should you decide to try your hand at Clothing, Shoes & Accessories.

You may even venture into your own children's closet, your spouse's or your roommate's—with their permission, of course—to beef up your inventory. As long as you ask them first, you'll have little to lose and plenty to gain.

Hot sellers
Over the years, eBay has become a magnet for bargain seekers of name-brand merchandise, both new and used. So it seems natural the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories category has emerged as one of eBay’s most popular categories.

In recognition of this, eBay recently launched the Fashion site, giving all listings in the category a catalog-style interface.

Almost any type of clothing and accessories will sell on eBay but—as with any category—there are those that will sell better than others.

Plus-size items and petites are also popular online because they can quickly sell out at brick-and-mortar shops, writes Michelle Angell, an eBay seller of more than 10 years and a writer for Examiner.com. And if you have designer threads you no longer use, definitely put these up on eBay.

"Buyers are looking for bargains, and eBay can be a gold mine for those wanting to look fashionable without paying department-store prices," Angell notes.

However, be sure the brand-name items you are offering are genuine. Regardless of the item you sell, though, condition is a major factor.

Conditional love
Just like with a brick-and-mortar shop, buyers are going to pick the pieces that look the best. That means your description and photos are very important. Shoppers don't have the option of grabbing items off the shelf to inspect them or try them on, so you need to be their eyes and hands to keep buyers happy and ensure smooth transactions.

It's important to tell buyers if an item is new (with or without tags), or gently used, and give them plenty of photos so they know the exact condition and details of the piece. Photograph both the front and back of an item, and zoom in on any intricate detailing to ensure buyers see items in their truest form. And be sure to include shots of any imperfections an item may have.

Dazzling descriptions
Titles are prime real estate in the online selling world. You want to use accurate keywords that will tell buyers what you're offering at a glance. That means you not only need to tell them what you're selling, but also the size and material items are made of, right away. And if you can fit it, include the condition as well so buyers know the important details at a glance.

Once you get them to click on your listing, it's time to tell shoppers everything you can about your piece. Again, size is very important to mention. But remember that sizes aren't universal. One brand's size 8 may be another brand's size 10, so grab the measuring tape. It's time to tell buyers the exact measurements. For tops you'll want to note the sleeve length, chest measurement and the full length of the piece. For bottoms, be sure to measure the waist and the inseam. You'll want to provide measurements for accessories as well. How big is that handbag, belt buckle, shoe charm or hair clip?

Shoppers will thank you for this information, because they'll know if an item is likely to fit or not, and you'll do yourself a favor by reducing the likelihood of a return.

Know your market
As with any category, it pays to do some advance legwork before jumping in with both feet. Subscribing to research services such as Terapeak can give an eBay seller valuable insight into keywords, average selling prices and optimum days and times for ending listings, as well as clue them into the most profitable niches.

However, much of this knowledge can be gleaned for free—with only the investment of time—by studying closed and active listings on eBay.

Multi-variations
If you have a lot of the same items in different sizes or colors, you could try creating multi-variation listings. This can be a big money and time saver since you only create one listing for these items instead of multiple. Auctiva recently began supporting eBay’s multi-variation listings format, saving eBay sellers time and money.

Blog post provided by Auctiva Education. Read full blog post here.

Auctiva is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider offering listing management solutions and features for beginner -to mid-to high-volume eBay sellers.

Make the Most Out of Your "About Me" Page on eBay

2010-06-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Many eBay sellers may not be aware there is an "About Me" page/feature available for each account to give other eBayers more information on a seller's business, what service they can expect from them and more. Fewer sellers actually take advantage of the additional marketing opportunities an About Me page on eBay provides. Building a successful eBay profile is about using all the tools eBay makes available. If you’re not using your About me page, you’re missing a trick.

What is an About Me page?
An About Me page is a page for you to tell other eBayers about yourself, your business and the things you sell. You can make and edit your About Me page via My eBay. You don’t need any special skills, but if you have some coding or design experience, so much the better. Unusual for eBay, you can have a link on your About Me page to your personal website or blog. Be careful. You are not allowed to link to commercial websites, promote off-eBay sales or link to items prohibited on eBay. You are also not allowed to link to a search engine or site that aggregates the eBay sales of multiple sellers. eBay has a full list of what is allowed and what is not allowed on the About Me policy page.

About Me Page Benefits
There are two significant benefits to building an About Me Page. The first is SEO (search engine optimization). The vast majority of buyers will come to you via eBay’s search but some will find you via search engines such as Google. It’s well worth remembering anything you can do to attract more buyers from search engines is good news for the bottom line. You can also link to your About Me Page from other sites as you like, to improve the ranking of your About Me page in Google.

The second benefit is with branding. Ensuring everything you do looks good and is clearly identifiable as your business is vital when it comes to attracting repeat buyers, inspiring trust and providing a first class buying experience. Frooition can help you with design and implementation of your About Me page and make sure it looks great!

Five things to include in your About Me page:
The good news for sellers is an About Me page is very flexible and can easily be personalized using HTML. eBay can help you build a basic About Me page but to get the full impact, pull out all the stops and make it a fully integrated part of your eBay brand.

Auto-generated components: eBay allows you to display your current sales, recent Feedback and even recent bids. So use the auto-generated elements to populate your About Me page easily.
Pictures: You can include images and photos in your About Me page to bring it to life. You can host these images yourself, or eBay will do it for you.
Words: To get the full SEO benefit of your About Me page make sure you have some text talking about your sales. Cram the text full of relevant keywords that will aid your find ability on Google.
Video: You can easily embed a video (hosted on YouTube, for instance) using HTML and that is certain to attract attention. It could be a showcase of your stock, a tour around your business or just you talking to camera about your business. It’s surprisingly easy to make a video, even with your digital camera.
Your philosophy: In your item listings and also other eBay pages, you’ll talk about what you’re selling and how people pay and get a refund. An About Me Page offers the chance to be a bit less formal and more personal. Talk about why you got into eBay selling, spin a yarn about why you do it and how you like to trade.

How long will an About Me Page take?
Not long. If you’re clever and reuse content like pictures and text you already have elsewhere, you could be up and running in a matter of minutes. If you want something more professional, it will take longer.

The good news about your About Me page is that it’s a one-off job. There’s no need to constantly tweak and tinker: once it’s up and running you can just leave it be. Of course, if you change your brand or want to make changes, you can then easily update your About Me page to reflect the changes.

Article from Frooition's Blog.

Frooition is a leading provider of eBay store and listing designs. Frooition provide design services for most other online sales channels as well as website design. Frooition has been working with the eBay platform more than 4 years and has clients in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Smart Moves to Make This Summer to Put the Sizzle in Your Sales

2010-05-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

Selling successfully on eBay means paying attention to the change in seasons, the change in what your customers are buying and making the right changes in your business at the right time to ride the wave of momentum towards future fortune.

In short, it’s all about timing.

When many people think about summer, the word vacation comes to mind. But if you’re an online entrepreneur, don’t plan on taking the entire summer off! The summer is a golden opportunity for you to make some smart moves that will set you up to make more profits the rest of the year.

Snap up the sumptuous samplings of available inventory. If you sell unique one of a kind items online, the summer is your oyster. Yard sales abound, flea markets are in full swing, and thrift stores are marking down their inventory. In fact some of my clients bring in a team during the summer, just to help them scour the city yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores several times a week. They do 60% of their product sourcing from May – Sept. With a team help them, they can cover 10 times the territory that they could cover on their own.

With the sunny summer weather comes the desire to clean out the house and have a yard sale. This makes for a product sourcing cornucopia.

Contact suppliers for sizzling hot deals. End of season merchandise, pre-season specials, you name it! Now’s the time to call and ask your supplier what summer deals they have available. Or take a trip and do some local product sourcing. Heading to hot Atlanta? Visit the AmericasMart merchandise mart while you’re there. Check with your accountant about writing off a part of the trip as a business expense.

Last call for holiday importing. Been thinking about importing new merchandise for the holidays? Better get the show on the road – because if you wait past mid-July it will be too late to get it in time for the holiday selling season. Use eBay market research to determine hot selling items and seasonal trends.

Retail resale is real swell during the summer. Lego sets at 90% off. Wet suits discounted 60%. Pre-back-to-school sales preview what will be the hot holiday products. It’s all there waiting for you at your local retail store. By July 5th, brick and mortar stores will be transitioning to their back-to-school inventory. You can pick up some GREAT deals in you local store and bring that inventory online for your global customer base.

Stock up now for the holiday selling season. Even though you’re wearing a bathing suit and sitting by the lake, your need to spend some time thinking, planning and sourcing for the holiday season. If you’ve been tracking the trends for 2010 in your category, you should already have an idea of what will be hot in your category for Christmas. And for some categories, especially the toy category, NOW is the time to head to your local retail store and stock up on those hot sellers you can’t get from a wholesaler.

Use eBay market research to determine hot selling items and seasonal trends.

Clean sweep your product line. Throw open the windows, let the sun shine in and dig in to those boxes of inventory that need to be listed and sold!

Sales Happen When Preparation Meets Opportunity

There’s a Chinese Proverb that says “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

The same is true of your sales. If you use the dog days of summer like one smart puppy and do a little every day to get ahead of your competition. Come fall, when everyone wakes up out of the summer haze realizing that the biggest selling season of the year is right in front of them, and they’re not prepared… you’ll be sitting in your nice clean office, watching your products sell, calm and relaxed and excited about your sales figures this year…

This article has been condensed. Read the full article here.

Since 2004, Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business on eBay.

Update and Edit Your eBay Listings Quickly with Froo! Bulk Revision

2010-05-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

No matter how many eBay listings a seller has live on the site or stored, making revisions to the item(s) can be a painstaking task. With Froo! Bulk Revision, eBay sellers can easily and in bulk, change many elements of their eBay listings to attract even more buyers and close the sale.

Froo! Bulk Revision (by Frooition) is an easy to use application allowing eBay sellers to make changes to their live listings in bulk. Sellers can change item titles, descriptions, increase and decrease prices and more!

Change any of the following features within your active and stored eBay listings/inventory:

Find & Replace eBay Item Titles
If an eBay seller needs to change their item titles in bulk (active and stored listings), they can use Froo!’s find and replace title tool. Easily update item titles for enhanced search and strategy.

Find, Replace and Add to eBay Item Descriptions
eBay sellers can search and replace single words or full paragraphs in an eBay item description (active & stored listings) in a fluid manner to keep the listing information current and in adherence to changing eBay policies as needed.

In addition to editing current item descriptions, a seller can also use Froo! Bulk Revision to add important information to the bottom of an eBay item description.

Returns Policy
Update your returns policies on all eBay listings at once! Write a new policy, select the relevant listings and apply the changes in bulk. An especially useful feature if a supplier has changed their shipping or returns policy, thereby affecting the seller.

Start Price
Stay on top of the competition and maintain a competitive edge on eBay by adjusting the starting price on eBay Auctions or modify the selling price on Fixed Price items (within eBay guidelines).
eBay sellers can increase or decrease the Buy It Now price on eBay listings either by setting it to a certain amount, altering by a percentage or adding/subtracting a set amount from many prices in bulk!

Froo! Bulk Revision tool can edit more aspects of an eBay listing. To check out the Froo! Bulk Revision tool and learn more, go to the eBay App Store. A free trial is available.

Frooition is a leading provider of eBay store and listing designs. Frooition provide design services for most other online sales channels as well as website design. Frooition has been working with the eBay platform more than 4 years and has clients in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Cloud Conversion on eBay Radio - How to Effectively Manage Your Customers and Increase Sales

2010-05-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Listen on eBay Radio as Cloud Conversion gives detail on their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution for eBay sellers and ecommerce merchants.

To really gain an advantage and increase customer satisfaction (DSRs and Feedback) eBay sellers should consider investing in a CRM tool.

eCommSource by Cloud Conversion, is a full bodied CRM solution integrating eBay My Messages and Ask Seller a Question direct into the Salesforce platform for easy handling of messages and creating reports on top buyers, purchasing behavior and more.

Benefits of eCommSource:

Manage buyers and all communication in one place
Improve customer service with faster response time
Increase customer retention
Send coupons and incentives to specific buyer segments
Analyze buyer activity by product to help forecast sales, hot products and sourcing
and more...

Learn more about eCommSource by Cloud Conversion.

Try a Free 30-Day Trial to eCommSource

Best Practices for Selling on eBay by Shopster

2010-05-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

Article from the Shopster Blog

Best Practices for Selling on eBay

Whether you are just starting your eBusiness and are new to using drop shippers to sell on eBay, or if you are an old hand at selling online; test out the following tips and watch your sales sky-rocket!

Research

Before you list a product, confirm what other products have sold for. Search completed listings and Terapeak (eBay marketplace research solution) for pricing and other eBay info to increase your sales success.

Pricing

Spend some time learning pricing strategies. The bottom line with pricing is you need to create buzz around your item/listing. You need to price the item low enough to get people excited about what you’re selling, but high enough you are not undercutting your profits. Looking at completed auctions (and Terapeak) for historical pricing data prior to setting your opening bid is a savvy way to figure out your starting bid price.

Selling Formats

eBay has many different selling formats. Fixed price listings, auction style, etc. Learn about them, learn the pros and cons of each and then make a decision on which format works best for your niche. If in doubt, experiment and see what works best for you.

Merchandise your item

When building your eBay listing make sure you have created an eye-catching title. Have an effective and well-written product description and a clear photo of your product. Put yourself in a buyer’s shoes - buyers click and purchase items that grab their attention, so it’s important to spend the time and showcase your product to the best of your abilities!

Customer Service

The key to having a successful eBay business is customer service. Make yourself available to answer customer questions and queries. Good customer service will help you close sales and encourage repeat business. Don’t forget to ask for feedback either. Learn how you can better service your customers next time around – they’ll appreciate the thought and be more likely to buy again from you.

Wondering What (or What Else) to Sell on eBay?

2010-05-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

Blog Post by Lisa Suttora from Auctiva Education

Wondering What (or What Else) to Sell on eBay?

How to activate your product sourcing radar

Are you stuck in a product line rut? Are you selling the same things over and over again, but seeing little growth or expansion in your business? Are your product offerings stale and ho-hum?

Perhaps it's time to inject some life back into your business! After all, there are thousands of new products coming into the marketplace each year, yet all too often people find themselves at a loss for how to expand their business.

And without having the products buyers want, all the marketing, selling strategies and customer service in the world won't sell items people aren't interested in. Without enough inventory to sell, you won't see the revenue growth you desire.

So how do you figure out what to sell, or what else to sell?

1. Understand your customer first; then look at what they want to buy

When you understand who your customer is, answering the question of what to sell, or what else to sell, becomes much easier. Unfortunately, many sellers see their customers as "buyers" rather than people who have a reason behind every purchase they make. Taking the time to know your customer will go a long way in helping you figure out what else to sell.

Here are some questions to ask that will help you with that process:

Who are your customers?
What are their wants?
What are their needs?
What else are they buying?
Where else do they shop?
What are the top products they purchased from you and others last year?

For example, are your customers moms who are snapping up everything they can for their newborns? What are their favorite brands? What colors do they like? What new products are they reading about in parenting magazines? What are they talking about? It's the answers to these questions that will help you decide what to sell next.

Keep in mind that these questions apply to every market! Whether you sell baby products or bongos, you need to know who your customers are.

2. Live in the world your buyers live in
Read what they're reading; hang out where they hang out online. Can you name the top consumer publications in your industry? Online or offline, your customers read magazines, Web sites and blogs on a daily basis. Are you there, too? This is where shoppers are getting ideas about products to buy next. Can you list the top blogs or discussion groups that cover your niche market? That's where your customers are talking about their problems, wants and needs, and where they're discussing the latest gadgets and gizmos they want to buy. A client of mine who sells in the boating niche gets 80 percent of his business and his ideas for products to sell by participating in a top recreational boating Yahoo group.

3. What products are they searching for?
As online retailers, we live in a search-driven world. Fortunately, the answer to what products your customers are searching for can be found for free, and is as close as the Google Keywords Tool. Do a search using Broad Match and Phrase Match for your primary keywords and watch as hundreds of related keywords come up. Products you have never thought about selling will suddenly be displayed right before your eyes!

You can also leverage the marketplaces. Spend some time looking on eBay when you're in the product sourcing mindset and you'll find yourself with more ideas for products to sell than time to sell them!

4. Make it your business to be on top of industry trends
Staying on top of industry trends is a fun and exciting process and will infuse your business with ideas for products to sell. Unfortunately, it's one that I find e-tailers often neglect. Do you know about the latest and greatest new products in your market? Are you on top of what's new before your customer is? Do you spend time each week reading industry publications and consumer magazines, and talking to your suppliers about what's hot? Do you attend industry trade shows?

It's in these places that you'll get a plethora of ideas or products to sell and find out what's destined to be the next hot product!

5. Listen to your customers
How often have you received an e-mail from your customer asking if you carry a particular product? Many people might just say, "No, sorry, we don't carry that," and move on. But paying attention to what customers are asking for can be a clue into what you should carry next. WhatDoISell member and eBay seller E.J. Bantz gets some of his best product ideas from his customers.

"They often tell me what they want to buy," he says. "It's my job to then go and source it for them."

6. Get insights from Google Insights
One of my favorite tools for figuring out what to sell next is Terapeak. Terapeak's trending module will lead you to many different opportunities for new products to sell on eBay.

7. Test, test, test!
Before you invest your inventory capital in unproven products, you'll want to test-market new inventory in small quantities. This will allow you to quickly distinguish the winners from the losers. A lot of people source products seasonally. But product sourcing isn't something you can do once a month.

One of the most important steps to being in the Product Sourcing Mindset is to have at least 10 new products in the pipeline at any given time. What you focus on expands, and being in the mindset will ensure you'll have a constant stream of new products flowing into your business.

This blog post has been condensed. Click here to read the full article.

What To Do if eBay Sales Are Down

2010-05-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Blog post by Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was

What To Do if eBay Sales Are Down

A client called today saying his April eBay sales were down. I said how we fix this depends on the answer to this question: Are your items getting lots of hits? The answer changes my advice.

If your items are not getting a decent amount of hits, then one (or both) of two things are going on:

Demand may be down. Maybe your item is seasonal. Maybe the newest hottest one just came out, and people really want that. What to do about this: Not much. You can't make people want an item they don't want. I hear this all the time from people who buy liquidation stock, and find out that people kinda don't want what they happened to buy. That's not a blanket statement; plenty of liquidation stock is VERY successful on eBay. My point is that you can't make people want an item they do not want.

Something is wrong with your listing strategy that is keeping people who want your item from finding yours. This can range from strategy mistakes you might be making to issues with how eBay sorts you in search results. What to do about this: Check your Seller Dashboard. Check what may be holding you back, and fix that. We'll cover more of that in another post. But these should be things you CAN change.

If your items are getting a decent amount of hits, but not really getting sales, that tends to mean that people want your item but for some reason don't want YOURS from you. Reasons might include:

Something about your item is not what people expected. For example, I've been searching laptop batteries lately. Most of the items in search results are not clear about the mAh rating for the batteries. So I am hitting a LOT of items, but I am leaving when I realise that they are half the power of my existing "standard" battery. I'd like something the same power or a more extended life. What to do about this: Build more info into your title. You can also build into into item specifics and the subtitle. In my case, if someone had shown the mAh in the title or subtitle, I wouldn't have bothered looking at low-powered batteries.

Something about your listing is turning them off. Not enough pictures, not good/focused pictures. Unclear policies or too many policies that people don't want to read. Fear of what's hidden in the fine print. What to do about this: You can fix this. Clean up your listings. Take better pictures. Make sure your pics tell the story of what this is and the condition it's in. Revise your policies to be more organised, clearer, and in an order that makes sense to eBay shoppers (shipping first). Not everybody who has a question will ask it. Some will just hit their back button. And even if they ask a question, while they wait for your answer, they might hit the back button, and shop your competitors.

Your listing design and organisation could be turning people off. Some listings look very unprofessional... clip art, lots of wacky font colours, everything centred, and Comic Sans can make people think you're a small nobody. What to do about this: Revise your listing. Create a template that is organised. Don't try to design your text. Let your info be info. Let your design be design. If you have no design, still let your info be info, and don't try to design it. Make info easy to read and professional-looking.

And as always, hire a pro if you could use more help! :)

This is where we start when looking at why people are having issues with eBay sales. It starts by knowing if you're getting hits, so make sure you are using a (hidden) counter.

Founded in 1995, As Was is a full-service consulting firm specializing in branding, design, sales and marketing strategies, operations management, and training. As Was is an eBay Certified Service Provider and has been working with eBay sellers since 2001.

List Items to eBay with Your Apple iPad - New eBay Selling App from GarageSale

2010-04-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

List Items to eBay with Your Apple iPad - New eBay Selling App from GarageSale

New for the iPad is GarageSale, an eBay Selling App by iwascoding

GarageSale for the iPad
iPad users can create and list eBay auctions direct to eBay without ever turning on their desktop computer with GarageSale.

GarageSale for the iPad allows sellers to use existing images from their photo library, add an item description and specify required eBay settings (category, item attributes, return policy and shipping terms), all from their iPad.

Features:

Free image hosting
Pre-designed eBay listing templates
Add images from your iPad to eBay
Preview and approve listings before uploading them to eBay
Retrieves real-time fee information from eBay
eBay category and attribute data updates are automatically updated to keep you current
GarageSale supports 16 different eBay sites including eBay.com, eBay Motors US, eBay.ca, and eBay.de

Check out GarageSale for the iPad now! Available for USD $4.99/ EUR 3.99 from the iTunes App Store.

GarageSale is an eBay selling solution for Mac users, developed by iwascoding. iwascoding is a German company and experienced eBay Developer at the forefront in developing tools to make eBay selling and buying easier for Mac, iPhone and now iPad users.

How to Source Products to Sell on eBay from Multiple Wholesalers by Worldwide Brands

2010-04-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

Article by Worldwide Brands - this is a series of 14 blog posts providing information on how to find inventory and products to sell on eBay from wholesalers with Worldwide Brands and their Product Sourcing Tool for eBay.

Blog 13: Handling low inventory for eBay Selling

Once you determine your niche and find a wholesale supplier who will support you selling on eBay, it becomes the responsibility of the seller to check the inventory levels of the supplier before posting a new listing. What do you do when you find that your wholesale supplier is running low on your most popular inventory items – or any item for that matter?

Find Alternative Sources for the Same Wholesale Product
You need to have a backup source of supply. But how do you find other suppliers offering the same brands or products – or suitable substitutes that you can list when you suspend your normal listing. eBay provides help from one of eBay’s Certified Solution Providers: WorldwideBrands.com. You can now purchase access to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool in the Selling Manager area of ‘My eBay’. This wholesale database contains the contact details for more than 8,000 certified wholesale suppliers including drop shippers, volume wholesalers, light bulk wholesalers, liquidators and importers who together represent more than 8,000,000 products.

Find an Alternative Wholesale Supplier
You can search the database by product, product category, and brand to find alternative wholesalers who will supply the same product. It is a good practice to open an account with this alternative supplier. It is also a good practice to make a test order from the supplier so that you can verify the quality of the product is to your standards, and test the wholesale supplier’s packaging and shipping methods.

Secure Alternatives before You need Them
Without a Tool like this, you may spend many hours trying to find alternative sources of supply. It’s important to have an established relationship in place with an alternative supplier before you need them. It’s too late to start trying to set up an account with an alternative wholesaler when you have orders in hand and your regular supplier cannot fulfill orders for you.

If drop shipping, make sure to keep some inventory on hand, especially for top selling items.
At some point, you will run into an out of stock situation with a supplier for a particular product, it is strongly recommended that you keep a few items on hand to prevent any delay in shipment to your customer. Any remaining listings can then be turned off to prevent any further orders.

Being an online retailer requires constant attention to product sourcing, right priced buying and delivering excellent buying experiences. Product Sourcing is a continual but easy process when done correctly.

Check out Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay today! A 7 Day Free Trial is available.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Service 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.

4 Surefire Ways to Make More Money on eBay This Spring

2010-04-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Blog post by Lisa Suttora, CEO & Founder of WhatDoISell.com

4 Surefire Ways to Make More Money on eBay This Spring

Spring has sprung and so have online sales! We’ll be hearing about the March ecommerce sales figures in the coming weeks, but early indicators reveal that an early Easter and the arrival of spring weather will bring a boost of online retail sales in the neighborhood of 8-10% over 2009.

For eBay sellers, spring also brought with it some major changes to the way business is transacted on eBay. With the end of the Store Inventory Listing Format, millions of items formerly nestled away in eBay stores, saw the dawn of a new day in eBay’s core search.

For many eBay sellers, the inclusion of “store in core” has been a boon for sales. Many people are finding that inventory they’ve had sitting on their virtual store shelves for two years is now selling.

Other sellers who had enjoyed a sole position in core, while their competitors left their listings in store, have seen their categories explode with many competing products alongside theirs where none were before.

But there’s no doubt about it. No matter what changes you’ve seen in your sales on eBay over the past week or so, with the eBay changes and the arrival of spring, it’s time to refresh your strategy!

Today we’re going to look at 4 ways to get started doing just that!

1. Put Your Spring and Summer Merchandise Front and Center

Walk into any brick and mortar retailer these days and you’ll see the signs of spring. Brightly colored signs, spring products in the hot new colors and a fresh array of merchandise to choose from. Spring is a time or renewal and rebirth, and people are wired for that. They’re also very ready to make new purchases for spring and summer. And the eBay seller who actively markets their spring and summer products is the one who increases their sales! Unfortunately, I see many eBay stores and listings that are not doing any spring marketing at all. Even worse, holiday messages and graphics remain. Fall and winter categories are featured in stores and spring merchandise is buried in sea of fall and winter products.

Take a look at your store and listings. Will customers be excited by what they see when they land on your eBay pages?

2. “Top Up” Your Store Categories

If visitors to your eBay store can’t find your new merchandise, they won’t become buyers. And part of putting your new spring merchandise front and center is rearranging your eBay store categories so that the new in-season categories are featured at the top. Many people list their categories in alphabetical order, but by doing that, you relegate your Spring and Summer merchandise to the bottom of your category list where no one will find it!

Keep in mind that a shopper’s focus is going to be “above the fold” which means you have to engage them with what’s on their screen BEFORE you can get them to scroll down to see what else you are offering. Always put your most popular 5 or so eBay store categories and in-season categories at the top of your store category list. If you have a lot of categories, once you feature your top 5-7 categories you can continue your category list alphabetically.

3. Use Subtitles for Marketing not Product Details

eBay subtitles are the best marketing deal on the web IF you use them for the right purpose. eBay listing subtitles should be used for one thing only – MARKETING. Think of eBay listing subtitles as the banner you hang outside your store or the sign you place on a product that tells people what makes that product different, unique or special than everything else the customer is being offered.

Two important things that every eBay seller must know. eBay listing subtitle keywords are not included in core search, this means that if you are putting item specific keyword data into your subtitle in the hopes that it will help people find your products, it does not contribute at all to that purpose.

For marketing purposes you want to craft what we call in marketing a USP (Unique Selling Position) or a “headline” – that will make people do ONE thing… and that is CLICK on your listing and go to your listing description page.

A listing subtitle has ONE purpose – to get a prospective buyer to CLICK on your listing and go to your listing description page where you then display the product information that will convert that browser into a buyer!

So what should go in your listing subtitle? Anything that showcases what’s different about your product or service. The thing that sets you apart from every other seller. Maybe, you’re selling a “Limited Edition Platinum Retro 60 Series”. Maybe your product is an “Exclusive Set. Only Available on eBay”. Maybe you are fortunate to carry an item that is “In Stock with Same Day Shipping. Sold Out In Stores”. Maybe your item is “Eligible for Bing Cashback”. Or the product your carry is “Winner of the Top 10 Toy Awards”. In many categories these days “We Ship Worldwide” is a USP – there are a lot of eBay sellers who no longer ship worldwide. (Which is the subject for another blog post.) Or your item is “100% Made in the USA”.

4. Use eBay’s Search Visibility Analysis Tool to test and track your strategies

The most important key to success when running a business on eBay or anywhere else is to know what works for your business. Each business has so many variables to it, that you have to apply the strategies and then test them and track them to make sure that they are right for you. eBay’s Search Visibility Analysis Tool will help you test and track changes you make to your listings as well as view the impact they have on your ranking in eBay’s Best Match. For example, the tool will show you how many times your listing has been displayed to buyers and the number of times a buyer has clicked-through to view your listing description. This information is critical to determining why your listings are or are not selling. If shoppers aren’t clicking on your listing, they definitely aren’t buying. With the Search Visibility Analysis Tool, you can pinpoint where the problem in the process is and make changes accordingly.

We’ll we’ve just covered four solid business strategies to increase your sales this spring. There’s only one thing left to do now… apply what you’ve learned and implement!

This article has been condensed. Read the full article here.

Since 2004, Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business on eBay.

Cloud Conversion Provides a Complete CRM Solution for eBay Sellers as New eBay Certified Provider

2010-04-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

New eBay Certified Provider, Cloud Conversion

We are delighted to offer eBay sellers a robust CRM solution for customer service and management with the addition of Cloud Conversion as a new eBay Certified Solutions Partner.

eCommSource by Cloud Conversion is a complete CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution for eBay built upon salesforce.com’s trusted Force.com platform. With eCommSource, top eBay sellers can manage all customer service and support from a single view, gain valuable insight about their top buyers and implement effective marketing strategies to increase sales with repeat purchases.

“eCommSource is a solution for any online retailer who is serious about providing excellent customer service and support. It is appropriate and cost effective for any size company. eCommSource really opens the door for eBay sellers who are serious about customer service to leverage customer relationship management (CRM).” – Jon Jessup, CEO of Cloud Conversion

Features:

Consolidate all eBay buyer emails from multiple eBay accounts
Streamline and simplify your customer support process
Process and answer buyer emails from eBay and other online channels
Track buyer questions and concerns for resolution
Route inquiries to the right employee or department (i.e. returns to the shipping dept)
Buyer questions specific to an eBay auction include Auction Ending Time for response prioritization
Manage and track customer returns and RMAs (return merchandise authorizations)
Access other CRM applications from the AppExchange®

Benefits:

Improve customer service with faster response time
Boost eBay feedback, DSRs and sales
Increase customer retention
Analyze buyer activity by product to help forecast sales, hot products and sourcing
And more…

Try a Free 30-Day Trial to eCommSource

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Use Research to Understand Your Competition and Improve eBay Sales by Vendio

2010-04-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Article from Vendio's Vendable Blog

Understand, then Challenge your eBay Competition

Recent eBay changes are now including eBay Store inventory in the main or core search. With this change, it is much more important to understand your competition on eBay. Remaining (or becoming) competitive is truly the only way to achieve success when selling commodity items.

For one-of-a-kind items, auctions still remain the best bet, but for commodity items, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd.

To understand your competition, it's all about research..research and research.

Vendio Research provides competitive data on a seller or product level and it’s a great place to start when developing your competitive strategy.

On a product level (researching by product), you’ll be able to view at a glance all the pricing data and recommendations for listing successfully. In addition, you can view keywords that should be used to drive a products success (what terms are buyers using to FIND the product) and on a competitive level, you’ll be able to see the top sellers by product and view the details on what makes them successful. This will give you great insight. Find out when and how they are listing their items and at what price. Do they charge shipping or offer free shipping? Use the information to create a listing strategy that really works for your product.

In addition to product research, you can type in your competitor’s eBay user ID to get the same great information on a seller level (vs. a product level). You can view their overall strategy and see what’s really driving their success.

I can’t show all the graphs that are available (or this blog post would be loaded with Images). However, you can see from the image that you can view the graphs and trends for many different areas (average selling price, keywords, time of day, categories, etc.).

While Research gives you the “numbers and data”, it does not account for the other reasons a seller may or may not be successful, such as customer service, attractiveness of the listing and policies.

Use Research to actually look at the successful listings and determine how you can improve on what you see.

Can you make your policies friendlier? Can you make your ads more readable? Can you make your ads more attractive. Go into your competitors ads with a “red pencil” and then do the same for you own ads.

There is always room for improvement and better methods to convert browsers to bidders and buyers; it just takes a bit more work than it used to.

And one final recommendation, if you go through the process of researching and understanding your competition – don’t stop there. Make it a part of your normal weekly, bi-weekly or monthly process. Doing it once is great, doing it regularly ensures you can always stay ahead of the “next” curve.

Happy Selling!!

An eBay Certified Solutions Provider since 2004, Vendio provides an ecommerce solution for eBay sellers of all sizes. Vendio offers a series of applications which can be installed on a standalone basis or used to extend the functionality of the Vendio's eBay listing and inventory management solution.

eBay Workshop April 7th - "eBay Listing Design Clinic"

2010-04-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

eBay Workshop: "eBay Listing Design Clinic"

Host: Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was

Date: Wednesday, April 7th

Time: 11a.m. - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: In this workshop, Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was (an eBay Certified Provider since 2004), will take a look at one listing from workshop participants, and offer free advice on how to make that listing more likely to make a sale.

She'll be looking at design, layout, pictures, description, policies, and more ingredients that go into converting eBay shoppers into buyers.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Thanks,

Ginger

eBay Certified Provider Program

4 Quick & Easy Tips on How to Improve eBay DSRs and Feedback by Frooition

2010-03-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

Article from the Frooition Blog

1. Item as Described
Write full product/item descriptions including all relevant details. Especially the condition of the item and any defects. Use Item specifics and include multiple pictures to help buyers see exactly what they’re about to purchase. Don’t use generic stock product shots, especially for used items – show the buyer the product they are actually going to purchase.

2. Communication
Make sure buyers know how to reach you by providing contact details in your listings, emails and shipping invoices. You can use automated emails through Selling Manager Pro to keep buyers informed of when you receive payment and when their product has been shipped.

3. Postage time
Ship items as quickly as possible once it is sold and paid for. The sooner a buyer receives their item the happier they’ll be. Offer premium postage options to enable buyers to select a low cost, slow delivery or a next day service at a higher price. Remember to confirm the shipping method used and inform buyers when they should receive their item to set their expectations.

4. Postage and Packaging charges
Offer the most competitive postage rates possible. If you can, consider free postage and include the cost in the purchase price of the item. Don't forget to offer discounted postage for sending multiple items which may also increase sales.

Frooition is a leading provider of eBay store and listing designs. Frooition provide design services for most other online sales channels as well as website design. Frooition has been working with the eBay platform more than 4 years and has clients in the USA, Canada and Europe.

11 Hot Selling Holidays eBay Sellers Should Be Ready For (April - June) by Lisa Suttora

2010-03-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Article by Lisa Suttora, CEO & Founder of WhatDoISell.com

You may think that the “holiday selling season” runs November-December, but take a look below and you’ll be surprised at all the selling opportunities you have for your online business coming up in the next few months. No matter what you sell or where you sell it, capitalizing on these HOT spring and summer selling seasons can make a huge difference in your income during the 2nd quarter of the year! From April to June there are 11 different selling holidays that you’ll want to ramp up for! Miss these and you’ll leave money on the table…

April
April may be the kickoff to spring, but in the world of online sales, there’s a whole lot of shopping goin’ on!

Bathing suit season: It’s still too chilly to wear them but sales of bathing suits are skyrocketing now. In fact, shoppers who wait much past May will find that all the best selection is gone! If you sell beachwear, it’s time to get it on your store homepage
Prom wear: Online searches for prom wear are on the rise this month. Even though most proms don’ t happen until late May or early June, prom wear sales are increasing quickly with online searches up 60-80% from last month according to Google Insights
Wedding season: Wedding season is in full swing as we approach June, one of the biggest wedding months of the year!
April 4th: Easter: Easter is April 4th. And there is still time to make last minute sales. According to BIGResearch the average amount Easter shoppers are expected to spend is $118.60, slightly up from the 2009 average of $116.59.
April 22nd: Earth Day: Earth Day is April 22nd and sales of eco-friendly and green products abound during this time. Don’t just look to sell traditionally “green” products. Look for the green in everything you sell. A bicycle is not only for entertainment and exercise, it is an eco-friendly way for your customers to commute to work or around town.

May
But that’s not all people are buying…

Bathing suit, prom wear and wedding season continue, but Mom boosts the sales this month!

Sales of summer products ramp sharply in May (and June): Products for outdoor activities, clothing and outdoor living products for the home. Don’t wait until June to feature these in your store or you’ll lose a lot of sales!
May 4th: National Teachers Day. A week long celebration honoring teachers, if you sell gifts and decorative accessories your store should have a promotion around National Teacher’s Day.
May 9th: Mother’s Day: Mother’s Day is one of the biggest spending holidays of the year. Because it’s not just about buying a gift for your mom… there are grandmas, aunts, nieces, friends, co-workers and friends who are like a mom, who will all be getting gifts on this holiday too. Recognize all the moms in your store promotions and you’re sure to increase sales!
May 31st: Memorial Day: It vacation time, camping time, fun in the summer time and your last chance to make big inroads in summer product sales!

June

June: Graduation. Grade school, middle-school, high-school, college and technical college – sales of graduation gifts increase in May and June! And don’t forget the little ones! Pre-school graduation parties are all the rage. What do you sell that would make a perfect gift for the graduate?
June 20th: Father’s Day: Dad doesn’t fare quite as well as mom when it comes to Father’s Day spending but Father’s Day gift shoppers will be out in full force. Put together a Top 10 Father’s Day gift list and watch your sales of those products soar!
June: 4th of July products: Remember the majority of product sales happen in advance of the holiday, so if you wait until July to pull out the red,white and blue – you’ve just lost sales to the savvy seller who merchandised their 4th of July products in June. So get those 4th of July products out early, so your inventory is sold out come July.\

As you can see there’s a whole lot of selling you can do from April through June! So it’s time to get out there and capitalize on these spring and summer holiday selling seasons. Looking for creative ideas on how to merchandise your products or source products for these selling seasons? You’ll find them in the WhatDoISell Business Growth Center!

Since 2004, Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business on eBay.

Infopia and ChannelAdvisor are First to Support eBay Motors Parts Compatibility

2010-03-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

If you sell parts that fit multiple vehicles on eBay Motors, some of our Certified Providers can help.

Parts compatibility is a more efficient way for sellers to list parts that fit many vehicles. Sellers no longer have to create and manage many listings or to include the names of all compatible vehicles in the listing title to ensure that their items appear in search results. Instead, sellers can create one listing describing a single part and add an extensive list of compatible vehicles in the new Compatibility tab that we have created in the listing description. The information included in the Compatibility tab will be searchable.

Seller Benefits:

Save on listing time and Insertion Fees. With parts compatibility, you don’t have to list one part multiple times to ensure all compatible vehicles appear in search —a huge savings in Insertion Fees and time spent managing and creating listings.

Get a boost in search results. Listings with parts compatibility information will get an extra boost in search results. Since we use information from both the Compatibility tab in your listing and your title to match the buyer's search, you can now dedicate all 55 characters in your title for popular keywords like brand name and part number. Your listing will show up in more—and more relevant—buyer searches.

Gain more satisfied buyers. Parts compatibility helps increase buyers’ confidence that they’re purchasing parts that will fit their vehicles, and also helps reduce questions and returned items.

Starting in March 2010, compatibility listings will be available in certain sub-categories on a gradual roll out schedule. You can list with parts compatibility in the U.S. on eBay and on eBay Motors in the following sub-categories of Car & Truck Parts as they become available: Lighting, Lamps & Accessories, Air Intake & Fuel Delivery, Exterior, Tires and Wheels.

Parts compatibility should be available in all sub-categories in the following categories by the end of 2010:

Car & Truck Parts
Vintage Car & Truck Parts

Sellers in the categories enabled for parts compatibility can take advantage of this new way of listing with a listing and inventory management solution from the Certified Providers listed below.

Certified Providers:

ChannelAdvisor

Infopia

eBay Sellers Can List Faster with Product Details and Certified Providers

2010-03-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

List even faster when you use eBay Product Details!

Quickly fill out item descriptions and add photos when listing to eBay with Product Details. Depending on your item and the category you are listing in on eBay, you may be able to include information from our catalogs in your listing, known as product details. Adding product detail information not only makes listing easier, but also helps your items gain added visibility on eBay in our product details page.

Some categories contain items associated with products in our catalogs. If you are listing in one of these categories, you'll be able to add product details along with a stock photo from our catalog to your listing.

Product details can help you create complete listing descriptions that are more visible and appealing to buyers in the categories: Books, Movies, Music, Video Games, Digital Cameras, PDAs and Cell Phones.

Benefits:

Easier, faster listing
More complete and detailed descriptions
Item visibility in product details page—easier for buyers to find your listing
Can be added to your existing listing templates

eBay Certified Providers provide listing tools supporting product details, thereby allowing you to list even faster, easier and manage your inventory.

Certified Providers work with all levels of eBay sellers from beginners to advanced PowerSellers to online retailers.

Certified Providers:

Kyozou

Mercent

Infopia

Seller Sourcebook

What eBay Sellers Should Think About When Developing a Returns Policy by Doba

2010-03-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Blog post taken from Doba's Dropshipping Blog

No retail strategy would be complete without a customer service and return policy. Retailers take very different approaches to this, and the successful ones often incorporate their policies directly into their branding. Nordstrom, for example, is famous for its extremely liberal return policy, while a big box retailer such as Best Buy may have very restrictive policies.

More important than the policy, is the transparency and communication of your return restrictions and service options. Learn and understand first-hand the process and impact an eBay seller’s policy (or lack there of) has on their business and how that translates into a likelihood of success or failure.

There are many aspects eBay Sellers need to consider when creating and implementing a return policy. For many, the best place to start is to look at your own expectations as a consumer and choose merchandise, suppliers and marketplaces that match up with your own personal philosophy. Others should take a more pragmatic approach. The category (electronics versus clothing), the marketplace (your website versus eBay/Amazon) and your product pricing strategy all affect a return policy in different ways.

When an eBay seller considers the cost of returns, do not overlook shipping. One of the largest shortcomings of ecommerce is the cost associated with shipping. Shipping is a fixed cost that is absorbed by the supplier, retailer, or consumer in every return. It is not margin nor lost time, but a payment to a carrier that must be paid regardless of the reason for the return (with the exception of carrier-related damage). Be mindful of the cost of the goods themselves versus the costs of shipping. In many cases, you will be better off to ask for forgiveness of the customer, let them keep the return, and give them a refund instead of eating three shipping charges on a replacement. Again, this is a retailer policy issue and only you can create the strategy that will work best for your business.

In the end, your customer support and return policies should communicate clearly to the consumer what they can expect when purchasing from you. It’s important to take control and own your customer’s experience and understand your decisions need to be acceptable to your business independent of the shortcomings of suppliers, marketplaces, and even overly demanding customers.

This article has been condensed. Read the full article here.

Doba is a product sourcing company connecting eBay sellers and small online retailers with drop ship distributors, manufacturers and wholesalers. Doba is a member of the Better Business Bureau and has been an eBay Certified Service Provider since 2004.

7 Tips on How to Raise Your eBay Seller Ratings from Frooition

2010-03-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

Article from Frooition's Blog

Securing and maintaining eBay’s Top-Rated Seller status should be high on any seller’s to do list. eBay education specialist Mark Buckingham offers a few top tips to help you bolster the fortunes of your eBay Empire.

Introduced in October, the Top-rated Seller program distinguishes the cream of eBay sellers…and it is achievable for the majority:

Strive for 5 stars: Avoiding low 1 and 2 stars is key to the Top-Rated program, so communicate to your buyers the importance of Detailed Seller Ratings and feedback. Use your custom emails in Selling Manager Pro to keep your customers apprised, add compliment slips to remind your buyers where they bought the item from and highlight other special offers, and don’t hesitate to pick up the phone if a buyer isn’t happy.
Understand Best Match: From meeting eBay’s basic seller standards, to understanding recent sales score and impressions it’s well worth doing a little homework to get to grips with exactly how Best Match sorts matching listings. Get Best Match savvy, and you’ll reap the rewards.
Pick your ‘carrots’: Top-Rated Seller is partly calculated by number of transactions, so consider adding cheaper cost-neutral lines that will sell in volume and could help pad out your feedback, and help absorb any low scores. It will also help generate extra footfall into your shop. Don’t forget to use Good-til-Cancelled multi-quantity listings to save you re-listing the item and jeopardizing your sales-score.
Manage buyer expectations: setting and exceeding expectations is all-important. In my experience, a buyer won’t mind waiting a week if they know in advance. Don’t promise a turnaround shipping and delivery time you can’t realistically fulfill.
Anticipate problems: Look at your Detailed Seller Rating and feedback history and see where low scores and non-positive comments have been left, and look for trends. Perhaps particular lines in your eBay Store are more problematic than others? If so, take time to give those buyers extra-special customer service.
Offer free shipping: This is part of the Best Match algorithm – eBay announced they give a boost to listings offering free shipping. Of course, there’s rarely such a thing as free shipping, but it pays to build it into your unit cost, or subsidize it as best you can.
Beat your competition: Frooition customers already have an advantage over most sellers who don’t have a professional setup. But it still pays to know your competition and to be creative. Get into the habit of scouring eBay’s Completed Items searches and other research products like Terapeak, to see how your competitors are fairing. Look carefully to see what value other sellers are offering and how you can add more value and stand out from the crowd. Be creative. Consider embellishing your gallery thumbnails and consider adding a subtitle if you haven’t already. Even stating how much money the buyer is saving might mean the difference between winning a loyal buyer or giving your competitors the upper hand.

This article has been condensed. To read the full article, click here.

MyStoreMaps Helps eBay Sellers Create Trust and Credibility with Buyers

2010-03-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Blog post from Auctiva Education

A seller's reputation carries a lot of weight when it comes to converting first-time visitors into customers. MyStoreMaps is one company that aims to help merchants build that trust with potential buyers.

MyStoreMaps allows eBay sellers to attach maps to their listings that display the countries and regions to which they have shipped packages in the past. These maps also note the date of a merchant's last shipment and the shipment's destination. Putting this information on a listing can be reassuring for buyers, says company President Brian Lawe, especially among shoppers who live in another country.

"Imagine a buyer from Stockholm looking at two similar items from sellers in Scottsdale and Sacramento," Lawe says. "Both sellers take great pictures, both sellers write great copy, both sellers have clean, professional templates and have nearly identical feedback scores. But let's say the Scottsdale seller uses MyStoreMaps and even sells the exact same item for $1 more. The Stockholm buyer sees the MyStoreMap at the bottom of the Scottsdale seller's listings. It shows the Scottsdale seller has shipped 35 items to Sweden. The Sacramento seller's listing says only 'We ship internationally.' Who do you think the Stockholm buyer will buy from, even for $1 more?

"This kind of information can dramatically alter a buyer's perception of a seller. Not just for international buyers—but also for domestic ones," he adds.

Sellers can use MyStoreMaps for both auction and fixed-priced listings, and choose between attaching a regional or worldwide map to their listings. MyStoreMaps populates maps with markers displaying shipment destinations and maps then loads these onto a seller's listings in 24 hours, updating every two hours. Sellers can manually add past shipments easily. Maps are customizable, so sellers can adjust their colors to keep them in sync with their listings.

The maps have been very helpful for some sellers. eBay seller Doug Sacks says the service provides valuable information and helps his listings stand out from the rest.

"I like the addition of MyStoreMaps to my listings because overseas buyers seem to feel more confident with a seller who has experience in shipping abroad," Sacks notes. "The map clearly shows where you ship to and I believe my sales have increased to certain countries because of MyStoreMaps."

Sandy Hancock, owner and president of It's Good To Be a Girl, says MyStoreMaps is a great resource for sellers.

"What a great way to keep my customers up to date on the latest shipments my company is making," she says. "It shows the diversity of my company in a great graphic presentation."

To add customer maps to your listings, visit www.MyStoreMaps.com.

This article has been shortened. Click here to read the full article.

MyStoreCredit is an eBay Certified Solution Provider delivering a buyer loyalty and rewards program for eBay sellers and PayPal merchants known as, MyStoreRewards. In addition, MyStoreCredit also provides a solution to help sellers reach international buyers with the fun and visual application of MyStoreMaps.

eBay Workshop March 18th - "Hybrid Mailing Services: Can they help your shipping?

2010-03-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

eBay Workshop: "Hybrid Mailing Services: Can they help your shipping?"

Host: ShipRush

Date: Thursday, March 18th

Time: 11a.m. to Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: More choices in shipping: Are you ready?

Formerly only for high volume warehouses, new "hybrid" shipping services are available to lower volume sites, home based shippers and small businesses. If you are an active seller, you probably qualify. These services give the benefits of a full service carrier (like end to end tracking, accessible customer service, weekly net terms billing) at costs similar to the Postal Service (no residential fees, no extended area fees, free Saturday delivery, etc.).

In other words: If you ship, pay attention, because this is interesting.

Attend the eBay Workshop hosted by ShipRush to learn about "hybrid" shipping services--what the benefits are, what it costs, and how you can get started.

Hope you can join us on March 18th!

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

Low-Tech and Simple Tips for Giving Customers a Personal Touch by Infopia

2010-03-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

Blog post from Infopia

In today’s challenging economic times, acquiring new customers is one of the hardest things to do. And once you get them, the most important things you can do is to keep them! Here are a few simple “low-tech” tips for infusing loyalty into your business and customers:

Handwritten Notes
Keep an eye out for any large unit, large dollar, large volume orders and include in the package, or send separately, a personal hand written note. Especially in these days of email technology, nothing expresses true gratitude like a personal hand written thank you note.

Phone Calls
One way to show appreciation for your most loyal of customers is a short and meaningful phone call. And more likely than not, if you call during the middle of the day you are more likely to leave a message which makes the process go a whole lot faster! Regardless if you speak to them live or do in fact leave a message, the heartfelt feelings are the same.

Pre-printed Note Cards
The next time you have some printing done, make sure to draft up a standard “Nice talking to you” or “Thank you for being a valued buyer/customer” note card with your name and phone number. The note cards can be sent with the package or as a follow-up. This is a fast, easy and very low cost way to add a personal touch to your operations.

Regardless which of these low-tech methods you chose to introduce customer loyalty into your organization, remember to keep the message sincere and concise. And finally, the best place to start is to reach out to your premier customers - those that buy the most and or buy most often.

This blog post has been amended. To read the full blog post by Infopia, click here.

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

eBay Sellers Can Find Additional Inventory with Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool

2010-03-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

Article by Worldwide Brands - this is a series of 14 blog posts providing information on how to find inventory and products to sell on eBay from wholesalers with Worldwide Brands and their Product Sourcing Tool for eBay.

Article #12 - Multi-Level Product Sourcing

As a new eBay seller becomes more successful with their eBay auction listings and first eBay Store sales, you will be able to fund more growth in your business. You can expand your offerings within your first niche by leveraging additional wholesale suppliers and drop shippers with complimentary products to those you are already selling on eBay.

So how do you select new niches and products, and how can you determine what works best without taking too much risk in inventory?

Market Research is the key. eBay Sellers need to identify products with demand and supply. Not all products can be sold on eBay. Some manufacturers have strict requirements. Start with your existing niche and expand the product choices. For example, tailor your eBay Store brand around your niche. Use the existing traffic to your eBay store to identify new top sellers in your Store.

The Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool in eBay’s Apps Center can be very helpful to eBay sellers looking for additional product sources to help grow their online business. Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay will research online to establish current demand and pricing on the internet and for testing different products, categories, niches and demand.

Access can be purchased to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool. Through use of this tool, eBay Sellers will be able to drill down their options to find wholesale products in demand within a niche. The tool provides the contact details of drop shippers and wholesale suppliers willing to work with eBay sellers.

Drop shipping is most commonly used for testing new product ideas. When you notice an increasing trend in sales for one of the drop ship items, you can then start buying that item in Light Bulk (minimum wholesale orders less than $500). Of all the Light Bulk items, some will sell faster than others. Once you identify those, you can invest in volume inventory at even better wholesale prices allowing you to make more profit per item, or compete more aggressively. This is called multi level product sourcing.

Check out Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay today! A 7 Day Free Trial is available.

What's New with Doba: New Features for Better Product Sourcing

2010-03-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

Blog post taken from Doba's Dropshipping Blog

What's New with Doba: New Features for Inventory Notification by Email and Customizable Product Data

If you ask any of our affiliated retailers to list their top five Doba-related pain points, you’ll hear about items going out of inventory without any advance warning, as well as the sheer number of people attempting to sell many of the same products with the exact same product titles and descriptions. Today, I’m (Doba) pleased to announce we’ve (Doba) made significant strides with respect to both issues. Doba members can now easily customize product title, description, weight, dimension, and more; and, by accessing the new and improved Watchlist, receive updates about product inventory by email.

New Features

Watchlist notification allows eBay sellers to receive updates about products within their Doba Watchlist via e-mail
Inventory update notifications (choose frequency of updates)
Set inventory notification levels (if available inventory falls below "x" amount, notify me)
Custom Data Product Features (customize item title and price)

To read the full article on new Doba features and how to use them, visit Doba's Dropshipping Blog.

eBay sellers can try out Doba for 14 Days free!

eBay Certified Provider KYOZOU Helps Sellers Maximize Efficiency

2010-03-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

eBay Certified Provider Spotlight

Kyozou is a full featured listing management solution helping eBay sellers to automate and organize many aspects of their eBay business, other online channels and their brick-and-mortar store.

Many of eBay’s larger sellers (Gold, Platinum, Titanium and Diamond) use a solution such as Kyozou. Kyozou allows for multi-channel inventory management, online ad creation, shopping comparison site feeds and all post-sale activities (on eBay and other channels).

Kyozou's Unique Features -
1. Consignment
Unique tools and features for consignment and Trading Assistant sellers allowing them to track their consignors, sales, commissions and even print checks.

2. Multiple Location and Warehouse Management
Supports inventory management, tracking and shipping from multiple warehouse locations. Know which warehouse has the product and ship direct from that warehouse location to the buyer.

3. Bar coded inventory and warehouse management system
Kyozou supports the most common and easy to find printers and barcode scanners on the market. Allowing sellers to easily scan in inventory and manage sales with current bar coding products or system.

4. Kyozou Widget
Kyozou’s Widget allows all eBay sellers to promote their products across many online forums, social networking sites, blogs, etc…

Benefits of Kyozou:

Sell more efficiently
Automated integration with online marketing venues
Single shopping cart integration over multiple selling venues
Supports Third Party Checkout for eBay
Free auction templates, counters, galleries and web hosting
Automated integration with online marketing venues
Multi-user access and live production monitoring
Multiple currencies, languages and international tax profiling
All major payment and shipping carriers supported
Ship with ease and keep track of all shipments from multiple warehouse/store locations

eBay sellers looking for a tool with comprehensive multi-channel listing and inventory management should look into Kyozou.

Sales – Contact Kyozou through sales@kyozou.com or by calling toll-free at 1-877-596-9681.

Sellers can request a live Demo of Kyozou - http://www.kyozou.com/request-a-demo.asp

Kyozou provides a robust application to help eBay sellers manage their sales online and offline while increasing efficiency.

eBay Seller HelloBaby Grows Business with Terapeak Research

2010-03-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

Article from the Terapeak Blog

A Terapeak interview with Trevor Ginn of Hello Baby (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/hellobabydirect)

How long have you been selling on eBay?
I’ve been selling on eBay as Hellobabydirect for about 18 months. Before that I was working for Auctioning4u who were the UK’s largest eBay trading assistants. All in all I’ve been selling on eBay as a business for about 4 years.

What got you started there?
At Auctioning4u I provided consulting services to businesses to help them use eBay as a sales channel. With online sales experiencing strong growth most of my clients were doing pretty well, much better than me it seemed. I was itching to give it a go as I was sure I could build a successful online retailing business.

I choose baby products as my research showed that the industry had healthy margins and was not as competitive as areas like electronics. I also wanted to be in an industry which I knew something about (my first daughter had just been born), was largely non seasonable and mostly recession proof.

What sort of things do you like to sell?
We sell a wide range of baby and nursery items. Items range from small toys nursery and baby safety items like safety catches to larger, more expensive items like prams and cots. We sell a lot of our items internationally, especially to Europe as the strong Euro makes our products good value for our friends in the Eurozone. We sell on eBay and other online channels.

How do you use Terapeak to help build your business?
We use Terapeak to research products and also to investigate the tactics and best selling product of our competitors. eBay data, provided by Terapeak, is the only source I know of actual sales data about online sales. Other, very expensive, reports from companies like Mintel make broad statements about market sectors, but this is not much use when a merchant is looking to make purchasing decision at the brand or product level.

When we are analyzing new products we will use a product search on that particular brand to establish what items are selling well and then drill down to individual products to establish average selling prices. We then put the sales data into a spreadsheet which allows us to calculate the profit we can make from selling the item by taking into account cost like sales tax, PayPal and eBay fees. This process saves us from buying product for which the market is very competitive and there are poor margins.

We also make extensive use of the seller report. This allows us to see the products which our competitors are selling successfully and how their business is performing.

Terapeak Tips from Matt – What else Hello Baby can do to build their business using research?

Trevor mentioned a good portion of his business is targeted at international marketplaces. A lack of availability for products in certain regions can create excellent opportunities to sell your goods for a higher price. Terapeak’s International Report compares statistics for 6 eBay marketplaces around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Australia.

The International report provides charts detailing buyer and seller location and helps identify which eBay site represents the highest potential margin.

I (Matt with Terapeak) would recommend Trevor try using the International report for some of his products and see if he can expand his offerings into more eBay sites around the world.

eBay Workshop March 3rd - "What to Sell on eBay, Keep or Give Away when Spring Cleaning"

2010-03-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

Workshop: What to Sell on eBay, Keep or Give Away when Spring Cleaning

Host: Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions

Date: March 3rd, Wednesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: It’s the time of year for Spring Cleaning. Why not learn how you can make money on eBay by turning your household items into cash when cleaning out your closet, house or garage.

Please join Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auctions and published author of the "100 Best Things I've Sold on eBay" book series, as she shares her tips, success and insight for new eBay sellers, part-time sellers and even experienced sellers seeking additional advice.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

eBay Selling Just Got Easier for Mac and iPhone Users with Latest GarageSale Releases

2010-02-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

eBay Selling Just Got Easier for Mac and iPhone Users with Latest GarageSale Releases

Mac, iPhone and eBay software developer iwascoding releases new versions of their eBay Desktop for Mac and eBay iPhone App.

About GarageSale
GarageSale is a Mac OS X application providing eBay listing efficiency and post sale management from a users desktop.

GarageSale version 5.3, eBay desktop solution for your Mac

Updated eBay templates and designs to match new eBay View Item page
Twitter support, easily expand social media reach
Archiving of finished auction pages
Capabilities to revise specific sections of live auctions
eBay template library sharing on local network via Bonjour
Flexible report generator for income and expense summaries
Browse YouTube videos and quickly embed into your auctions

About GarageSale touch

GarageSale touch offers all the features a seller will need to list inventory on eBay while on the road with their iPhone or iPod touch. eBay sellers can upload images from their iPhone, add an item description, and specify required eBay settings, such as category, item attributes, return policy, and shipping terms - all from their iPhone.

GarageSale touch version 1.4, an eBay selling app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

List items in a Fixed Price multi-quantity format onto eBay

eBay sellers can specify return policies

Move eBay listings into appropriate eBay store categories

Upload up to 10 images per auction

http://www.iwascoding.com/GarageSaleTouch/

GarageSale is an eBay selling solution for Mac users, developed by iwascoding. iwascoding is a German company and experienced eBay Developer at the forefront in developing tools to make eBay selling and buying easier for Mac and iPhone users.

Auctiva Releases Support for eBay's Listings with Variations Format

2010-02-25T11:41:00.000-08:00

Auctiva, an eBay Certified Provider and eBay Developers, recently launched support for eBay Listings with Variations or Multi-Variations. Auctiva’s new Multi-Variation Tool builds the option to add variations to a listing right into its One-Page Lister, making the process easier and requiring fewer steps than other tools, says Auctiva Product Analyst Rebecca Miller.

What is eBay Listings with Variations? (also known as Multi-Variations)

Instead of creating a number of separate listings for a product that has a choice of options, you can create a single multi-quantity fixed price listing that includes all the variations you offer. For example, a T-shirt might come in multiple colors and sizes. Buyers can select which variation they want to purchase from the single listing.

Supporting multi-variations was a top priority for Auctiva, says Senior Product Manager Tony Maxey. Customers have been clamoring for multi-variation listing support because it can save them a lot of time and money, since they create one listing with multiple attributes, instead of multiple listings. eBay has also announced that multi-variations will expand into other categories in the future. Currently sellers can create multi-variation listings in Clothing, Shoes & Accessories, as well as Home & Garden.

eBay sellers using Auctiva will find they can create a multi-variation listing just as they would any other, but when they choose an eBay category supporting multi-variations listings, they get a message asking if they want to create a multi-variation listing, and a link to click into the Multi-Variation Tool.

Once a seller clicks on the link, they will be able to create variations by either entering each one manually, or use the Variation Generator. The Variation Generator allows sellers to use up to five attributes and easily generate 120 variations at a time.

Auctiva is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider offering listing management solutions and features for beginner -to mid-to high-volume eBay sellers.

5 Tips to Increase Online Sales by Shopster

2010-02-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

Article by Shopster

eBay sellers and online retail store owners achieve success mainly due to their product offerings. With that, most sellers believe that what works offline (in the brick and mortar stores) will also work when they build an online store. But the truth is far from it. The internet offers retailers much more in terms of potential profit, simply because overhead cost is less. But to really use the internet to your advantage, here are some tips to help you out:

Offer unique product information. Unlike in real stores, online shoppers won’t be able to touch and feel the products you are selling. They will rely on pictures and the information you provide to help them decide. Manufacturers often provide the basic product descriptions. But you have to remember, these descriptions are also being used by other retailers. If you have the time, create your own descriptions using your familiarity with the product.
Encourage consumer reviews. You can do this by adding a feedback form, an application that allows product star ratings, or simply by putting up a page that highlights customer testimonials. Today’s consumers usually look for reviews first before they make any purchase decision. Keep it honest and real to establish credibility.
Don’t discount the power of search engine optimization. Add the right keywords and build links to your site to improve your visibility in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Doing so can increase the number of visitors to your online store. The more visitors to your site, the higher the potential for sales.
Cross-sell and upsell. Improve your product page such that it features related products you sell online. During the shopping stage, if your potential buyer realizes that the product they are currently looking at is not the one he or she wants to buy right away, then at least offer other options.
After-sales service and customer support matter. The real reason people would come back and want to buy from your is based on how you treat your customers. Be transparent about your policies (delivery, return, etc), any guarantees and all costs. Be ready to answer calls and help resolve issues.

Increasing your sales online is about bringing in quality visitors to your eBay Store and listings. Encourage buyers to make a purchase and ensure they have a good buying experience. Hopefully, they will recommend you to others and become loyal customers.

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through dropshipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service dropshipping to both the United States and Canada.

eBay Workshop Feb 25th - "New Auctiva Features to Help eBay Sellers Save Time and Money"

2010-02-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Workshop: New Auctiva Features to Help eBay Sellers Save Time and Money

Host: Auctiva Team

Date: Feb 25th, Thursday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description:In this workshop, the Auctiva team will introduce us to the new features, enhancements and solutions they created to help eBay sellers increase listing efficiency and save money on fees. Auctiva will also help answer questions and guide eBay sellers on how to use their Auctiva solution for eBay.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help an eBay seller grow their business.

New eBay Certified Provider - Frooition; Brings Design, Consulting and Marketing Services to eBay Sellers

2010-02-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

New eBay Certified Provider, Frooition

The eBay Certified Provider Program is pleased to announce Frooition as a new Certified Provider helping eBay sellers increase sales with design, marketing and consulting tools and services.

Frooition is an experienced eBay Store and listing designer. Frooition specializes in providing design services for eBay, other online channels and website design. In addition to design services, Frooition also provides software for eBay sellers to help easily manage their eBay Store, listings and cross-promotions.

U.S. and international sellers will find Frooition can help grow their eBay business. Frooition can help an eBay seller assure buyers they deliver quality merchandise and customer service with professionally designed eBay Stores or listing templates. eBay sellers can also have Frooition custom design their eBay Store, listing templates or websites specific to their brand.

Design services customized to your specifications
Create a professional appearance for your eBay business and stand out from the crowd
Create recognition and bring in repeat customers and purchases with memorable design

eBay sellers can improve their sales performance with Frooition’s advanced search functionality built into their eBay template or eBay Store.

Professionally designed and easy to navigate eBay Stores and templates help keep buyers within a sellers listing/Store
Dynamically display and cross-promote additional products and categories within your Store
For example: Top 5 cross promotions change dynamically as a seller’s products sell out – no need to constantly reset cross promotions

eBay Seller Testimonials

"They have helped us to grow our business by providing us with a well designed, professional storefront and ad template that our customers love."

"Frooition possesses a very strong understanding of the eBay shopper and what they are looking for in terms of usability and design."

Would You Like Fries with That? The Benefits of Cross Selling by Doba

2010-02-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

Article from Doba's Dropshipping Blog

If you’ve ever stepped foot in a fast food joint, you’re intimately familiar with cross selling. Think about it… who among us hasn’t been asked, “Would you like fries with that?”

If used correctly, cross selling can be a valuable revenue-generating tool for any online business. To get started, think of yourself as a consultant and not a sales person. What additional products, services, or information can you give your customer that will truly help them? The key here: Don’t be pushy; be helpful instead.

Successful cross selling starts with getting to know your customer. When the sales person from my example above started talking about plasma television sets, he might as well have pulled some sushi out of his pocket and asked if I was interested in buying a tuna roll. I could tell he just wanted to make a sale.

Small businesses especially have to work hard to compete in a crowded marketplace. Buyers need to look to you as the guru of the products you sell. Recommending an relevant product or two is a great way of showing your customers you know what you’re talking about. By doing so, you provide a richer experience for your customers, which ultimately increases the chances of them coming back.

In the world of drop-ship retailing, you have a wonderful advantage to group products together and cross sell without having to purchase or keep inventory on hand. If a certain combination is really taking off, then great! More revenue for you and your customers are happier. If not, all businesses have ups and downs, and you don’t have a warehouse full of products you can’t seem to move. Research additional products and try again. Remember, your goal is to be helpful, and if you are, your customers will sense your sincerity.

One word to keep in mind while you are looking through Doba’s catalog of suppliers and products is “accessories.” Does the product you are currently selling have any accessories that would make sense to offer your customers?

For example, I can’t wait for spring and the BBQ season. I just found a Smokeless Indoor BBQ Grill (ID 17409 in the Doba catalog) that I really want to buy. At the same time, I’m guessing there will be other people out there who would like it, also. If I sell the grill for the listed MSRP, I could make about $10 a sale, which is a pretty good little profit margin.

Taking it a step further though, I now notice that the Doba catalog provides a list of recommended related products that I might want to offer when selling the grill in question. Bingo… can you say “cross sell!”.

Good luck and happy cross selling!

This article has been condensed. To read the full article click here.

eBay sellers can try out Doba for 14 Days free!

How to Adjust and Update Your eBay Selling Strategies with Tips and Tools from Auctiva

2010-02-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

Article from Auctiva Education (Education for eBay Sellers)

More than a week after eBay announced its spring seller update for 2010, many eBay sellers are still digesting the news and trying to make sense of how it will impact their businesses. Major changes on the site will include adjustments to the fee structure on March 30 and phasing out the Store Inventory Format.

If getting a grasp on how you'll be affected by the impending changes is making your head spin, that's understandable. Adjusting to it all will take some time—and some number crunching—but here you'll find a few tools and tips you can enlist to make the transition easier.

Helpful tools

Starting March 30, eBay will allow sellers to list their first 100 auctions for free if they start at less than $1

Keeping this in mind, you might decide to reduce your fees by lowering the start price of your auctions to 99 cents. If you list hundreds of items, this task may seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be, especially if you're a user of Auctiva's tools for eBay sellers. The software offers several approaches to edit multiple listings at once.

Bulk Edit: Auctiva's Bulk Edit feature allows you to change the start price of up to 100 saved listings at once—a real time saver for anyone. Think of all the other tasks you could accomplish in the time it would take to do this manually. For instance, you could update your checkout details—something eBay Motor sellers should do in the coming weeks. Remember, come June, eBay will be on the lookout for listings on that site that don't include a handling and return policy.

Auctiva Find & Replace: Luckily, Auctiva's Find & Replace is a handy tool you can use to quickly and easily specify return policies and handling times. (As we've mentioned in previous articles, this requirement doesn't mean you'll have to accept returns, but you will have to let buyers know what your policy is, one way or the other.) This tool is located in Auctiva customers' Saved Listings page and allows users to edit up to 100 listings at once.

Sellers should also think back to any listing upgrades they've added to their listings, such as subtitles. With eBay's Store Inventory Format being eliminated, the subtitle feature will now cost at least $1.50 per listing, and you'll have to consider if the additional cost is worth it to you. If it isn't, the Find & Replace feature will let you edit or delete subtitles for multiple listings at once.

Bulk Live-Listing Revision: Active listings can also be updated right from sellers' Auctiva accounts. Add, remove or change information, such as subtitles and return policies, from live eBay listings using Auctiva's Bulk Live-Listing Revision Tool. This tool is located in Auctiva customers' Active Listings page and allows up to 100 listings to be edited at a time.

Scheduling: But those aren't the only ways you can help your bottom line. If you schedule your listings, consider doing it through Auctiva, since it won't cost you extra. On eBay you'll pay 10 cents a listing for this convenience—$1 if you list on eBay Motors—but this feature is free when you're on one of Auctiva's listing plans. You can also post more than 24 photos with your listings, and get free Supersizing and image security features using Auctiva's tools.

It's natural to feel apprehensive about how the upcoming changes will impact your bottom line. But hopefully now you feel better prepared to tackle what's ahead. March 30 will be here before you know it, so take the horse by the reins and start making the necessary adjustments to your listings.

This article has been condensed. Read the full article here.

eBay Workshop Feb 10th - "5 Strategies to Increase the Visibility of Your eBay Listings"

2010-02-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

Workshop: 5 Strategies to Increase the Visibility of Your eBay Listings

Host: Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was
Date: Feb 10th, Wednesday
Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: In this workshop, Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was, will outline what you can do to maximize the visibility of your eBay listings. Learn more about Best Match and how you can create more effective listing strategies to save on fees and show up higher in search results.

Founded in 1995, As Was is a full-service consulting firm specializing in branding, design, sales and marketing strategies, operations management, and training. As Was is an eBay Certified Service Provider and has been working with eBay sellers since 2001.

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

Tips on How to Create a Great Buying Experience on eBay by Worldwide Brands

2010-02-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Article by Worldwide Brands - this is a series of 14 blog posts providing information on how to find inventory and products to sell on eBay from wholesalers with Worldwide Brands and their Product Sourcing Tool for eBay.

Article #11 - Creating a Great Buyer Experience

Retail success is all about delivering great buyer experiences. For a moment, picture in your mind you are stepping into one of your favorite local retail stores. Why is it your favorite?

A great retail experience in the brick-n-mortar world starts with getting to the store easily and finding convenient parking. From store front to your experience when you walk in the door, what catches your eye? As you advance inside, what captures your attention next? Smart retailers use the power of eye level placement and end caps to draw your eyes to items they want to feature. Then typically you next notice the banners or promotional signs where color, size of print, lighting and price tags may capture your interest.

Online Retailers Must Simulate a Great Walk-in Experience
Successful retailing is more about repeat business than it is about initial sales. The most successful stores are those people want to return to frequently. eBay sellers need to replicate the successful walk-in experience with their online auction listings and eBay Stores. Here are some of the criteria for creating a Great Buying Experience:

Your customers must find you easily. eBay helps by bringing millions of visitors per day to www.ebay.com. It is a powerful selling platform with many sellers all competing for business at the same time. You need to get people to your Auction Listings or eBay Stores easily and quickly. This requires excellent use of keywords in your titles and descriptions as well as an easy-to-remember, relevant and search able eBay Store name. It requires SEO treatments with links back from Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, YouTube etc linking back to your auction listings and eBay Store.

Your Auction Listings or eBay Store must be Recognizable as You. You need to create a recognizable and consistent brand identity of your own that sets you apart from other eBay Sellers.

Create a Great Experience on Entry. From the time browsers reach your listing or eBay Store, they should feel good. The first visual impression should be great with things that catch the eye and keep people browsing and reading on your listing.

Offer a Great Product Selection. Become known as an online retailer with a flair for what people like and need. Your range and choice of products is very important. Pricing and shipping options are critical. Your ability to find quality and good deals comes from your product research. You can apply all the right processes but if the products you offer for sale are not what people want to buy, or your quality and pricing is undesirable, you will not be successful. eBay now offers some help in this area through the Selling Manager section of ‘My eBay.’ eBay Sellers can now access Worldwide Brands’ renowned Product Sourcing Tool and Wholesale Database. Using this tool eBay Sellers can research buyer demand, seller competition, comparative current pricing across more than 8,000,000 products from within eBay’s Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro tools.

Create a ‘Touch and Feel’ Experience. The main difference between a brick-n-mortar retail store and an online store is the ‘touch and feel’ experience. In an online store, you cannot pick up the item, feel it and smell it. In an online listing you have to recreate this experience as best you can through compelling product images and descriptions, supporting specifications and ‘use’ information – even video clips. It’s all about creating the desire to own the item.

Then there is the feel of personal attention. Online retailers can provide a phone number for a shopper to call to discuss the item and purchase during normal shopping hours or even a fast email response system.

Create a Selling Funnel. Through the use of linking, matching, color and imagery, lead potential customers to additional items of interest.

Ease of Check-Out. Once the buying decision is made, the shopper must be able to purchase quickly and easily. eBay provides PayPal at the click of a button. If you use a shopping cart and a payment processor, the process must be easy and user friendly.

Fast, Safe Delivery. Its all about speed from the second your customer places the order. Instant order confirmation. Instant alerts to you. Fast turn around of the order to your supplier. Quick and accurate pick, pack and shipping on the part of the wholesaler, fulfillment house or your own inventory handlers. Rapid confirmation of shipments with tracking numbers for your customers.

Ensure Your Customer is Happy with their Purchase. Follow up with your customer and encourage feedback on their experience. Use this feedback to identify areas of your business you can improve or leave alone because they’re working. Make the ‘Returns’ process easy if the customer is not happy about something. Always provide your seller name or eBay store name to help customers know where to return.

A great buying experience with each visit is guaranteed to bring that buyer back to your auction listing or eBay Store multiple times.

The Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool contains a wholesaler database, education modules and education series called: “The Whole $ale.” This series has many chapters to coach eBay Sellers on best practices in working with wholesalers. Sign up for either eBay Selling Manager or eBay Selling Manager Pro and you can then access the Selling Manager Applications directory and the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool.

Check out Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay today! A 7 Day Free Trial is available.

Preview Release of ShipWorks 3.0 Includes Support for FedEx SmartPost

2010-02-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

Interapptive (eBay Certified Provider and eBay Developer) supports FedEx SmartPost with an early preview release version of their ShipWorks 3.0 software.

FedEx SmartPost is a cheaper shipping method for packages going to residential customers. FedEx will pick up, sort, track and deliver an eBay seller’s packages by leveraging the delivery network and capabilities of the USPS.

FedEx SmartPost Domestic Features

Full domestic coverage, including P.O. boxes
Transit Times 2-8 business days (longer time-in-transit outside the continental 48 states
Packages up to 70 lbs.

“SmartPost has been a highly requested feature among sellers. Interapptive is the first FedEx Compatible Solutions Provider to be certified for SmartPost, and we’re excited to make this available.” – Wes Clayton, Interapptive President

The ShipWorks software (by Interapptive) provides eBay sellers with a solution to streamline their shipping process. ShipWorks makes it easy to ship more in less time by eliminating manual data entry through integration and direct download of eBay shipping orders from PayPal. ShipWorks will keep track of a seller’s notes, shipments, tracking numbers and emails related to each order. Orders are easily searchable and easily organized using ShipWorks filters.

eBay sellers can use FedEx to ship to P.O. boxes, reduce transit time, minimize handling, and maximize postal discounts.

Contact ShipWorks today to learn more about their eBay and ecommerce shipping software and you can take advantage of FedEx SmartPost.

1-800-95-APPTIVE (1-800-952-7784)
sales@interapptive.com

Interapptive’s ShipWorks software provides online sellers with solutions to streamline their shipping process. ShipWorks makes it easy to ship more in less time by eliminating manual data entry. A free 30-day trial is available to all eBay sellers.

Why Dropshipping Works by Shopster

2010-02-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

Article by Shopster

Why Dropshipping Works
Business owners who are not familiar with drop shipping are missing out big time. Basically, this is a supply chain management technique that allows retailers to focus on more important aspects of their business.

If you’re thinking about building an online store an selling products online but don’t have the capital to start big, then consider this your best option. First off, you don’t have to purchase any inventory upfront. This also means saving a huge amount on the cost of storage. Second, it removes the hassles of shipping and handling from your end.

Dropshipping entails selling goods on behalf of a supplier. All the backend work involved in order fulfillment are handled by the said dropship supplier – this includes filling the order and shipping it out to the customer.

The trick to making money via a dropship business is finding a supplier with good pricing. Remember, dropship suppliers are not necessarily wholesalers. While there are those that offer items in bulk, some dropshippers are willing to supply to sellers looking for only a small amount of items. You can make profit off the dropshipped items with the difference between the supplier’s price and yours – this is called the profit margin.

Essentially, dropshipping is a good way to enter the retail business because it removes overhead cost while still offering you profit. Here’s a tip: choose items that are popular among young, internet savvy buyers. Plus points if the product is difficult to find in local stores.

One of the most successful dropship items last year was the Nintendo WII. Stocks were depleted in most local stores and the market – the younger audience – had no qualms about making purchases online. This combination made the Nintendo WII a huge seller in the dropship world.

Using popular sales channels like eBay, dropshipping can work for you.

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through dropshipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service dropshipping to both the United States and Canada.

Mercent, an eBay Certified Provider, Wins "Technology Enabler of the Year" Award

2010-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

eBay Certified Provider, Mercent, chosen as the “Technology Enabler of the Year” by AlwaysOn.

The “Technology Enabler of the Year” award honors a privately-held, emerging technology company creating new business opportunities in high-growth markets through its technology. More than 500 digital media companies were nominated for the “Technology Enablers” category.

Mercent was named as the “Technology Enabler of the Year” by the AlwaysOn editorial team for their market growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction. More than 500 digital media companies were nominated for the “Technology Enablers” category.

“We’re honored to receive this award from AlwaysOn and couldn’t have achieved such success without our customers and dedicated team of Mercent professionals,” - Eric Best, CEO of Mercent. “We’re proud to be noted as an industry and technology leader in the online channel management sector.”

Mercent helps the world's leading online retailers promote their products across ecommerce channels including online transactional marketplaces like eBay; comparison shopping engines; and affiliate networks with their Mercent Retail software.

Mercent Retail is designed for multi-channel retailers, providing merchants the power to reach more than 250 million customers with targeted products, advertisements and promotions through online marketing channels.

Read the full announcement from Mercent.

eBay Sellers Can Save Time Updating Live eBay Listings in Bulk with Auctiva's Find and Replace (new to eBay's App Store)

2010-02-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

Auctiva's new App for eBay, Find and Replace, allows eBay sellers to bulk edit the descriptions of multiple live eBay listings at once. With Auctiva Find and Replace, a seller can search for words or phrases in their listing descriptions, and replace with new content or updated policies.

Sellers can easily update their listings to employ new listing strategies or make changes per eBay policies.

Features:

Find and replace text in just 1 listing or 1,000 listings
Edit live eBay listings within minutes
Search for text by whole-word or partial words
Change descriptions in some or all of the targeted listings
Changes are made in accordance with eBay's policies
Easily undo find-and-replace changes
Free 24x7 technical support
International language support
Completely FREE!

Auctiva's Find & Replace application now available in “My eBay” as part of Selling Manager Applications. Also known as eBay's App Store.

Check out Auctiva's Find & Replace today!

New Seller Education and Consulting Services from eBay Certified Providers

2010-02-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

Selling on eBay is an easy and great way to make extra cash while cleaning out a garage or closet. All a new seller really needs to do is decide what to sell, take pictures and write a description about the item. No matter if an eBay member would like guided help or go it alone, Certified Providers can make the transition from buyer to seller quickly and easily.

If you have a new or beginner seller that would like to enlist the advice and help from experienced eBay sellers and consultants to guide you, then our Certified Providers can help. They can teach sellers how to sell effectively on eBay and perhaps even increase their eBay selling to full-time and start an online business.

Benefits:

Learn what items sell on eBay
Avoid common selling mistakes
Self-paced learning environment
Personalized advice
Find the products buyers want and locate suppliers
Set up your business properly

eBay Certified Providers can help sellers interested in getting started selling on eBay or learning how to be more successful. Look into -

The Queen of Auctions
WhatDoISell

We suggest you contact the Certified Provider directly and decide if they offer the right education and consulting service for you.

New eBay Certified Provider, B-Stock Solutions, Brings Unique Product Sourcing Opportunities to eBay Sellers

2010-01-28T13:20:00.000-08:00

New eBay Certified Provider, B-Stock Solutions

The eBay Certified Provider Program is excited to offer sellers more inventory and product sourcing opportunities with the addition of B-Stock Solutions to the program.

B-Stock Solutions opens supply sources for smaller resellers, like eBay sellers, who have previously been unable to buy directly from Fortune 2000 retailers and manufacturers. eBay sellers can purchase direct from the large retailers, manufacturers and liquidators. With B-Stock, sellers can bypass purchasing through middlemen that paying extra fees or markups.

B-Stock understands the challenges an eBay seller encounters when trying to develop new, reliable sources of quality inventory. They help answer this challenge by delivering private auction marketplaces allowing registered eBay sellers to bid on inventory in lots/palettes, pay securely and arrange safe shipment. B-Stock creates a predictable, dependable source of supply for eBay sellers.

Features:

Categories:

Consumer Electronics
Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
Home, Bed & Bath
Cosmetics
Media
New categories added frequently

Inventory conditions include:

Brand new overstock
Out of season
Returns
Refurbished

Benefits:

Buy liquidation inventory directly from large retailers and manufacturers
Peace of mind in purchasing authentic inventory
Purchased inventory can be shipped to eBay seller’s location or arrange to pick-up
Alerted to new inventory opportunities

Founded in 2008, B-Stock Solutions creates private marketplaces for large retailers, manufacturers and liquidators enabling them to offer their inventory direct to eBay sellers.

Increase Sales and Reduce Labor Costs with Custom Development by JDT Technologies

2010-01-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

eBay Certified Provider Spotlight

JDT Technologies provides consulting services and custom eBay programming to help high-volume sellers achieve the next level of success. JDT can integrate eBay and other channels listing and post auction processes with your inventory, sales order/fulfillment, CRM or accounting solution.

Features:

Custom eBay operation software operating in real-time
Connect eBay listings to your product data
Accurately tie and track inventory across multiple channels (online and retail)
Create an order fulfillment and shipment system for your business
Connect eBay sales to your accounting system/software

Benefits:

Stick to the platform of your choice
Implement your business rules
Increase revenue
Decrease costs and inefficiencies
Integrate with your internal or partner systems
Increase sales and get a custom shipping calculator with a custom built checkout solution
Create a custom solution from the ground up
Create a solution to work with current eBay tools
Create a solution to integrate with current retail business operational solutions

eBay sellers interested in having a custom solution built for their eBay, ecommerce and retail business can look into contacting JDT.

How to contact JDT Technologies for a free consultation

Phone - 800-252-5519
Email - info@jdttech.com
Webform - http://www.jdttech.com/contact.html

Check out JDT Technologies work with eBay sellers and the success of their custom solutions for each unique business.

Seller Sourcebook Launches Support of eBay Multi-Variation Fixed Price Format

2010-01-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

eBay Certified Solution Provider, Seller Sourcebook, now supports eBay’s Multi-Variation Fixed Price Listing Format.

Multi-variation Fixed Price listings allow sellers to include multiple variations of one product (such as color and size) in one low-cost, multi-quantity Fixed Price listing, and price each variation differently.

“We wanted to respond quickly to requests for support of listings with variations,” - Kristen Rice, Founder and CEO of Seller Sourcebook. “We strive to deliver a great listing experience and seamless support for our members.”

eBay sellers using Seller Sourcebook for listing, design and photo hosting now have the added luxury of saving time and money by condensing applicable listings into a Multi-Variation Fixed Price Format.

The variation option is the perfect solution for sellers who are listing items with multiple variations, such as different sizes and colors. Listing time and fees are reduced as the seller is able to place their items in one listing that encompasses all variations. For example, an eBay seller could create a listing to combine all the colors and sizes of their inventory of Lands' End Women's Fine Gauge Cotton Cardigans and charge $29.95 for regular sizes and $39.95 for plus sizes.

eBay sellers can revise their active listings to include multi-variations with Seller Sourcebook’s listing tool per eBay’s policies.

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.

Should You End an eBay Auction Early? by Vendio

2010-01-22T11:18:00.000-08:00

Post taken from the Vendio blog, Vendable

Ending eBay Auctions Early

It’s a seller dilemma. A buyer emails and asks you to end your auction early and sell to them outright or for the bid they have placed on your item.

This actually occurs more frequently since the best offer option was added to eBay. Countless times I have seen sellers ask the question: “Do I end the Item early and sell?”. Experienced sellers will typically answer “no” as they know that the price is likely to climb in the last few minutes of bidding.

It does appear that newer sellers get these requests most often.

So, what is the best practice?

If there is interest in your item, it is likely that there will be more bidding and a higher realized price if you let the auction run its course. The downside is that you may end up not selling the item or not getting the price offered. However, in most cases, you’ll end up with more bids (money) if you wait it out.

So, how do I answer the inquiry?

To make it easier on yourself, compose a standard message that you keep on hand, which lets a buyer know you appreciate their inquiry, you hope they bid, but there are other folks interested in the item and it would not be fair to them to end the item early (or its your policy), etc. Be kind, but don’t encourage back and forth communication unless you do plan on selling to the buyer at a higher price (I was really hoping to get $30).

Many sellers would not recommend that you end your item early, but there are occasions where you may wish to end the item early and sell it.

If you do end your item early, you are still obligated to sell to the highest bidder, so make sure that the person who inquired is the highest bidder.

Happy Selling!

By Vendio

An eBay Certified Solutions Provider since 2004, Vendio provides an ecommerce solution for eBay sellers of all sizes. Vendio offers a series of applications which can be installed on a standalone basis or used to extend the functionality of the Vendio's eBay listing and inventory management solution.

eBay Workshop Jan 26th - "5 Tips to Prepare for a Successful 2010"

2010-01-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

Workshop: 5 Tips to Prepare for a Successful 2010

Host: Lisa Suttora, Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com

Date: Jan 26th, Tuesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: The holiday selling rush is over and the new selling season has just begun. It is a great time to look at your 2009 selling and plan for your 2010 selling strategy. NOW is the time to review, plan and refresh your eBay business for a successful new year.

Please join Lisa Suttora, ecommerce strategist and Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com, as she shares her advice and insight on what you can do to prepare for a successful year selling on eBay.

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

The Importance of Trial Order Shipments when Testing a new Supplier by Worldwide Brands

2010-01-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

Article by Worldwide Brands - this is a series of 14 blog posts providing information on how to find inventory and products to sell on eBay from wholesalers with Worldwide Brands and their Product Sourcing Tool for eBay.

Article #10 - Importance of the Trial Shipment

As a Seller on eBay, whether you are selling in an eBay Auction or through an eBay Store, we strongly recommend you place a ‘Trial Order’ from your wholesale supplier or drop shipper for each product you plan to sell before you put them item up on eBay. This is especially important if you are going to rely on drop shipping. There are many reasons for doing this:

You need to check the quality of the product your customers will receive.
You need to check the quality of the packaging.
You need to check that the wholesaler correctly inserts any marketing materials you are paying them to include with each shipment.
You need to check the delivery time for a shipment. [Remember eBay rewards those eBay Sellers who provide the best buying experience. Avoid those low score DSRs buy testing an order first.]

Some sellers may be concerned about ordering a test order. Remember, once you have inspected it for quality, you can repackage it and ship it from your inventory (so long as it has not been used in any way.) You will still be able to recover the cost of the item. If there is ever an out of stock situation, you will also be able to quickly supply the product from your own personal inventory to the customer.

With eBay selling you need to be confident you will provide a great buying experience for your customers. Rather than wait for customer complaints that may affect your DSR ratings with eBay, you should put the wholesaler to the test first.

One of the applications now available in Selling Manager Applications or eBay's App Store (check out your “My eBay" and look for a new tab labeled "Applications") is the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool.

Check out Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay today! A 7 Day Free Trial is available.

How to Write Great eBay Item Descriptions that Sell by Shopster

2010-01-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Blog post by Shopster

Writing eBay Item Descriptions that Sell
Buying online as a rule is an impersonal exercise. While very efficient, it’s essentially, a no-touch experience i.e. the consumer and the seller do not need to make contact for a sale to occur. Because online business owners don’t have any live salespeople to fall back on, they need to guarantee that their site answers any questions a customer might have - hence, why great product descriptions are so critical. A product description is your salesperson, your chance to engage a customer and get them to buy, buy, buy.

3 Tips for writing engaging product descriptions:
Know your audience and write to them
Ensure that your writing style aligns with the audience you’re writing to. If it’s a highly technical audience use the appropriate jargon. Likewise, if you’re writing for a group of grade 6 children – write at a grade 6 level. When writing product descriptions, imagine your target audience and let that guide your language.

Get your customer’s attention
Use attention-grabbing phrases to grab shoppers’ interest quickly and keep it. Don’t be afraid to use strong words, questions, and phrases to do so. Pierotucci does a great job with opening sentences like: “Walk into a room and make an impression”, “Looking hip and cool is easily achieved when you are wearing this fabulous short fitted jacket”.

Tell a story & appeal to emotions to encourage buying behaviour
Once you have a potential customer’s attention, appeal to their emotions to encourage buying behaviour. Then offer logical support to help them rationalize their desire to purchase. Use each product description to paint a picture in your shopper’s mind, tell them a story, and let them insert themselves in the lead role. Use descriptive language and specific examples to get the best results.

Back to our Pierotucci example “Walk into a room and make an impression. Buttery-soft leather adds distinctive class and undeniable comfort to this sleek blazer perfect for work, weekend, and travel." This product description lets me visualize myself wearing this jacket - I can almost feel the leather on my skin, hear the whispers as I walk into a room. This product description does not just make me want this jacket, it makes me feel like I need it.

The moral of the story: Write to your audience, grab their attention, and then engage their emotions to keep it. By keeping these three tips in the forefront of your mind when writing your product descriptions, you stand a much better chance of turning your site browsers into paying customers.

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through dropshipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service dropshipping to both the United States and Canada.

ShipRush v7 Allows for Faster Processing of eBay Shipping Orders

2010-01-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

ShipRush v7 introduces the new online, web portal My.ShipRush. eBay sellers currently using ShipRush will find new features available in My.ShipRush.

What's new with My.ShipRush

Share shipping history with users who do not have ShipRush such as customer service staff
Network ShipRush history across multiple sites
Serves as a backup of ShipRush history in case of PC loss
ShipRush Endicia free for 30 days
New, faster eBay downloading
Print more international label types on 4x6 thermal printers

eBay sellers can also use ShipRush to speed up their shipping processes by -

Print shipping labels with just a click or two
Auto print packing lists
Tracking numbers automatically uploaded to Buyer's My eBay
Tracking numbers automatically uploaded to Seller's My eBay
Automatic email to the buyer with tracking number
Automatic buyer feedback posted

You can use ShipRush and My.ShipRush together at no cost. ShipRush is free! Check out ShipRush today.

GarageSale Releases Updates for their eBay Selling App for the iPhone and iPod Touch

2010-01-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

GarageSale releases update for their eBay iPhone App

Mac, iPhone and eBay software developer iwascoding, released an update for their eBay selling app for the iPhone and iPod Touch known as GarageSale Touch .

eBay Sellers can create, list and manage their eBay listings with their iPhone or iPod Touch - wherever they are with GarageSale Touch.

The recent release of version 1.2 of GarageSale Touch, an eBay selling application for the iPhone, is now available in the Apple App Store.

What's new in GarageSale Touch

New auction/template designs
Support for text snippets through SmileOnMyMac’s TextExpander
Specify up to three domestic shipping services for eBay listings
Updated list of available shipping carriers for eBay US and Germany

Download GarageSale Touch today at the Apple App Store or through iTunes.

GarageSale is an eBay selling solution for Mac users. iwascoding is a German company founded in 2005. Frustrated by the absence of eBay listing utilities for the Mac OS X the company founders created a client application for the eBay online auction system. iwascoding is an experienced eBay developer and has created tools to make eBay selling and buying easier for Mac and iPhone users.

eBay Workshop Jan 19th - "Making Shipping Insurance Cheaper, Easier & Faster"

2010-01-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

Workshop: Making Shipping Insurance Cheaper, Easier & Faster

Host: inkFrog

Date: Jan 19th, Tuesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: In this workshop, the inkFrog team will show/demo how you can use ShipSaver Insurance (by inkFrog) to insure your packages for less than you are paying to USPS and UPS.

ShipSaver Insurance, by inkFrog, is a discount shipping insurance application now available in “My eBay” as part of Selling Manager Applications, eBay’s App Store. ShipSaver allows eBay sellers to receive great shipping insurance coverage at a discount.

InkFrog is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider and one of the third party providers included in the new eBay Selling Manager Applications, also known as eBay’s App Store .

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

eBay It Forward - Employees and Local Community Raise Items and Funds for Charity with eBay Giving Works

2010-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

SLC employees kick-off the new year by selling items through eBay Giving Works with proceeds going toward helping the local community

After a year of making huge strides in community involvement, eBay SLC decided to end 2009 by engaging the employee population with the local community.

But the question stood: how could eBay help connect nearly 1,400 employees with the community; help the community connect with one another; give back to an amazing local charity; and, in typical eBay fashion, create something unique which had never been done before? Enter "eBay it Forward."

The eBay it Forward experience called for individuals to focus on what they want to share with others and bring forward to 2010 — the things which meant the most to them and for which they are most grateful. Participating individuals, families and groups were asked to look back through the year and identify an important personal item which improved their lives, created joy, provided comfort or maintained happiness during 2009. Then, using eBay Giving Works, the community could share their items with other community members who made need the same joy, comfort or happiness that these items provided their previous owners in 2009.

Calling on the community
Although the experience of sharing ones most precious items is fulfilling in and of itself, eBay SLC wanted to find a way to connect the community and bring these stories to life.

So, community members were asked to bring their items to the eBay it Forward pavilion in SLC to be put on display, along with handwritten notes telling each objects story.

Together, the objects and their heart-warming histories created a large-scale installation displaying the community’s most valuable possessions. Here the beginnings of eBay echoed, as the visual of people connecting with one another while exchanging items, interests and stories came to life. Not to mention it carried the sustainable aspect of giving pre-owned items a new life.

Community "art" display
eBay it Forward officially kicked off Dec. 28 with a sneak preview event for eBay employees and invited members of the SLC community. The goal was to prepare the community “art” display for the official opening and stock the shelves with items for the public to see when the door opened on Dec. 29.

After appearing in multiple news outlets, eBay was hopeful for a huge turnout. Despite harsh weather conditions, the community came and the shelves began to fill up with New Year’s treasures. One community member brought a collection of stuffed animals he and his wife had bought for the children they hoped to foster. However, his wife became sick and their dream of a home full of foster children was no longer a reality. So, they decided eBay it Forward was the perfect way to pass these items on to children who could love them and help out a great local charity in the process.

Most stories associated with the donated items pulled at the heart strings and required a tissue to read. One of eBay’s own employees, Jillene Prolo, a customer solutions agent, donated a necklace she bought from one of her favorite stores because all the proceeds were being donated to cancer research. Three members of her family had been affected by cancer: herself, her father and her grandfather (whom she lost several years prior). The necklace had three silver rings she felt represented these three people. She and her father beat the cancer and therefore wanted to pass on her “good luck charm” to someone else who may need it in 2010.

The start of a new tradition?
Nearly 200 items and amazing stories like these were collected to share with the community, with items ranging from stuffed animals to golf shoes to a Blue-Ray DVD player.

Even employee volunteers turned out in droves to help because they felt it was important to the community, with many of them bringing items and stories of their own to add to the project. “It was an amazing chance for employees to really get out and interact face-to-face with members of the community in which they work,” said J.D. Norton, senior specialist, events and awards. “And, they absolutely loved doing so. For three and a half days, they gave eBay and eBay Giving Works a smiling face in the Salt Lake community. Hopefully, this will become a New Year’s tradition.”

The fundraising goal for eBay it Forward 2009 is $10,000 for the designated charity. Items are currently in the process of being listed on eBay Giving Works, with the first batch of items being listed on Jan. 9, with a new batch going up weekly. All items are listed under the user ID: eBayitForwardSLC or can be found by doing a title search for “EIF”.