eBay Certified Provider Program

Preparing to Contact a Wholesaler (What to Do and Expect) - by Worldwide Brands

2009-11-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

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 #7 - Preparing to Call a Wholesaler

If you are new to selling on eBay, you are probably facing that time when you must make your first call to a genuine wholesale supplier. You want to open an account with them. You need to begin a fruitful relationship where you will have a continuous supply of products to sell in eBay Auctions or via your eBay Stores. There are steps Worldwide Brands recommends you should do before making the first call:

What Must You Do Before Contacting a Wholesale Supplier to Open an Account?
It is better to do some homework about the wholesaler BEFORE you make that critical call. For example:

Have you done your market and product research?
Do you know what products you are going to sell and why?
Have you studied the wholesaler’s website?
Have you read their Terms of Use, Policies and Procedures?

If you haven’t done this research, you can now access information on wholesale suppliers within My eBay! Worldwide Brands has created an application to help eBay sellers find products and wholesalers. This new application is part of the new eBay Selling Manager Applications feature. Sellers can subscribe to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool and access supplier, product and trend information. (See our previous Blogs on how to perform rapid product and supplier research.)

Prepare the Flow of the Call
Remember, when you call the wholesale supplier representatives, they are interested only in WIIFM [What’s in it for Me?]. When you make the call, there are a lot of things that you want to know,for example:

Does the wholesaler allow their products to be sold online specifically on eBay? [If they say no, ask why in an informative way.]
Do they have support for other online retailers?
Do they perform single item drop shipping?
What is included in the drop ship fee?
Does the supplier offer extended service hours?
Have they tested how their products sell online?
Will they open an account for you?
Will they provide a Confidential Price List?
How will they provide product images, descriptions and specifications?

Address the Wholesale Representative’s needs first. What interests the wholesale representative?

What products will you sell?
To whom will you sell them?
How many will you sell?
When will you start selling?
When will you start ordering?
In what order volumes?

What will the wholesale representative want from you?

Business credentials
Sales Tax ID Number
Trade References
Business Credit Card
Purchase Order

When you start by giving the wholesale representative information they need first, you start building a relationship. If you start by asking a ton of questions about the things that are important to you, you lose the interest of the wholesale representative within seconds.

Following a Positive Call with a Wholesale Supplier, what do you want to receive?

Account Number
Confidential Price List
Purchase Order Process
Payment Terms
Digital images
Product descriptions (not always best for SEO)
Product details and specs
Proper packaging
Customized packaging (if available)
Video clips (if available)

Benefit from these and many other helpful education modules with tips available from Worldwide Brands.

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

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

eBay Workshop Nov 10th - "Top 5 Last Minute Christmas Research Tips"

2009-11-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Workshop: Top 5 Last Minute Christmas Research Tips

Host: Terapeak

Date: Nov 10th, Tuesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: The busiest shopping days of the year are rapidly approaching (Saturday before Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday…) and you're going to want to be ready to sell! What are the hottest items and opportunities for your eBay business this holiday?

Spend an hour with us and discover how to use research to plan your biggest sales month of the year! We'll review the top five research tips that can help your sales soar.

Join Matt and Denise from Terapeak Marketplace Research to learn about last minute Christmas research. After the material is presented we'll open the board for discussion and questions.

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Service Provider and one of the third party providers included in the new Selling Manager Applications feature.

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

Increase Sales and Use "Make an Offer" on Fixed Price Listings - by Auctiva

2009-11-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

Article from Auctiva Education (Education for eBay Sellers)

Whenever I think about eBay's Make an Offer option, it brings to mind Clint Eastwood's classic "Dirty Harry" movie line, "Go ahead, make my day." Only now I'm saying to my potential eBay customers, "Go ahead and make me an offer!"

Today, I want to encourage all eBay sellers using the fixed-price/Buy It Now format to include Make an Offer. Don't worry about your bottom line suffering. There's no additional eBay fee to add this option to your listing. It hurts nothing, and you can always decline an offer by including a friendly note to the buyer.

I've gotten a few e-mails lately from worried sellers who are not making sales. When I venture into their listings, I often find they have many items that are overpriced that don't include the Make an Offer option.

Sellers, please keep in mind this advice from eBay University: "Think like a buyer!" Particularly now, when shoppers are spending more time looking for bargains online, showing that you're flexible about pricing can work in your favor.

Say you're in the market to buy an item and you see the item priced high from two people, but one of them has the Make an Offer option. Chances are, you are indeed going to "make an offer" to the seller who clearly wants your business, and you are going to walk away from the other one. Which seller would you rather be?

Take the positive approach
Now, occasionally, someone will make an offer that seems silly and unreasonable. So what? It happens. You may feel insulted, but I suggest you turn it around into a social, future customer opportunity!

Write them back with a decline or counteroffer and include a note, something like: "I sure wish I could sell it to you for that price. Heck, I wish I bought it myself at that price! I can't blame you for trying, but realistically, I can't let it go that low."

Communicating instead of ignoring those offers is simply good business practice. It's a golden opportunity to open up the lines of communication and establish a future or repeat customer.

Encourage bidders to make your day by including Make an Offer in all your fixed-price listings.

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

Sometimes It IS All About Image - by Vendio

2009-11-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Article by Vendio

With all the discussion, information (and angst) about DSRs and Top Rated Sellers and the eBay change of the week, sellers may forget to pay attention to the basics. New sellers inundated with the volumes to learn may never learn the basics. So today, let’s take a trip down “Basic Lane” and take a look at images.

When selling online, the image is the most important piece of sales collateral that you can “hand” to your potential customer. It is the first thing that a potential buyer sees.

You do not need to be a professional to recognize a good image, and you don’t need to be a professional to take a good image.

Here’s some tips to improve you images:

Make sure your item and camera lens are clean. This might seem like a no-brainer, but if you use your camera often, you may forget to check the lens for dust.
Light your item. You can create your own inexpensive photography box (or even buy one). For inexpensive lighting, you can purchase clip on lights at any home improvement store. Shine the light onto the product and stand behind the lighting.
Unclutter the area. It is not good practice to take an image with other items in the photograph. If you are selling a vase and want to display it with flowers, take an additional photograph, but your main photograph should be of the product and the product only.
Take several photographs. Vendio image hosting is inexpensive and having multiple images help sell your product. You will want to take images from several angles. If you sell collectibles, take an image of any makers mark.
Resize and crop your image. Make sure that your product is what is seen, not the background.

Too much background, lighting is not correct and not showing enough product detail

6. Don’t take images with a distracting background. If you are using a backdrop cloth, use plain colors. Plaids and Paisleys will detract from your item.

7. Include a visual reference to size when appropriate. For example, use a ruler or a coin for visual reference to item size.

8. Try not to use a flash, but use lighting instead. If your item is reflective, don’t use a flash at all.

One other tidbit to note – the best way to determine if your images are up to par, is to view similar items and compare your items with your competitors. If you have Vendio Research, it will display the images of completed items, so you can see at a glance if your images are better (or worse) than your competitors.

eBay sellers can try Vendio Research free for 60 days! Click here.

Happy Selling!!

eBay Workshop Nov 3rd - 12 Sales Boosting Strategies to Put More Jingle in Your Holiday Season

2009-10-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Workshop: 12 Sales Boosting Strategies to Put More Jingle in Your Holiday Season

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

Date: November 3rd, Tuesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: The holiday season is upon us! And holiday shoppers are headed your way. But will YOU be ready when they arrive? With new holiday shoppers coming online each year and return buyers coming back for more, NOW is the time to ready your store, listings, and marketing for prime time!

Please join Lisa Suttora, ecommerce strategist, and Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com as she shares 12 sales boosting marketing strategies that will get you ready for holiday buyers and put more jingle in your holiday sales!

Since 2004, WhatDoISell.com, an eBay Certified Service Provider, has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business 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.

How to Manage Your Suppliers Information within eBay - by Worldwide Brands

2009-10-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Article #6 - Managing Your Supplier Information within eBay

How do you get information about genuine wholesale suppliers (not middlemen) who will directly support an online retailer and allow you to sell their products on eBay? How do you keep track of all your product searches and each Supplier's details?

eBay sellers can now subscribe to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay as part of the Selling Manager Applications, also known as eBay's App Store. Everything you need to know about a Supplier before you call them is provided in one easy-to-use location, accessed from within your Selling Manager account.

In order to subscribe/add various selling applications to your eBay account, you will need sign-up for Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro. Selling Manager is now free! Sign up here.

What Do You Need to Know about a Supplier?
Apart from the Supplier’s name, address, website and contact details, you need to know if they allow the sale of their products on eBay. You need to know what method they will use to ship orders to your customers and you need to understand their fees - especially their drop ship fee if you are going to rely on drop shipping to start eBay selling. You certainly want to have a clear understanding of the wholesale products they carry.

In the video below, you will see an extract of the kind of information now available to eBay Sellers through the Worldwide Brands application in eBay’s Selling Manager.

In addition to what you see in the extract, the eBay Seller can view more details about brand names and the full range of product types carried by each wholesale supplier. To accelerate the process of opening an account, Worldwide Brands provides automated account setup form. The system auto fills the form with the information from your own setup file allowing you to complete the form rapidly and email it from within Selling Manager and get it to the wholesaler before you make that all important first call.

At the press of a button, the system allows you to save each of your preferred wholesalers in the “Suppliers” section of you system so that you can recall their information without repeated searching. There is also a quick reference alphabetic listing of brands and products to help you locate specific items rapidly.

eBay’s focus is to help eBay Sellers reduce the amount of time it takes to find the right products for eBay selling. View this short video to see how it works.

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

Build Great eBay Listing Titles with Terapeak Keywords (New in Selling Manager Applications)

2009-10-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

Terapeak, an eBay Certified Provider and eBay Market Data member, just released a new and completely free app for the eBay Selling Manager Applications - Terapeak Keywords!

Terapeak Keywords is a free tool helping sellers optimize their eBay listing titles. eBay sellers know, the first step to creating a listing is coming up with a title. The first step to creating a great listing? Come up with a great title.

Terapeak Keywords asks a seller to type an item’s name/description into a search field. It then samples 100 recent eBay listings that have also included the specified search term(s), and automatically produces a list of related keywords accompanied by average prices and other metrics.

By clicking the most valuable relevant keywords and adding them to your listing, you can continue to build your title until you have used up all 55 characters… And as any eBay seller should know, every character counts!

"We’re very excited to be able to offer a free application that will benefit anyone who sells on eBay. The app will remain free and independent of any Terapeak subscriptions, so there's no need to create an account. Just add it to SMApps (Selling Manager Applications) and go!" - Terpaeak Team

Below is a sample of Terapeak Keywords for eBay Selling Manager Applications.

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.

Be Memorable - Use Effective and Creative Design on eBay

2009-10-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

eBay Sellers can stand out from the crowd by creating a recognizable brand. eBay buyers, especially previous purchasers, should be able to remember a seller, who they are, what they offer, quality of their products and customer support. Sellers can attract buyer attention and provide assurances with a professionally designed listing on eBay.

The new item page on eBay still allows sellers the opportunity to get creative and stand out! Sellers can preview their custom designed listing templates and see how their template “fits”.

Great design not only creates a professional presence when selling online, but also establishes a recognizable brand. Buyers will be more likely to remember “who you are” with unique and memorable design.

Benefits:

Create effective design
Build a recognizable name/brand on eBay to suit your target buyer
Compete effectively with your competition
Establish professionalism and quality of your business and items for increase sales

Consider enlisting effective design and marketing services of an eBay Certified Provider to help grow your current eBay business. eBay Certified Providers work with all levels of eBay sellers from beginners to advanced PowerSellers to online retailers.

Certified Providers:

Custom Design
As Was

Pre-designed eBay Listing Templates
Seller Sourcebook
Vendio
Auctiva
inkFrog

GarageSale on eBay Radio - Mac Desktop Application for eBay Sellers

2009-10-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Listen on eBay Radio and "meet" our newest and international eBay Certified Provider, GarageSale by iwascoding!

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

Key Features are:

Desktop application
Integration with other Mac OS X applications (e.g. importing images from Apple iPhoto
Supports multiple eBay accounts
Built-in photo editor
Import photos direct from your camera
Over 130 template designs
Income report generation (track eBay sales and expenses)
Supports 15 international eBay sites, including eBay.com, eBay.de, eBay.co.uk and eBay.ca
Supports eBay Motors
Network sharing available with Apple’s Bonjour technology
YouTube, Twitter, and Google Maps integration for social marketing and networking
and more…

GarageSale is available for only $34.99.

iwascoding is a German company focused on creating eBay and PayPal solutions for the Mac and iPhone platforms. Their most popular eBay solution is “GarageSale”. iwascoding recently released the first eBay selling app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, GarageSale touch.

Seller Machine Wins "DSR Rockstar" eBay Star Developer Award - Video Interview

2009-10-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Seller Machine CRM, an eBay Certified Provider, was awarded the eBay Star Developer Award for "DSR Rockstar" at eBay's 2009 Developers Conference in San Jose, CA.

The eBay Star Developer Awards are awarded each year to the eBay developers recognized for building applications on the eBay API platform and for their achievements in enabling sellers to improve customer service, create great buying experiences and keep pace with eBay's dynamic marketplace. BengalOne was recognized by eBay for their Customer Relationship Management solution known as Seller Machine CRM.

Seller Machine CRM, developed by BengalOne, is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool streamlining and increasing communication with your eBay buyers. Seller Machine also helps sellers with shipment tracking and communication to the buyer on the status of the shipment and satisfaction with their item.

Benefits of Seller Machine CRM:

Build strong relationships with buyers, resulting in higher DSR scores
Promotes a proactive approach to customer service reducing negative feedback
Creates and manages eBay customer relationships encouraging repeat sales
Assists in shipping communication
Quickly see number of days since Shipped and since Delivered
Watch for those packages that are taking longer than usual to deliver and contact the buyer before they get upset and contact you

"It's not just the one DSR -- if you fix that one {customer communication} DSR, then all the other ones just follow. Once you've built a relationship with that buyer, then they go out of their way to leave 5 stars every time." - E.J. Bantz, Founder and Creator of Seller Machine CRM by BengalOne

Congratulations to Seller Machine for this great win! Seller Machine is a DSR Rockstar as the tool helps eBay sellers increase their DSRs, create strong relationships with their buyers and increase sales with repeat purchases from happy buyers.

Easy One-Page Lister, Photo Hosting, Templates and Bulk Revision Tools from inkFrog - eBay Certified Provider Spotlight

2009-10-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Since 1999, inkFrog has helped thousands of eBay sellers improve their sales and save time listing on eBay. inkFrog provides an inexpensive, simple, yet robust tool for eBay sellers at only $9.95 a month.

Unique features to inkFrog are:

One-Step eBay Lister -Easily create eBay listings in one-step.
Search and Replace- Bulk edit and revise templates and live eBay listings from inkFrog, including the item description. Search for a specific keyword, i.e. “money order” and replace with “PayPal” in bulk and in item descriptions.
Globals - Create new rules for templates and “globally” apply to all listings, live and scheduled. Allows sellers to easily update listings as eBay policies change.

Other features of inkFrog are:

Bulk photo uploading
Unlimited Image hosting
Photo Editing Tools
Prebuilt templates
Automatic feedback
Customize automatic invoices and emails to buyers

Benefits:

Save time listing
Manage and track consignment sales
Easy editing/resizing/cropping of images
Track and manage profits

A free 14-day trial is available to all eBay sellers!

inkFrog provides eBay sellers with an easy to use tool for efficient listing, photo uploading, live listing editing and managing of eBay sales. Visit inkFrog and sign-up for a 2 week free trial today!

How to Use the Selling Manager Applications Product Sourcing Tool by Worldwide Brands

2009-10-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Article #5 - Using the Product Research Tool

To sell successfully on eBay you need a regular supply of quality products at the right price from reputable and reliable wholesale suppliers. You also need current information about demand and supply on the Internet. You need to know who you will be competing with; and you certainly need information about competitive prices.

How Do You Perform Product Research Quickly?
You can do keyword searches on Google for hours. You can explore thousands of wholesale websites looking for products to sell. You can call hundreds of wholesalers – even manufacturers – to establish if they will support an online retailer and allow you to sell their products on eBay. Doing it this way takes an enormous amount of time and is a lot of work. But you need to start selling quickly to make money.

eBay sellers can now subscribe to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay as part of the Selling Manager Applications, also known as eBay's App Store. In order to subscribe/add various selling applications to your eBay account, you will need sign-up for Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro. Selling Manager is now free! Sign up here.

In addition to eBay’s excellent education resources and tools, a number of additional productivity tools are offered for sale by eBay’s Certified Solution Providers. One of these is Worldwidebrand's Product Research Tool and Wholesale Database of more than 8,000 wholesale suppliers including drop shippers, light bulk wholesalers, volume wholesalers, importers and liquidators.

Quick video tour will show you how you can save time with the Product Sourcing tool.

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

eBay Workshop Oct 22nd - Save Time on Shipping: For Bulk and One Off Printing! Right from My eBay!

2009-10-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Workshop: New Selling Manager Applications - "Save Time on Shipping: For Bulk and One Off Printing! Right from My eBay!"

Host: ShipRush

Date: October 22nd, Thursday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description:

After the buyer checks out, the seller's work starts! Reliable post-sale order processing is a must-have. It can be quite exhausting managing the information, getting packing lists and shipping labels dealt with, etc.

My.ShipRush streamlines the whole post-sale process from shipping to communication. Saving eBay sellers a lot of time (and time is money!). Please join Rafael Zimberoff, ShipRush Product Manager for Z-Firm to learn how My.ShipRush can help eBay sellers easily manage all shipments and communications.

New to the eBay Selling Manager Applications, or commonly referred to as eBay's App Store, is My.ShipRush. My.ShipRush was created by the folks at Z-Firm and is a new version of ShipRush, embedded in My eBay or Selling Manager.

ShipRush is an eBay Certified Solution Provider and one of the third party providers included in the new Selling Manager Applications feature. To learn more, visit Selling Manager Applications.

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

New! GarageSale touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch for eBay Sellers

2009-10-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

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

Mac and iPhone software developer iwascoding releases its eBay selling solution GarageSale touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

With GarageSale touch iPhone and iPod Touch users can create complete eBay auctions without ever turning on their desktop computer.

Users can upload images taken with the iPhone's built-in camera or existing images from their library, 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 uploads up to 10 images per auction for free to iwascoding's image hosting service and comes bundled with 10 popular auction designs.
Supports 16 different eBay sites, including eBay.com and eBay.de, and shares prepared auctions with GarageSale on the Mac via Bonjour
Auto download eBay categories and attributes updates as released by eBay
Import eBay listings created on the iPhone or iPod Touch into GarageSale desktop application for the Mac
Pricing - GarageSale touch is available for USD 4.99/ EUR 3.99 from the iTunes App Store

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.

Proof - How eBay Research Improves Sales and Success by Terapeak

2009-10-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

Article by Terapeak

Terapeak Case Study: The proof is in the product!

Over the past several months, Terapeak has been conducting studies that analyze the impact of market research on eBay sellers’ sales and success rate. We’re very grateful to all those who participated, and with the results from our first group of sellers now compiled, we’re excited to present the outcomes!

A little background first: the group of sellers was selected randomly, and features sellers specializing in collectibles, home safety products, antiques and more. Eight performance indicators were tracked for three months for each seller. Statistics related to each indicator were compared on a pre- and post-Terapeak basis, and were then used to determine a percentage of growth or decline.

Some sellers showed improvement in nearly every business facet, while the improvement of others focused on specific statistics. And when averaged across the entire group, every indicator showed at least some improvement.

Here’s a breakdown of the group averages and best results:

As you can see, those are some pretty impressive numbers!

Read the full Terapeak article here.

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

5 Costly Mistakes that Put the Scrooge in Your Online Holiday Sales - by WhatDoISell.com

2009-10-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

5 Costly Mistakes that Put the Scrooge in Your Online Holiday Sales - By Lisa Suttora, Founder & CEO of WhatDoISell.com

Selling online this holiday season?

If so, then you don’t want to fall into these 5 common traps that many online sellers make… (they’ll put the “Scrooge” in your online sales.)
1. Not preparing your website/online store to look like Christmas.

Imagine what your local mall would feel like during the holiday season WITHOUT all those holiday bells and whistles.

It certainly wouldn’t get you in the holiday spirit would it?

Yet frequently, online sellers do nothing to prepare their stores with a holiday look & feel. If you want potential holiday shoppers to stop and shop on your website, you need to let them know that you are dialed-in and ready for the holiday season.

This doesn’t have to cost an arm & a leg either – there are things you can do to bring the spirit of the season (and the sales) to your website for less than the cost of a dinner out. I talk about several ways to do this in my 2009 Holiday Season Checklist audio training.

2. Merchandising too late.

You cannot, I repeat CANNOT wait until December to start featuring your holiday merchandise.

Otherwise it will simply be TOO late in the season to pick up anything but last minute sales.

3. If you sell on eBay, in order to get the best visibility for your products you need to mix up your listing formats.

If you’ve been selling everything in a Fixed Price Multi-Quantity Format, it’s time to relist or list some new merchandise in a 7 day fixed price format.

4. Not collecting email addresses of your customers.

This is probably one of the most business devastating mistakes I see people make during the holidays.

I recently worked with a client who sold almost 800 items last year during the months of Sept – Dec. and hadn’t tracked any of those customer’s email addresses. That’s 800 people who they never followed up with again!

Now there are certain legalities that you need to be aware of in order to do this so that you’ll be in compliance with the CAN SPAM email laws – but when done correctly, a simple year-end email can build an ongoing relationship with your customers for the following year.

5. Telling your customers what you can’t/won’t do instead of what you CAN do. Nobody likes to be told “We don’t do this or No, you can’t have that.”
Well the same goes for your holiday customers. It’s all in how you say it.

“We don’t accept checks.” should be “We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover & PayPal

“We can’t ship overnight.” can be rephrased as “We’re delighted to offer two day shipping.”

Look at your website, eBay store or listings. Count the # of times your copy says “We can’t” or “We don’t” then replace those statements with “We can” and “We’ll gladly.”

It takes 43 muscles to frown and only 17 to smile. The same goes for your holiday web copy – make it smile!

Your customers will thank you by rewarding you with their business!

About the author: Lisa Suttora is an ecommerce expert, noted product trend authority and the Founder & CEO of eBay Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com. With 15 years of online & offline retail merchandising experience, Lisa brings a fresh approach to the topic of "what to sell and how to sell it."

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

Save Time Answering eBay Buyer Emails with Hosted Support - eBay Certified Provider Spotlight

2009-10-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

eBay sellers may find they are spending a large amount of their time answering buyer questions instead of focusing more on listing and strategy. To help sellers reduce the size of their inbox and save time answering redundant questions, Hosted Support (an eBay Certified Solutions Provider) has created a solution that can help, ezSupport for eBay.

ezSupport for eBay is a customer relationship and email management solution automatically responding to buyer emails through a knowledge base the seller has created. Also, sellers can use Hosted Support’s Searchable (Advanced) FAQs in their eBay listings allowing buyers to find their answer and never needing to email the seller.

For example, if a buyer emails or types into the Advanced FAQs, “What happens if the battery doesn't fit my cell phone?”, ezSupport for eBay will instantly email or display that specific seller's answer, such as, “Cell phone batteries may be returned within 14 days of receipt.”

ezSupport not only saves eBay sellers time but also increases the chances the buyer will bid or purchase an item by giving an immediate answer or response. If a buyer has to wait to hear back from an eBay seller, the chances of them bidding or purchasing greatly decreases.

eBay sellers report up to 80% of buyer questions can be handled by automated emails and FAQs.

Consider the customer and email management solution known as ezSupport by Hosted Support for sellers needing to reduce customer contacts and save money and time on customer support.

Key features of ezSupport for eBay:

Answer 80% of customer email – automatically
Create an extensive knowledge base
Auto respond to buyer email from “Ask Seller a Question” link on eBay
Customizable and Searchable FAQs knowledge base gives buyers immediate answers
Add, Edit and Delete FAQs at anytime
Natural Language Search
Retrieve and archive all eBay messages indefinitely
Maintain buyer contact records
POP email importing
Support multiple logins
Share knowledge base across multiple ezSupport accounts – Great for eBay sellers with multiple eBay IDs
Improves feedback and DSR scores
Responds to buyers who hide their email address
Adds 24x7 customer support to eBay listings
Easy 15 minute setup
Supports Windows and Macintosh
FREE 30-day trial

ezSupport for eBay with Advanced FAQs can be used FREE for the first 30 days. After the FREE 30-day trial it is priced at $19.95 per month, available on a month-to-month subscription basis.

eBay Sellers that are subscribed to Selling Manager (free) or Selling Manager Pro, can add ezSupport for eBay to their My eBay account with the new Selling Manager Applications. Same functionality and benefits, right in your eBay account.

HostedSupport is a leading provider of affordable customer support automation for web businesses and eBay sellers. Its easy-to-use system can be set up in 15 minutes and eliminates many of the customer support “pains” involved in answering and tracking customer questions, managing the returns process, and resolving customer tickets/cases. Businesses using HostedSupport's products increase their revenues an average of 25% and reduce their manual email workload by 80% or more.

Research and Find Profitable Products from Wholesalers within My eBay - by Worldwide Brands

2009-10-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Article #5 - Using the Worldwide Brands Product Research Tool

To sell successfully on eBay you need a regular supply of quality products at the right price from reputable and reliable wholesale suppliers. You also need current information about demand and supply on the Internet. You need to know who you will be competing with; and you certainly need information about competitive prices.

How Do You Perform Product Research Quickly?
You can do keyword searches on Google for hours. You can explore thousands of wholesale websites looking for products to sell. You can call hundreds of wholesalers – even manufacturers – to establish if they will support an online retailer and allow you to sell their products on eBay. Doing it this way takes an enormous amount of time and is a lot of work. But you need to start selling quickly to make money.

Worldwide Brands provides a Product Research and Sourcing Tool within My eBay or Selling Manager. eBay sellers can access a wholesale database of more than 8,000 wholesale suppliers including drop shippers, light bulk wholesalers, volume wholesalers, importers and liquidators if they subscribe to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay.

Seller's that would like to check out or use the Worldwide Brand's Product Sourcing Tool for eBay will need to be subscribed to either Selling Manager (free!) or Selling Manager Pro.

This quick video tour will show you how you can save time with this tool.

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

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

Customer Service Tips for the Holidays by Shopster

2009-10-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

Blog post by Shopster

Ensure Your Returns Policy Fits the Needs of a Christmas Shopper.

It may still seem far off, but Christmas is only 80 days away! What does this mean? It means you're going to have a lot more business coming to your storefront. It also means you’re going to have to modify how you support these customers over the Holiday Season. Adjusting your Returns Policy is just one thing you can do to get ready for Christmas.

With a typical Returns Policy, customers only have a certain amount of time available to request a return on a product (usually 7 or 14 days). The trick with holiday gift shopping, is that people start buying early (late October is usually when sales start to pick up), but don’t actually open and use the gift until Christmas morning (well after the 7-14 day window). Without a Holiday Returns Policy, you may have upset customers by not accepting returns on products bought as Christmas gifts.

Our suggestion is to post a revised Holiday Returns Policy on your storefront and in your eBay listings. Make sure you announce the change on your home page (or even show the Holiday Returns Policy there so everyone is aware of it) and make the appropriate change to your Return Policy page.

When creating a holiday returns policy, you will want to give your customers a start date - meaning any order made after that date until Christmas will apply to your Holiday Returns Policy. Any orders made after Christmas should adhere to your regular return request deadlines.

You then need to set a cutoff date. In other words, for those orders that fall within your Christmas Return Policy start date, you will need to decide how long after Christmas these customers have to request a return should anything be wrong with the order. An extra 7-10 days should be more than enough.

Hopefully, you will not have to do many returns, however an extended Returns Policy provides customers with additional peace of mind, as they know that they can return a product after it has been opened. A Holiday Returns Policy can also benefit your Christmas sales, because customers are more likely to purchase from an eBay seller or a store that makes allowances for the holiday shopping season.

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.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions Help eBay Sellers Increase Sales

2009-10-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

Customer Relationship Management

To really gain an advantage and increase customer satisfaction (DSRs and Feedback) eBay sellers should consider investing in a Customer Relationship Management solution or CRM.

A CRM solution will allow sellers to keep records of their buyers in order to better understand the buyers search and purchasing behavior. A better understanding of buyer behavior gives sellers the opportunity to create and implement effective targeted marketing strategies and increase sales with repeat purchases.

A CRM solution will also help reduce the amount of emails and questions eBay sellers receive or automate the email replies.

Benefits of CRM:

Maintain buyer/customer contact records
Identify customer segments (location, purchase history, returns, customer support issues
Improve customer retention
Know your top buyers for each product and group
Improve customer service
Create marketing campaigns
Send coupons and incentives to specific buyer segments
Track and report on effectiveness of marketing campaigns
Analyze and create reports on customer trends in correlation with marketing and product

eBay does not provide a CRM solution for eBay sellers. eBay sellers interested in increasing their buyer satisfaction, retention and sales should consider a CRM solution from an eBay Certified Provider.

Hosted Support
Seller Machine
ShipWorks
MyStoreCredit

eBay Certified Provider Spotlight - DOBA

2009-10-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Doba is a leading product sourcing company for eBay sellers and online retailers. All Doba products are drop shipped directly from the supplier or manufacturer to the buyer.

Doba is best for sellers looking to test products on eBay or add related items to the inventory they already have. While margins on drop shipped products may not be as good as wholesale, sellers can benefit from drop shipping.

Features:

Access more than 1.5 million products to sell
Sell products from more than 250 wholesale suppliers and manufacturers
Easily list products on eBay, an eBay Store, or even a ProStores website using Doba’s new Marketplace Manager
Expand or round out your current product portfolio
Basic eBay and eCommerce training helping you learn the basics of selling products online
Product images, descriptions, wholesale costs and daily inventory updates

Benefits:

Save time by quickly sourcing, listing, and shipping products directly to your buye
Gain access to suppliers who don't normally work with eBay sellers
Reduce risk by using Doba to test the market or up-sell related items
Reduce startup costs and risks by not having to purchase or carry inventory

eBay sellers can try out Doba for 14 Days free!

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.

True Blood, True Value: HBO’s Vampire Series Best-Selling DVD on eBay by Terapeak

2009-10-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Post provided by Terapeak demonstrating how to use eBay market research to determine sales trends, popularity and average sales price.

As if that other vampire-riffic phenomenon couldn’t get any bigger, we were peeping the Terapeak Hot DVDs section this morning and noticed a TV series atop the list…

For those keeping score, your crazy-colored vampire eyes don’t deceive you: that’s HBO’s True Blood laying a whuppin’ on the former undead champs.

But unlike Twilight, which has more than its share of detractors, we’ve heard almost exclusively good things about the HBO series. Now in its second season, the show stars Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress, and chronicles the mystifying events of a small town in Louisiana.

Below is a 90-day total sales trend for “True Blood,” produced by Terapeak’s All Sites package:

We’re not actually sure what’s produced such a spike — the DVDs were released several months ago, and the show’s second season only just began — but then we also haven’t had a chance to really bite into the television series… (hah!)

Maybe if there weren’t so many freakin’ Twilight books to finish?

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

How to Research and Find Profitable Products to Sell on eBay - by Worldwide Brands

2009-10-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Article #4 - Doing Your Product Research

If you want to make money selling on eBay, you need to select products that people are searching to buy on eBay, or searching the Internet to find. This requires careful initial product research and then ongoing product research. You need to be able to compare profits from drop shipping to profits from wholesale products purchased in volume or Light Bulk Wholesale.

Product Research can be boiled down to two things:

Will this product make me money?
Will this product fit my current budget?

You can figure this out before you start spending money trying to sell on eBay.

You need to do:

Keyword Research - How will people find you?
Competition Research - Who is selling against you? How, and at what price?
Profit Research - Selling Price – (Wholesale + Advertising + Shipping) = Profit
Advertising Research - What’s the cost of instant traffic? Which keywords are cheaper?

You need to find your niche. There’s too much competition trying to sell mainstream products. You need to identify a focused group of products that people want to buy that are not being offered by mainstream retailers. For example: Main Category: “Home Décor;” Sub Category: “Floor Items;” but a niche is: “throw rugs.” A niche is three or four levels below a Main Category.

eBay’s main focus is getting Traffic to your offerings and helping you convert browsers to customers. Through PayPal, eBay also helps you manage revenue collection. eBay also focuses on helping eBay Sellers with excellent education and tools to accelerate eBay selling. In the “My eBay” section of eBay.com, eBay Sellers can now start using eBay’s Selling Manager at no cost. Within Selling Manager are paid applications offered by a selection of eBay’s leading Certified Providers and eBay Developers.

In addition to eBay’s excellent education, these Certified Providers offer education associated with their unique and individual applications for eBay.

eBay sellers can now subscribe to the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay Selling Manager Applications and have a tool that provides product research, determining your niche, what to sell and where to source it.

From the Member Center in the Worldwide Brands Tool, you can perform the four key research tasks to determine if the products you want to sell will make you money and if it will fit in your budget. There is even education and webinars available that explain simple market research and provide help in identifying niches. You must subscribe to this application within My eBay and the eBay Selling Applications Directory in order to use this resource.

As the screen capture below shows, you can access the market research and product research tool, supplier contact information; and education all through one window and without leaving the Selling Manager section of eBay.

Below are screenshots of the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool for eBay to give you a visual idea of how the tool works and benefits eBay sellers.

eBay Certified Provider Fair - Helps Build eBay Customer Support Awareness of 3rd Party Services and Solutions

2009-09-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

eBay held its sixth Certified Provider Fair at the eBay Customer Support center in Salt Lake City, UT. The purpose of the event is to expose Customer Support employees at eBay to the software and services available to the eBay Community from external eBay partners qualified to be an eBay Certified Provider.

Over 300 eBay employees attended and viewed product demos, discussed each solution and relayed ideas and feedback on what their eBay sellers needs are. Lots of interest at the Certified Provider Fair on how Certified Providers support SR2 and help sellers adapt and succeed with the new changes.

Selling Manager Applications
Bulk revising of all listings to include Return Policy & Handling Time
Shipping and tracking automation in My eBay

eBay Customer Support teams were impressed at the range of software and services available to help eBay sellers be more efficient and successful -

business and strategy consulting
shipping automation for multiple carriers
customer relationship management
market research
listing solutions
and more!

Certified Providers in attendance:

To learn more about the tools and services from eBay Certified Providers, check out the Certified Provider website.

Click here to view photos from the Certified Provider Fair.

Vendio Reviser Special Edition Updates in Bulk eBay Listings with Return Policy & Handling Time

2009-09-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

From the Vendable Blog

Later this week eBay will roll out Seller Release 2 (SR2). Although the SR2 release helps increase transparency and improve the transaction experience, many merchants are not in compliance with some of the new changes. In particular, handling times and return policies are required in all Good ‘Til Cancelled (GTC) listings. Millions of items could fail in the listing process from these new policies.

In response, Vendio is excited to introduce a Special Edition of the Vendio Reviser. This special edition has a ONE PAGE option for revising handling time and return policy. Simply sign up, set you eBay token (so we know who you are), select your handling time and add a return policy and we will bulk revise all your eligible eBay items.

The special edition is a flat-rate of $20.00 a month for unlimited revisions!! And it works no matter how or with who you listed your items!

As an added bonus, this offer includes the Vendio Reviser which allows you to revise your items three ways:

1. Bulk Revise Individual Items – revise up to 100 of your items which are displayed on one page (either in list format, filtered or searched by keyword), and you can make common revisions (including descriptions) from this one page. For instance, you can search all items with “DVD” in the title – make description edits on one page and click revise to submit your changes. There are many options to filter and search your items to bring up the items you wish to revise.

2. Find and Replace – Find specific criteria and replace it. For instance, you could “find” all the items that have “BLUE” in the title and revise them “PERIWINKLE BLUE”. There are many find and replace fields that you could use to make revisions to your items.

3. Set Auto Reviser Rules – Auto Reviser rules lets you set strategies. Think of these as automatic revisions. For instance, you could reduce the price of your item by $1.00 every day until it sells, or you could change the category of your item after 3 days and so on.

Reviser provides many methods for you to enhance and edit your existing eligible eBay listings (in addition to allowing you to create specific strategies you design for you specific business requirements) and now with the Vendio Reviser Special Edition, you can bulk revise your handling time and return policy in one easy step.

PLEASE NOTE: If you use Vendio to list your items, good news! Vendio is automatically updating your handling time and return policy!

Also, If you are already an existing Vendio customer who does not use Vendio to list your items, please contact customer service to have this special addition added to your account.

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.