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eBay, Facebook and statistics.

As every avid viewer of Yes Prime Minister remembers: “statistics can be used to prove anything. Even the truth.” And whilst the headline from Hitwise (respected ‘internet numbers’ people) is accurate, “Facebook overtakes eBay to become third most visited website,” it only tells half the story.

Facebook has enjoyed an irresistible rise in the past two years and in July overtook eBay.co.uk, with 2.75% of UK internet visits, to become the third most visited website in the UK. Google is #1 and so far in the lead that it’s (quite literally) off the chart. Microsoft’s ‘mail.live.com‘ domain (Hotmail, MSN etc. to the rest of us) has benefitted from consolidating URLs and remains firmly established in second place, with a just over 3% of net visits.

And what of eBay? As you can see, it’s been on a largely static course for the past 24 months (note the summer dips and the Nov/Dec peaks) and that’s no real cause for concern. As is pointed out, these are the visits for eBay.co.uk and visits from UK users to eBay motors or the eBay.com domain are not included. Would it make a difference if UK visits to all eBay domains were totted up? I reckon.

This is a good news story for eBay and eBay sellers. Internet visits are on the rise. Newcomers (like Facebook) are going to emerge and, in the face of those, it is remarkable to maintain such a strong percentage share of visits. In real terms, it would seem, eBay.co.uk is seeing more traffic than it did two years ago. Critics will remark that June 2008 was eBay.co.uk’s low water mark in the past two years and, frankly, only time will tell whether that’s a blip or the start of a trend. For the time being, eBay.co.uk remains the British ecommerce toppermost of the poppermost in terms of visits. Not ‘arf.

Amazon, Etsy, eBay and the eCommerce Land Grab

With much doom and gloom pervading comment about eBay, it’s easy to forget that ecommerce is still a frontier. The IMRG forecasts year on year ecommerce growth (in Britain, Europe, America and Asia) all the way to 2012. And even the very real threat of recession in the UK and US doesn’t seem likely to dent that. Even though eBay is languishing, Amazon has proved that the old guard can still find accelerating growth. The ecommerce land grab is still underway and there’s everything to play for.

With that in mind, an article from Y Combinator (a respected venture capitalist firm) called ‘Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund‘ makes for interesting reading. Not only does the piece prove that there’s still money out there for winning ideas but the comments regarding online auctions will be familiar to eBay sellers:

“Online auctions have more potential than most people currently realize. Auctions seem boring now because EBay is doing a bad job, but is still powerful enough that they have a de facto monopoly. Result: stagnation. But I suspect eBay could now be attacked on its home territory, and that this territory would, in the hands of a successful invader, turn out to be more valuable than it currently appears. As with dating, however, a startup that wants to do this has to expend more effort on their strategy for cracking the monopoly than on how their auction site will work.”

Y Combinator thinks that eBay’s dominance can and should be challenged. But it’s the belief that only the monopoly stands in eBay’s favour that should be most disquieting. eBay doesn’t have brilliant marketing, a superior product or a vibrant culture of innovation to protect it from an onslaught, it would seem.

One company that certainly can’t be criticised for lacking innovation is the crafts marketplace etsy, which has been in the news this week. Chad Dickerson, a former Yahoo executive, is joining etsy as Chief Technical Officer. Much of the coverage, mindful of Yahoo’s current difficulties, make much of this being a blow to Yahoo. And while that’s true, it’s also a huge boost for etsy: they’ve hired a talented operator from a big firm and that can only a be a vote of confidence. Even before this, etsy has been encroaching onto eBay’s territory and doing it with style, inventiveness and generating not a little admiration.

What does all this mean? Whilst eBay is struggling to find a little bit of ecommerce growth, expending a great deal of energy tinkering with feedback, search and fees, Amazon is successfully taking a good chunk of the fixed price action and attracting professional eBay sellers. Auctions are, it seems, up for grabs and yet eBay isn’t defending this flank and is concentrating on the faster growing But It Now business. Critically, eBay seems to be losing the battle: Amazon is growing faster than ecommerce and eBay isn’t. As for etsy, they’re a shining example of a specialist site taking some of eBay’s action and looking at a bright future.

eBay Inc. might be enjoying great results from Skype and PayPal but meagre growth in the marketplace business should be sounding alarm bells. eBay’s challenge is not just defending existing territory but squaring up to the frontier again and aggressively joining the land grab. Regrettably nothing in the Q2 results, report or investor call suggested that was the plan.

Dan Wilson is a writer and consultant and the bestselling author of ‘Make Serious Money on eBay UK’.

Live from the Live keynote

• Live tweets from the eBay Live! keynote. Reporter Dan Wilson is at the scene.
• Trying to count empty seats… there is a whole unoccupied block. Possibly thousands of bumless seats. But there are donuts and coffee.
• John Donohoe takes the stage. Bit starchy. eBay Live attendees sold $1.3bn last year. Collective feedback - 20 638 040. His feedback? 172..
• How touching that JD’s Parents are in the audience. And he’s showing us childhood snaps… more like a wedding than a keynote.
• JD has a strange selection of messianic hand gestures. Lots of out-stretched arms and hands clasped as in prayer.
• JD: eBay’s values haven’t changed. But buyers are more sophisticated and have so many choices. Change is difficult but essential.
• Anyone watch the West Wing? JD is very reminiscent of Arnie Vinnick in season 6 & 7. He’s offering ’sensible solutions’.
• JD: eBay works for the ‘collective good’ and will ‘do right by people who do the right thing’. 20 minutes in. No substantive announcements.
• JD is saying Thank You. He thinks we should all say Thank You more. (no John, thank you!) Run VT. Lorrie Norrington is on next.
• Whooooossssshhhh…. Lorrie Norrington bounds on to the stage. Lively. Girls do keynotes better.
• Saints preserve us. Norrington has just shown us a picture of her dog. Half an hour in. No substantive announcements.
• In the film of ebay Live, Alan Alda is playing JD and Jodie Foster is Lorrie Norrington. Hugh Grant is the non-paying bidder.
• Fast Facts: 2007 GMV was $60bn. 84m active buyers. Lorrie Norrington’s dog is called Lucy.
• Seller Protection to be available on all items paid by PayPal for US sellers. No cost. No limits. Available when buyer overseas.
• DSR visibility and discounts are working. Average rates are up. 33% have 4.8 or better, up from 15%.
• Powersellers with 4.9 on DSRs will get extra 20% FVF discount from July.
• Postal services discounts for PowerSellers. Coupons for buyers. Top buyer phone support. Fee changes coming up?
• Lorrie Norrington booed over the removal of the right of sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers.
• Mutual Feedback Withdrawl back on the table. Encouraging buyers to remove the negs and neuts they leave.
• Full buyer protection when you pay with PayPal…. on eBay.com. Lots of people leaving the hall… Norrington hasn’t finished.
• So many people have left the hall because they thought it was all over… it isn’t.
• Community Hall of Fame award winners. All very nice but Meg really did do this better. Lorrie, John: smile like you mean it.
• Keynote ends. Not a classic. Exit Music? Saturday Night’s Alright for Fightin…from Elton John. Prophetic?

Royal Mail Loses £200m

Days after a report revealed that deregulation of postal services had not provided significant benefits to consumers, Royal Mail has revealed annual losses of £200m. For the first time, the universal system for delivering letters and parcels (which allows senders to enjoy the same rates regardless of where they are in the country) was not profitable.

£800m was pumped into the Royal Mail’s pension pot but despite cost-savings from staff redundancies and 600 Post Office branch closures, the poor results have prompted Royal Mail chief executive, Adam Crozier, to call for greater freedom and deregulation. He said that Royal Mail now competes not just with other mail companies but also online companies. “We probably lost more direct marketing business to Google than to TNT” he said.

On the brightside for eBay buyers and sellers, Crozier reiterated the Royal Mail’s commitment to the universal service calling it “part of the fabric of our society and… vitally important to social cohesion and to the UK economy.”

eBay Tips 2008: That’s all folks.

Thanks very much for giving me the chance to spout off every day for a month about eBay and ecommerce and the like. Thanks, especially, for the comments and conversations that have taken place. It has been fascinating to read the views expressed.

So I thought I’d finish with a sort of summary and pull together some themes that we’ve talked about.

eBay’s on the cusp: It’s all change out there with an uncertain economic future, the leadership shuffle at eBay, Feedback developments and the fee adjustments. It seems that when we look back in a year’s time that we’ll survey a different scene. I think that’s rather exciting.

A little effort goes a long away: Time is a seller’s most precious commodity. There’s a whole raft of things a seller can do to be more efficient and the time saved can be ploughed back into the business. It could be about examining the numbers, upping the marketing or sourcing new lines.  But whatever it is, it’s about being competitive. Tiny tweaks and minor efforts can inch you ahead of the competition.

There’s a whole internet out there: Complementing your eBay activities with off-eBay selling and marketing can give you the edge. It could be about driving traffic to your eBay sales or branching out and developing a website. But again, it’s about being ultra-competitive. Follow the traffic and don’t expect eBay to do all the running.

eBay ain’t Dead: The sheen might have worn a little thin and the gilt might be flaking off the gingerbread, but I still look at eBay with a sense of awe. It’s huge (I mean gargantuan), still growing and delivering remarkable results. It’s been quite fashionable of late to write eBay off or predict its demise. I’m not in that camp: there’s life in the old dog yet. The changes announced this past week show that the fightback starts here.

Thank you. And good night.

eBay Tips 2008: Marketing Off-eBay

Whether or not you take any trading off-eBay, there is a potentially huge opportunity for you in taking some of your marketing away from eBay. 10% of the UK’s internet traffic settles on eBay. But 90% of it is buzzing elsewhere. You might be simply promoting your eBay Shop or pimping your own website, it doesn’t matter. There’s plenty you can do for free and only invest a few moments.

Build Profiles

There are dozens of sites out there that allow you to build a profile or page on, dedicated to you. The sites have their own communities and allow you to link you to your own site. It’s an opportunity to get a bit of ‘trickledown traffic’ and get an SEO boost. Here are a few sites for you to consider:

LinkedIN
Ziki
Squidoo
Last.fm
BT Tradespace

Plug into the Social Networks

Facebook is enjoying an irresistible rise. Myspace isn’t going away. Bebo is still popular. And we’ll see more such sites rise in the years to come.

It’s about following the traffic, getting involved, participating and measuring the results. I’ve heard some good stories from sellers who tell me that they’re getting good results. So take the plunge and see if you get any good results. Just remember that there is a fine line between ‘networking’ and ‘not working’.

Comment on Blogs

Blogs have become ubiquitous in the past few years and commenting on blogs has it’s own marketing benefits. Identify 3 to 5 busy blogs and make valid contributions. Make sure you link to your eBay Shop or website to get the benefits. Relevance is everything and be sure to measure the results.

eBay Tips 2008: Classifieds and Comparison Shopping

As I’ve written before in this series, there was a time when there was just eBay when it came to individuals selling online. But now the scene is more fragmented. Buyers are changing their habits and willing to buy using different formats and services. If you haven’t thought about Classified sites or Comparison Engines before (or have and found them lacking) then as we survey the online selling environment it’s a good opportunity to take a look and consider whether they might offer you something as you face 2008.

Classified Sites

eBay has made some forays into the classified ads space and enjoyed some good success. In the UK, you’ll see gumtree.com, worldwide take a look at kijiji.com and (for an example of an eBay owned classified site that is beating the traditional eBay site) in Holland take a look at marktplaats.nl. Take a look too at craigslist.com, of which eBay owns, 25%.

I think one of the principles of successful online marketing is to ‘follow the traffic’. And these online communities and sites provide new environments with which to interact with buyers. Search the sites and see if you might be able to advertise your sales, website, or individual items there. I think most sellers on eBay can find something to do there. Don’t forget that these sites index really well in search engines.

Comparison Shopping

Sites such as Kelkoo, Shopping.com and other major Comparison shopping sites have often proved a difficult environment for eBay sellers to penetrate. Not only are small businesses competing with big businesses who are typically getting better rates, but the it can be technologically challenging to plug-in and publish your inventory. The pricing model, pay per click rather than pay per sale, is also risky for smaller businesses with tight margins and a need for certainty.

But do take a look. They’re definitely not suited to all sellers, or indeed many, but there could be something that intrigues.

eBay Tips 2008: Other Marketplaces and Channels

It’s totally right and natural for any eBay seller to want to find profits and growth in other marketplaces. However, it’s at that point that many draw a blank. There has been a tendency for new sites to seek to become the ‘eBay killer’ with a strategy fuelled by antipathy or anger resulting from site changes or fee increases. That’s never going to be a recipe for success. You just can’t out-eBay eBay. Those that are trying aren’t getting cut-through or delivering results for sellers, as far as I can see.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other places online to do business. Moreover, I think in 2008 we’ll start seeing very credible challenges to eBay’s hegemony. Google will doubtless become more important in the future as an ecommerce driver but whilst some sellers do report good sales from feeding their inventory in, it’s not moving the dial for many. Yet.

The surprise success and challenge is coming from Amazon. In recent months I’ve heard some very positive stories from sellers , especially stateside, who have had a stellar Christmas thanks to Amazon. There are grumbles too, of course: fixed, dictate postage costs and it seems to be a very price sensitive market. But all that said, if you sell relevant goods, think Amazon if you want an additional outlet.

But for my money, looking ahead and Google aside (and I’m still sceptical they equal to the task), the bigger opportunity for eBay sellers will be with small niche marketplaces. It’s always seemed to me that eBay’s ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t give anyone a snug fit. Tailored, specific channels honed for specialisms and built by experts could see strong growth in 2008 and beyond. As an example, check out etsy.com. It’s a really interesting, innovative market for crafts. It’s easy to imagine a site like this (and a thousand others)finding traction, attracting a dedicated following and delivering sales.

eBay Tips 2008: What about a website?

Of all the eBay sellers I’ve met over the years, I’ve never met one who regretted setting up their own website. But almost every single one I’ve spoken to regrets not having done it sooner.

I think that every seller dependent on the eBay monster needs some sort of independent online presence. It could be just a blog or a single webpage but for many I reckon that a full-blown ecommerce enabled site is a very good idea. At the very least your own site is good cyber-squatting and also good marketing sense. At best, it will come to eclipse your eBay sales. Bottom line: you can’t rely on eBay. She may not be malicious but she can be a cruel mistress, unintentionally.  Moreover, if you’re making a success of eBay you can replicate that success with your own website.

If you start now and spend a bit of cash, by Christmas 2008 you could be selling a lot of stuff from your own site, in your own way. It’s worthy of serious thought. Depending on the path you choose (and I’m hoping for lots of comments from people who’ve already had a pop), I reckon that even a relatively small outlay of £500 will pay for itself within months. Hopefully, there will be some perspectives on good packages and services too.

eBay delivers a lot of things. When it comes to buyers and traffic, nobody does it better but there are other ways of getting sales. So why do it? I think that every eBay seller can find greater profits. It’s crazy to depend on eBay alone and a website is a really good step towards diversification.

Some benefits:

You’re in charge: No more fussing over what eBay will do next. Build a site and you’re the boss. Organise how it looks and feels, take charge of the findability and create the buying experience that you think your buyers like.

Fees will be lower: Your site will have costs associated with it but they will in all likelihood be cheaper on a per item basis.

Incremental sales: website sales will hopefully be additional to those you’re already making on eBay and not cannibalising them to any real extent (unless you want them to!).

Building loyalty: For a seller, a website represents a good opportunity to build relationships with regular buyers. If they like what you’re selling and like how you’re selling, then in all hope, you can migrate them to your own platform.

eBay Tips 2008: There may be trouble ahead.

What would you do if eBay pulled the plug? It could happen. What if a change makes eBay untenable for you? What if the developments to Search and Browse, combined with a few unsavoury Feedback, mean that your items are appearing at the bottom of the pile? Just like in the Thunderbirds, anything could happen, although not necessarily in the next half hour.
The only protection from the worst lies with diversification. You can diversify the channels through which you sell. This could mean other marketplaces or building your own website. We’ll look at both in the next few days. Or you could diversify what you sell. It’s very easy, whilst everything is going swimmingly, to imagine that it’s going to keep on going swimmingly, ad infinitum. But it’s when everything’s ticketyboo that you should be planning for the lean times. So here’s Dan Droplet of Doom for today:

The bad times are just around the corner.

eBay doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Since 1999, when eBay was established in the UK, we’ve never had it so good. Thanks to the fair wind of a benign global economic situation behind us, the buoyancy of cheap consumer credit and the prudent stewardship of Captain Brown, the Brits haven’t been shy to spend for the entirety of eBay.co.uk’s life. I suspect that this will change. A useful comparison might be Germany. eBay Germany is bigger than eBay UK (but then Germany’s a bigger country) but when you break down the eBay spend by head of population, the Brits spend more. Economically, the Germans have had a harder decade than we have.

On one hand, while harder times might favour eBay (people will come looking for more bargains) equally it seems to me that it’s very likely that people will be spending less. For sellers, this means you’ll have to work that bit harder for your profits. So what I want to close of the eBay Tips 2008 series with, is information that’s not about eBay. What can you be doing to insulate yourself against over-dependence on eBay and avoid the worst of the oncoming storm?

eBay Tips 2008: Pimp your Parcels

So far, we’ve only looked at online modes of marketing and branding. But there is one very obvious opportunity to connect with your buyers in a visceral way: by branding your parcels and using them to market.

There are two particular advantages of using this channel. Firstly, it’s free from eBay’s gaze. You are free to market your own website, or indeed, anything you like, without fear of eBay taking umbrage and slapping your wrist.  Secondly, when buyers get their parcels they are excited and hopefully in a good mood. This is a good time to encourage them to come back for more. A satisfied customer is ripe for the picking.

At the very least you want to make sure that you’ve got some marketing bumf inside your parcel. Simply including a PayPal or eBay print-out isn’t enough. Look at creating either a professional leaflet (you’ll find some very affordable print deals on eBay) or doing your own custom despatch note. You’ll obviously want to thank your buyer and probably encourage them to contact you if they have any bothers, but otherwise it’s a blank canvas.

You don’t need reams of text, just stick to a few important messages: visit my website, check out these deals, try my Shop for these complementary items. Brand the leaflet/flyer in your colours and make it congruent with your on-eBay presence. Don’t forget to use images!

Some of the more imaginative marketing and branding I’ve seen has been on the outside of parcels. Stickers and ink stamps can be very striking and effective. You might even want to get your jiffy bags custom printed for a very professional finish.

eBay Tips 2008: 4 Marketing Must Dos

Here’s a washing list of things that I haven’t mentioned so far, that you should be doing. If not, you’re a maniac.

About Me Page: Just about nothing is free on eBay and yet this free option isn’t taken up universally. Your About Me page is a freeform page that you can customise, design and brand. Buyers do, it seems, like the About Me page and take a look as they peruse eBay for things to buy. Two things. You can include a link to your website on this page, so do that. You’ll get a bit of trickledown traffic via that link (and it’s always a case of the more the merrier) but it’s also another link in to your site and good for your Google sexiness. Secondly, don’t cobble together an About Me page in minutes, taking a bit of time to ensure it’s a functioning part of your marketing is best practice.

My World: In some ways My World is simply a souped up About Me Page. But it’s the ‘social’ features that mark it apart and make it useful. And when you write a blog entry, review something or write a guide it’s not being sociable that really matters. You’re a actually talking to an audience of one: Google. Setting up your My World to match your Shop and listings need only take a few moments and you can easily add or remove boxes you’re not using.

You can blog about anything you like, but for the full benefit of indexing well in search engines (which eBay My World and the blogs functionality do) make sure you’re writing about your business, what you sell and related topics. Write a couple of reviews about items you sell and pen a guide too.

Shop Headers: Ensuring that your Shop items, and the whole of your catalogue, is adequately exposed include your Shops header, and maybe your category lists if you like, in all your listings. A buyer might not necessarily want to buy the item they land on so let them know about everything else you stock. The Shops header, replete with logo, is also a great bit of branding.

Email Footers: How many emails do you send out a week? Hundreds without really trying, I bet. Make sure that every mail you send out, eBay-related or not, has a shameless plug for your Listings or Shop. Those clicks here and there add up.

eBay Tips 2008: Consistent eBay Marketing and Branding

The only really important aspect of your on-eBay branding and marketing is consistency. You don’t have the full gamut of options on the site that most businesses have so making sure that you extract the most from the ones you do have is vital. Everything you do on the site is an opportunity to tell people who you are and what you do. You have your listings, and that includes your User ID, photos and descriptions. You also have your Shop, if you have one and don’t forget your About Me page and all the various My World functions.

What should you be considering?

Colour Scheme and Logo: Having a recognisable and consistent colour scheme is the most obvious branding option you have. Think of big brands like Harrods, Tesco or Boots the Chemist. You know exactly what their colours are and you can replicate a bit of that immediate recognition by adopting colour schemes that are reflective of what you sell and permeate all of your eBay activities. A striking logo is also a must. Make sure it projects the kind of business you are and tells your customers something about you and what you sell. An ultra modern logo for a business selling purely antique goods doesn’t send the right message. It’s not necessarily pricey to get a designer to knock something up that you’ll like and it does look good.

Tone of Voice: The way in which you speak to your customers influences them. Compare, for instance, adverts for Cilit Bang and Marks and Sparks. The words and the way they are spoken is a million miles apart but both do the job of getting their messages across and helps us understand the products for sale. Most of your communications will be written but tone is still vital. Examine what you’re saying and whether you’re happy with it.

The Message: Do you have key messages that you want customers to absorb? Are you the cheapest, the fastest, the nicest, the most reliable? You might want everyone to know that you’re a long-established family business off-eBay. Or that you source fairtrade goods and greener packaging. Whatever the message, make sure you are getting it out forcefully and consistently. Consistency? That feels like where I came in…

eBay Tips 2008: Why Marketing and Branding is Important

I’ve read enough books about marketing and branding to know that whole forests have been sacrificed for nought. A lot of crap has been written but not much of it explains much about why it’s important. Or rather they do, using dictionaries of meaningless terminology.

I like to think about selling on eBay in contexts that are familiar. Think about a fruit market, a car boot sale or even the shops on the High Street. You’ll have outlets that don’t need to market to you. You go there anyway. You trust and know them. But everyone else will have to tempt you in with their goods, offers and messages. That’s all it is and why it’s important.

Branding is stating who you are and what you stand for and being recognized for those things. Marketing is capitalising on your brand and projecting messages that will attract customers. So what does this mean for an eBay seller?
Even if you are tut tutting under your breath as you read this, believing it to be bovine excrement, whether you like it or not, you’re marketing and branding already. Your brand is expressed by your Feedback and listings and buyers are already making judgments. You’re also already marketing: what else are your listings?

It might already be out there but for many it’s incoherent. Getting the marketing and branding right on eBay is part of being competitive because it marks out a great seller from a good one and helps you attract those all important multiple purchases and repeat buyers.

Over the next few days I want to look at some topics related to branding and marketing on eBay.

eBay Tips 2008: Stock Discipline

In any sort of retail business there is, what in many ways resembles, a gamble at the core. Can you sell the stock you buy at a price, and in sufficient quantities, without having too much leftover, and still turn a profit? You’ll become more expert at this as time goes by, but it must be said that even the most expert sellers get it wrong sometimes. The briefest stroll around the High Street sales this January is stark testament to that.

Being as efficient possible with stock levels and shifting those slow lines is a key part of your profitability. Here are some thoughts:

Keeping Stock Costs Money
For any retailer, keeping the stock itself is part of the cost of doing business. Of course, it might not be a pressing cost if you have ample cheap premises or operate from home. But even then remember that slow moving stock might be preventing you from stocking new goods. Have you got a batch of stuff that been lingering? If so, it’s efficient to try and get rid of it.

Something is Better than Nothing
You might have a price in mind for the stock that’s not moving that you need to achieve to make a profit or break even. If you’ve been failing to get that, it’s possibly worth considering whether your price is unrealistic. You can leave that stock safely stowed because you don’t want to make a loss or sell it (and make only a hopefully small loss) and then at least it’s putting something back into the business. If it’s gathering dust it’s a dead loss.

Hold a Sale
It’s that time of year and a sale of some sort is a good way of shifting stock. On eBay you have 3 options. In your Shop you can fire up Markdown Manager. There may be some requirements but at least buyers will know they’re getting a reduction. Secondly, just go for the cheap and cheerful 1-99p start price auction. Or finally, rather than sell individual items, sell batches wholesale. This cuts costs and hassle.

Every cloud…
… has a silver lining. Use your sell-off as a marketing event. Be sure to cross-promote and signpost and see if you can attract to your regular items using your cut-price items.

eBay Tips 2008: Email Efficiency

One of the big sinks of time for any seller is dealing with emails from potential buyers and also dealing with the comms from buyers. It seems to me that there isn’t really a way of escaping from these (sometimes peculiar and moronic missives) so there is real merit in minimising the impact on your working day.

When it comes to email enquiries from potential buyers, I’m curious as to how many result is successful sales. You may know. But even if it’s a low percentage, as you’re now scored and rated with the Detailed Seller ratings in Feedback, you can’t really escape from this chore. Even if it is, as I suspect, often fruitless and unprofitable, it has to be done.

Automate Everything You Can
If you’re using Seller Manager Pro, or indeed any other tool, make sure that everything that can be automated has been. Payment Received and automatic Despatch Notifications put buyers at ease and help you get good grades with the DSRs.

Work the Templates
The vast majority of your emails will have identical, or near identical, content. Once all yours are set up it’s important to review and optimise them over time. You have almost complete freedom so you can tweak them to match the needs of your business. A few moments today working out what many of your emails regard, crafting the text, saving the template and using it again and again will cumulatively save you loads of time over the course of the year.

What are your FAQs?
Are you often being asked the same questions by potential bidders and buyers? Shame on you. Address your FAQs in your listings and also using the FAQ feature to save time. Look back over what you’ve been asked over the past month or two to assess what you could be adding to listings. Needless to say, even a comprehensive listing will still attract questions that you answer very clearly in your published text. But there’s not much we can do about that.

Set Times for Emails
The urge to provide ultimate customer service is a strong one for sellers on eBay. But don’t let the best be the enemy of the good. It’s tempting to ‘just log on for a second and do the emails’ but it is rather inefficient. And if your inbox is empty, it’s a complete waste of time. Have fixed times, stick to your schedule and don’t waste time poring over My Messages. The chances are that it can wait.

eBay Tips 2008: The ‘Henry Ford’ Thing

I once asked a particularly robotic, unimaginative and starched new employee at eBay (replete with crisp light blue shirt, tshirt underneath and immaculately pressed chinos) what he’d be doing. He replied, confidently; “I will manage the process.”

He’s doubtless doing well and is probably raking it in after numerous promotions and, even if I don’t totally understand what he does, I do get the gist. It’s consultancy speak for “I make sure we do things as quickly, cheaply and as efficiently as possible because when we do that, we make more money.”

It’s not a new idea and I like to think of it as the ‘Henry Ford thing’. Examine your working practices and make sure you’re doing your daily tasks as efficiently as possible.

Batch up tasks
Doing 15 parcels in one go doesn’t take fifteen times longer than doing a single parcel. Not if you include looking for the address labels, making a cup of tea and losing the tape gun. It’s often easier to take 100 pics or videos in one go: you get into the swing of it and get quicker. Planning ahead and only firing up the scanner or camera once a week will save time.

Plan
Multiple daily trips to the post office, emergency excursions to get supplies or just general disorganisation take up time. Even a modicum of planning (and I say this as one of the most chaotic people I know) will help.

Examine your Workspace
Henry Ford boiled down the entire process of car manufacture to find the most efficient way of making a cheap car and a healthy profit. You just have to see if you can save a few minutes here and there. I strongly suggest having a space dedicated to your selling, even it’s a tiny space, having everything in one pace will make it easier. If you have bigger operation, look at how you work and see what you could do more efficiently.

Check your Tools.
The one thing that revolutionised my selling was a label printer (Thanks Mountie!). Might a faster laser printer be something that could save you time? Even just a tape gun, a proper marker pen or a simple gadget could help. If it’s going to save you time, then the chances are that the investment is worth it.

eBay Tips 2008: Postage and Packaging Efficiency

It’s worth remembering that eBay allows sellers to charge ‘reasonable’ costs for postage and handling. In recent years eBay has become more hawkish in enforcing this policy and cracking down on excessive P&P.

Remember too that buyers are sensitive to postage costs. It’s noticeable that eBay are keen to promote items with inclusive P&P. A cynic would say that’s because eBay get their share but it’s more to do with the fact that buyers like the clarity and certainty.

If you haven’t had a look at ‘free P&P’ (and, of course, it isn’t really free, it’s just factored into the item price), it is worth considering. Run an experiment: sell like-for-like items and compare conversion. You may be surprised. It could be that ‘free P&P’ works better for you on certain lines or makes a difference on BINs.

Packaging
There are two ways you can be more efficient with packaging. The first relates to cost and the second to time. Using the cheapest packaging can be a false economy. Crap materials can cost you more in the long-run, once you have to deal with breakages and returns. You should never underestimate the ordeal that the average parcel goes through in transit, so don’t scrimp. Looks for good deals and make sure that your supplier is offering the best value for money, like for like. Buying in bulk will save you money, so if you can, do. I know of one group of PowerSellers who live close to each other and they effectively operate as a cooperative to buy in bulk and save money.

In terms of time, are you using materials that mean that you can pack your despatches as quickly as possible? It’s a serious point because time is money. I remember advising a seller who was selling odd shaped items. He used to make beautiful parcels, using loads of bubblewrap and took real care. But it did take him an age. A box, less bubble, packing peanuts and a bit of newspaper was just as effective and each parcel took him less than half the time to create.

Postage Tips.
I imagine hell is rather like the queue at the Post Office. If you can possibly avoid it, you’ll save loads of time. Find out when your PO is quietest and gun for then and talk to the staff to see if you they can help. Otherwise, if you’re selling loads consider collection, PPI or other services. Time saved on despatching goes straight to the bottom line.

On a slightly different note, make sure you’re paying the right tariff. The size and weight criteria have added ambiguity, and through either malice or ignorance, it’s easy to pay too much. If it fits through the slot, it’s a Large Letter and much cheaper to send. Know the system inside out and make sure you’re not paying too much.

eBay Tips 2008: Profit from Efficiency

I’ve met thousands of eBay sellers over the years: an admirable bunch for the most part, let me tell you. There have been a few nutters and wastrels, of course, but mostly I’ve met extremely hard-working, decent, ambitious and honourable folks.

In fact, if I have a general criticism of the eBay seller community, I’d say that you work rather too hard. As one of nature’s flaneurs, I’m dismayed by the tales of 16 and 18 hour days, constant work, lost weekends and non-existent holidays. Heavens above, if eBay isn’t about freedom and enjoying the flexibility of being an online trader (and making a living) then, hell, I don’t know what you’re in it for!

So why is it that so many eBay sellers don’t know what their most valuable commodity and resource is? It’s time. Working every hour that god sends might give you a little dose of presbyterian pleasure but if you are, here’s a thought: you’re inefficient. Have you ever calculated your hourly rate? Would you be better off behind the tills in Asda?

If the workaday activities of listing, managing, packing and despatching mean that you don’t have the time to develop, plan and grow your business, then there’s something you can improve. What you do with the time you save is up to you. Business or pleasure. But you should feel that you have the choice.

In the next five days I want to look at some ways sellers can be more profitable by being efficient. Here are some starters for ten.

Examine your working practices
What is taking up those precious minutes and hours? Is it listing, packaging, queuing at the post office, answering countless emails? If you know where the time is going you can take steps to address it. If you spend a lot of time at the post office, is there a quieter time of day that would be better or should you be considering home collection? Are the squillion emails coming in because you need to tart up your listings?

It can wait!
A lot of sellers pride themselves on offering exemplary service but sometimes the desire for speedy despatch and near instant replies to emails borders on the obsessive. Imagine you’ve done your despatches for the day and a late order comes in and, at a squeeze, you could get it in the last post. Leave it for the morning’s batch. Equally, when it comes to emails, limit your checks to regular intervals.

Kick the bad habits
What’s causing you stress? A last minute dash for a cheap listing day? A lack of jiffy bags? A disorganised working space? Stress equals time wasted, try and smooth out the pain-points.

Tomorrow: Postage and Packaging Efficiency

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops Email Marketing

Even if an eBay Shop doesn’t necessarily float your boat as a way of selling, you can still gain benefit from the suite of marketing tool available to Shopkeepers. In particular, the email marketing feature is a powerful facility that can help you sell more. Bear in mind that it does take time to get up to speed so if you start now you’ll hopefully be able to start moving the dial in time for the Christmas Rush 2008.

Build a mailing list
Email Marketing is only effective if you have a good cohort of people receiving the mail. You have to recruit people and that can take time. Start now and include the sign up link prominently in your Shop, all your listings, every outgoing mail and also flag up your mailing list in your despatches. There’s no magic number but aim to recruit at least 100 members. Many Powersellers have lists totalling hundreds, even thousands.

Craft a mail
eBay helps you build the mail, so no HTML skills are necessary. Think about what you want to say, match the design of your email to your Shop and promote specials or lines you want to shift. It’s important that you project a friendly tone and a feel that’s reflective of your on-eBay brand. Ultimately, of course, sending out emails is about selling more but you don’t just do that with overt selling messages. Connect with buyers any way you can: share news, tell stories or express a view.

Experiment
Constantly bombarding your list isn’t a clever strategy: experiment with timing, content and design to understand what works. Interestingly, purely commercial messages might not necessarily be the most fruitful approach. Simply reminding people that you’re there and still open for business (being ‘front of mind’) can be enough. One of the most effective emails I ever heard about just a cheery Christmas greeting thanking the recipient for their custom and hoping to see them again in the new year. The email, despite including not marketing messages, prompted an influx of purchases.

That’s all on Shops, folks.

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops and the Listings Mix

It is vital to bear in mind that the content of this post might very well become outdated in the next few weeks when eBay’s fee and other changes are announced later in the month. We don’t yet know the substance of these changes but it’s a fair bet that they will include substantive changes to eBay fees (probably a greater emphasis on Final Values Fees rather than Listing Fees), significant changes to item visibility and how your listings are displayed in Search and Browse and possible changes to the nature of SIF (Shop Inventory Format). I expect that these changes will come with a bang not a whimper, but until the announcements we’re flying blind and speculating. So let’s deal with the current situation and look at what we know. Funnily, I suspect that much of the old, generic advice will stay true.

Relying on one format sucks.
Today, if you’re sticking to a single format, you’re missing out. Selling using auctions only and BIN only (in 99% of cases) is not wise. eBay has lots of different types of buyers. Some love the thrill of the auction, the obsessive poring over bids, the adrenalin of sniping and the hope of a good old-fashioned bargain. The love of auctions, from a buying perspective, is a remnant of the old eBay. In the age of collectables and antiques it was the only way to go and I, personally, love it. But it doesn’t appeal to the convenience orientated shopper who isn’t interested in the ritual and waiting of the auction game who will very happily think Amazon (or plump for a High Street purchase) online before taking a risk on an auction. These eBayers prefer Buy it Now. They want to know what they will pay, do it quickly and receive the goods in a matter of days. Don’t limit your customer base by being dogmatic about formats.

It’s about a mix.
Both BIN and pure auction formats can serve as very useful signposts for eBay sellers. This is where you start thinking not just about individual items but rather the entirety of your catalogue. You can direct buyers to different goods, sale items and different formats. But most importantly, under the current regime, ‘core’ listings can be used to drive traffic to your eBay Shop and your SIF items. SIF items aren’t tarts: they are shy, demure BINs. They only show their faces in Search and Browse under certain circumstances. Sometimes I see sellers who depend too heavily on SIF alone and they grumble but sellers who are cleverly using the merchandising features, cross-selling tools and shamelessly pimping their Shop and SIF listings will happily say that all’s right with the world. Displaying your Shops header and category structure in all your listings is a good idea and pimping complementary items really does work. When they buy a pair of shoes, upsell cleaning products and the like.

SIF also works if you have a customer base that will search for very specialist terms. SIF items show when there aren’t many ‘core’ items to display. So SIF really works on highly niche terms and sellers with buyers who search for things like serial numbers or use unusual part names. Canny buyers, such as myself, will also toggle their search options in the hope of finding a bargain.

Don ‘t do anything yet.
Please don’t run out and start changing your listings on the back of the post. Within the fortnight we’ll know what eBay has in store for your business (yup, you’re the last to know). So, sit tight and try and spot the Eliot and Browning quotes I’ve included (as per Biddy’s Challenge) in this post. ;O)

Tomorrow: eBay Shop Email Marketing

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops and Search Engine Optimisation

The old order changeth yielding place to new. I can’t recall which poet wrote that (Tennyson?), I’ll Google it when I’m done with this post. But it is something that eBay sellers would do well to remember, especially with reference to how Google is transforming how people shop online.

Time was that people would come to eBay directly, search and buy. Nowadays much online shopping begins with Google, eBay turns up in results and then buying commences. It’s sage to expect that this trend is going to continue (it’s why I reckon that diversifying away from eBay into other channels is wise). Hold me to this, if eBay still exists: in time you’ll be getting more of your eBay customers from Google, than eBay itself.

This means that making your eBay Shop and listings as sexy as possible to Google and search engines is more than just about boosting the bottom-line. This is about survival.

eBay Shops SEO options

Aside from the name of your Shop, there are two key areas to consider: your Shop ‘blurb’ and your category structure. The good news is that eBay also gives you help with keywords. Check out the section in your Shop Manager.

Shop Blurb: The obvious temptation is to write something along the lines of “Hi there! I’ve been trading on eBay for 3 years and really hope you’ll buy from me! Check out my… blah, blah, blah…” This might be friendly but it’s bad for Search Engines. This would be better: “Daphne’s Furniture and Homeware Shop sells furniture and household goods. We’ve got chairs, tables, shelf units, sofas and storage units. Check out big brands… blah, blah, blah.”

Shop Categories: It’s the same game with your categories. Make sure that your Shop Category structure is working really hard. Of course, the terms will depend on what you sell, but the discipline in the same: cram in the keywords!

To use a field I know well, imagine ‘Dan’s Doctor Who Emporium’:

You could go for:

Action Figures
Audio
Books
DVDs
Toys

But this would be better:

Doctor Who Action Figures
Doctor Who Audio

Big Finish
Vintage

Doctor Who Books

BBC
Target
Virgin

Doctor Who DVDs

Box Sets
Vintage
William Hartnell
Tom Baker
David Tennant

Doctor Who Toys

Dinky
Dapol
New Series

It’s just about giving the search engines fodder to chew on to help them catalogue you. Hamlet summed it up: “words, words, words.”

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops Basics

To begin at the beginning, a very good place to start. Let’s look at two fundamentals of your eBay Shop: what it’s called and what it looks like.

eBay Shop Name

Rather like an eBay User ID, I suspect that many eBay sellers choose their eBay Shop name without being aware of why it’s important. It’s not just about constructing a friendly name, it’s a key part of your Shop’s search engine sexiness (of which much more on Monday). On the High Street a pun or something traditional makes sense. Calling a bakery ‘Wilson & Sons’ or a chippy, ‘The Codfather’ works offline. But online, where Google is God, you need to be thinking ‘keywords’ for maximum effect and the optimum chance of getting into search heaven.

For instance, ‘Car parts and Motor Accessories’ is much better than ‘Bob’s Bits and Bobs.’ Which keywords do you want to be associated with in search engine results? Your answer should determine your Shop name and, possibly, influence your User ID too.

eBay Shop Templates and Designs

What should your eBay Shop look like? It will have been obvious these past few weeks that I believe that much success on eBay derives from appealing to the lowest common denominator. I don’t think that whizzy Shops templates and designs contribute too much to an eBay Shop’s success. Indeed, I reckon that too much deviance from the norm can be detrimental for most sellers.

An eBay generated colour scheme and layout is just great, as well as free and easy. That said, in some cases, greater customisation could reap rewards, particularly if you are a big-time seller or have a very large catalogue. But certainly, if you’re just setting out, don’t splash out. And everyone should beware anything too flash in any case: it’s disconcerting.

What’s next?

Thanks for the input, I think we’ll look at SEO (search engine optimisation), eBay Shops Marketing Tools and Shops Selling Strategies with particular focus on format mix in the next few days.

Tomorrow: eBay Shops and Search Engine Optimisation.

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops

An eBay Shop is an essential part of a professional seller’s arsenal of tools. And before we look, over the next few days, at the ways an eBay Shop can contribute to your profitability, it’s worth revisiting what your Shop adds to your operations. It’s also a chance to evaluate whether you’re making the most of your Shop.

4 Good Reasons to have an eBay Shop

Search Engine Sexiness: A well-named Shop, optimised by its owner, making it as sexy as possible to Search Engines will most likely perform well on Google and the like. Your eBay Shop can be the way you drag in punters from the World Wide Web and get buyers from sources other than eBay.

Good Reports: As part of the basic package you get all the lovely Shop Traffic and Sales reports. This feature, should be the meat and drink of every eBay seller’s daily routine, is worth the £6 subscriptions on its own.

eBay Shop as a Destination: Your Shop is a place you can drive traffic to and promote independently. Although not as flexible as it could be (I would welcome changes that transform an eBay Shop into a truly customiseable, pretty much white-label, facility), sellers can enjoy success by tweaking their Shop.

SIF Format: Shop Inventory Format Listings offer sellers with some options not available to others. Of course, when choosing selling formats, a mix works. And for most sellers SIF can be part of that mix.

So, over the next few days I’ll be looking at eBay Shops. Is there anything that you’d specifically like to discuss?

eBay Tips 2008: Videos for eBay

Firstly, I must declare my interest: I work for vzaar.com, a company that offers a video service for eBay sellers. The reason why? I reckon that video is the next big thing coming eBay’s way.

Videos are becoming ubiquitous online and the unstoppable rise of YouTube shows how at ease most net users are with moving pictures. But it seems like eBay and eBay sellers have been slow to adopt video with eBay UK only implementing a video policy on the site .

Videos are an efficient way of communicating and an effective way of selling. Not only can a moving image communicate more than even a dozen pics, but you can also talk directly to viewers. It’s a very easy way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Tricky and Time-consuming?

Not necessarily. Most digi cameras, and even your mobile phone, can shoot a video. People don’t necessarily expect Spielberg-esque films. Online video can be a bit rough round the edges so the filming and upload need not take any longer than a clutch of images.

eBay Video Ideas

There are lots of different ways you could use a video to sell on eBay and there’s huge scope to be creative and produce material that suits your business.

Item Videos
The most obvious use of video is to film and describe the item you’re selling. Just like with a picture, you need to give buyers a fair impression of the item. Don’t forget to talk. Connect with your buyers and tell them about what you’re selling.

Merchandising Videos
If you’re selling a number of complementary items or have regular lines that go well together how about creating a merchandising video? Say, if you’re selling cameras, tripods and other photographic goods, make a video that tells buyers about the other goods you sell. The benefit of this is that you can make a video that can be inserted into multiple listings and used multiple times, thus saving time.

About your Business
A video about you and your business can be a really good way of inspiring confidence and reassuring buyers. How about creating a video that features you talking about your business and what you sell? As with all videos online, brevity wins prizes. Even just a minute of footage can be beneficial.

For help and more information about vzaar, click here.

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