DevCon gives a taste of things to come
June 17, 2009
Those lucky souls at the eBay Developers’ Conference this week have had a sneak preview of what’s coming on eBay in the next twelve months. Some highlights include:
- Merchant credit card processing integrated into eBay Checkout later this year.
- Revise more data in multi-quantity fixed-price listings even after they have sales
- A new finding API, which should make for some interesting third-party apps.
- Better blocking of buyers in “locations to which I do not ship”: rather than the registration location, this is now being touted as “Block buyers whose primary shipping or registered location is excluded by seller”, so may exclude some of those who register with a UK address but want your mobile phone shipped to their nephew in Nigeria.
That’s the good news. On the flip side, I’m slightly concerned about “All pre-sale member messages intermediated through eBay for safety” – eBay’s email forwarding system at the moment is patchy at best, so if there’s something new coming that’s going to restrict things even further, I’d be worried that it’s going to make communication even more difficult than it is at the moment.
As always, details from DevCon are a bit sketchy because the announcements are not aimed at sellers themselves – so as ever, more details when we have them.
Webinar: eBay’s New Multi Variation Listing Format
June 15, 2009
eBay and ChannelAdvisor are co-hosting an online seminar at 3pm on the 25th June, focusing on the new multi-variation listing format.
Multi-Variation listings are due to launch tomorrow at 6pm in the shoes category and mid-July for Clothing and Accessories. This new format for fixed-price listings allows sellers to consolidate product variations (e.g. colour/size) into one listing for one listing fee.
Patrick Munden, Seller Communications and Anshu Goel, Product Manager from eBay will join John Hayes from ChannelAdvisor to discuss:
* Why eBay is launching this format and how it benefits you as a seller
* How to create listings in the new format
* How listings will appear in search
* How to optimise your sales strategy using this format
You can reserve a place on the ChannelAdvisor website and there will be time for questions and answers towards the end of the session.
Disclosure: ChannelAdvisor advertise with TameBay.
eBay UK to ban electronic cigarettes, limit voucher sales
May 29, 2009
eBay UK have announced today that the sale of electronic cigarettes is to be banned on the site from the 30th June. The ban also includes componant parts, including cartridges, atomisers, liquid refills, vaporisers, batteries and shells.
Again on 30th June, eBay UK will launch a new policy on the sale of vouchers:
- expired vouchers (unless collectable) and emailed vouchers will no longer be permitted.
- Sellers will have to deliver physical vouchers to their buyers.
- Bulk listings for more than 100 vouchers total or more than 20 vouchers for the same item will be banned.
- Sellers are asked not to place unaltered scans of vouchers, which could be printed out and used in stores, on their listings.
What’s particularly concerning about this announcement is its concluding line:
Full details of these two policies will be available on 30th June
This is the same day that both policies come into force: in other words, sellers of any of these items are only going to get full details on the day they have to comply with the policy. I must admit that neither electronic cigarettes nor vouchers is my area of expertise: but every time eBay makes a policy change, the sellers who are actually affected by it need more information than is initially given out by eBay – and I don’t see why this is going to be much different.
Publishing the full policy on the same day it’s been enacted seems to run entirely contrary to Mark Lewis’s promise back in March to make eBay UK a better business partner, and to give sellers a sixty day notice period of changes to come.
[CA Catalyst] Scot Wingo’s top tips to beat the recession
March 31, 2009
Yesterday’s talk from Scot Wingo, the founder of ChannelAdvisor, was an interesting look at the state of ecommerce, the recession, and what merchants can expect over the next year or two. Despite economic doom and gloom, Scot’s message was positive: canny sellers can do more than survive, they can thrive in the current climate. Here are Scot’s top tips to beat the recession:
1. Are you spending time on growing or being efficient?
2. Smart sourcing is the single best way to optimize both.
Profit’s made when you buy, not when you sell.
3. Cash is king, accelerate your ‘turns’ strategy.
Stock that’s sitting on a shelf is money wasted.
4. You need to be in as many channels as possible.
25% of buyers use marketplace sites (like eBay). If you’re only on eBay, that’s an awful lot of customers to be ignoring.
5. Use this time to take your e-commerce site to the next level.
It’s easy to throw a quick site together, start trading and never get around to improving things. Now’s the time to consider upgrading.
6. Avoid leverage/debt like the plague.
7. Google Product Search.
It’s free. We like free.
8. Work on improving your e-commerce conversions.
9. Implement a survey as a way to improve conversions.
– 4q.iperceptions.com
What do your buyers want? Why not ask them?
10.Customer retention is the new acquisition.
This turned out to be a bit of a theme for Catalyst. It’s something that does tend to get missed in the great push to drag in traffic from Google, though more traditional business has long known that it’s easier to deal with an existing customer than to find a new one.
You can read more from Scot on his blog, eBay Strategies.
[CA Catalyst] Top sellers upbeat despite recession
March 30, 2009
One of the best sessions I’ve been to at Catalyst today was a panel of four of the UK’s top online retailers talking about their businesses. Dan Lumb from Schuh, Peter Lilley from TrueShopping, Andrew Redstone from CyberCheckout and Richard A from Plumbworld were all confident that business in the near future could thrive despite the recession. And all four said that eBay was an important marketing channel for them, though in every case, one amongst many.
Key to surviving the economic downturn is focusing marketing efforts on what works: ROI is king, and “brand awareness” name marketing is out. Merchants need to measure conversion, not just traffic: too often we only look at traffic to our landing pages, and forget to consider what that traffic does after it arrives on our site. The most effective marketing campaign in the world can be derailed by a site that’s difficult to use or distracts buyers from what you’ve brought them there to do. It is, in Dan Lumb’s unforgettable phrase, about “getting, keeping and squeezing” your customers: holding their attention and getting them to come back after they’ve bought the first time.
In response to a question about whether customer feedback and product reviews should be included on websites, all four panellists agreed that product reviews should be an essential part of any ecommerce site, though they offered an intriguingly varied set of reasons for this opinion. Customer reviews not only improve conversion rates and improve SEO, they help with sourcing strategy, and bad reviews seem to reduce returns rates: potential buyers get a useful opinion before they buy, and so can choose something else. Site owners are advised not to over-moderate reviews; a mix of positive and negative is more authentic and therefore more trustworthy.
Some comments are worth recording in full. Asked about using social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter in marketing, Dan Lumb said
We’re on all of those – nada, nothing. When people are on Facebook, they don’t want companies; they’re on Facebook to share pictures with their friends. … We’re on Twitter. What do you Twitter about? … I personally think it’s a dangerous game. Do you give them discounts to be your friends? I don’t know.
Andrew Redstone was more enthusiastic: “it’s about understanding where the customer’s coming from”. But clearly those of us who believe these sites can be good both for business and for the consumer, have more work to do.
All the panellists agreed, though, that email marketing is currently under-utilised, and should form a stronger part of their strategy. Andrew said that email should be segmented, targetted and add value: in other words, a catch-all strategy doesn’t work, you need to tailor a variety of emails to your individual customers. Forget about the hard-sell: your emails need to have value to the customers opening them.
This was one of the most interesting sessions of the day, and I only wish it had been longer.
ChannelAdvisor Charity Auction
March 23, 2009
ChannelAdvisor are holding a charity auction in aid of Oxfam. You can bid for two tickets to ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst event in London including a special consultation with CEO Scot Wingo. You can also get your hands on some special swag from eBay and the highest bidder will also have the indignity of having me write a company profile about their business to be published here on dear TameBay. The bidding started this afternoon at 99p.
Bid early, bid often.
Red Nose Day 2009: Share your fun
March 10, 2009
This Friday is Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day: a national fundraiser with the emphasis on fun.
If you, or someone you know, is doing something funny for money (and it doesn’t have to be eBay related), let me know and I’ll publicise it here on TameBay on Friday. Leave a comment or use the contact form.
17 visits + live model = a sale : hot tips for fashion sellers
February 24, 2009
You might remember Stuart from his suspension by eBay last year. Since his eBay shops were forcibly closed, he’s been concentrating on his websites, building them from the ground up to replace the income that eBay took away. Today, he’s sharing hot tips from a recent fashion industry conference.
I attended the Fashion Online conference by Drapers magazine and picked up some great tips and ideas about online trading in the fashion business. Some of the top names in ecommerce fashion were presenting: the MDs of ASOS, M and M Direct and Figleaves. There seemed to be an air of optimism that online sales would be the answer to your prayers if you were struggling on the high street. I am not sure this is true as it takes a good deal of money, time and will to be successful online.
Community helps sales
Community was a big part of the discussion from many of the speakers: ASOS, the second largest fashion retailer in the UK, launch their community this week, and then later in the year their own marketplace. There was also a presentation from two invitation-only sales sites where community was becoming a big part of what they do.
The more you can do with your site, the more reasons you give people to shop, the better and longer they will stay.
Delivery more important than price
There were some interesting points made about delivery: as sales grow, the demand for better delivery also grows. According to IMRG, delivery is now the second most important factor for customer satisfaction; first is product range and interestingly price has now dropped to sixth place. It was also announced that HDN have signed a deal with Paypoint for using their sites for drop off and collection points. This sounds like a promising idea that could not only help delivery but also local shops too.
“17 visits to a site for every transaction”
Search as always is a hot topic and was featured by many in their presentations. On average there are 17 visits to a site for every transaction that takes place; Google showed that it takes on average six searches before a customer converts. It’s not all about getting millions of customers to your site, it’s converting the customers you do get more effectively: sometimes it the smallest of things that make the biggest difference. If you track your conversions on your site and you have a bigger than 30% bounce rate, you have a problem. Just try new things all the time, it was said on average, Google have 50+ experiments going on at any one time on their homepage and we all know how sparse that is.
Model or mannequin?
Finally presentation which is kind of linked to search seemed to be high on the agenda. ASOS rate presentation and the ‘sticky’ effect as the most important aspects of their site, and are investing a lot of money in these areas.
The MD of Figleaves, who took over in early 2008, talked about the interesting problem of ‘retina pollution’: their site had too much choice and too much going on. They have now cut their brand range from 350 to 150, so rather than have ten similar pairs of knickers, they would only have three. That I think is a good approach to have and something I will be following with our buying from now on; it’s not all about the biggest range.
The old ‘model or mannequin’ question was raised again, and there is no question that a human model sells clothing online more effectively. Different models can also make a massive difference: Figleaves have been trialling the same products with different models and certain models sell clothes better than others. And none of those headless, limbless shots either – they just don’t cut it. Clothes need to be shown on real people.
In summary
- it’s not all about getting millions of people to hit on your site, its about getting some there then keeping them in as many inventive ways as possible.
- presentation is very important and gone are the days of any old picture will do; even if you sell on eBay the presentation of your product can make an enormous amount of difference to your sales
- look at your range, maybe consider slimming it down and present that range better as you have more time to spend on it with fewer products.
The future is good for online sales in 2009, predicted at £50billion and in clothing there is massive growth and possibilities as it is still very much an untapped market.
eBay Developers Conference to be held at eBay HQ
February 12, 2009
eBay have announced that the annual eBay Developers Conference 2009 will be held at eBay’s San Jose campus this year on the 16th – 18th June.
They’ve also opened the “Call for papers“, if you’re an experienced developer and have the knowledge to present a session at the conference you’ve got until Friday 27th February to submit your session outline.
With no eBay Live! this year it’s likely that DevCon will be pretty well attended, not least because it includes a rare opportunity to visit the home of eBay world wide. Plus of course at that time of year the weather in California is pretty appealing 
Optimising search & finding webinar
December 2, 2008
Two of eBay UK’s top search managers are hosting a webinar, Jay Spanton, Finding Manager, and Mark Davis, Best Match Manager will both speak at the event co-hosted by ChannelAdvisor.
The event takes place on Tuesday 9th December at 3.00pm and will cover hints and tips on Best Match as well as the fundamentals of appearing in search with time for Q&A.
If you want to know why your product isn’t appearing in search, or why a competitors product is placed above yours in Best Match this is where you can get the answers from the people that manage the site.
Microsoft’s live.com cash-back and eBay webinar
November 26, 2008
ChannelAdvisor are holding a webinar at 2pm Eastern Time (7pm in the UK) focusing on how to get the best from coupons and cashback. Buyers can save anything up to 30% on purchases and 4.5 million buyers a month are performing Live Cashback searches.
This is one for our US readers and sellers that trade on eBay.com, as sadly Microsoft cash-back hasn’t made it across the Atlantic in time for the Christmas selling season.
With eBay getting focused on driving traffic more coupons than ever before are being issued, in the UK with 5, 10 or 15% discounts and as much as 30% discount in the US.
The workshop will also include tips for 30 day listings and keeping DSR scores high over the holiday season along with an update on the UK VAT changes and how that affects sellers.
eBay seller Meetup in London this Thursday
November 17, 2008
Are you in London and fancy a few pints with other eBay sellers this Thursday evening? If so make your way over to the Walkabout pub in Putney for 7.30pm, where the first monthly eBay Meetup is to take place.
The event is being organised by Nathan O’Hanlon who has worked for eBay over the last eighteen months. He comes from a web development background and is no stranger to organising Meetups, the last group he set up was for web professionals, and is now the largest Meetup group in New Zealand with over 500 members.
This group will not be run by eBay, but is for sellers on eBay to share tips and tricks for trading on the site. For this the first Meetup the topics are Best Match, visibility, and how to maintain your listing; Selling items in bulk; Third party tool comparisons.
Doubtless there’ll be plenty of time for a few pints afterwards 
ChannelAdvisor announce Catalyst 2009 conferences
November 13, 2008
Want to know what kinds of consumers shop where and what products sell best along with strategies and trends from market leaders? ChannelAdvisor have just released the dates for their UK Catalyst conference which will take place on the 30th-31st March 2009. The venue is The Brewery, Chiswell Street which is in the heart of London’s financial district.
For those who are based in the US (or fancy a trip overseas) the US Catalyst conference will be in Raleigh NC on the 28th-30th April. If you’re missing eBay Live! or eBay Universities and want to meet up with other eBay sellers in 2009 then Catalyst will probably be your best opportunity this year.
ChannelAdvisor conferences offer some of the best ecommerce training available, and if you’re worried about it simply being a plug for their service don’t be because it never is. Although they’re always happy to talk about their services they take a back seat and let the experts tell it like it is, along with their own up to date experience from partnering with some of the biggest ecommerce merchants trading today.
Early bird booking discounts run until 15th December for the UK (£149 instead of £249) and 15th January for the US ($349 instead of $449).
Parcel2Go offer half price deliveries this weekend
October 31, 2008
Parcel2Go.com are offering half price standard parcel delivery this weekend. Up until Midnight on Saturday evening you can book a courier collection and delivery normally costing £7.99 plus VAT with a 50% discount using the coupon code “SDHALF”.
It’s almost four years ago I first used a shipping discount code for a courier delivery and it’s one of the best things that ever happened to my business. Up until then I only sold items which were light enough for Royal Mail deliveries, but one over-weight parcel opened my eyes to couriers and I soon opened an account.
Being able to sell bulk orders and heavier items made a huge difference to both sales and profits, so if you’ve like me and have never used a courier try it just once, it could be the start of a profitable expansion to your online business.
Top tips for trading on Amazon UK
October 22, 2008
ChannelAdvisor are holding a webinar in conjunction with Amazon.co.uk, focusing how third party sellers can take maximum advantage for Christmas sales via the Amazon Merchants@ online marketplace. The seminar will be hosted by Amazon.co.uk’s William Cook and ChannelAdvisor’s Max Leisten, and held on Thursday, October 30th at 2pm.
The webinar will detail all aspects of trading on Amazon from registration and listing processes through to best practices and advanced selling strategies.
They have also published “10 Christmas Strategies for Winning on Amazon” which you can download for free.
If you’re not already selling on Amazon it’s time to take a serious look at the site. Amazon is growing rapidly (41% growth in Q2 2008) and the run up to Christmas is the perfect time to maximise sales across all ecommerce platforms.
Hammertap webinar: “Avoiding the Price War”
October 2, 2008
Hammertap are to hold an online seminar on Wednesday 8th October to discuss how sellers can use competitive analysis and buyer behavior to differentiate their products, stand out from the crowd and avoid a price war.
With the introduction of Best Match in the UK and recent sales often pushing the lowest price products to the top of search results this workshop couldn’t come at a better time.
Talking about price wars Amy Kendall of Hammertap said “Price wars are based on the fact that ‘All things being equal…the lowest price always wins the war’. “The trick is to make things unequal and add value to your listings so you can avoid the war altogether.”
The webinar will feature HammerTap software, but is open to all eBay sellers, you’ll need to reserve a place and the seminar starts at 6pm MDT on Wednesday.
(I believe 6pm MDT is 1am Thursday in the UK, so one for the night owls to attend… If I’ve got the time wrong please let me know in comments and I’ll edit )
‘Naivity’ no defence for selling fakes
September 14, 2008
An East Sussex woman has been sentenced to 100 hours unpaid community work, given a 12 month community order and ordered to pay £1530 costs for selling fake branded goods on eBay, reports the Rye & Battle Observer. The mother of three from Hampden Park sold a fake Playboy bra, keyring watch and two pairs of earrings to an undercover buyer from Trading Standards. A subsequent raid on her house uncovered 268 counterfeit Playboy and Juicy Couture items. She admitted three charges of selling goods likely to be mistaken for a registered trade mark and eleven further charges of possessing items likely to be mistaken for a registered trade mark with a view to selling them.
The defendant’s solicitor stated that “there seemed to be no issue that the goods were counterfeit in her mind. She had bought them from a wholesaler who said they were authentic.†His client had shown, he said, “a degree of naivityâ€.
Small Business 2.0 announces new speakers
September 11, 2008
Small Business 2.0 has announced an updated programme including speakers from eBay, Microsoft, Get Safe Online and Easily.co.uk. The London event on 11th October 2008 is for small businesses, including eBay sellers, that want to get more from the internet.
- Richard Ambrose and Rafael Orta from eBay UK are talking about recent changes to the marketplace and answering your questions.
- Cedric Chambaz from Microsoft demystifies search engine marketing and the Microsoft team will showcase the tools they have to make the internet easy for small businesses.
- Tony Neate, Managing Director of Get Safe Online (a government supported online safety initiative) will be showing you how to keep your business safe on the internet.
Check out the full programme and see who else is exhibiting. Other exhibitors and speakers include Frooition, Channel Advisor, BT Tradespace and Royal Mail.
A little bird tells me that there are still a few free tickets up for grabs to Tamebay readers. Simply enter the code ‘TAMEBAY08′ on the registration page for your freebie. See you there
Free tickets to Small Business 2.0 for TameBay readers
September 2, 2008
Small Business 2.0 is a unique event aimed at small businesses who want to get more from the web. If you’re an eBay seller who wants to diversify your operations and sell more on marketplaces such as Amazon, set up a winning website that can process orders and take payments, or explore marketing opportunities with search engines such as Google then there will be speakers and exhibitors of interest to you.
Check out the full schedule of events and speakers on their site.
Tamebay has managed to bag 25 free tickets. Just enter the Promotion Code TAMEBAY08 when you order a ticket and you won’t be charged. First come, first served.
And don’t forget, Chris and I, Dan Wilson and other Tamebay readers will be gathering for a nourishing ale after the event in a nearby hostelry, so it’ll also be a great opportunity to catch up.
The sales pitch that never happened
August 21, 2008
I spent today with the lovely people (and I mean it – they *are* lovely) people from ChannelAdvisor at their Insite conference in London. I don’t mind admitting that I was expecting this to be a rather dry pitch for CA’s services: in fact, it was a usefully informative day that would benefit any seller wanting to move their online activities beyond just eBay, with ne’er a mention of signing up with CA, even when one or two might have been justified.
The real point of Insite, though, is to show online retailers the breadth of selling channels available to them: if you’re used to selling solely via eBay and/or your own website, there are lots more places to sell, and lots of interesting strategies you can utilise in doing so. Comparison Shopping Engines and Marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, Play.com, PixPlace) were covered in two sessions each – intermediate and advanced – with lots of emphasis on practicality. ChannelAdvisor have no vested interest in any of these companies and so can talk about their respective merits and problems with impartiality: all CSEs, for example, are not created equal, and which ones you should list on depends on what you sell.
Highlight of the day for me, though was the two talks on paid search. ChannelAdvisors Russell and Fred do not talk like people giving PowerPoint presentations: they talk like people who’ve just discovered a truly exciting new secret. This wasn’t boring stuff about keywords and ROI and metrics: they sounded like people who’d just had a religious experience. And more importantly, they made me want to go home and sort my rather jaded business out.
It wasn’t all CA. eBay themselves were there, of course: the timing of today’s event, the day after eBay’s major announcements, couldn’t have been better, and eBay staff were around to answer questions. As well as their presentations, eBay, Amazon, PayPal and PriceRunner were available in the “round table room” all day: if you have account issues you need to resolve, it’s probably worth attending just for this.
It’s often said of eBay University and similar events that the real point of going is the networking: this is certainly true of Insite. There’s both scheduled “networking” time, around coffee, lunch and the bar afterwards, plus plenty of opportunity to sneak out of the more formal sessions for chats with potential business partners.
There are more Insites in Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester later on in the year, so if you can make it to one, I’d heartily recommend it. But don’t go expecting a sales pitch
Beat the credit crunch with Small Business 2.0
August 14, 2008
If you want to expand your online selling beyond eBay, need imaginative ideas to survice the credit crunch, or you’re just missing see friends at eBay Universities this year, you’re going to be interested in Small Business 2.0, a one day event being held this October.
I spoke to Dan Wilson, ex-eBay community manager, blogger and chum of TameBay, who’s organising the event. Dan told me, “I’m putting together the speaking programme and thinking very hard about how we ensure that people who attend get the most out of the day and, most importantly, value for money. With a recession almost certainly around the corner, it’s important that people understand that ecommerce is forecast to grow year on year to 2012.” It’s an opportunity not to be missed.
Who should be at SB2.0? Is it just for eBay traders? No, says Dan: “we’ll obviously be taking a look at eBay and what it has to offer, it remains one of the great ecommerce opportunities for every small business in Britain. But a lot of established eBay traders want to diversify. So we’ll be looking at Amazon, Google, establishing your own website and online marketing. I’m also thinking about small businesses that have a website, selling goods or services, and who want a bit more out of the web. So anyone interested in improving their website, advertising on search engines or plugging into social networks will be catered for.” And of course, those who don’t have any web presence at all can find out just where they need to start.
Even those famously cynical about the value of eBay events are being provided for. Dan says, “if Northumbrian wants a free ticket, he can have one on me, and I’ll even buy him a pint of Deuchars afterwards. Out of my own pocket.” How could North resist? The rest of us will naturally be popping over the road for a drinkie or three afterwards too.
The event’s being sponsored by Royal Mail, who will be showcasing their latest products designed specifically for small businesses operating online, and by BT Tradespace, perhaps best described as “like Facebook only with business, not zombies” – it’s well worth checking out if you’re not already on there. PayPal, ChannelAdvisor, Frooition and others will be there: new exhibitors will be announced over the next few weeks, so keep an eye on the website.
Small Business 2.0 will being held at the New Connaught Rooms near Covent Garden in London on Saturday 11th October, and you can book your ticket through www.smallbusiness20.co.uk.
Infopia webinar Pay-Per-Click Advertising 13th Aug
August 8, 2008
Infopia are to host a webinar “Launch Your Pay-Per-Click Advertising” on the 13th August. If you want to learn how to get started with Pay-Per-Click such as Google Adwords reserve a free spot on the Webinar to make sure you don’t miss out.
The webinar starts at 6pm (11am MDT) and will last an hour and will be run by Pay-Per-Click experts who know what top sellers are doing to get the most from their advertising budgets.
PayPal’s Wednesday webinars start today
August 6, 2008
PayPal launch a series of weekly webinars today, kicking off with “Capturing the voice of your customer to drive ROI” at 7pm (BST) this evening.
The seminars will run every Wednesday in August and the series will cover social media, customer loyalty and shopping cart abandonment.
The speakers are all large PayPal merchants – Buy.com, Virgin Mobile, Lenovo, Smartbargains, and will be supported by industry experts from Jupiter Research.
The webinars are free but you’ll need to pre-register to attend
Meet with eBay at Insite 2008
August 5, 2008
eBay are to spend the entire day at each of the ChannelAdvisor Insite conferences to be held around the country this summer. With no eBay Universities in 2008, Insite at London on the 21st August and then Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester, is the one opportunity where you’re guaranteed plenty of time to speak to eBay staff this year.
As well as a short presentation they’ll be hosting an all day round table at each event giving sellers the opportunity the sit down and chat in detail.
If you’re unable to make the event but have a general (not account specific) question you’d like asked let us know in comments as TameBay will be at the first event in London. If you are attending the London event make sure you come and say hello to us.
How Royal Mail changes benefit eBay sellers
August 5, 2008
Last Monday Royal Mail added Post Code Verification for recorded delivery items when despatched at Post Offices around the country. Today Royal Mail spoke to TameBay giving some reasons for the changes and how they will benefit Royal Mail customers.
The change to the Recorded Signed for procedure is to provide full track and trace facilities from the point of sale to the delivery for customers. A key benefit is that shortly the details associated with each scan will soon be passed electronically to Royal Mail for end to end tracking. This will include the destination address, weight, value and barcode number.
For eBay sellers this means in the near future you will be able to provide buyers with tracking numbers with which they can confirm online that a specific Recorded Signed For item has been posted to them. This will be especially useful as a tool for increasing the despatch time DSR – it’s worth highlighting to buyers how quickly you posted their item even if it then takes a couple more days for it to be delivered.
Whilst usiness customers can use the Bulk Posting Certificate (PDF document) and Post Office counter staff will enter address details which will be printed on receipts for occasional users. Sellers who use online postage such as Smart Stamp can use the same manifest for their signed for items and no sellers will need to complete recorded delivery slips in the future.
An addition benefit is that the tracking information will also be available for use by Royal Mail customer services which will speed up the claims process in the rare event a parcel goes missing.
It’s been a week since the new procedure was implemented, for those who use the Post Office how has it affected you? Are you now using the Bulk Posting Certificate? Is it taking less, more or about the same time to process your parcels?
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