RepXchange : passing on the bad bidders
May 26, 2008
When eBay banned non-positive feedback for buyers, it was inevitable that other companies would spring up to try to fill the gap. Whether they’re trying to pass the word on dodgy buyers, or just give frustrated sellers a place to vent, there are a few of these around. I thought we’d take a look at them.
First up is RepXchange.com. RepXchange is essentially a way to exchange blocked bidder lists: sellers can upload their entire list, or entire problem buyers and details of the transaction one by one. Reports are then pooled, and sellers can download a list of bidders to block based on filters they choose: for example, if you’re an electronics seller, you might choose only to download buyers reported by others in the same niche.
The site is free to use, but operates a system of ‘credits’, so that each member has to give some information in order to benefit from that given by others. More useful activity - specific transaction details and referring new sellers - is rewarded more highly than just uploading your entire blocked bidder list.
Of the sites I’ve looked at over the past few weeks, RepXchange is probably the most useful and certainly the only one I would consider using. But I still have reservations about it. Firstly, information is necessarily limited to sellers who are taking part in their program: even if they grew at an exponential rate, the number of eBay members is so huge that I would stand a needle in haystack’s chance of finding my next problem bidder on their list.
Secondly, even with filtering, just because a buyer causes *me* problems, that’s no guarantee that they’ll cause *you* problems. I know from looking at feedback that my competitors and I often disagree on whether a buyer is a good one or not; indeed, I remember one buyer who negged me two or three times on one ID, but continued buying from me on another ID, and told me how happy she was to be buying from me and not that other shyster she’d had to neg 
Sometimes people just don’t hit it off.
My other concern is around the legal issues of sharing this kind of information. RepXchange founder Laurie Borden told me in an email:
Our service simply accepts manual entry of blocked bidder IDs that sellers have collected at their own discretion, which is rightfully the property of the sellers. Although eBay allows sellers to maintain a list of blocked bidders, eBay doesn’t claim to own this data anywhere in the agreements we have reviewed, nor does it state that this information is non-transferable.
eBay have given hints that the sharing of BBLs is somthing they don’t like: Pink James recently posted on the PowerSeller board that “the publication of any BBL or links to BBL will be reported to Liveworld as a violation of board policy as it boils down to ‘naming and shaming’ a member as a bad buyer and as such won’t be tolerated in any way shape or form.” Whether the sin would extend beyond “board policy” is yet to be seen.
RepXchange is currently in public beta.
eBay MD to meet sellers at CA Catalyst
March 14, 2008
ChannelAdvisor are poised to announce a major coup on Monday, they’ve secured new eBay UK MD, Mark Lewis, as a keynote speaker for the Catalyst conference taking place in London this April. eBay joins Google, Frooition, Vzaar and Royal Mail as sponsors of the conference.
Mark Lewis took over as UK MD in January this year, having joined eBay in 2004. This will be the first opportunity eBay users will have to be able to meet him face to face.
It’s expected that after the keynote speech, Mark will stay for an open Q&A session as well as participating in workshops and panel discussions throughout the two day conference. These sessions are liable to be lively as the changes to feedback and search roll out across the site and sellers begin to discover how they’re affected.
The long awaited 30 day DSR console is due to be released at the end of March, just weeks before the conference takes place and Mark will be participating in a DSR workshop at the conference.
Look for more news on the Catalyst website after the weekend and make sure you’ve booked a place. With no eBay Universities this year it will be one of the few opportunities to meet eBay employees in 2008. If you’ve ever wanted to quiz to eBay’s top management this is the event to attend.
Time to book for ChannelAdvisor Catalyst
February 28, 2008
There’s been quite a lot of interest in ChannelAdvisor and Amazon lately, and for those that are serious about finding out more tomorrow (Friday 29th) is the last day for booking for ChannelAdvisor Catalyst at the discounted price of £129.00. From then on the price rises to £179.00
Not only will Amazon and Play.com be represented, but it’s been revealed that Bill Alexander, Managing Director of Red Letter Days will be their to talk about building a brand for your business. It promises to be a fantastic event with the opportunity to talk to the speakers in person at the Dinner Cruise on the Thames which is included in the booking fee.
Sue and I both intend to attend Catalyst in the UK so let us know if you’re going, it would be great to meet you. I’ll also be in Pinehurst NC for Catalyst US and look forward to meeting some of our US readers. Both the UK and US events are looking to be superb!
ChannelAdvisor add Amazon merchants@ support
February 15, 2008
It’s been a busy week for ChannelAdvisor, first they announce the opening of a new Product Development and Business Support Centre in Limerick and today they announce the launch of ChannelAdvisor support for Merchants@ on Amazon UK.
Merchants@ is Amazon’s third party sellers platform which allows invited merchants to compete with other merchants, and even Amazon itself, for the main “Add To Shopping Basket” button on the site (often referred to as the “Buy Box”).
Winning Amazon’s “Buy Box”, where customers can add products to their shopping basket has the potential to dramatically increase sales when compared to listing products on the traditional Amazon marketplace alone.
Normally Amazon reserve this prime selling position for themselves, but if Amazon are out of stock or a merchant has better pricing they can become Amazon’s recommended merchant for that product.
Gareth Haines, Managing Director of Normans Music and ChannelAdvisor client
ChannelAdvisor have integrated support for Amazon Merchants@ support in their MarketplaceAdvisor Premium software solution. Twenty three of their clients will be using ChannelAdvisor’s technology to expand their business onto the Amazon Merchants@ program from today. If you’re interested in finding out more you can contact ChannelAdvisor on 0800 345 7504 and Amazon.co.uk regarding the Merchants@ program on 0208 636 9252
Accounting solution for Amazon & eBay
January 21, 2008
Platformone have announced the latest version of Tradebox Finance Manager which has the ability to import orders from Amazon, as well as eBay. Tradebox links to both your eBay and Amazon sales and automatically updates Sage accounting software with your sales at the click of a button.
Stephen Bales, Director of Platform One, said, “The ability to import orders from Amazon addresses the needs of many of our existing customers, who sell across both eBay and Amazon. The next step is to roll out the subsequent version of Tradebox which will have the ability to import orders from websites”.
Many eBay sellers are starting to discover Amazon as a second selling venue, and for many it’s even more successful than eBay. Managing sales accross multiple venues is always a challenge but Tradebox makes this simple. It can download your sales from eBay and import sales from Amazon, and even update Amazon when you mark the orders as despatched. For volume sellers accounting is made simple with customer records created automatically, invoices generated for each transaction, stock management and of course VAT liability for each product and buyer calculated accurately.
On top of this Tradebox also captures and holds data from the online sales platform and provides the user with a raft of analysis, graphs and reports of their online sales.
If you’re looking to automate your accounts in 2008, or are already a Sage user it’s time to take a look at Tradebox to simplify your finances.
Developer contest: $50,000 prize fund
January 18, 2008
eBay are running a contest for developers with up to five $10,000 prizes for the winners. Open to residents of the US, Canada and the UK the aim is to create an eBay widget aimed at getting buyers to eBay.
Widgets are applications that can be embedded into blogs and websites which pull content from another website, in this case eBay. An example is the eBay Wish List widget which allows you to publish items you’d like to have bought for you on eBay.
Eddie from AuctionTrax is entering, he’s already built a number of widgets including one for Facebook users. If you want to try out his current offerings AuctionTrax offers a three month free trial.
I’ll be interested to see what new widgets the contest generates. If you’re a developer and want more people to use your eBay widgets tell us about them or post a link in comments.
ChannelAdvisor Catalyst news and booking
January 16, 2008
Over the last year eBay has ceased to be the only marketplace where sellers are having major wins. Amazon is increasingly important for many sellers and they’ll be presenting at Catalyst. Media sellers should make this a must attend event, Play.com are also on the speaking agenda. (For anyone that doesn’t already know Play.com have opened up their platform for third party sellers.) If you’re selling media this is your opportunity to meet the senior managers from Play.
Talking of meeting, one of the most beneficial aspects of Catayst has always been the chance to network and this year is no exception. On the evening of the 21st ChannelAdvisor are hosting a Thames Dinner Cruise for all conference attendees. If you want to mix with Amazon, Play.com, Google, PayPal, Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor and of course other attendees and the ChannelAdvisor team this is the one time in 2008 that they’ll all be available.
If you’re serious about growing your business on eBay, on other marketplaces and your own website this is the best £79.00 you’ll invest in 2008. If you’re wondering if this is the right conference for you, or if your business is big enough to benefit, the answer is a resounding “Yes”. The conference is to bring online sellers together with senior management from the Marketplace and Payments businesses we trade on. If you thought eBay University was good you’ll love Catalyst!
ChannelAdvisor announces MarketplaceAdvisor
January 11, 2008
ChannalAdvisor are introducing new products following their acquisition of Marketworks (formerly Auctionworks). We’re hearing that customers of the auction management software company are being informed today of the changes with the new products to be known as “MarketplaceAdvisor” and “MarketplaceAdvisor Premium”.
The Marketworks product will be re-branded MarketplaceAdvisor which is designed exclusively for online sellers focused solely on eBay. Sellers will have the ability to run their own webstore in conjunction with eBay and send their inventory to Google Product Search.
For sellers who require a multi-channel management platform including eBay, Amazon, webstore and access to shopping comparison engines MarketplaceAdvisor Premium will be the product of choice. This is equivalent to the previous ChannelAdvisor Merchant product.
Both products are a springboard into the full suite of products known as ChannelAdvisor Complete, comprising of MarketplaceAdvisor, SearchAdvisor, ShoppingAdvisor and ChannelAdvisor Stores.
ChannelAdvisor products allow sellers to automate many of the processes vital to the growth and success of eBay and online businesses. Many of the largest sellers on eBay have used either ChannelAdvisor or Marketworks products, and with the new products being released they’re now the largest auction management company.
If you want to know more about their products and services why not sign up for the Catalyst conference in April. Whilst the conference doesn’t attempt to sell ChannelAdvisor products and services it’s a great opportunity to find out more, whilst gleaning the latest industry news and developments.
eBay.ie education, ChannelAdvisor Catalyst 2008
December 17, 2007
As sellers start to wind down for a well deserved few days off at Christmas many will be putting plans into place for the next year. What better time to think about increasing your knowledge of eBay selling and ecommerce in general?
eBay.ie University/Academy
Today eBay Ireland have announced a series of training events kicking off in Dublin on January 21st with the first eBay University of the year. eBay Ireland hold their University events as an evening class running from 6.30pm - 9.00pm.
Running parallel to the eBay University is the Irish eBay Academy half-day workshops, focusing on using eBay as a selling tool. The eBay Academy will be visiting towns across Ireland right through to September, and even better the cost is subsidised by the Foras Áiseanna Saothair (National Training and Employment Authority).
ChannelAdvisor Catalyst
Back in the UK ChannelAdvisor have announced the dates for the 2008 Catalyst Conference taking place on 21st - 22nd April in London. It’s a little early to give full details of the schedule of Catalyst but we hear Scot Wingo the CEO of ChannelAdvisor will be in the UK for the event.
In 2007 speakers from Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon and Google came together sharing their insight on the shape of ecommerce in the UK. Google gave the first public presentation on Google Checkout and Amazon is a powerhouse for ecommerce merchants and just keeps on growing.
Watch out this year for the newest Internet phenomenons to be presenting at Catalyst. I predict social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace will feature on the ecommerce landscape of tomorrow.
If you’re thinking of booking for Catalyst there is a special rate of just £79.00 up until December 31st (Online booking hasn’t opened yet so drop Andrea Ransom of ChannelAdvisor an email to UKCatalyst2008@channeladvisor.com).
In the US, Catalyst will be revisiting Pinehurst NC on April 1st - 3rd, 2008 and on July 3rd - 4th Catalyst visits Queensland in Australia.
Bling!ing marvelous!
December 14, 2007
I’ve had great fun playing with Bling! It, the software which transforms ordinary product shots into extrodinary images. I thought I was doing quite well and then along came Lynne from Josordoni Collectables with her entry for the Bling! It competition.
Lynne started with a product shot she described as “not bad, certainly good enough for eBay” and finished with a superb product image that wouldn’t look out of place in any manufacturer’s catalogue.
Lynne explained just how
simple it was to use Bling! It to create the new image “The only extras other than stripping out the background and putting my own in and adding the shadow was to use the highlighter tool to add in some extra light to simulate light coming from the “sun” at the top. Shame that makes the shadow the wrong way round, but hey! it’s allowed coz its ART!”
It’s a superb result and shows just how powerful Bling! It is and how anyone can create amazing images for use on eBay or their own website, easily and in seconds. Lynne simply used the sky from a holiday photo to create the new background which has made a fantastic backdrop for the product.
If you want a copy of Bling! It, download a 15 day trial and enter the competition to win one of 20 copies of Bling! It on TameBay. The competition ends on Wednesday and you could be transforming your product shots like Lynne, if you’re one of the winners. If not Bling! It only costs about £30 so it’s an absolute bargain and worth every penny.
You can see the other competition entries in the TameBay Forum.
eBay accounts made simple with Tradebox
December 13, 2007
Like many established eBay sellers, we are always looking for ways to streamline our processes and maximise profit. Whether this is sourcing our products from suppliers who can give us the greatest discounts or finding the most economical method of shipping, the need to maintain competitive pricing drives us to trim excess everywhere we can. Every aspect of our operation was placed under this ‘profitability’ microscope, including time costs. The most significant time cost was accounting for our sales, which had started to become a barrier to growth. Like many SMEs we used Sage Line 50, which gave us an impressive control over our stock and financials but required quite a bit of data input.
The discovery of Tradebox Finance Manager for eBay removed this issue, literally overnight. Tradebox links directly with our eBay account and automatically compiles our sales data in Sage saving us about 2 days administration every week. Tradebox creates all customer and invoice records in Sage, depletes our stock for each product we sell, downloads all our eBay and PayPal fees, automatically calculates the VAT liability and provides us with separate analysis on our eBay sales.
Because of the automation and time savings, Tradebox has allowed us to really enhance the power of Sage Line 50 which has now become central to our sales operation. We now synchronise Tradebox with eBay twice a day; once in the morning and once in the afternoon. All new sales which are downloaded are allocated for dispatch, a delivery note and invoice printed and the product shipped to the buyer. At the same time our stock is depleted, allowing providing us advanced warning of when to re-order from our suppliers. Using Tradebox and Sage also allows us to automatically categorise our sales to separate categories within our accounts, as well as providing us with a raft of analysis which examines and compares monthly sales income, monthly unit sales, individual product performance, analysis of income against fees, a breakdown of fees etc. We have used Tradebox for nearly 2 years now and it has had a significant impact on our eBay sales operation. The support is excellent and new features, which are intelligently thought out to enrich the solution, are routinely released.
Is 0.01 worth stressing over?
December 11, 2007
ChannelAdvisor are fueling the Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) debate with the launch of a new site allowing you to monitor any sellers ratings. Upon entering an eBay User Id DSR Watch instantly retrieves the four DSR ratings from eBay to two decimal places.
If you’re going to use DSR watch bear in mind that the rating tiers it uses are US based. The averages for UK sellers are slightly lower.
It’s a cute tool, but I have to wonder just how many sellers will now be agonising over a 0.01 change in their ratings rather than a 0.1 change. I can almost hear the groans “I’ve gone down 0.01 on my Dispatch Time star, don’t buyers realise the Christmas post has slowed deliveries and it’s out of my control?”.
All sellers know (or should know) that DSRs are likely to become increasingly important in the future. We already know that as of next Monday sellers with the lowest 0.5% rated sellers for postage charges will be disadvantaged in search results.
I would be more interested in a tool which could compare my DSR ratings against the average in the categories I trade in, rather than against eBay as a whole. It’s unrealistic to compare the DSR ratings of a DVD seller or clothing seller to those of a car trader or seller of fine ceramics. Sellers should be comparing themselves to their immediate competitors if they want to assess how their customers are rating them.
The real question sellers should be asking themselves is “What can I do to improve my customer service”, not have they gone up or down 0.01 DSR star. No matter how good your service is there is always something that could be done better. I’ve long taken the attitude that, if I give the best customer service I can achieve, my feedback would take care of itself. Look after your customers and your DSRs will look after you.
TameBay competition news
December 10, 2007
Competitions are the name of the game this month, not only are Bling! It and TameBay offering you the chance to win 1 of 20 copies of Bling! It! but 3mobilebuzz is offering the chance to win one, two or even three Skypephones!
Entries are already coming in for the Bling! It competition and you can see some of them in the TameBay forum. I’m particularly impressed with the superb product shot of a trainer which took hopecouture just 45 seconds to create.
However someone has gone one better, Jade has won the “Bling! of the Month” with their entry into the Bling! It competition and has already won a free copy of the Bling! It software. Steve Nelson of Bling! It told us “We feel Jade has truly captured the way in which Bling! It can transform product shots. The finished result looks great!”
Hopecouture are spreading their wings and have also entered the 3mobilebuzz competition with a novel entry. They’re using eBay Matchups comparing the 3 Skypephone to the iPhone, Skype on a PC, expensive Mobile Phone Bills and even using the 3 Skypephone vs emailing an eBay seller.
Meanwhile Dave has been reading TameBay, heard about the 3mobilebuzz competition and submitted a video entry hosted on vzaar. He’s so keen to win he’s even scrapped his old Nokia in the hope of receiving a shiny new Skypephone!
3mobilebuzzcomp1
There’s still time for you to enter both competitions, the 3 Skypephone competition ends on Monday 17th December and the Bling! It competition closes for entries on Wednesday 19th December.
Every retailer needs a little TANK!
December 6, 2007
Meet Tank Stikman, the new face of ChannelAdvisor. Tank’s aim is to help retailers become successful and claims he is the glue that holds ChannelAdvisor together.
You can follow the adventures of Tank on the ChannelAdvisor website but if you want to know what he’s been up to lately just watch the footage below. Mind you, I’m not sure if daydreaming during a speech by the charismatic CEO of ChannelAdvisor, Scot Wingo, is recommended for ChannelAdvisor employees! 
Competition: You Gotta Bling! It to Win It!
December 3, 2007
Last week we blogged about Bling! It, the revolutionary photo editing software that will have you transforming ordinary product shots into extraordinary ones – and fast!
Today, Bling! It and TameBay have joined forces to offer you the chance to win 1 of 20 copies of Bling! It!
Total competition prize value is $999!!
All you need to enter the competition is download the 15 day trial version of Bling! It, install it on your machine and start Bling!ing your product shots. Entries will be published in the TameBay Forum on the TameBay Flickr stream and on the Bling! It blog and can be linked to your eBay shop or website if you wish. It’s a great opportunity not only to win some fantastic software but also to get traffic to your products.
Competition Objective
To take an ordinary product shot, one you would use on your own eBay shop, and use Bling! It to delete the background and drop in a new one. You can be as creative as you want to be, here’s an example for you:
Comment:
I selected as much of the background as I could with the Red Brush (Delete Local Brush), I then used the Blue Brush (Blend Exact Brush) and painted round the fluffy parts of these barrel cleaners.
Then I selected a background from the Bling! It Library – I could’ve used my own or designed one in Bling! It but this background I thought looked best.
I then Sharpened the image a little – look at the difference between the brass bases! Then I added a little shadowing and lowered the Intensity of the shadow to make it barely visible and saved the file!
Submission Rules
Submissions should be sent to chris@tamebay.com
Each submission to include one “Before Bling!” and one “After Bling!” image, accompanied by a short comment about the Bling! It software
Bling! It and TameBay will pick 20 winners who will each win a full licensed copy of Bling! It (RRP $49.95 plus VAT)
Total value of this competition is $999!
Submission Deadline Wednesday 19th December 2007, 23:59pm GMT
Winners will be announced on Friday 21st December 2007 on TameBay and BlingIt.us and each winner will be emailed their license activation key.
If you already own a copy of Bling! It? You can still enter – if you win give a copy to a friend!
A link back to your website or eBay page will be provided, if requested.
Get Bling!ing!
Download Bling! It to get started and Happy Bling!ing!
Professional product photos with Bling! It
November 30, 2007
Ever wondered how some sellers get fantastic product shots on professional looking backgrounds? Well the answer is photo editing software and a new product, Bling! It, aims to make it simple. Not only is Bling! It ideal for producing product shots for eBay auctions, but it’s at an affordable price that even the casual seller can cost justify.
There’s nothing more impressive than quality pictures in an auction, and nothing more off putting than a busy or unsuitable background. Too often eBay sellers don’t have a professional studio, and the kitchen floor isn’t an unusual place for photos to be taken. That doesn’t mean your pictures can’t be professional though, if you’d like to get from the picture on the left to the one below, for your eBay auction photos, then you need Bling! It.
Bling! It is a stand alone application that not allows you to replace the background of your photo with a professional one, but can also sharpen and enhance the products appearance. Best of all is how easy it makes the process. Broken down into four stages, removing the background, composing the picture, adding effects and saving the final image, a picture can be enhanced in seconds.
Bling! It software is based on Fluid Mask, but rather than being a photoshop plug in, Bling! It is a fully featured standalone product. You don’t need any other graphics editing software, just your digital camera. Best of all it only costs $49.95 plus VAT, that’s only about £30.00 in UK money. Not only that but you can download the full program on a free 15 day trial so why not test Bling! It on your own product photos?
To show you just how easy it is to get from the original photo to the professional product shot above we’ve got a tutorial in the TameBay Forum.
Terapeak: free research tool for eBay sellers
November 15, 2007
I’ve been meaning to take a look at the various research tools available for eBay sellers for a while, so when the nice people at Review Me offered me a paid review, I was more than happy to take part.
Terapeak is a free tool which helps sellers determine the best listing strategy for their items on eBay.com. For any keyword you input, you can see a sample of 100 eBay items from the last 30 days, and the maximum, minimum and average prices: it’s pretty easy to see at a glance whether you’re going to achieve your desired price for any given item. I particularly liked the average shipping price tool, which told me that my own shipping price can be increased a little and still look cheap.
One question that new (and established) sellers often ask is when is the best time to have your listings ending: Terapeak will tell you this too, as well as how listing upgrades such as Gallery affect sell-through rate. You can compare auctions with buy it now, multiple item listings and store inventory, find out which category is more likely to sell your item, and what duration of listing you should choose. If you’re stuck on writing a good title, the title builder helps you choose the most popular keywords to populate that most-important space.
Unfortunately, the free access information only covers eBay.com. eBay UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and .com Motors are also available, but for full information on those sites, you will have to upgrade to the paid-for version, starting at $24.95 a month, though you can get a sneaky peak at some of the info available (minimum, maximum and average prices, and average shipping) via the title builder. The upgrade also gives you such interesting information as eBay’s hottest categories, the top sellers in each category and the ability to research specific sellers, and two years’ worth of category trends so you can easily see seasonality.
Because it makes so much information available, Terapeak feels a little complex at first, but within a few minutes of playing with it, it becomes very obvious just how easy it is to uncover a huge amount of very useful data. If you’re a seller on eBay.com, it’s certainly worth setting aside an hour or two to look over your own categories and see what you can find: I’ve been both surprised and pleased at what I’ve discovered.
New widgets for eBay sellers - with affiliate tracking!
November 4, 2007
eBay’s To Go widget is a great way to showcase your eBay listings off eBay, on your personal website, blog or MySpace profile. Unfortunately until now, if you wanted to also take advantage of eBay’s affiliate progamme, you were stuck with the much less interesting-looking editor kit. Now two new tools mean that you don’t have to choose between decent design and affiliate cash. AuctionTrax’s SlideShow and SnapShot are two nice-looking Flash widgets which can be embedded in most webpages, and you can also add your affiliate ID and so earn money when you send sales to eBay.
SnapShot will be familiar to anyone who’s used eBay To Go already. It displays a montage of Gallery images based on criteria you choose: mousing over an image enlarges it, and clicking displays auction information including a “click to bid” link.
The first release of SlideShow is already being used by several people on Facebook, but this newest version adds affiliate tracking. As the name suggests, it creates a moving gallery of images, again based on criteria you select. What I particularly like about SlideShow is the mouse-controlled speed: very useful for zipping through items until you find something that looks interesting!
Creator Eddie StClare told me, “Both tools are proven winners for eBay sellers; now eBay Affiliates can use the same winning tools.” You can see a demo of both tools on the AuctionTrax website. Future developments will include the ability to create different galleries, so you can promote more than one eBay ID or different searches. In order to get the widgets, you’ll need a Premium AuctionTrax account, which costs $50 per annum.
How to video
October 27, 2007
Lots of sellers are using video in their listings these days: it can show off your item better, and the novelty holds buyers’ attention. If you need a little assistance getting started, those helpful folks at Vzaar have made a great how-to-video video:
eBay adds to 3rd party application portfolio
October 4, 2007
eBay have just announced the acquisition of ViA-Online GmbH and auction management company that trades as Afterbuy in Germany.
Afterbuy is a third party application which can streamline pre and post sales activities, cross selling to buyers and inventory management across multiple platforms such as eBay, eBay Express, Amazon, Kelkoo, auxion and Google Base.
It’s definately the season for auction management companies to be acquired, it’s less than a month since ChannelAdvisor acquired Marketworks. Mind you, eBay already own a slice of ChannelAdvisor and now by default Marketworks, so their own portfolio of third party management solutions is growing!
eBay Desktop (beta) launched
October 3, 2007
eBay Desktop has been launched in beta (which means it might still have a few bugs in it, but it’s pretty much working). Sadly it’s only currently available for the US (even though there are no warnings on the download page). Plans are to enable support for eBay.co.uk and other international sites in the very near future.
The major benefit is that it runs as a desktop application independant of your internet browser (a bit like TurboLister). This enables the program to store much larger amounts of data on your hard drive which can be accessed almost instantly. An example of how this can work is the default is to save the last one thousand items you purchased allowing you to easily find past sellers you’ve traded with and want to purchase from again. You can place bids, track items, search, view and pretty much manage all your buying from the eBay Desktop application. it even links messages from sellers to the items they refer to.
It’s going to please all the Apple Mac users out there - eBay Desktop will run on Windows and Macs. It’s a great innovative program, and if widely adopted provides a shortcut into eBay which will forever prompt buyers to remain active on the site. I just can’t wait for a UK version so that I can give it a try!
ChannelAdvisor: A great place to work
October 3, 2007
ChannelAdvisor ran a successful recruitment campaign over the summer months in the UK, the new employees can rest assured that they joined a great company to work for. ChannelAdvisor have just won two Triangle Business Journal awards - “Best Places to Work” and “Growth Company of the Year”.
It’s been a busy summer with the new recruits, acquisition of Marketworks and the latest news is that they’ve partnered with Tradebox to create an accountancy module. This is great news for anyone that sells across multiple channels such as eBay, Amazon and maybe their own website. By using ChannelAdvisor in conjunction with Tradebox, bookkeeping can be automated across all platforms.
If you want to find out more tomorrow would be an excellent opportunity - ChannelAdvisor’s Insite conference is visiting Birmingham.
New delivery service designed for eBay
October 1, 2007
I’ve met Sean and Darren from Just Applications several times at eBay Universities and have been waiting for them to launch their new service - Pay Per Parcel, which goes live today!
The timing couldn’t be better, with Royal Mail about to enter another period of industrial action starting this Thursday lunch time, eBay sellers are going to be looking for alternative ways to get parcels delivered. With prices starting from just £6.19 Pay Per Parcel is a viable alternative to Royal Mail Special Delivery, Standard Parcels and Recorded Delivery services for all but the lightest items.
Pay Per Parcel offers full online tracking with deliveries handled by DHL. There are also discounts available if you bulk purchase deliveries in blocks of ten, although you don’t have to use them all the same day. If you book by 10am the parcel can be collected the same day, otherwise it’ll be picked up by the courier the next business day.
Pay Per Parcel offer lower rates than PayPal shipping available though eBay, and is available whether you have a one off item too heavy to post, an urgent order you need delivered quickly, or multiple parcels to send and are looking for discounted courier services.
To send an item via Pay Per Parcel you simple book your collection, pack the item, print out the shipping label and wait for the courier to collect. To make it easy for eBay sellers Pay Per Parcel is integrated with eBay and can automatically complete the buyers name and address details for you. Payment is via credit or debit card, or of couse you can use PayPal.
I know Sean and Darren are excited about this new service and I can see why, shipping for eBay sellers just got a whole lot easier.
Sky News Technofile features my auction
September 24, 2007
Sky run a feature called Technofile presented by Martin Stanford from Sky news. The latest installment was of great interest because not only did it talk about online selling but I was featured too!
Topics covered included about broadcasting yourself online big brother style, collaboration online, and advertising online, which is where eBay auctions come in. How to get your message across online more effectively? Well the answer is with video and along with vzaar they used one of my auctions as an example.
Technofile finished up with privacy online, if you’re using search engines or using a wireless hotspot you may not be as anonymous as you think you are. It’s like someone looking over your shoulder online, but if someone really is shoulder surfing consider a 3M privacy filter as recommended by Sky News!
Facebook app for sale on eBay
September 20, 2007
It’s a whole new world out there for Facebook developers. According to GigaOM, in an eBay first, a Facebook Application is up for sale on the site.
This opens up a realm of possibilities - instead of writing applications for their own use developers can write applications to sell. Who would buy a Facebook application? Well in this particular case it’s a review application for music, films and books - it has the obvious tie in to Amazon’s affiliate scheme so potentially it could generate a nice revenue stream if enough users sign up.
There’s always a risk you’ll never recoup your initial outlay if you bid on a Facebook application, but equally it could be the biggest money spinner ever. Only time will tell, you could never make a penny out of it, or equally you could be laughing all the way to the bank with the developer wishing they’d never sold their killer app!
Recent Comments
- northumbrian: selling internationally is essential given the state of things here we manage fine with DSRs we clearly...
- John: However, they are making it mandatory to have 4.3 DSR in all category? There is no point to sell...
- Whirly: #13 “FFS hurry up I have my fingernails chewed down to the elbow” Norf they have to run spell...
- John: The paint is dry. Send more paint.
- northumbrian: FFS hurry up I have my fingernails chewed down to the elbow
- Josordoni: #5 not always - the discount structure for PS is very different as an example. So the fee structure for...
- Board_Surfer: Well I doubt the changes will make much difference to me, I am a fan of auctions and rarely use...
- northumbrian: Someone had blunder’d: Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why,...
- Sean Mewse: It looks like the announcement for .com have been made http://www.auctionby tes.com/cab/abn/y...
- Sean Mewse: #7 It look like the announcement for .com has been made, I expect the UK with a few variations will...
