Kidson Talks | The E-commerce Chemist

Well, there isn’t any really. You need to set up the ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT shipping as is and the methods will map to your CA checkout. The prices are defined in the ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT admin panel and your CA shipping values are NOT used. There is a work around, but it sounds a cuffuful and a half.

So, for the UK the only two sections you need to worry about is:

Configuration> Shipping > Shipping Methods:

and you only need to use ’set allowed countries’ for the UK. Northern Ireland comes under UK already and….

The shipping methods available to you for all inventory are:

• By Weight
• By  Total
• Individually (Not integrated with CA so it would mean editing each and every one)
• Fixed prices
• Free Shipping
• By Total and Percent

Zones are not available for UK users, but you can use in store pick up or live rates from companies such as Fedex and UPS. But lets face it we mostly use Royal Mail in the UK for all its faults.

One nice attribute on the shipping side is that when your customer has their item in checkout, there is a neat ‘Get Shipping Estimates’ button which allows your customer to find out how much the shipping will cost and the options available before carrying on through checkout.

Oh, and did you see what I did there? I set up a shipping method for International Signed for Europe and a separate one for Rest of World (ROW) to mimic zones.

You can of course do this for every zone you need and just call the method Royal Mail International Signed For (Zone 5) etc and set the allowed countries appropriately. Possibly just shorten it to whatever you need, but that is the only way I can see that UK users can use zoned shipping as we know it.

But remember to map it to your CA account in Stores > Premium Stores (Configuration)

The big news at the moment is the untimely death of Michael Jackson at 50. But as always people are ready to cash in on such an event and the on-line world is no different.

Take Tesco, when you Google Michael Jackson they are up there with their advert for MJ cd’s. We all know there are a cold and faceless corporate but why shouldn’t they cash in on an event like this? In MJ’s case the money made might appease his creditors to the point that his family and children might be left with a few quid for an ice cream.

Online music retailers jumped straight on the situation and on the front of most (if not all by now) MJ tributes and links to his back catalogue …..to be purchased of course.

But, most importantly eBay purchases of MJ tickets will be refunded:

27/06/2009
EBay and Paypal confirm buyer protection for Michael Jackson tickets bought on eBay

The sad news of Michael Jackson’s death has left fans of the King of Pop bereft. eBay is committed to ensuring that no buyer is left out of pocket as a result of the unique nature of the event, and will ensure all buyers on the site can receive a full refund for their ticket purchase.

On this basis, eBay and PayPal is extending its Buyer Protection to all Michael Jackson concert ticket purchases bought on eBay. The company will also help sellers by refunding eBay’s sales commission when they refund buyers for Michael Jackson ticket sales.

Final details of how buyers and sellers can work with eBay and PayPal will be announced early next week.

But how about the seller? The buyer gets their money back from paypal which I imagine comes from the sellers pocket if I know Paypal, but will the sellers get their money back from the promoter?
But who will end up taking the full brunt of the loss? The promoters? The sellers? On average 300 million will be lost due to the cancellation of the O2 event.

But we do forget, a man is dead.

Auctiva emailed in a response to my recent blog post regarding moving from Auctiva to Inkfrog and this is their side of the argument for neutrality’s sake:

I wanted to respond to your recent blog post re. Auctiva’s pricing plans. £150 per month is not a realistic cost expectation for the majority of our users. We have a very large user base, many of whom would pay less than say, a $10 per month flat fee, by using our current pricing structure. We have always been, and will continue to be, a selling tool geared towards all sizes of sellers and we believe that our structure helps make Auctiva an affordable solution.

I understand the confusion and frustration of our customers. This is a big change, and with all change, it presents its own share of challenges. We want to make this transition as trouble-free as we can. For our current customers who have the last 60- 90 days of eBay sales data stored with Auctiva, we’ve calculated their average usage and once they log-into Auctiva.com, on the pricing tab, we identify the most cost-efficient plan for them. Additionally, for those who don’t have existing data available, we
created the Pricing Calculator to assist with the plan-selection process. And finally, we do have a top-notch customer service team standing by to provide one-on-one assistance when choosing a plan as well as answer any remaining questions.

The pricing information is a lot to digest. I think it’s important for our customers to take a step back and really take a look at their selling practice and evaluate the plans we have available. As I mentioned previously, when the correct plan is selected, many customers will only pay a few dollars per month to continue to take advantage of our powerful selling tools and fundamental management features.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Thank you,

www.auctivablog.com

It came from an Auctiva domain email, but I have omitted the name in this case.
So opening up for comments if Auctiva customers are so quick to find blogs on the subject as the company itself! I pose these questions:

1. With the new pricing plan how much will Auctiva cost you?
2. And the image hosting?
3. Are you going to stay?
4. If not where are you going to?

I attended a webinar last night introducing inkfrog. Its a nice $10 per month system to help you launch to eBay, a system I will use if I start selling pre-made hairpeices on eBay. Just trying to find a decent Chinese supplier to make hairpeices to my specifications!

Auctiva is going from free to paid (and quite a lot of paying to be done) and within one month, you either pay up or get out. So quite a few who it doesn’t make sense to pay up to £150 per month (baring in mind you can use Channeladvisor for £300 a month) will move to the next cheapest system, inkfrog.

*edited to add the cost is based upon their professional seller rate of never pay more than $199 ~ $40K+ eBay seller and around $60 for the e-commerce functionality on $3k sales, total of $260 = £162.70 (Live rates at 2009.06.07 19:00:38 UTC)

You can tell by the flurry of questions in the webinar that people are in a panic. Sellers who cover their own wage with their eBay business (and there are a few) can not afford the kinds of outlays Auctiva now want. There are however a few problems if you have used Auctiva templates.

If you are Auctiva template free then moving to inkfrog should be a nice 2-3 week transition and things shouldn’t get very scary, but as template code is contained in your descriptions surrounding your item text using the inkfrog importer can be difficult. They are working on something to strip out the code, but it is inherently difficult as code is just text to a computer.

It is a shame that Auctiva users have only had a month to pay up or get out. This tactic has been used by other companies in the industry and they are preying on eBay dependant wage earners. I don’t like to be under that kind of control.

To avoid this type of calamity in the future, invest in an inventory system (or excel spreadsheet) with all of your product details with no template or code so you can feasibility hop from one system to the next.

The columns you will need are:

Item Title

SKU or Unique Number

Plain Description

Image names/URLs

Seller Cost

BIN Price

Starting Price

and any other details about your items important to you!

I have added a new page to the site : http://kidsontalks.com/ebay-marketplaces-and-e-commerce/ which are services and companies I have worked with and my clients use with no problems.

Related blogs on Auctiva’s Change:

http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/2009/06/01/auctiva-falls-to-epn-changes-and-inkfrog-leaps-to-the-rescue/

http://aswas.typepad.com/hall_of_fame/2009/06/left-auctiva-using-their-templates-beware.html

OK, so it is asked a lot so here we go:

Preamble

Liz Glossary:

Keyword = one or two words to define an item e.g mobile phone, cricket bat, golf, socks, Addidas etc
Keyword phrase = Puma cricket bat, kids Dunlop golf clubs etc

Category Set Up:

1. Define yourself 4 main keywords per category (search for the best ones here https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and this include sub categories too.

2. Build and use the keywords in your category names, you don’t have to use all 4 as it probably won’t make sense.

3. Place your four keywords in your category meta keywords information in stores>manage categories a place your should know well by now!

General Store Set Up

Pick 20 keyword phrases that encompass your whole store, you have used keywords (single words/phrases like cricket bat, cricket gloves) in your categories, so now its time to use key phrases. We pick small number of keywords as SEO?marketing is a fluid beast and you might need to change and flex your keywords if they are not working. Place these in your main store meta keywords and also for your additional pages.

Store Item Titles

Still think a bit eBay when it comes to keywords as your item titles make up part of the URL for each item in store. Also make sure you have implemented your own URL for the store, it is much nicer!

Use Third Party Google Tools

Set up Google base as a standard and also Google Analytics and tracking to see if your keyword choices are being used and if you are missing anything.

If you have these elements as basics then your store should be indexed and attract appropriate customers (remember your customers in your keyword choices, they are not experts in the products like you are…what do they call things? Listen to them in emails and on the phone to how they explain the product and the language they use)

Excel 2007 instructions to find duplicate shipping values:

Highlight column (Order ID) and then select in the ‘Home’ tab Conditional Formatting > Highlight cell rules > Duplicate Values

Sort your column to make sure that excel is picking up your duplicate values correctly. It will highlight all duplicates in red, it is best if you filter by order number and expand the selection.

You can then trawl though and zero your duplicate shipping entries.

Simple, and no excel formulas needed.

Accounting with CA can be a nightmare at times. Especially if your accountant does not have experience with the downloads provided by Channeladvisor.

Well this is what I do for one of my clients accountants every month.

1. Using the sales > all sales view I use my ‘last months sales shipped‘ filter. This takes into account the completed sales only that were shipped in the last month. This is best done from the 2nd day of new month.

The parameters are:

(Shipping Date >= {{FIRSTDAYOFPRIORMONTH}})
AND (Shipping Date <= {{FIRSTDAYOFMONTH}})
AND (Checkout Complete = true)
OR (Checkout Disabled (Offline Sale = True) – this traps your off line sales too incase you have marked something as payment cleared manually for example.

Now you can leave it here, but bear in mind, even when you cancel a sale for whatever reason if will still show up in your download. To avoid that, mark your cancelled sales as ‘payment failed’ . You can if you file a dispute each time add this into the filter to remove those sales if you so wish. You accountant might want them left in the download though, depending on their process.

My clients accountant only wants completed sales.

So once filtered hit ‘Export All Invoice Information’ and open the CSV file.

Now you might ask…why not use transaction processing? Is that not what it is for? It is. But you need to have discipline to make sure you catch all of the sales. If you mark just one sale shipped manually from sales>all sales before the checkout report is complete, it won’t show up on a ‘Ready To Ship’ report. If you only every use transaction processing and automatically update transactions as “Payment Cleared” and “Order Shipped” when a Checkout Report is generated then you can start from step two.

2. The download.

Things to remember – the sales are listed vertically line by line so if you have multiple items on one sale the sheet will do this:

But, the shipping was £7.99 for the total order? Not EACH item….oh yes, so you will need an excel formula to remove the duplicate shipping in order to calculate the correct value. This duplicate also effects other attributes, so be wary.

The download doesn’t give you the unit price per line if your customers brought two items.

So insert a column to show the unit price of each line to makes things more crystal clear (Multiply Quantity by Unit Price) then you will have to use more excel magic to add up the unit price of each line corresponding to the order (remember you have the order number as a constant for the excel formula) then add the single shipping.

It is best to take such a complex task in steps:

First – blank out the extra shipping per order number.
Second – Insert a column to add up the value of the single lines
Third – Add up the unit prices per order number and add the shipping price.

Then you spit it out to a column somewhere which will give you the order number, total goods value and shipping value. This is a better format to work out the VAT for your goods and also you can cross reference the shipping location for the VAT in your shipping.

3. Refunds

If you only use paypal this is a cinch, as you can download your normal report and syphon off your refunds for that month to take off the total. If you have to make credit card refund or manual refunds, you just grab this info and spreadsheet it for your accountant (if they don’t handle it, but remember the hourly charge and you could probably do this yourself)

4. To VAT or not to VAT that is the question!

Make it easy to find your non vat-able items but using a reference in the SKU, tax class does not export from sales all sales or transaction processing, and you know CA doesn’t work unless you add on VAT at checkout for a sale, we all know this does not wash with eBay.

If you have a SKU like RED/E1234/JUMPER/AGE10/KIDS you can use an ‘If cell x contains ‘kids’ return true’ type function in an extra column to indicate where VAT does not apply. You can do the same thing with the shipping locations as the country code is separated into a different column and CA uses standard ISO codes.

5. Fees

Most accountants will just want the month to month value of this. Download if from eBay/Amazon/whatever marketplace and hand it over.

The reason I have not included any specific excel formulas is that every account and business set up is very different and the formulas are not generic but specific. I will attempt soon enough to give generic examples of the excel formulas in as simple format as I can. Currently all my formulas have sheet references in them for other things so would not make sense just plonked here. I will find ‘non’ complicated ways to preform the same function, even if it does take a little manual work.

Stay tuned for the follow up WITH simple instructions included.

1. Highlighting duplicate shipping in your Channeladvisor Download

I have a friend who works for a Pharma company in Marketing and PR (as I understand it) and she is pretty keen on social marketing but her company is not.

Lets think about how my on-line life has distributed my experience with the new wonder diet drug ‘Orislat’ or ‘Alli’ to see if social marketing does work with an industry like Pharmaceuticals.

So where have I done social marketing for Alli without really knowing?

- Facebook -

I updated my status to say I was trying Orislat for two weeks. Four friends commented and two emailed to ask me to keep them updated on my progress. I have already generated interest, and that was only from friends who felt the need to comment.

I updated my status twice to indicate the weight I had lost. Two of my ‘friends’ on Facebook have confirmed that they are now taking it.

- Twitter -

Again I mirrored my dealings on Twitter, I don’t have as many friends but some random people have contacted me (through Hairfreax as that’s my twitter name) to ask how it is going. I replied, girls like to talk diets.

So I have possibly sold for up to 6 months 3 lots of Orislat RRP of £900 at the cheapest price I could find on the net, probably more. This has cost the Pharma company nothing.

I HATE social marketing advertising. I ignore it mostly, but real experiences and positive genuine comments are what sells. Are these big companies (or their PR teams, as it would be their jobs on the line) afraid to put their reputations in the hands of the web socialites? It would mean that they would have to be well….customer focused….

Peoples experiences can kill your reputation if you are not customer focused. I bring your attention to this thread:

http://www.tamebay.com/2009/05/question-answers-with-frooition.html

As an example of a company being lynched by customers then proceeding to re-hang themselves with their own words. Silence WAS better. If you are not good with PR, get a good solid company who will sort it out for you, they can work wonders and there are even companies out there who specialise in on-line PR. But first you have to admit you have a problem!

Customers have a voice now, so if you don’t bring the social marketing to them, they will bring it to you and you might not like it!

Oh, I have lost 8lbs in 3 weeks and have another 16lbs to shift but my weight loss has slowed this week. I won’t give up quite yet though!

OK, well I have been reading Scot Wingo’s Ultimate Guide to eBay’s Meddling Spring 2009 and I skipped straight to the negative first (very British of me) to the ‘Trust Improvements‘ section.

Now whenever eBay want to improve buyer trust, it normally means that sellers get knifed in the back and dragged through a bush like the evil lying tow rags they are (feedback changes of old..), so you can see why I have the *FEAR*.

I am assuming that you have read or plan to read the white paper….

Returns:

It is now easier to return items. In all fairness with my main cleints things are easy to return, you can change your mind up to 7 days and the item is guaranteed for 30 days.
This will increase returns, but for specific returns due to just plain fickle buying or the wrong size is subject to a 10% re-stocking fee. Buyers seem OK with this and understand your position as a seller. Faulty item returns are just dealt with, refunded or replaced as well as the buyers postage fee.

Resolutions:

The account managers at eBay can be hit and miss but most will help you sort out the issues that arise. If you are a genuine seller you really do not have to worry.
Although eBay will sooooo not want to fork out some of its own money so they might be spiteful like Paypal and put pins on your chair, but this remains to be seen and I will re-comment when I have worked with these new changes for a few months.

I probably won’t comment on the item detail changes but I am looking into the multi variant listings as this is SO the mysterious configurator that never was! Feel like I have been waiting for it for years….

There has been a bit of a hoo-hah around the new charges for support by Frooition (on top of the purchase price and monthly subscription charge) for their eBay templates and associated services. In all fairness they needed to charge for support, but I do wonder what level of support is provided for these amounts.

I quote:

EMAIL & PHONE SUPPORT:
Emergency Email & Phone Support Response Rates: £199 per hour.

What Does This Cover? Urgent critical work that requires a rapid response.
Response Time: 1 working day*

Now, that’s kinda of expensive. If you pay 3 support members £20K a year that is a little over £30 an hour. Plus *costs n profits* lets round that up to £50.
£50 per hour is normally what consultants charge. I charge £15-20 per hour, but that’s because I am new to consulting.

Next:

Standard Ad Hoc Service Support Response Rates: £99 per hour.

What Does This Cover? One-off / un-scheduled work that requires a fast response time.
Response Time: 5 working days*

Five working days is a long time to wait for something costing you £99 per hour. Five days is not fast in the e-commerce world, not in my e-commerce world anyway.

I would probably price this up at around £30 per hour as you would be able to manage the requests better and prioritise clients.

But the next bit takes the biscuit, the whole Marks and Spencer’s Belgian selection…

GENERAL SUPPORT / REPORT A PROBLEM:
If your issue is not urgent and of more of a general nature then why not log a “general” ticket.
Although we can’t guarantee to respond to these tickets, we would really appreciate any comments or suggestions you have.

Every support request is assigned a unique ticket number which you can use to track the progress and responses online.
For your reference we provide complete archives and history of all your support requests.

Which means that for two of my clients any template/store issues will not be resolved to make sure they end up paying for it. My main client is moving away from Frooition design and I am glad because I am the one who has to fix things and contact support charging my £20 per hour……

So to answer my question, what should you charge for support??

What your clients can afford and what you can sensibly justify. If you are choking on support then raise the initial price of the ‘item/service’ in order to cover the labour intensity. Hidden and add on charges that are not fully disclosed or introduced later on a whim get peoples backs up!

I feel sorry for the guys/gals who will be offering Frooition support as their clients will RAPE them for there services, and it won’t be pretty.

P.S Paying someone £199 per hour to configure/programme Parcelforce shipping zones in a php based e-commerce system is well worth the money, if only I could find someone too! Oh wait, it’s me who their paying….should…..charge…more……

What would YOU charge for support? Open comments…

Comments closed now 06/05/2009