This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for June, 2008
eBay is going to phase out third party checkout?
1427 days
A pain for a lot of third party tools like ChannelAdvisor, Marketworks advisor what not and Kyozou. Auctionbytes has brought this to our attention.
eBay announced it would phase out third-party checkout by this time next year. Third-party vendors help sellers list on eBay, and some offer sellers use of checkout systems to up-sell and cross-sell items to buyers.
I think there is nothing with wrong with eBay checkout, it has improved greatly but it will mean that ‘complete’ e-commerce systems like the ones mentioned above, will be reduced to eBay listing tools, with a web shop. Personally, it will stop the problems with third party checkouts, as you can still pay OUTSIDE the third party checkout and have your payment lost. I hate having to checkout with third parties even though I would hate to list without them!
One of eBays better decisions, and the third party tools with surely rise to the occasion.
We love eBay design…
Its true….new players on the UK scene are http://createmystore.co.uk/ and their designs are looking good.
Even though their is a credit crunch in the UK it should not stop sensible investment in your eBay business. eBay design can provide various functions, from just aesthetics to brand new functionality which can be added.
On the net your design, usability and customer interactions are key. Now we are holding onto our purses this is the time to invest. A tight ecomony breeds tight spenders, are you a cut above the rest?
eBay is still ALL GOOD ALL THE TIME!
Well, after straying away from eBay as my main business as using it a to basically pimp a brand and e-commerce site, I have come full circle to building up an eBay presence again. It might be to do with the fees for core listings. They are lower, and you loose less to eBay:
| Price From | Price To | Auction Listing Fee | Final Value Fee | Gallery Fee | Paypal % | Total Cost | Percentage Lost |
| £0.01 | £0.99 | £0.10 | £0.07 | £0.15 | £0.23 | £0.56 | 56.4% |
| £1.00 | £1.99 | £0.15 | £0.15 | £0.15 | £0.27 | £0.72 | 36.0% |
| £2.00 | £2.99 | £0.15 | £0.22 | £0.15 | £0.30 | £0.83 | 27.6% |
| £3.00 | £3.99 | £0.15 | £0.30 | £0.15 | £0.34 | £0.93 | 23.4% |
| £4.00 | £4.99 | £0.15 | £0.37 | £0.15 | £0.37 | £1.04 | 20.9% |
| £5.00 | £5.99 | £0.25 | £0.45 | £0.15 | £0.40 | £1.25 | 20.9% |
| £6.00 | £6.99 | £0.25 | £0.52 | £0.15 | £0.44 | £1.36 | 19.5% |
| £7.00 | £7.99 | £0.25 | £0.60 | £0.15 | £0.47 | £1.47 | 18.4% |
| £8.00 | £8.99 | £0.25 | £0.67 | £0.15 | £0.51 | £1.58 | 17.6% |
| £9.00 | £9.99 | £0.25 | £0.75 | £0.15 | £0.54 | £1.69 | 16.9% |
| £10.00 | £10.99 | £0.25 | £0.82 | £0.15 | £0.57 | £1.80 | 16.4% |
| £11.00 | £11.99 | £0.25 | £0.90 | £0.15 | £0.61 | £1.91 | 15.9% |
| £12.00 | £12.99 | £0.25 | £0.97 | £0.15 | £0.64 | £2.02 | 15.5% |
| £13.00 | £13.99 | £0.25 | £1.05 | £0.15 | £0.68 | £2.12 | 15.2% |
| £14.00 | £14.99 | £0.25 | £1.12 | £0.15 | £0.71 | £2.23 | 14.9% |
| £15.00 | £15.99 | £0.50 | £1.20 | £0.15 | £0.74 | £2.59 | 16.2% |
| £16.00 | £16.99 | £0.50 | £1.27 | £0.15 | £0.78 | £2.70 | 15.9% |
| £17.00 | £17.99 | £0.50 | £1.35 | £0.15 | £0.81 | £2.81 | 15.6% |
| £18.00 | £18.99 | £0.50 | £1.42 | £0.15 | £0.85 | £2.92 | 15.4% |
| £19.00 | £19.99 | £0.50 | £1.50 | £0.15 | £0.88 | £3.03 | 15.2% |
| £20.00 | £20.99 | £0.50 | £1.57 | £0.15 | £0.91 | £3.14 | 14.9% |
| £21.00 | £21.99 | £0.50 | £1.65 | £0.15 | £0.95 | £3.25 | 14.8% |
| £22.00 | £22.99 | £0.50 | £1.72 | £0.15 | £0.98 | £3.36 | 14.6% |
| £23.00 | £23.99 | £0.50 | £1.80 | £0.15 | £1.02 | £3.46 | 14.4% |
| £24.00 | £24.99 | £0.50 | £1.87 | £0.15 | £1.05 | £3.57 | 14.3% |
| £25.00 | £25.99 | £0.50 | £1.95 | £0.15 | £1.08 | £3.68 | 14.2% |
| £26.00 | £26.99 | £0.50 | £2.02 | £0.15 | £1.12 | £3.79 | 14.0% |
| £27.00 | £27.99 | £0.50 | £2.10 | £0.15 | £1.15 | £3.90 | 13.9% |
| £28.00 | £28.99 | £0.50 | £2.17 | £0.15 | £1.19 | £4.01 | 13.8% |
| £29.00 | £29.99 | £0.50 | £2.25 | £0.15 | £1.22 | £4.12 | 13.7% |
| £30.00 | £30.99 | £1.00 | £2.30 | £0.15 | £1.25 | £4.70 | 15.2% |
You can see the full download here detailing fees to £200. I have taken out the paypal withdrawl fee on this sheet as I am going to assume that no one withdraws under £50. This sheet does not include media and technology categories.
ebay-fee-calculations-23062008
The price points are the same but I now pay less for core listings, which is were we get all the traffic from.
eBay Business Consultancy and Managed Service
As my day job keeps me up to date in the world of software development and e-learning. I freelance as an eBay managed service consultant to keep up with the industry. With running my own e-commerce/eBay business time is tight but I now have space for another project to start August time.
So kicking it with adwords I am advertising Keirotech. Let me run your eBay business or website while you get down to the nitty gritty of running your business. I live and breathe this world, and have for the last 8 years, so if you need a hand then drop me an email.
I am familiar with eBay automation services, and can set your account running and on its way. Ideally looking for short term projects, but will consider more long standing arrangements.
I also do learning and development (HR) related projects, but that’s not something you see as on-line freelance very often! I don’t think I will try to be a freelance on-line organic chemist….
Reason I am pimping myself out a little, it that I am getting married this year, moving house and continuing my professional development with the Open University. It all takes money, and as I don’t pimp out my blog and endorse things I don’t believe in for cash….
Honest work will have to do the trick.
I hope to get back to blogging on the industry soon, but with my mind full of code it is squeezing out everything else.
One thing I will be blogging on soon is Skills for Life, Literacy and Numeracy in e-business and why it is important to develop the workforce to fill the skills gap. I am currently managing a project around skills for life initial assessment, in which an in house initial assessment has been devised with consultancy in the target business/sector. This also includes the design of supporting technologies with the aid of a recent graduate (I don’t do desktop development yet) to facilitate the skills for life strategy.
Technology to facilitate excellent people processes. Wonderful.
Lesson 6: eBay Shop Category Control with CSS
1440 days
OK, I did promise ebay javascript, but I wanted to do a little more on eBay Shop CSS.
So I want to give my store categories a pink background:
table#StoreCategories {
background-color:#FFCCFF;
}
and say then, I want to have the links in a different pink:
table#StoreCategories a {
color:#FF00FF;
text-decoration:none;
}
then I want to space out the categories and give them a pink line spacing:
td.category {
height:35px;
border-top:1px solid #FF00FF;
}
then I feel silly about only having borders at the top and change it to:
td.category {
height:35px;
border:1px solid #FF00FF;
}
These eBay shop design series are just to illustrate what CSS elements you can manipulate in your eBay shop front. We will move onto adding graphics to replace your eBay shop categories soon enough.
Ok, ok…just slip this code in so the whole section looks like this:
/*Category Section*/
table#StoreCategories {
background-color:#FFCCFF;
}
table#StoreCategories a {
color:#FF00FF;
text-decoration:none;
}
td.category {
height:35px;
border-top:1px solid #FF00FF;
/*New Bit*/
background: url(http://www.kidsontalks.com/ebaybutton.jpg) no-repeat;
}
/* -------- End -------- */
