This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for August, 2010
End of Third party checkouts, so what does that mean?
635 days
Well it means a lot of work for companies like Channeladvisor. Channeladvisor already has the functionality to work with eBay immediate payment which bypasses the CA checkout and the sales are imported after the fact. I imagine this is going to be the norm for such systems after June 2011.
The issues I see at first glance is with shipping. eBay doesn’t let you be so bespoke with shipping methods as a checkout like Channeladvisor, eBay recently opened up to account for non mainland locations in the UK but I doubt they will get much more specific before next June. And how about promotional codes?
Third party checkout will be able to integrate no problem, but the sellers who have built their business on the extra flexibility of third party checkouts will have to edit their practises and how they price their shipping costs.
Fortunately, eBay has given everyone notice of this change – but as always you don’t really know the effect a change has on your business until you try it out 
Some linkage:
Scott Wingo’s response to the death of the third party checkout!
and try the basket yourself http://pages.ebay.co.uk/shoppingbasket/
Channeladvisor Insite Birmingham..no Manchester…
636 days
Channeladvisor insite is back with us again a month earlier in September. Better for the Christmas rush but maybe the timing is why the Birmingham event has had to be cancelled. But no fear, Manchester is not far away so I shall be attending the Manchester event!
Ebay is doing some funky (and possible flunky knowing eBay) things in the next 12 months, changing the customer experience, fiddling with the feedback and unpaid item process, writing bad automated emails that you can’t change….
The double edged sword in this mix is the eBay shopping cart. On one side its a big ‘YAY’ finally eBay has done this but a big…hmmmm as third party checkouts will be banned from June next year.
We knew that things would get difficult but as an eBay buyer this is a good move, the eBay checkout process is familiar and quick. On the other hand as a seller, third party checkouts let you use other card payment systems other than paypal. From next June it will just be known that you use Paypal for eBay and that’s it.
eBay wants the money to keep within its walls, it has more control over it that way, it can refund a buyer and take the money away from the seller at its own discretion. eBay wants a dictatorship and not a democracy.
Will this totalitarian eBay control be a good thing or bad thing? We can only wait and see, its only the kind of control Amazon has over its sellers and that’s doing okay for itself.
However this move might take eBay away from its community routes which made it great, and this is a shame.
Is this freedom of community a little to hard to control now the hyperweb has become so big? Fraud, privacy and security always feature in the news to terrify people and I wwould like to hear eBay speak at insite about its direction and why it has taken those decisions.
Two great forces on the interweb for me are Amazon and Ratuken which operate a shopping cart. Rakuten are going from strength to strength.
Rakuten are a big lust for me with a fantastic kimono section and for a English site just machine translated is surprisingly not that complicated to buy from. I do think we shall see more of this marketplace in the western hemisphere with their acquisition of things over this way
Rakuten, make sure you let your shop owners have a unique design…I could do with making money from you to buy more kimono stuffs….and err…lets sort that shipping out its like a black hole when you buy if you don’t know how much things cost to be shipped from Japan 
*edited to remove the over use of the word ‘however’
Createyourtemplate and Tackle Discounts eBay Shop!
636 days
Tacklediscounts is one of our more recent UK eBay shop launch, so lets have a look at the unique features of this design!
Search is a heavily used feature on eBay so we like to make sure you can get the best out of it. We added some filters for more accurate search for tackle discounts eBay store.
Attribute sorters to help your buyers find what they want quickly and efficiently as well as providing optical guidance for those just browsing. Choosing fishing equipment can be quite complex with many variables and customer are looking for very specific items and ranges.
This is the attribute sorter on the front of Tacklediscounts eBay shop!
Information for buyers is paramount, they want to know certain things like:
- How much is shipping?
- When will I get my item?
- How do I pay?
So we like to make sure we you give this information in various ways, and in popular optical locations on the screen, for example in the sidebar and header.
The header space of the design is great e-real estate, so if you have a great promotion or offer like free shipping like Tackle discounts, well it HAS to be at the top!
Trust is an important factor in any online business, especially eBay. eBay rewards its sellers using the powerseller programme which is being replaced/updated to Top Rated Seller status. Remind your customers of these achievements to increase buyer confidence.
Dynamically cross selling on eBay is essential to increase your buyers cart contents. As your buyers are most likely to find your listings primarily via eBay search, making sure they see the rest of your items is essential.
Below you can see Tacklediscounts up sells hand picked items under ‘you may also like’ as well as from the category and brand. This is located directly under the item description within the template design.
Tacklediscounts has many other great features to boost sales and feature specific items, its best if you see the live store on eBay and check out their listings!
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/TACKLEDISCOUNTS-ultimate-value
Using your eBay retail space to feature product ranges!
636 days
At CYT we love to help you sell more and look gorgeous doing it. That is why we do what we do! For our eBay designs we create various product ‘featurettes’ for want of a better word so our clients can push various product lines, best sellers and offers.
Our feature boxes can be a static graphic or more snazzy with attribute drop downs or ‘pop ups’.
Lets take a look at BRANDS OUTLET:
A quick find feature box to guide buyers based on what gender they are shopping for.
Roll over popup functionality can also be added to feature boxes, UKSPORTSWAREHOUSE has a huge product matrix on the front of the eBay store with this nifty feature.
This kind of technology can be added on any feature box from static feature boxes to more dynamic up-selling sections.
Feature boxes can also be added to eBay templates to generate a ‘call to action’ so that your buyers are persuaded to browse and keep shopping with you!
TACKLEDISCOUNTS has some of these feature boxes at the base of their eBay template to keeps their buyers clicking around their shop.
This feature about carp fishing has links to the most popular categories. Dynamic searches or links to specific items can be built in here.
Along side this is a more general feature box for the all important (and eBay favourite)….clearance offers and deals!
Making sure you utilise your retail space on your store and template wisely is the right way to make the most of your eBay traffic.
Keep your customers browsing with your memorable branding on show and making sure they know exactly the range of products you offer in store.
Knowing your category personalities and purchase habits of your buyers is essential for knowing where to place these boxes.
So, at CYT we make sure we understand your business, your traffic and your customers to make sure we make the most of your design.
Each of our eBay design projects is just that, a PROJECT – carefully thought out graphical and structural design with marketing and conversion in mind. All designs are unique and we constantly develop new features to meet our client needs.
Come to Createyourtemplate for your eBay design, we make you beautiful – and we don’t mind if you pile on the pounds at Christmas, as well…that’s the idea!
We are an odd looking bunch so I doubt we would get on beautifulpeople.com even if we went on a bikini diet!
Disclaimer: Since I have worked for CYT I have lost 5lbs on purpose.
Unique eBay functionality from Createyourtemplate!
636 days
SK Games/Computer Shop, a top rated seller http://stores.ebay.de/skgames-shop / http://stores.shop.ebay.de/SK-Computer-Shop sells PC, Playstation, XBox 360 and computer games for lots of other platforms. As a gamer, you tend to love your platform -so you only want to up sell to your customer more from their intended platform right?
Well, on the right hand side of the eBay template, in prime visual real estate is the ‘top ten’ – depending on what platform the game is for that your customer is viewing, the top ten changes to match the platform!
Lets see this in action, with Job island for the Wii, with their SK Computing design:
and then Heavenly Sword, for the PS3:
and then Prince of Persia for the the PC, with their SK Games design:
Disclaimer: this is how I feed myself and wrap up in gorgeous silk kimonos..
