This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Posts tagged eBay
eBay, the return of the auction….
Well not a top rated seller? Abandoned auctions as part of your business plan long ago? eBay wanted it, but now your stuffed again. This last two weeks my clients auctions have been out preforming their ‘Buy it Now’ style listings as still with auctions the ‘ending time’ is an important factor.
So auctions are back in the game and I hope will be the life line to my clients that have NOT become top rated sellers.
But according to a birdie at eBay, they are having lots of meetings about sellers who did not make the elite. Their sales have stooped dramatically and eBay is consequently loosing money because of a system that doesn’t work.
Watch this space.
Get your foot out of your chocolate whizzway eBay and sort it before we all move to Amazon….oh wait….we have…..my main clients Amazon sales have outweighed eBay for the first time yesterday.
Long may it last.
I will detail my exciting new Formula one based Amazon project soon, and how I am striving for the ‘Buy Box’.
But how DO they get the email addresses?
1014 days
A lot of my clients use similar services, and they have ALL received an email ‘whistle-blowing’ be it true or false about the accounting practises of a particular firm. Fortunately for the time period the email warned about my clients were on the kind of contract that it didn’t matter, more of an all in for one price kinda deal.
But my main concern is HOW the whistle-blower got all of my clients (who happen to use said software) email addresses?
Is this information widely available? Or is this a breach of data protection by an employee of said company? I know this company has made several redundancies recently and probably upset a few employees but still the contents of the email has rattled my clients. One is now thinking of moving away as the words ‘financially viable’ were suggested with respects to the companies future.
It is worrying times for small businesses that use eBay/e-commerce service companies. Personally I lost £50 due to a supplier (GotLingerie.com) going into administration before they could complete my order. In fact they KNEW they would not be able too and still took my money. Unless you pay by credit card you are kinda stuffed. Luckily you can recover from a small amount, but other companies have not been so lucky and it will cost THEIR business.
So with the recession getting worse who can you trust? *insert Morcheeba song here*.
A point about trust, a new review site keeps popping up:
Review:
Frooition : http://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.frooition.com
eBay: http://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.ebay.co.uk
or add other companies, couldn’t find anyone else.
Really should have bothered to find my affiliate links for that one.
Well my clients can trust that I won’t go bust in the recession, I am even having to turn my hand to eBay design due to failing companies.
Recession proof yourself:
- Host your own images/design and keep a local back up
- Back up inventory/sales/analytic’s and any data you have locally on a CD/Tape drive
- Check your suppliers and services providers and don’t let anything go on too long
- Don’t invest massively up front, pay through out the ‘project’ or when it is complete
- Have a plan B and C, possibly D if you have the time and inclination
[ChannelAdvisor Catalyst] – European trade, Who do you call? Intercultural Elements!
Get trading in Europe and sell to those pesky Europeans who don’t speak Yahoo Babelfish language versions….
Oh yes, the amount of points lost in translation on eBay can lead to confusion, upset and well…..a negative and a refund.
Inter-cultural Elements are experts in biscuits and international translation. They don’t just translate the words, they translate your business using their European market knowledge. They even set up your channeladvisor account for that country so it takes away the pain of set up.
What they DON’T translate is your mistakes.
If you employ the services of ICE, ask for biscuits. They will know which ones you mean.
10 Reasons from their website to expand with ICE:
- Outsourcing specialized tasks makes business sense – we do it quickly & correctly the first time, so you sell more/sooner than by doing-it-yourself
- Intelligent, personal service & care from ChannelAdvisor experts
- We charge 1 flat price, with no commission on sales, and discounts on multiple products
- Start listing into new marketplaces in 2 – 6 weeks. How long would it take you to do yourself?
- Trump your competition by developing your own international business
- Quarterly sales statistics & analyses reports
- ChannelAdvisor flat monthly fees are equal whether you sell into 1 marketplace or 25
- Increase sales quickly by simply selling the same products to new buyers
- Use the same item translations for eBay, Amazon, Pixmania & your website
- Take advantage of exchange rates and sell in currencies like € and $
Credit Crunching and Munching for the Online Business
1369 days
by Liz
in E-Business
Working with the construction sector at the moment, our sisters in house build are suffering. Over 10K jobs lost and 500 business in administration, not all small ones either.
So far with my business I have seen no economic slowdown, not even the usual summer slowdown. It will hit all business in the end even the very small freelance sole traders. There are things you can do now to save money and ride the storm.
1. Find out how YOU are affected.
Do not believe sweeping statistics from the media. Christmas is coming up and will be a great indicator of how your category is going to fair against last year. You did get your stats together finally last year didn’t you?
2. Be wise with investment.
Invest for longevity, don’t just take the cheapest investment as a quick fix. 9 times out of 10 you will need to re-invest sooner than you think! If you don’t have the money for what you want now, don’t invest yet. Take your time.
3. Invest in yourself and your employees.
Trained employees are more productive and motivated, but how about yourself or if you have no employees? How about a book keeping course? The less time your accountant has to fiddle around with your invoices the cheaper their bill. Stuck with numbers? How about a Learn Direct Numeracy course? You have seen those weird hand adverts right?
4. Be eco-friendly and pocket friendly.
Invest in energy saving light bulbs, only buy the most energy efficient electrical goods. Start a ‘switch off’ campaign in your business. Switch off your PC when going to lunch, and most importantly over night and at the weekends. This means no standby lights, and switch off at the plug. Invest in re-usable items, glasses for the water fountain and not plastic cups. Cut down on paper, and print heavy invoices. Printer ink is more expensive than oil, and do you really need all those fancy colours on your invoices? Would black and white do?
5. Re-evaluate subscriptions.
Do you really use your subscriptions? Have you in the last 3 months? If not, they are not worth it. Don’t be lazy, cancel and save a few pounds.
6. Be more strategic.
Fees are a killer, eBay fees, marketing fees, fees to third party companies. Be strategic with the fees you can not afford and take some time to learn about managing your own marketing. Lots of SEO is free, and only takes time. Could you or one of your employees build the skills to take it in house?
7. Go global.
No one has mentioned a global recession have they? If you don’t already, advertise and ship goods/services abroad.
8. Be transparent with employees.
If you are doing well, share the love. If you need to make savings, make sure your employees know this so they can help with savings too. They will have some great ideas to save money.
9. Hold a stationary amnesty.
You would not believe the hoarding of stationary that goes on. Get it all together, see what you really have and only order when you are low, not just when people have raided the stationary cupboard and its all in their draw unused.
10. Finally, adopt a no credit policy. Keep a good cash flow.
If you have not made the money to cover the next purchase of stock, then either don’t buy as much or re-evaluate what sells and what doesn’t. If you have some dead stock and even eBay won’t shift it, don’t waste more fees and just car boot it. Get back the cost value to re buy effective stock.
Do you accounts every month (hopefully yourself?) so you can save exactly what the tax man needs. If you are a sole trader then this site http://www.listentotaxman.com
is a great resource to see how much the tax man wants year on year.
Above all be positive, don’t waste and be money smart. Do you REALLY need all those different coloured return address labels professionally printed? Can you print your own?
Happy credit munching and look forward to a sustainable future!
When considering professional eBay Design…
1622 days
Professional eBay design is an investment, and should not be taken up on this level by smaller sellers. Don’t make the mistake of investing in eBay design before your eBay business is even off the ground. You don’t need professional ebay design to start up an ebay business.
The listing design (ebay item template) is very important as it is the first impression your buyer will see. Buyers search for items on ebay more than they would search for your shop itself.
Great branding will make that listing stand out and memorable, but you need to make it for the right reasons. You need to make sure that your buyer has all the information needed to make the purchase. Your information has to be displayed for ease of navigation ( say, breaking up large amounts of text or specifications with bullet points etc) and also communicated to the buyer in their own language.
When you are drafting up an eBay design project make sure your professional ebay design company can consult with you on the features and functionality specific to your product type.
Plan the steps of your buyer as if making a purchase yourself and tailor the content so they see exactly what they expect to see. The stunning design should be enough attraction for the client in the first instance giving you the wow factor, but then you need to think on functionality and information.
Give the buyer all the information they need and they won’t hesitate! The visual aspect of a professional design is only touching the surface of what your design should do. eBay design needs function, and purpose.
