Auction

Reaching Global Buyers via Ecommerce

Matt Kirtok — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:35:00 GMT

I have read the article below at Startup Journal by By KELLY K. SPORS, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal. It has some good points, but it doesn't mention any negative sides of selling international on eBay or on any auction / ecommerce sites such as increasing fraud credit card purchases, charge backs after receiving the shipments, and lost packages.

Even though selling international has some risks, it may be worth while for some ecommerce businesses. So, here's the article:

Companies often take advantage of the weak dollar by selling items outside the U.S. for more money than they could at home.

You can too. Internet auction sites such as eBay make it easy for sellers in the U.S. to reach global buyers, who may pay a higher price because the currency-exchange rate works in their favor. The euro, for instance, has gained about 25% against the dollar in recent years, making U.S. purchases much cheaper for Europeans.

While eBay operates separate auction sites in other countries, U.S. sellers are often better off just listing on the domestic site -- eBay.com -- since that eliminates the need to translate the listing. The key: Make sure to offer world-wide shipping so that you don't turn away international customers.

EBay says that more than half of all its 147 million registered users are now outside the U.S., and that its U.S. site is drawing more and more buyers from around the world.

Some items, especially those hard to find in other countries, can fetch a high price abroad, says Jim Cockrum, who makes a living by offering advice on online auctions. Mr. Cockrum, who lives in Indianapolis, says he once sold a pair of used Nike Air Jordan sneakers to a collector in China for about $700.

International shipping, however, can be tricky. Each country carries its own shipping rules, including weight and size restrictions, and some ban the import of items like perfume. So check with your shipper to see whether your product is allowed to be sent internationally.

Also, it's usually bettter to specify in your listing that the buyer pays for shipping and then figure out the shipping charge with the winning bidder. A calculator on eBay can help buyers estimate this amount.

Auction Tools Directory

Matt Kirtok — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:21:00 GMT

Are you an auction seller? Or do you have a resource website for auction sellers? If your answer is yes, you will have to visit Auction Tools Directory .

On Auction Tools site, you can find eBooks for auction industry, Auction Blogs, Image Hosting Services for auction sellers, auction management systems and many more sub categories specifically for auction industry.

There are already almost 300 resource websites listed for auction industry. You can suggest your site or your favorite auction resource sites and listings are free of charge.

I had a chance to speak to the owner of the site Brad, to ask him some questions before writing this post. He sounded very enthuastic about Auction Tools Directory and told about future plans.

He is in a process of moving the database from Access to MSSQL, and he is working on improving the site.

You can rate and write reviews for your favorite auction related sites. You can also join the Mailing List for updates and news about auction industry.

Leaving Feedback on eBay

Matt Kirtok — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 04:11:00 GMT

Feedback on eBay is the reputation of buyers and sellers. It's more important for sellers to have a high feedback rating. In order to become a powerseller on eBay, you have to have at least 98% positive feedback rating. But some surveys show that many buyers prefer to buy from sellers with 99% or more feedback rating.

Let's start with basics. If you are new to eBay, you should start with reading another post I made about eBay Feedback to learn the basics of eBay Feedback System.

How to leave feedback on eBay?

Click on the My eBay button at the top of any eBay page.
Click on the "Feedback" link under "My Account" on the left-hand side of the page.
Click on the Leave Feedback button.

From this page, you will be able to leave feedback for other members you've had a transaction with during the past 90 days, as well as visit your Member Profile page where you can review and respond to feedback left about you.

If you need to leave eBay feedback for a transaction that is more than 90 days old, you may do so using the "single transaction form" link located on the Leave Feedback page. Remember, eBay only commits to items being available for 90 days, so if it is greater than 90 days you may not be able to leave feedback.

Why Leaving Feedback on eBay is so important?

Every sellers has its own way of leaving feedback on eBay. Some leave a positive feedback after receiving the payment, and some wait till the buyer leaves one.

As a buyer, maybe you don't care about leaving or receiving a feedback. But remember every feedback is important for sellers.

Contact the seller before leaving a negative or neutral feedback

It is very important to understand that a negative or neutral feedback can hurt the seller's business for good. Almost all sellers are willing to work with you and help with the problems occured during the transaction. Remember everybody can make mistakes, and there are some mistakes and problems which sellers are not responsible. But if you are not happy with the whole transaction, first contact the seller, wait for an answer, then decide leaving a neutral or negative feedback. This is a common problem especially with new buyers to eBay.

You may also be interested in eBay Search Engine Optimization article, or eBay Feedback Information Page.

Search Engine Optimization for eBay Stores

Matt Kirtok — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:07:00 GMT

eBay has been improving customization for eBay Stores. eBay store owners do not have the flexibility of an independent ecommerce store, but they can still customize their eBay stores for good search engine traffic.

Remember on page optimization is only a part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and another very important part is off page optimization. You can read more about this at Daily SEO Blog On Page and Off Page Optimization article.

eBay Discussion Board has a very informative topic for eBay Stores Search Engine Optimization . Many experienced eBay store owners share their experiences about optimizing their ebay stores. Also one of the authority forums in auction industry FreeAuctionScripts has an SEO section for auction sellers and ecommerce sites called SEO Tutorials, Articles, Tips and Tools . You can ask your questions about optimizing your eBay Stores.

If you had a chance to read the “On Page and Off Page Optimization” article at Daily SEO, you will understand the importance of getting backlinks to your eBay store. Every backlink with the right anchor text will increase your rankings in search engine result pages.

e.g.
Anchor Text: eBay Store Name
URL : http://stores.ebay.com/eBayStoreName/

Try to submit your ebay store URL to as many directories as possible with using your keywords in your “Anchor Text”.

Here's a list of directories where you can submit your eBay Store. It's categorized and for free directories category, you don't need to provide a reciprocal link.

With the increasing power of search engines, SEO is a must for an ecommerce business. Good luck with your search engine optimization practices.

Sponsor of This Article: Text Link Advertising : Text Links for people new to Search Engine Optimization. Target up to 100 of your inner product pages with 190,000 links across five IPs on PR4-5 pages for just $99/month.

Ebay Feedback

Matt Kirtok — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:52:00 GMT

Ebay Feedback

Every eBay member has a profile in the Feedback Forum. A profile has basic information about the member and a list of feedback left by their trading partners from previous transactions. Learning to trust a member of the community has a lot to do with what their past customers or sellers have to say!

For each transaction, only the buyer and seller can rate each other by leaving feedback. Each feedback left consists of a positive, negative, or neutral rating, and a short comment. Leaving honest comments about a particular eBay member gives other Community members a good idea of what to expect when dealing with that member. Once it is left, the feedback becomes a permanent part of the member's profile.

Ebay Feedback Stars

Ebay Feedback Disputes

“To maintain the integrity of the feedback system, feedback left for a member becomes a permanent part of that member's record. The comments cannot be edited at a later date. “ eBay says. But how about the feedbacks you have received which believe you didn't deserve. Is there any way to get your feedback removed?

There are five different actions you can take for an unpleasant feedback received.

1. Reply to eBay feedback received:
Share your side of the story by responding to any comment that has been left for you. Your response will be shown directly below the comment left by the other eBay member. Reply to feedback you have received.

2. Follow up to eBay feedback you have left:
You can leave one follow-up comment to a comment that you have already left, to add information or clarify your earlier comment. This will appear below your original comment. Follow up to feedback you have left.

3. Mutual eBay Feedback Withdrawal:
If both you and your trading partner are able to resolve a problem after feedback has been left, you can mutually agree to withdraw the feedback. Mutually withdrawn feedback still appears in the member profile, but is no longer counted in the feedback score. Both members must agree, and feedback left by both parties will be withdrawn at the same time. Start mutual feedback withdrawal for a transaction now.

4. Mediation through SquareTrade:
eBay's preferred dispute resolution provider, SquareTrade, offers services to help users solve problems related to their eBay transactions. SquareTrade offers a service to mediate disputes over feedback. Start the process to resolve a dispute via SquareTrade.

5. Feedback Removal:
eBay will remove individual feedback comments only in very exceptional circumstances, if they violate specific policies. Some special situations where eBay will remove feedback include: getting a valid court order to do so, the feedback contains vulgar language, or contains personal contact information. See a list of situations where eBay will consider removing feedback, and how you can file for removal.

For more information about eBay Feedback, visit Feedback FAQ Page at eBay.

You may also visit Leaving Feedback on eBay post.

Blujay 100% Free Online Marketplace

Matt Kirtok — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 04:20:00 GMT

I've been looking for new alternative sites for eBay to recommend auction sellers and use myself also. While I was comparing sites which do not charge any listing fees or final value fees for the items listed, I have seen Blujay being a step further than some other new sites. Blujay had several advantages compared to other online market places. Blujay's system is similar to what we call classifieds systems. Some advantages I've experienced during using Blujay are:

Very easy to register, and activate your account. You don't need a credit card on file, or provide your actual address to be able to list your items.
One page listing is one of the easiest I've ever seen on auction and classifieds sites.
Blujay creates froogle feeds for your items and automatically submits them to Froogle. I've checked Bluejay's Froogle results and there are already almost 1400 items confirmed and listed by Froogle.
You have flexible listing day options such as 7, 14, 30, 60 and 180 days. 180 days option is a very rare to find at other classifieds sites, and if you have regular items in stock, it's a great way to list them all with 180 days duration.
You can upload up to 4 photos for each item for free which is a big save from image hosting costs for sellers.
As soon as you register with Blujay you get a free web store and your own URL to give to your customers such as blujay.com/yourusername . Free webstore option is always a plus to organize your items within one storefront page and let your customers find other products offered by you.

After reviewing Blujay, first I was suspicious about the whole system. Because all of these features would cost a big time to the site owner, and they claim to offer everything for free and they insist that Blujay will stay free. So I have contacted Adam, the owner of Blujay, and discussed about my concerns and questions. And I've seen that he is a hard working guy with a great project, and willing to help online sellers. Here's some information Adam has sent me about Bluejay:

blujay.com, the free online fixed price marketplace which allows the small business and individual seller to reach their buyers over the internet, finally releases the service for the public to use. After years of development and months of testing, blujay.com announces that the service is ready for the small business to start selling on the internet for free which would otherwise cost hard earned money on other sites.

"Small businesses already have very slim margins for what they're selling. We believe that selling online should be free, just like searching online, or emailing your family. Releasing this service is our effort to further that belief," says Henderson Hsieh, marketing spokesperson at blujay.com.

blujay.com offers features that cost big money on other sites.
In order to help the small business & individual seller to reach buyers online, the service allows them to open a webstore with a simple url "blujay.com/username" for free. Additionally, the service provides space on the storefront where the seller can include a physical store address, phone number or even a brief description of what they sell.

Some other features the service provides include item management tools, item listings with up to 4 photos, and item listings lasting 180 days. By comparison, on other sites each of these features is considered an "upgrade" on top of listing fees or monthly storefront fees being charged. For instance, thumbnail images in search results costs $0.25 & each additional photo costs $0.15 for each item on ebay. These types of fees quickly add up to significant amounts. On blujay.com, everything is free.

Sometimes auctions don't work.
Not everything for sale on other sites sells because the item doesn't find the right buyer in the 7 days of an auction or 30 days of a classified. By allowing a seller to list their item for 180 days, the blujay.com service allows more exposure and therefore increases the chance that a seller will find the right buyer.

About blujay
blujay.com is the free photo marketplace that offers the small business & individual seller the tools, services, & features needed to reach their buyers over the internet. A seller can list items with 4 photos each and refer people to their store via a simple link "blujay.com/your_username" all for Free.

If you are already selling online, or want to try, I'd highly recommend to check out Blujay.com . Here's the Blujay Storefront I've setup to test the system prior to writing this article. I will be spending some time listing at Blujay and supporting this new venue.

Wagglepop Auction Site Alternative to Ebay

Matt Kirtok — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 16:05:00 GMT

There's a new auction site called Wagglepop which will be launched in February 2005. Wagglepop project has been discussed since last november on several auction community forums. With the recent fee increases and customer satisfaction problems at eBay, there's a huge amount of interest to Wagglepop from auction sellers.

Wagglepop will take its place in the market with the slogan “The Smarter Way to Buy and Sell” . Wagglepop will focus on Search Engine Optimization and will have a different structure of auction stores.

To learn more about Wagglepop please visit Wagglepop Forum at FreeAuctionScripts.com

You can also check out the Wagglepop home page to read more about the features of this new site.

eBay Sellers Complaints About Slow Sales

Matt Kirtok — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 21:37:00 GMT

With the holiday seasons, retail industry is having a peak time. How about online sales? Several big websites announce their fancy quarter numbers, and look very happy about them. How about eBay? eBay's quarter numbers looked pretty good and also promising. But if you speak to eBay sellers, they will say this is the slowest season. Since eBay sales are increasing, more buyers are visiting the website, and also eBay has launched a new advertisement campaign, so what is the real problem? eBay seller numbers are growing faster than eBay buyer number. So every day more people are getting interested in selling on eBay, and hits per auction is decreasing. A lot of people get excited and try selling on eBay and lose money. Market is very competitive and you have to be very careful before deciding to sell on eBay, also you have to have a decent business plan, otherwise your business won't stay open long. Here's an eBay Auction Community Forum where sellers talk about the slow sales this year. Good luck to all eBay sellers with the sales during the holiday season.

Overstock.com Gives eBay Some Competition

Matt Kirtok — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 15:54:00 GMT

Overstock.com is trying to give Internet giant eBay a run for its money. The company, which sells other retailers' excess inventories at discounted prices online, is starting its own auction service.

Overstock officials said yesterday they want to offer customers lower fees and a more simple site to use. The company says 15,000 people have already signed up for the service, which was launched almost a week ago. They say that's not a bad start, but admit they're still lag well behind eBay's 114 million user empire.

I have reviewed Overstock Auctions, and seems like customer service will be a significantly important part of their business. They seem promising and willing to invest in auction business. Also Overstock's traffic numbers are pretty good and overstock.com is within 50 top visited sites on the net. So we will wait and see if they can generate an auction site which will be able to compete with eBay.

Good luck Overstock Auctions and welcome to the market.

An eBay PowerSeller's Post about eBay Customer Service

Matt Kirtok — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 04:26:00 GMT

I was reading through the discussion forums, and on FreeAuctionScripts Discussion Forum, I have seen a post by a respected, and well known internet business owner bargainbloodhound . The post is about a comment made by eBay Stores Team management. eBay's customer service problems are becoming a very serious problem and many big sellers are leaving to different venues. Also couple months ago, eBay launched a survey which had several questions about “paying for customer service“. I have never heard a paid customer service in corporate area. And just a reminder; all the big companies with poor customer service will be out of the game in the long run.

Here's the comment from eBay's stores team;

"and made sure the appropriate teams are aware of your concerns. "

And here's the reply from bargainbloodhound ;

So far I have not heard the CEO of your new competitor use this term--and yes unlike Meg Whitman and eBay who play lip service to the words 'community' and 'community values' but do not practice what they preach, he actually interacts with his new community which includes many eBay PowerSellers who are sick and tired of paying for service that is not delivered or is delivered with so many software bugs that it costs OUR businesses money, a complete lack of customer service (canned replies and Web Forms just don't cut it), billing problems that have continued for 7 months and which have resulted in a class action lawsuit being filed on behalf of sellers, and the list goes on. I also have not heard the customer service reps on the competition's toll free customer service number use the term "appropriate teams" or refer customers to a useless web form system when the customer is complaining about year long glitches that have yet to be fixed.

I am also very offended by eBay's belief that its customers should basically perform free customer service duties for ebay, and the attitude of ebay employees during the brown bag lunch which also mirrored this misguided belief.

Yes, there is an eBay community, but it exists independently of eBay the corporation, and as many recent event have shown that community does not require this venue to remain a community.

eBay seriously needs to take a look in the mirror at what it has become and how far it has strayed from its 'community values'. It needs to stop making every decision based on meeting the next quarter's expectations, and instead think of what it must do to retain its customers for the long term.

More times than not, when a company with a dominant position in its field has lost site of meeting the needs of its customers, its dominance soon fades. In a fast changing field like the Internet this ability to meet customer needs is even more vital.

Perhaps eBay should remember how fast things can change, and make some immediate efforts to correct what it has become--after all it was only a decade ago that the mere mention of commercial activity on the then new world wide web brought a barrage of flames to the speaker--now it is a given and no one would think to question the right of ecommerce companies to trade on the WWW. What will the landscape 10 years from now show and what will eBay's place in that landscape be if it continues to treat paying customers as just another commodity?