eCommerce: How to get the best out of suppliers, and profit from eBay

Jamie Hanton of SaleHoo spoke with Simon Slade, and offers advice on how all types of seller can profit from eBay

“At SaleHoo we've seen tens of thousands of people start eBay businesses and we've also seen a great many begin with unrealistic expectations of success. There seems to be a belief that buying wholesale goods and then selling them on eBay is a sort of ‘get rich quick’ scheme, where sellers can make enormous profits from very little investment or work.”

Slade says this misguided belief stems from the myth that finding a supplier with bargain basement prices is more important than developing a business strategy. The reality is that you need to invest time and thought into your eBay business.

Researching your intended market thoroughly is paramount to your success. Do you know how your market thinks? What problems do they have that you can solve? Which is a higher priority: price or quality? It is also crucial to spend time finding reliable suppliers and spend a bit of time thinking about which supply option will best suit your business: dropshippers, liquidators, and manufacturers as they each have pros and cons.

So before rushing off a huge order to the first supplier you find, stop a moment and make sure you’ve followed our steps to get the best out of your suppliers and make profits on eBay.

At the beginning: What are you going to sell?
Before you can start to look for a profitable supplier, you need to decide what to sell. Many people just look at what’s selling well in the market and go with that. This is certainly a potential strategy, but there is one major flaw: competitors. ‘Hot’ items are common knowledge and you’ll most likely be up against some heavy-weight competition – including Department Stores! Not surprisingly, competition this big can be ruinous to a small seller.

A better idea is to follow in the wise words of Confucius: “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Give your business a fighting chance by choosing something related to your interests. This strategy also has the advantage of immediately narrowing the field and restricting your options.  

Yet another wise individual once said that creativity is enhanced by a degree of restriction. If you give someone a choice of 5 business ideas and ask them to choose the one they like best, then they will probably be able to tell you within a couple of minutes - perhaps immediately. On the other hand, if you tell someone they can start a business in any area they wish, they will probably still be making their mind up two months later!

Selling something you love is not only motivating; it is also a lot easier. For example, let’s say you decide to sell designer fashion because, although you've never had a personal interest, you see it sells well. This might be fine at first, but just wait until problems arise and you have to think about fashion 24 hours a day to get them solved. At times like this, even the prospect of good money isn’t always motivating enough!

On the other hand, when you share your buyer’s knowledge and passion, you’ll find it a lot easier to make good business decisions because you already know your market and feel excited about what you do. Do you love fashion or movies? Perhaps you feel excited about the thought of new gadgets and technology? It’s likely that there are plenty of other people who also share your interest – giving you an instant audience for your product.

Jot down your interests and then make a list of products that are related to these interests then put this information into a business plan. I guarantee that the mere act of putting your business down on paper will give you a much clearer idea of where you are going and what you need to do to get there.

Got a product? Great! Is there a market for it?
The next step is to research your ideas. There is no point selling something that thousands of other people are already selling – nor is there any point trying to force people to buy some new invention they don’t want. However, all too many sellers just see the popularity of the item and dive in head first. Over-saturated markets mean a lot of work for very little in return. Throw big, established sellers into the mix and it's almost impossible to compete.

What you should be doing is looking for niche markets that have low competition and high demand – and be prepared to continually adjust your market as the demand changes. Things change so rapidly on the Internet that to be successful requires making constant tweaks and adjustments to your idea to fit changing demand.

Experimentation is essential! Always test a product idea with a sample lot first. Never, ever buy in bulk with the assumption that you’ll be able to sell it all – you might have a nasty surprise.

 
Instead, buy in small quantities and test 2 or 3 different products at a time. Try different pricing points and adding value. For example, rather than selling Frisbees individually, you could try making up a ‘Family Sports Pack’ with a Frisbee, tennis balls, hula hoop, and a jump rope. This is a great way of increasing value and attracting people looking for a good deal.

Finally, timing can be everything. A product that isn’t selling well now might suddenly become more popular in a couple of months time. For example, a couple of years ago the only people who counted knitting as a hobby had gray hair and wrinkles. These days it’s a different story. A few models were photographed knitting backstage, and now, everyone’s hunting for specialty wool and knitting patterns.

This highlights the importance of keeping up to date with current trends via the media. Again, if you are interested in your market this won’t be hard. A regular Vogue reader would quickly spot this trend – while a seller uninterested in fashion trends and related hobbies may not.. It’s amazing what niche opportunities you can stumble across if you go looking within your market.

Product – Check, Market – Check, Stock – Uhhh
Sourcing Your Product

Niche products are hard to find precisely because they aren't wanted by everybody. Thus, finding a supplier will take quite a bit of work on your behalf as these items usually can't be purchased from individual wholesalers. Instead, you'll have to contact large wholesalers, liquidators or even contact the manufacturer directly.

Finding suppliers can be like looking for a needle in a haystack especially if you just use Google your product in the hope of finding a superstar supplier. Wading through thousands of results is not an efficient way of spending your research time. And then, once you find the suppliers how can you be sure that they are legitimate and reliable? Using a product sourcing directory is one step that buyers can take to ensure the suppliers they intend to use are the real deal. It's best to go with a web-based directory that updates its listings and provides reviews of the suppliers in its list. Online product sourcing directory SaleHoo.com provides information and reviews for all types of suppliers. If you would rather go straight to the source here are the main types of suppliers you're likely to come across and a recommended suggestion.

Wholesalers
Wholesalers buy stock in bulk from the manufacturer for a very low cost per unit. They then distribute it to retail stores and sellers. Buying wholesale is a great way of making medium level purchases. You can buy goods at a very low cost per unit from wholesalers, leaving plenty of room to profit. Once you have established an account with a wholesaler, you have a reliable, long-term supply.

And the cons? Wholesalers generally have minimum order requirements, usually around $100-$300US, designed to stop people from purchasing single units.

Here are some Wholesalers to try:

• Electronics Wholesaler: www.dbldistributing.com This supplier is a market leading wholesale distributor of consumer electronic accessories. With a diverse range of products and a stock count in excess of 17,000, they have the marketplace power to provide excellent prices. 
• Chinese Wholesaler: www.golbalsourcesdirect.com This supplier lets companies of all sizes buy products from original manufacturers in China at low factory prices and wholesale prices. Products range from consumer electronics and general merchandise, to premiums and DIY products. Keen to do business with anyone, they welcome small lot orders. 
• Computer Wholesaler: www.evertek.com This American wholesaler, established in 1990, is up to date, reliable and enthusiastic about selling products at low prices. They stock an immense range of electronic goods. Indeed virtually any consumer product that has a circuit in it can probably be found in their catalogue! Instead of just accepting a quoted price for something, with some products this wholesaler gives you the chance to make an offer of your own.
  

Liquidation Sales/Clearance
Liquidation sales occur when a store wishes to get rid of stock and liquidize assets for a move, or, when a company has gone bankrupt and assets are being liquidized to help repay debt. The main advantage of a liquidation sale is that good quality, near-new or new merchandise is sold off very cheaply. You can usually request an inventory of the sale before you go, so it’s reasonably straight forward to see whether there will be items of interest. The only difficulty with liquidation sales is that you can’t predict when they are going to be held, so they cannot provide a reliable, long-term supply of stock.

Clearance sales occur at the end of the season or the financial year when stores want to get rid of old stock, returns, and damaged goods. Like liquidation sales, clearance sales are designed to get rid of stock quickly, so prices are usually rock bottom. The difficulty with clearance sales is that you often have to buy by the pallet load – sometimes without knowing exactly what is inside. Occasionally, this can result in nasty surprises such as badly damaged items, worn clothing, or items that the store just couldn’t shift and will be difficult to sell.

Both liquidation and clearance sales can be wonderful sources, but they usually require spending $1,000+ and you may end up with stock that’s hard to shift. Try:

• Liquidation Auctions: www.liquidation.com This supplier has a wide variety of categories that include apparel, computers, electronics, housewares, industrial equipment and vehicles. Bulk lots are sold by the truckload, pallet, or small package and conditions range from new in a box to customer returns and used.
  

Manufacturers
Manufacturers produce the product and as the first link in the supply chain, they are able to give you the best prices. However, because distribution is not their primary concern, minimum orders are normally high. Typically you will need to order 1000+ units or by the container load, thus this is usually not a viable option for beginners. For established sellers, buying directly from the manufacturer is the most cost effective way of buying bulk merchandise.

Alternatively, some SaleHoo members use the forum to group together to buy a container load of merchandise, sharing the shipping costs across the group. This is not something SaleHoo is directly involved in and the responsibility of organizing these ventures rests on the members.

If you do end up with a bunch of stock you can’t sell, try listing it as a wholesale lot on eBay. Many sellers have successfully used this technique to get rid of dead stock!

• Chinese Manufacturer: www.gttoys.com/en/home.asp They are a China based company specializing in the manufacturing of toys including ride on toys and crafts. They have a new brand name that supplies hand held games and learning computers as well as remote controlled toys. They strive to offer the cheapest pricing available. 
  

Business is Personal
What to do once you've found a supplier

Email is a wonderful thing and it saves a lot of time but building up personal relationships with suppliers is absolutely essential for getting the best priced goods.

Making a phone call, starting up an email exchange, or having regular chats on a messenger service and getting to know the supplier are all great ideas. The time you spend building a relationship will not only mean you’re in a stronger position to get better prices, but, because you know your supplier, you’ll be more confident that things will go smoothly when you finally do place your order.

This is especially important if you're thinking about using suppliers that aren't located in your country. It is absolutely crucial that lines of communication are kept open when dealing with Chinese suppliers as negotiating is a key part of doing business with them. Prices and shipping costs can be reduced with a bit of haggling.  

eBay businesses are as varied as the bricks-and-mortar retailers on the High Street. Keep in mind that these strategies are guidelines and that each business will differ. Remember that if you invest enough time and effort into researching your market and finding quality reliable suppliers your eBay business is more likely to succeed.

eCommerce: Speaking my language?

Andy Wood highlights the importance of Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is now a universally accepted concept amongst marketers. According to our research it is now at a stage of market maturity where, in 2007, the proportion of the UK’s top 500 companies with a Head of CRM, comes in at approaching half (48%) up four percentage points since this survey was last conducted in 2005 (44%). And the impression that one gets from ongoing reports on the technique is that few companies have failed to implement some form of CRM initiative.

Customers have come to expect that they will be dealt with in a meaningful and personalised fashion. This expectation has meant that when companies do talk relevantly to their customers, using the information that they have collected on their profile, their preferences and most importantly their transactions, the rewards – in terms of customer retention and increasing value to the firm, are often stellar.

In the last two years, the financial services sector, in particular, has massively reduced the amount of direct mail it sends out, but has focused the budget thus freed up on making their communications more relevant and targeted in order to vastly improve response and retention rates. Our recent research proved, for the first time, the correlation between relevant communications and customer satisfaction, itself an absolute prerequisite for any customer retention and development strategy. To put things plainly, relevant communications cement customer satisfaction; and customer satisfaction encourages people to stay and spend more.

It is worth dwelling for a moment on the practicalities of implementing effective and relevant customer marketing. To do so, one has to embrace the notion of a customer “journey”, moving incrementally from low-loyal, infrequent spenders, to high-loyal frequent spenders.

The customer journey is simple in principle and execution. It is intrinsically linked to our view that more profit from customers can be driven from four actions:

• More customers
  
• Spending more
  
• Spending more often
  
• Less attrition
  

In a further strand, the CRM phenomenon is not just a private sector one. The public sector has noticed the efficiency and effectiveness of ‘joined-up’ or – otherwise put – ‘single customer view’ communications and strategies. In the public sector, the object in view is not to increase sales and profits, but rather to understand and satisfy the citizen through better, more co-ordinated delivery of public services. The phenomenon in the public sector has retained the acronym ‘CRM’, but has renamed it Citizen Relationship Management. The technique remains basically the same, but in the public sector tends to concentrates on the most needy in society – a wealth reversal compared to the types of people who are most keenly targeted in the commercial sphere.

In any case, the notion that targeted, data-based, relevant communications produce the best outcomes, is common to private and public sector alike.

GI Insight’s latest research examines the level to which the British customer or citizen feels that the most important organisations they deal with on a day-to-day basis are communicating with them. Is it relevant? Has the organisation gathered key information on them – their circumstances, tastes, preferences and, above all, transactions? Has that information been collated and analysed so that communications, strategies, offers, service propositions, and so on, are relevant and targeted to the individual? In short, is the information held on the recipient being intelligently used? We know now that, across public and private sector organisations, the effective use of information for marketing and/or customer/citizen management can reap the most extraordinary dividends, both in terms of outcomes and efficiencies.

The results were converted into an index which showed the percentage points above or below average for communications/marketing relevance. In brief, the findings are as follows:-

GI Insight research from early 2007 proved the correlation between relevant communications and customer satisfaction; and customer satisfaction is the absolute pre-requisite for improvements in customer retention and spending. This current study, which has asked consumers about the relevance and targeting of communications they receive, shows a clear disparity between database marketing standards in different industries.

The mature techniques of British Supermarkets stands head and shoulders above the other sectors studied. As an aggregated set of sectors, retailers in general are obviously getting the targeting game right more often than financial services, although the finance super-sector’s average is being dragged down by the poor performance of credit card issuers. It can be no coincidence that these findings correlate strongly with the penetration of loyalty schemes in each of these sectors, suggesting that such schemes are critical to collecting sufficient data on the customers, especially in terms of associating transactions with customers.

The poorest at personalised and relevant communications are the public sector, both at the local and national government level (-18% and –19% respectively). This finding shows that citizen relationship management, which has taken its inspiration from the groundwork of customer relationship management techniques in the private sector, still has a long way to go in effectively implementing data-based communications with the general public

Perhaps most importantly, this study reveals that an overemphasis is being placed on targeting efforts towards younger age groups, in contrast with the 45+ consumer. This is in despite of the fact that the 45-65 age band is the highest earning, and that the departure of children from the family home often massively increases disposable income and, ironically, also creates demand for capital release financial products in parental support of those departed offspring as they set up home themselves. Banks are, surprisingly worst at taking advantage of targeting this wealthy group.

Two main conclusions summarise this report’s key findings. First, it reveals which sectors need to improve their standard of customer relevance and targeting, and shows through the iconic gold-standard of the UK supermarket sector, what can be achieved. Equally, it reveals the prejudice of marketers across all sectors in over-concentrating on the younger consumer to the neglect of high-potential, wealthier, and possibly more appreciative older customers.

eCommerce: Business Accountz review

David Bradforth takes a look at a user-friendly approach to business accounts, designed from the start to be jargon-free

We can say with some confidence that producing accounts for any size of business - small, medium or large, is a time-consuming process that depends to a very large extent on the person preparing the accounts having an understanding both on the nature of the business and also on the terminology behind accounts.

With some fifteen years of development behind it, Business Accountz may be the first accounting package aimed at businesses simply intended to make that process easier.

Supplied on a single CD-ROM and suitable for use with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Business Accountz operates on the double-entry accountancy principle. Essentially, for everything that comes into the business there's a duplicate entry into a log elsewhere within the business accounts.

It's a nice idea in principle - very straightforward to follow and works very well if somebody spends a half hour each day entering all of the business transactions into the program.

Business Accountz has been designed for use by Sole Traders, Partnerships and Service-Based companies (so those who don't have to deal with stock). They use a principle called Rapid Data Entry meaning essentially that as your transactions are made and entered into the program the figures are reflected elsewhere giving you an instant indication of your profit, costs and so on.

For each customer account you create, an invoices/queries made against that account are reflected in a comprehensive customer history which provides a sound foundation for further discussion on developing that client relationship.

The invoice component of the program is very straightforward to use. You can customise the invoices much as you would in a desktop publishing package; adding in your own graphics for headed notepaper (or deleting the graphics alltogether so as to use pre-printed headed notepaper). It's very intuitive in use, and logically laid out.

At the core of Business Accountz are just that - accounts. You can have purchase accounts, sales accounts - in fact any type of accounts you wish; and they're unlimited. If you have divisions this allows you to trace income on a divisonal basis and to divide the income appropriately.

The business reports are fully customisable, but in their default state provide the essential information many businesses require - the state of the business at that point in time; giving a clear idea of what your cash flow situation is likely to be in a month or twos time.

The manual supplied with the package is very well written; and the tutorial videos supplied on the CD-ROM allow for no doubt when it comes to using the product itself.

It's quite admirable that the program works as well as it does across three computer platforms; and while the manual does explain the interface thoroughly there are quirks to the interface - the Mac version is not 100% Aqua, the Windows version not 100% Vista and so on.

Despite this we do have an accounts package that does what it sets out to on the tin. It provides the smaller business with the means of keeping accurate track of the state of their business without confusing them with terminology. Given that time is money, Business Accountz will pay for itself in a very short space of time.

Available from Accountz.com (http://www.accountz.com) at £69.99

Small Business: Promote your eBay Store

It’s essential to promote your eBay store - nobody will visit it unless they know of its existence. David Bradforth takes a look at ways you can use Google for website promotion.

When putting together your website, there’s one very important thing you’ll need to remember - there are an awful lot of them out there; many of which aiming to get the same audience for which you’re aiming.

eBay will to an extent look after the site promotion for you; providing optimised data directly to Google within any terms or phrases you so desire but ultimately the effort for promotion on your website has to be your own.

You need to ensure that there’s something unique about the way in which your site is promoted in order to ensure you get the right type of audience.

How does it address the needs of its audience? What’s particularly special about it, in comparison to other sites of a similar nature offering perhaps the same product base for a very similar cost?

The techniques we use for promotion will ultimately reflect upon the success we experience from that promotion.

Using bulk e-mail (or spam) will probably not achieve the desired result. In many countries it’s now illegal to send unsolicited mail via email or post, and you could find yourself in hot water with your internet service provider.

It’s better instead to use a search engine such as Google. You can use Google in two ways - to directly promote your site by allowing Google to find it and index it; or using the Google Adwords programme as a means of setting an advertising budget then ensuring tht your spending never goes above it. With many thousands of hits a day, you’re guaranteed site success. With a domain name directed to your eBay store, the promotion is complete!

Make it easier: Simplify things for Google and promote your site with ease

STEP ONE Visit the Google homepage at www.google.co.uk or www.google.com, depending upon the country within which you wish to index your site. If you index through google.com, your site may appear within local country sites as well. Start by signing in - click the Sign In button towards the top right.

STEP TWO As you’ll be advised at this point, by signing into your Google account you can personlise your experience. If you’ve created a custom home page, for instance, it will appear after you sign in. Enter your email address and password, then click the Sign In button to continue.

STEP THREE This will return you to the Google homepage, although your email address will now appear towards the top of the window. Further personalised items may now appear - such as the Google Docs advert towards the bottom of the window. We’re interested in adding our site for crawling. Click About Google.

STEP FOUR This opens the About Google page, within which is a selection of useful (and not-so useful) Google information. Within the For Site Owners section is Submitting your Site. This explains the process Google uses to add URLs to the engine, and allows you to submit your own. Click the link as shown.

STEP FIVE This part of Google allows you to share your site with Google, as well as the world as large. As it explains, you need to add the URL in full, including the http:// prefix (e.g. http://www.essentialseries.co.uk/). Add a few comments, explaining the nature of the site then click Add URL.

STEP SIX Google advises you that the URL has been added to their system, and the next time the engine sets out to crawl for new URLs it will be one taken into consideration. There are however no guarantees of inclusion - but for a well-optimised site with good content you should quickly find yourself listed.

eCommerce: 1&1 Internet change their phone number

Our contact number has changed to 0871 641 21 21. The fax number is still 08450 76 22 05.

We shall continue to offer you excellent support service on this new number, 24 hours a day seven days a week. For all billing queries, call 0871 641 21 21 between 9am and 5am from Monday to Friday.

Sellers Workshop: Actinic Announces Version 9 of its Ecommerce Software for online traders

Major update for popular eCommerce software solution

Actinic, the supplier of award-winning ecommerce solutions for small and medium businesses, announces the release of version 9 of its desktop ecommerce range. Actinic v9 provides a range of enhancements to its ease of use, plus new features that improve the customers’ experience and make it easier and more efficient to manage a business selling through multiple channels.

Chris Barling, CEO of Actinic says: “Over the last year the challenge has been to satisfy the demands of established, successful merchants managing increasingly sophisticated, multi-channel retail operations, while also enhancing the ease of use for start-up owners. In Actinic v9 we have made the changes to meet both sets of needs. In so doing, we can now offer the most advanced feature set in any ecommerce package and the best range of ecommerce solutions from a single supplier.”

Changes in Actinic v9 include:

• New multi-channel order processing Actinic research and user feedback shows that the majority of online merchants also sell through other channels. So v9 provides a new order entry form for mail order and telephone orders. This is fully integrated with the ecommerce side and will speed up order processing, providing postcode validation and direct credit card payment options.
• Enhanced usability Actinic v9 has a number of improvements designed to enhance ease of use for both new and existing users. The addition of new Start-up and Design Wizards will enable new users to get up and running quickly. These are complemented by a revamped context-sensitive help function with access from every screen. For existing users, a Product Option Wizard speeds up new product creation while a completely new Tax Module provides extra flexibility for setting tax options.
• Improved site management Google Analytics integration improves site management. It enables merchants to track visitor behaviour and marketing campaigns in order to make informed decisions about their business development.
• Revised product range Version 9 sees the consolidation of Actinic Business Multi-Site and Actinic Business Multi-User into one product: Actinic Business Plus. Designed to simplify the product range and make the upgrade path easier, Actinic Business Plus is a multi-site, single user licence with built-in networking capability, providing the option of adding further users.
• New payments option Version 9 also includes support for Actinic Payments, a new payment system scheduled to launch in mid-April. This has been developed to provide Actinic users with a competitively priced and reliable payment processing service. It will offer the tightest integration ever between Actinic’s software and a payment gateway, with most common functions being accessible directly from the desktop.

Available now, Actinic Catalog and Actinic Business pricing remains unchanged at £399 and £799 respectively, for single-site, single user licences. Actinic Business Plus is £1249 plus £300 per additional networked user. All prices exclude VAT.

You can visit the Actinic website at http://www.actinic.co.uk.

Small Business: Promote your eBay Store

It's essential to promote your eBay store - otherwise how will your customers know to visit you?

When putting together your website, there’s one very important thing you’ll need to remember - there are an awful lot of them out there; many of which aiming to get the same audience for which you’re aiming.

eBay will to an extent look after the site promotion for you; providing optimised data directly to Google within any terms or phrases you so desire but ultimately the effort for promotion on your website has to be your own.

You need to ensure that there’s something unique about the way in which your site is promoted in order to ensure you get the right type of audience.

How does it address the needs of its audience? What’s particularly special about it, in comparison to other sites of a similar nature offering perhaps the same product base for a very similar cost?

The techniques we use for promotion will ultimately reflect upon the success we experience from that promotion. Using bulk e-mail (or spam) will probably not achieve the desired result. In many countries it’s now illegal to send unsolicited mail via email or post, and you could find yourself in hot water with your internet service provider.

It’s better instead to use a search engine such as Google. You can use Google in two ways - to directly promote your site by allowing Google to find it and index it; or using the Google Adwords programme as a means of setting an advertising budget then ensuring tht your spending never goes above it. With many thousands of hits a day, you’re guaranteed site success. With a domain name directed to your eBay store, the promotion is complete!

This article continues in issue four of eBay Advisor, with a number of detailed step-by-step guides.

Opinion: eBay We Love You

People love eBay - but things are not always that straightforward

People love eBay. In the UK it accounts for 11% of all internet surfing and the average eBay member spends 2 hours on the site every month. Worldwide the company has built an impressive community of 233 million members in 37 countries

However, there have recently been rumblings of discontent in the eBay community. Sellers have been complaining of high fees, low sales and bad customer service. There was even a (tiny) seller strike in August 2006 over the change in eBay shop listing fees. Amongst many eBayers there is a feeling that it is not looking after its members. Most worryingly for eBay, the company’s growth has slowed

So what has eBay done to strengthen its community and boost sales? Like everyone it has been jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Web 2.0 refers to web based applications which encourage people interact and collaborate online. Recently the company launched eBay neighbourhoods where people with similar interests can get together and discuss items as varied as coffee machines and diecast toy cars. It has also launched blog widgets and a Facebook application both of which allow users to promote their products across the internet. eBay is clearly hoping that these new Web 2.0 style applications will encourage people both on and off eBay to spend more time discussing eBay items and trading. As well as new applications, eBay has also been revamping its website to make it easier to use

I have been impressed with how the company has recently responded to criticism and made efforts to improve its service. People love to whinge, but there is no evidence of a mass exodus to other auction sites. It remains a great place for both individuals and businesses to trade online and reach a huge international audience. Most importantly, eBay is still fun and a place to interact with interesting and varied people.

So what does the future hold for eBay? Many industry experts think that it should merge with another big online player such as Yahoo or Microsoft. There are also rumours of a takeover of UK based online auction site QXL, which will enable eBay to get a foothold in the booming economies of Eastern Europe. Whatever happens, eBay is still very much a force to be reckoned with.

Opinion: The impact and innovations of web2.0 platforms within content management systems

Andy Bellinger - UK Country Manager for RedDot - discusses the impact and innovations of web2.0 upon content management systems.

With dozens of different definitions flying around and a host of industry experts getting involved in the debate, web2.0 is one of the most heavily discussed technology topics of modern times. But however you might want to label it, web2.0 is not something that companies can afford to ignore for much longer. It has evolved apace and what was once considered a technological trend is now seen by many as an essential component of successful web strategy.

No longer satisfied with one-way communication, web users have stopped viewing the Internet as just another broadcasting channel. Instead, they want a richer online experience with more dialogue, and to feel empowered by a website. Companies are rushing to facilitate user-generated content on their websites. By introducing web2.0 applications like blogs, forums, wikis and mashups they have realised how they can enhance the interactive experience for users, whilst generating revenue, extending customer relationships and improving their profile at the same time.

Providers of Web Content Management (WCM) have had to move quickly to ensure that their products can offer dynamic web2.0 solutions in line with the massive demands of a rapidly evolving landscape, where seemingly new innovations are pioneered every day.

Until now, organisations have looked to bolt-on periphery third party solutions to provide web2.0 functionality. But with web solution providers, like RedDot, integrating web2.0 capabilities into their WCM suites, user-generated information can now be captured and leveraged in the same manner as editorial content, providing web creators and editors with a one-stop shop for all their web projects.

Why CMS with eBay? Whichever way you look at it, eBay is a content management system - the views of Andy expressed in this piece only serve to back up the techniques that should be used by successful sellers.

With web2.0 becoming a native feature in WCM, web editors are starting to witness a huge impact on what they can achieve. They can now expand their web initiatives to include blogs, forums, wikis, and ratings as easily as selecting files and images and incorporating these applications into the website. What’s more, staff from both technical and non-technical backgrounds can be invited into the editorial chain, enabling them to supply, manipulate and approve web content with ease.

Editors can easily initiate discussions in an intranet setting, or write an editorial entry, attach documents, and expand it from a forum or blog. Specific user groups can be easily granted “read” and “write” authorisation and, best of all, the components can easily be reused for multiple web projects.

With these added features and modules, consumers undoubtedly benefit from a website with more of a community feel. Loyalty is gained, advertising becomes more desirable and revenue and sales are boosted. The whole web experience becomes more pleasurable and unique for web users. For web editors and companies alike, the latest innovations in WCM can bring a company’s entire infrastructure, including sales, marketing and HR teams, into the editing process. The company naturally benefits from enhanced internal and external collaboration on content.

With just a third of UK companies implementing web2.0 technologies in their corporate websites, the education process has only just begun. The potential take up in the next few years should be overwhelming and there is massive scope for WCM systems to facilitate this transformation and bring websites up to speed with the very latest innovations.

Selling: Shopping at eBay Express

If you want to buy an item for a fixed price rather than bidding on it, eBay’s online store could be just what you’re looking for.

Whatever you’re looking to buy, you’ll probably find it on eBay. If it’s legal and available, someone, somewhere will be offering it for sale and while the site’s reputation might be for second hand goods, there are plenty of brand new items available to purchase. And often at a bargain price too. Take Casino Royale on DVD for example. This costs £14.99 (inc postage) at Play.com, and £14.72 at Amazon, yet eBay will let you Buy It Now from a choice of sellers from just £11, delivered. With major savings to be had, it’s perhaps surprising that eBay hasn’t had more of an impact on sales from traditional online stores.

The reason for this of course, is the site’s reputation. As eBay itself has long since realised, a broad swathe of the buying public view eBay as nothing more than a glorified car boot sale. Ideal for selling items you no longer want or picking up a used pushchair or a collectible from the past, but not somewhere you’d think of shopping for the latest products. A brand new iPod purchased from eBay might be identical in every way from one purchased online from Dixons – just cheaper – but tell a non-eBayer where you got it from and there’s a good chance they’ll be thinking there’s something wrong with it; that it’s a fake or that it’s second hand.

eBay Express (www.express.ebay.co.uk) is eBay’s attempt to appeal to shoppers who might have been put off by the auction site’s reputation and also by reoccurring news stories concerning scams and counterfeit or nonexistent goods. The new site has some things in common with eBay, but in other ways, it’s entirely different. For starters, not everyone can sell products on Express – only established eBayers with a business account and at least a 98% positive feedback rating are allowed to trade on the site. There’s no bidding, everything is offered at a fixed price (and fully inclusive of postage and packing) and only brand new goods are accepted.

eBay Express is home to the same broad range of content you’d find on the main eBay site but its design has been carefully crafted to make it more accessible. You can search for goods or browse through the different categories using the bar at the top of the screen. Each category is broken down into a range of subcategories, so you can quickly navigate through them all to locate what you’re looking for.

When you find something you like, you simply add it to your basket and keep shopping. Your basket can store items from multiple merchants and you pay for everything in one go, when you’re ready. Goods are all covered by a minimum seven working days returns policy and if you send something back and the seller doesn’t refund you, you can complain directly to eBay and get your money back from them.

Unlike Amazon, Play.com or other rival sites, Express’s goods aren’t kept on sale indefinitely, but they are available for 30 or 90 days at a time. This makes it easier for sellers to retail multiple items without needing to keep relisting them every few days or so as they are currently forced to do on eBay.

eBay Express definitely shows promise, but it’s very early days for the site which was only launched over here six months ago (following earlier launches in America and Germany). Although there are just under 800,000 items for sale across fourteen different categories, hunting for specific products quickly makes you realise the depth of choice is seriously lacking when compared with the likes of eBay, with its 25 million items, and other specialist stores.

There are bargains to be had (Casino Royale is £11.49 here), but it’s mostly more expensive than eBay, and competes with, rather than undercuts, most online shops. It also doesn’t do a particular good job of promoting new goods. Instead of the DVD categories page opening with the latest blockbuster releases, you’re presented with the likes of the A-Team, Carry on Dick, and Battlefield – Air War Over Germany.

That said, you’ve only got to look at the American site (www.express.ebay.com) to see what the future could be like for eBay Express here. It has loads more categories, millions of items and the focus is on the very latest products, not just unused ones. The UK version of the site might not be fantastic at the moment, but it has a bright future and is definitely worth a browse.

This was published in issue three of eBay Advisor, and was written by Wayne Williams. We'll take a further look at it in issue five of eBay Advisor.

eBay Advisor: Online store opens once again

eBay Advisor is pleased to announce the relaunch of it's online store. If you visit us you'll find competitive prices on a variety of eBay-related products as well as general computing-related items. Should you wish us to expand it further, please let us know.

Site link

• Visit us today

Review: GarageSale - $24.99 for Mac OS X

Hosting a garage sale is back-breaking work; work that Mac users can avoid with the help of IWasCoding.com's GarageSale, a virtual, vastly better alternative to the time honoured garage sale. We asked Amy Wood to take a look.

Like its main competition, the Mac-only application iSale, GarageSale is a stand alone eBay utility that aids auctioneers in posting, editing, and monitoring multiple items for sale. Unlike iSale however, GarageSale manages to offer a number of outstanding auction creating options and more at a very affordable price. True, it's not as good-looking as iSale, but what GarageSale lacks in style it truly makes up for in substance.

Navigating the GarageSale's robust feature set is practically painless thanks to four main category buttons, two organization panes and a bottom tool bar. There are four, self-explanatory main categories to work with within the application: Templates, Previews, Scheduler, and Auctions. What appears in the narrow organizational pane on the left, and the larger main pane on the right, depends on which of the four main categories you're in. For example, when in Preview, you'll see previously saved templates in the main window, and some options for organizing these templates on the right; in Auctions, you'll see all completed, cancelled, and current auctions (different coloured buttons differentiate between the categories) in the main window and information regarding payment, etc. on the left. A bottom tool bar of actions (like new template or new event) also change depending on which pane you're in.

Very much a Mac application, GarageSale lets users cull images directly from their iPhoto library (even edit the images in GarageSale with a rudimentary image editor), or capture images—and scan bar codes—directly into the application with an iSight camera. .Mac image hosting (as well as eBay and FTP hosting) is offered, as are Apple scripts for bulk auction changes. On the non-Mac specific front, the application automatically lists any auction featured in your My eBay account (hallelujah) and has enough slick templates to spice up any product you may be offering.

With an easily-accessible interface, GarageSale

makes it easy to update your eBay listings

As with most, there were complaints. First, relisting an unsold item is unintuitive and unnecessarily complicated, with not even a menu command to point you in the right direction. Second, we'd like to have a searchable PDF manual included with the application download as standard (instead of having to rely on an online HTML manual). Third, we feel the application could be better in how it handles eBay's extra fees. Items that cost extra (such as bold headlines) are indicated in red as costing extra when you prepare an item for sale, however, no price is listed (you have to guess or go from memory). Not having this information handy as you prepare an auction is frustrating, and can lead to unpleasant surprises when you go to post.

This review was published in issue two of eBay Advisor, and relates to an earlier version of the product. We'll provide an updated review shortly.

Contact box

• Product: GarageSale
• Supplier: iWasCoding
• Price: $24.99
• Website: www.iwascoding.com

Review: iSale - $39.99 for Mac OS X

Tedium, thy name is posting, editing, and monitoring multiple auctions on eBay with a web browser. Mac users searching for a faster, flashier way to eBay will want to take a look at equinux's iSale 3, an listing utility that aids auction addicts with an eye-pleasing interface and promising feature set. We sent Amy Wood to take a look.

iSale sports a very appealing interface with bright icons and funky, three pane design. Auction action commands (like showing auctions in progress, payment, etc.) appear on the left, a list of saved auction templates is in the middle while the main pane is on the right. In the main pane, you can view and modify the details of your template or submitted auction, see how your auction will/does look once posted using the eBay Preview screen, or monitor who is watching, bidding, and commenting on your auction with the Sale Status & Memo section. (Note: In order to use iSale, you must have a valid eBay account. Once the account is verified, it appears in a button in the lower left of the main window. You may change your eBay identity at any time by clicking on the button.)

We liked iSale's ability to import eBay and Amazon product descriptions, and that images can be hosted by eBay (for a fee), or by using FTP or .Mac (essentially free). Users can pull images for their auctions directly from their iPhoto library, as well as take advantage of iCal integration for auction scheduling. A large template database can help punch up any stale item's appeal, and you won't break your listing budget unknowingly as iSale monitors how much every customizing extra fee will cost.

With an intuitive interface, iSale allows quick and easy

update of your eBay listings and is competitvely priced.

While we loved the overall functionality and feature set of iSale, we did have three major gripes. The first is the inability to import existing auctions from a user's My eBay account. Second, setting up shipping information is a bit of a hassle; in this convoluted process, you must deselect the "See Description" box next to the Shipping option to even see the default shipping information (including which service you'll use, whether you'll offer insurance, etc.). Thirdly, relisting an auction is unintuitive and confusing, thanks to the presentation of conflicting instructions. Users may follow eBay's relisting instructions as presented in the main pane's finished auctions live view, rather than notice iSale's very subtle "relist" button. Users who follow the screen will relist with eBay, and not iSale, and iSale will not be able to monitor the auction (users will have to monitor the auction via their My eBay page). We hope these issues are fixed in future versions.

This review was published in issue two of eBay Advisor and relates to an earlier version of iSale. An updated review was published in issue 4.

Contact box

• Product: iSale
• Supplier: equinux
• Price: $39.99
• Website: www.equinux.com

PayPal launch new Credit Card

Launched just before the global credit crunch, PayPal UK have - in partnership with GE Capital bank - announced a credit card offering 0% interest on purchases for six months, the same on balance transfers for 9 months (but subject to a 2.5% fee) and the chance to earn cash back to your PayPal account.

Essentially it's a branded version of a GE Capital card, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The company offers a superb service should you suffer from identity theft, if your card is stolen or cloned they will allow you to state which transactions are yours, which aren't and - in common with other credit cards - you can use it over the world.

The PayPal cash back will come in handy for those eBay purchases you can't justify through normal means; and with 12.9% APR the card is competitive within todays market.

If you have one, let eBay Advisor know your views - post your comments below, or if you're not happy doing that feel free to email the editor.

eBay Global: Busiest Shopping Day Expected in December on "Green Monday"

Virtual cash registers were ringing across the Web this Cyber Monday following shopping momentum from Black Friday. Data from PayPal showed a 33 percent increase from 2006 in online payment volume the day after Thanksgiving. From secure transactions to increased traffic, hot products to hard-to-find gifts, eBay Inc.  companies, including Shopping.com and PayPal, reported encouraging Cyber Monday shopping trends on the heels of a busy weekend.

"Cyber Monday traditionally marks the ramp-up of the online holiday shopping season and with the data that's rolling in, eTailers should see green this holiday," said Jim Griffith, eBay Inc. dean of education. "As Internet shopping grows increasingly convenient and consumers become more comfortable buying on the Web, more and more shoppers are avoiding the long lines and going online to check everything off their holiday lists."

Cyber Monday Busier Than Ever
From Cyber Monday 2005 to 2006, PayPal reported a 34 percent increase in total payment volume (TPV) online, an indicator that each year more shoppers flock to the Web the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Shopping.com's traffic to its merchants on Cyber Monday 2007 increased 28 percent compared to last year as more shoppers sought out the comparison shopping site to find some of the best online deals. Traffic to merchants for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Black Friday through Cyber Monday, was also up 30 percent year-over-year.

"Cyber Monday continues to be a big day for online shopping," said Susan Phillips, vice president of marketing for PayPal. "Regardless of when and what shoppers are buying online this holiday season, it's important to do it safely. With PayPal, the customer's financial information is never shared with the merchant, making it a safer and easier way to pay online."

Busiest Day Expected on Green Monday
Although eBay, Shopping.com and PayPal saw strong activity on Cyber Monday, the companies expect to see the busiest online shopping day come later in the season.

Based on TPV data from the past five years, PayPal concludes that the holiday shopping season is becoming longer as consumers are shopping online well into December. Procrastinating gift-givers seem to abound, with 40 percent stating they'll do the bulk of their online holiday shopping in December, according to a recent Shopping.com consumer survey. In addition, PayPal data shows that holiday shopping activity each season is the busiest on the second Monday in December, rather than Cyber Monday, as it was in the early days of the Internet.

"We're pleased with the early spike in online shopping, but are looking forward to the second Monday in December, or what we've begun to call 'Green Monday,' when we expect online shopping to really peak this season," said CEO of Shopping.com Josh Silverman. "Green Monday outpaced Cyber Monday in the past few years in terms of revenue and consumer traffic on our site. More shoppers are comfortable doing the bulk of their online shopping later in the season, and after surveying our merchants, we found that a whopping 72 percent are offering next day shipping this year as a response to demand to shop later."

Hot Products Are in Demand
Below are some of this season's most popular gifts based on what people were shopping for on eBay and Shopping.com.

Toys

• Squawkers McCaw FurReal Friends Parrot - $25 - $70, eBay
  
• Easy Link Internet Launch Pad - $32 - $63, eBay
  
• Hasbro Transformers Movie Optimus Prime Action Figure - $39 - $85, Shopping.com
  
• Based on searches and clicks, the Transformers Optimus Prime toy is the most popular action figure on Shopping.com.
  

Media

• Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas DVD - $12 - $56, eBay
  
• High School Musical 2 CD Soundtrack - $16 - $30, Shopping.com
  
• Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus Original CD Soundtrack - $12 - $16, Shopping.com
  
• Seventy-three copies of the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD sold on eBay during Cyber Monday for an average selling price of $30.55.
  

Health and Beauty

• Very Sexy for Him by Victoria's Secret 3.4 oz. Cologne Spray - $36 - $50, Shopping.com
  
• Chi Ceramic Hair Straightening Irons - $85 - $200, Shopping.com
  
• MAC Cosmetics 1.5g Eyeshadow - $3 - $20, eBay
  

The Victoria's Secret Very Sexy for Him, is the most popular men's fragrance on Shopping.com based on searches and clicks and is available from 11 stores.

Consumer Electronics

• Apple iPhone – average selling price of $416.91, eBay
  
• Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock video game for Xbox - 360 - $75, eBay
  
• Apple iPod Touch 8 GB - $285 - $350, Shopping.com
  

The Apple iPhone remains the most in-demand item on eBay. iPhones are the top-searched keyword across the site followed by iPod. Over 2,000 iPhones sold on eBay over the 2007 Thanksgiving weekend (Friday through Sunday).

Before anybody comments - yes, we're aware that this article refers to the American eBay store, but the prices are frequently a good indication of the market within the UK. With iPhones selling frequently for over £400 on eBay UK, you really should look further afield if you have an interest in these products.

eBay's UK business figures over the Christmas period have yet to be announced, but when they are we'll post them here.

eCommerce: UK businesses rush their choice of web address

• Over 40 per cent of SMEs spend same amount of time choosing their coffee maker
  
• 1 in 3 companies believe their revenue would increase with a better web address
  

UK small businesses are rushing their choice of web address, with 41 per cent investing under 1 hour of thought in the decision, according to a survey released today by Fasthosts Internet, (www.fasthosts.co.uk), the UK's largest web hosting provider. A survey of 615 British businesses revealed that the average business spends only between 6-12 hours choosing their main domain name. Some 61 per cent of business owners sought no second opinion before making a selection and over half (52 per cent) did not consider options such as .biz, .net or .eu at all. Most recognised that their domain name could have a lasting effect on their business, with one third of businesses (34 per cent) believing that their revenue would improve as a direct result of having a better web address, and 1 in 4 businesses (25 per cent) admitting they had 'concerns' about the effectiveness of their web address.

Fasthosts' 'SME Domain Choices Study' , found that UK businesses most often choose their primary domain name in haste. Some 41 per cent of businesses surveyed spent the same time selecting their domain as they did sourcing minor equipment such as their coffee maker or shredder (under 1 hour). The average UK business admitted to spending between 6-12 hours on the decision, the same amount of time the average business spent selecting IT equipment such as PCs and printers. More than 60 per cent of business owners did not seek a second opinion, and only 10 per cent of businesses considered the long term effect of the web address wording on their business image.

It is therefore unsurprising that many British businesses believe that their choice of domain name could have been better. 1 in 4 businesses (26 per cent) admitted to wanting improvements in either their domain name wording or suffix (e.g. .co.uk). Furthermore, a significant one third (33 per cent) believe that their sales revenue would improve as a direct result of a change in web address. Alarmingly, some 1 in 4 of these businesses (24 per cent) said they were unwilling to attempt a change in domain name because they believed it would involve a lot of work. There is a clear danger that a number of businesses continue to use an undesirable domain name whilst recognising it could be having a negative impact on their business.

Fasthosts' research would suggest that the way many businesses choose their web addresses could be improved. The survey found that most business owners were preoccupied with .co.uk or .com options, with over half (52 per cent) ruling out completely less obvious suffixes such as .net, .biz or .eu. Fasthosts recommends that businesses spend at least a few days thinking about their domain name wording and weighing up the pros and cons of the various suffixes available to them.

Mark Jeffries, CTO Fasthosts Internet Ltd, commented, "Businesses should consider all available options before purchasing their primary domain name. It's often the case today that the best available domains belong to less obvious suffixes, and it is always advisable to seek external opinion on what a domain could suggest about your business".

Whilst most UK small businesses now recognise the benefits of having a website, the research would suggest few are optimising their web presence. Some 5 per cent of business owners surveyed admit to having themselves forgotten their own domain name.

Jeffries added, "A web address is often bought in haste at the start of a business project. Every UK business must recognise the lasting impact that a domain name can have on sales and image, and business owners shouldn't delay making necessary changes".

If, as a business, you're looking to succeed with your online venture, eBay Advisor recommends taking the time to think about the best way to sell yourself. With a few moments of thought you could see the difference between a hundred hits and a million - the name is everything, so don't underestimate it.

eCommerce: Develop your online eBay business

As your experience of eBay grows, along with your ability to manage all aspects of your business, you may decide to move up to the next level. This may involve dedicating more time to your enterprise, which should result in more rewards. eBay is completely flexible: if you are content with a certain income and workload, remain at that level; if on the other hand you would like to develop your business, there are a few areas which could be considered.

The ideas that I will mention here are my thoughts on a possible way forward. How you actually grow your enterprise will depend on many things, but these should stimulate a few ideas.

Building on your brand
Now you have successfully traded on eBay, even just once, you have the beginnings of a brand – a name that customers will associate with certain levels of service and product quality. If the buying experience was a good one, your customers may well return to see if you have other items of interest. It is possible to use this goodwill to drive as many visits to your auctions as possible. This section looks at some of the options that will help to build your business reputation and give some ideas on how to encourage customers to return to your site. The ultimate goal must be to ensure that each time the individual visits eBay, they will visit your auctions.

Opening an eBay Shop could be the next step for your online business. They operate in much the same way as ordinary auctions, but there are quite a few advantages if you are selling the same item again and again.

eBay have created a number of tools specifically for the shop owner; including customisation control over the look and feel of your shop, cross-promotion, categories and traffic reports. These will enable you to develop your eBay brand and should encourage buyers to buy more products.

There are a number of criteria you'll have to meet before you can open an eBay shop. Currently these are that you must have PayPal as a payment method, plus feedback of 5 (or no PayPal account but a minimum feedback of 10) and an automatic payment method selected to pay your fees to eBay.

There are three formats for an eBay shop; each with a respective subscription fee. The Basic format (costing £6 a month) allows you to:

• Showcase all your listings in your shop front. 
  
• Drive buyers to your custom URL. 
  
• List in Shop Inventory format for only £0.05/30 days. 
  
• Use Merchandising Manager to cross-sell your inventory on your bid and checkout pages. 
  
• Receive monthly performance reports on all your eBay sales.
  

The other formats expand upon this functionality, ideal if you'd like your shop to get a better placement within the eBay directory. Featured (costing £30 a month) adds:

• cross-selling of your Shop inventory on all your listings pages. 
  
• priority placement in ‘Related Shops’ sections. 
  
• featured placement on the eBay Shops home page. 
  
• prime Positioning in the top level directory pages where you have items listed.
  

Finally, the Anchor format (costing £300 a month) adds showcase placement of your logo within the eBay Shops Directory pages; and Premium placement in the 'Related Shops' sections of the Search and Browse pages.

There are fees for selling through an eBay shop (essentially 5p per item per 30 days) and a final value fee is charged when the item sells.

eBay Shops are certainly suited for sellers who stock repeat items. Sellers with large numbers of items for sale at any one time can also make good use of Shops as they have the facility for buyers to perform key word searches within the Shop.

Seller Tools
It is in eBay’s interest for sellers to be able to run more auctions and sell more products; they will, of course, make more money from fees. To assist the seller with some of the less interesting tasks, eBay have developed a number of Seller Tools. There are still some older tools in use and there will undoubtedly be more released in the coming months. At this time there are three tools which might be of interest and worthy of a little more detail:
1. Selling Manager
2. Selling Manager Pro
3. Turbo Lister
These are explained in turn below.

1. Selling Manager
Selling Manager is a management tool that will assist with most tasks from scheduling your listings to managing your sales; it even helps print address labels. This tool will work within your ‘My eBay’ section and is compatible with all other eBay tools, such as the standard ‘sell your item’ form which we looked at earlier.

Selling Manager will provide an immediate estimate of your total sales and switch back to the original ‘My eBay’ format at any time. This service is currently free of charge; just visit the ‘seller tools’ from the site map and upgrade online.

The facilities offered by Selling Manager are as follows:

• Preview, edit, reschedule or cancel scheduled listings online. 
  
• Monitor your active listings in real time. 
  
• Up to date summary of the number of pending active and sold listings you have. 
  
• Track your gross sales amount for active and sold listings. 
  
• Find out when your listings end real time and track your unsold items. 
  
• Bulk re-list your sold and unsold items. 
  
• Keep track of your buyer communication and whether your items have been paid or shipped. 
  
• Store sales and customer information. 
  
• Use seven fully customisable email templates to communicate with your buyers. 
  
• Record your buyer communication to help with Non-Paying Buyers (NPBs). 
  
• Store up to 10 custom feedback messages to re-use. 
  
• Keep track of whether your buyer has left you a positive, negative or neutral feedback. 
  
• Print shipping labels. 
  
• Print invoices. 
  
• Monthly view of archived sales. 
  

2. Selling Manager Pro
As you have come to expect, eBay also offer an upgrade to the Selling Manager service – Selling Manager Pro. This service is free for the first 30 days on a trial basis and then costs £4.99 per month. This tool has been created for the high volume seller and small business. It will allow for bulk listings and builds on the Selling Manager management tools.

The additional facilities include:

• Inventory management Manage your auctions and shop items by keeping track of your inventory. It is not good to have stock in storage that you don’t know about. It is also not good to sell an item and then realise that you don’t have any left. You can also re-list your items in bulk. 
  
• Listing statistics Understand the success of your product and see which items sell best by calculating your average selling price. 
  
• Listing, emailing, sending feedback and printing invoices in bulk Selling Manager Pro will perform most of your mundane tasks in bulk. 
  
• Automatic email and feedback Automatic completion of feedback and email generation. 
  
• Profit and loss reports With monthly profit and loss reports, you will be able to stay better informed about how your business and the market in general is performing. These reports include your eBay fees.
  

The 6p fee to schedule in advance is removed when you subscribe to Selling Manager Pro.

3. Turbo Lister
Listing auctions can be very time consuming, especially if you have to write out the description each time. eBay have thought of this and introduced a tool called Turbo Lister. As the name suggests, this is a very fast way of loading hundreds or even thousands of items onto eBay in one go.

With this tool, you will be able to create your listings on your computer and then upload them to eBay in one hit. It has been designed for medium to high volume sellers and is currently free to use. Some of the main attractions of Turbo Lister are:

• It contains a design editor which will help create a more professional listing and you don’t need to know any HTML. 
  
• You can load multiple items once and save the details for use in the future, which saves writing them out again. 
  
• You can add pictures to the listings without being connected to the internet. This might save some money if you are on a ‘pay as you go’ network connection. 
  
• You can insert notes on payment terms, shipping details and any other messages that you would normally include.
  

Extending your customer relationship
Once you have traded successfully with your buyer, you will have started a relationship with them and it is possible to nurture this and hopefully turn them into a loyal customer. It is important not to send any unsolicited emails as this is treated as spam. There are, however, a couple of things that you may like to try:

1. Permission based campaigns On your dispatch email, consider a line which says something like, ‘If you would like details of all our forthcoming auctions, please let us know and we will send you a regular update’. If the buyer responds, you have their permission to send them emails in the future. What you include in these emails is up to you, but you should find that it will stimulate interest in your auctions.
2. Newsletter You may consider a customer newsletter. This could contain hints and tips on eBay, links to help sites, anything really. It could also contain ‘Affiliate sales links’.

Trading worldwide
As your UK business continues to grow, you may well consider exporting your products both within the European Union and maybe worldwide. Each of these new markets will offer increased business opportunities, but will also require more research to manage the trade restrictions and legislation that may apply.

Selling your goods into Europe has fewer restrictions than exporting worldwide and there is no need for any specific customs documentation.

The EU has recently expanded and the following countries joined in May 2004: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. This should now make trading with these countries a little easier.

Some specific goods may require additional documentation and your chosen carrier may also have some paperwork to complete.

It is worth noting that when you send packages to dependencies of EU member states, such as the Falkland Islands, full customs documentation will be required.

This article, published in issue two of eBay Advisor, was taken from Robert Pugh's superb The eBay Business Handbook. You can buy it online through the publishers, Harriman House - here. Robert Pugh has an eBay Bulletin at www.ebaybulletin.co.uk, that provides superb hints and tips each time.

High-quality video calling through Skype

Skype announced in the middle of November last year a new version of its communication software, making it possible to enjoy free High Quality Video calls that are sharper, smoother and better than anything you’ve seen on Skype™ before. At that time, Skype and Logitech, the world’s leading manufacturer of webcams, announced a collaboration to deliver a new benchmark of video calls over the Internet. Today’s release of Skype 3.6 for Windows makes High Quality Video a reality.

“Our recent announcement made many people realize that sharp, smooth and life-like video calls on the internet should be available to everyone, not just big companies with expensive video-conferencing equipment,“ said Gareth O‘Loughlin, Skype’s general manager, mobile and hardware devices. “Those who’ve previewed High Quality Video have been blown away by its realism. Today, with Skype 3.6 for Windows, the Genie is out of the bottle for good.”

Whether it’s a father reading a book to his kids back home while he travels for work, grandchildren giving their grandparents a close-up view of their first lost tooth, or colleagues connecting across continents to discuss a business proposal, High Quality Video on Skype offers image-perfect detail and clarity that help people connect better with their friends and families, co-workers and clients.

High Quality Video (Skype 3.6 for Windows and Logitech QuickCam® software, version 11.5) brings VGA-quality video calls (640x480 pixels) at up to 30 frames per second (fps) to people using a broadband connection (384 kbps connection or higher), a High Quality Video-certified Logitech webcam and a PC with a dual-core processor. As a result, users can enjoy significantly sharper and smoother video calls – even in full-screen mode.

A collaborative effort between Logitech and Skype, the High Quality Video experience is created through the unique combination of Skype software, Logitech webcams, and a fully redesigned set of drivers in the QuickCam software, all of which are optimized to work together in a way never achieved before on Skype. Logitech’s new webcam drivers are specially tuned to recognize callers who have this latest version of Skype software.

High Quality Video on Skype is available with the following Logitech webcams: the Logitech® QuickCam® Pro 9000, the Logitech® QuickCam® Pro for Notebooks and the Logitech® QuickCam® Orbit AF (Logitech® QuickCam® Sphere AF in Europe).

Skype 3.6 for Windows supports 28 languages and is available as a free download at skype.com. Logitech’s QuickCam software version 11.5 is available for free download at www.logitech.com/downloads.

The Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 and Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks webcams are now available for a suggested retail price of $99.99 in the U.S. (We at eBay Advisor believe you should be able to get them for around £59). The Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF (QuickCam Sphere AF) is available now in the U.S. and Europe for $129.99 (UK price - we believe - of between £70 and £80). These webcams are also available for purchase at skype.com/shop.

A good Christmas for eCommerce sites

An early poll done by retail specialist, Actinic, into Christmas trading results has found continued growth in shopping online. Respondents reported a 27% rise in the number of customers buying online at Christmas compared to the same period in 2006. They also reported an even greater increase in internet revenues at 46% – indicating that not only are more people shopping online, but they are spending more as well.

The poll also found ecommerce making a greater proportional contribution to the bottom line compared with other channels. Companies trading both online and offline, reported that on average, just over 50% of sales in November and December were made online, compared with only 30% in 2006.

According to Actinic CEO Chris Barling, the results show that growth in online spending remains remarkably buoyant. “Considering the effects of the US credit crunch, the Northern Rock crisis and the general overall decline in confidence, 46% is remarkable growth and continues the rise and rise of online retai