eBay Watch: ProStores 9.0, Listing Tools, New Ad Site By Vangie Beal
April 9, 2008
This week in eBay news, the company makes good on rolling out default Best Match search, ProStores hits version 9.0, Selling Manager gets an update and we outline top eBay search data for sellers. In online marketplace developments, drop shipper Shopster gets certified and a new ad site debuts that combines local listings with social networking.
Best Match Launches as Default Sort Option for Searches This week eBay holds true on its promise to make Best Match the default sort option on eBay.com. By sorting search results according to Best Match, eBay says buyers will find relevant items more quickly and easily.
In an attempt to appease buyers, in a public eBay announcement, Jamie Iannone, the vice president of buyer experience said, "Since its launch, our data show that Best Match has a better buyer conversion than any of our other sort methods. As our executives announced during the eCommerce Forum in January, starting this week Best Match will be the default sort method site-wide."
In addition to sorting based on relevance, Best Match also takes into account a seller's transaction history. "Making greater use of Detailed Seller Ratings and sellers' overall rate of buyer dissatisfaction enables us to reward great sellers on the site with increased listing exposure, and reduce negative buying experiences from sellers with high rates of buyer dissatisfaction," says Iannone. Sellers with buyer dissatisfaction rates greater than five percent in the last 30 days will experience decreased exposure for their listings in search results.
In addition, to reduce the negative impact of excessive shipping and handling costs, sellers with the lowest Detailed Seller Ratings for these tasks will also see a decrease in the exposure that their listings receive in search results.
EBay also says that in several weeks, sellers with Detailed Seller Ratings of 4.6 and above within the last 30 days will get higher visibility on average in search results than sellers who have lower rates of customer satisfaction.
New Selling Manager Features Ebay's Selling Team recently upgraded Selling Manager with two new automation rules to make listing easier for sellers. These features, while new to Selling Manager, have been available in the Selling Manager pro version for some time. You can now automate rules to relist an item once if it doesn't sell and you can choose to relist an item continuously until it sells. To assign an automation rule to an active listing, simply go to the Active Listing view in Selling Manager, select the items for which you want to set an automation rule, and then click "Assign Automation Rule."
eBay Pulse Data According to eBay Pulse data, the most popular searches on the US auction site are iPhone, followed by iPod and Wii. Sellers using these keywords in their own related listing titles will have their listings returned in search results more frequently. Here is a snapshot of the top keyword searches in several eBay, eBay Canada and eBay UK categories for April 8, 2008;
eBay.com: iPhone, iPod, Wii and car insurance
eBay.ca: Xbox 360, iPod, iPhone and Lululemon
eBay.co.uk: Wii, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PSP
eBay.com > DVD & Movies: Disney, DVD, Halloween and Harry Potter
ebay.ca > DVD & Movies: Disney, Transformers, Sopranos and DVD
eBay.co.uk > DVD, Film & TV: TV, LCD TV, DVD and television
eBay.com > Books: Harry Potter, Stephen King, Easton Press and James Patterson
ebay.ca > Books: Harry Potter, Stephen King, books and Nora Roberts
eBay.co.uk > Books, Comics & Magazines: Harry Potter, autobiography, signed and books
E-Commerce Tools Roundup
ProStores Offers Easy Templates and eBay Syncing This past week ProStores, an eBay Company, released ProStores Version 9.0 with several enhancements. The upgrade is designed to make it easy for merchants to set up a professional and uniquely branded Web store and includes some new built-in design themes at no charge. There are also fresh design layouts you can purchase at the new ProStores Template Store.
This version also makes the process of turning eBay listings into your own Web store easier. Using ProStores 9.0, eBay sellers can now set up a store using just their existing eBay listings and then manage their inventory on both eBay and ProStores. For eBay sellers, this version includes tools for automatically importing their eBay listings, categories, shipping and other settings. After setup, ProStores can mirror your eBay listings and synchronize your inventory with your ProStores Web store. Once your ProStore and eBay listings are synchronized, you can make items available for sale from both locations without the worry of double-selling items.
Encouraging the masses of eBay Stores sellers to try ProStores, the company is offering the new ProStores Starter plan for free through September 2008. After the free trial subscription ends, eBay Stores sellers will be entitled to a 30-percent discount on the monthly subscription rates every month.
Shopster Gets Certified Shopster, an online drop shipping and retail site, recently attained eBay Certified Solution Provider status. Using Shopster lets you sell any of their 900,000 products, which are drop shipped directly to customers anywhere in North America. Most of Shopster's item can be sold on eBay or from your own personal storefront.
Shopster manages many aspects of your e-commerce business including payment and order systems. They ship orders directly to the customer, can host an e-Commerce storefront, and also take care of customer service issues and product returns. Sellers simply need to choose the products from Shopster's virtual warehouse, set the prices and market their business.
Shopster is currently offering a seven-day free trial that lets you try drop shipping Shopster's products on eBay for free. Shopster is available for $329.99 a year or at $29.95 per month with a $99 set-up fee.
CollaboTrade Offers Social Networking and Classified Ads Collabotrade.com is an online social marketplace that offers buyers and sellers a free trading platform for local sales and trades. Designed with budget-conscious students in mind, this site is geared toward electronics, books, services, class notes, event tickets, roommate hunting and, ofcourse, socializing, all at one place.
Collabotrade's vice president of marketing, Lorenz Kraus, says that unlike Craigslist, Collabotrade.com offers several preventative features that reduce the risk of abuse, starting with resources that give users control over their social circles from which trusted communities evolve. He says this will prevent hoaxes, such as the recent one involving a bogus post on Craigslist that lead to the plundering of a home after a "take what you want free of charge" ad was posted and acted upon.
Kraus also says that this level of trust is substantially more reliable since social networks that are based on real relationships have a more inherent immunity to fraudulent schemes. By creating niche social trading networks within the site, individuals can substantially mitigate illegal and unscrupulous activity, such as spam or hoax ads.
Creating an account to buy and sell on CollaboTrade is free, and all ads are also free to renew. CollaboTrade sends out reminders five days before an ad expires and the site offers buyers and sellers a wide variety of FAQs and tips to help ensure safe trading.
Vangie Beal is a seasoned eBay seller, frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and managing editor of Webopedia.com.
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