Archive for February, 2010
February 14th, 2010
Our eBay Training webinar last month was a big hit. We had over 100 people register and about 90 who actually showed up. I know many of you wanted to attend but couldn’t, so we recorded it for you. The topic of this webinar was auction review. I got together with one of our coaches, Suzanne Wells, from our coaching program and we reviewed the auction listings that were sent in by readers. You can listen to the eBay coaching webinar here.
If you are interested in personal coaching and would like a free evaluation, Call 1-800-578-3449 or fill out this contact form to see if you qualify. We only take a small number of students at any one time. All of our eBay coaches are active eBay PowerSellers and our Internet coaches all currently run successful online businesses.
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February 12th, 2010
Webinar today. A brief note that I'm hosting an open webinar today at 2pm ET – "Annual e-commerce review…" We'll be going over some 09 results and insights, looking at 2010 and beyond and giving retailers of all sizes some strategies for search, comparison shopping, marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, etc.), social and mobile!
We'll also be disclosing the January ChannelAdvisor Same Store Sales to get an early read on what 2010 will look like for e-commerce.
I hope you are able to join, you can sign up here:
February 12th, 2010
Even though I am married to the true love of my life, I have to confess that I’ve actually been engaged twice in my lifetime. Obviously that fact has become irrelevant over time, however, it does mean that I had to learn and act upon the “four Cs” when buying a diamond ring, not once but twice! Believe it or not, I designed my wife’s ring myself (with obvious input from my much better half) and am still quite proud of the results – even if I do say so myself. Well, on eBay this week more than 15,000 people are having their say with the eBay “Build Your Bling” contest, a nationwide competition that calls on women to create the diamond ring of their dreams for a chance to win the one-of-a-kind rock worth up to $25,000.
Contest participants register at diamonds.ebay.com, and customize and upload their unique ring design in three simple steps. Through the Share function, which houses more than 50 social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and MySpace, entrants are able to spread the news about their gems and encourage voting, since the winner of “Build Your Bling” will be determined by public poll. America is asked to vote on its favorite sparkler, with the designer of the most popular ring winning their customized carat. Voting is open for two weeks, culminating February 19.
The contest kicked off earlier this week and with almost 7,000 submissions already entered to the “American Idol” of engagement rings at www.diamonds.ebay.com, currently the most popular cuts are Cushion, Round and Princess.
You can find out more about the contest by checking out the press release HERE.
Cheers,
RBH
February 12th, 2010
As I first reported here on Ink back in September, designer Narciso Rodriguez and eBay are introducing the Narciso Rodriguez for eBay Collection, available for purchase starting February 15 at 9:00AM PST (to make sure people are aware of the launch date… there’s even a countdown clock right there on the site).
The eight-piece limited-edition collection is made from imported Italian fabrics, and bears Rodriguez’s signature streamlined look and sophisticated color blocking created in a red, black and white color palette. The collection will be offered at accessible, fixed price points ranging from $65 – $350, in sizes 0 to 14, or extra small to large, and available for purchase exclusively through the Narciso Rodriguez eBay Store.
Stop laughing. Although my traditional dress includes multi-colored sneakers and overly, almost trying-to-hard-to-be-funny T-shirts, I’m still going to check this out when it goes live on Monday. Maybe I can score some points with Allie if I can find something cool for my wife post-Valentine’s day.
“I am extremely excited by the possibilities that this new online sales channel brings to my business long term,” says Rodriguez. “For me it’s always been about dressing many women of all ages, all types, all sizes, and this special collection on eBay is a unique opportunity to reach a broad global audience.”
The capsule collection, designed for the spring/summer season, includes a Denim Jacket; Denim Slim Skirt; Sleeveless Matte Jersey Dress with asymmetrical seam detail; Cap Sleeve Matte Jersey Dress with shoulder drape detail; Scoop Neck Matte Jersey Dress with a three quarter sleeve and exposed back zipper; Jersey Top with asymmetrical seam detail; Python Printed T-Shirt; and water-resistant Reversible Trench with a multi-stitch self-belt. Additionally, the designer’s canvas and grosgrain espadrilles will be sold through the Narciso Rodriguez eBay Store.
New Twitter Feed: @eBay_Fashion
To join the conversation follow @eBay_Fashion, eBay’s newly launched home for fashion finds, tips and trends on Twitter, at www.twitter.com/ebay_fashion.
Cheers,
RBH
February 12th, 2010
eBay Motors today launched an online shopping experience for new vehicles, giving auto dealers and manufacturers an alternative channel to market inventory to local buyers.
This new car option, powered by online auto-buying platform Zag, allows franchise dealers to target a highly-qualified group of local consumers ready to purchase a new vehicle in a no-haggle environment. Through this new car offering, more than 2,600 certified Zag dealers join the eBay Motors family. With the addition of this offering, eBay Motors modifies its homepage to offer shoppers the option to either choose new cars or used cars.
I just played around with the new interface and it’s incredibly intuitive and easy-to-use. I was able to look for both used and new cars – breaking down to color, make, model, etc. – in less than a minute.
The news is good for dealers too because they can now choose from a number of new car selling options including auction, fixed price, best offer or an online classified ad to drive leads.
Currently, new cars make up about 13% of all vehicles sold on eBay Motors.
You can read the full press release here.
Cheers,
RBH
February 10th, 2010
You can see my initial coverage of the “Garden by eBay” by clicking HERE.
Given the opportunity to spend some time with the entire team behind the eBay Garden project, I thought it would be great to capture some candid conversations about their time together, the project they’ve been working on, and what it means for them to be working at eBay. What I got was an incredibly refreshing, candid take on team project work here at eBay. Enjoy!
The eBay Garden team talks about their working environment, the Agile process and the “Negativity Chair”…
The eBay Garden team discuss technical innovation at eBay and what it means to work here…
Cheers!
RBH
February 10th, 2010
Sellebrity has unveiled a mobile support application for all large-screen mobile devices. Now, all eBay Listings can be tracked across multiple eBay accounts, right from your iPhone or iPad, or any similar mobile device.
Sellebrity is a free auction analytics service for eBay sellers. It works by placing some code in your listings that tracks data such as hits, where they came from, what time of day you are getting hits, and much more. Their service also allows you to perform A/B testing. For example you could list an auction with two different titles or descriptions or starting prices and you would be able to analyze which one was working best.
The ability to analyze and understand auction data is one of the secrets of top power sellers.
Sellebrity has made a great offer to my readers. If you use this link to sign up for your free account, they will double your free data storage to six months instead of the normal three months.
Now back to the news:
“This launch is to prepare for the upcoming iPad craze,” says the Sellebrity development team. “As the global trend of access to information anywhere anytime continues, Sellebrity Mobile fits right in. Real-time analytics meets mobile flexibility. The utility simplifies the process of checking on orders by the eliminating annoying searches and multiple accounts. Sellebrity Mobile will separately track all visitors and revenue for up to 6 eBay UserId with one login. It will also track other sites you add, such as your store site or blog.”
Just like Sellebrity, the mobile interface is clean and simple. It is designed for that on-the-go seller. The iPhone version even includes a its own Spy mode, which streams pageviews and other actions LIVE as they are happening on your web site. If you get more than a few thousand visitors per day, you can sit for hours and watch people use your web site live. It’s a lot of fun and great to have that feature on the go.
Sellebrity Mobile is entirely FREE for ALL users. And, Free Usage Plan for the Sellebrity Analytics service itself has been changed to be free for anyone running fifty (50) listings or less concurrently. So, you can sell hundreds of listings per month and still use the service for free. Upgrades are available starting at 125 concurrent listings for $4.99 per month.
All future Sellebrity products will be integrated with our Mobile Apps. ”Getting started with Sellebrity today is a great way to take advantage of more best-in-class e-commerce products on the road map for 2010,” notes J. Ritenour, founder and CEO.
Want to see Sellebrity Mobile in action?
An online demonstration of Sellebrity Mobile is available on the website: Click here to visit Sellebrity and then click on the link at the top of the page that says Demonstration Site.
February 9th, 2010
eBay has launched a new initiative to help “sow the seeds of innovation” with community input on new products and features before they go live on the site. The “Garden by eBay” is a new area on eBay.com that allows community members to try out new products and features and give the team working on the initiative feedback on suggested improvements and changes. The experimental space was designed to encourage eBay users to contribute to the growth of initial concepts to fully “grown,” ready-to-launch products and features.
“We really wanted to give users a better way to become involved in how we roll things out to the site,” said Josh Ramirez, senior product manager, eBay’s Search Applications. “Because of the way our marketplace is designed, one small site change can have a cascading effect on our buyer and seller experience. The Garden by eBay is a fun way to get the community involved in making decisions that may impact how they buy and sell on eBay.”
The Garden idea stemmed primarily from the search team wanting to solicit user input on a new search experience. Rather than roll it out site-wide or go with the standard A/B testing, the team wanted to partner with users early on in the development process to deliver an experience that best meets the community’s needs. The team believes that allowing eBay members to opt in to experiment with the new experience at this stage of development will help them innovate faster and more efficiently.
When I first heard about the project and asked to cover it for eBay Ink, I was incredibly enthusiastic to learn that I was going to be able to sit down with the entire eBay Garden team to learn more about it. You can meet the team in this video I put together here…
“The new Garden by eBay represents a new collaborative conversation with the eBay community — a chance to listen to their thoughts on upcoming features, and to bring them closer to our own innovation process,” said Christopher Payne, eBay vice president, Search. “By seeding the Garden with streamlined search, we’re asking for the community’s input on improving one of the most important areas of eBay.com.”
One of the new features that the community members will be able to try out is a new “streamlined search” experience intended to make it easier to browse and view search results. This new search feature will let users compare auction and Buy It Now listings side-by-side, quickly refine results based on items returned in a result set and return to the search box without having to scroll up to the header. As Garden participants provide feedback on the experience, the features will grow into an improved experience — before it goes live to eBay.com.
Here, the team talks about why they’re excited about the project and what it means for eBay both internally and externally…
I’ll have more behind-the-scene video conversations with the eBay Garden Team in future posts but for now, please check out the Garden by eBay today at http://pages.ebay.com/garden.
You can also read more about the project at New York Times blog, Bits.
Cheers!
RBH
February 9th, 2010
eBay announced a 2-day fee discount on auction-style listing fees. Any listings launched on February 9th or 10th will receive a 50% credit on listing fees.
You can see the complete eBay fee schedule here
Our newsletter, The eBay Sellers News, last week included a detailed article about the new fees scheduled to take effect at the end of March.
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If you would like to learn about more interesting and easy to enter profitable niches on eBay, get a copy of my book Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Markets. We just finished the update for 2010.
February 9th, 2010
I just finished a great new book: How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money. I bought the book because selling coupons is one of the great niches I talk about in my book, Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Markets. Basically I wanted to see if I had missed any techniques. It turns out that I hadn’t, but the author of this book, goes into quite a bit more detail.
How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money
It is a short –but excellent read. This guide will teach you step by-step how to sell coupons and earn $500 or more a week in your spare time. With today’s rocky economy and unsteady job market, there’s never been a better time for you to earn extra cash on the world’s number one auction website!
Click here to read about How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money
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If you would like to learn about more interesting and easy to enter profitable niches on eBay, get a copy of my book Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Markets. We just finished the update for 2010.