We all know that picking up, or delivering larger items on eBay can be a pain.  Shiply is a service which aims to make this process painless.  I caught with with Robert Matthams the CEO.

Shiply has been likened to eBay but moving stuff.  Everyday people list items they need to move on the site for free, and then get bids from over 16,000 transport companies who are already making similar journeys.  The end result is fewer empty lorries and more happy customers saving up to 75% on their deliveries.

We’ve also found there is a lot of interest from eBay users, with around 40% of all deliveries being eBay items, typically “local collect” goods.

Yes, Shiply now attracts a new quote request every 40 seconds on the site.

We do now have some competition in the UK, as we had expected when we launched.  Yes, our core market is large, bulky and heavy items or the “big and ugly” as it’s known in the industry.  These types of “difficult” items have historically always been expensive to move, but with Shiply, we’ve made the possibility of moving these larger items easier, cheaper and greener.  People are moving everything from small pieces of furniture, to cars, house removals and even super yachts!  To date, over 250,000 items have been listed to move.

Obviously we will continue to expand on our success here in the UK, but we also have other territories which we are entering into.  Shiply Germany for example launched last year and our Italian, French, Spanish & Dutch sites have now also gone live.

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http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/73.03.GreatIdea

“Many entrepreneurs feel that they cannot start a business without a great idea. They believe it will be impossible to succeed without a completely new concept, as the market will already be cornered by established businesses. Only by venturing into uncharted territory can they achieve their dreams. This is the fallacy of the great idea”

Happy reading!

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I recently caught up with the CEO of Shoply, Liad Shababo.  Shoply is an innovative ecommerce platform aimed at getting people selling online in the simpliest way.  Well Amen to that.

Please tell us a bit about Shoply.  What’s it all about?

Shoply is all about making it free, quick and easy for everybody to open their own shop and start selling online.  Our goal is to democratise ecommerce by tearing down the financial, skills and psychological barriers to selling online.

Shoply comprises 2 main components, the first being simple and empowering software which allows you to open your own shop in a matter of minutes. The second is a centralised marketplace which aggregates products across all our sellers and syndicates them in a global marketplace driving traffic for our sellers and making search and discovery for buyers quick and efficient.

eBay charges a sales commission so do you.  For an entry level seller these are similar (approx 8% for eBay vs 6% for shoply).  Why should a seller use you and not eBay, given that eBay has millions of members worldwide.

Unlike eBay, Shoply provides sellers a full rich shop which they have complete control over. Sellers can customise the look and feel, they can integrate it with their existing website or blog as well as with Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. Shoply allows sellers to sell physical good and digital goods as well as services. For individuals and small businesses looking to sell online whilst maintaining their own identity, complete control of their buyers experience and within their existing online presence (be it their blog or Facebook page etc) – eBay just isn’t an option.

What is the target market for your service?  As Shoply does not allow any customisation of the shopfront other than a logo, won’t this put off all but entry level sellers?

We’re looking to help the millions of individuals and small businesses who want to open a shop but lack the skills, finances and confidence to do so. Whilst we’d love to work with power sellers and larger businesses, our offering is targeted to the lower end of the market, people looking for a quick and easy solution to their problem of how to open a shop online.

In regards themes, Shoply will shortly release multiple themes as well as a complete theming API allowing sellers to customise the look and feel of their shop to their heart’s content. Shoply already allows sellers to integrate their Shoply with their blog, website and even Facebook page.  We believe we stand alone in terms of customisation and integration options we provide our sellers with.

You talk about how you drive traffic to your customer’s stores, presumably via the marketplace.  What do you actively do to drive traffic?  What kind of traffic can sellers expect for your sales commission?

We generate traffic for our sellers in multiple ways we also provide them with powerful marketing tools which allows them to drive traffic themselves. Whether through our syndicated marketplace, directory, Facebook integration, SEO, embeddable widgets or forthcoming affiliate scheme we are constantly striving to drive traffic to our sellers.

Do you find that social media is a big driver of sales for your customers.  In my experience it is very difficult to generate sales through sites like Facebook and Twitter

Social commerce continues to go from strength to strength and I think the trend will continue in the future. A lot of our sellers already have existing presences on Facebook and Twitter. We help them leverage their existing contact base to drive sales. A fan of your Facebook page or a Twitter follower is likely to browse and perhaps purchase from your shop if they know about it. At the moment we are working on building awareness of our sellers shops through their existing networks. As we scale we’ll commence driving new sales from social media sites.

What are your plans for the future.  Will you be integrating with other platforms e.g. eBay, amazon?

We would like to integrate with many other platforms but our core focus is on keeping is simple and easy for sellers to open and run their own shops.

We’re not prepared to add features or functionality which come at the expense of our core customer experience.  Our vision for Shoply is to be a software provider and sales generator for sellers and marketplace maker and curator for buyers.  We believe that everyone can benefit from Shoply as a buyer, seller or both. Ubiquitous social platforms have arisen for blogging, friends, business relationships, micro-blogging, location etc – we feel social commerce has been left out. We’re looking to change that and become the ubiquitous social consumer selling platform.

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Unlike many other voucher sites this site is that it offers free listings for merchants.  Freebies are my kryptonite so I was powerless to resist!

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I have 5 myHermes deliveries to give away to some deserving soul.

In the absence of any obvious selection method I will give away the deliveries to the person who comments with the funniest joke.

Good luck!

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Flowers/Chocolate

I’ve found sending flowers or chocolate to target directories to be a very effective way of getting listed fast.  Only really worth it for high authority sites!

Reviews

People love a freebie!  Asking other bloggers to review products can be cost effective way of building incoming links.  One of our toys for example is about £6-8 wholesale.  Here is an example review.

Content Swap

Writing content for other people’s blog is sometimes a good tactic if you have something interesting and relevant to say.  Don’t make it too salesey or in fact, salesey at all.  Here is an post which combines my passions for entrepreneurship and baby products.

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I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit silent for a while.  Part of the reason is that I have written a report for Econsultancy on the wonderful world of eCommerce.

The guide is about 100 pages long and is intended to be a summary of all the areas in which are required for selling online including:

• Setting objectives
• Project management
• Finding a supplier
• Skills and team
• Implementation skills
• Market research and product selection
• Branding and design
• Selecting an e-commerce platform
• Online marketplaces
• Accepting payments online
• Online marketing strategy
• Shopping comparison engines
• Search engine marketing
• Uploading data Web analytics
• Usability and conversion
• Fulfilment and customer service
• Regulations
• Customer retention

If you are interested in reviewing the guide (and thereby getting a free copy which usually goes for £150) please drop me a line.

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I’d like to heartily recommend Make Serious Money on eBay Uk by Dan Wilson. This new updated edition not only has a comprehensive guide to selling on eBay as a business but also covers other vital areas such as amazon marketplace, Google and setting up your own website.

The perfect stocking filler?

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Tell us a bit about your company

BecomeUK is a comparison shopping engine operated by Become, Inc. Become, Inc. is a global leader in comparison shopping and lead generation spanning several verticals, including product shopping and education.  Become, Inc. delivers qualified leads to businesses and helps consumers find products and services using its world-class search engine. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA, with offices in Tokyo, London, Karlsruhe (Germany) and Milan, Become Inc. operates numerous sites including become.com, become.co.uk, become.co.jp, and education.become.com.  Become, Inc. was founded in 2004 by Michael Yang, who was also a founder of comparison shopping engine MySimon.  Investors in Become, Inc. include Texas Pacific Group, Transcosmos, and European Founders Fund.

What makes Become different from other online shopping channels

Become Inc. has differentiated itself from other shopping channels through the use of comparison shopping technology and features, such as colour search and Percent Off, which are intended to simplify the online shopping experience and assist the shopper in identifying the best products for them.

We also operate www.shopaholic.become.co.uk, our shopping blog. We try to give customers news, advices, opinions, reviews and helpful tips about particular products. Our blogs are written by product specialists who familiarize themselves with both the products and the market trends they report on in order to deliver reliable and professional blog posts to online shoppers.

How do you produce your results?  Is it purely on a PPC basis.  Any free listings?

Our business model is strictly CPC, and on our shopping portal each retailer is reviewed prior to approval; we do this to ensure best quality control.

What are Become’s strongest categories

Become UK has a variety of categories to suit our wide online audience. Home and Garden/Technology and Clothing are typically large categories in online shopping and we find that Become’s largest categories tend to reflect the online retail market as a whole.

How do you market Become.co.uk?

Through our functionality including colour search, percent off and the number of products on our site means we get a large amount of repeat visitors. Also for a comparison shopping engine, search relevancy is very important, and our team strives to produce relevant search results which reflect the needs of online users trying to shop for products through our site.

Do you offer any tracking functionality?

For our retail partners, Become UK offers a free ROI tracker in order to optimize their campaign with us. For more information on this, US retailers can contact sales@become.com and international retailers can reach out to sales@become.co.uk.

Plans for the future?

Become, Inc. has recently acquired the German CSE company Pangora, which will assist in our European expansion and continued improvement of our service and features for online shoppers worldwide.

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Postage is a bit of a painful subject at the moment, what with the Royal Mail in turmoil.  I recently had a chat with Eric Nash from Stamps.com, a package which allows small business (including eBay sellers) to print postage from their computer.

Tell us a bit about your company

Stamps.com is a software-based program that allows you to print USPS-approved postage right from your computer.   You can print postage directly on to an envelope, shipping labels or even plain paper.    Stamps.com was the first PC Postage vendor licensed by the US Postal Service back in 1998.   We also are the largest with more than 400,000 customers.

How does your service compare with other postage options such as a franking machine?

We feel we that online postage is a much better option than a postage meter for a small business owner.   If you are a shipper, Stamps.com offers discounted rates on Priority Mail (up to 10% off) and Express Mail (5% off) that you cannot get from a postage meter or even at the post office.   Also, we are a monthly service with no hidden fees and no long term contracts.   Postage meters often get you into long term agreements and then require you to purchase many other services (proprietary ink, maintenance agreements, etc.).  With Stamps.com, you print postage directly out of your existing PC and printer – no additional hardware is needed.   A big advantage you have with Stamps.com is print flexibility (unlike Postage Meters).   Stamps.com allows you to print on shipping labels, regular paper, thermal labels, or directly on to envelopes.  You also can print the delivery address and postage at the same time.

Has there been a good take up of your service by eBay and amazon sellers?

As we’ve added a lot of new shipping features to the software over the last 18 months, we’ve been able to increase our ecommerce customer base to about 30,000-40,000 subscribers.    And now with our free eBay program launching, the response from eBay sellers has been great!  This new program allows eBay sellers to use our software for free to print USPS shipping labels for goods sold through an eBay store.   Stamps.com has great features that are not available on PayPal’s shipping program such as:

• Ability to print First Class Mail International
• Send all sizes of Priority Mail Flat Rate
• Get 10% off package insurance
• Insure packages up to $2500
• Batch printing up to 1000 labels at a time

To get this special limited time offer, you must go to:  http://www.stamps.com/ebayfree1

The program is limited to shipping goods sold through your eBay webstore however — customers wont be able to utilize the other software features such as printing postage on envelopes, importing data from amazon, Yahoo! Stores, shopping carts, etc.

To get access to these other features, customers will need to upgrade to a paid subscription account.   Our new Version 8.5 software includes the ability to import data directly from ecommerce platforms such as amazon, Yahoo! Stores, Google Checkout, PayPal or your own shopping cart.  As an example, if a seller was selling their product on both eBay and their own site via a shopping cart, they could manage their shipments for both sources from one interface — Stamps.com.   The seller could then batch print all of their labels at once using multiple mail classes to ship for more effective time management.

Plans for the future?

We have many more exciting programs in the works such as an option for Mac users and deeper online reporting.   Version 8.5 also includes all of our great shipping features such as 10% discounts on package insurance,  insurance limits up to $2500 (vs. only $500 from PayPal), the ability to hide the postage amount on shipping labels and free delivery confirmation on Priority Mail.

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