Chapter 2
Managing Sales with eBay Apps and Third-Party Tools
IN THIS CHAPTER
Checking out the Apps Center
Deciding on third-party management services
Figuring out what to automate
Looking at three third-party options
When you get to the point of running up to 20 listings at a time, I highly recommend that you begin to use a management tool. At that point, eBay will most likely port your account from My eBay to Seller Hub. But when your eBay business begins to push 100 listings a week, I recommend that you consider getting additional help in the form of an app or software.
Whether you use an online service (SaaS) or software residing on your own computer is a personal decision. You may find it easier to use an online system because you can log on to your selling information at any time from any computer. But if you want to archive your work locally (as I do), you may prefer an app that does the work on your computer and uploads the final products to eBay.
Most desktop-based software packages have features that enable you to do your work on your computer and then upload (or download) your data when you go online.
In either case, if your business has reached the level where you need a listing or management tool, congratulations! In this chapter, I want to save you some time finding the service or software that’s right for you. I outline some of the tasks that a management product would preferably provide, and compare prices of several services.
Finding Function-Specific Apps
A visit to the eBay Apps Center will dazzle you with hundreds of third-party applications that have all been verified by eBay. Such verification means that these apps should always be up to date and ready for any of eBay’s changes.
You’ll find apps designed for many functions that fall into categories such as checkout, customer support, finance and accounting, inventory listing, marketing and merchandising, research and reporting, shipping and payments, and sourcing. They integrate directly with the eBay.com interface for sellers in the United States.
The apps in the center are the brain-children of developers who have been vetted to join the eBay Developers program, and they’re offered in the eBay Apps Center only after rigorous testing. When you visit the Apps Center, you find reviews and ratings from other eBay sellers. Take the time to read these comments to see whether an app is right for you.
Find the eBay Apps Center (shown in Figure 2-1) from your My eBay page by clicking Applications and then the Apps Center link. You can also find it by going directly to
FIGURE 2-1: Many handy apps are available at the Apps Center.
Although the Apps Center has many choices, you may find that some of them just don’t fit your business style. The remaining sections in this chapter give you tips and ideas on saving time and money by using such software.
Choosing Your Management Tools
If you searched the Internet for eBay management services and software, you’d come up with a bunch. After speaking to many sellers, I’ve found online services that offer two important features:
- Uptime reliability: Uptime is vital here; you don’t want the server that holds your photos going down or mislaunching your sales.
- Regular updates: Ask if their software is continually updated to match eBay changes.
Using a site or software to run your sales takes practice, so I suggest you try any that appeal to you and that offer free preview trials. As I describe a few different applications, I include a link so you can check them out further.
Some software and services work on a monthly fee; others work on a one-time purchase fee. For a one-time-purchase software application to truly benefit you, it must have the reputation for updating its software each time eBay makes a change to its procedures and policies. The programs I discuss in this chapter have been upgraded continually to date.
Most services have a free trial period. Be sure that you don’t spend a bunch of your precious time inputting your entire inventory, only to discover you don’t like the way the service works. Instead, input a few items to give the service a whirl.
There’s a huge difference between auction-listing software and sites and auction-management products. When your business activity level increases and you turn to an auction-management solution for your eBay business, you should look for certain standard features (described next). Also consider what information-management features you currently have through your bookkeeping program (see Book 9). You have the data there, regardless of whether you use it in a management solution.
Looking for Essential Features
Here are some important features to look for when you evaluate the offerings of auction-management services and products:
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Image hosting: Some hosts dazzle you with gigabytes of image storage. Keep one thing in mind: eBay requires images now to be at least 500 pixels on one side; this means your images will hover around 1MB in size. This means you could store approximately 1,000 pictures in a 1GB storage space. Since most people upload their pictures to eBay, you will probably not have a need to use an image host. If you have a website, you might just host your own images in a folder there. (Read more about this option in Book 5.)
All your eBay images should ideally be archived on your computer (or removable drive) — how about in a folder called eBay Images? - Listing design tools: The basis of most of these products is a good listing function. With the advent of mobile, people are not looking as much for great design. They want a listing with the facts — and good images. Be sure to use a spell checker. There’s nothing worse than sloppy spelling in a listing.
- Listing uploading tools: Most products have a feature that launches a group of listings to eBay all at once. They may also allow you to schedule auctions to get underway at a prescribed time.
- Bulk listing: You can also expect to be able to put together your listings at your leisure offline and upload them to your service. Most products archive your past listings so that you can relist at any time. Many services also offer bulk relisting.
- Email management: You may be provided with editable email letters (templates) that you can customize with your own look and feel.
- Feedback automation: Post feedback in bulk to a number of your buyers, or leave pre-designed feedback for each, one by one. Some products support automatic positive feedback that kicks in when a buyer leaves you positive feedback.
Exploring Advanced Features
Depending on the type of business you run, you may need some of the more advanced features offered by management products:
- Inventory tools: Management products may allow you to create inventory records for your different products, such that you can click a bunch of them to list them automatically. When an item is sold, the tool deducts the item from your inventory automatically.
- Sales-tax tracking and invoicing: With full management, you can expect your sales tax to be calculated into your invoices and complete line-item invoices to be sent automatically. Multiple items, when purchased by the same buyer, will be combined.
- Consignment tracking: If you sell on eBay for others, be sure to look for a product that enables you to separately track the products you sell for your clients. You should also be able to produce reports of consignment sales by customer.
- Shipping: Most of the services will give you the option of printing your packing lists and shipping labels directly from the product.
Finding More to Automate
Now that eBay has become a world marketplace, a single-page auction or item listing is becoming an increasingly valuable piece of real estate. Millions may view your sale, and the more auctions and fixed-price items that you can list, the better your chance to make a good living. Time is money: You need to post quickly and accurately.
Posting auctions, keeping records, cataloging inventory, managing photos, and gathering statistics are all tasks that you can automate. The more your business grows, the more confusing details may become. Automated tools can help you keep it all straight.
However, the more paid tools you use, the more expense you may be adding to your business. Always keep your bottom line in mind when evaluating whether to use fee-based software and services — eBay’s beginner Seller Hub is free.
You’ll have to perform back office tasks, no matter how few (or how many) listings you’re running. Depending on your personal business style, you may want to automate any or all of the following tasks. You may choose to use a single program, a manual method, or use some features from one program and some from others. For those who aren’t ready for the automated plunge, I offer alternatives here. Where appropriate, I insert references that guide you to places in this book (or on the web) where you can find more information about the automated services I discuss.
Setting up a link to your eBay listings
Until you get an eBay Store, set up a link to your listings from your website or blog as a great alternative. That way, visitors to your site can browse your listings directly on eBay. You can produce your own listing gallery without any fancy programs or auction-management software, and at no additional cost.
To make a link to your eBay listings without installing fancy scripts, you need to do two things:
- Test the following URL in your browser, substituting your own User ID in place of the bold italics:
www.ebay.com/sch/merchant/yourUserIDFigure 2-2 shows a sample of what you’ll see.
- After checking your link, insert the following HTML into your site to include a link to your eBay sales:
<a href="http:// www.ebay.com/sch/merchant/yourUserID"><b>Click <I>here</I> to view YourUserID Gallery</b></a>You can also use this in your emails to customers to show them just what’s for sale at any given moment.
FIGURE 2-2: My eBay listings from the link.
Automating end-of-auction email
If you want to set up emails to be sent automatically after an auction ends, you must use a software application. The software should download your final auction results, generate the email, and let you preview the email before sending it out. Many of the online sites discussed later in this chapter send out winner confirmation emails automatically when an auction is over.
Keeping inventory
Many eBay sellers depend on the notebook method — crossing off items as they’re sold. If that works for you, great. Others prefer to use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of inventory.
Most of the management packages handle inventory for you. They automatically deduct an item from inventory when you launch an auction or when the item ships. You have your choice of handling inventory directly on your computer or keeping your inventory online with a service that’s accessible from any computer, wherever you are.
I handle my inventory on my desktop through QuickBooks. When I buy merchandise to sell, and I post the bill to QuickBooks, it automatically puts the merchandise into inventory. When I post my sale, it deducts the items sold from standing inventory. I can view a status report whenever I want to see how much I have left — or have to order.
Composing HTML for listings
Fancy descriptions are nice, but fancy doesn’t make the item sell any better. Competitive pricing and low (free?) shipping rates work in your favor — especially with Best Match search. Also, a clean listing with as many photos as necessary goes a long way toward selling your product. Some software and services offer a large selection of templates you can use to gussy up your descriptions.
The use of simple HTML doesn’t slow the loading of your page, but the addition of miscellaneous images (decorative backgrounds and animations) can make viewing your item a distasteful chore.
Don’t fret; you can make do by repeatedly incorporating two or three simple HTML templates, cutting and pasting new text as necessary. Most listing programs offer you several template choices. I recommend that you stick with a few that are similar, giving a standardized look to your listings — which is just the way major companies give a standardized look to their advertising and identity. Your customers will get used to the look of your auctions and feel comfortable each time they see one.
I use SeaMonkey Composer (a free program from the people who brought us the Firefox Internet browser) to generate much of my code for auction descriptions. Visit Book 5, Chapter 3 for more information on this handy program.
An important line of code that everyone seems to forget is the one that inserts a picture into your auction description. You need (due to eBay policy) to embed any images that have text you inserted within your description. These types of images are no longer allowed as your main eBay pictures. On the Sell an Item page, click the tab to view in HTML mode, and insert the following line below where you’d like your image to appear in your description:
<img src="http://www.yourwebsiteserver.com/imagename.jpg">
Be sure to substitute your own server and image name. If you want to put one picture above another, type <p> and then repeat the HTML line with a different image name.
Scheduling listings for bulk upload
If you're a store owner and want to schedule a future automated launch of your listings without incurring eBay’s $.10 fee, you must use an online management service (check out the “Opting for Third-Party Management” section).
Checking out
When someone wins or buys an item, eBay’s checkout integrates directly with PayPal. If you’re closing less than 100 sales a day, that’s all you need. eBay and PayPal will also send an email to you and the buyer so that you can arrange for payment.
A personalized winner’s notification email can easily contain a link to pay, making a checkout service unnecessary.
Printing shipping labels
Printing shipping labels without printing postage can be the beginning of a laborious two-step process. I recommend alternatives: Endicia (for Mac and Windows), Stamps (Windows), and eBay for all operating systems — all of which can print your labels and postage in one step. Check out Book 7, Chapter 1 for information on how this works.
Generating customized reports
Sales reports, ledgers, and tax information are all important reports that you should have in your business. Online services and software supply different flavors of these reports.
PayPal allows you to download your sales data into a format compatible with QuickBooks. You can also choose to download your data in Excel spreadsheet format. PayPal reports are full of intensely detailed information about your sales and deposits. Putting this information in a standard accounting software program on a regular basis can make your year-end calculations easier to bear.
Opting for Third-Party Management
You may want to run your business from any computer, anywhere in the world. If that’s the case, you might do best with an online service. Auction-management websites handle almost everything, from inventory management to label printing. Some sellers prefer online (or hosted) management sites because you can access your information from any computer. You might use every feature a site offers, or you might choose a bit from column A and a bit from column B and perform the more personalized tasks manually. Read on to determine what service might best suit your needs.
Although quite a few excellent online services for automating sales are available, I have room here to show you only a few. Many services are similar in format, so in the following sections I point out some of the highlights of a few representative systems.
SixBit Software
The developers at SixBit are no newcomers to eBay business. I first used their original Auction Assistant software in 1997, and they have been upgrading their game with new versions ever since. The founder, John Slocum, has changed with the times and offers a full-featured desktop ecommerce tool for multiple selling platforms, as shown in Figure 2-3. You’ll be able to expand your business (if you want to) to venues such as Etsy and Amazon as well as eBay.
FIGURE 2-3: SixBit Software has every level of ecommerce businesses covered.
At SixBit you’ll find pricing for different levels of sellers. The software can grow with your business by unlocking newer features on each level as your revenues progress. You’ll find a trove of instructional videos on the site to help you learn the software.
You’ll find all the previously listed important features in their packages, including some of the most rare: consignment selling (with full reporting), product pricing research, and drop-shipping management.
To learn more and get a free trial, visit
Vendio
I have fond memories of the early days on AuctionWeb (the forerunner of eBay). Some are especially about the other folks I met when we were all starting out with the online selling experience. The site (originally AuctionWatch) was founded in summer of 1998 as a message board for online sellers. Hard work pays off, because today that site is Vendio (www.vendio.com) — and it has served more than a million sellers over the years to improve their bottom line.
One of the things that makes Vendio unique is its range of offerings. In addition to auction management, Vendio has a full complement of research tools and other offerings. Each tool, should you choose to use it, is offered a la carte.
Vendio offers a customizable store you can place on your own web space — at no additional charge. When you set up your store, all your listed items are seamlessly integrated. To get current information and sign up for a free trial, go to www.vendio.com.
Auction Wizard 2000
Way back in 1999, Standing Wave Software developed a product that would handle large inventories and meet the needs of the growing eBay population. Enter Auction Wizard. In 2000, the company introduced a more robust version, Auction Wizard 2000, to meet the challenges presented by changes on eBay.
This software is an auction-management workhorse, whose pieces are integrated into one program. Some of its special features enable you to
- Handle consignment sales. Keep track of consignment sales by consignees, including all fees.
- Edit your images before uploading. The software allows you to import your images, and crop, rotate, or resize images for your auctions.
- Upload your pictures with built-in FTP software. You can do this while you’re working on your auctions, eliminating the need for another piece of auction-business software.
The program interface is straightforward. I always plunge into new programs without reading the instructions, and I was able to use this program right off the bat. I’m still not a whiz at it, but that’s probably because Auction Wizard 2000 has so many features that I haven’t had the time to study them all.
Visit the Auction Wizard 2000 website for a trial: