Monday, 12 November 2012

eBay's much anticipated International selling feature up and running

eBay have launched their International Rate Card for eBay store owners who are currently on eBay's Anchor Shop package. 

In the past, whenever a seller has decided that they want to sell Internationally, they had to list each of their products as being available for overseas customers to purchase it. However, the new International Seller Rate Card allows sellers to list their products directly on to a number of different eBay sites within Europe and in Australia. 

This means that rather than a buyer having to come to the eBay UK site and purchasing from there as an International purchaser, the buyer can simply view it on their country's own eBay site as long as they are based in one of the countries within the International Seller Rate Card package. As an eBay seller, it will allow you to dramatically increase the number of users your products are exposed to, most likely resulting in an increase in sales. 

If you are an eBay seller who would like to take advantage of this new feature, you must upgrade your eBay account to the Anchor Shop package at £349.99 a month and then tick the box to "Opt in to eBay International Selling." 

To apply to be part of this new International selling feature you must be a top rated seller. However, should you lose your top rated seller status once you have been accepted, you will not lose access to the feature. Any sales made Internationally will also not affect the Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) that you have in the UK.

Before taking the plunge and upgrading your account to an anchor package, you need to first crunch the numbers in order to make sure that it will be the right move for your business. If you are not already on the anchor shop package you need to check how much you are paying based on the number of products you are listing in the UK as well as how much you are paying to list products on other International sites. For many eBay stores this will be the right move as many businesses are currently paying more than £349.99.

When branching out to International markets, you also may want to look at how you can use ecommerce software to also increase the number of channels your ecommerce store operates in, allowing you to develop your brand image and increase sales. We at eSellution offer a number of different packages to suit all online sellers, ranging from a free ecommerce store to our  Enterprise package.


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How to create a successful blog

When producing content to engage with your audience or for the purpose of improving your search engine ranking, producing fresh and entertaining content on a regular basis can often be difficult. However, whether you run an ecommerce store or another type of business, there are a number of different ways you can keep your audience engaged on a regular basis.


  • Break up your text - If a reader has to read through reams and reams of text, no matter how appealing your writing is, there are soon going to get either bored or frustrated. The best way to avoid this is to break up your text by either separating the text into paragraphs, using bullet points to make key points concise or inserting a range of different images that relate to your subject.

  • Don't waffle - Just like having clumps of text all together, taking three sentences to say something that can be summed up in one is another way to alienate your audience. Keep your writing sharp and concise, allowing your writing to be as informative as possible.

  • Offer guest bloggers - While you might produce appealing content and have a dedicated audience, having a guest write an article for your site from time to time can have a number of benefits. The obvious benefit is that you are getting fresh content without you having to actually write it. Furthermore, you are also getting a professional source with their own following to write for your site. This means that their audience will visit your site to view the content the guest blogger has produced for you, resulting in your brand image, website traffic and total blog reads taking a healthy boost.

  • Stay topical - When coming up with ideas for content, you should always be aware of what subjects are topical both in the news and in social circles. You can then look to create your own slant on this subject by relating it to something to do with your ecommerce business. This allows you to try and achieve the highest reads possible as there will be a number of people out there currently interested in that specific topic. However, this interest works both ways. There is no point writing about something that people were interested in a few months ago as they are likely no longer interested in anything relating to it. 

  • Get your audience involved - When writing a blog article, try and pose questions in your text that that makes the reader think and possibly encourages them to engage with you either through your social media pages or by commenting at the bottom of the blog post. Creating a platform for discussion at the end of your article is a great way to establish a dedicated audience and achieve a high amount of reads and shares.

  • Share your content - While you may get a few reads from your dedicated audience by just writing a blog post and then leaving it there for people to read, you need to share your content in a number of different places to give your content the best exposure possible. This means sharing your articles across Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Reddit and any other social bookmarking sites you come across. Depending on the CMS system or ecommerce software you are using to create your blog, you also want to include links to the social media pages to do with your business. That way if someone stumbles across one of your blog articles, they can visit one of your social media pages to get more information about your business.

  • Post regularly - Whether you are posting to entertain your audience or to improve your social media ranking through backlinks, it is vitally important you post on a regular basis. Just writing an article every few months isn't going to be enough to get enough backlinks to boost your ranking or to get a dedicated following. At the very least you should be producing one or two articles a week. If you have the time you may even decide to produce one every day. 

  • Link to other areas - If you are looking to produce your blog in order to help generate traffic and hopefully turn them into customers, remember to mention the services you provide within the text as well as placing links to other areas of your website.
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Friday, 9 November 2012

eBay's search changes and how they impact variation listings

This last week eBay have made a number of changes to the way items with multiple variations appear within the search results page. Depending on the type of eBay store you run, these changes could either be positive or negative. 

The main difference between the new search results and the old setup is that the products listed within the search results will no longer display multiple variations of a product. For example, if you are selling a clothing item, the search result will no longer display all of the different colour variations that are available. Instead, the result will display the variation image closely matched to the search criteria. For example, if you search for "Red Dress," the search results will show the product image in the variation of red, rather than showing multiple colour variations. 

However, the multiple variation feature hasn't been completely removed, just merely hidden. If the user selects "More options" next to the product image, they will be able to see more information about the product which includes the various other variations that the product has.

The main problem people running an ecommerce store are finding with the new search layout is customers incorrectly purchasing an item in the wrong size as, although they have searched for one specific variation, once the system has found this particular product variation, it populates all the other variations randomly. This means that people are then selecting the item thinking it is the right size and instantly "Buy it now" and before the issue has been discovered, the item has already been shipped. Obviously, this is a time consuming and annoying situation for both the buyer and seller. 

Also, as eBay picks up variations based on colour, it is strongly advised that the seller be as basic as they possibly can when entering this colour information for each of their products. For example, if your product is "Persian red," it would be better to just simply put it as "red." The reason for this is that very few people will search for Persian red meaning that when they type red into their search parameters, your products are going to appear further down the search results as they do not match the search results as much as other listings above it. 

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New Pinterest feature gives the platform a new dimension

Pinterest have created a new feature called "Secret Boards" that allows users to create a board that can only be viewed by invitation only. 

Pinterest software engineer Evrhet Milam believes that it is a great time to test the new feature with the festive period fast approaching: "You can use secret boards to keep track of holiday gifts, plan a special event or work on a project that you aren't yet ready to share with the world." 

While the need feature seems to be a great way for users to work in secret on their own personal projects, the new feature can also be a great benefit to an ecommerce store or other online business, such as an eBay store.

If you are working on adding a new product range to your store, you may create a secret board that only your members of staff can access, suggesting different products you could possibly add to your store. However, if isn't just in-house where this feature benefits. You could also use the feature to give your dedicated customer base, such as your social media followers, a sneak peak at the new products you are adding to your store in the near future by inviting them to have a look. Not only would it allow them to feel more of a valued customer, but it would also allow you to get some initial feedback as to how popular each product will be when it eventually goes on sale. 

Pinterest is fast becoming one of the most popular social media tools particularly for an ecommerce business, allowing owners to share images on their products in order to increase they brand and product awareness as well as increase traffic to their store. The site currently has around 20 million unique visitors, the vast majority of them being women.

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Thursday, 8 November 2012

eBay's Weekend Promotion Offer

Another week and another free listing promotion offer from eBay. The promotion allows sellers listing fixed price listing to add up to 5,000 listing without having to pay any listing fees. 

The promotion starts today (November 8th) and will run until the end of Sunday, meaning that every fixed listing placed on their ecommerce store by the invited seller over this period will not have the standard $0.50 listing fee. eBay are using this promotion to remind their sellers about the ability to use their mobile application in order to list products.


However, the promotion is only available to sellers who have been specifically invited by eBay as well as only being available to listings placed on the eBay.com website. 

In the past some people who were invited to the promotion simply didn't know because for some unknown reason their email notification were lost in transit. For this reason, even if you don't find an invitation in your inbox, you should still check to see if you have been added to this promotion.

For sellers who are using any listing tool other than "Sell Your Item" the promotion rate will be shown in your "View Account Status" and on the seller's invoice rather than being visible during the listing process. 

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The best and worst examples of QR codes

QR codes have become a great marketing tool for an ecommerce store in allowing them to provide people on the go with various information about their business as well as the products and services they have available. 

In case you are unfamiliar what QR codes exactly are, they are a matrix barcode which people can scan using QR scanner applications on their smartphone. Once they have scanned the code, they are then given some information either through a SMS message or a redirection to a specific website.

The benefit of this marketing tool is that not only does it reduce the amount of marketing space you need, the customer doesn't have to spend time standing around reading large amounts of text, they can simply use the scanner and instantly get all the information sent to their phone.

In an attempt to increase their brand awareness, some business have taken to using QR codes with some performing well and others being just down right stupid. We at eSellution have looked at some of the most memorable QR campaigns for both the right and wrong reasons.


Subway fail



A QR code that clearly wasn't thought about it was placed in this underground station. In order for the a user to scan the QR code and receive the added information, they first had to risk life and death by getting across busy train tracks in order to get into a position where they are able to scan the code. 


Tesco virtual shopping



In order to try and improve their sales within Korea, Tesco decided to place a virtual shopping experience into various subway and train stations. Users could then view a number of products that the store offers and then scan the QR code of the various products they are interested in. Once the code for the product has been scanned, the product will then appear in their online shopping basket, allowing the user to purchase these scanned goods online. This idea has been repeated in a number of stations across the world. 


Taking QR codes to the skies



A company decided that the best way to make users aware of their business was to create a huge QR code, tie it to the back of a plane and have it flown thousands of feet in the air. While this was eye catching in the sense that people could see it in the sky, the fact that it was so high  up meant that it was absolutely impossible for anyone to scan the code on their smartphones.

Footballers using their heads



Online gambling site Betfair, approached non-league club Bromley FC before their FA cup clash with Leyton Orient and proposed the idea of the players having QR codes shaved into the back of their heads. After the club agreed, stylists spent a number of hours precisely shaving QR codes into the back of players heads. Surprising enough, when the work had been completed and the back of their heads scanned with a QR code scanner, it worked like a charm with the application redirecting the user to the Betfair online site. 


The QR scanner loop



In order to teach people how to use a QR code scanner correctly, a company decided to create a QR code for users to scan in order to download a free QR code scanner. The ironic aspect of this is that to learn how to use a QR scanner and download a free application, the user must already know how to use a QR scanner and already have a QR scanner on their phone in order to scan the QR code and get another QR scanner for free. Yet another example of a pointless QR code.


Coca Cola Euro 2012



During the Euro 2012 competition, Coca Cola decided to place QR codes on all of their cans which users could scan to be redirected to their "SmileWorld" application where they would be able to download games, enter competitions and view exclusive videos produced by the company. While this isn't the most exciting or innovative QR code in the list, it's an example of how a QR code can be simple but effective. This achieved great levels success and drastically increased the traffic numbers and interaction for the SmileWorld site.


A great idea for traffic accidents



As roads have a continual amount of traffic throughout the day as countless people going to and from work every day, a company decided that they would try and take advantage of this traffic by placing a QR code for people to see on a traffic sign. While this would result in many people becoming aware of the QR code, having countless drivers attempt to pull out their smartphones and scan a QR code, when they should be concentrating on the busy traffic ahead of them, is most likely going to result in more accidents than scans. The code was quickly removed due to the safety risk it caused.


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Wednesday, 7 November 2012

The American Presidential race provides top ecommerce tips

With Barack Obama comfortably defeating Mitt Romney in the race for the for US President, the Hawaiian is set for another four year tenure in the White House. In his victory speech, Obama promised American citizens  that "the best is yet to come."

While Obama will focus on improving health care, reforming immigration policies and the safety of troops abroad, how can owners of an ecommerce store follow in the footsteps of the re-elected President and improve their online business to make it more successful than ever.

Engagement


Obama spent months travelling around the states, meeting many people, shaking many hands and kissing many babies all in an attempt to create a more favourable public perception. While you can't spend your time travelling around promoting your business, you can use social media platforms to engage with your current customers and have them do the work for you. Regularly engaging with your customers on Facebook, Twitter and all other social media platforms ensures that they have the best possible experience when engaging with your business. This positive experience will then result in them telling their friends and family about your business, further developing your brand image and traffic.

Values


When setting up your own online store, you will have a number of ideas and values that are dear to you in helping you achieve long and short term success. As your business grows and your brand identity develops, it's important to not only hold on to these values but also take into account the values of your customers. Developing a business that meets the values of the customer is going to improve their shopping experience and ensure that they return to your store in the future to make another purchase.

Promises


Like all political campaigns, what a candidate promises they are going to do in the future plays a big role in whether they decide to vote for that candidate or not. The same principle applies to your business. When running your ecommerce business you want to regularly inform your customers about any offers you are running through your ecommerce software or any new product lines that will be added to your store in the near future. These promises keep the users engaged with your store on a regular basis. However, failing to deliver on these promises will not only damage your public image, but will also result in many customers perceiving your business and untrustworthy and refusing to buy from you.

Teamwork


While President Obama is considered the most powerful man on the planet, it's important to remember that it wasn't just him to go him there. He has a large team behind him, not only his family, but the campaign team supporting him and countless volunteers who worked diligently to help him achieve another term in business. Setting up an ecommerce business from the ground up makes it very personal to you and while you may want to be the sole person to make your business a success, just like Barack Obama, it is important that you draft in help. Whether it's someone to improve your social media presence, handle your orders or to develop your website, extra hands working hard to improve your business is not only going to allow you to achieve more success. it is going to help your business and brand image grow considerably. 

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