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LorenaSoft is a one-person operation founded by Hubert Cross. Lorena (named for Mr. Cross' daughter) is auction management software for sellers that functions exclusively on eBay. LorenaSoft claims that their program excels at handling hundreds or thousands of auctions automatically with little intervention from the user. And once you figure out how to properly set up the program and operate it, that might be the case.
Installation is very straightforward. Simply put in the Lorena CD, open Windows Explorer and click on Setup. Lorena installs itself in a few minutes and places a shortcut icon on your desktop.
Setting up the software isn't quite as simple. Expect to spend some time configuring your preferences, including ISP and email usernames and passwords, eBay information, paths to the site where your images are hosted, shipping preferences, etc.
You should avoid drinking hot coffee when setting up Lorena. It's voice-enabled, and I almost flipped over in my chair when a young lady's voice unexpectedly boomed out "SAVING PREFERENCES" over my speakers.
After configuring your preferences, you can import your existing auctions from eBay. If your setup was done properly, you simply click on "Import Auctions" and you can quickly download auctions as old as 60 days. Once your auctions are onboard the Lorena software, you have many options. You can re-list auctions that haven't been sold, you can edit the listing, or list new ones.
Listing single items can be very challenging.
You must first put your images in the Lorena>images folder. In the Edit Items page, import your new auction images so that Lorena recognizes them. You will also need to FTP your files up to your server with Lorena's onboard utility. Fill in the rest of the information for your auction, such as title, description, starting price, and you're ready to go. Well almost. You have to go to yet another page to list your item.
I have to admit that I never got Lorena to successfully upload an auction to eBay. Even though I had copied my preferences directly over from software that was working successfully, I continued to receive errors from eBay when I attempted to post auctions.
It was about here that I began to realize that this program was not for the casual user. It is geared for the seller who is selling a large inventory of similar items. I had invested about 2 hours of time trying to list one item and I still hadn't gotten one auction up on eBay. Nor was I able to get Lorena to upload images to my server.
These problems did allow me to test the customer support and, although I didn't get the software working by deadline, I did receive tech support emails from LorenaSoft within 24 hours.
Lorena has no shortage of cool tools. What I found most difficult about this software was getting it to work. Navigation is confusing, and its lack of onboard help is frustrating. You also have to become very familiar with the icons, because you won't necessarily find the same commands in the options bar. Lorena is not compatible with AOL, so you will not be able to host your images there.
Lorena has built-in features that are extremely creative:
- A feature that builds Web pages where people can request items to be posted on eBay.
- The ability to make private sales to secondary bidders if you have duplicate items.
- A feature that calculates your profit margin over a specified range of auctions with a click of the button.
- For the seller that buys their inventory as they sell it, Lorena has a slick feature that enables the user to create an order list for their suppliers.
- The ability to list auctions so that they don't end at the same time.
There's a steep learning curve to this software, and most casual sellers will never need the features that Lorena offers. But for the Power Seller, the time invested in learning Lorena could pay off in time and effort saved. I would definitely suggest printing out the manual from the LorenaSoft site. LorenaSoft is planning a reorganization of its Help page, which should go a long way toward making this software more user-friendly.
For all of its features, Lorena is priced at a very modest $29.95 and promises 24/7email support. Lorena can be ordered at http://www.lorenasoft.com and comes with a 60-day refund policy.
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