"Businesses run on inventory," says Alec Peters, CEO of Auctionworks, a leading provider of online marketplace management software and services for high-volume online-auction sellers. This appears to be the key operating principle of Auctionworks: to have one place that sends your inventory anywhere else on the Internet.
Auctionworks has firm roots in the industry. An eBay seller himself since 1997, Peters very quickly sensed a need for a good way to manage auctions. He founded Auctionworks in September of 1999, when eBay was still emerging amidst some strong competition. In 2000, Peters polled 28 of the top 50 sellers on eBay and discovered that many of them found it difficult to manage more than 50 auctions at a time. Their input provided the insight that led to the development of many Auctionworks features in their current product offerings. "We were the first to push auction management tools and automation," says Peters.
According to their Web site at http://www.auctionworks.com, Auctionworks was the first company to develop fixed-price storefronts. Auctionworks StoreFronts offer integrated eBay item checkout, automatic cross-sell at checkout, combined shipping for multiple purchases, automated eBay final value fee collection and integration to international eBay marketplaces.
Their smooth site-navigation demonstrates the usability of their products - it's easy to find information. From the Auctionworks home page, click on the Products and Services tab, read the Product Overview, and then click on "Getting Started." The rest is menu-driven, to which any experienced eBay seller should adapt with ease.
The StoreFront is part of their existing product offering, along with image-hosting, customizable profiles, inventory management, auction launch tools, and much more. All the basic advantages exist:
- It can serve as your Web site for selling items at a fixed price.
- You can customize the StoreFront layout, which helps your customers recognize you.
- Your StoreFront is dynamically linked with your inventory and auctions, allowing customers to click over to your eBay listings.
- You can use your StoreFront as your primary Web site to manage all of your online marketing.
- It is fully e-commerce enabled with automated and powerful checkout features.
- You can re-direct your domain to your Auctionworks storefront.
Users seem pleased with the setup process. "Setting up my Auctionworks StoreFront was a piece of cake," says Mike Stone, Department Supervisor for IMS Recycling, who maintains StoreFront at http://corporate.auctionworks.com/awstore/imsrecinc. "There really aren't too many options available - you just add inventory to it much like you would an eBay auction. The only major thing you can change is the front page, and with some basic HTML skills, I had something up in a day or so."
Also notable are the StoreFront/ClickOut Profiles. These allow you to select a customizable StoreFront Template and set up Gallery views. The Gallery views allow customers to see your photos along with your item information.
You can also set up StoreFront folders, so that visitors can see your custom item categories where they can "click in" to view your merchandise. The multi-tiered StoreFront folders appear at the top of your store page, giving your customers some options:
- Shop your storefront and auction-site listings
- Check out when they're done shopping
- Track their order with you
- Review your seller policies
The users I talked to report favorably on the Auctionworks StoreFronts checkout tool. Recent enhancements bring buyers right to the Auctionworks "Pay for an Auction" page with eBay's Checkout Redirect. "This is a huge time saver for us," says Kelly Bloom, who operates an Auctionworks storefront at http://www.auctionworks.com/awstore/caravan. "Now a buyer just hits the regular eBay end-of-auction email PayNow button, the My eBay PayNow Button, or the PayNow checkout button on the item page, and they're redirected right to the Auctionworks Clickout Checkout. It is great!"
After an extended self-guided tour of the Auctionworks site and user setup pages, I have concluded that the Auctionworks StoreFront customization options are nothing short of incredible. The Inventory Management tool lets you keep track of your available goods from any conceivable aspect. The Profile Manager with its multitude of options for high-volume sellers allows you to set seller profiles for taxation, re-launching, shipping, notifications, and StoreFront/ClickOuts, to name just a few.
And they're definitely not done. From the basic auction management storefront concept, Auctionworks has pressed forward. They recently rolled out a new software package that includes customized storefronts. "Our new technology allows us to carry our sellers' unique brand image across their entire Web presence while still leveraging the powerful Auctionworks inventory management system," says Bobby Kreiner, Auctionworks Creative. "Brand continuity is a way for our customers to stand out from the crowd, and to build customer recognition and loyalty. This is a relatively new service offering of ours and we will be launching several more in the coming weeks."
Paul Lundy, Auctionworks Chief Marketing Officer, further describes the new service. "The storefront has always been part of our standard product offering. However, the customized storefronts are a new offering. Auctionworks designed the stores based on customer input. They are designed to family with the customer's eBay templates and store to create a consistent online brand image across multiple channels. The URLs are owned and registered by each customer and are simply directed to these storefronts."
An example of an Auctionworks customized storefront can be found at http://www.teeitupgolfballs.com.
If you consider opening an account with Auctionworks, be mindful that they offer a free two-week trial. In contrast to their competitors, however, they do not offer service levels such as Basic to Premium. "We don't segment our software," explains Peters. "Our users can grow." How significant is the StoreFront to the overall Auctionworks model? "The StoreFront is a big piece of our value offerings," Peters says, "but the significance is determined by the user."
Questions about their products? Contact sales@auctionworks.com or register for free trial and then have a look around the site. Set aside plenty of time - there's a lot to explore.
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To read Nancy L. Hix' previous installments of her series on Storefronts for online-auction sellers, go to:
"eBay Stores Part I: Setting up an eBay Store"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y203/m11/abu0107/s02
and
"eBay Stores Part 2: Seven Ways to Promote Your eBay Store"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y203/m12/abu0108/s04
and
"Online Auction Storefront Series: Selling with a Vendio Store"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y204/m01/abu0111/s02
