EcommerceBytes-Update, Number 190 - May 06, 2007 - ISSN 1528-6703
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From the Editor
The annual eBay Live conference is just over 5 weeks away, and the AuctionBytes team will be there bringing you all the latest from Boston. A huge thank you to the companies who are sponsoring our coverage this year so we can bring you news, photos, interviews - and a few surprises - from the show floor!
Today, we're publishing the results of a recent survey AuctionBytes conducted of eBay drop-off stores. The results are fascinating and present a look at the operations of these stores directly from those who own and operate them. The details - including operating data such as client return rate, time it takes to research and list an item, and average selling price - paint a picture of a challenging model whose profitability seems far from satisfactory. Yet many of these storeowners are optimistic about the growth of online consignment services.
We hope the survey will generate lots of discussion and provide owners with a benchmark to compare their business with those of their peers. Please feel free to post your comments in the AuctionBytes Blog.
It was a busy news week. Yahoo Auctions announced that it is shutting its US and Canadian sites in June. This didn't come as a huge surprise to many. Yahoo did little to promote their auction platform, and their "on again, off again" fee structure signaled a lack of focus.
I belong to a discussion group for Yahoo Auction sellers, and there is a lot of discussion about which auction site to migrate to now that Yahoo is closing the North American auction sites. It struck me that when sellers talked about the kinds of low sales volume they had experienced on smaller auction sites, they did not discuss marketing strategies.
Sellers who got their start on eBay a few years ago merely had to list items to get bids. Now, sellers must be more proactive. Do you have an opt-in mailing list of previous customers? Do you send regular mailings to them letting them know what you have for sale and offering incentives? Do you include a link to your listings/website in your signature line and post on forums related to the items you sell? Have you looked to see what other sellers in your category are doing, whether it's blogging or creating a MySpace or Squidoo page or creating a feed of your listings and sending it to shopping sites?
If not, don't feel overwhelmed. Just make a list of the things you want to try, and do one at a time.
AuctionBytes has a list of auction sites: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/sitepricing http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/stores
You can find good information on the Online Marketing forum: http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=15
I urge you to participate in the twice-monthly discussion of the "Critique My Site" featured website. Please jump in and help out your colleagues who are looking for help in making their site better, and let me know if you would like your website considered for review.
In other news, eBay is rolling out a new test of search, is retiring the old version of the Sell Your Item (SYI) form, and has rolled out Feedback 2.0 worldwide. A judge is consolidating two class-action antitrust lawsuits filed against eBay in April. ChannelAdvisor showed there is faith in ecommerce when it raised $30 million in funding. And US postal rates are increasing on May 14th.
You can find all the news at: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/rss http://blog.auctionbytes.com
And if you have a hot scoop, write me and let me know - the best news stories come from our readers!
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and AuctionBytes.com and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @auctionbytes and send news tips to ina@auctionbytes.com .
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