In the last issue, we reported our Seller's Choice Marketplace Ratings, which ranked 15 online marketplaces by over 1,400 survey respondents. Several people wrote and asked if we could keep the list handy for quick reference, which we thought was a great idea! So, we've created a special section and linked to it on the home page to allow sellers to reference it throughout the year. The link appears under the "Cool Tools" section in the left navigation bar, called "Marketplace Ratings." Thanks for the suggestion, and we look forward to revisiting these rankings again next year!
eBay is changing its fee structure at the end of March and is doing away with Store Inventory format, leaving many sellers trying to adapt their listing strategies. We surveyed readers to determine how the changes would impact sellers' businesses. Over 1,100 eBay sellers took the survey, and the majority of respondents reported that their monthly fees would rise. We also asked sellers whether they would make any changes to their business due to the fee and/or policy changes announced by eBay on January 26th.
The overall results of the survey are included in today's issue, and we'll report more in tomorrow's AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter. We've broken down the results to determine how the impact will be felt depending on certain factors, such as level of eBay Store, category, and annual gross sales. This time we're going to make the survey results a bit more "interactive," so we've set up a post in the AuctionBytes Blog where you can request us to slice and dice the data in different ways. Sellers are extremely savvy when it comes to analyzing their businesses, so we welcome your input.
Also in today's issue, Greg Holden takes a look at Webstore.com, a free online marketplace, and Jennifer Van Iderstyne takes a look at how small sellers can apply the principles of Search Engine Optimization to generate traffic to their product listings in Part 2 of her series.
Last week we reported on some companies in the industry who ran into problems - you might remember eBay PowerSeller Bargainland who launched an auction site called Bidtopia, as well as SpoonFeeeder, a listing tool for eBay sellers that abruptly ceased operations. Be sure and subscribe to AuctionBytes Newsflash so you can get all the news as it breaks!
David and I are excited about the content we have coming up in future issues to help online sellers, so stay tuned and 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@ecommercebytes.com.
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