Customized Widgets: Expand Sales Channels, Marketing
Web Widgets are an easy and eye-pleasing way to display your online Web store merchandise on your blog, Web site, or even social networking site profile.
You can customize these small applications to showcase products from your Web store, including your own eBay and other online product listings. Here are three free customizable Web widgets that you can use to boost traffic from your own personal Web space to your online Web store.
eBay Listings Widget in Multiple Sizes and Colors
The name of this Widgetbox widget pretty much sums it up. EBay sellers can use the eBay Listings widget to display eBay listings by seller or by eBay search for affiliate linking. The widget can be customized to display in eight different sizes ranging from 728 by 90 to 120 by 600 pixels. To match the design and color scheme of your site, this widget also has options for customizing its' themes and colors. Once you have customized the eBay Listings Widget, Widgetbox lets you get code for embedding the widget on different sites including Blogger, WordPress, iGoogle, FreeWebs and other sites. You can also grab the HTML code to use the Widget on a personal site.
Cooqy Seller Storefront for eBay
Cooqy has a great Seller Storefront for eBay widget on Widgetbox that lets you display a high-resolution photo slideshow on your blog or Web site. Cooqy Seller Storefront for eBay offers sellers multiple customizable features, including display size (in pixels), the number of items that will be displayed within the widget, title, filters, borders, and you can also add your logo, and show your gallery in a number of formats (like list, gallery, or collage). As with all Widgetbox Web widgets, you can copy code for embedding the widget on specific social networking or blog sites.
PayPal Store Widgets
PayPal Labs also has a selection of customizable widgets that let you create your own online store with the PayPal storefront. The PayPal widgets have a number of built-in themes you can choose from, plus you can edit the title, your logo and store policies. Sellers can choose to display all products, a single product or a rotating selection of products on the widget main page. The PayPal widget, which seems to have been in beta for well over a year now, shows buyers thumbnail images of all of the items for sale, individual product pages, the item price and the option to buy the item. The widget's shopping cart page lets buyers adjust quantities of items, remove items from the cart and checkout securely by making a PayPal payment.
New Site Aims to be a Freecycle eBay
A newly launched auction Web site, Ewishingwell.com, is combining the features of eBay with Freecycle (define), allowing users to recycle unwanted household items in an auction-style format using text and video.
Vicki Priebe, creator of Ewishingwell.com said, "There are people out there right now, actually wishing for those items you no longer need. We are providing the platform for people to step up to the plate and start listing their unwanted items, instead of throwing them away."
Registered members can post wishes, or basically a listing for a wanted item, such as a video game or appliance, for a 25-cent fee. Other members can grant those wishes if they have the item and no longer want at no cost for themselves. It is also free to post in the recycle categories, which are listings for items you no longer want, and it is free for members to claim those items. In the listings, those offering up free items post the item for free but indicate the cost to ship the item, which the receiver pays.
Only on eBay...
This week eBay has revamped its Global Buying Hub making it available in 13 different languages. The eBay Global Buying Hub makes it easier for buyers from any country to search a sellers' listings from any of the 16 local eBay sites throughout the world from one convenient location. When you use the Global Buying Hub, the interface appears in your language, with your country's currency and time zone. When you search, you'll see relevant products listed on any eBay site from sellers who have indicated they'll ship to your country.
The eBay Global Buying Hub is great for those living in a country without its own eBay site and also for those buyers who like to take advantage of savings when international currencies fluctuate. Sellers can take advantage of buyers using the eBay Global Buying Hub by selecting specific regions or countries and including international shipping costs in their item listings.
Vangie Beal is a seasoned online marketplace seller, frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and avid online bargain hunter. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com.
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