This Week in eBay Alternative News
eBid Readies Site for Growth in 2009
Online marketplace eBid.net says it plans to reinvest last year's profits into US-based marketing to support new 2009 growth goals, plus the marketplace also has plans to work on features and options that will make the site easier to use.
One slated improvement is eBid.net's 'Ninja Lister' desktop software application that enables offline auction creation plus eases the transfer of auctions from other sites. Other improvements on tap at eBid include a public API to support third party applications and widgets, sales tax calculations for US and Canada; a Who's Online System and a non-English versions of the site.
EBid.net offers its sellers free listings and low selling fees. eBid Co-founder, Mark Wilkinson says that the site has experienced a seven to 15 percent consecutive monthly growth, with item listing numbers reaching two million in December of last year.
Bonanzle Caps Listing Numbers
Bonanzle is another eBay alternative marketplace that has been busy with updates in the first few weeks of the new year. Just this week several changes were announced that are aimed at keeping Bonanzle true to its grassroots adoption. One of the first changes is to the actual number of items a seller may list at any given time. In an official blog update, site Founder Bill Harding announced that Bonanzle Booths are now limited to 10,000 items.
Harding followed up on the change by saying, "This goes hand-in-hand with the blog post from a couple weeks ago about not letting Bonanzle get overrun by drop shipping merchants, big box stores, or other mega-merchants. Bonanzle has grown because of grassroots efforts by small sellers; it's our vision to ensure that Bonanzle will always be a hospitable place to the sellers who have helped to create us."
In other Bonanzle news this week, the site has announced that in its' four months of operation since coming out of beta testing the one millionth item has been listed on the site.
PlunderHere Adds Global Messaging and Other Features
Online marketplace PlunderHere has recently added several new seller features to its site. Some of the new tools added for sellers include a new seller's desktop where sellers can manage and monitor all listings from one place and chat with members in real time.
Global Settings is another new feature, and it lets sellers set global options for shipping and payment types. PlunderHere is also offering an affiliate program that will let you earn credits for the PlunderHere site.
Wigix Lets You Label Your Stuff
Wigix has announced a new feature called 'Label Your Stuff' that enables sellers to display their portfolio of items, and then, interested customers may quickly navigate to the product detail page by clicking on the particular region within the photo. Sellers can tag the photos to route people to buy items, to display prized possessions, to inventory household items, and more. The tagged photos can also displayed on your own Facebook profile page.
Only on eBay...
eBay Retires Old 'My eBay' and Plans Forum Upgrades
This past week eBay officially retired the old My eBay, offering members new Features. These include a customized summary page and modules for displaying up to 200 watching or active items at a time, collapsible menus, lists, shortcuts, and more. For those who have just recently switched to the new My eBay interface, there is a FAQ and a new User Guide available to help you take advantage of the new interface and options.
In other eBay news this week, the auction site has announced plans to upgrade its on-site discussion boards, offering a new look and several new features. With the new boards eBay says you can expect to find personalization and layout options and tools to let members quickly access the discussion topics that are most important to them.
Garnor Morantes of eBay's Seller Experience team also said that in order to add these new upgrades, eBay Discussion Boards will be taken offline on Tuesday, Feb. 3 from approximately 4 p.m. Pacific time to midnight.
HammerTap on 'Buy It Now'
EBay market research firm, HammerTap, has recently spent some time investigating eBay's Buy it Now (BIN) in an attempt to answer the question, "On eBay Does Buy It Now Make You More?".
According to the HammerTap research, there are several reasons why some auctions perform much better using the Buy it Now option. Sometimes it's because buyers can get products quicker and with less hassle as buyers just don't have the time to watch an auction. HammerTap research also shows that in some instances buyers are willing to pay more for an item with BIN just to own immediately.
On the negative side of using BIN, HammerTap says that using BIN does put a cap on how high the auction bidding can go and some sellers may be losing potential profits. Also, auctions with the BIN feature may not have an urgent feel to them so buyers have the impression they can buy anytime which could result in fewer bids.
A New Year With new Shipping Rates
Several carriers including UPS, USPS, and Canada Post have changed services and also increased some rates this month. While these rate changes will roll-over to both the eBay shipping calculator and PayPal Shipping Labels, it is important for sellers to ensure item listings have been updated, if you provide shipping details in the text of your listing. You can find the rate change details on the following pages:
ProPay for Bronze PowerSellers
ProPay is now offering its merchant payment solution, eAuction Account, to eBay's US-based Bronze PowerSellers. Using ProPay, eBay Power Sellers can accept all four major credit cards for transaction fees starting as low as 2.4 percent. The transaction fees are flat-rated regardless of the type of credit or debit card used by the buyer. ProPay's eAuction is fully integrated with eBay checkout, and there are no requirement for buyers to have a ProPay account to complete transactions. Using ProPay also enables eBay PowerSellers collect fees immediately.
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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