Ina at AuctionBytes reports this morning on eBay’s new Seller Non-Performance Policy that is very important to review and understand for any eBay seller since it can result in severe restrictions or even removal from eBay. The policy states several best practices for promoting buyer satisfaction:

• Accurately describing the condition, size and quality of the item directly in the listing.
• Honoring the original terms by accepting payment for an item at the end of a successful sale.
• Promptly shipping the item with appropriate packaging once payment has been received.
• Responding promptly and professionally to questions from the buyer.
• Proactively communicating with the buyer throughout the transaction.
• Issuing refunds in a timely manner when accepting returns or when there are problems with delivery.

The eBay Chatter blog interviewed Lynda Talgo, eBay’s Senior Director of Global Policy Management in Trust and Safety which highlights the impact of this policy on high-volume eBay sellers:

Higher-volume sellers: For sellers who are not low-volume sellers, and who have a buyer dissatisfaction rate of greater than 5% (but less than 10%), the restriction is a reduction in sales volume. Sellers will be able to continue selling and listing items, up to 75% of their historical weekly volume based on their rolling 90 day history of completed sales. (This is based on dollar sales volume, not on number of items sold.) We manually review restricted accounts after 30 days to determine if there has been improvement in their satisfaction rates. If a seller’s buyer dissatisfaction rate is brought down to less than 5%, the restriction will be lifted. If the buyer dissatisfaction rate remains greater than 5%, the sales volume will continue to be reduced. Additionally, sellers whose performance substantially worsens during this restriction period may be subject to more significant consequences.

A restriction to even 75% of the rolling 90-day average volume could mean at 50%+ cut to probable sales volume and leave many sellers sitting on a mountain of inventory (putting their business at risk). Of course Scot has some great thoughts on this.

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No letters this week. Instead, I thought I’d introduce some new functions that we recently rolled out. One of the things that lazy productive programmers do is try to find patterns in our code and create new abstractions to hide complexity. I know my readers will scoff at the notion that ShoppingAdvisor contains any complexity, but I have to do SOMETHING to look busy around here.
(more…)

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eBay has just announced a huge promotion for the entire month September following their very successful Gallery promotion launched two weeks ago.

“… if you buy Gallery and start your Auction-style or Fixed Price listings at $9.99 or less, we’re going to give you the insertion fee for FREE. In addition, for items with a starting price of $10 or more, you’ll save 25% off the listing fee (up to $1.20 per listing!).”

Early seller feedback (from the IMA Merchant forum) is very positive:

“Well, this has really been an eye opening experience for me! I have always been loathe to run core due to the costs involved but the level of sales I’m getting right now (if it keeps up) is highly encouraging. I’ve already sold 16 of those boogers and have covered all of my listing fees already. Darn it. It looks like I really do have to pony up the cash to run core.”

“I’m excited! I want to clean out my warehouse and have lots of stuff I can sell for less than $9.99, so this is great for me!”

“No Way! I can believe it!!! I have been bummed that eBay hasn’t ran very many sales that benefitted me lately but this is it! I bet I can double my sales if the multiple quantity still works. “

Scot has a great analysis on the benefits, but really - when ARE we going to see free Gallery at eBay??

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I started to write this post last week when I was deep in depression about the miserable summer we were having here in England at the moment. But the gorgeous sunshine this weekend has changed all that and I’m feeling a lot better - but I still think this post is interesting so here goes….

Reports from the IMRG in the last few days have confirmed a massive spike in online sales in July, up 80% on last year. For the first time, UK e-retail sales exceeded £4 billion in a month (£4.2bn) - that’s a massive £1.86 billion higher than in July 2006.

The highest sales growth in July was seen by electricals retailers as people bought items online for their summer holidays. Clothing sales were also strong online - the IMRG Clothing / Footwear / Accessories Index was 56% higher than a year earlier.

Several factors contributed to July’s very strong growth, including the very wet weather which discouraged people from travelling and encouraged them to shop online (unfortunately in many cases to replace water-damaged goods).

Many retailers also reported rising numbers of new customers as a result of the still strong uptake of domestic broadband, and because existing internet shoppers are expanding their online buying activity as they become more confident in using the channel.

“IMRG was surprised by the strength of July’s growth, so checked and rechecked the figures …then checked them again,” advises Jo Evans, IMRG’s managing director. “This data is sound. It reveals the extent to which the retail sector is being transformed by frictionless e-commerce. Major brands are bringing on-stream the next generation of slick new internet retailing services, and consumers are flocking to use them. It’s big players’ success that is now driving e-retail growth and boosting the Index.”

I’ll be interested to see how August and September turn out. Traditionally these two months have also suffered from the ’summer holidays’ effect and taken a downturn as shoppers abandon computers and head off (abroad usually) in search of the sun. Watch this space!

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Although hard to believe, some ChannelAdvisor customers outpace even our relentless push for a comprehensive multi-channel portfolio, constantly exploring and applying new strategies across marketplaces, comparison shopping sites, search engines and eCommerce. Dyscern is one such online retailer and their pursuit (and success) is now being recognized with a 167 rank on the Inc 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States.

Dyscern’s ecommerce site (www.dyscern.com) is also a good case study for implementing a social marketing strategy on top of a ChannelAdvisor Store with on-staff blogger and consumer electronics expert Samuel Centralia and a guide to the most popular gadgets.

And while we’re more excited about seeing our customers get recognition for their hard word, ChannelAdvisor made the list at 835.

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