Everest Software Names MerchantAdvantage Top Data Feed Management Software Tool

I just wanted to thank Ryan Brown, Everest Software, for the accolade and recommendation from the recent Internet Retailer 2008 show in Chicago to utilize MerchantAdvantage and our cost-effective, Channel Management with Chanalytics Professional and Lite products.

We work hard at MerchantAdvatage to provide the best value for small to mid-sized businesses to manage their product catalog data feeds to ecommerce and mobile commerce comparison shopping engines, affiliate sites -- as Commission Junction and LinkShare -- and over 150 other shopping destination sites and marketplaces -- as Amazon, Become.com, buySAFE bonded shopping network, eBay!, FindGifts.com, Gifts.com, Google Product Search, JellyFish, Like.com, Microsoft Cashback, myCoupons.com, mPoria.com, mShopper.com, Pricegrabber, Pronto, Shop.com, Shopzilla, Smarter, SortPrice, theFind.com, Underbid, Yahoo!Shopping, and many, many others -- without charging any listing, set up or transaction fees or revenue share.

Here is the full review of MerchantAdvantage and other recommendations from Ryan Brown and Everest Software.

"MerchantAdvantage facilitates the marketing of your products through online shopping sites, coupon sites and mobile commerce sites..."

Chip Arndt
Co-Founder|EVP
MerchantAdvantage, LLC

eBay! Changes and What Sellers Should Do

As I say often, I gladly rely on friends of eTaildTail who are far more knowledgable about certain products, marketing efforts and areas of ecommerce than me.

Debbie Levitt, President of AsWas, a company that specializes in helping small to mid-sized businesses work more productively with eBay!, is one of those people.

If any of you out there in ecommerce land work with eBay!, in any capacity, you want to attend this AsWas FREE webinar!

Happy eBay! selling.

Chip Arndt

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this FREE Webinar on how to work more productively and intelligently with eBay!

From AsWas and Debbie Levitt, President and CEO:

Tuesday, July 1: Free webinar on -- "eBay! Changes and What Sellers Should Do"

"eBay! has been making a lot of changes, and more are coming!

Let's talk about what's going on and how you should and need to respond to these. This webinar will look at the announced changes, possible future changes, and how to stay compliant and ahead of things!

We will be live on a phone call and you will be viewing our presentation. So if possible, please be at a phone and computer!"

This webinar is on Tuesday, July 1 at 11am Pacific Time|2pm Eastern Time.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this FREE Webinar on how to work more productively and intelligently with eBay!

eBay Webinar March 11: Leverage the Power of eBay to Maximize Sales

While eBay may be "slowing" down in its overall year-to-year growth, it is still a very effective marketplace to market and sell products.

MerchantAdvantage is proud to support eBay and we are an eBay and ProStores certified developer. We help our merchants send their product catalog feed to an eBay Storefront OR from an eBay Storefront to other marketing channels.

Check out eBay's webinar below and then give MerchantAdvantage a call if you need some help.

- Chip

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to sign up for FREE webinar with eBay

eBay has grown into the premiere marketplace on the web, with over 250 million users and gross merchandise volume of $52 billion in 2006, and  $14.4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2007 alone.   

If you are a retailer and aren’t on eBay, then you’re missing out!

Even those that are already eBay PowerSellers may be leaving money on the table. At any given time, there are approximately 102 million listings worldwide, and approximately 6 million listings are added per day. In this marketplace of virtually unlimited potential, you may be losing sales simply because your operational processes are a bottleneck to your ability to do more auctions while maintaining quality customer service and ratings.

This seminar will provide an overview of how the CORESense multi-channel retail management system can optimize your sales in the eBay marketplace, helping you deploy a highly lucrative and scalable sales channel that essentially runs itself.

Topics covered include:

* Building your brand online with eBay
* Leveraging eBay to liquidate excess inventory
* Maximizing efficiency with a single online checkout and order fulfillment process
* Increasing customer satisfaction and feedback while increasing auction volume
* Using dynamic auction templates and automation to quickly re-list items or launch new auctions

Learn how you can conduct more auctions and maintain positive customer feedback using your existing organizational resources and product catalog.

Who should attend:   

Small to medium sized retailers (at least $2M in annual sales), preferably with at least one brick and mortar location.  CEO/President/Owner, CFO, CIO, Marketing, Merchandising, Operations.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to sign up for FREE webinar with eBay

eBay Cuts Listing Fees and Boosts Commission Fees = Follows Amazon Model...Sort Of!

So the competiton is heating up and no longer is eBay the only kid on the block...but then most of us knew that already.  I have posted below a full article on what eBay announced today, or <<<CLICK HERE>>> to read about their new pricing strategy.

Fierce competition exists among new online shopping comparison sites and the "old guard" shopping sites as eBay.com, Shopzilla.com, PriceGrabber.com, Shopping.com, Amazon.com and Yahoo! Shopping, to name just a few.  For a good list of over 100 shopping comparison sites, with whom you can work, check out MerchantAdvantage.

Online retailers have known about other market places and shopping comparison sites to list their product catalog to reach consumers for sometime and they have done fairly well using these other sites, in addition to listing on eBay.com. 

Now eBay is feeling the pressure, especially from Amazon.com, which does not charge listing fees but rather "high" commissions on sales, and is responding to the marketplace as revenues have "flat lined" at eBay and online retail listings have followed, with only a 4% increase in the 4th quater last year, which reverses two Q's of declining listings.

All in all, competition is good for the the online retail marketplace, and the consumer, so I am glad to see eBay react and try to rebuild their following and attract new online merchants into their family.

I personally think that the recent declines, and now restructuring, at eBay are not signs of the demise of online shopping but rather a direct response to unique, and sometimes better, shopping experierneces and business models offered by new shopping sites.  Check out the blog entry below about Ciao.com as an example of what I am talking about!

Happy shopping and listing and work with eBay -- they are great and I think with this new pricing model, any online marchant can better manage and increase their return on investment. 

And one special note, this fee restructuring generally benefits the larger seller with lots of SKUs and might not be the best deal for the "onesy-twosy" sellers (which mind you used to be the heart and soul of the "original" eBay) who will have to pay higher commissions on a small SKU count.

And if you need some help with your eBay listings give us a shout, we support and can feed your product to an eBay Storefront.  Just click here and call us to help....MerchantAdvantage

-- Chip

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article, or read below

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- EBay Inc. said Tuesday it will cut by up to 50 percent the fees it charges sellers to list their goods online, in an effort to boost listings and keep pace with other burgeoning e-commerce sites.

To balance the fee cut, the company plans to increase its commission on items that do sell, a method the company says sellers prefer because it lowers their risk if items do not sell.

The greatest fee increase will come for goods selling for less than $25. EBay's fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price.

"A majority of sellers will see their fees go down," said company spokesman Usher Lieberman. "We are basing our success on their success and we want to encourage sellers to list more items with us."

The new fee structure, announced to a gathering of 200 of eBay's top North American sellers in Washington, goes into effect February 20 in the United States. More pricing changes are coming shortly in the United Kingdom and Germany.

EBay has struggled with flattening growth in recent years and a temporary drop in the number of items for sale on its site.

Listings on eBay's various sites in the fourth quarter rose 4 percent, reversing two straight quarters of declines, the company reported last week. The number of people actively using the site has also stagnated, rising just 2 percent from a year ago.

The online auctioneer has faced increasing competition from other e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com, which does not charge a listing fee.

EBay's various fees have long been a point of contention for its sellers, which range from mom-and-pop vendors to online stores with large inventories.

The changes come as longtime chief executive Meg Whitman announced she would retire at the end of March. Incoming CEO John Donahoe, president of eBay Marketplaces, which encompasses its shopping sites and classifieds, has said he will aggressively change eBay's product, customer approach and business model.

Along with changes to the fee structure, eBay said it will change how sellers show up on customer searches. Those with high rates of customer dissatisfaction will get lower exposure in a search, the company said.

ChannelAdvisor Launches DSRWatch for eBay Sellers

Here is some news from Channel Advisor.  Channel Advisor has partnered with DSRWatch.com to help customers at eBay compare prices, products and eBay sellers.  Sounds like a good feature, as it helps customers compare the best rated sellers, best prices, and other attributes of the eBay seller -- and the eTaildTail community likes both companies! 

Well done and onward and upward, all of this is great news for online shoppers looking for the best and "right" deal when shopping within eBay.

Happy Holidays to you all!

-- Chip

by Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

"ChannelAdvisor has launched a new tool that displays sellers' Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR) along with comparisons to other sellers. With eBay's DSR feature, launched this year, buyers may rate sellers anonymously on a 5-star scale in four categories: item as described; communication; shipping time; and shipping and handling charges. Now anyone can enter a seller's User ID in ChannelAdvisor's new DSRWatch utility and see how that seller stacks up in terms of raw numbers, and where they fall compared to other sellers.

ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo said sellers need to wake up to the growing importance of DSRs, which can effect their performance grade and their exposure in search results. "The larger the number of ratings you have, the longer it will take for you to impact your DSRs in a positive manner," the tool's FAQ section states.

In addition, Wingo said his company has found that sellers who have a DSR rating of between 4 and 4.5 in the shipping cost criterion have seen a decrease in ASP. Those with a high DSR rating have seen no change in ASP, though Wingo said that may change once eBay begins advantaging sellers with high DSRs in the search results.

ChannelAdvisor made the tool available to the entire eBay community, Wingo said, "to help sellers prepare for all of the changes coming in 2008 and give them the first solution for monitoring their increasingly important Feedback 2.0 Detailed Seller Ratings."

Sellers can also sign up to receive email alerts from DSRWatch when their DSRs change."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full story.