Selling On eBay & Amazon: Multi-Channel & Miva Merchant by Kyle Hansen
Sales platforms that work - Multi-channel Selling
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Transcript of Sales platforms that work - Multi-channel Selling
Sales Platforms that Work: Successful Multi-Channel
Selling
Crystal Wells - Marketing
Vendio Services, Inc
About Vendio
Leading On-demand Multi-Channel eCommerce platform
– 90,000 merchants selling over $1.5 Billion of goods annuallyVendio is a simply powerful solution for managing listings, inventory and sales across your branded website, Amazon, eBay and other online channels. With Vendio, you will break through barriers to sales by listing more products in more places in less time.
Vendio is quick to get up-and-running without consultants or programmers. Vendio is a compelling value for business owners that want to run their company, not their software.
Incorporated in 1999, headquartered in Silicon Valley
Acquired by Alibaba.com in July of 2010
Acquired SingleFeed in June 2011 – CSE data feed management company
Agenda
What is Multi-Channel?
The path to Multi-channel
Pre-Built Markets and Your Web Store
Moving into Multi-Channel
Creating a Multi-Channel Plan
Automation and Growth
The Markets
Picking a Partner
What is Multi-Channel Selling?
Multi-channel selling is model that allow you to sell on multi-markets including your own web-store.
Rather than performing tasks on a single marketplace, you integrate and automate processes, leveraging the strengths of each marketplace.
Policies, processes, strategies, information and content are NOT treated as separate market to market, but consistent on all markets.
You are not a Multi-Channel Seller if….
You maintain separate inventory for each channel. (You are a single-channel seller, using more than one single-channel).
You maintain different branding, on more than one site.
You have different policies on different markets (marketplace rules and regulations aside).
You customer has a different experience by marketplace. (If there are different answers to the same question by marketplace).
Succeeding in your Multi-Channel World
Successfully using multi-channels to sell your items requires that you split your focus without giving up your core competency and the path to success requires discipline, knowledge, the right tools for the job and most of all a plan that you stick too.
Consistency..Consistency..Consistency..
Typical Progression to Multi-Channel
• 0%• 0%
• 100% Sales• 100% Time
• 0%
Social /Marketing
eBay
Amazon
Website
Typical Progression to Multi-Channel
• 100% Sales• 100% Time
• 0%
• 0%• 0%
Social/ Marketing
eBay
Amazon
Website
The Typical Next Steps
• 50% Sales• 50% Time
• 0%
• 50% Sales• 50% Time
• 0%
Social/ Marketing
eBay
Amazon
Website
The Typical Next Steps
• 40% Sales• 20% Time
• 15% Sales• 50% Time
• 40% Sales• 20% Time
• 20% Sales• 10% Time
Social/Marketing
eBay
Amazon
Website
The Outcome…You “could” eliminate Pre-Built Markets
• 20% Sales• 20% Time
• 50% Sales• 50% Time
• 10% Sales• 10% Time
• 20% Sales• 20% Time
Social/Marketing
eBay
Amazon
Website
The Starting Line Up
Merchants typically start with a pre-built marketplace, such as eBay or Amazon. The other marketplaces may require too much effort for a starting seller.
Pre-built marketplaces (eBay, Amazon) have a low cost entry point, a large buyer base and 15,000 rules and regulations. Other markets may be emerging, but they take more effort and may not be the best starting arena.
The One-Channel Pitfall
For someone just starting out, focusing on one market makes sense. There is a pretty large learning curve for beginners and mastering the pre-built marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon can cut initial investment and expenses.
Some sellers never get beyond the point of selling on one market despite their desire.
The downside in staying in one channel is that you can end up encumbered by the marketplace policies, pay a large portion of your sales in fees, always have your income at risk and give up significant control of your business.
eBay– Account is always
highly at risk. – Can raise fees to an
unsustainable level– Policies frequently
change that require you to remodel your business
– Competing with Sellers who have a much better deal with eBay
Amazon– Account can be at risk.
Suspension is forever. – Can raise fees to an
unsustainable level. – Policies can change
that require you to remodel your business
– High risk that Amazon can become your competitor
Pre-Built Marketplace Risks
eBay is Item based– Seller controls his
description and images and policies
– Seller is paid directly to his PayPal account
Amazon is product based– Detail page control is
given to the first merchant to create the item. By some magic algorithm or request from a seller, the details of the product evolve over time.
– Seller is paid bi-weekly
The Principle difference between eBay and Amazon
What about the other Pre-Built Markets
Sellers should keep their ears to the ground and their eyes on the prize.
Emerging markets, such as Etsy and Bonanza have potential, but require more work and social interaction and with the communities.
Investing your time wisely may mean that you forgo these markets until you have the capability of drawing your own customers (email marketing, social connections).
Moving to Multi-Channel Selling
In order to move into multi-channel selling, merchants need to develop a plan to move into additional channels.
Without a detailed plan, it’s easy to end up spinning your wheels and spending time on what seems important, but doesn’t deliver.
It is also easy to fall into the “give up” trap. Initially, when you open your own website, for example, you cannot expect hundreds of sales on your first day with no effort.
The key to having a good plan is to create your strategy and set realistic goals. Spend time every single day focusing on what drives sales and grows your business.
A Typical Multi-Channel Plan
eBay and/or AmazonComparison Shopping Engines
Customer Management
Email Marketing
Pre-Built Markets
Your Own Website
Your Own Social & Marketing
Develop your Plan
When you begin developing your plan, you’ll want to concentrate your efforts on two areas: Automation and Growth.
Whatever you are doing today, look at every avenue available to automate (For example, Vendio, we automate the inventory between eBay, Amazon, your Own Website and Facebook).
Look at all the ways you can automate EVERYTHING. Every area that you automate, give you additional time to move to the second step which is GROWTH.
Using the Pre-Built Markets - eBay
eBay can be an Incubator. You do not owe them loyalty. You are paying for access to the customer base.
eBay can be used as lead generation. If at all possible, a seller should capture the buyer as a future customer, either at eBay or on their own website.
While you can use eBay forever, it is where you can get your start with little expense and gain the experience needed to expand into more complex markets, such as Amazon or your own website.
Use eBay to dispose inventory, one-of-a-kind and less than perfect item (described correctly).
Use eBay auctions when you do not know the value of an item.
Using the Pre-Built Marketplaces- Amazon
Amazon has 2 selling levels. Casual and Professional. Professional seller is $39.99 per month (plus fees). Casual is an $.99 per item (plus fees). Note: Sellers should START at the professional level if they plan on becoming professional in the future.
Amazon can be your shipping department. Using FBA, you can eliminate the need for additional headcount or shipping department altogether.
No per item listing fee, can be a great testing area for new products.
Good Market for refurbished, liquidation items that are like new.
Easy listing for catalog items. Attach your items to existing items significantly cuts down listing time.
Using your own Web Store
Your own web store is where you can begin bringing all your work together.
Requires that you are responsible for getting customers. Customer acquisition should be your primary focus after your store is built.
Requires that you design, brand and create good unique content.
Use your web store to reduce your marketplace dependence and reduce your marketplace fees.
Good market for long-tail, seasonal items. Even better for your best sellers.
Unencumbered by marketplace rules. However…
Customer Acquisition
Let’s talk search engines– SEO – “Search engine optimization”. This is making your
site search engine friendly. Content is critical.– CSE – Comparison Search Engines. These are feeds you
send out. – Paid Search – Paid Search / Ad Campaigns
Email Marketing– Should have a list of customers – Should have regular promotions to garner repeat sales
Social Marketing– Time permitting or big focus depends upon you.
No logo or branding
No contact information
No products
No accurate descriptions
No Trust
No Returns
No Sales
Web Store “No’s - No’s”
Automate…then Grow
eBayAutomate Everything-Automate Feedback-Manage Inventory-Schedule Listings
Grow-Additional Products
-Develop Customer Relationships-Use Third Party Solutions
Caution..
When you are planning on expanding into multi-channel, try not to exchange but to grow your channels. – For example, if you are selling $1000.00 per week on eBay and want to move
to Amazon, don’t end up with $500.00 of sales on eBay and $500.00 of sales on Amazon.
Use every opportunity to grow your business, but temper your time accordingly. Knowing that it will take some effort to build your own website, don’t shut down your existing markets and go full force on your website.
To be effective, you’ll need to plan to automate all your processes, plan and execute, and schedule time for growth opportunities.
Plan for a Top-Down Strategy….
When you begin selling, or as you move forward from today, begin planning for multi-channel by leveraging any and all work that you do.
In the upcoming slides, we will talk about what you can do NOW to prepare for a multi-channel strategy from today forward.
Product Titles
Think “SEO” when creating your product titles for all your markets.
Don’t use “free shipping” or other promotional text in your title.
Google Rules: – Promotional or boilerplate text may not be included in
your store name and product data. All data needs to be a clear and direct description of the submitted product. Text related to shopping or store policies is not allowed. For example, "Free shipping" is not allowed.
Do use keywords related to your product
Question: eBay Sellers
How many times have you had to revise your descriptions on eBay due to new policies in the past few years?
eBay descriptions should not be used to talk about feedback, returns, warnings, negativity in any fashion, nor should they be longer than the Declaration of Independence, which is 1300 words
In viewing the changes on eBay over the last few years and reading the writing on the wall – The best bet is to ONLY put product description in your description.
Product Description from the Start
Think “SEO” when creating your product descriptions.
Don’t put anything in a product description that is not related to the product. Google Product search will reject any products.
Google Product Search Rules:
In order to provide users a high-quality shopping experience, the product data provided to Google needs to accurately describe your items, and has to reflect the current status of the products on your website at all times.
We will periodically check your products to ensure the accuracy of your product data. If your product data doesn’t meet our quality standards, your products will be suspended from Google Product Search until the issues have been addressed.
In case of repeated violations of our quality standards, your items will be suspended:
for at least one week after the second violation
at least one month after the third violation
After the third violation, we may suspend your items for an extended period of time - potentially indefinitely.
eBay Description - Old School
YOU ARE BIDDING ON A BRAND NEW 3M SCOTCH BUBBLE MAILERS (25) SIZE 2, 8.5" X 11" BRAND NEW. IT IS BRAND NEW SEALED 3M SCOTCH BUBBLE MAILERS 8.5 81/2 X 11 SIZE 2 - 25 PK
I AM A TRUSTED SELLER SO BUY WITH CONFIDENCE THIS RETAILS AT $49.98 PLUS TAX, PLUS SHIPPING, IM SELLING IT FOR LESS THAN 50% OFF ITS RETAIL.
I ONLY HAVE ONE LEFT, DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE IMITATORS ON EBAY OR YOU WILL HAVE WASTED YOUR MONEY JUST CHECK MY FEEDBACK I SEND REAL PRODUCT
BRAND NEW, BUT AT A DISCOUNTED PRICE
SMOKE FREE HOME
PLEASE NOTE I HAVE EXTREMELY FAST SHIPPING FEEDBACK. I WILL SHIP BY USPS (ONLY) SAME DAY OR WITHIN 24 HOURS OF RECEIVING FULL PAYMENT. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING (ALSO BY USPS) IS AVAILABLE TO MOST COUNTRIES ****SIDE NOTE****FOR EVRYONE THERE ARE NO RETURNS
I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE BIDDERS WITH ZERO OR EXCESSIVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, PLEASE ASK ALL QUESTIONS BEFORE MAKING BIDS
ONCE THIS IS GONE, IT’S GONE AND YOU WOULD HAVE LOST OUT ON THIS GREAT DEAL
IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE PICTURES OR HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS PLEASE LET ME KNOW BEFORE YOU BID, I WILL ANSWER PROMPTLY, THERE ARE NO RETURNS SOLD AS IS
eBay Image
Product Images
Amazon Image
Aim for Consistent Policies
A consumer goes to eBay and finds your Wrench for $9.99. He goes to your website and finds the same wrench for $9.99.
The consumer purchases the wrench from your website and decides he does not want the wrench.
Your policy on your website is no returns. Your policy on eBay is 30 day returns.
Your policies should encompass your business not the market where you sell
Choosing a Company to Manage Multi-Channel
Choosing a company to work with can take some planning.
Initially, you’ll want to create a list of requirements. You’ll find that some companies do everything, but are cost prohibitive or some companies do less than you require but are cost effective.
Deal BreakersOver $500 per month
Requires ContractMulti-Channel
Nice to HavePredictable PricingManages InventoryCustomer Service
Business needs determines your selection
Bricks and Mortar POS
• Very Expensive• Hire Developer to
Integrate
Ecommerce Platform
• Cost Effective• Becomes System of
Record
Basics to look for:
Can the service manage inventory across channels.
Does the service have predictable pricing or does it have transaction or success fees.
Are there hidden fees, such as bandwidth or storage? Are the fees displayed?
Is there a contract?
Is there a trial?
Do they meet or exceed your list of requirements?
Do they provide customer support?
List out your feature requirements (reports, image hosting, coupons, etc).
THANKS FOR ATTENDINGIf you’d like a copy of this
presentation or want to attend a webinar on building your own Website - drop off your card or email address.
If you have ??? about Vendio or this presentation, please find me or grab my business card and please feel free to contact me after this event!
Questions?