In my opinion, Best Match is one of the most significant changes that eBay has introduced in the last few years. It is designed to change the Buyer experience in a big way. And every time the buyer experiences changes, it presents a challenge for sellers.

There are three types of people in the world of ebay; those that watch a change, those that complain about a change, and those who find a way to make that change work to their benefit. For those of you in the third category, I strongly suggest you listen to a podcast that I had the pleasure to record with Ina Steiner of AuctionBytes. Here’s a link to the article, which will allow you to connect to the podcast:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m04/i11/s01

The runtime is almost a half-hour, which, if you look at Ina’s podcasts, you will note is one of the longest ones she’s ever done. There’s a reason for that. Ina understands how important Best Match is to eBay sellers, and wanted to make sure that we provided as much information as possible to her listeners.

But for those of you who absolutely refuse to invest a half-hour of time in your business, let me give you a couple of key thoughts. First, Best Match is an algorithm, and it’s new. So it’s going to change on a pretty regular basis. What’s NOT going to change is eBay’s commitment to Best Match being the tool that will optimize buyer search. So you need to find the best way to exploit Best Match now, and then you need to regularly go back and re-test, to make sure that those findings are still operative. Second, you must, you MUST, you MUST think like a buyer. That’s a fundamental part of any marketing campaign. But it’s absolutely crucial with Best Match. Remember, eBay is trying to optimize the buyer experience. So they’re going to watch buyers, and they’re going to tweak the algorithm based on buyer reaction. If you can get into your buyer’s head, you can get into their pocket. Third, don’t trust the tools that are out there. While they may give you some general guidance and good ideas, the algorithm is constantly changing, and some tools will not keep up with the pace. So do your own testing. Do comparisons with your competition. Run two of the exact same ad at the exact same time, with only one variable, and analyze the results.

There is one other thing you should consider doing. And that’s joining the IMA (you didn’t think you were going to get away without a quick sales pitch, did you?). We have a very active discussion forum with lots of experienced (and well connected) sellers, complimented with giants in the service provider industry like Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, Brian Lawe, President of MyStoreRewards.com, and others. As changes are made, the Forum is always buzzing with the latest information. The information and ideas you will receive about Best Match alone can make you enough money to pay for your dues ten times over.

So listen to the podcast, understand Best Match, and DON’T JUST SIT THERE!! MAKE IT WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE!!

Larry

If you are an eBay “old-timer” you will remember Katy.  I just read the news of her passing.  For full details please see the eBay Chatter blog here.

You can read more on the eBay Memorial Thread. 

I’m sure there are many IMA members who remember Katy, so I thought it was only fitting we should start our own memorial post to her, on our blog.  Please post your remembrances of her in the Comments section below.

May you Rest in Peace Katy, the Pinkest of the Pink.

Cyn

Great News for Template Designers Regarding Digital Downloads!

Anyone who sells items that can be sent by email or delivered through eBay/Paypal’s download service has certainly had a rough week.  eBay announced earlier this week that sellers of digital goods would no longer be able to list those items in auction format.  Sellers of digital goods would be required to list their wares in the classified ad format that costs $9.95 per ad and doesn’t receive any on eBay feedback for the transactions (since they would all be completed off eBay).

The main reasoning for this rules change was stated as FEEDBACK MANIPULATION.  Many of the digital downloads are easily replicated and any seller could quickly generate thousands of listings and pump up their feedback.  Unfortunately all goods that can be “shipped” digitally do not fall in this category of items, eBay listing templates and store templates come to mind.

Yesterday, Brian Burke answered some of the biggest questions about the new requirements for digital downloads on the eBay Chatter blog.  Probably the best news from this blog post was that Brian says that custom services like auction template designs and store designs do NOT fall under these new guidelines for digital downloads. 

This is because website designs are considered custom services because the buyer and seller work together to design and implement the template.  He did say that a Single template page even if you could customize the color or “insert your name here”, would not be considered custom services and would be required to be listed in the Classified Ads format.

The eBay template designers are not out of the woods yet!  It remains to be seen if the automated software processes eBay has in place will recognize that the listing is for custom work and is ok to list.  Not to mention if T&S would “automatically” cancel a legal listing should it be reported by an eBay user.

Chuck

Good morning from San Antonio. It is good to be home, but now I have to get to work putting all this new information to work in my business!

If you missed the last day of the conference, you missed out on some great information. Michael Levit from Vendio was the first presenter “Cross Channel Selling Costs and the Effects of eBay’s New Pricing.”

Mike spoke about the importance of creating and running your own website store. Get your webstore established now, as internet retailing is only going to get more competitive in the future. He gave us valuable information on how to market a webstore through SEO, SEM and CSE’s (comparison shopping engines).

Next up was David Platt from Infopia presenting “Converting Browsers into Buyers”.

David cited a survey done amongst internet shoppers that pinpointed the 6 Problems Encountered Shopping Online. He also gave us several do’s and don’ts on creating a website as well as how we can learn from the websites of the big companies who spend thousands of dollars on research.

The last presentation I was able to attend was presented by Suzanne from AGenius Marketing on “Building a Successful Website.” Suzanne gave a great presentation about keeping your website fresh, how to choose a designer and shopping cart and the importance of continually testing your site.

There was so much information presented in these seminars that I am glad I took detailed notes as I know that I gained thousands of dollars worth of information from just these three speakers. I hope everyone reading this blog will seriously start making plans for IMA’s conference next year. Your investment will be returned tenfold.

Cyn

Good morning again from Vegas. Day 3 of the conference was a whirlwind of new information and new people. Some of the presentations were very detailed, while others were more basic. I was happy to find out we had registered several new members of IMA as a result of our free seminars for ASD/AMD members on “Getting Started in E-Commerce”! Great job everyone!

The first presentation was on Market Intelligence, by Tim Williams from QL2. QL2 is a company that has helped many very large, well known retailers with market intelligence in order to increase their market share.

Market Intelligence is information relative to the markets you are trying to penetrate. This consists of information you gather inhouse as well as information gathered by third parties. We learned how and why to monitor our competitors as well as how to monitor brand perception. The very detailed information will help us be more competitive in the fast changing e-commerce world.

The second presentation of the day was “Analyze your Business Using Web Statistics” by Sagerock and Engine Ready. They gave a lot of useful information about analyzing your CPC campaigns in order to increase your conversions while decreasing your marketing budget. After hearing all that’s involved in managing your own SEO and CPC ad campaigns, I’ve decided it might be best to hire a professional to do this, unless you are a numbers person and really like working with statistics.

I missed the Endicia Presentation on the USPS changes, however I did talk to the Endicia rep for a little while and found out that the post offices just received the new, larger, flat rate box this week. So if you are interested in these boxes, check with your Post Office as they may have received them.

During lunch we attended round tables with the companies of our choice. This was an awesome opportunity to sit with a representative and ask questions specific to our businesses, as well as make valuable contacts.

The next presentation was “Amazon Best Practices for Selling Online”, which was a good, basic overview of the third party selling opportunities that Amazon offers. These include Marketplace, FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) and Webstores. Amazon stated that 26% of the total units sold on Amazon last year were by 3rd party sellers. Third party sellers are considered a significant and important part of their business.

The next presentation was Expanded Seller Protection by Paypal. I didn’t attend this but did talk to two Paypal Reps. One thing I learned, that I didn’t already know from the announcements, is that Powersellers will be protected against a fraudulent payment if they can show they shipped the item to the address on the Paypal Payment. The key word here is “shipped”. However, INR’s will still require proof of delivery.

Next up was a Q&A with eBay. Many issues were raised about feedback, Best Match and UPI from the audience. What I understand from what the eBay reps said is that all of these changes are evolving. eBay is monitoring the changes to see if they have the desired effect. If they do not, or they have unexpected undesirable effects, they will make changes to the changes.

The last presentation was given by Brian Kane of Microsoft “Microsoft Office - Interesting Elements of Office Relevant to the On-Line Merchant”.

Brian spoke about their small business website available at www.officelive.com which offers free basic websites. In addition, they now offer a program that will list both to eBay and to your officelive website. This includes a robust email marketing program as well. The presentation included many slides on the new Office 2007 products. It was interesting to see all the changes and new features now available in the 2007 version.

The last session of the day was the IMA Business Meeting hosted by Steve Grossberg, President of IMA. Steve pointed out that IMA has reached its 16 month birthday. He thanked the Events committee for all their work in making the conference a reality, as well as all committee members and Board Members. IMA has just begun, but is gaining momentum daily and every member can be proud of their Association.

The Board of Directors Election was held and 3 new board members were elected:

• Kim Wren - Wren Storage
• Cathy Aggelopoulos - Visibility Unlimited
• Cynthia (Cyn) Lizana - Texcyngoods

The meeting was adjourned and the Hospitality Suite was opened. We had a drawing for door prizes. All prizes were donated by IMA Members and most of the prizes were items we used in our TalkMarket videos, so there was a wide selection of awesome prizes given away. The Grand Prize was a complete eBay design package, worth $1600, donated by our Hospitality Suite sponsor, Frooition!

Cyn

Howdy. Day 2 was very fast paced - my head is still spinning from all the information that was presented by the speakers as well as conversation with other members.

Upon registration, some of us received canvas tote bags compliments of BuySafe with the IMA logo on one side and the BuySafe Logo on the other. In my bag was the book “eBay Power Seller Secrets- 2nd Edition” by Debra and Brad Schepp. This was exciting to me as I am quoted in this book! I will be available for signings later today

The first presentation was given by Matt Singer of TalkMarket - How to Create an Effective Video Presentation. We learned tips and tricks to create an effective video designed to keep the potential buyers attention and convert them to a sale. Video marketing is the new internet marketing vehicle. If you’re not doing it – it is something you need to seriously consider!

The next presentation was by Justin from Google - Optimize your Existing Adwords Account to Increase ROI. This was a very fast paced presentation that was very technical. IMA will be obtaining the PDF presentation to post to our members. Because this was a very technical presentation, I can’t say I understood everything, but I took lots of notes because I know this information will come in handy down the road. Others who are using Google Adwords were amazed to find out they were not using all of the tools at their disposal.

The next two presentations I missed as I was working on my video for TalkMarket. They were the Wall Street Panel and SEO by OrangeSoda Marketing. Hopefully we’ll get some other attendees to write about these presentations.

While I was practicing for my TalkMarket video guess who walked into the room? Ina from AuctionBytes! It was exciting to meet her and talk to her. She said she will follow up with me to possibly include a link to my video in one of her blogs or newsletters! Also helping me was a very nice lady from Vendio, Crystal & Darol from 4Ever Funky Footwear. I haven’t seen my video yet as they were still editing it last night, but I’m very excited about it. Several attendees had videos made and we will hopefully see them today.

The last presentation was the KeyNote Address by eBay. Unfortunately, Stephanie Tilenius was unable to make it, so the presentation was given by Jim Ambach, VP Seller Experience. He did a great job. This presentation talked a lot about the recent changes that have been made by eBay as well as the future changes they’ve already announced. I got the distinct feeling that eBay IS listening to sellers, although they may not agree with everything sellers believe should happen. I also believe that eBay is trying to bring back buyer with these changes.

That sums it up for Day 2.

Cyn