to show the retail price or not?

How many times has this happened to you?
You’re in the store and you see an item that is marked down well below the retail price and you buy it. You may not have needed that shirt but the price was just too good to pass up.
If it works in the stores, it should work on auction and seller sites, right? When you post an item to sell should you include the manufacture’s retail price along with your price?
It’s the question of the ages. Ok, well not really. But it is an interesting question none-the-less.
BUYERS
Most buyers are already on the net looking for a deal and assume that they will get an item that is below the retail price for the mere fact that they are on the net. But it’s always good to remind them that you are giving them the best deal out there. Sometimes it pays to be the lowest seller on the net.
However, if you can’t drop your prices too low, you can supplement slightly higher prices with great customer service. Be informative and friendly and always be quick to reply to questions potential buyers may have on an item. In the time it takes you to reply, they could have already found a better price from another seller who offers equal customer service.
CATCH 22
It isn’t any fun if there isn’t a Catch 22 now is it?
Buyers could be turned off if your price is too far below the retail price. They may think that it’s damaged, defective, or just a piece of junk that isn’t even worth your price. So don’t go too low. Keep it reasonable while giving the buyer, and yourself, a fair shake. Remember, you’re not a charity so don’t put out a price that will adversely affect your revenue.
Some sellers like to show the retail price but cross it out then list their price below it. When you put your price up, put your name on it and the percentage buyers have saved. Putting you’re name on the price reminds people who you are and when you ship your item, add the savings formula on the receipt. Putting it one the receipt will remind the buyer where they got that great new item. It should look something like this:

Retail Price: $99.99
Greg’s House of Radios: $74.99
Savings: 25%

Taking Better Photos Use the Nikon d80

Have you ever thought that you might be the next great photographer? But it seems so hard to get everything you need to get started right. I mean how are you supposed to know which lens' to buy or what cables or straps you might want?

Well there is a seller on netSpray that is making it easy for you. For $850 you get a Nikon d80 (which is usually a $400 dollar camera by itself) with 2 lenses, rechargeable Li-ion battery, battery charger, multiple cables, straps, covers, and Nikon Picture Project software. If you get a nice kit like this you will get more for your money instead of buying all those pieces separate.



But is this the right camera to buy? Well in its class it is often rated as good as or better than many of its competitors products like Canon. There are numerous reviews out there and many are very useful. Here is one that I used. While this review put this camera second it was only because the camera the reviewer chose was priced much lower than the d80 but he hadn't used the other camera full time yet.

This camera has been on the market a while but it is still a highly rated model and company.

What's With All The Fees?

One of the biggest problems with selling stuff online is the fees that continue to show up and grow. It was originally a much cheaper process than it is currently. But now you have insertion fees, final value fees, and numerous other fees.

There seem to be fees for everything anymore. On some sites you have to pay extra fees for multiple categories, adding a subtitle, additional pictures (you get 1), custom layouts, and higher fees for different items, separate selling styles, and selling tips. Then you can add other things that cost even more. It is getting ridiculous. All these fees are just making the process that much more complicated and costing people more and more money.

Why has this happened?

Well I am not going to turn this into a rant about greed and corporate integrity (or lack thereof) but let’s just say that people are still paying the fees so why stop charging them.

But what if all you want is a simple listing for your product that doesn't take much (or any) of your money to post and sell? Are there any options out there for that?

Not really. Most of the sites that are popular right now charge fees.

But there is hope on the horizon. There are sites out there (some are just getting started) that don’t charge certain fees or on some you can get away without paying any fees. One of those sites is netSpray.com.

NetSpray.com is an innovative new marketplace that allows you to post items for sale on their website for free. That’s right; there are no insertion fees and no final value fees. It is entirely free. There are options that you can add that would cost money but you don’t have to do them.

What netSpray is going to offer are different levels of sellers and selling options. Those will come with monthly fees instead of fees on every sale. But they will give you added bonuses like more pictures or more details on your ads. All of the things that you receive by upping your membership are meant to help you customize your ads and to sell more products.

Fees are a pain in the neck. Whether they are on your paycheck, cell phone bill, or on your online selling sites they are just not much fun. Why would you want to pay multiple fees when you can do the same thing for free? Would you choose to pay all those fees and taxes on your cell phone bill if a company offered you a chance to not do it at all? I doubt you would.

So come on over to netSpray.com and list your items for sale there.

Have You Tried Pay Per Post?

Pay per post is one way, of many, that bloggers turn their hobby blogs into money producing blogs. It is pretty much exactly what it sounds like it is. Companies who are trying to promote their products post opportunities on websites for bloggers to apply for. If your blog meets the criteria that the company has set forth you will be given the opportunity to write a post on a certain subject for a fee. Many bloggers do this over and over again and make some extra money.

What kinds of companies do this?

All kinds. Kmart and Panasonic recently launched campaigns utilizing this technique. But many of the companies that do this are smaller internet based companies that are looking to get a little notoriety with certain groups of people. Some of the posts out there are from other blogs that want some exposure. Some are for different selling websites like netSpray. Others are companies asking for product reviews for customers to find online. There are numerous opportunities on the web as long as your blog meets the requirements of a company.

How much can you make?

Most pay per post opportunities will pay you around $4-$5 but there are some that will give you upwards of $15 and surely more. It just depends on the site you are looking at and the deals they have. Some companies offer a base fee and then a certain amount for every page view that you get of that post. For instance a company could give you a $5 base fee and then .02 cents for every hit on that page. If you get 1,500 hits you would end up with $35. If you were willing to write about anything all the time you could surely make a decent part time income doing just that.

Is it good for your blog?

This is a debate that rages across many fields and blogs. I personally read a sports blog that at times will post about some product that has nothing to do with sports. It honestly makes me never want to read it again. So I would say that you have to be careful not to alienate your readers. Remember that your readers are the only reason you are eligible for some of the opportunities. If you lose your readers cause they don’t like you peddling products and services that don’t pertain to your blog you probably won’t get too many more chances to make any money.

Become a Better Photographer With the Nikon d80

Have you ever thought that you might be the next great photographer? But it seems so hard to get everything you need to get started right. I mean how are you supposed to know which lens' to buy or what cables or straps you might want?

Well there is a seller on netSpray that is making it easy for you. For $850 you get a Nikon d80 (which is usually a $400 dollar camera by itself) with 2 lenses, rechargeable Li-ion battery, battery charger, multiple cables, straps, covers, and Nikon Picture Project software. If you get a nice kit like this you will get more for your money instead of buying all those pieces separate.



But is this the right camera to buy? Well in its class it is often rated as good as or better than many of its competitors products like Canon. There are numerous reviews out there and many are very useful. Here is one that I used. While this review put this camera second it was only because the camera the reviewer chose was priced much lower than the d80 but he hadn't used the other camera full time yet.

This camera has been on the market a while but it is still a highly rated model and company.

Oakley Sunglasses on netSpray

For only $100 you can get yourself a pair of Oakley sunglasses with mp3 capabilities. All you have to do is hook up the built in mp3 player to a computer and upload your favorite mp3's. Then you can be outside playing basketball in the sun with good music and protection from the sun. The glasses were mainly developed for athletes to have music easily accessible when they are outside training.

Think about it. Have you ever been out running or biking and wanted to listen to music but didn't want to deal with hassle of grabbing your mp3 player and finding someplace to put it? Well with these glasses you wouldn't have to. You just have to remember to upload your music and then you would have up to 6 hours of playback.

Just click on the link below and buy the glasses and in a few days you can be training without the hassle of finding some place to keep your mp3 player.

netSpray.com">

The Long Tail Approach

Some of you might have heard the term "long tail" used around the blogosphere and wondered what the length of an animals tail had to do with the internet. Well okay maybe you didn’t wonder that but you might have. Sorry that was a poor attempt at humor.

But seriously, do you know what “long tail” means?

To put it as simply as possible it is a method or way to maximize a search which in turn maximizes a products popularity and worth. The theory goes that if your search has more terms then it will bring up more results and it will also bring up more specific results. And in turn if your blog or post has multiple keywords than it is more likely to come up higher on searches.

The system was really perfected by online retailers such as Amazon who used it to get people more aware of items available. There are so many types of books by so many authors that many people don’t even know stuff is out there. So by using the long tail approach Amazon was able to get some of their low selling inventory sold.

Since then it has become an important tool of online merchants (such as netSpray users) who want to get their products sold. Bloggers also use the approach to get a higher ranking and listing on search engines which in turn brings more traffic to their sites.

So you see the length of an animals tail really doesn't matter at all. It is just a tool (or strategy) to make your post or site more popular on the search engines such as Google.

eCommerce & Affiliate Marketing a New World?

So, I'm putting together my first ever SlideShare presentation. Exciting hu? I think so. Anyhow, I'd like to have the slideshow cover affiliate marketing; and eCommerce. My objective is to have...fact, to present facts or proof about affiliate programs, and eCommerce in the year to come.

In my effort to do so, I've stumbled upon a little research that hopefully will help me get there. Below you'll see a slide show that I thought was worth capturing concerning the cross roads of eCommerce and the social web.

Ecommerce & the Social Web: Why it matters. What you can do.

View more presentations from suttonhoo. (tags: experience user)

The above slide show is rich. I really like slide number 28, which illuminates the potential direction that customers might flow.

In the next slide show authors provide some interesting questions and a fact or two about affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing Survey Report 2008.

View more presentations from guestc5bb1f. (tags: affiliate marketing)

I'd still like to find more about each of these subject areas, especially hard facts or numbers. Ideally as I continue searching I'll come up with some hard numbers. Then, I'll create my own presentation and be sure to share it here.

(wink).

Dave White's eBay and Beyond Radio (scratch that) Video Show

I listened to the eBay and Beyond radio show (video show) today and thought I'd share a little of what I found. 

The show is hosted by a man named Dave White. Dave is an expert in online sales and appears to be selling in a number of places beyond eBay. His website has widgets for Bonanzle, netSpray, and OnlineAuction. Online Auction is a favorite of Dave's, he even hosts the OLA radio show. 

One thing that was impressed upon me today in listened to Dave's show was the importance of providing a seller with a sense of place. What I mean here is that at Online Auction, buyers can browse the seller's items. At Bonanzle, sellers have what is termed a booth. Both of these situations allow a buyer to look at a seller's complete inventory and can likely help increase the number of items being sold. 

• Sellers want to feel like a website is theirs ~ ie. we want a personalized area. 
• A seller's profile and a chance to see their complete inventory in one place is important.
• We don't want a lot of work in setting up our profiles/ area, but enough opportunity in them to be creative. 

In this week's show, Dave spoke with well-known super seller Marsha Collier who also is a former eBay specialist. Marsha writes books about selling on eBay, in addition to being a genuine eBay seller herself. She also hosts her own radio show and writes a blog about computer technology. 

The program was fun and lively as Dave brought in audience members, like John Lawson, aka ColderICE who was promoting his new program about Internet marketing. Bit of a side note, John recently interviewed Jay Berkowitz who is a nationally recognized Internet marketer. Jay's claim to fame is the 10 Golden Rules of Internet marketing book, he's used to land speaking gigs and notoriety. 

What are your thoughts? Are you a seller that likes to have a sense of place with your online ecommerce website? Does it matter to you if a website mixes your product in with everyone else's? Would you prefer to sell on a site that allows a potential buyer to see all of your items in one location should they desire to do so? 

Weekly Update

ChannelAdvisor offers multi-channel online sales platform and recently releases "new" ideas about how to manage customer needs.  

NetSuite (retail, full-package ecommerce solution company) recently published news about it's multi-channel retail management suite. The company provides full-scale service solutions to retail companies and would likely be stiff competition to other companies looking to service ecommerce needs of large (more than 5 mill annually) companies doing business online. They have a list of customers and success stories on their website. They provide back-end and front-end services, and presumably are a SaaS company.  

netSpray innovative online sales platform brings together Internet marketers and online merchants to increase visibility and conversions is expected to announce the new design of their website. Word is the company has entered a new round of funding and will roll-out a new web design over the coming weeks. 

Internet Retailer (online trade magazine) provides an article this week detailing trends in e-commerce platforms. They highlight three main models: (1) SaaS or on-demand where vendor hosts the software being used; (2) hosted or managed model where customized technology is hosted by the vendor; (3) the licensed model where retailer licenses technology from the vendor, modifies it and supports it in-house. 

Using Forrester Research data IR points out, "  Core capabilities for retailers include managing product catalogs and content, customer data and orders, including shipping charges and taxes; search and browse capabilities; payment settlement; and reporting. " 

The article also provides a link to the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide  (<- a paid catelogue of the ? top 500 online retailer with case studies)

Interesting Article on Older Internet Users

Not that I couldn't have told them the same thing, but it was nice to hear someone elses perspective on how the "older generation" is getting along with online commerce. 

InformationWeek (who bills themselves as the market's foremost multimedia brand) published an article on Jan. 29 about a survey that claims Baby-Boomers are in places just as active online as Gen. Y (18-32) and Gen. Xers (33-44). The survey claims that 80% of Gen. X users shop online, compared with just 71% of Gen. Yers. 

Here is a closer look at the survey itself: "Generations Online in 2009"

The study was conducted by the Pew Center's Research and American Life Project. Read more of, "Older Internet Users Embrace E-commerce". 

And as always, leave me some feedback. Did you like this post? Were there things you wish I'd added? Thanks and be good! 

Inauguration of the 44th President Barack Obama

To all those who have waited so long, celebrate. For those who work to build a brighter stronger America, thank you.

Congratulations President Obama!

Recent E-commerce News

E-commerce news for the week.

eBay bans paper-billing. No longer will the sellers on eBay be able to accept (a) Money Orders, (b) Cash or, (c) Check payments.

There is an on-going debate in the blogosphere whether or not video or text is king in the blog.
Steve Rubel

 - Forget video, here is why text is still king

Darren Rowse

- Why video is worth experimenting with on your Blog

Darren Rowse
- My Mum doesn't get YouTube

Also: New York State vs Amazon has passed the first round with NYS winning their charge that a sales tax should be enforced on goods sold out of New York. 

Making Your Photos Work for You: E-Commerce Sellers Guide

The quality, type, and number of photos placed in an online listing can make or break a deal. 

Quality is important: people want to know that the item that they are considering buying is coming from a considerate home. What way to better show that consideration - for the item and the buyer - than to take quality photo (ie, well lit, well thoughtout, well cropped). Realize that the photos you present to the buying community are often all that they have to familiarize themselves with the item. 

Type of photos taken say something: if the photos you take are not informative, they really don't take into consideration the needs of the potential buyers. You must have an attitude that the buyer has never seen this item. Taking the type of photos that your buyers need is about considering any scratches or blemishes, plus all the good qualities, and any unique information or characters, photos of name brands, and don't forget to put in some photos that excite buyers! 

Number of photos: this last one may be limited by the contract that you have with the site that you are selling on. But, bigger purchases generally require more photos. For clothing, I tend to suggest that a range of five to eleven photos is responsible - remember buyers know only what you present of your items. Electronics, antique - toys/collectibles, these things can be sold with fewer photos generally, but think of the difference and the security that you'll give your buyers if you go above and beyond by adding two more photos of the items you are selling? 

 --Your buyers will appreciate it, and they will reward you too.

Ecommerce Link Drop

 Best articles from this week. 

 here with a link drop

•  E-commerce Guide

Seller Tools: Five Ways to Sell your Digital Goods Online

The Internet offers self-published artists considerable opportunities for marketing and selling their digital goods online.

• Practical Ecommerce

Taking lessons from two marketing disciplines, online retailers and their web designers can build a well structured Internet store organized into themes or categories that will make it easy for shoppers and search engines alike to find important information and product pages.

Let's Investigate - Google Base / Google Products

In the last post I talked about how alternative sites have benefited from using Google's services. So, today I'll share some things I found about those services.

Google products is really looking nice these day. [ Example page ] 

I, personally, hadn't ventured off sites like eBay, Amazon, or even Overstock too much. Yahoo Auction and many of the other smaller sites just haven't enticed me. I do enjoy buying at Half.com, but they are an eBay sister store. And craigslist is interesting, but I haven't ever bought there either.



Google Base is said to have been a real boost in the findability of the alternative sites this past year according to Ina over at Auction Bytes. From what I can tell of it, Google allows anyone with an account to load items onto Google Base.

Everything from jobs to products finds it's way onto the list. I decided to take a closer look....

In listing my items, I had to enter the title; quantity; type; condition; and brand. Product type, condition and brand are all optional categories. While quantity, price and price type are not optional. It's neat. They let you choose (a) fixed price, (b) negotiable, and (c) minimum price as the price type.

All this is followed by a description area that has the bold, italics, and different fonts to choose from. It's nice. Then you load a photo. And, like with other sell on sites, you select the payment types you'll receive. You may choose Google Checkout (which I'll write about that next time) and/or traditional services such as cash, check, money order.



Then to end it - you choose how long the item will be for sale. There is a maximum number of 30 days for this feature. *Here is something really neat that I forgot to mention before; the title area is indefinate. Really I held down a key and the page just kept going. So, Google doesn't restrict the title size. THATS fun.

There are some restrictions to the type of photo file, including the size: see here. It is rather generous upon second look - they allow up to 15 photo files with a 20 megabyte limit. That is really nice too. As many of you sellers know - it's the photos that sells the product. Very good Google.

Okay so, once you have you item through the process - you can go to your Google Base Dashboard. It offers you a look at the

Item title Item type Country Status Modified Expires Impr. Clicks Page views

Here you also can update - didn't mention it earlier, but google base let's you update - the country you are targeting with your product. The item takes a little time to publish as they review to help keep out spam. Here is a link to their program policies and editorial guidelines. Each of which are presumably well enforced, so don't get any ideas you overly creative types.



All-in-all, I'd say Google base was a snap. And now, we'll wait to see how well it help sell a 1976 Vintage Hanna Barbara Yogi Bear Comic Book. Click here to see my item on Google Base.

Love to know about your experience with Google Base, Google selling or any other online alternative. Till next time!

It Pays to Google for Alternative Online Selling Sites

Auction Bytes, in a recent article explore and explain some of the truths surrounding alternatives. In an article titled eBay Alternatives Pick up Stream thanks to Google Ina Steiner discusses eCrater, Amazon, among other alternatives.

With the rise of interest in alternative sites that work, Steiner gets the job done. One thing she mentions is how Google visibility has helped popularize sites like Ruby Lane, Wensy, and netSpray.

Another interesting game changer mentioned is the evolution to a more multi-channel mindset. Merchants have been increasingly driven to try multiple sites, multiple sales channels to help them in their online buying and selling.

If you haven't read it, I suggest it.

Online Sales Sites Round-Up

 Okay, so I'm a bit OCD maybe, but of these sites I think I've probably found something you? are interested in? Would love to know which site suits you best? And/or which sites I've overlooked? ;)

Ruby Lane
Atomic Mall
Bonanzle
Bidtopia
Oodle
CQ out
SOUQ
Trade Me
Online Auction
Buy it Sell it
Auction Quest
One Way
netSpray
Oztion
Waggle Pop
Tazbar
eCrater
Wensy
ebid
iOffer
ePier
Kijiji