I hadn’t ordered a car radiator so the first thing I did was to check my PayPal account and bank account and thankfully nothing was amiss and there were no unexpected transactions. Tracking the seller down however wasn’t that easy as they’re not included an invoice, packing slip or even a business card.

Thankfully I was able to get their contact details from the courier address label but it constantly bemuses me as to why sellers don’t include contact information in each and every shipment. It’s almost like sellers don’t want me to contact them or don’t want me to visit their website and make future purchases. I’m probably going to be most delighted with your product and service at the time I open your parcel so don’t miss this opportunity to tempt me to shop again from you.

If I’m not delighted for any reason making it easy for me to contact you by phone will often save you from poor feedback. If I can ring you it gives the opportunity for you to sort the problem out and turn me into a happy customer without me leaving a less than glowing feedback for you or opening an “Item Not As Described” resolution case on eBay. Even worse if you do mis-address a parcel how is the unintended recipient ever meant to let you know if there are no contact details enclosed?

Anyway to finish the story of the mystery parcel… when I eventually contacted the seller they told me “You bought it on eBay” and gave me the eBay user ID. Turns out that it was a radiator for Bart, Sue’s husband and silent partner in Tamebay. I got hold of him late last night and he asked me to use Parcel2Go to ship the radiator to him in France. It’s just been picked up and is safely on it’s way, although it does beg the question as to why the seller didn’t offer international shipping.

I was laughing with Dan about this earlier today and he casually asked what the cost of sending a car radiator to France was. We are both a bit surprised how cheap international parcels are these days as it was only £20.81 including the PayPal surcharge. Bit of a bargain really for a one off ad hoc delivery of a relatively heavy item.

Not now though. From my desk, as I write, I can hear the waves bombarding the beach and the churning pebbles. The rain is pelting down and the wind whistles down my street. I might put the heating on.

On the prom earlier, she said: “A very bad day for Brighton. All the seafront shops and cafes are empty.” And she was right. Noone came to Brighton today. “They need the business. It’s so sad.” Referring to all the business people who need the sun to shine to turn a shilling.

“A great day for eBay sellers though,” I remarked. “The ecommerce prayer is: make it rain.” And then we went and had a drink in a cosy pub and toasted ecommerce.

How does the weather affect your ecommerce enterprise? Do you pray for rain? Or do you need the sun to shine to sell your products?

Once the Olympics are over it doesn’t leave much time for planning for Christmas again, but our chums at eSellerPro have come up with a 2012 Seasonality Guide to help you take full advantage of the seasonal peaks and special events taking place this year.

KashFlow is an easy to use, hassle free accounts package that’s focused on allowing business owners to spend more time doing business, and less time shackled to their accounts, traditionally done through spreadsheets and other laborious methods.

KashFlow is the latest in a growing list of ekmPowershop ‘Connected Partners’, a new initiative introduced by the ecommerce giant. ‘Connected Partners’ allows 3rd party providers to easily integrate their software or applications into ekmPowershop’s market leading ecommerce solution, through a special partner API (Automated Programming Interface).

This latest partnership means ekmPowershop.com has integrations in multi channel (eBay/Amazon/Ecommerce inventory management), fulfilment (physical stock holding and despatch) and now accounts. Each platform has their own respective costs, but ekmPowershop makes no extra charges for shop owners wanting to take advantage of using both systems in unison, something which can cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds through ecommerce agencies up and down the country.

ekmPowershop’s best in class ecommerce software, which is now available in 6 countries worldwide, is fully integrated into KashFlow’s control panel and ready to use today and comes with a free no obligation trial. There is also a free 14 day KashFlow trial available to all users.

Tracking

The latest change is the requirement on eBay.com for future qualification for Top Rated Seller status. Sellers will need to ship 90% of their items with tracking and crucially to enter the tracking numbers into eBay within your stated handling time. For sellers of low value items who haven’t routinely shipped with tracking there’s a cost implication but the real burden of the change is manually entering tracking numbers into eBay. This is something that software can automate.

Emails

Bulk automated emails are now a thing of the past as eBay handle all emails on our behalf. This doesn’t help when sellers need to communicate with their buyers their only option is now templated emails sent manually one by one to buyers.

There are two main reasons why bulk emails are important – The first is emergencies in unforeseen circumstances such as inclement weather or courier strikes when a seller needs to let all their customers know that deliveries may be delayed.

Sellers of custom made items used to use bulk emails to keep buyers updated as to order status. Bulk emails make it so simple to select all orders for example which were requiring proofs to be approved or for requesting images or text for making the product. Lack of bulk emails has increased the workload and again the only solution is to turn to 3rd party solutions.

Inventory management

eBay’s duplicate listing policy now penalises sellers who mistakenly list the same fixed price product twice. Whilst there should be no reason for doing so mistakes happen and again automating the listing process with software is generally more reliable than manually listing items.

Feedback

There is no advantage to not leaving feedback as soon as possible for buyers as sellers can only leave positive feedback. However eBay’s feedback options are out of date. Currently you can automatically leave feedback on receipt of positive feedback from the buyer, or on receipt of payment. A sensible option would be to leave feedback on despatch and again this can be achieved with software.

Messages

eBay messages should really be replied to through the eBay My Messages console to ensure replies are visible to eBay customer support. Replying by email is possible, but in either case routing to multiple employees and keeping track of who is responding to which enquiries is a pain point for larger companies on eBay. Third party solutions can simplify this and ensure that emails are routed to the best person within the company to deal with them at the time the buyer’s message arrives.

As eBay increase the customer care requirements (and in my opinion they’ll focus less on feedback scores and detailed seller ratings and more on customer service metrics in the future), sellers will find it harder and more time consuming to meet the standards needed without using software solutions to ease the workload.

What other automation options would you like to see added to eBay? What causes you the greatest pain and which processes take the most of your time?

Stock storage is a fundamental part of the sales cycle (unless you’re dropshipping or selling virtual products) but its often one of the least considered. When a business grows suddenly – especially one based in a home – the impact of extra merchandise can make itself abundantly clear. You might feel jubilant about getting a great price on a pallet load of product, until the question arises – where do I put it all?

Many eBay and Amazon sellers have kitted out their home for longer-term storage – converting spare bedrooms into stock holding rooms, garages into loading bays and utilising basements and cupboards. There are several things to consider here. First, access. Depending on delivery, it might be necessary to allow a van or truck as close to your storage place as possible, so evaluate stairs and uneven surfaces which might make it more difficult to move heavy boxes. Security is vital too, especially for high end products. And temperature control / damp is another factor. Basements or attics might seem like a perfect place to tuck stock out of the way, but if they’re in any way perishable, mould and insects might make these spaces untenable.

Even if you do store stock in your home, at some point you’ll probably run out of space. It may only be for a one-off delivery or your sales might be slowly growing, requiring much more product. Deciding to use external storage can seem like a big step and feel daunting, but it need not be.

To make the transition, a good understanding of your requirements is important. As well as the basic logistics (weight, size of space, length of storage time), also think about distance to the storage location, access (can an articulated lorry make it to the loading area if it needed too?) and security. Security is key – most warehouses will come with alarms, but its also good to consider what will happen if one is goes off at 2am (i.e. who responds to see if its a fault with the alarm, a mouse tripping a sensor or an actual intruder?).

Of course, one of the main considerations, in terms of storage, is cost. With warehouses you’ll need to consider the necessary evils of business rates, service charges, utilities and VAT (you will get VAT back eventually, but its an initial outlay) – plus upfront deposits. This outlay can make it unappealing, especially for start-ups wanting less overheads. One solution might be to look at space sharing with other smaller companies, finding partners that will contribute to hiring a room in a warehouse, a floor or the whole building. Consider how you would segment the space to make sure stock isn’t mixed up, and think of the security ramifications if you’re sharing an open space. The logistics, both financially and contractually, should be tied up to make sure you cover all bases before sharing a space.

Another idea is to rent some extra storage space from a company’s premises. This might be a good solution for a reoccurring short term storage issue. You may be able to use existing trolleys or pallet trucks too – but consider access availability and if your activities will cause disruption or be compromised.

Another important aspect to consider – after security, cost and location – is how you will use your storage space as a distribution hub. Some facilities might be perfect for storing boxes, but don’t allow space for unpacking, breaking up and turning stock around. You obviously don’t want to pay for space you don’t use, but the addition of a desk and a chair can make it a much better and more efficient environment to work in. Proximity to a post office is another time saving consideration. Can you receive mobile phone signal in your storage space? If you can, it means you can use a prepaid dongle for Internet access too. If not, it may be difficult for customers and delivery drivers to call you at that crucial moment.

Self storage, often seen as the bastion of household storage – for stowing away old record collections or that dusty sofa – is becoming increasingly popular with small businesses and start ups (in July last year, the Self Storage Association, reported a 5 per cent annual shift away from domestic towards business customers). The draw is flexibility – store what you want for just the time you need, with the all-inclusive cost attractive too. There are ways to make self storage work especially hard for you – if you’ve savvy with your deliveries and sales you can upsize and downsize rooms without penalty (do check T&C’s first), shut down a storage room completely between orders and expand quickly for that unexpected delivery. Another tip is to have separate rooms for different products or to help segment by special offer. The cleverer you are with your space, the lower your storage overheads and the better your profit. There are other perks too. Many storage facilities will have forklifts (and, importantly, trained forklift drivers) for bigger deliveries. Some managers will sign for deliveries if you’re not there (discuss this first of course). And storage rooms can often be used as a distribution hub – you can package up goods for delivery, treating it as your own personal stock room (if there is any other type of work you think you’d need to undertake regularly from the storage room, speak with the store manager for prior approval).

One thing to be aware of with self storage is your out-of-hours access requirement. If you’re a night owl, or have late night or early morning deliveries, you might want to look into 24-hour access (regular access hours on weekdays and weekends are usually standard).

If you’re interested in self storage check out the Check out the Big Yellow Self Storage website and business section for more information and testimonials.

The niche online store used Brightpearl’s technology to integrate their eBay shop and Magento store into their business model in order to help streamline their sales process and stand out from the crowd. In the two years they have had the software it has delivered a substantial 300 per cent return on investment.

Simon Matthews, MD at Garden Deco extolled the benefits of multichannel managements solutions. “We really used to struggle with managing data and manually transferring it between different systems. When we reviewed our approach to selling online two years ago, we realised that to grow the business we needed to take a smarter approach to avoid unnecessary mistakes as customer service was suffering”

He added “Brightpearl has become the glue that holds our business together, making us more efficient. It means we know exactly what our stock levels are so never sell something that isn’t in stock and always know what needs re-ordering and when. Restructuring these processes has saved us £800 per month on admin related costs, which is huge, especially when you are a small business”

Selling online has simply become to complex for businesses to manage website and marketplace sales manually through separate solutions. Multichannel management software is the only way to take full advantage and ensure that your products are displayed on the right selling venue at the right price all of the time. Whether you use Brightpearl or another solution you’ll find all the information you need to select a multichannel management solution in the eBay & eCommerce Tools and Services Guide.

The video covers where to sell if you want to expand beyond eBay and Amazon, what are the hot markets for this year and where best to sell these products. If you’re struggling to figure out how to get started with social media and blogging then the video covers this with practical tips and examples of how Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites can gain you sales.

Today Paul shares his top 15 tips to make launching your own eCommerce website a success.

1) Firstly, a health warning!

When you do take the plunge, don’t switch off eBay all in one go. You will kill your cash flow. Not many of us can survive that! I tried it once – not recommended! “Build it and they will come” is not a motto that applies to setting up your own website. Be prepared for (mostly enjoyable) hard work which requires lots of determination.

2) Pick the e-commerce platform that’s right for you

You’ll be itching to get started, but doing the groundwork will pay off. Do lots of research, ask lots of questions, speak to people who already use it, check out forums, and search for user reviews. Creating your products on your chosen platform could take a good few days, especially if you sell one-off items – not something you want to repeat. Think hard about the functionality that you need. I approached this by making a list of essential / desirable criteria. For example, on my Savvy Row site I needed a platform that allowed easy upload of multiple images -very few platforms allow that.

3) Bespoke design is worth every penny

“Out of the box” websites don’t work, they look anonymous and uninspiring. Cheap, possibly, but they’re a waste of money. Worse are website designers who say they will give you a bespoke design but try to fob you off with a generic template “in your own colours” and “with a few stock images” – yes, I got my fingers burnt on this one, too! Find a good agency / designer who is willing to spend time getting to know what your business is all about and think about your core proposition, values, personality and, most importantly, who your customers are.

4) Use your own images

Amazing images are great but most importantly they need to be authentic to you. Don’t be tempted to just use stock photos as you will look just like everyone else, and it says to potential customers that you haven’t been prepared to invest time on your website. Creativity is a perk of owning your own site!

5) Fresh Content is the lifeblood of selling

Think of your homepage as your shop window. Niche e-commerce websites need to be updated with fresh content at least every other day. I recommend 5 days per week. Keep your potential buyers interested with news of latest products, reviews, industry news, offers and featured items. When you update your site frequently, buyers will come back more and more often, blogs may link to your articles, and search engines will rank you better – all proven to increase conversion. In late 2010 I gave mention to a popular Parisian fashion blog in one of my own blog articles. On New Year’s Day I woke up (eventually) to find more than 7 thousand hits on my website from a review of my site by the same blog.

6) Tell people why you’re different

When browsers land on your site they need to be able to quickly see exactly what you are about and why they should hang around! This is called communicating your ‘core proposition’ – why you exist and why you are better / different to everyone else.

7) Show, not tell

Don’t write paragraphs of text about how friendly / quirky / professional you are – show me in the way you design your site, the language you use, and in your all-important customer service policies.

8) Tell everyone!

Your website address should appear on every single piece of communication that you send out. Never miss an opportunity to advertise for free…

9) Make your items easy to find

Name categories with the terms that potential buyers immediately understand and don’t be tempted to over-elaborate for the sake of being ‘quirky’. Put items in more than one category. Give customers more options for how they find items, e.g. shop by brand / price / colour etc.

10) Make it easy to be trusted

Prominently display your contact details including phone number, email and registered address. Post clear and fair return policies, ensure you have a plain-English privacy policy, and publish a Frequently Asked Questions page.

11) Make it easy to get paid

You’ve done the hard work: designed a great site, secured first page search engine rankings for your keywords, made it easy for customers to find your items, built trust – now seal the deal! Use a payment gateway that accepts all major credit and debit cards. Offer alternative payment methods (e.g. postal order, cash on delivery) if they are appropriate to you and your customers. Ensure your checkout is simple and intuitive to use. Don’t make customers register with you just to buy one of your items – make accounts optional, never compulsory. Don’t ask for marketing information at the checkout stage – it might be tempting to do so but it drives customers mad, possibly mad enough to go and buy elsewhere. Lastly, if you have access to details of aban-doned orders, a polite and professional email offering assistance can often “recover” the sale and earn you a new and loyal customer.

12) Check your links

Customers hate broken links, and search engines will penalise you for them, too. Free software is widely available to check your whole site in minutes.

13) Get the Search Engine Optimisation basics right

Relevant site title and description, fresh content, keyword rich text, use of headings, alt and meta tags, appropriate inward links. Search Engine Optimisation is not a dark art, despite what some web agencies might want you to believe.

14) Keep it professional

It’s great to add personality to your site (it’s one of the things that gives you a key advantage against your big volume competitors), but always keep it business-like.

15) Don’t leave altogether

The irony is that once you start to build up a healthy level of business through your own website, you can then start to use eBay even more profitably. I now use eBay for clearance items, items that don’t quite fit with my website, and for auctioning very rare items that I know people will be willing to fight over. eBay now works for my business, not the other way round!

Don’t think of this as an exhaustive list. One thing all this has taught me is to continually seek to improve. So please do add your own ideas and experiences and tips for me!

Tomorrow Paul reveals his top 15 tips to make launching your own eCommerce website a success.

I’d spent the last 20 years in retail, marketing and senior management posts for medium / large companies. I started selling some pieces of vintage clothing on eBay for ‘a bit of pocket money’ and as a bit of light relief from the corporate world. Starting selling on eBay was a genuinely exciting experience; the planning, the anticipation, the nervousness (will anyone really want to buy my items?!), the thrill of the early sales and the pride in offering the best possible service for “my customers”. And, different colour stars to aim for! What more could a seller need?

More pragmatically, eBay is still a great way to test the water, to get started, to get access to a ready-made customer base, and to get some cash flow. Once set up, selling starts quickly and you can sell all sorts of stuff from one ID without customers getting confused. If I started selling items other than vintage clothing then it’s quite likely that I would take the opportunity to “learn a few lessons” on eBay first.

For me, though, there came a tipping point when my selling started to become more than just a hobby. The things which helped me to get started– ready-made marketplace among other sellers, eBay marketing power, and diversity of the site – can actually start to hold you back. Customers aren’t buying from you, they’re buying from eBay. Your items have to fight it out in a sea of similar sellers. Marketing for “small” eBay shops seems to have been reduced. There’s a limit to what you can achieve for your own business within these conditions.

I also started to find that “the numbers” were beginning to look more and more difficult. Fee increases, changes to international visibility, best match issues, low sell through rates vs. high fees. It became clear to me that I needed to build my own brand and that I couldn’t afford to have all of my eggs in one basket. People say to me, “but eBay makes me my living”. Fine but even if your business can handle 20% VAT plus 15% eBay costs of sale, you still could be missing the opportunity to take that business that you’ve worked hard to build up fully under your control and make it even more profitable.

If you’ve built up a full-time business selling niche items on eBay, and this is all starting to sound familiar, you too could be ready to look seriously at launching your own website off eBay. I’m passionate about helping other sellers, so I do hope that at least some of my experience can be useful.

Come back tomorrow for Paul’s 15 top tips for launching your own eCommerce website!