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There’s been a few major changes happening at Google and there are ways you can benefit from it.
Even though we are all about eBay here at Bidding Buzz, we still look for things that can contribute to enhancing success on eBay.
The new changes in Google mean that if you have a Google+ page, (Both personally and as a business) people can actually find those pages in new search results in Google. This can be a potential game changer for everyone.
If you can utilise the power of Google+ pages and get found in Google you could tap into a free source of ongoing traffic.
I know it sounds geeky but I think there are exciting times ahead for all online sellers!
No one ever wants to hear bad news and sadly for the thousands of people employed in Australian retail that’s exactly what they are going to hear in 2012.
The retail sector has had one of the worst Christmas lead ups in years and in fact many Australians are just as wary now about their jobs as they were during the worst of the GFC. CoreData actually predicts that over 100,000 jobs are going to be lost next year in Retail & Tourism.
So what’s the good news?
The good news is that if you’re part of the growing number of people learning how to sell online, especially eBay, then you’re in for a fast growth opportunity. It’s a transitional time right now with how people shop online and the early adopters are already profiting and you could be too.
Don’t be one of the people who looks back in 20 years and says…”Geez I wish I’d got started online 20 years ago when it was really just starting to take off.”
The future belongs to you…seize it now and be in charge of your own financial destiny!
There’s a new trend of online retail spending after the traditional US Thanksgiving holiday called Cyber Monday. This is where people take advantage of discounts similar to what we see for Boxing Day specials in Australia.
This year amazingly over $1.25 Billion was spent in one day online. This is a combination of individual websites and the usual contributor eBay. This year we can also see the trend of mobile phone spending skyrocketing. In fact 10% of all those sales were made by people using mobile devices like phones and iPads.
What’s even more astonishing is that prior to the Cyber Monday online sales, there was the usual Black Friday spending in traditional stores, the kicker is that the online spending beat traditional spending by 29%.
This is truly a changing of the way people are now choosing to spend their money and once again it makes great inspiration to be selling online.
What are you going to sell today online?
eBay are always looking for new ways to generate income and this time they are helping you as a seller too. As of October, if you have a Fixed Price listing and you offer to ship to the UK or to the world, your listing will automatically appear in the Uk eBay search results.
How cool is that?
What this means is that you can now immediately access another 17 million people…yep nearly the whole population of Australia…simply by ticking the box to ship worldwide. The great news is that the flow on affects could be enormous. Imagine you now have the possibility have getting extra potential shoppers looking at your listings for no extra cost.
The pitfall to look out for would be to make sure you are on top of your correct shipping options and cost’s and also making sure you are aware of the time differences when selling into another market. Remember, it’s all about communicating with your customers and making sure they understand distance and timing. Another thing to be aware of is potential customs duties at their end. Ideally you want to make sure you avoid the customer having to pay import duties on your items as they could be unaware of this and that it could cost them extra money if not sent correctly.
There you have it…even more ways to make money on the worlds largest sales platform!
With Halloween in just a few days many of you may have already been scouring eBay for costumes for various “Halloween” parties around. If you’re dressing up a Zombie, The nightmare from Elm Street or anything else fun, be sure to take some photos and share them on eBay’s Facebook page.
eBay are doing a Facebook promotion and are giving away 15 $100 eBay Gift Cards. Winners will be selected every day from now til October 31st…Who knows it could just be you who wins!
As a seller, also think about what Halloween themed items you can be selling in the lead up to Halloween, either to build those feedback points or make yourself some extra cash!
Either way it’s going to be a whole lot of fun!
Till Next Time Matt and Amanda Clarkson
More and more people are now using their mobile phones for eBay related searching and buying and now you can now use it to receive offers on your electonic items directly from eBay as well!
eBay.com have now released a great new iPhone App called instant Sale. It’s very simple to use and the concept behind it is very clever. It provides a way to get cash for your electronics or recycle them for free right from your iPhone. For people that find it hard to get the time to auction off their old gadgets, they no longer have to find the time with Instant Sale, you’ll receive an immediate cash offer for your laptops, smart phones, tablets, PDAs, cameras, GPS and other electronic devices and it all happens in three easy steps.
Firstly just look up what gadget you own and no longer need, and tell Instant Sale the condition of the device, and get an offer.
Secondly if you accept the offer and you’ll be emailed a free prepaid shipping label to send your item to our authorised eBay reseller for evaluation.
And lastly ship once your payment is received through PayPal ship your item for free… its really as simple as that!
Even if your item is broken you still may be able to trade it in, and for the items that don’t receive offers eBay will still send you a free shipping label so you can send it in and do your bit for the planet and recycle responsibly.
eBay is working with AllTechWholesale, a Top-Rated eBay Seller with an excellent track record of customer satisfaction and service. To date, the program has generated more than four million offers for devices that range from smart phones to tablets to laptop computers, and has established itself as one of the most competitive electronics trade-in destinations on the web.
This is the first ever electronics trade-in app for used electronics and we are very excited about where the future is heading…check it out today.
We hope you’re as excited as we are with all the new changes.
Have a productive eBay weekend.
Matt and Amanda Clarkson.
Exciting things are happening in eBay at the moment. Shortly they will integrate image recognition to its mobile service, opening up new ways people can shop for items that they are looking for.
The news comes from eBay CEO John Donahoe who revealed the plan on Wednesday to the press. According to the eBay CEO, the company will integrate the new feature to its mobile service by the end of this year.
How the new eBay feature works is that a user who sees something they like, can snap a photo of the item for further research on eBay.
The user than run’s the image through an eBay application which will then perform image recognition on the photo to match it with items currently listed on the eBay marketplace.
According to the news organisation, eBay has not revealed yet whether the new image recognition feature will work on the whole eBay marketplace or on specific items first after its launch. Either way the future of eBay is looking very exciting and we can’t wait to use this new feature!
Until Next Time,
Matt and Amanda Clarkson.
Australia Post is now riding on the online shopping trend to boost its income and step up it’s services with the growth of online sales.
On Monday, Australia post launched its Future Ready programme which offers parcel services linked with online shopping. The programme was rolled out in response to the 10.9 per cent hike in parcel delivery due to eBay and online sales.
Australians will be able to pick up parcels at more convenient times from its Fyshwick site, while residents of Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney will be able to access secure parcel lockers 24 hours a day. The agency will inform them through text the arrival of their parcels. Australia Post plans to expand the service to 24 locations throughout the country by end of November this year. The project is expected to benefit residents who could not visit an Australian Post office during office hours to pick up their deliveries.
It is also a support service to the online retail sector, particularly for large retailers which would want to be relieved of the task of delivering orders, and instead can spend time on their business rather than in it.
Delivery of parcel’s ordered online make up 70 per cent of Australia Post’s parcel volume which the agency wants to boost further as more online purchases done on eBay overseas and domestically are made by Australians.
Residents who still want to have their goods delivered to their homes will get a notification card under the door from Australia Post delivery drivers instead of placing the note in their letterbox. This will ensure the residents at home will get their deliveries.
Australia Post earlier signed partnership agreements with eBay and PayPal to help promote online shopping, and at the same time boost its income, this is great news for eBay sellers as with growth we can now foresee Australia Post can handle the overwhelming influx of parcels’ being sent on a daily basisb which in hand effects our feedback and DSR’S.
This is a very positive move on behalf of Australia Post and we are excited to see the changes.
Until Next time
Matt and Amanda Clarkson
All eBay sellers have until the 1st of October to update their listings to remove any links or e-mail addresses.
If your listings don’t comply with the new eBay policy they will fail to post and relist. The 1st of October effective date applies to new listings and re-lists however Good Til Cancelled listings have until early next year to comply.
This policy is meant to protect buyers and keep them in the eBay marketplace. All sellers need to be aware that the policy does apply to both clickable and non-clickable links. eBay feels that “Too often, buyers are being directed off eBay to make purchases that are not protected by eBay Buyer Protection”. They feel that everything a buyer needs to know about the item should be present in the listing without ever having to leave eBay for more information.
Though editing your listings might sound overwhelming, we would strongly suggest making these changes immediately as, if your listings do contain any email addresses or links they will be pulled down which may result in you losing money.
So spend the next few days making sure your listings comply with the policy and put in any additional info that you think you buyers may need as they can no longer visit pages outside of eBay to read up on your item and convince them into the sale.
Just another way that we can become the best on eBay by having very detailed litings!
Until next time,
Matt and Amanda Clarkson
