Auction Software Review Launches Ebay Strategy Section

PRWeb

Leading independent eBay software site, The Auction Software Review, today announced the launch of its new 'Strategy' section. The new category aims to fill the void of information about product sourcing, e-commerce consultants, and outsourcing services -- both for existing eBay sellers, and traditional retailers getting started on eBay.

Read Atrtcle Here

IRS Urged to Go After Ebay Sellers

Verne Kopytoff
Chronicle Staff Writer
SFGate.com

When it comes to paying income taxes, eBay's legions of small-time entrepreneurs are on an honor system in which they are supposed to declare their profits to the Internal Revenue Service. Many users, however, ignore the law or are unaware of their obligation.

Now a growing chorus of tax experts is hoping to crack down on the cheating by requiring eBay -- and other online auctions, such as those on Yahoo, Ubid.com and Amazon -- to track users and report their gross sales to the federal government. Armed with such information, the IRS could better seek any taxes owed, potentially reaping millions of dollars in extra revenue for the U.S. Treasury.

But requiring eBay to out its sellers to tax collectors could send a shockwave across its vast online bazaar, where users trade everything from Ferraris to Ugg boots to pepper spray. Paying Uncle Sam could significantly reduce their profits or even make their businesses money-losers.

The latest call for more aggressive tax collection was heard last week at a congressional committee hearing focused on closing the tax gap, the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes that go unpaid each year.

Complete Story

Ebay's New Feedback 2.0

Ebay, after giving us hints & mini previews for a few months now, will be rolling out their new "Feedback 2.0" format on Ebay.co.uk and Ebay.ie later this month. The new feedback system will give buyers the option to rate transactions with a "five star" system, similar to many mainstream ecommerce sites. According to Ebay, the new system will offer the following:

Detailed Seller Ratings – In addition to the current positive, negative or neutral comment, buyers rate the sellers on these specific transaction aspects based on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest rating. The average of all ratings is displayed on the seller’s Feedback Profile page.

Display of Item Title and Price – To give buyers more information to evaluate the reputation of a seller, the transaction’s item title and selling price will be displayed beneath each Feedback comment on the Feedback Profile page for 90 days. This will give buyers more context while reviewing and evaluating Feedback comments.


After evaluation, Ebay plans to launch this feature globally in late spring,/ early summer. Screenshot is below.....

Ebay Listings that Keep Buyers Attracted

By Entrepreneur.com
2/14/2007 11:04 AM EST

Excellent article published in The Street.com demonstrates how to build Ebay listings that go the extra mile in keeping buyer interest.

Expanding my jeans shopping experience to eBay, the lesson is, any item
sold on eBay deserves more than a title, a picture and a one-line description.
How many times have you found an item through a keyword search just to click
it and find no further information? Plenty. It happens to thousands of
prospective buyers every day. As a seller, if you're going to invest the money
to list an item, give it a fighting chance for a successful sale.

An item's description tells the customer what to expect about their
possible purchase. Mention size, manufacturer, material, condition -- basically,
anything and everything to give the buyer more information about the item.

Lucky media sellers get the advantage of eBay's license of the Muze database, which supplies further details on books, movies, games and music. But believe it or not, some sellers don't even take the time to click their mouse to include it in their listings -- all you'll see in their descriptions is "New and sealed." Wow.

Link here to complete article

Ebay Discount Listing Day 2-14-07

Ebay.com has announced 50% auction style insertion fees for February 14, 2007.

All other fees including final value fees, listing upgrade fees, such as Buy It Now, featured plus, subtitle, highlight, bold, gallery, gift services, scheduled listings, gallery featured, homepage featured, reserve fees, ebaY Picture Services, duration fees, etc.

Excluded are fixed price, buy it now upgrades, Ebay Motors vehicles, parts and accessories, International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Ad Format, Real Estate and Store Inventory listings, as well as some business and industrial categories.

Ebay to Launch Tool to Help Sellers with Buyer Questions

Ebay has announced an enhancement to their "Ask Seller a Question" feature that will be launched within the next few days. Currently, when a buyer uses the form to ask a question, they are linited to "general question" or a 'question about shipping". Ebays new and improved form will allow sellers to include up to 9 additional customized questions which will appear on the form. If the seller choose bot to add customized questions, the buyer will se the standard 2 option form.

Announcement is here.