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  • eBid October 2016 Newsletter


    News from Gazza

    3,151,280 Live Listings
    16,606 Categories
    $1,345,154,044 Gross Listing Value


    Welcome to the eBid October Newsletter.


    Another busy month is coming to a close. A few small updates to the site and a big update for all our users who import their listings from Amazon.

    Firstly, many thanks to all of you who reset their in-app notifications within the eBid mobile app. October has already been our busiest ever month for sending in-app notifications out to mobile devices and the process seems to be working a treat.

    From even more extensive personal use during this month than normal I can tell anyone who trades on eBid that they are a lot simpler, faster and easier than using email notifications. On my personal iPhone I download emails at intervals but have notifications turned off for these as I would be pinging and beeping all day and all night, but I do receive eBid in-app notifications.

    They are unintrusive and let you know within a second or two exactly what is happening within your eBid account. Be it sales, offers, payments or Q&A, a small alert pops up and takes you directly into the eBid app where you can seem more details or add a reply if required. Give it a try if you are regular seller on eBid and haven't yet. Just download the Android or Apple (iOS) mobile app today and say yes to notifications when you are asked.

    Of course there are some improvements we can and are making at the moment and when the re-written version of our mobile app is released the system will be even more fluid and user friendly than it is currently.

    Amazon Bulk Upload - Product Images.

    We have many many sellers on eBid who have imported their listings from Amazon over the years using our bulk import tool that is found within the eBid Ninja Lister. As many of you will know the image system when importing from Amazon has had a few problems recently with access to product images not being available for a few items. Well, I'm glad to say we've made some great improvements to this function during October and you should be seeing correct product images for all your imported Amazon items from now on even when you do not supply images with your data files.

    As we have seen eBid morph and change over the years we always like to think we have all the main bases covered very thoroughly. No website is perfect but time can be spent on 99.9% of the most important aspects to ensure they are smooth and clear. Well, this month has been an eye opener for us as, out of the blue, we had three similar problems arise around a function of the site that we don't recall ever having a problem with before. The problem was with the listing function, when moving from the listing form itself and moving on to the preview page (the one with the red and green buttons allowing you to go back to edit or to start your listing). Well, three users this month arrived on the preview page thinking it was the listing confirmation page, eg. they thought their listing had already been posted/started. Even though the preview page states it is just a preview and requires a button click to start the listing it is interesting for us to see how users interact with all parts of the site even after all these years. We've recently made a slight change to the button on the listing form that sends you to the preview page, merely changing the text to "Proceed to Preview Stage" from "Preview Listing Now" which should clear up any confusion. This goes to prove we are still very grateful to you all for even the smallest feedback relating to the site that you are able to send us.

    Category Upgrades

    Some of the more eagle-eyed eBidders will have noticed quite a few new categories being added again this month. We are now at over 16,000 categories. Don't panic, we haven't gone mad, we are simply building towards a set of huge upgrades for eBid and the category updates have turned into an unforeseen requirement and have proved to be the main bottleneck behind the delay to the upgrades for the last couple of months. Feel free to list within in the new categories if you come across them.

    eBid Pulse News from Debbie


    Countdown to Christmas - are you ready to switch on your Christmas Lights

    With only eight weeks to go, it is time for Sellers to step up a gear with their preparations for Christmas sales. Take a tip from the high street stores – start your preparations early.

    A sensible place to start is with checking the latest recommended posting dates. For Royal Mail in the UK, this information can be found Here. United States Postal Service recommended dates can be found Here, and Fedex Here. Don’t forget to re-check these sites again later to make sure there are no changes to the last posting dates.

    It is worth remembering that many shoppers browse by store category. You may want to consider opening a specific eBid store for your Christmas items in our Occasions & Seasonal Christmas category? SELLER+ Lifetime members have the option to open up to 5 eBid Stores at no additional cost. SELLER accounts can open eBid stores for a small monthly charge per store.

    Don't yet have an eBid Store?


    Just go to My eBid > My eBid Stores and with a few simple steps, you can have your store up and running.

    Perhaps the best way to think of a store is as a “shop-window” where you can showcase similarly themed items. As with any shop-window, the more attractive it looks, the more buyers who will enter, so it worth taking the time to create an attractive and interesting store.

    You should also consider reviewing your “All About” page information and make sure that everything is up-to-date and provides potential Buyers with accurate information about who you are and what you offer – for example your Terms & Conditions of Sale, Shipping Terms, Returns Policy, do you offer combined postage?

    If you take time to make the necessary preparation, we are sure you will be ready to switch on your Christmas lights in plenty of time to welcome in Christmas shoppers.

    Competition Time


    Last month's question :

    How many online payment methods do Google Shopping require you to offer? (GTIN/UPC/EAN)?

    a) AT LEAST ONE
    b) FIVE
    c) NONE

    The correct answer was (a) AT LEAST ONE. Congratulations go to Aries1974 from Florida, USA, for winning last months competition, your eBid Goodie Bag and iPod should be with you now.

    Now for this month's question :

    To the nearest 1000, how many categories are there now on eBid?

    a) 5000
    b) 10000
    c) 16000

    To enter send us :
    Answer to the competition question
    Your eBid username
    Name and address for sending out any prizes
    Incomplete entries will be automatically deleted. Closing date 10th November 2016. Email answers to competitions@ebid.net
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