Gazza Mark can we make joining up from and external link more friendly & informative

[emporiumdays]

That books is a great idea, hopefully the boyz will take it in consideration and maybe take this brilliant suggestion on. So here's my bump for it.

Also if a potential buyer doesn't want to register with eBid can something be done where they can buy as a guest.

Have to agree - and buying as a 'Guest' could make a big difference in sales numbers here.
Some people just don't want to go to a lot of trouble to buy something they've found on a site.
It's "I've got a PAYPAL account - and I just want to BUY"

[gazza]

Hello Gazza and Mark

Like many others on here, I try to drum up interest in ebid.net by posting links to my listings, via social networking sites.

I never gave it any thought about what those picking up the links actually experience, so I thought I would give it a go and pretend I am coming into ebid.net cold, so to speak.

So I made sure I was logged out of ebid and clicked on one of the links to one of my listings.

I got to the listing and clicked on "Place Bid" which brought up a pop-up reminding me I am about to place a bid, and giving me the choice to continue or go back. Nice so far.

So I press OK to continue which then took me to a screen where I could either log in or register.

As I am testing, to get a feel for the "buyer-new-to-ebid" experience, I go for the register option and the first thing I am asked for is my email address. The first thing I would be thinking as a new ebid buyer, or on any website, is "No! No email address for you yet, I want some more info"

But anyway, for the sake of the experiment I put in a spare email address, which takes me to the "Register For Your Free eBid Account" page.

Again I am confronted by a "give us all your info" page. Yet at this point a 'newbie', coming straight in from a listing's URL, would still know nothing about ebid.net.

(Obviously not wanting to register again I stopped here, so to be fair don't know and can't remember, from my initial registration, what happens next)

For someone coming to ebid.net brand-new, from a direct link, and not having read up on it, I feel this registration process is a bit cold and impersonal.

I wonder how many potential buyers we lose with this straight in approach.

Rather than going for the "grab the email address" bit, what about leaving that out and taking the prospect to a page with a bit more info, from where they can then join up AND then be taken back to the listing from where they came.

OR

having two options a "Learn More Button" which does what it says, and a "Quick Join" button for newbie's who feel confident about ploughing straight in.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the input, until now we've tried to make the eBid sign up process as fast and direct as possible for new users, but we are planning on making changes to the flow for new users to something friendlier.

First in line is Q&A will not require full registration, just an email address to ask a question if you are not already registered.

When actually purchasing an item it's a little different as we require shipping details which involves addresses and names etc, for this reason we will be changing the system for new users to a more recognisable format where they are asked for the their shipping details instead of them actually registering to be an eBid member.

Gazza

[bykimbo]

Thanks for the input, until now we've tried to make the eBid sign up process as fast and direct as possible for new users, but we are planning on making changes to the flow for new users to something friendlier.

First in line is Q&A will not require full registration, just an email address to ask a question if you are not already registered.

When actually purchasing an item it's a little different as we require shipping details which involves addresses and names etc, for this reason we will be changing the system for new users to a more recognisable format where they are asked for the their shipping details instead of them actually registering to be an eBid member.

Gazza

Superb.

[craig7501]

Excellent, lets hope this brings in more buyers

[islandbuckman]

Great idea! Anything to make it easier for the new people. And to Gazza and the crew. Great job, that's why I love this site!!!

[Tropical_Trish]

Excellent, lets hope this brings in more buyers

Yes, I'll second that Craig.

[MagnetsAndHangers]

I assume we will have a way of filtering buyers?

Eg - will not accept purchases by buyers who are not members?

[bykimbo]

I assume we will have a way of filtering buyers?

Eg - will not accept purchases by buyers who are not members?

Since buyers just provide shipping details, and that will be asked for, I'm not sure what you see as the difference and why it matters?

[Juliebabe25]

The boys could add that later (unless its easy fro them to do it now)
We need to make it easier for buyers to buy on ebid.

[MagnetsAndHangers]

Since buyers just provide shipping details, and that will be asked for, I'm not sure what you see as the difference and why it matters?

I prefer them to go thru a verication process.

My shipping details are santa claus, north pole, etc etc etc isnt enuff for me.