There are plenty of companies out there offering third party
eBay tools. Most of them are web-based instead of downloadable,
so you pay a monthly fee instead of just buying the software.
But do you know what these sites can do for you? It can be hard
to get to grips with what's out there using a search engine, so
here's a quick rundown of the key players.
Andale (http://www.andale.com).
Andale offer lots of small products instead of one solution that
does everything: you can take your pick from a lister, image
hosting, counters, analysers, a gallery, a checkout and an email
manager. The price plans are a bit of a maze, but quite
reasonable as long as you don't go and use everything.
Andale's real claim to fame is that they've been doing it for so
long - they're not some fly-by-night organisation, and many eBay
sellers have been using their free counters for absolutely
years. They also have a reputation for being very responsive to
customers, and will often talk to you directly on their forums
and implement any suggestions you might have for improving their
software.
Vendio (http://www.vendio.com).
Vendio offer two editions of their software, Sales Manager: a
Merchandising edition and an Inventory edition. The difference
between the two is that the Merchandising edition is designed to
make it easier to list individual auctions, while the Inventory
edition is for sellers who sell many of the same item. They
offer a pay-as-you go price of 10c per auction.
They also offer software called Tickets Manager, special
software for people who sell lots of tickets on eBay - an odd
product to have, but useful if you happen to sell tickets. Other
services offered by Vendio include web and image hosting, fancy
Flash galleries of your products for your listings, and stores.
ChannelAdvisor (http://www.channeladvisor.com<
/A>).
ChannelAdvisor offer their software in three versions:
Enterprise, Merchant and Pro. Enterprise and Merchant are both
designed for very big businesses, though, and the chances are
that the Pro version does everything you'd want. ChannelAdvisor
is popular among sellers who want a solution that they know is
used and trusted on a very large scale by enterprise-level
customers.
It offers all the standard bulk listing and inventory features,
as well as the unique feature of being able to create auctions
from an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory. The cost is high,
though, at $29.95 per month.
And Many, Many More...
eBay maintain a comprehensive directory of third-party software,
which you can browse through anytime you have a few days to
kill. You can look either for complete solutions or for each
part of what you want individually - the choice is so daunting
that there's bound to be something out there for you. You can
look at their directory at htt
p://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory.
Once your items have sold and you're about to ship them, you
might be a little nervous about whether you can trust your
buyer. Our next email will give you a few tips for spotting
problem buyers before you send them anything.
About the author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from
Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more
great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online
auctions.
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