I recently opened an Auctiva Commerce storefront and have been working very hard to make it more attractive to buyers. Do you offer any kind of Web design and/or marketing service to help me improve my site?
—Room for Improvement in Richmond
Schlicht: Giving you or a third-party design company the ability to customize the look and feel of your store is near the top of our list of improvements we want to make. We've actually already started working on this. The challenge we face is keeping the platform secure, while at the same time opening it up to customizations.
I'm interested in signing up for your e-commerce store, but I'd much prefer paying for a full year in advance rather than monthly billing. Can I do that? I think it will take that long to learn the ropes and figure out if this is going to work for me.
—Gung Ho in Geelong
Schlicht: At this time you can only pay for your Commerce store one month at a time. The billing is done automatically each month so you don't have to worry about that, but you can't pay for more than one month at a time.
Do you have any plans to enable a single shipping insurance transaction for multiple purchases that will be shipped in the same package?
—Twofer in Tucson
Schlicht: We already allow you to insure multiple items at the same time if the buyer checks out with multiple items. This creates an order in Auctiva with multiple items, which would be covered by a single insurance policy.
At this time, it's not possible to combine multiple orders on a single policy. We haven't had a lot of customers request this. But if we get enough demand for this capability, we will consider doing it. You should submit the idea on our feature request page.
Just wondered if there were any plans to extend Auctiva's services to include eBay.fr? I used Auctiva in the U.K. for years. I have now moved to France, but without the features of Auctiva, my auctions are boring and uninteresting on eBay.fr.
—Bland in Bourges
Schlicht: We expanded our eBay listing services to include eBay.de a few months ago. We're still evaluating the results and then we'll decide if we want to expand to more eBay sites. If we do decide to allow listing to another international eBay site, France would be the next logical choice.
I keep hearing about eBay sellers opening Auctiva Commerce stores, but I can't figure out if there's a way to browse all the stores from one site (as on eBay). Are you planning to publish a merchant directory and if so, when?
—Lost in Los Angeles
Schlicht: You can see a lot of the stores using Auctiva Commerce by searching for products on http://auctivacommerce.com/shop.aspx. This page will improve drastically in the next two weeks. We're also working on another site that will have a directory of all the stores and provide a great experience for buyers to search for products.
You can ask Jeff your own questions by e-mailing him at "AsktheCEO" at the Auctiva.com domain. Not all questions will be answered, but those selected will be published with Jeff's responses in future Ask the CEO articles. Due to the volume of mail we receive, Jeff will not be able to reply to you personally.
Please do not submit inquiries requiring an immediate response. If you need a technical issue resolved right away, please use the online form to file a support request and your case will be addressed by our customer support team.
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Auctiva staff writers constantly monitor trends and best practices of those selling on eBay and elsewhere online. They attend relevant training seminars and trade shows and regularly discuss the market with PowerSellers and other market experts.
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