eBay has relaunched its Certified Provider Program, cutting the number of services in that program to include only those that are the most helpful to eBay sellers, officials announced Wednesday.
The Certified Provider Program has a new landing page that features 15 companies, instead of the 21 services it used to. Included in the shortened list are Auctiva, ChannelAdvisor, Cloud Conversion, Terapeak and Vendio, among others.
"There are thousands of third-party tools that are available commercially to sellers, but only a few select ones are working with us on a regular basis to help make sure they can keep up with eBay changes, and help makes these eBay changes easier on our sellers," notes Laura Della Torre, senior manager of the Certified Provider Program. She adds that the services on the current Certified Provider list do just that.
To determine which services would be included in the re-launch, eBay tested third parties about their knowledge of eBay policies and looked at the number of customers each service had.
At the same time, with the changing nature of eBay, officials wanted to know how these tools were helping customers, so it surveyed sellers. eBay asked sellers to rate the quality of the tools third-party companies provide, how useful these tools are and third-parties' customer service.
"[This wasn't] just from a service perspective but also from an education and knowledge perspective," Della Torre notes. "How do [these third-party providers] make sure they make our sellers aware about the changes that are going to impact them and help them manage those changes?"
eBay initially launched the Certified Providers program in 2004 to help customers identify the top tools for eBay sellers.
"If you want to get help with saving time, helping to understand change, use a Certified Provider," Della Torre says. "These are the guys who are really, truly committed to the eBay platform and are really committed to your success."
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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