Auctiva enhanced its eBay tools today to allow customers to manage more of their selling activities through Auctiva.com, and help them transition into compliance with eBay's soon-to-change seller policies.
Although several of the policy changes won't take effect on eBay for a few more weeks, Auctiva wanted to get a head start on enhancements so customers wouldn't be caught off guard, notes Auctiva Product Manager Tony Maxey.
"Our Auctiva development team tries hard to find ways to help customers be more productive, sell more in their eBay businesses and save money on things like insurance," Maxey says. "We're introducing several new features in this update that many customers have asked us for."
One of those features is Auctiva's first-ever Bulk Listing-Revision Tool. This tool should help users edit their listings, and edit them quickly, to comply with eBay's new policies.
For example, among the policy changes, sellers will be responsible for ensuring that items reach their destinations in the condition described, and they must eliminate phrases such as "seller is not responsible for lost or damaged packages." Additionally, sellers will no longer be able to offer shipping insurance as an optional fee for buyers.
"This bulk revision feature will come in handy for all of our users who want the ease of changing one listing or 100, without having to log directly into eBay and revise each listing, one at a time," explains Auctiva Product Analyst Rebecca Miller.
With eBay's new shipping insurance requirements in mind, Auctiva has also introduced a feature to make Auctiva Shipping Insurance easier to use and manage. The new Auto-Purchase Rules allow customers to set criteria so polices will be automatically purchased based on a transaction's total price.
Auctiva users can now post changes to live listings and print packing slips without leaving the Auctiva.com site
Do more from one site
Auctiva's latest enhancements will allow customers to do more right from their Auctiva accounts, notes Miller. For instance, now they'll be able to post changes to their live listings and print packing slips without having to go to a separate site.
"I can't tell you how many times I've posted something on eBay, and then realized moments later that I misspelled a word in the title," Miller muses. "Now I'll be able to make that edit without leaving the Auctiva site.
"Being able to print a packing slip from our site will also save time," she adds. "I won't have to log into PayPal just to print a basic summary of what I'm shipping."
Sellers will also be able to see thumbnail images on their Sales Transactions page, which will help prevent shipping mix-ups.
"When you have several transactions with similar titles, it's easy to get mixed up if there's not an image there to help distinguish one listing from another," Miller explains. "We have images on the Active and Saved Listings pages, so why not here?"
Even more in store
Other enhancements that users will notice are redesigned Auctiva EDU pages and newsletter.
And there's more in store for customers in the coming weeks that will coincide with eBay's changes, Maxey adds.
"We'll introduce additional features to help Auctiva customers take advantage of new eBay functionality, like the ability to specify countries they will not ship to, and the new requirement that the Buy It Now price be at least 10 percent higher than the Auction Start Price, just to name a couple," Maxey says.
To see a complete list of enhancements, please read our Community Forum post.
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.
Other Entries by this Author