eBay & Amazon: Beyond the Basics

eBay & Amazon:

Beyond the BasicsDan Wilson

Welcome

• Who am I?

• Who are you?

• Are you selling already?

• Why are we here?

• What do you want to know?

Some objectives

• Help you take your eBay and Amazon selling to the

next level

• Explore the international opportunity of cross border

trade

• Look at strategies for efficiency and growth

• Introduce lots of ideas, tools and services to help you

• Inspire you to build a profitable ecommerce business

Trading internationallyThe greatest ecommerce growth opportunity

The size of Ecommerce

International for growth

Where to sell to?

• You choose. As a seller you're in charge.

• EU an obvious start. But US, Australia big too.

• Some countries are harder the others

• It's a steep learning curve: cultural differences

• It also depends on your stock

No problem can't be solved

• Payments, postage, insurance, tracking

• The choice of services has developed

• You need to shop around and make your choices

• Rewards are potentially huge

• Language probably the biggest hurdle

Future growth

• Developing countries represent huge new markets

• India, China, Brazil, Russia

• But the infrastructure is nascent

• Depends on what you sell

• But watch this space.

Optimizing your eBay salesTip top listings, an eBay Shop, eBay tools

eBay Shops

eBay Shops

• One of the easiest ways to go international on

ebay

• Brandable shopfront

• Preferential fees

• International perks

• Other tools and function

eBay Shops

eBay shops for international

• Perks of a featured Shop

• Zero insertion fees when listing on eBay's Spanish, French

and Italian sites.

• Zero insertion fees for your first 200 listings per month on

eBay Australia

• Zero insertion fees for your first 500 listings per month on

eBay.com and eBay.ca.

• 0.05 CHF on the Swiss site, 0.05 PLN on our eBay Poland

site and 0.05 EUR insertion fees on all other European sites.

Global Shipping

Programme“The Global Shipping Programme is an easy way for business and private sellers to

reach millions more buyers with minimal changes to your current processes.

Benefits include:

You simply send your sold items to a UK address - the international postage and paperwork

(where applicable) is all handled for you.

We show international postage costs on your listings and communicate these to your

buyers.

We’ll include any customs or import charges in what your non-EU buyers pay upfront.

Postage with an international tracked service from the UK Shipping Centre to your buyer.

Once your item has arrived safely to the UK Shipping Centre, we’ll protect you from any

delivery-related defects against your seller standard.”

Managed Returns

• Compulsory for some sellers

• eBay manage the returns process automatically

• Pros and Cons

• You might have a better plan

• Could affect Best Match

Passive vs. Active tactics

Translation services

• Various services exist for active selling

• Robot vs. human translation

• Can be effective for key lines

• Expense vs. returns

• Available for eBay and Amazon

The Amazon opportunityGetting started, tools and services, Amazon insights

Amazon

• After eBay, the obvious next step

• New goods across a huge spectrum of sectors

• Third party sellers make up maybe 40% of sales

• Amazon offer a wide range of selling options

• Lots of sellers happily combine eBay and Amazon

Getting started on Amazon

• Amazon accredit sellers. Harder to register.

• But an easier channel to manage than eBay

• Start planning when your eBay sales are ramping

up

• Some things work better on Amazon

• The aim is to win the Buy Box

Winning the buy box

Go Global with Amazon

• UK is a solid Amazon marketplace

• Very easy to internationalise your sales in EU

• Germany and France big markets

• FBA is a great service for Cross border

• Easier than eBay to internationalise listings

Fulfillment by Amazon

• Amazon fulfill your orders as their own

• Means greater likelihood of Buy Box

• Also Amazon Prime customers come your way

• Makes it easier to expand overseas

• Comes at a price but do the maths...

International Returns

• Amazon requires you offer international returns

• This can be prohibitively expensive

• Couriers are available with international returns

• ZigZag is a new service that handles into returns

Tools for efficiencySaving time and money, Multi-channel management

Multi-channel Management

• What is a Multi-channel management tool?

• Essential for growth

• Huge choice

• Services vary widely

• Consider marketplaces they serve and your needs

What they can do

• Listing items, managing listings and templates

• Inventory control

• Customer management - emails etc

• Order processing

• Automating tasks

• Accounting and reporting

How to choose?

• Your business needs

• The tool's capability, marketplaces and fees

• Customer support and help

• Room to grow with you?

• How easy to get started

• Expertise: think of a partnership.

Accounting software

• Tools that plug into record sales and accounts

• Many options available

• Useful for tax and accounting

• Useful forecasting tools too

• Often a feature of Multi-channel tools

Postage & Couriers

• Postage and couriers are competitive

• Even if you're sending a dozen a week, do a deal

• Concentrate on service not price

• Build a portfolio, shop around

• Think of your buyers

Repricers

• A new type of service

• Uses marketplace data to keep you competitive

• You set parameters, the tool automatically

repricers

• Much quicker than doing it manually

• Operate on a Multi-channel basis

Fulfillment/drop-shipping• Fulfillment services hold your stock

• You take care of the listings, orders and

customers

• The fulfillment firm deals with the storage and

despatch

• Can be very useful for fast growing businesses or

dealing with seasonality

• Pick the service carefully

Full management services

• Full end-to-end management is available

• From listing to warehousing and fulfillment

• Ideal if your forte is sourcing stock and new lines

• Risk: you have to pick the right supplier

• It can be a valuable service for all or some stock

Analytics and strategic tipsSome advanced ideas, tools and services

Different ways to grow

• Save time to do more with the same resources

• Prioritise margins - concentrate on profitability

• Develop your operations - expand and hire

• Mostly likely a mix of all three....

Why ecommerce SMEs fail

• Meltdown - stress and low rewards

• Stagnation - not embracing changing buyer needs

• Overreach - expanding too quickly

• Extinction - competition

• Flawed business model - poor products

• Bad behaviour - breaking the marketplace rules

Things to consider

• Understanding the numbers

• Stock discipline

• Planning ahead

• Organised workspace

• The kit for the job

Your roadmap

• Crack eBay? Ramp up and focus on efficiency.

• To Amazon! Get started. Win sales.

• Constantly focus on your ecommerce machine

• Strive for the best profits you can

• Maybe branch out. Or not

• Enjoy it.

Stay in Touch

• www.tamebay.com

• twitter: @wilsondan

@tamebay

• email: [email protected]