eBay and Google Integration

Let me start by thanking everyone for their patience in the time between posts.  I am sorry if I left you hanging with Cassini news.  The more I studied the more I learned, and I did not want to give incomplete information because I didn't spend enough time researching.

I will pick-back up with Cassini soon.  I think I've gotten to a point where I comprehensively understand it. 

For now, I wanted to show something really cool.  This is a new Google change, which eBay is maximizing for optimum convenience.

Back in May, I first noticed this change.

Inside the Gmail account I use with eBay, a "Track package" button appeared in the summary list of my e-mail messages.  If you use Gmail, it is no longer necessary to open the message to track your eBay purchase.

The next change I discovered today.  I accidentally typed "ebay" in the Google search box instead of in the browser bar.  Look what appeared!

Since I was logged-in to my Google account at the time, Google tapped-in to my Gmail and gave me a shipping update right on the search results page!

I must admit, it did feel a little "big brother", but as a buyer the convenience was really nice.

I clicked through and found a log of my recent eBay purchases.  By clicking the drop-down carrot on each one, I saw a summary of my order.

Google's goal is to "make is as easy as possible for you to find the information you need and get the things you need to do done.  I can see how this fits-in with that underlying intent.

As a seller, I do have a slight concern that it is now one less opportunity to drive buyers back onto the marketplace (I always log-in to eBay to track my packages).  As a buyer I think it's very convenient.

What are your thoughts?  Please share them in the comments below.

Cassini Case Study, Part I: Auction vs. Fixed Price

She's not sure about this Cassini thing!

Two weeks ago, John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, was a presenter at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York.  

This past Wednesday, The Top Rated Webinar Series presented "Search at eBay" with Hugh Williams, eBay's VP of Experience, Search, and Platforms.

Both men spoke in depth about search at eBay, and the new Cassini search algorithm.  I highly recommend all full-time eBay sellers listen to both presentations if you want to understand what eBay is doing.

Yet after listening to their collective 2.5 hours of content, I still did not have a sense that we were being told the whole story.  So... I've decided to investigate on my own.

A little background:  I sell in eBay's fashion category, and have experienced sales falling steadily since last fall.  I've been doing extensive maintenance on my store to address the "problems" eBay has been encouraging us to solve: larger photos, clean backgrounds, minimal text in listings, minimal html in listing descriptions, mobile optimization, SEO optimization...  If eBay suggested we do it, I sure as heck did!  And yet at best I was only able to recover about 10% of the sales volume I lost.

As you can imagine, I was ravenous for any insight Mr. Williams would provide.  Last week, I summarized the small amount of information I gleaned from the presentation.  

Sadly, Mr. Williams explicitly declined to provide anything concrete to answer what best listing practices could maximize our performance, in fact he shared a slide that said why he would NOT tell us (something about a level playing field for all sellers).  This is a departure from how eBay has always worked with sellers; eBay used to advise us of specific factors that would raise our result in search (such as offering free shipping, accepting returns, etc.).

Since they won't tell us (much), I decided to investigate for myself.  To insure my personal buying behavior was not factored into ranking results, I logged out of eBay, opened a different browser, and deleted all cookies/browsing history before proceeding.  This approach should mimic what a new-to-eBay shopper would see.

Disclaimer: My results from this study in the "Fashion" category may not be true across all categories, as Fashion does not have a catalog, ISBN, or SKU numbers to unify the items.

"Black Pencil Skirt 12"

I queried "Black Pencil Skirt 12", applied only 1 filter (Women's Clothing), and collected data on the top 100 results in Best Match.  I will be reporting back my findings over the next several blog entries.

For today, lets explore the relationship between Fixed Price and Auction rankings.  In my query, eBay found 1,219 results: 78 were Auction format (representing 6.4% of all results) and 1,141 were Fixed Price (93.6%).
I counted 36 of the top 100 were Auction listings, and 64 were Fixed Price.

Here's the exciting part:
36 Auctions items in the top 100 = 46.2% of all Auction listings. 
This means nearly half of the Auction listings appeared in the top 100 results!

This leaves the Fixed Price listings under-represented in the top 100 results, only 5.6% (64) of the Fixed Price listings appeared in the top 100 results.

Take-away:

If you sell fashion, always include Auction items in your listing mix.

In Part II of this series, I will be highlighting some jaw-dropping data on Multi-variation listings.  Stay tuned!

Reflections on Cassini and eBay Search

Cassini Spacecraft, Artists Rendition.  Courtesy NASA.

Wednesday, Hugh Williams, eBay VP of Experience, Search, and Platforms, presented "Search at eBay" as a part of the Top Rated Seller Webinar Series.

The webinar discussed Cassini, the search algorithm eBay designed to replace the old "Voyager" search algorithm which was in use for over 10 years.

eBay Powerseller Joe S. took excellent notes during the event, and has graciously agreed to share his "take-aways" with you here:

Overall, it is the buyer experience sellers need to focus on, always considering three factors: Trust, Safety, and Relevance.

1. Keyword spamming and otherwise taking short cuts won't pay off... the buyer sees through it.
2. Cassini is being implemented in stages, it is not completely here yet for live listings. 
3. Cassini is fully implemented for all sold/completed items, going back for 90-days.
4. Duration: If you list for 30-days or Good Till Cancelled, it does not make a difference for you search ranking.
5. HTML: In your listings, having HTML does not make a difference when determining search placement as Cassini strips it out.  However, be aware of mobile listings as HTML and Flash may not read well on smartphones or tablets.
6. Category: The category you list your item in is important since search is not always by queries (this is when buyers enter keywords in the search box); they also shop by also category browsing.
7. TRS/Top Rated Seller Status: Is very important for search rank results.
8. Photos: Having bright, large size pictures is very important .
9. Sales:  Many sellers ask "why are my sales down", most often because of price competition, or because the seller is failing with one of the values above Trust, Safety, and Relevance.
   

These webinars move so fast, everyone catches something different in their notes, which is why I'm so grateful for Joe's help!

I picked up a few other "nuggets".

There are three factors that affect how you get visibility.  1) Search recall, 2) Search refinement, and 3) Best Match.

For best results in Search Recall, use powerful keywords in your title and (if appropriate for the category) make sure you are using the eBay catalog.

Mr. Williams would not explicitly say what determines "value" for the buyer, but I inferred from what he discussed that having the lowest price for a comparable product is a huge factor.  I have a LOT to say on this, but will reserve these comments for a stand alone blog post very soon.

Best Match factors which eBay used to clearly give us (1-day handling, free shipping, etc.) are still important, but Mr. Williams refused to answer most questions on what factors are considered now.  He did explicitly say that 'new vs. old' and listing on a mobile device vs. a desktop computer (regardless of listing service) are not factors.

Studying the Top Rated Seller program and using its "pillars" is important to meet the 'Trust' factor in search success.

And this final nugget is something I realized for myself when he was discussing language translation software... Always remember when writing your descriptions that they need to use simple language that translates easily.  Don't just say "Turquoise" make sure you say "Turquoise blue" because blue will translate better.  Avoid idioms in your listings ("setting up this computer is as easy as falling off a log") because they won't make sense when translated (instead, "This computer is very easy to set-up.")

When Best Practices Conflict: Marketing eBay Items on Pinterest

This week, Curalate published "The Perfect Pinterest Pin: How to Optimize Your Images for Maximum Engagement on Pinterest".  It's a great article, with extremely useful insight into what characteristics will make an image more likely to be re-pinned.

If we are using Pinterest to market our brands and products, we need to know this information.

For me, the most stunning fact revealed was that images with stark backgrounds (such as all white, catalog style) are much less likely to be re-pinned.  Here is the dilemma:  For selling on eBay, having a stark background (all white) actually gives you higher placement in Cassini search results!

I've devised the following work-around, which should let you maximize photos on each platform.  

• First, load the item on eBay with the pictures we normally would have used on eBay (the one with the clean background). 
• Next, when we go to promote on Pinterest, we upload the Pinterest-optimized photo to Pinterest using the "add a pin" feature.
• Last, edit the pin to include a manual link which points back to the item in your eBay store.
  

Here is an example.  These two photos are of the same Tadashi dress.  The photo on the left would be the ideal eBay gallery photo with a simple, clean white background. However, the photo on the right (model Paloma Dominguez, photographer Lee Sterling Photography) would be better suited for Pinterest sharing.

You should be aware that in using this approach (and not pinning directly from eBay) we are disabling the new rich pin feature - but is this a bad thing? The rich pins are likely to decrease our Pinterest click-through rates because they include the price and availability of our items right on the pin. Disabling rich pins in this way, for now, might actually be to the seller's advantage.

If you are using Pinterest for the social media marketing of your business, I highly encourage you to read the full Curalate article and learn more.

Pinterest for Business: Why You Can't Use the New Analytics for Your eBay, Etsy, & Amazon Store

photo courtesy mkhmarketing on flickr.

Yesterday, Pinterest announced new tools for Pinterest Business accounts: Analytics.  

This is very exciting, and free.  We all like free.  There's just one catch.

Pinterest Analytics will not work for your eBay, Etsy, Amazon, or Shopify store, nor will this work for certain free blogging platforms.

To use Pinterest Analytics, you must first verify your Pinterest Business account.  You can only verify top level domains, like eBay.com.  At this time, these sites will not allow you to upload html files to give Pinterest the verification process it wants so you cannot verify these sites.  

Pinterest now has an alternate method to verify your website with meta tags, but I have not been able to find a way of embedding the correct meta tag in the correct place in eBay stores for verification.  I will keep investigating and keep you updated if I learn anything new.

eBay Sellers of the Bay Area: Meetup Round-up

A huge Thank You to Outright.com and the eBay Sellers of the Bay Area organizers for an incredible Meetup last night!

It was a full house and packed agenda, and yet we were engaged for more than 2 hours, with networking afterwards. Our first presenter was Laura Messerschmitt of Outright, who spoke on some key basic points of tax information for eBay sellers. Next was the Seasonal Seller Panel (eBay sellers Sherry Gilson, Marianne Taitano, and Serena Lee plus Bradley Hazelrigg from eBay's Seasonal Selling Team, which explored retail seasons beyond the winter holidays. Our last presenter was Rick Matsura from eBay's Seller Protection Team.

What follows is a quick summary of the key take-aways I picked-up from each presenter.

Tax Information

• Estimated Taxes: As soon as you will owe more than $1,000 in taxes, you need to start paying estimated taxes (payments are due JAN 15, APR 15, JUN 17, & SEP 16 in 2013). This usually kicks-in after $5,000 in  profit. Note: these deadlines are for sole proprietors with a schedule C, corporations have different deadlines and filing requirements.
• Shipping/COGS: If you offer free shipping, it is OK to include shipping cost as a Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) so you can better understand your margins. More conservative accountants will advise this course of action. However, booking this as an expense is not wrong.  At the end of the day, the tax effect is exactly the same so the IRS does not worry too much either way.
• Mileage: The most frequently missed expense, not claimed by eBay sellers in a recent Outright survey, was mileage. Keep track of mileage, log-in every time you drive for your business (going to the post office, going to buy shipping supplies, thrifting...) and you can deduct 56.5 cents per mile for your 2013 taxes (mileage value is determined by the IRS). It is usually a greater deduction to take mileage, than to calculate exactly the cost of gas, cost of car maintenance, what percentage of that was for business vs. personal use...
• Home Office Deduction:For 2013, the IRS will allow people who work from home to take a flat $1,500 deduction for the home office if they prefer, rather than calculating exact square footage of the home office as a percentage of the entire home and what percentage of expenses can be deducted and maintaining records of proof.
• Avoiding Audits & the 1099-K: The IRS has explicitly warned of a definitive audit trigger, Laura M. told us how to avoid it. When you get your 1099-K from PayPal (Amazon, Etsy...), Double-check that the amount of income you report on your Schedule C, line 1, is EXACTLY equal to or greater than the amount of income reported on your 1099-K.  If the amount on your schedule C is as much as 1-cent below what PayPal (etc.) reports, you have an audit trigger.
• PayPal & the 1099-K: Laura M. reminded us that we pay income taxes on profits, not revenues (profit = revenue - expenses). The 1099-K from PayPal will include any and all revenue received during the year, including sales that were later refunded, fraudulent payments that were later revoked, shipping income received from buyers, and sales tax payments received from buyers. Many of these income categories have contra-accounts to track the expenses (sales tax paid to the state, shipping expense paid, return refunded) so remember to track each and every expense possible to minimize your tax burden.

Seasonal Selling

• Generally, list seasonal items 4-6 weeks before the holiday. The exceptions seem to be Christmas and Halloween specific items, which will sell year-round. 
• Also 4-6 weeks out, add holiday-specific keywords to  listings that fit (such as Valentine's Day for red dresses).  Remember after the holiday, to re-edit these listings to remove the holiday name.  Auctiva's free Find & Replace tool makes this easy.
• eBay focuses their holiday promotion marketing around four key holiday/seasons: 1) Valentine's Day, 2) Mother's & Father's Day, 3) Back to School, and 4) Winter Holidays.
• Under-promise and over-deliver for happy customers.
• 50% of gifts are bought the week before Mother's Day (opportunity: Offer 1-day shipping), 9% are bought the same day, 80% of Americans will celebrate Mother's Day each year, and the average spend is $152.
• Men spend twice as much as women on Valentine's Day.
• Remember seasons are not the same everywhere, Christmas is in the summer in Australia.  
• It's a good keyword practice to use international versions of keywords.  For example, in the UK they wear "jumpers" not "sweaters".  Put both words in your title if you ship internationally.

eBay Seller Protection

• eBay has a team dedicated to protecting sellers from "bad" buyers.  They are working to deliver quality buyers to us, the sellers.  We can learn more at www.ebay.com/sellerprotection.
• The Seller Protection Team is strongly encouraging sellers to report buyers when their behavior is suspicious or problematic.  They have made this very easy, and now include a "report this buyer" button on the leave feedback page.
• When you report a buyer, this is anonymous to the buyer.
• At present, eBay is not penalizing or investigating sellers who report a high-number of buyers.  There is no danger or disadvantage for the seller to report buyers for bad behavior.
• Every bad buyer report is reviewed by buyer abuse detection software.  If evidence for suspicious behavior exists (such as a pattern of the buyer getting a lot of partial refunds, for example), the automatic process will flag the account for a manual review.  Right now, 30% of all reports are manually reviewed.  A first report questionable/bad behavior of a buyer probably will not flag a manual review.
• Since eBay made the "Report a Buyer" process more easily accessible, the number of actions to report buyers increased by 80%, and there was a nearly 10% increase in the number of buyers suspended.
• The Seller Protection Team uses "multi-account" detection software, to help protect sellers from buyers who use multiple eBay Buyer IDs.

Hiring Help - Advice for eBay Sellers

24-hours.  That's it.

That is all the time we have each day to work, play, eat, sleep, laugh, cry, and love. 

As entrepreneurs who are starting, maintaining, or growing our own businesses, we all will reach a point when we simply can't get any more work done in a day. We plateau. When that happens, if we want to grow further we need to hire help.

The IRS deems someone is an employee if "you can control what will be done and how it will be done".  

The person is generally considered an employee by the IRS if you control any of the following (this is not a complete list):

• What tools or equipment to use;
• Where to purchase supplies and service;
• What work must be performed by a specified individual;
• What order or sequence to follow when performing work;
• You give highly detailed instruction as to how the work is completed; or
• If you have an evaluation system in place to measure the details of the work performed.

If the person is an employee, you will need to (at a minimum) withhold employee federal and state income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes from the employees pay, and you pay a matching amount of Social Security and Medicare taxes yourself.  There may be additional state withholding and filing requirements, depending on where you operate your business.

Other employee expenses which may be required by law are unemployment insurance and workman's comp insurance.

It is tempting to hire "under the table", because employee expenses can get add-up quickly.  Please, for your own sake, don't consider this a viable option.  If you hire someone this way, it could be an absolute disaster if you have to fire that person later. S/he may report you to the state or to the IRS.  If that happens, you could end up paying back employee taxes plus penalties.

One way to get help without the expense of payroll is to hire unpaid interns.  This can be a great way to find someone who would be a good fit for your business without expense, while you mentor this person so s/he can learn valuable work skills that can be taken to new jobs after graduation.

The U.S. Department of Labor laid out very strict guidelines on what is allowed for an unpaid internship.  You must meet all six of the following tests:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to waged for the time spent in the internship.

A note on #6.  While they are not entitled to wages, you can reimburse the intern for expenses related to their internship, such as transit passes or providing lunches.  A nice "thank you" gift at the end (gift card?) is also very appropriate.

When I started to grow my business, I brought on interns.  At the end of the semester they liked the job so much, and I was very impressed with how well they were doing, that I was able to offer them both a formal paid position (with all the expenses and taxes that go along with it).  This was a win-win, because when they were converted to paid employees, they were completely trained and I got a great ROI (return on investment) in their salaries immediately.  Over a year later, these same two ladies work with me today!

Some colleges have work-for-credit programs, so the students earn college credits while working for you.

Bringing  on to work with you for the first time can be daunting.  Consult a CPA or small business attorney to make sure you are in compliance with all local and federal employment laws.