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Hey Guys:
First wonderLister is coming along with the Shopify module. I did a transfer of 1053 Ebay listings over to the Shopify Store this weekend. They are all live. It took a few hours to make the complete move. Then yesterday was running a few tests for WL team and found an issue they are working on now. In the “upload to Shopify” tab everything went fine except on any item that had multiple quantities, the Shopify store only picked up a quantity of 1 instead of the multiple quantity. Luckily we only have about 50 or less items that have a quantity of more than one.This is a Shopify issue not a WL issue, so the enginners are talking with Shopify to work out having the multiple quantities picked up by Shopify.
But at this point, when I click a listing line and right click send to Shopify, everything goes. The photos, the Condition section and my copy, the decsription area, and within the description area all of the item specifics. Behind the scenes the shipping box size and weight goes in and calculated shipping seems to be showing. BUT we still have BETA TESTING to be done. It is not for public consumption yet. But I can work with it at this point.
No word on the status of the Etsy interface. I just haven’t asked lately, but will ask and report back.
Now to the use of your own domain name and the use of your own store. Shopify is a web site, e-commerce platform. It does not bring any customers at all to the platform. It is a parking place and merchant gateway [credit card payments] for your inventory. You have to do ALL OF THE MARKETING AND DRIVE ANY AND ALL VIEWERS AND SEARCHERS TO YOUR SITE.
Thus you have to have SEO knowledge, you have to have pre-pared your listing to have correct keyword placement, [i.e. the first five words of a title needs to be high ranking Google Adwords]. You need to know how to use Google Analytics, have an Instagram account and attach it to your store, A Facebook Marketing page, a Pinterest account and have it linked to your account. You need to have meta tags defined and WonderLister has a field for this, don’t think Ebay does, and it helps to have named everyone of your photos with a short title that contains a couple of key words.
The answer is yes, we have been doing this for about a year and a half pre-paring for the day we go directly live with our store. We still have design work to be done on our HOME landing page and BLOG pages to create. But atleast for now our store can be directly reached by typing our name into the URL line. If you try a Google search, you will find our store name but it will mostly link back to our Ebay store. we have not submitted to Google yet to crawl our store. We wanted all 1,000 items to be listed before we did that. But we did that all this weekend.
Next you have to have a site map. Luckily Shopify does this automatically. But you have to do your own third party verification and once verified, submit your domain / shopify store to Google to request for a review. If you have done your SEO properly google will accept your domain and then schedule your store to be “crawled” by the spiders and “Bots”. This is the stage we are currently at. We hope to submit this week.
Then everytime we list on Wonderlister a new item, it will also get automatically sent to Twitter and to Shopify. From Shopify we have it set up to then send [manually] by clicking the Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook Icon to share on those places. And from here we will be on our way to building our own traffic which we will monitor those stats from within Google Analaytics [which we already have an account for].
Once Google approves your web site and schedules your first “Crawl”, it can be from a few weeks to I have read as much as 2 to 3 months, but usually 3 to 4 weeks. Then Google’s bots will revisit your site periodically. as long as you have fresh content [sound familiar guys], and new listings, they will keep rescheduling you for a re-visit at future dates. If you let your store go stale and not updated, then at some point they will either drop you out of their revisit schedule or do so a whole lot less frequently.
From these visits, and the back links from all the social media sites, that is where all of your “organic traffic” begins to build and you began to create an Alexia Ranking for your site. as your Alexia Ranking graws, so will your placement in Google increase. Where you rank in those listings will depend on how good you are and have been on preparing your web site, knowing how to key word place, what keywords are the most frequently searched [which comes from Google analytics. This is why I have always signed my SL posts with my domain name at the bottom. Google picks those up because a “bot” crawls Scavengerlife and picks up that as a key word.
So it is a lot of work but worth it in the LONG RUN. We have several artists that we have watched for years and watched how they transition off of Ebay over to their own stores and have done so much better and make full time incomes in the neighborhood of J & R store.
Yes you “may” get an occasional sale like Bonanza or truegther, but without any traffic at all the chances are slim to none. At least on Bonanza and Truegther there is some traffic being generated. When you create your Shopify store, you will see “NO TRAFFIC” and there will not be any until you create it yourself. Sorry for the bad news, but Shopify is not a list it and forget it. It is a list it and then work at it hard because the ultimate goal is to REPLACE EBAY at some point. You get to keep all the money so you can sell less on Shopify to arrive at the “same Net” as Ebay, but you still have to sell. And that comes from SEO, Optimizing, working social media, building your brand and logo recognition on many other channels.
One nice thing about Shopify is that they have a Strong Support Section and also have their Shopify University. This offers at no cost a complete coverage of how to build a site, SEO systems, key word optimization, wiritng HTML codes, Marketing strategies and tons more.
Shopify is having an Atlanta training workshop here in Atlanta that is like the old Ebay local getherings they used to have. Sort of like a mini Ebay open only for Shopify. They have several days of classes, one on one meet-ups with Shopify staff, they will help you build your store, SEO traing and help. We got over invitation a couple of days ago.
So, if you just move your inventory over to Shopify and then don’t go at it as hard if not as doubly hard as you do your Ebay store, it will just sit there and not one person will find, you or visit your store much less buy anything from you. We sat for 3 months last year with out one visitor, but that is because we were ready to “publish” and go live. This we are approaching and starting this month.
Hope this sheds some like on your questions and curiousity about Shopify.
Here are some links to the Shopify Ecommerce University which will explain what all it covers in it’s online courses and videos.
https://help.shopify.com/en
https://www.shopify.com/videos/content-marketingAlso one thing to also remember. There are several big sites that do what Shopify Does. Wix, Volusion, Big Commerce, etc., etc.
Well, all said and done, that’s one man’s opinion and that and that $.50 I always mention still only buys you a third of a cup of coffee.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine art in Atlanta <<< for the SEO Gods! 🙂 🙂
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Hey CRE… Check out Auction Tracker. Been discussed about a year ago here so you can search for that thread. Auction Tracker is a huge spread sheet running on a ton of Macros. The developer sells it for $50 per year. It does everything you mention plus a whole lot more.
I think you can download a free trial. It goes back and pulls everything from Ebay into it and then presents everything in a bunch of different ways, costs, fees, sales and profit by month, quarter, year. Keeps track of inventory, mileage, tons of stuff. and at 450 a year it is great for those who love spread sheets. this guy knows how to build a monster SS.
The only draw back is that it will go back and gather all of the data but only for the past 90 days. So if you want a full year of data, you need to buy it during the last quarter of this year or before March of next year. That way you will be able to start off on Jan. 1st, 2019 with all your data.
The trial version is a fully working version only it just goes back and gathers 30 days of data for you to see.
It hooks up to your Ebay account via a “Token” which is what Ebay uses for 3rd party access and will allow this SS to access all of your pertenent data for tracking and analysis.
We used this SS for a couple of years but wanted something more robust and that would list and track on multiple sales platforms, so we went with a third party app called WonderLister and so have several other SL members. T-Satt here on SL uses SixBit.
Take a look at the Easy Auction Tracker web site, look over all the screen shots, check out the demos and even try out the trial. Unless you can build a monster of a SS and code it to do all these multitude of interlinked function, it is so much easier to just buy this spreas sheet app at $50 a year and be done with it and save all that time. Plus they run sales during the last part of each year, so if you buy early it is even less expensive. Current users also get an additional discount when you renew.
Here is the web site link: http://www.easyauctionstracker.com/
They also have several YouTube videos, so check it out and see if a pre-made spread sheet may be a much better fit. We realised reall quick that by using our spread sheets we were trying to re-invent the wheel and that our wheel was not going to be as good as this one was by a long shot.
But if PayPal provides even more data that you rely on, then maybe not. But maybe you can manually add the PP data. Easy Auction Tracker does allow edits and they also provide support and can add columns and function by request.
Good luck.. Hopefully this will provide more data for you to analyze.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Hey Sonia:
Just printed a couple labels a few minutes ago and both printed fine. Got all the normals views I see and print screens, and all worked fine.You can always try to just close out of everything and do a cold reboot and open things up agagin. Before you do that, if you haven’t already, with as many searches as we all do, it is a good idea to empty a lot of your browser history as you feel comfortable doing. High the history tab, select last 1 day, 7 days or a month and right click and delte. That takes a whole bunch of old history [places you have been going to in your browser] and cleans it out [empties the cashe]. I do this everyday with all the searches we do. In nay case it makes your rig / browser run faster.
But simple answer, ours working fine.
Mike at MDCGFA in Atl.
Hi Cindi.. In this case, since they did send photos and you can see that the roll will not unroll by holding from it’s edges, seems to indicate a bad roll(s). If this was pre-pasted wall paper, it could be that over time heat, moisture, cold, and alternating temperatures has crystalized the adhesive and has bonded the paper together. If it is as she says, when unrolling that cohesion between paste and paper is indeed, pullng the print off the surface of the paper, it is shot. U would have be able to sell it as a usuable, roll to wallpaper with.
I would hope that she would realize you had no way to know this unless you had to open the roll and check this out for yourself. If the buyers photos are telltale that she is on the level with this type of defect, if it were me, I would refund her 100% [item cost + her shiiping], tell her to toss the product and apologize and state you had no way of knowing the state the roll was in without opening and unrolling it and if it was a sealed in original wrapping that was not possible.
No use paying for the shipping back on an item, which is essentially a totally unusable product and in effect a destroyed beyound use product.
Adhesives of any kind do crystalize for the environmental swings back and forth along with time. All tapes, decals, etc., etc.
But just my opinion and that along with $.50 will get you a third of a cup of coffee.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Great numbers on the military retirement pension. My wifes whole family was and or is retired military. Army. Full Colonial [her older brother] with 3 tours in Vietnam, dad Master Sargent and mother civil services as a GS14. She was a fire cracker and for a woman in pants in the Army in the 50’s as a GS14 was almost unheard of. She analyzied manpower and basically kept the military from over staffing and goofing off. A woman going into a motor pool, putting stop watches of a bunch of GI’s then telling the base commander that it does not take 7 men to pull out an engine in a deuce and a half truck, so re-assign 3 of them. They didn’t like when she came in.
After retirement she founded the Rape Crisis HotLine and the Rape Crisis Center in Georgia and from that most Rape Case victim program followed as their model through out the whole USA. She too was a cancer survivor in her late sixties.
All have passed away now except older brother Colonial M.J. Wolfe. Boy what a joy he is at family gatherings. Still stiff as an oak board. Sir, yes sir.. funny
Take care… mike
I worked at Fort benning every summer out where the Airborne, Rangers and Green Berets trained. We carried food out to their mess halls. Who-Ahh! LOL 🙂
Good for you.
Ahh. Good idea to just take them into the store. They surely will know. As for NYC, that is where all my wife’s friends come back from with all of their brand name stuff anf all of it is fake. I can tell you everyone of her firends “Coach” purses bought in NYC “off the street” so to speak is fake, except for one we know. She buys nothing but authentic everything, from, shoes, purses, watches, but she has a lot of money so no problem for her. And by the way, as you are pointing out, their are stores all over the US that one can buy poriginal items from, no need to travel to NYC just to buy “real” items. Especially with all the online buying now. I would think Chanel located in Paris would be glad to FedEx you a purchase for an $800 pair of shoes. Probably would ship today! LOL 🙂
In any case good luck with them.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Hey TS: One say in the middle about “re-listing” the shoes. I understand about not fighting an INAD but ‘ selling non-authentic” merchandise can draw consequences from Ebay. If they detect a seller doing this can’t they suspend a seller’s account or worse, pull a seller’s account down? A seller can take a misque on describing something or over looking a flaw and the item just gets returned, you correct the listing and relist. But if it is a “fake-knock off-counterfiet- inauthentic or whatever you call it that is agaginst Ebay’s policies and brings them into the equation.
Now granted a seller may know more than a buyer OR a buyer may know more about an item than the seller, but rather than risk repercussions from Ebay itself, wouldn’t you want to validate the authenticity of the shoes before relisting?
Just curious. Many of us here have gotton a VERO at one time or another and our policy is to pull the item or in some cases Ebay just kills the listing. But there are more serious things Ebay can do if they want to. Just wondering why you are taking the risk or have you already authenticated the shoes and are sure they are not fake and can prove it, and you know the buyer is wrong. If so, then hope they sell for you agagin quickly and you can get on to other great Sales.
You are perfectly welcome. I am happy as Peaches and Cream when I sell something but I don’t need ebay telling me 27 times in succession that something sold, especially out in Public or 4 o’clock in the morning! 🙂 🙂
mdc at mdcgfa
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
Yes.. Go to “Your Account” tab. Then scroll down to Site Preference, then on the left look for a line called “Communication Preferences”. Click there and you will be presented with all of the various ways and when Ebay notifies you of things, like your item just sold, you have an offer, when you get a payment, reminders, etc., etc. Read those carefully and only check or uncheck the ones you really want to be notified of.
Note! There are 3 Site Preference lines, you may want to review all of those communication preferences to uncheck those not wanted.
Then you may also not want PayPal to send you all that they send. , etc., etc. That you would have to go to PayPal, sign in to your account and do roughly then same routine.
Good luck,…
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
T-Satt… I agree but there is a BUT on a small part of that. Except don’t go so far to throw the baby out with the bath water. There is a fine line between agreeing to be agreeable and the customer is always right and not letting yourself be used, abused or taken advatage of.
You sell clothing so think about this.
You sell a shirt to a customer for $20. He takes it home, x number of days later he returns to the store and says he wants his money back because it doesn’t fit him right, or it is scratchy feeling, etc., etc. Now you can assume he may have wore it a time or two, maybe not, but you can not resell it as new now that it has been worn, or sweated in. BUT, the Customer is always right-right? So you hand him his $20 back but [WAIT FOR IT!!!], He looks up at you and says, but I want $6.00 more for the wear and tear on my car and the gas and oil it cost me TO RETURN THE SHIRT TO YOU!!!
Well that is what this pay for the buyers return shipping amounts to… BUT there is that fine line I mentioned. Cust always right, scratchy great, here is your $20 but I am not going to also pay you to drive back down here to return it on top of that.
Then the local Better Business Bureau says if you complain about the seller that he may has guaranteed a fit, or said bright nice colors and the BBB sides with the customer and forces you to pay that return cost, you are forced into doing it, but you just got abused by the customer, then in my case, they are not always right.
Just saying, like you said, choose your battles but like a union, Ebay does lean toward the employee – buyer in my opinion a little too much. But we are a captive audience, er, Seller. 🙂
Mike at MDCGFA
I was talking about the cost of the inventory, not the resell value. But at close to 8,000 items and for a guess and overall average cost of $2 ea. that is $16,000 of lost inventory, out of pocket if it was in a fire.
Our average cost is more like $7 to $8 per item if you figure in the expensive items that we paid $50 to $100 for and our $1.00 items. We have approx. 1,200 items and that equates to approx. $9,600 for our true cost of our inventory. I would think that is work a few hundred dollars per year to get a “rider” to cover it in case of damage loss. But guess that is like any insurance, a person is betting against things that are catastrophic and each has to decide if it is worth the cost of a rider. To know that one needs to call their agent and ask what is available and the cost.
Mike at MDCGFA in ATL
Been a long time since I reviewed COBCRA policies but if I remember COBRA won’t be less or inexpensive. It’s purpose is to just provide someone with a stop gap measure from losing or falling into the uninsured category. Usually if your employer was paying any portion of a persons healthcare costs then that amount is still needing to be paid, so it was usually the amount the employye paid added to the employer’s share for the total cost, or something like that.
COBRA is supposed to just be something you pay for to keep covereage until you can find something else just for yourself and usually less costly.
There are also groups like if you are over 50 years old AARP that offers group coverages as a member, so do most Chamber of Commerce’s and the such. I would guess that Jay and Ryanne are members of their local Chamber of Commerce and as such they may be able to get a group rate from the National group of CofC.
Mentioning that, Jay I would assume is a member just to keep abreast of zoning regulations and the downtown community activities now that they are members of the main street downtown group.
Mike at MDCGFA
We have a fur coat also but have not tried to sell it. Unfortunately I bought it as a gift for Susan back in the early 80′ Still have the original receipt. It was a $7,400 full length white Azurine Mink coat, long sleeve with flip up collar. Bout it at 50% off Sale for $3,700 and says so on the receipt. So now what we do with it. Was great in the day when we lived in Ct. But now down south and things being what they are?
I have seen a few sell on Ebay for $200-$400. There is a person who used to be at the antique mall we had booths at that sold nothing but furs, leather item. He had a couple similiar marked at $700. So now it just sits in the closet in the storage bag. It is in very good condition, no issues at all, except no one wants them any more.
I guess I could try listing it at $3,700 MO and see if anyone makes an offer. Maybe someone over seas in one of those cold countries like Iceland, Finland, Switzerland who wear heavy coats may make an offer.
Any thoughts on what to do with a fur that we have so much money in??
Michael at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
Yes.. We have that option also. It is with the Hassel Free Returns program. We changed the program options from Auto Accept the Return to We Want To Approve the Return. Once we did that, now we get a notice of a “desire to return” by the customer. At that point we have several options such as Return it and have Ebay send them the label, or pexchange the item, and full or partial refund. We can do that at this point, or if we decide to have the buyer send the item back, we don’t refund at this point. Ebay even has a warning suggestion to not refund until we get the item back and inspect it.
Once the item is received back and we inspect, the page still allows those several options to fully, partially refund, which of course this would be the point to deduct the return shipping or only do a % percentage refund and a Notes section to make comments.
09/03/2018 at 11:37 am in reply to: Question on the Hassle Free returns and Supporting Photos on a Return #48295Thanks.. Build the line,measure the line, monitor the line, measure the line, tweak the line, mobilize the line = LEAN = LOWER UNIT COSTS = INCREASED NET PROFIT.
You and I would make a great team together in another manufacturing facility. Crunch the speed, reduce the distance, monitor the capability, max out the capacity, cull out the rejects, minimize the rejects, lower the unit cost, crunch the numbers, increase the sale volume, increase the total volume at a lower per unit cost, and go collect or bonuses!!! and SMILE ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK 🙂
KAIZEN all the way my Brother from another Mother! 🙂 🙂 🙂
mike at MDCGFA
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
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