Auctiva - Powerful solutions for eBay Sellers

Set some time aside to check it out and give us your feedback.

Jeff

I'm here and was waiting for this day. I'll keep checking back for info. Melanie

Hi,
How do I sign up for a beta tester?
I have been looking for this to come on line..
I can't wait.

I am interested in the beta test? Where do you find it?

We missed by a day, it'll be available tomorrow. I'll see if we can post the details here when available.

http://www.auctiva.com/edu/entry.aspx?id=Auctiva-Unveils-e-Commerce-Platform

Well it looks good and I think it will be a big hit!!
I hope I get to try it ..

Ok, I wasn't going to do this but I know a lot of you reading this thread and the message boards have been waiting. So I'm going to post the URL here to get into the beta but ask that you not post it elsewhere or link to this thread. Mainly because we're running it on just a test server and not the ones we'll be running it on when it goes live. We wanted to get it out there so we put it on a random old server we had.

First you'll need an Auctiva account. Once you have that and are signed into the Auctiva site go to this url:
http://www.auctiva.com/auccom/createacmacct.aspx
That will take you through getting an Auctiva Commerce Storefront.

Since this is just a beta you can't actually use the store to sell anything. You can do just about everything but that. That should be enough for you to play around with it and get an idea of the features and to give us your much needed feedback on things that didn't work well, ideas for improvements, things that were confusing, etc. You can create new threads in this forum about those things too. Please do as we really need your feedback to best make any changes we have time before the launch in January.

Wow, I'll carve out some time and get right to it. Thanks.

Been playing there! So Far, so good. There are a few things that I've had to hunt to find out how to change, I'll get back to you if I find that annoying!

How affordable will this be? Can you give us an example of what kind of fees we are looking at? So far it looks very appealing and I am very excited to have access to this only if the price is right and worth it to sellers that only sell a few items per week.

Here's my general feedback (I also sent some of this via the feedback/error forms in the store admin).

1. On Add Product page (and any others), would rather see a built-in WYSIWYG editor rather than it being another click away.

2. On Add Product page, how about ready-to-populate fields for meta data rather than requiring HMTL code in the "HTML HEAD" section?

3. Why not include the product image upload on the Add Product page? I'm not sure I understand how it works but if you have to upload images separately and then associate them with products then that means extra steps in the process.

4. I must be missing something but what are "kits"? (Find Kits in the Inventory menu)

5. I'd like to see the Contact Us form added to the top menu in addition to the tiny link at the bottom (I'm looking at the Balsa template).

-----------------------

Below are some things I'd like to have in my next store set-up (especially if it's one I pay for). Some of this may be available and I missed it or it's not fully functional yet:

• domain mapping (an absolute must)
• a "New Items" box
• printable packing slip
• invoicing ability
• powerful search engine
• Google Base feed upload
• multiple product photos (this may be there, I haven't wrapped my head around how the product creation works)
• global editing (search & replace, for example)
• a "copy product" feature
• USPS shipping calculator (I must've missed it?)
• unlimited products/cats/subcats
• access to CSS for customization
• a contact form
• Google Analytics integration

Definitely looking forward to seeing this project progress, thanks for opening up the beta testing!

Also, is there a demo store somewhere where I can see how it works from a buyer's perspective without having to fully set up my own beta shop?

So far I love this!

Rick, I was able to create several shipping options (including calculated methods), copy an item, add multiple images to my items, search inventory, print packing slips, customize emails, feature products on the home page, and the list goes on and on...

I cannot believe the features that are available! Awesome job, guys!!! Can't wait to use this for real!

Great feedback Rick. Some of the things you mention we have like feedsupport and access to css but are removed from the menus for the beta. Some of the others are in there but you probably just didnt come across them.

A couple of us had the same thoughts about having the WYSIWYG editor default on the add product page. Adding additional images is there but it's sorta funky too. You have to add one at a time as far as I can tell then each time you add one a space for another one appears. Some of these types of things we want to rework to be more like the Auctiva eBay lister page.

Kits are pretty cool. Some ideas for how they could be used: gift packages, computer systems, furniture packages, etc. Kitting allows multiple products to be sold together in a package. A "kit" is composed of individual products that are grouped together and sold as a single item. Every kit begins with a master product, which is the container for the kit. A kit also has member products which are called the kit "components". Inventory for a kit is handled somewhat differently than a regular product. Each master product has a quantity in inventory. However, the quantity of a kit is also determined by the available quantity of the member products. Kitting offers an advantage over cross-selling. Related items can be up-sold from the same product screen as the master product. Customers will be able to add all related products to their basket at the same time, without the need to view each individual product screen. Overall, kitting is a very powerful tool. Products can be combined in an unlimited number of configurations. Merchants have more control over inventory and display of kit products. Customers can buy what they need all in one place. Kitting offers convenience that can help increase sales.

quote:

Can you give us an example of what kind of fees we are looking at?

That is still up on the air. Perhaps something similar to prostores. The trick is to get it the right amount where it's a good deal for sellers, good for us, and we can actually help bring you guys traffic. A store on it's own without help bringing buyers isn't what I want to offer. You can go pay $10 a month all over the place and get that from almost any webhost.

I want our success tied into your success so that we're both happy. That will encourage us to build new features and bring more buyers, and by the same token you'll want to make more sales because you won't feel taken advantage of by high and ever increasing fees.

Well, so far, I like what I'm seeing.
My items need varialble shipping, based on weight...and I didn't see where to add that...but I need to look again.

At this point, I don't have much desire to add much more of my inventory, SKU's, descriptions, pics, etc, until I know what the pricing for this thing is gonna be.

If it doesn't blow eBay out of the water, I have no need for it.

Looking good..
I would like to see a Flat Rate Shipping available for some of the items I sell.
Something else that would be nice is to be able to use the pictures I have in Auctiva now instead of having to upload all them again, this would make things a lot faster and save server space too.
The kit feature is the greatest you can build an option list for just about anything you like..

Radiotech, Flat Rate Shipping isn't an option for us in our stores? I'll look again, but I thought I saw that we are offered to setup flat rate shipping, and that's why I wanted calculated shipping based on weight...

Look closer....i will too.

You may be right and I might have missed it.
I will have a look too..
Thanks,
Doug

Why aren't more people posting up here? Is the Beta, not very wide? Also, did you all get the feeling from the CEO, that the storefronts will cost less than $10/month?

-Q

Besides this post we haven't emailed very many users yet. We'll have an option for less than $10 but larger stores will cost more. The fees need to be enough to be able to pay for advertising to bring buyers. I think we can do that and still allow fair profits for sellers and us without needing high fees.

quote:

The fees need to be enough to be able to pay for advertising to bring buyers.

Personally, I'm not looking for help on advertising, since I do plenty of my own. So, if possible, it would be nice if you had a lower cost option for those of us that aren't looking for Auctiva to help us with advertising.

Another thing to think about advertising wise....

Most of your users sell on ebay...like I do. I'll bet 90% of your new Merchant Store users will be selling on eBay also. What they (as well as myself) will be doing, is posting a handful of our products on eBay, and then direct auction winners to our storefront after the sale. And slowly, but certainly surly, our storefront sales will surpass our eBay sales. Thus, no need for Auctiva to perform any advertising for us. We'll be doing our own advertising (so to speak) via eBay.

I get tons of eMail every day, from would be bidders, asking about my eBay items. I answer their questions, and direct them to my store. Almost all of them then buy from my store.

So, why am I even interested in an Auctiva Merchant store?...cuz from what I"M Seeing, your store will make managing my inventory much easier, plus I've never rolled a "check out" nor "shopping cart" into my own storefront.

-Q

I, On the other hand DO want the advertising help! The more the better! I am willing to pay extra for that. Looking forward to using this. Thanks!