Discussion of new features

In another thread a user asked about the new image captions feature.

There is now the option to enter a caption describing your image on the image management page.

When you then create your listing, you can select the "use image captions" checkbox in the image section of the create listing page to have the captions you created displayed in the item description.

It is okay to put captions on some images and not others and still use the feature.

Some users may also use the captions feature as a way to store "notes" about their images. In this scenario, make sure not to include those notes on your saved listings by making sure to not check the "use image captions" checkbox.

-Kevin

Thanks for the answer. If I click use image captions, how will the caption be shown on the actual listing?

Hi sego,

If you add a caption to your image from the Manage Images page, and then select the "Use Image Captions" box on the lister page, your chosen caption will be displayed directly above the image in your listing in the same font your template uses.

You can see what it looks like by doing a Preview from the lister page or the saved listings page.

Hope that answers your question

--David

HI.
I relisted some items thru Auctiva and it doesn't say relisted next to them like it used to. Are you going to fix it? I really liked that feature because then I won't accidently list something twice. Thanks.

Mel

I JUST went to the new "consignement" section..LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will really come in handy for me as I sell for others fairly regularly. Now I just hope the site gets back up and running soon...I need to list!!!!

Well, so far you got one and missed two fixes I was looking for.

First, the good:
-Calculated shipping now has the option for insurance to be "included in s/h" where before it didn't.

Now, the bad:
-Still can't offer flat rate domestic shipping and calculated international. This is huge, as it effectively means you either don't sell with flat rate shipping or you don't ship internationally.

-Still don't break out the domestic vs international handling fee. Many sellers charge a higher handling fee to international buyers due to the added work / risk associated with international shipping. As it stands now, I have to edit every auction I post with Auctiva to get this result.

ms1971,

New closed items that you relist will correctly be tagged as "relisted". Somehow the data of which items you had previously relisted was lost during the site update.

It's not lost permanently and we'll put it back soon. I don't want to make any updates to the database during the day though, so this won't happen until late night either tonight or during tomorrows maintenance.

-Kevin

Kevin, very happy your back up and running good! I'm not sure how to get the new thumbnail option on the pictures...I just did a listing with 16 pictures and they look like they did before..all the regular size. I didn't see a box to click to accept the new option. Advise please?
Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by SusieandDaninTexas:
Kevin, very happy your back up and running good! I'm not sure how to get the new thumbnail option on the pictures...I just did a listing with 16 pictures and they look like they did before..all the regular size. I didn't see a box to click to accept the new option. Advise please?
Thanks!

Hi S&DT,

You can only set your image layouts when you use a template.

When you are creating a listing, select one of our free templates and then in the Customize Layout section select Thumbnails from the Grouping options.

Hope that helps!
Cara

Thank you for getting the relist tool and thumbnails (it's nice!) in on this update - they will really come in handy.
I'm surprised you didn't add the Buy It Now/Make An Offer feature this time, though.
Are there plans to do that? It would be great to utilize this new feature from ebay.

~~~~UPDATE~~~~

Currently we are experiencing some issues with our eBay Canada support.

We have developers working on the solution and we will let you know as soon as the issues are fixed.

Thank you for your patience!

Cara

Curious -- We do have the "Best Offer" feature available on our lister page. The feature only shows up in certain conditions though that match the requirements set by eBay.

The first requirement is that your item must be listed as a "Fixed Price" listing.

Secondly, you will need to select a category.

Once you have selected a category, you will now have a checkbox below the price fields for "Accept offers from buyers". Choose this to view the fields needed to use eBay's Best Offer feature.

-Kevin

I love the concept of downloadable data, but why isn't eBay item number one of the available fields? Without this it becomes very hard to reference the data or cross-reference the data with other sources, particularly if you sell a lot of the same item.

Hey Kevin. This is great! I had no idea that I could already use the Best Offer. I'll try it tomorrow! THANK YOU!

Thanks Auctiva for all the new features!

Speaking of Best offers....

I love the auto-decline feature! It eliminates wasted time responding to lowball offers.

I would also like to see an auto-accept feature, so if I get an offer above a pre-determined price, it's a done deal without having to respond.

What's the 'hidden counter' feature we can now choose? Do you have to be a paid Sellathon customer to use it? Thanks.

Maybe this has been discussed before but my problem is really weird. I have some listings that closed and I want to edit them but each time I click on the edit function the page that comes up is totally lacking in information. Not a thing to be found.

quote:

Originally posted by Auctiva David:
Hi sego,

If you add a caption to your image from the Manage Images page, and then select the "Use Image Captions" box on the lister page, your chosen caption will be displayed directly above the image in your listing in the same font your template uses.

You can see what it looks like by doing a Preview from the lister page or the saved listings page.

Hope that answers your question

--David

--------
David, Thanks for the explanation but I really find that Caption Box distracting. I am not sure what benefit it will have. Most likely it has been requested for Activa to add it, but it just seems like extra stuff not needed. If items are named before they are downloaded that's all needed; and too we can still edit the name. Anyway.......what am I missing here??

I have a question about the consignment feature:

I just did about 5 consigment listings (purses) and when I went to the Consignment tab to look at them under "Manage Items" for that consignor, only one item came up. So I went back to look under the different listings and the scroll down menu on each defaulted to this first item I did for her and now they (the scroll down boxes) are greyed out and I cannot get them to show the correct item.

Is there anyway to correct this so all her items show up under her name???

Thanks in advance!

Marcia

Hi Auctiva people, thanks the scheduled relist feature worked a treat and will save me a lot of time.

The extra folder filtering is very useful, it is also very good to see a high level of layout consistency between pages.

Must have a look at the other enhancements.

quote:

The RSS link is automatically in your Auctiva Store with instructions for your customers on how to use it to keep up to date on the items you have for sale.

RSS is also great for helping your Auctiva Store continually improve its ranking with search engines.

Where is this? I don't see it on my auctiva store??
http://auction.kolstromkreations.com/

Thank you for including Ebay Canada.
When listing on Ebay Canada, we are usually given the option to list in US or Canadian dollars. I don't see that option on Auctiva ... only lists in Canadian dollars. Will there be the option to list in US dollars?

You're using one of the older style stores. Here it is with a different style:
Link to newer style store

Not sure how to get any of the newer styles though. Maybe try changing your style and see if it helps?

I went through this link and it brings me back to the old store. How do I get into this newer version? Its awesome!!!

Thanks!

Wouldn't it be better to use the 'image caption' for the ~ img alt="" ~ tag? <--That is available using the 'get html' link, why not propagate it there.

What I want is to be able to edit a group of pictures at once, such as rotate them all the same time, etc. I am having to do this one by one - either on my photo tools or auctiva, I wish there was a faster way...some how...Diana

Did anyone else notice that 'bid games' defaults to ON, not good for my customers.

Also that the search filter in your Auctiva store now allows the buyer to search all of eBay, but curiously mainly non-UK (I am UK based).

The purpose of my store front is to sell my items not everyone elses !!

I do not want either and have filed support requests to de-game my recent listings and to get the 'all eBay' search filter option removed.

ChooChooGuy -
Would you please elaborate on where you are seeing bid games on by default? That doesn't sound desirable to me either and I'd like to check on it.

Thanks

Hi,
If you check under your account settings and then locate Listing Enhancements, it shows you the option of appending the battlebid.com games. You can change whether you want it displayed or not.

Janice

Hi, I only found out by accident whilst checking on other settings, it can be found at

My Account -> Preferences -> Account Settings -> Account Preferences -> Listing Enhancements -> Append Battlebids . .. to my listings

The item to click is the 'No' just above the line the 'Append . . ' is on.

I am currently waiting for a reply from support over how to identify & eliminate this feature from listings I posted late last week.

Thanks Janice and ChooChooGuy, it was in fact defaulted to 'on' although I don't actually see it in my listings.
I find it rather inappropriate for Auctiva to essentially add content to my listing without consent. Of course the argument would be that I have a choice, but their 'choice' was to default it to 'on' knowing full well that users normally wouldn't check the account settings for changes. This should have been disclosed and documented.

Yes, they have done that before (i.e. not disclosed the default) with other new features

Please see the other thread on this. It's default to on, however as we did before we'll email sellers well in advance so that they may change their settings.

We're not appending those yet so there is nothing to worry about. If you turn it off and it wont be in your listings.

If a person searches and finds no items in your store we would rather they have the choice to search all of eBay than leave and go back to eBay. It's been that way for several months.

Hi Jeff

Which other thread please ?

Games, thanks for letting us know that they are not being added yet.

I have done very little buying over the last year so it was only by chance I saw this change to the search filter when checking out my own store a couple of days ago.

Regarding the search all eBay option, that is all very well but who are you supporting us the sellers who keep you busy or eBay who often tell you nothing about what they are doing next. This sounds like a conflict of interests. I can understand eBay searches showing other sellers wares because they want our money in every possible way. But come on you are not eBay (thank goodness).

We support you by retaining your text advertising your services in our listings which many of us could easily delete if we so wished so why allow our potential customers to find alternate sources. I thought we the sellers were able to use our Auctiva stores as our own this is a step, even a precedence to supporting eBay first and us second.

Therefore I find the reason you give is incomplete, I would like and probably others too on reading this thread a detailed reason for this (disturbing) change of position by Auctiva.

Regarding the search "all eBay" option:

quote:

Originally posted by Auctiva Jeff:
If a person searches and finds no items in your store we would rather they have the choice to search all of eBay than leave and go back to eBay.

Hi Jeff - In light of the search process as it exists, your explanation seems completely illogical. First of all, if a buyer doesn't find what they are looking for in the store, they will go back to eBay anyway. Anyway, how is facilitating a search of ebay, which takes them to ebay, supposed to keep them from going to ebay? Huh???

More importantly, this search option is extremely seller un-friendly. You imply that you are giving the buyer the option to search ebay only after finding nothing in the store. However this option is not presented AFTER a person searches the store and finds no items, but is given as an IMMEDIATE ALTERNATIVE to searching exclusively in the store. How on earth is this supposed to help the seller? Are you just "assuming" the buyer will search the store first? Marketing efforts and store links should guide the buyers to the store and motivate them to stay there as long as possible and buy something, NOT encourage them to click and go to the competition.

Ebay already places an advertising link to Experian on the auction page when their counter is used, taking buyers off the listing, a listing paid for by the seller. Now Auctiva is doing the same sort of thing to their users. Is this going to become the hidden price of a free service?

ChooChoo is correct - this is a major conflict of interest and a much better explanation needs to be given, although a mere explanation will not remove this "upgrade". Ebay is constantly making changes to improve the "buyer's experience", often to the detriment of the sellers. Auctiva is not eBay - your users are sellers - your logo states: "Auctiva, Powerful Solutions for eBay Sellers". Auctiva should be promoting the best interests of it's sellers, not buyers, not ebay. This is certainly not the case here, and is very troubling - it makes Auctiva appear to be adopting the "buyer orientation" of ebay. Is this so? As users, we want to know, because if it is true, then our trust that Auctiva is not going to compromise it's users is itself being compromised.

Sorry to be long-winded, but this is not a minor issue. Auctiva is a great service and much appreciated, but an erosion of this essential trust and goodwill cannot be good for any of us. Please re-think this and remove this search option. It is a misguided idea, one that seems to be the product of an Auctiva-eBay collaboration that is not in the best interests of your users, or Auctiva itself. If the buyer finds no items in the store he will certainly find his way back to ebay without this kind of extra "help".

The other discussion (battlebids) is here:
https://community.auctiva.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/748609941/m/9381096742
Needs a bump up. You'll notice there's some experienced sellers (aka the 10%ers) posting there.

quote:

Regarding the search all eBay option

I must agree that this new Auctiva Store search function is not a welcome improvement.

Rick
(9 year Powerseller)

I would prefer some kind of note that the site is updating with an option to book mark the page or something.

booklady