Sears Holdings Issues Open Letter to Amazon.com Affiliates

Sears Holdings Corporation today issued an open letter to Amazon affiliates.

Dear Amazon.com Affiliates,

Amazon.com, in response to e-Fairness legislation, is once again threatening to leave states and terminate relationships with all its affiliates rather than contribute to the local community by collecting and remitting the sales tax that is due.

This time, one of those states is our home state of Illinois and we want affiliates here, in California and around the country to know that you have a place with us. We recognize and value our relationships with our over 6,500 affiliate partners AND the state and local communities we serve.

As states continue to grapple with increasing budget deficits and businesses, large and small, slowly make their way out of one of the worst economic declines in recent history – Amazon turns its back on its customers, affiliate partners and the community to maintain an unfair competitive advantage that ultimately puts Amazon’s customers at risk.

We hope that you’ll consider becoming a part of the Sears Affiliate Team. Our websites serve hundreds of millions of customers annually and we are committed to ensuring that our relationships with our affiliate partners and communities are mutually beneficial.  We look forward to hearing from you!

To sign up and for more information please visit the Sears Affiliate Team website located at http://bit.ly/c9OrPM .

Respectfully,

Imran Jooma

SVP and President, Sears eCommerce



Avoid Pitfalls of Leading Auction and Shopping Sites with 7four

The two most popular online eCommerce websites, Craigslist and eBay, have their strengths – but also weaknesses. As an antidote to those shortcomings, 7four has emerged as a new way to buy, sell and trade online.

7four is an online marketplace resource that stresses the recycling of products for trade while also providing an opportunity to sell and buy goods. It’s free to browse, free to join as a member and virtually free to post items. The colorful, cheerful graphics on the site support its mission to provide an enjoyable eCommerce environment. There are no “hiccups” or hidden charges in using 7four – it’s purposefully straightforward and upfront in its approach.

“In developing 7four, I’ve addressed all the pitfalls and inconveniences that other auction and shopping sites present, and the result is a much more vibrant, efficient and cost-effective portal,” says Lawrence Smith, 7four’s founder. “From the visual design to the technical aspects of how 7four operates, from posting to searching to the point of transaction – everything is seamless, user-friendly and super-simple. I’ve also worked hard to guarantee a no-gimmick eCommerce atmosphere and include special incentives to excite and motivate people to use 7four.”

7four shares some features with eBay and Craigslist – notably, the site prohibits adult ads, it’s free to post many types of advertisements, and there are member services and a blog. However, a few key differentiators on 7four.com include:

  • a one-time $5 fee for automobiles for a 30-day posting period;
  • no fees or upcharges on all other items for either posting or selling;
  • payment choices, including PayPal or e-mailing the seller directly to make arrangements;
  • rewards for those posting automobile ads, whereby at every 100,000th post, the seller receives $1,000 as an incentive for posting on the site;
  • greater attention to the user’s online experience, enhanced with colorful, dynamic graphics carefully balanced with a clutter- and commercial-free website.

For more information, visit http://www.7four.com.



Sell on Buy.com

I am guessing that Wal*Mart sent out my invitation and it was lost in cyber world. No problem, there are so many marketplaces to sell at and many more than willing to take our money.

Aside from Amazon and eBay to generate large amounts of traffic to you through their Name and Advertising; you can also can do well by offering your items at Buy.com. It has now been three months I have been selling on Buy.com Marketplace and I must say so far it has been a great source. Buy.com has very good search engine traffic and the competition is only a fraction of what you would find on eBay and Amazon.

Buy.com charges no monthly fee, no listing fees and process payment directly. Once orders are shipped your are paid the following Tuesday.The only fees you are charged for are once an item sells. The category I sell in is Home & Garden which is subject to a 15% fee from the sale price and a $.99 commission.

Buy.com does screen sellers. I was turned down when I submitted a sight that I just had started but was accepted for the other site I have had for about two years now. They want sellers to demonstrate experience and excellent customer service. Its worth giving it a try. Seriously, what’s the worst they can say…”No”… at least they will know you are out there. With no up front fees you should consider Buy.com. (Does take time lots of it to load your items or you can submit it to them per their specs)

Here is the fee structure:

Buy.com wants you……………..

“We are currently accepting product in the following categories: Apparel and Shoes, Bags and Luggage, Books, Camera, Cell Phones, Computer and Office, DVDs, Electronics, Fragrance, Games, Home and Outdoor, Music, Networking, Software and Toys & Baby.

The following categories are currently closed: Jewelry & Watches, Sports
  • Gain access to a new market of highly desirable buyers.
  • Grow incremental sales.
  • List and manage your inventory with industry standard tools.
  • Partner with a proven and stable e-Commerce veteran.
  • Display your brand throughout the purchasing process.
  • Earn the Buy Box.
  • Produce your own BuyTV Product Reviews and Product Spotlights.
  • Participate in on-site merchandising opportunities.

Whatever success path you chose you will succeed.

Buy Surplus Inventory and Sell Online

If you want to find product to sell then Liquidation.com is where you can buy or sell surplus goods via an online auction. You can buy and sell all in one place if you wanted too. The large variety found at Liquidation.com allows you to compete in various categories and offer the products you purchase at other sites such as eBay, Overstock, eCrater, Bonanzle, stootsi, Auction Mall or sell them in your physical location.


electronics, clothing, more

Known as the marketplace where professional buyers can source commercial surplus inventory and government surplus assets in an online environment. Bulk lots are sold by the truckload, pallet, or small package, and conditions range from new in a box to customer returns and used.

Categories include: apparel, computers, electronics, housewares, industrial equipment, vehicles, and much more. Find Designer Brand names, Coach, Burberry, Sony and many others. Check them out, you may be surprised by the deals found there.

Find fabulous deals like this:



Sell Your Products at Mommywood

Mommywood was created in 2007, by Karina, a California native, former television producer and most importantly, mother of 2.

With so many Dot Mom sites, it’s nice to find another site geared towards “Making Every Mom a Star”.

Mommywood says:

At mommywood.com, moms can get professional expert advice or share their expertise with a community of women who not only have their own areas of expertise to share, but who are moms just like them. Whether you’ve come up with a great idea to start a business, just want to chat with other moms, need to find the perfect outfit or order makeup, you can do it here. We do all the legwork, so you can focus your energy on more important things. Like your kids!”

mommywood.com gives moms of all ages and all walks of life the opportunity to shine in their area of knowledge, to participate in a supportive community and to get answers to virtually any question they have about parenting on any topic, when they need them………………………………….

You can sign up for an account to participate in the community or Be an Expert and generate exposure to your site.

How you can make money with Mommywood? Easy… They offer you the opportunity to list your items for sale. You get a targeted audience of Mommies looking for great deals, you can also at a link on your blog to your store or favorite site. You can “Become an Expert” in your field and gain some traffic exposure.

For all fans of Tori Spelling you cannot help to ask if her book Mommywood has anything to do with the site Momywood. The answer is no, they are not partners or related in any-way. I went through the 90210 phase and am a fan of Tori Spelling.

Many mommies out there both in and out of Hollywood can gather at Mommywood.com where the goal is “Making Every Mom a Star”.

Hollywood Moms have the camera and Blogging (WAHM’s) Moms have Twitter.


Stootsi Seller Friendly Fixed Price Marketplace

I recently came across another site for you to offer your products at. Stootsi is an alternative to eBay or an additional site to expose your product.  The site is clean and easy to navigate through. You can shop stootsi items, other sellers items or you can offer your product.  If you are familiar with both eBay and Amazon sites, then you might find this site to be a mashup of them.  Unlike eBay you can brand yourself and external links are allowed. The links to be linked to additional information on product or company policies.

 

 Top 3 reasons why stootsi stands out from the competition:

 -          Feedback automatically left on your account after 21 days (as long as there are no disputes)

 -          No listings fees

 -          Sale and transaction fees are less than other sites

 

Listings

If you have more than 50 items to list, you can use the Integration tool offered by stootsi to facilitate your experience. Once uploaded your inventory will appear in stootsi store front and shopping engines such as Google and Yahoo Search Engines. Totally SEO friendly.

 

Your Listing page offers links to “Seller Listings”, ask Seller a question, more about seller and a Nice Large “add to cart” button.

Seller Profile allows you to place your Policies and additional information about yourself.

 

Fees

Sale Fee of 5% plus 2.5% + .30 per Transaction Fee. That’s it.

 

Payments

No PayPal account needed. Payments are processed through stootsi. This means that your buyer will submit credit card payment to stootsi, then stootsi will release payment to you within 14 days. This process is similar to Amazon. Money is deposited electronically to your bank or to your PayPal account. What’s more, is that stootsi will not hold your funds or place any limitations on the funds. Once your seller account is verified you are good to go.

Feedback

Get this, you automatically get positive feedback posted after 21 days from date of transaction.  How outstanding is that…. As sellers we know that feedback is not always posted. You may get 20-40% of buyers to leave feedback.  As you know eBay can allow up to 45 days to post feedback on a listing. Even then buyers may not leave feedback.

 

Access Manager

I will let you know how the “Access Seller Manager” works for me. According to stootsi “Access Seller Manager” allows you to:

 

View orders, add inventory, upload tracking information, and more.

  • Answer questions and resolve customer inquiries in a reasonable amount of time
  • Ship products in a safe, timely, and effective manner
  • Upload tracking information into Seller Manager in a reasonable amount of time
  • Maintain complete and accurate contact information

 

Inventory

Integration Tool for your inventory. You can upload inventory directly or you can contact stootsi to guide you on the process of using their integration tools. Your inventory will appear in your store,  stootsi store front as well as shopping engines such as Google and Yahoo Search Engines.

 

With minimal fees, SEO and user friendly stootsi can be the just the right place for you to start selling online.  Stootsi is fairly new and welcomes all suggestions. Created by a seller for the sellers. The creator of stootsi understands the expectations and challenges online sellers face. Stootsi was created to offer you an Open Fixed Price Marketplace. Check it out and do not hesitate to let stootsi know what you think or suggestions you may have. I know that I will be opening a Store Front there and I will provide you with details soon.

 

What type of marketplace would you like to see? Do you want more auction sites or fixed price sites? Do you want the flexibility to accept payments?

 

 

 

 

 



Sell Handmade Items at ArtFire.com

I recently came across ArtFire an online marketplace where you can shop or sell your handmade goods online for almost NO Fees. Founded by a group of people that have a passion for handmade, art and indie business in Arizona, they have teamed up to offer you all they wanted from other online marketplaces. One item they took off the list was FEES. We all know that listing fees, final value fees and Non Paying Bidder fees can all add up. Well, ArtFire created this site offering the use of today’s technology and huge supporters of your online success for only a small monthly fee.

The current campaign they are running to attract Sellers is creative to say the least. With the creativity that they use to run their campaign you can count on them to drive loads of traffic to your store.

The site is easy to navigate, the sellers’ page is user friendly, they offer you support you in promoting your store and will assist you with any questions. They are set on their mission……

…………………The ArtFire Mission – More than Commerce, Community.

As a member of the ArtFire community you have a voice. We bring a unique perspective with us when serving your needs. Our founder started as a seller on large online venues and learned firsthand the challenges that sellers face when “partnering” with a marketplace venue.

At ArtFire the member is the mission. Support is delivered through interaction in, and engagement of the community. We focus on creating time saving tools for the community, and features essential to running a profitable business.

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve you and commit ourselves to working each day to make your business more successful, our community stronger, and our world better. We ask for your assistance in helping us mold the ArtFire community in a constructive and cooperative manner……………………………………………..

You can sell an unlimited number of items and NOT pay any Sales or Listing Fees! That’s right, only for a limited time they are charging a $7.00 per month fee (Reg. $20.00). Any online seller can tell you that this is an incredible package. Of course, you can also sign up for a Basic account and not even pay the monthly fee; however, there are limitations placed.

This is how they compare themselves to Etsy:

ArtFire offers you two types of accounts:

As you can see ArtFire speaks for itself. I want to make something and offer it there. But, not now, I have enough projects.

ArtFire is a great site to offer your product or shop and find product to sell online or in your retail store. One last thing, ArtFire will plant a Tree for every new Free Account. A Win Win for Going Green.  :)

If you are already offering your products there, let me know what you like about it. Would you recommend it to other sellers? Let me know what you think …..





Sell on ePier Auction Style Listings

This is just a quick review on ePier another alternative to eBay.

ePier brings buyers and sellers together. As a seller you can offer your products as auction or Buy Now option.  They do not have any listings Fees, all you pay is a small Sales Fee.

I like to offer my products in all Free Open Marketplaces. This helps you expose your Brand. Their ranking is not high enough as Bonazle or eCrater. I defintely would recommend to offer your items at Bonanzle and eCrater.

I have contact ePier via email and phone. Not once have I obtained a live person, the answering machine has no personalble greeting. I am disappointed in the lack of customer service. As a seller I want to be able to get a hold of someone in a reasonable amount of time.Many of the links in their site are also not working, making it frustrating to navitage thru their site.

Do you offer products on ePier? If so, what is your experience with them? Would you recommend them or anyother site?


Sell New or Used Video Games with Valu Valu

Valu Valu is a marketplace that allows you to Buy or Sell Video Games at the perfect price. Creating an account and selling is absolutely Free.

Valu Valu offers a marketplace allowing small businesses and individuals to buy and sell at the “perfect price”, and a simple price-optimization web service that integrates in other websites. In both cases, prices become instantaneous and automatic, increasing Sellers revenues and providing a smoother experience and better value for Buyers.

You list your New or Used Video Games on their site. When someone is interested in purchasing it from you, they will be able to contact you through the site. You will then be able to close the transaction by emailing them an Invoice for payment. By doing so, you be able to request payment via your Merchant Account, PayPal or Google Checkout. Another good feature you can offer local pick up as well as shipping the item.

There are two types of accounts you can have:

Basic Account: Sell up to 5 items per month – No Charge for the actual sale

Pro Account: Unlimited SALES – Fees charged per Sales 2.5% for the sales in a 30 day billing cycle

VALU VALU is focusing first on used Video Games, and is already pricing several thousands of titles. The company will progressively expand to other markets, its technology being applicable to any kind of trading.

The Team behind Valu Valu

“ValuValu is the brainchild of French serial entrepreneurs Emmanuel Marot and Bruno Botvinik. A longtime working duo, both moved to Seattle after selling their last venture to Microsoft corp.

Emmanuel is the CEO. On top of the sales and company management, he is responsible for imagining the User Experience and designing the Pricing Engine.

Bruno is the CTO. He has the not-so-trivial task of making ValuValu a reality, with a fast, secure, agreeable, scalable, and reliable website. Plus everything in-between.”

This site does appeal to me. I have two young kids that love the video games for a month and then they are off to something else. I myself will try it out for all the video games my kids are no longer interested in.

Visit their site at Valu Valu you might find that incredible deal or start selling your collection if retired video games and make extra money.



Bonanzle Takes First place as eBay Alternative

Bonanzle Takes First place as eBay Alternative named by Small Business Computing and in Second place eCrater.

Now, I list on both sites and continue to recommend both. I am not surprised that Bonanzle took first place. As Bonanzle is easier to list in. Say you have 50 items on eBay or more and you want to offer the same items on your Bonanzle store. This could take you a few hours (even more if you have a larger inventory) Bonanzle can transfer this information for you. All you need to do is allow them into your eBay account (all information is secure; I highly recommend that you change your password) and they will transfer this information.

This is greatly appreciated, as you know that listing items is time consuming.

Both sites are user friendly, but the listing tool and feeback can be great motivators. However, I generate more sales using eCrater than I do with Bonanzle. This could be due to the items I offer. eCrater has been around longer and I have built trust in the community. Whereas with Bonanzle I just opened the account. I get leads from them but no sales yet.

I have set up on both sites recently stores using “Whateverebay” user ID. I opened these to offer you as examples and will be stocking them soon. Once I do, I will let you know and we can watch if I sell or don’t.

Both sites charge you no listing fees! You know that in real estate it’s all about Location, Location, Location…. Well, I am all for Exposure, Exposure, Exposure… Of course FREE helps. Get your brand out there for all to see. I understand you want to generate SALES; one way is to have people see you in various sites offering your products. Eventually, they will buy from you and you will grow as the Market picks up.

Did you know that President Barack Obama uses Volusion ? Check out the article HERE for details.

Are you using Bonanzle or eCRater? What do you think about the services they offer? Does it meet your expectations?

Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain’s office furnishings on Craigslist

This is entertaining. John Thain’s Office Furniture – On Craigslist

According to reports John Thain became Merrill Lynch’s CEO in early 2008, he hired Michael S. Smith Design to revamp his office suite, spending approximately $1.22 million according to documents.

He paid $1,400.00 for a trash can. No, its not covered in gold or Swarovski Crystal for details on the horror GO HERE

What make this interesting is that a spoof lisitng was created on Craigslist for the sale of these items. Find details HERE Craigslist since has removed the listing from their site, but not without it making the Best of Craigslist. Craigslist list added this to their BLOG.

Spoof or not; I wonder why they chose Craigslist. eBay is known for such spoof. Here are the details posted on CNBC regarding the listing on Craigslist.

The things that make you go hmmm……

Buying and Selling on eBay Made a Little Easier

Buying and Selling on eBay Made a Little Easier with this new software for Mac users. For details watch Chris Pirillo’s video. As you know having a great template is helps a great deal to promote your product. Making the shopping experience easier.

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