Fixing eBay images to comply with new policies

eBay has changed their policies - it must be a headache for some retailers since all their images need to be redone. According to the new policies, images have to be:

• Borders, text and logos are are no longer permitted 
• Watermarks must be small, text only with an opacity of less than 50%, not obscuring the item. 
• Images must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side but eBay recommends 1600 pixels for the best possible display on all pages and devices. 
• Ebay also strongly recommends that the item fills 80-90% of the frame and is placed on a plain background.

Instead of flaffing around with Paint, I suggest doing the following... may I present you with a brief tutorial on how to fix your images, complete free. I suggest using a basic programme called pixlr. It is online based, so no installation required: http://pixlr.com/editor/. Now select 'open image from computer' and do the usual uploading... I have randomly picked a picture from an eBay listing to show you...

1. First, have a high resolution image. 

I am sorry if your previous photos have low resolution, but a low pixel picture cannot turn into highly pixel one . So you just have to do it again. As people cannot touch or feel the product they would love to have as much pictorial details as possible. So do not be lazy on this one! And to make things easier, make sure your background is plain. The plainer the easier your job would be. 

2. Crop the image.

Crop out the unwanted part. For this one you dont want the flag and the words. Tab 'c' on your keyboard and hold down your left mouse button and make a rectangle around the area you want.

3. Remove the background. 

Now tab 'w' on your keyboard and you are on magic wand. It selects things for you as a patch (it auto detects the edge of the colour patch). Can you see 'Tolerance' on the top left? The higher the tolerance the less sensitive it is to color difference, hence the larger the patch it will select. So I usually work on something between 20-30 to start with... you have to try it yourself to see how much you want to select. If you think after selecting there are still a lot of black left then you may want to increase tolerance. Vice Versa if you think it is selecting too much. 

now click on the black background, and press 'delete' on your keyboard. Do it on the other part of the black background until you have get rid of them all.

Now we need to tidy up the left over black. Use the eraser (tab 'e' on keyboard). Hold down the mouse button to keep erasing. On the top left you can select the size of the brush. There are hard and soft brushes. Use the hard one for this circumstances (you want hard edges). Erase the rest of the colour. 

Remember to zoom in and look at the edges so you erase them properly. Tab 'z' to zoom. On your right there would be the 'navigation' box which you can zoom in and out. Alternatively, the scroller on your mouse would do the trick too. 

If anything goes wrong, hold down 'Ctrl + z' to go back a step. 

To clean up the edges, try the lazzo tool (tab 'l'). Again on the top left you can select freehand or straight lines. I suggest straight lines since it is rather difficult to control the freehand one. Now you can choose the white part by 'lasso-ing' around them, and press delete. Click the mouse button when you want to anchor the end of the line. Doing this bits by bits would be easier. Again zoom in to get precision. 

4. Remove watermark

This is the most difficult part. You just need a lot of patience. Basically you are painting over the watermark with the brush (tab 'b'). Select a proper size brush first, then hold down 'Ctrl' and click on the colour you want to use. For example if I want to clear the watermark on the light grey patch there, hold down Ctrl and click on the light grey right next to the watermark. Now you have selected the color. Paint onto the watermark to cover it. 

Remember to keep updating the colour of your brush when you move around the picture. Even if the colour looks the same to you it can be slightly different.

5. Adjustment

On the top of the page, you can click on the adjustment tab and there are a lot of things to play around with. Such as lightness (make pictures brighter/ darker), contrast, hue/saturation (adjust colour) etc. Give them a try and maybe your picture will look even better!

This is very basic editing and of course things can be easier if you have Photoshop. At the end of the day this is free and the more you work on it the better you would be on this - and the faster you would get it done. I personally think this is better than Paint so just give it a go :)

Hope this helps.

Improve conversion rate by product reviews!

I was doing some reading yesterday and I realise almost every single piece of article suggest putting product reviews onto your online store. According to PowerReviews, increasing review count from 0 to 1 can boost conversion rate by a whopping 20%. I doubt the accuracy of the figure but no matter what the truth is, putting the reviews on is definitely beneficial to your business! So why not try out the following:

1. Reward the reviews
Remember people are lazy. Unless they want to complain about something the majority would not be bothered to write a review for your products. You can have a look at tripadvisor, a lot of excellent hotels still get quite a few negative comments. If you want more positive reviews,  try to offer your customers a reward and they will be more willing to do you the favour. A good example is WeLoveLenses, once they have dispatched your goods they would send you an email, saying 'review our service and get a gift with your next purchase'. This gives people a good incentive to say something positive about you.

2. Use/ partner up with an external review system
There are many reasons behind this. First of all it allows customers to see you when they do comparisons on the external website. Secondly it boosts SEO. Thirdly it looks less biased and more trustworthy! It is free advertising on a third party website so why not? WeLoveLenses have also partnered up with Trustpilot to do the review system.

3. Staff reviews
Employ people to write reviews for your product. This can be risky since it may sounds like a sales pitch! First of all, make sure the staffs have actually tried the products themselves. Secondly, do not use technical, informative product knowledge in the reviews - it would just look like product description. Describe the experience instead and make sure you mention the USP. Thirdly, do not be afraid to talk about the negative side of the products as well. Of course, your positive positive points have to be really good to overcome the single, minor, negative point.


Reviews can give customers a non-marketer opinion of the products and give them reassurance to make a purchase from you. According to GetElastic, break the ice with the first review and you could let customers pick up the slack. This article gives you ideas on how to attract more customer reviews: http://www.getelastic.com/5-ways-to-attract-more-customer-reviews/

Selling on Amazon - get the clicks!

While users can browse for items using the categories on the left-hand side of the page, the search bar remains the primary method for locating products. As such, it is important to make sure product details are optimised for search.

Amazon’s search function harvests keywords from the product title, standard product ID (UPC, EAN, ISBN), brand/designer, manufacturer and search terms.

1. Product titles

Burnham said that product titles should use all the space available and be full of keywords, while also maintaining a customer-friendly structure. It is important to avoid punctuation, asterisks, caps or special characters as users won’t include these in search terms.

Similarly, customers won’t all use the same keywords, so merchants should vary their product titles and experiment to see what works.


2. Search terms

Amazon allows merchants to include five additional search terms for each product.

Burnham said it is important to use all five, highlighting a Nokia smartphone that appeared fourth in a search for ‘Nokia phone’, but top for ‘Nokia phone with Bluetooth’. The boost in rankings was down to the fact that the merchant had used included the search term ‘Bluetooth’ in the product details.

To optimise the additional search terms, avoid using any words that appear in the product title.

Don’t repeat the title, product name or brand, it’s a waste of search terms.

3. Search Index

Amazon’s search index takes into account price, availability and sales history, but the better selling products will generally rise to the top. However, Burnham pointed out that Amazon occasionally shuffles search results to more evenly promote products. 

4. Browse Nodes

These are essentially product codes that identify your items within the product categories. Merchants can select two for each product.

Again, it is about giving Amazon as much information as possible in order to increase your visibility in the marketplace.

5. Filtered Navigation

This allows merchants to include detailed product criteria, such as the size and colour of each item.

Users can then filter their product search to find more relevant items. Iit is very important for sellers to include the detailed information in their product listings otherwise they won’t appear in filtered results. 

6. Product Variation

This tool allows sellers to group different variations (e.g. size or colour) of the same product. Users can then check different items from the same product page.

Burnham said the merchant has to provide an SKU and establish each item’s parentage, but it is a user-friendly way of giving customers access to your full product range.

(source: Econsultancy)

Infographics: Customer Loyalty

5 tips on Online returns handling

Did you know 22% of delivered items are destined to be returned (source: Internet Retailing)? 3P Logistics have handled much returns and we understand that this could be a headache for retailers. On the bright side, we can use this opportunity to impress customers by offering exceptional services. ASOS is a good example of retailer which has a high customer retention rate, and one reason behind their success is their fuss free return policy. So what can we learn from them? 


1. Display your returns policy clearly
This should be displayed throughout the whole shopping experience, including before and after purchase. ASOS has put its return information on every single item page. This can offer them reassurance, which is extremely helpful when they are not 100% sure about the purchase. The link leads to the policy page which has demonstrated absolute transparency and has included every single detail, giving customers a peace of mind. 

2. Be nice! 
ASOS' returns policy starts with the line 'Do you want to return something? No problem!', which gives a positive and friendly initial image.Most importantly, ASOS offers free returns. Think about it, customers would have to pack and take the product to the post office already for a return, why would they want to be paying as well? Of course free returns would cost you more, but this will help retaining customers and boosting extra conversion in the future (Econsultancy). According to Zappos, 'people who regularly return items can be some of your best customers'. 

3. Show great images, videos, with detail product description
Since customers cannot actually see or touch the products, they may have their own version and interpretation of the product in their head. Once it has arrived and they find out it is not what they expected they will return it. To minimize return rate, clearly displaying your products is the key. Make sure pictures are as 'real' as possible, with high resolution so people can zoom in to look into the details. Not only does ASOS offer catwalk video and multiple images taken from different angles, it has also listed all the measurements, materials and even product care information for every single item. This way customers can get as much information as possible and they would have a clearer idea of the product, hence less returns. 

4. Send return document with your product

ASOS has always included return information, forms and labels in the packages. This makes things much easier for your customers and with the address pre-printed, less mistakes would be made in the return process. The return form should also be asking for feedbacks so you can uncover problems or trends. 

5. Inform your customers

Don't worry - your customer would not be annoyed. The more information they receive about the return process the merrier. Send them an email when you have received the product, send them another email when the replacement is dispatched or a refund has been issued. Just keep them updated. I am sure they will appreciate the effort!

3 Tips to get the Clicks on eBay!

My apologies for not updating much this week. Because of the lovely snow storm, I was stuck in Brussels for days... Oh well, at least I am back now. And hopefully you will still be interested in reading this blog! 

I guess getting the clicks is the initial step to any selling activities on eBay, so I have put together some tips which I have gathered through reading different articles and attending meetups.

1. A picture tells a thousand words
The first thing people see would be your products' pictures hence this can really make a difference. It has the potential to make your listing stand out and you can consider using it to communicate a marketing message (NOTE: eBay is making changes to the policies so no text, borders or watermarks are allowed after this autumn!) . Another tip: use high resolution images taken from different angles. Although it does not show on the listing page, it optimises your product page a lot. Since people cannot see the real thing they would like as much pictorial information of the products as possible. 
For more information regarding image optimisation read this: http://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/7412852-10-must-know-image-optimization-tips#axzz2MkJc0OCK

2. Product titles
Make your title as appealing as possible. Consider listing your product name with your USP. List out all the possible keywords and experiment with different combinations. My suggestion is to try searching for a product yourself, or even better, with your family and friends. Sometimes people can come up with search terms that you have not considered. After you are happy with your title you should try to make it stand out. You can use special characters such as # or <, or use capital letters to highlight keywords. Experiment with them and see which one works the best!

3. Best Match
After you have sorted out the pictures and the listing title, the most important part has arrived - to appear at the top of the search list! The Best Match concept was introduced 2008, and it is extremely important, especially when you are selling highly competitive products. According to eBay, items are sorted based on the following 
- Seller standards (top rated seller get a boost)
- Impressions (how often the listing was shown in search results)
- Recent sales (how many items have sold from multi-quantity listing)
- Title, value, free P&P
- Auction listings are sorted based on 'time ending soonest' as well. 



Briefly speaking, the golden rule is 'search history to conversion ratio'. When buyers running a particular search, and they view, bid or buy the product you listed more often than the other listings, your search ranking will go up. Hence the key is to boost the ratio by keeping your impressions low and view/sales high. Consider sending your 'fan base' private messages with the direct link to the product page. This way you can boost the view and sales without increasing the impressions (since they do not go through the search to reach your product page).

Then the second rule is your DSR. The better the rating the higher the search ranking. One way to boost DSR is to offer free shipping. This way you can always get high scores for 'postage'. 

There are of course many other factors which can help with your search ranking under the Best Match system. I am no expert and these are just what I heard and read from others. Hopefully you would find this helpful :) 

North West Online Retailers MEETUP!

On 13 March, a nice clear evening in Manchester, 3P Logistics hosted a meetup event for e-tailers from the North West. With tables ladened with food and beer, the event was kick started with a mingling session among online retailers - great opportunity to talk to like minded people who all have great passion for selling online. It was then followed by three presentations by Carlos (shaping cloud), Ian (3P Logistics) and Artem (Linnworks), who share insiders tips and information regarding cloud technology, outsourcing and multichannel selling. 

3P Logistics would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the great crowd last night, along with the excellent guest speakers. Everyone's enthusiasm helped make our time together both productive and fun! 

We would be hosting another meetup soon so keep your eyes peeled! Why not bring your friends along, have a beer and a laugh, and learn more about e-commerce? Join us here:
http://www.meetup.com/NORTH-WEST-ONLINE-RETAILERS-MEET-UP-GROUP/

How to REALLY annoy your (online) customers.

Remember when I was still in university, we have to vote for 'the most annoying online retailer ever' in our first digital marketing lecture. I am not going to disclose which company got the title, but that webpage hit the following criteria to successfully annoy us:


1. Unrelated Ads and pop ups. 

Yes, we are interested in your products when we visit your website, but no, we are not interested in someone else's products, especially when they are completely irrelevant to what you are selling. These adverts can interrupt customers' experience and can create a negative attitude towards the advert, as well as to your website, aka your brand.

Pop up questionnaire or email sign-up box are also quite popular and they can annoy users when they come up in the wrong time. Often they pop up before people have the opportunity to start reading the page. Consider putting these at the side or at the end of the article to minimize interruption.


2. Many Many clicks
You can blame it to the society but people are becoming less patient now. When they want some information they want them quick. No one likes being dragged around, making circles. Extra click is a big no no. If you want to lead people to watch some clips or images, allow them to view them alongside the information that they are looking for. Clear and easy navigation is the key so that users can find whatever they want efficiently. Look at Amazon, they have everything so well sorted, and they even have one click purchase to make life easier.






3. Play music/ video automatically
I guess that is why the mute button is on so many keyboards nowadays. People like to have things under control and when there is some music popping up unexpectedly they tend to mute the page or even close the browser. Especially when they are in public place and some music start playing in a coffee shop/ on the train. If they want to listen to music I am sure they would have their own playlist. You can still put video and music on your website but make sure they only play upon clicking.

North West Online Retailers Meetup 13 March

If you`re keen to stay attuned to the latest developments for all things online then our meet up group is for you. City Centre Manchester on Wednesday 13^th March will be the location for our next meet up event which promises to be an eventful evening.  We have three industry speakers and a great chance to mingle with fellow online sellers in a relaxed and informal gathering - who knows we may even throw in a beer and bite to eat!

With Linnworks, Shaping Cloud and 3P Logistics already registered to speak on the night it promises to be an enlightening evening.

l for one will be looking out for any top tips on all things multi-channel, cloud technology and order fulfilment.

View our meet our group today and get yourself along to future events. http://www.meetup.com/NORTH-WEST-ONLINE-RETAILERS-MEET-UP-GROUP/

3P Logistics Partner with Linnworks

Linnworks is an order management software and stock control system that integrates the entire multi-channel sales process. The software handles everything from order fulfilment to shipping, stock control and inventory management, and integrates with eBay, Amazon, Play.com, Pixmania, Magento and all major website carts.

The growing trend of online retailers branching out into multi-channel selling continues at a considerable pace. In order to maximise multi-channel & cross-channel opportunities, both order fulfilment and stock control are of paramount importance.

John Scully - Business Development Manager at 3PL adds:

“3P Logistics and Linnworks are a natural fit”

“Together we provide the ideal combination for any online retailer seeking to expand its market place and grow its business. The partnership has already seen us subscribe over 20 of our online clients to the Linnworks platform and they are now reaping the benefits of automation and increased sales.   The process of outsourcing your order fulfilment and expanding your selling channels is simple and has never been more affordable”.

For more information visit www.3p-logistics.co.uk

For more information visit www.linnworks.com

Anchor Pricing - does it still work?

Today I was looking at business strategies and the term 'anchor pricing' came up. People said this is the key to develop a successful pricing strategies. Econsultancy interprets this term as 'to establishing a price point that your customers then use as a reference point for all future purchases' - sounds complicated to me. Although I am not a retailer, my curiosity urged me to look into this. 



Basically, when you are presented with an offer, the key element in the decision to accept or reject is whether you think it is a fair deal or not. Usually people would have a 'pre-set' price for a product or service in their head, and they will use this price to judge relative value. For example you know you would not pay £10 for an orange. right? Applying this to sale items. Do you notice that the original price is always listed along the sale price? This can give customers a reference point to 'anchor' onto, so they feel like they are saving money when they buy the items at sale prices. 

Anchor pricing does not apply solely to sale items. According to Neuromarketing, the key is to implant the numbers into customers' mind through any media, and this can impact the price they are willing to pay for various items. This works particularly well for unfamiliar products. You can display numbers on posters, or on other products. Believe it or not, it can still have an impact on their 'anchored price'!

The problem is, this may not work as well today since more and more customers are visiting the internet to compare prices before they make a purchase. Hence customers tend to have an idea of the 'real price' already before encountering your products/ services. I am not saying anchor pricing will never work again, but the key is to have accurate pricing data before you set your price. According to Econsultancy, 'your data source is the actual key to enable the development of an effective pricing strategy'.

From another point of view - why not set your own anchor price? Redefine your products and your services can weaken the tie to anchor pricing set by other retailers. Neuromarketing used Starbucks as an example. It has different ambience, food, display, and even coffee names (instead of small medium large, it even uses tall grande venti!) etc., to distinguish themselves from their competitors. This way they can set their own coffee price without a strong association with their competitors. 

F-commerce, Yay or Nay?

No one can deny the power of Facebook. Being one of the most visited site with an active user base of 1.06 billion, Facebook store should have great potential for ecommerce practices. According to Deloitte, Facebook economy could worth £13 billion at the moment, and this figure will continue to rise in the future. This hype has even generated the term 'f-commerce'.

However, brands like Gap and Nordstrom have all closed down their Facebook stores after giving it a go. So why is this happening? 

Main reason: sales volume is low on Facebook. According to Practical ecommerce - for a lot of merchants, percentage of sales on Facebook is still in the single digits. The general public have already associated Facebook with social networking. People go on Facebook to party (social) instead of shopping. This belief puts a lot of businesses off. According to search engine watch, 'the use of Facebook as a direct sales channel reached its peak in Q2 2010, with just over 10 percent of marketers reportedly using F-commerce at that time. It steadily declined until another brief peak in Q2 2011; now, just over 5 percent of Facebook opportunities relate to commerce'. With so little businesses participating in such 'shopping mall', people will be even more reluctant to use this function. 

In my opinion, all businesses should have their own Facebook page since it is capable of driving brand awareness and site traffic. It is an excellent platform to engage with your customers, which is vital to maintain your business' social credentials. Moreover, Facebook has a wealth of data of users' likes and interests, which is a bonus compare to other sales or marketing channels. The store function is great for promotions, giveaways or flash sales (quoted from Julia Priddle, Channel Advisor), and should be integrated with your other sales channel seamlessly as part of a marketing mix. Treat it like a place for 'window shopping' and customer services. Afterall, Facebook is still a social networking site - instead of building social features on your own website, why not encourage transactions through engagement on Facebook?

6 Twitter best practices for eTailers

1. Specific Marketing Goals - it can be increase sales, establish the identity of industry expert, or for customer services. Some company dedicates their account for specific use and is shown on their username, such as Ford uses @FordCustService. Once you have a goal you know what you should tweet about and what your tone of voice should be like. 

2. Hastags - try to put in 1-2 hashtags per tweet. When people search for the #keywords, they can see your post on the search result. This is very important because those people who search for those keywords must be sharing common interest with you. I always conduct some searches and compare keywords before I use the #, just to check their popularity. To save space, integrate the # into the sentence. For example I would say 'calling all #ecommerce enthusiasts'.

3. Grow your following - I guess everyone likes followers. One of the best ways to get followers is to follow others first. Mention them and retweet their contents etc., Of course I am not asking you to follow everyone, but choose active suppliers, potential customers, employees or industry experts, etc. 

4. Twitter schedule - Schedule is a must for almost everything, including Twitter. Management applications like HootSuite or Buffer allows you to set schedules for posting. The first thing I do every morning is to set up tweets for every hour or so. This can make my account active throughout a day and I do not have to keep reminding myself to go on Twitter when I am working on other stuff. According to Practical Ecommerce 'Such tweets can include helpful tips, observations about your industry, product recommendations, inspirational quotes, and links to relevant resources. The key is that they add value to your followers.' Make sure your tweets is not all about yourself (business news, promotions, etc), unless you are celebrities I guess... 

5. Monitor relevant keywords - You should have a set of keywords that you always use, or that you are interested in. Spend some time everyday to research on them, respond and retweet what other people say. Tips from practical ecommerce: 'If you share links on Twitter and use the URL shortener bit.ly, you can copy the link into your browser and add a "+" at the end to see how many people clicked on it and the types of conversations it generated'. 

6. Tools - Tools allow you to engage via Twitter more easily and you can add other social network accounts and synchronize them as well. The best feature is the analytics which allows you to keep track of what you are doing and compare your performance level every month. For me the data gives me incentives to work hard and improve. It puts a smile on my face when I see the follower graph curving upwards.

Have a look at this link, it gives you more details on this topic:
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3921-Twitter-for-Ecommerce-Merchants