Marktplätze anbinden (4) – Quick-Start Acadamy von JTL

Quick-Start Academy: Connecting marketplaces

Many online shoppers no longer search for their desired products via search engines, but browse directly through listings on eBay or Amazon. Retailers who are present on the major marketplaces therefore directly reach an extraordinarily large group of shoppers who would otherwise be difficult to direct to their own online store – let alone to a physical store.

On the 4th webinar day of our Quick-Start Academy, we will introduce you to Amazon and eBay from a seller’s perspective and reveal what you should consider in order to be successful as a “newcomer” on the marketplaces in both the short and long term.

The webinars at a glance
Webinar:

eBay - The platform explained in detail

Everyone knows eBay. A whole generation of internet users has grown up with auctions and bidding for rare collector’s treasures. Who doesn’t remember the slogan “3, 2, 1, … mine”? For many, the idea that eBay is an online flea market for hobby dealers is still deeply rooted. A misconception!

eBay Logo

Who is eBay actually?

eBay has long since left its days as a pure auction platform behind it and is now one of the largest online marketplaces for commercial sellers of new products – including in Germany. Retailers who use the platform to get started in eCommerce benefit from its immense reach. Current figures on eBay demonstrate this impressively:

  • 18 million active buyers on eBay.de
  • German online users spend 42% of their shopping minutes on eBay and eBay Kleinanzeigen
  • 81% of items sold on eBay are new or unused
  • 1.4 billion listings on eBay worldwide, buyers and sellers from 190 countries

The size of the marketplace is both an opportunity and a challenge for you as a new seller: you can expect a large number of potential buyers – but also a wide range of items. This requires your active commitment to ensure that your target group finds the products you offer on eBay.

How to get off to the right start

Before you set the necessary levers in motion to optimally place your items on eBay, you first have to arrive on the platform. You can find out first-hand exactly how onboarding works: We have been able to win Lisa Haak, Partner Manager at eBay Germany, as a speaker for the third day of our Quick-Start Academy. She will explain the individual points of the checklist that you should follow when starting on eBay:

  • Eröffnet ein gewerbliches eBay-Konto.
  • Hinterlegt dort alle rechtlich und steuerlich erforderlichen Informationen.
  • Legt die wichtigsten Rahmenbedingungen fest.
  • The most important framework conditions include the handling time between incoming order and shipping, returns and shipping costs, packaging sizes, etc.
  • Enter a payment method, e.g. a commercial PayPal account.
  • Activate two-way verification (SMS or message in eBay app) to protect your account.

Our campaign partner eBay has launched an immediate assistance program to make it easier for you as a retailer to quickly onboard on the marketplace.

Listing hygiene as a success factor

To ensure that your products do not get lost in the mass of items on the marketplace, it is important that they are listed high up in the search results on eBay. To achieve this, you need to maintain your items conscientiously right from the start. Lisa Haak calls this “listing hygiene”:

Lisa Haak Ebay

Your eBay items are your shop window for customers. And just like in a shop window, you should constantly try to present your items in the best possible way and draw attention to them. Listing hygiene is not a secret recipe, but a hard work task that is never finished.

Lisa Haak, eBay

Here are some tips on how to perfectly showcase items in your eBay storefront to increase their visibility on the platform:

  • The right title:
    You have 80 characters at your disposal. Use them! Name relevant features, brand, model, etc. and use synonyms. This is because the eBay search is a keyword search that searches not only the features but also the title of an item.
  • Expressive images:
    Illustrate each of your items with at least 5 different images (12 are possible free of charge on eBay). It is best to choose different perspectives and details. Make sure they are of high quality so that the zoom and image enlargement function works.
  • Article features are the be-all and end-all!
    This is because they ensure that your products are displayed to customers who specify their search using the filters. Always mention the product identifiers (brand, EAN, etc.) in order to be considered on third-party provider sites (Google Shopping, idealo.de).
  • Mobile first!
    Optimize your items for mobile sales and regularly check the display of images and text on your smartphone or tablet. 63% of items sold on eBay have a point of contact with a mobile device!
  • Free Shipping & Returns:
    “Free Shipping” is one of the most used filters on eBay. And since 71% of items sold on eBay are delivered free of charge, you are at a significant competitive disadvantage if you charge customers for shipping. In addition, free shipping and return shipping are taken into account by eBay’s search algorithm.
Best Match

Items receive special attention from buyers on eBay if they are listed under “Best Results” in the product search. This is the standard sorting in which listings are displayed on the search results pages.

  • Es gibt diverse Faktoren, die den Best-Match-Algorithmus positiv beeinflussen.

Targeted sales promotions are also a proven means of giving your sales on eBay an additional boost. You can easily display special offers that you may already have on display in your store on eBay: e.g. quantity discounts (“Buy 3 items, get 1 item free”)” or shipping discounts (“Free shipping from a minimum order value”).

FAQ

If you sell an item with exclusive shipping and return costs, you do not have to refund these costs, which the customer has paid in addition. However, this approach is not customer-friendly and does not create long-term customer loyalty!

However, if you have included the shipping costs, you must refund the total price paid by the customer.

Have you decided to sell your goods on eBay in the future and want to present your listings in the best possible way right from the start? Then we recommend you watch the video recording of the webinar, as it will provide you with further valuable tips on how to be successful as a retailer on the marketplace:

  • Are you particularly interested in the (mandatory) item features on eBay? We recently held a webinar on this specific topic, also with Lisa Haak. You can watch the one-hour webinar recording here free of charge.
Webinar:

Amazon - The marketplace explained in detail

There is hardly any other online marketplace where the sales potential is as huge as on Amazon. Millions of customers use Amazon as a “product search engine”. This means that anyone researching a specific product on the Internet often searches directly on Amazon. Good reason: a product has to be very specific for it not to be found there.

Enormous reach - especially in Germany

In terms of sales share, Germany is the second most important marketplace for Amazon after the USA. This fact impressively demonstrates the extraordinary importance that Amazon has for German shoppers. Anyone looking for a product on the marketplace is highly likely to buy it there. The more than 17 million Prime customers in particular hardly consider alternative sources of purchase – they are virtually lost to other retailers.

Below we give you some tips on how you as a seller can participate in the enormous trade turnover on Amazon.

Access to the marketplace

Amazon offers you two programs to become a seller on the marketplace:

  1. Individual sales plan
  2. Professional sales plan

If you would like to work with a listing software such as JTL-Wawi and JTL-eazyAuction, only the professional sales plan is suitable for you (€ 39.00 net per month). This tariff offers you MWS access, i.e. an interface to the marketplace, which is essential for the software connection and data exchange.

How does selling on Amazon work?

If you sell your products on the marketplace, Amazon will collect the money. This means that Amazon collects the money from the buyers and transfers the sales proceeds less sales commissions, monthly fees and any refunds due to returns to your merchant account every 14 days.

For an additional fee, you can store your products in an Amazon warehouse and have Amazon deliver them directly to your customers. The whole thing is called “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA), you can find out more about this in the keyword list below.

Add to existing product pages or create new ones?

The marketplace works like a catalog in which each product exists only once. There is one product page for each product. This means for you: If you want to sell a product that already exists on Amazon, you attach yourself to the listing that is already listed. You are then one of several sellers offering this product on the product page. This makes it all the more important that your listing stands out and is prominently positioned! You will learn a few tricks in this webinar.

Do you make your own products? Then you can list them as a new product on a separate product page. Or are you the main importer of a product and have your own EAN? Then you can also be the only provider of an item on a product page.

Keywords for successful selling on Amazon

We have compiled an (alphabetical) list of terms that you will come across again and again as an Amazon seller. Based on this list, we would like to introduce you to some relevant adjustments you should make to optimize your sales on the marketplace.

First of all: As you will see, customer service on Amazon is the be-all and end-all. And also the main criterion for your performance. And this is crucial for your success on Amazon! Our tip: Start with a rather small product range so that you can deal with customer requests conscientiously.

  • Simply click on the icons to find out more about the individual keywords:
  • Amazon Business: Hier könnt ihr spezielle B2B-Angebote für gewerbliche Kunden erstellen.
  • Amazon Pay vereint diverse Zahlungsarten, die Amazon auf seinem Marktplatz anbietet.
  • Amazon Prime: Kostenpflichtiger Zusatzdienst u.a. für kostenfreien Premiumversand.
  • ASIN: Identifikationsnummer für auf Amazon gehandelte Produkte.
  • AVC: Auf Einladung von Amazon könnt ihr am „Amazon Vendor Central``-Programm teilnehmen.
  • A-Z Garantie: Sie soll rechtzeitige Lieferung und Zustand eines gekauften Artikels gewährleisten.
  • Browse Tree Guide: Liste von Kategorie-Knotenpunkten zur Klassifizierung von Produkten.
  • Buy Box: Sie ist das Einkaufswagenfeld auf einer Produktseite.
  • Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Amazon übernimmt die Lagerung und den Versand eurer Waren.
  • Multichannel-FBA: Amazon sendet auch Bestellungen anderer Verkaufskanäle aus.
  • MWS: Die Schnittstelle für Drittanbieter-Software, die von Amazon zur Verfügung gestellt wird.
  • ODR: Die Order Defect Rate ist der wichtigste Performance-Wert für Verkäufer auf Amazon.
  • Remissionsauftrag: Damit könnt ihr bei Amazon gelagerte Ware an euch zurücksenden lassen.
  • Seller Central: Der Verkäuferbereich auf Amazon zur Verwaltung von Produkten und Preisen u.v.m.
  • VCS: Mit dem Umsatzsteuerberechnungsservice erstellt Amazon für euch die Kundenrechnungen.
FAQ

Since your listings automatically receive the shipping benefits of Amazon Prime by storing the goods on Amazon, their visibility will benefit in any case. In addition, the probability of “conquering” the Buy Box increases because listings with Prime shipping generally have a higher chance of being placed in the Buy Box.

If you sell your products under your own brand, you are usually the sole supplier. There are therefore no other sellers on the product page.

It can be worthwhile to create your own new product data (images, descriptions) with the JTL Amazon Lister for products that already exist on Amazon and for which you do not have write permissions, and transfer them to Amazon instead of just switching to the existing product page. If you maintain the product data well, Amazon may eventually give you “sovereignty” over the product and thus the writing rights to the page. Over time, Amazon will automatically recognize that you have better descriptions, images, etc. for the listing than the retailer/manufacturer who initially listed the product there.

A general note at this point: Images, descriptions and bullet points can only be transferred from JTL-Wawi to Amazon via self-created product pages. This also applies to products that you have already created manually in Amazon Seller Central, via FlatFile or via other third-party providers.

That was just a brief overview of the Amazon marketplace and the levers you should pull as a seller to sell successfully on the marketplace. If you want to learn more, we recommend watching the video recording of my webinar. I was a seller on Amazon myself for many years and will help you with valuable practical tips – and the odd instructive anecdote.

Webinar:

How to sell on eBay and Amazon with JTL-eazyAuction

With the last webinar of the 3rd day of the Quick-Start Academy we switch from theory to practice again: Live in JTL-Wawi we will go through all the relevant steps you need to take to communicate with eBay and Amazon via the JTL-eazyAuction marketplace integration.

In future, you will no longer have to manually upload your product data to each platform individually; the software will do this for you automatically. All orders will also end up centrally in the ERP and can be processed from there. This also makes things easier for employees who are just starting out: they don’t have to get used to multiple interfaces (eBay, Amazon, online store), but can concentrate on their work in JTL-Wawi.

We recommend watching the video recording of the webinar to understand the technical procedure for the setup, configuration and practical use of JTL-eazyAuction.

What you can expect when you focus on eBay

First, we will look at the integration of your eBay account with the JTL-Wawi ERP system. Especially sellers who already list manually on eBay have to pay attention to a few things during the initial data synchronization. We will then look at which tools you can use to implement the recommendations that Lisa Haak gave you in her webinar. We will show you the tricks that you can use, for example, to store the item characteristics in JTL-Wawi so that your products can be found on eBay in the best possible way.

In the webinar, we will demonstrate this directly in ERP:

  • How the data exchange with eBay works in day-to-day business.
  • What you need to consider when importing your existing eBay profile (general conditions, shop categories, shipping rules, etc.).
  • How to import your eBay listings, edit item master data and create features.
  • How to create new items for eBay and generate eBay categories as your own categories.
  • How to create listing templates, including eBay specifics such as “Suggest price” or “Auction”.
  • How to use listing templates to quickly assign your items to the right category on eBay.
  • How to process your shipping and payment data.
  • How to upload and edit images.
  • How to set specific quantities and prices for eBay for item variations and exclude individual variation combinations from listing on eBay.
  • The topic of design & templates will also be discussed and you will get to know the Feedback Manager for automatic customer reviews.

And what about Amazon...?

In the second part of the webinar, we will show you how to place your listings on Amazon and what you need to consider if you want to sell on the platform. I will also draw on my many years of experience as an Amazon seller and share some tricks with you on how to stand out from the other sellers on the marketplace.

Simple onboarding, quick start

From the registration process to synchronization with Amazon, you will learn everything you need for a smooth start with JTL-eazyAuction. Follow along live as you attach yourself to an Amazon listing from JTL-Wawi or create a new product page for an item that does not yet exist on Amazon. There are many things you need to be aware of when filling out the inventory.

You will then know how to configure the information to be transmitted to Amazon, how to assign a variation in JTL-Wawi to the corresponding variation on Amazon, how to use the Amazon Lister, how to work with the classification assistant, and how to create and edit “custom fields” to link them to corresponding fields in Amazon.

Take your time and learn the practical know-how for your work with JTL-Wawi and JTL-eazyAuction in our webinar recording:

  • More about JTL-eazyAuction:
    JTL-Website
  • Step-by-step instructions for the integration of eBay & Amazon with JTL-Wawi:
    JTL-Guide
  • Exchange your questions with JTL employees and other merchants:
    JTL forum
  • Step-by-step instructions for JTL-eazyAuction in video format:
    Youtube channel
  • Detailed JTL-Wawi basics for new sellers:
    Online course
  • E-learning on JTL-Wawi & Co. and individual online business topics:
    JTL webinars
Outlook

In the previous webinars, we have mainly dealt with the office work of an online retailer. On the fifth and final day of our Quick-Start Academy, we will switch to the warehouse. We will show you various options for organizing your shipping: If you want to handle shipping yourself, you can set up your own warehouse and use professional warehouse management software to ensure efficient processes. Would you prefer to remove shipping from stock to a professional? Then drop shipping or fulfillment are options for you. We will explain what these technical terms mean in the next part of our webinar series.

Tag 5: Lagerprozesse optimieren

The other webinar days of our Quick-Start Academy:

Published on:
9. April 2020
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Solutions from JTL
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Manuel Mälzner
Manuel

Training Manager at JTL

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