Buy.com’s Marketplace Newsletter

January 26, 2011 2 Comments

This is the January 2011 newsletter from the Buy.com marketplace. They have some cool features that they created at the end of the year and it is good to see them improving their marketplace. Though Buy.com is pretty new, they are starting to really focus on improving the features for both the sellers and buyers. I think this comes from the purchase of Buy.com from Rakuten. Here is the Buy.com 2011 Newsletter if you want to know what is going on. Let us know if you are interested in selling on Buy.com as we know some companies that can help setup you up, or since we used to sell on it, we can help as well.

Dear Marketplace Seller,Thanks for a great 2010! We look forward to bringing you many new tools and features this year. Recently our Marketplace launched both our Everything Else store and our New Product Tool. Both of these features allow our sellers to quickly add new products to Buy.com Marketplace.

Buy.com Marketplace Announces Everything Else Store!

As our marketplace continues to grow, we realized that there were many categories that were not available for sellers to sell in. In late September of 2010 we launched the Everything Else category to help us meet that need. We created the Everything Else store to hold each of these new categories. All of the product listed in the Everything Else store is indexed in search and is submitted to our marketing partners so product in these categories will be available for all Buy.com shoppers. At this time we have 300K listings in the Everything Else store and we would love to add yours.

Here are some of our new categories:

Antiques

Art

Automotive, Boat and Motorcycle

Business and Industrial

Coins and Paper Money

Collectibles

Crafts

Entertainment memorabilia

Food and Gourmet

Pottery and Glass

Sporting Goods

Sports Memorabilia

Stamps

You can use our new online skus creation tool to add your product to one of these categories. We look forward to working with your to grow your sales.

http://www.buy.com/loc/Everything-Else/68687.html

Buy.com Marketplace scheduled seller tool and seller FTP maintenance.

On Thursday, February 3, 2011 between 08:00PM PST and 12 Midnight PST Buy.com Marketplace seller tools and FTP will be unavailable for planned maintenance.

Do you have a product that isn’t in our catalog?

Buy.com Marketplace has recently implemented an exciting new feature in your Seller Tools to create new SKUS/products and list them! You can find Add New SKUs on your Seller Tools homepage under the Manage New SKUs header as seen below. Now you can enter your product data with ease as you navigate through a few simple screens. You have the option of submitting each product one-by-one or entering several and submit them all at one time. After 48 hours you can return to your Seller Tools and use the new View Your SKUs to list your products.

Helpful Hints

Review the documentation found here http://www.buy.com/retail/toc_feature.asp?loc=67031 so you can get familiar with the type of data you’ll need to provide to create your new product

Make sure you have complete and accurate data, as well as image URLs for your products before you begin entering data.

You don’t have the ability to update data for products that already exist on the site or for ones you created through the Add New SKUs tool. Again, make sure you have accurate and complete data before beginning. With the assistance of MP-Integration, Sellers can update specific fields for products already on the site. To find out which fields you can update and how, please contact MP-Ingegration@buy.com

We require that all images feature only the product set against an all-white background. The Add New SKUs tool will allow you to proceed past the images screen with a good image URL, but if your image doesn’t meet all our requirements, they will not be processed and you’ll need to contact MP-Ingegration@buy.com for instructions on how to update the image

Only submit your product once! Submitting the same product multiple times, especially the same day, can cause several different issues including the possibility of preventing the product from being created properly which will prevent you from listing it

Remember to return after 48 hours to list your products using the View Your SKUs tool. Enter your seller sku for a specific product or simply click Search to bring up all products submitted IMPORTANT: Only products created through Add New SKUs tool will appear on this screen and not products submitted by the New SKU Feeds

The MP Integration team reviews products submitted through seller sools to ensure accuracy of category placement and data quality. If you’re uncertain where to place your products, please contact MP-Ingegration@buy.com before entering any data. IMPORTANT: Sellers intentionally submitting products in the wrong departments/categories or submitting bad data in general could have their ability to create new products revoked as well as their account. Please ensure the accuracy of your data to guarantee the best Marketplace experience for the Seller, which will facilitate the best buying experience for Buy.com shoppers.Thanks again for your decision to sell on the Buy.com Marketplace!Best regards,
Buy.com Marketplace Integration

Buy.com Return Badge Deadline

August 12, 2010 0 Comments

The deadline to be included in the first round of 45-day return badges on the Buy.com Marketplace is tomorrow, Friday August 13th. The return badge will display on all of your marketplace listings. This first round will be created just in time for the beginning of the 4th quarter rush. If you are a marketplace seller and you have either extended your return policy to 45 days, or you already have a 45 day return window, then you need to contact Buy.com by the end of tomorrow. Please remember that you will need to edit your settings on Buy.com to reflect the new return policy. Email sellers@buy.com to let them know you are all set.

Get Your 45-Day Return Badge on Buy.com’s Marketplace

August 5, 2010 1 Comment

I received an email from Buy.com’s marketplace team describing the addition of a 45-day return badge for anyone that will accept returns on Buy.com marketplace orders for up to 45 days. Buy.com has opened up their return policy to 45 days for any orders on Buy.com. They want all of their customers to enjoy the convenience of a 45-day return window, so they have asked all sellers to start accepting this same return policy. If you do allow Buy.com customers a 45-day return period, then you will receive a badge on your Buy.com marketplace listings. I know some companies will probably do this, but there are many others that I have spoken with that will not change their policies for one site just to get a badge. Here is the email from Buy.com’s marketplace team. What do you think of the badge idea?

Hello from Buy.com Marketplace.

Buy.com has announced that we have extended our return policy to 45 days on items that are shipped from and sold by Buy.com. We feel confident that this move will improve conversion, give us a competitive edge and delight our customers – and we’d like you to be a part of all of that.

We are encouraging all of our Marketplace Sellers to join us by extending their Buy.com return policies to at least 45 days on all items. Each Marketplace Seller that adopts a 45-day return policy will get a special “45 Day Returns” badge next to all of their listings and increased opportunities for favorable positioning.

To change your return policy, please log into your seller account and click on “View/Edit your Seller Site Information and Policies”. Please note that the 45 Day Returns badge will display on all of your listings, so the 45 day policy must apply to all products that you carry in order for you to participate in this program at this time.

Once your return policy is set to 45 days, please email sellers@buy.com letting us know that you are all set. To be included in the first wave of “45 Day Return” badges, please make sure you have done this by Friday, August 13. The badges will go up on the site by early September.

Thank you being an important part of the rapidly growing Buy.com Marketplace, and make sure to contact sellers@buy.com by August 13 to get your badge.

Sincerely,

Randy Smythe
Buy.com Marketplace

Please note from this email that you have to contact Buy.com in order to get your badge which will be in place just in time for the 4th quarter sales rush. If you already accept returns up to 45 days, then this should be easy. If not, decide if this will increase your sales and how hard it might be to manage. I am not sure how Buy.com will rank marketplace listings with the badge, but if it helps, then I say go for it.

Buy.com and the White-Label Marketplace

July 29, 2010 1 Comment

The marketplace niche is heating up as Buy.com plans to roll out a new white-label marketplace to be placed on retailer sites. This is an interesting approach for the mass merchant. After Buy.com got purchased by Rakuten Inc., they have really changed the way that they look at the online marketplace arena. Buy.com has allowed third part sellers to sell the same items that they list on their website. It has provided some more revenue that Buy.com might have lost when items were out of stock. This is the same approach that Amazon created when it started its marketplace, which is much older than Buy’s.

The white-label marketplace will be hosted by Buy.com and will give third party retailers the option of allowing their customers to purchase the over 7.5 million sku’s that Buy.com currently has listed. This will really open the offering that many retailers currently have and possibly bring a lot more traffic to these retailers. Buy is currently only working with a small subset of retailers, mostly ones that have national stores. Once they get this roll-out done, then they plan on opening it up to small and medium size retailers. This will change the game for these type of retailers as they will receive a commission from Buy.com and the other seller that are part of the Buy.com marketplace. This can help any lost sales that small retailers might get for out of stock products as well as really open up the product offering.

I think this is a good move for Buy.com as they will really open up their sku’s to other retailers and other sites. This could bring them more traffic and more sales. It looks like this is a way to more directly compete with Amazon and it might open the eyes of Amazon a little more. They might take head and try to create something similar to keep Buy.com from gaining ground. Amazon already has a partner program, but that is not the same thing as what Buy.com plans to offer. This should be good for the industry and it will really help out smaller sellers with succeeding online. If you are a small retailer, then put this on your radar as they plan on opening it up to you later on this year, which means you probably will be able to integrate by first quarter 2011.

Buy.com Marketplace Getting a Little Pushy!

January 6, 2010 1 Comment

The Buy.com marketplace is the young gun of the bunch when it comes to online marketplaces. It was developed to be like Amazon with same like fee structure and uploads for retailers. While the Amazon marketplace dominates the industry, Buy.com has been growing in size and has kept retailers happy with the service. As Buy.com gets older in age, they realize that they want to start keeping the relationship of the Buyer with them, eventhough the buyer is purchasing from another retailer.

Buy.com allows the customer to contact the retailer if there are any issues with shipping or the product, and the retailer is supposed to respond to those emails as Buy.com does not have an in house email function like Amazon does. Amazon keeps the relationship with customer because everything comes from Amazon and there are no links to the retailers website in any emails. Amazon understands this and the retailers understand when they sign on. Well, it looks like Buy.com has finally caught on to it and they want to make some changes, but not in the best way.

Here is an email excerpt from Buy.com to its sellers asking them to stop from using links in their emails to their website or asking people to go to their website for any answers to their questions.

Hello from Buy.com Marketplace.

Buy.com Marketplace automatically sends emails to buyers to confirm orders, shipment and cancellation/refunds as well as request buyer feedback. In an effort to keep all communication with Buy.com customers consistent, we are requiring that all sellers remove their order confirmation, shipment confirmation, and feedback follow up emails. Buy.com Marketplace will send these emails to customers in all cases. Please ensure that these emails are removed by Monday, February 1, 2010.

As stated Buy.com Marketplace will send all shipping emails, but do ask that all sellers work directly with buyers to resolve any issues. Please review all direct emails you send to Buyers and ensure that you there are no links to your website or requests to visit your website in your customer service communication.

Thanks for a successful holiday season. We look forward to a great 2010!

Buy.com Marketplace

Now this may seem a little strange to some as Buy.com does not provide sellers with a way to email from within their marketplace platform. How do they expect retailers to change the way that their whole system is setup to be in compliance with an outlandish request. It seems that Buy.com doesn’t want the retailers to use their standard email program to send responses to customers, but some generic response with no images or signatures. I hope Buy.com realizes that they will probably feel some backlash with this as large retailers are not going to change their systems to meet the requirements of a young marketplace such as Buy.com. If they want this to work, they need to develop a email function within the marketplace and until they do so, they need to leave this request behind. Good luck Buy.com with asking retailers to stop doing what they have been doing for many years. Lets see how it pans out!

iMark Interactive