Here at As Was, we are fielding more interest in what we do than we've seen before. Not only are people in love with our custom and unique designs, but they also understand the strategy help and advice that comes with our services. You don't just get a pretty picture and a hardy handshake... we get to know your business, and work to improve sales and customer satisfaction, leading to higher DSRs. Did you read our study on the PowerSeller who tested her old eBay listings against the same pictures and information in the template we designed?
But with that high interest in our work comes economic concerns. And in this climate, it's understandable. We want to try to make it easier for people to afford the best company out there (that's us!), so here are our three new payment plans.
Each new client can choose whichever he or she likes for the services in your initial contract. As per our pricing page, the minimum for which you can hire us is for our "template and consulting" package at $2000. Many clients tend to add more services to their initial contract so that our work can have an even bigger effect up front.
Full payment up front. Pay your entire As Was contract in
one payment when you sign the contract, and get a 5% discount. For
example, if your contract is for template, 1-level matrix, and simple
Store, you'll be able to make one payment of $2,992.50 instead of
paying $3,150.00 (the total of these three services).
Two payments. Upon signing your As Was contract, 50% of
your contract total will be due. Six weeks later or when the tasks in
your contract are finished, whichever comes first, the remainder will
be due. For example, if your contract is for template, 1-level matrix,
and simple Store, you'll be able to make two payments of $1,575.00.
Three monthly payments. A third option is to pay your
As Was contract over three monthly payments. We will add roughly 5% to
your total as a finance charge. Your first payment is due upon contract
signing, the second payment is due a month later, and the third payment
is due a month after that. For example, if your contract is for
template, 1-level matrix, and simple Store, you'll be able to make
three monthly payments of $1,110.00.
Tucson,
AZ -- In a marketplace where most sellers think that
all you need for success are good products, good pricing, and good seller
reputation (feedback and DSRs), would listing design really make any
difference? Judy Oglesby of eBay seller “BluePennyLady” hired As Was, eBay’s
first Certified Service Provider, in the summer of 2008 for their template and
consulting package. As Judy is a liquidator and selling a wide variety of
items, the plan was to do A/B testing, comparing the style and layout of Judy’s
existing listings to the custom and unique design created from scratch by As
Was.
Judy’s
sales have skyrocketed. Items that were listed over and over but never sold now
sell quickly. Shoppers who had been confused about her policies and now very
clear. Judy said, “I know my seller friends are impressed with the template,
are asking me questions concerning how my sales have climbed. I have seen
almost a 30% increase in sell through rate in the last two weeks. I think it is
simply the template design.”
Judy’s
reports on her A/B testing were as follows:
After 10 days of running both old-style listing and As Was design listings, watchers
on the As Was design listings were at least twice in number of those same items
listed with Judy’s old template. Bidders who placed bids on numerous listings
chose to bid on the As Was design listings before placing bids on items listed
using Judy’s old template.
Between August 27, 2008 and September 2, 2008, the As Was design was being used
in 13% of auctions but represented 50% of the successfully ended auctions.
In mid-September 2008, Judy announced at the RocketPlace conference that the As
Was design was being used in 30% of her listings but represented 90% of her
sales.
By late September 2008, the As Was design was being used in 50% of Judy’s eBay
items but represented 90% of her sales.
As Was design Fixed Price items sold more quickly, some in less than 24 hours
as opposed to the normal 36 to 48 hours.
The quantity sold from As Was design Fixed Price items also increased.
Judy’s Store traffic has increased, having changed nothing other than the
template. She even removed the eBay Store categories from being displayed in individual
listings weeks before using the new As Was template. Judy is finding that her buyers
are entering her eBay Store from the template instead clicking on the Store
link elsewhere on the individual item page.
Judy
also had examples of how inventory that had not moved in a while suddenly
started to sell with the As Was template.
“I listed some dry storage camping bags that have been listed since May 24, but
had not sold a single one in my old design. I listed them in the As Was design
at 5:30 pm CST and sold some by 6:37 pm CST.”
She moved product that had not sold after multiple listings in the old design to
the As Was design template making no other changes as far as image layout,
title, format, or time of day. Roughly 25% of those auctions sold by simply
moving the product to the As Was design.
“I have had these Donner toothbrush/cup holders listed four different times
without selling a single one. I moved them to the As Was design on September 10th,
and they are now selling.”
“I have Amerock cabinet pulls listed ten times, 30 days at a time, and not sold
one. I listed them with the As Was template, and they are selling.”
Judy explains, “Quite a few of the listings I changed over to the As Was design,
which had not sold in a coons age, sold over the weekend as fixed price or
Store listings. Staff noticed items that had not shipped out in a very
long time, probably months. The stuff had been listed, but didn't sell. If it
were only one or two lots, I would tend to believe it was simply timing. But
that is not the case.”
As
Was uses design to try to communicate important points that shoppers were
missing, leading them to feel confusion, frustration, and disappointment. When
buyers have questions, they often end up buying from other sellers; even if you
answer their question quickly, the shopper may have hit the back button and
bought from someone else. Therefore, it’s important that an eBay listing give a
shopper complete trust, and leave them with no questions.
Quite
a few buyers have been emailing Judy on how eye-appealing her design’s new look
is.
“I can easily remember you combine shipping because the Mule says it.”
“The goose stating "Ask me a question" makes me want to email. It is
much more relaxing and friendly than a statement saying “have any questions,
click here.” “
Judy is getting comments about the top of the template being interesting, and
making shoppers want to scroll down to see what this seller has to offer.
Judy is getting comments about how the template depicting Judy’s life on her
ranch makes people feel that it’s wonderful it is to have the "dream life"
everyone else would like to have. The design makes people feel comfortable, and
they love the feel of it. Buyers are sending Judy pictures of their own farms
and ranches.
One repeat buyer Judy had not seen in a long time recently purchased product
yesterday, and told Judy he just had to buy something and let her know how much
he enjoyed the new look.
As Was is a full-service consulting
firm specializing in branding, design, sales and marketing strategies,
operations management, and training for eBay and online sellers. As Was has
been making the world’s marketplace your marketplace since it was founded in
April 1995, and has been an eBay Certified Service Provider since August 2004.
For more information, please visit www.aswas.com or call 520.204.1935.
Between
the many, large changes eBay has announced this year, and the economy, many
eBay sellers are concerned about the holiday selling season. As Was, eBay’s first
Certified Service Provider, has an unmatched track record helping eBay sellers
grow, compete, be more profitable, and have higher DSRs (Detailed Seller
Ratings).
The
average As Was client grows their eBay sales 15% within weeks of finishing a
project with As Was, and then continues to grow. The average client also sees
fewer pre-sales emails, more eBay Store traffic, and higher DSRs. As Was is able to
achieve these results, time after time, because As Was does more than design;
As Was staff is made up of eBay experts in the USA to work one-on-one with each
client to improve businesses and resolve areas where shoppers feel frustration,
confusion, and disappointment.
"We
took several months to finally decide on a company to help us with our template
design and eBay strategy. After hiring As Was, we knew we made the right
decision. It took about 3 weeks for the template to be completed, and the
result was impressive. We instantly noticed a higher percentage of sales on
auctions that had the template than my older auctions that had not yet been converted.
This was no accident. The price I paid was small compared to the long term
benefits I will receive." - eBay user ID suburbanwheelcover, June 2008,
days after starting to use his As Was template.
As
Was works with new eBay entrepreneurs as well as veteran PowerSellers, and
starts with branding and identity; does the eBay seller have a name that people will
remember? When a buyer remembers your name, they are more likely to look for
you again, and to tell friends.
Next,
As Was creates a design template for all of the seller’s eBay listings. Designs are always
completely custom and unique, designed with the seller’s company image and
personality in mind. As Was designs based on how eBay shoppers tend to think and behave, and never starts with a cookie cutter
layout. The only thing As Was uses over and over is creativity.
As
Was staff also rewrite, edit, and reorganize the seller’s policies.
Better-written policies and a unique design keep shoppers interested, and make
them more likely to read and understand the nature of the transaction. Shoppers
who understand policies are more likely to bid or buy without bogging the
seller down with questions, and are likely to give better feedback and DSRs
since their experience matched their expectations.
Each
As Was client gets a strategy report from our in-house Business Strategist.
Sellers will get a fresh understanding of how to use item titles, listing
timing, listing formats, listing features, and more to best capitalize on the
demand for their items on eBay.
From
there, As Was can design eBay Stores, About Me pages, off-eBay eCommerce
websites, business cards, postcards, and other print materials, and blogs. The
“Msss Kel’s Place” designed
by As Was won eBay’s “Best In Stores: Standard Store” award for 2008. As Was
acts as a full-service business and marketing consulting firm to eBay sellers,
and is happy to provide anything sellers need to help them grow.
As
Was listing templates are compatible with Vendio (including Vendio Desktop and
Andale), Inkfrog, Auctiva, AuctionWizard 2000, Blackthorne Basic and
Blackthorne Pro, Laris, Kyozou, Infopia, ChannelAdvisor’s Marketplace Advisor
Premium as well as Marketplace Advisor, previously known as Marketworks, and
any software that allows for completely custom HTML templates.
As
Was also makes a lot of their advice and approach available to the public
through their RocketPlace conference. As Was clients and non-clients are welcome to join us
at The Rio in Las Vegas, September 10-12, 2008, for the best and newest
techniques, strategies, and tools for growing eBay businesses.
eBay had announced an all-new links policy in May that brought a lot of grumpiness. We reacted as well, and let eBay know where we thought they missed the boat!
In early June, we spoke with some T&S people who clarified the new links policy for us, and we posted it to our Marketing Hall of Fame blog.
But eBay is saying HOLD ON. They have still been reworking the links policy, and here is the latest that they said:
Which links will be allowed under the new Links policy?
We will not enforce the links policy in July as we originally announced
on May 19, 2008. We will introduce a revised policy by mid-August, 2008
that will allow links to your ProStore and to non-transactional sites
from your About Me page. To give sellers time to adjust, enforcement of
the policy will begin four weeks after the revised policy is introduced.
So it sounds like the main changes from what we last broadcasted may be that the About Me can link to a ProStore and information-only pages. But clients and sellers who have been linking to their off-eBay selling websites may still have to take those links down.
In a move sure to be greeted with cheers by the selling community, eBay announced today that they will be reversing their recent policy decision to count neutral feedback as negatives. Read the announcement here.
Further evidence that eBay is listening to its buying and selling community is that eBay will roll out a new resolution process for buyers and sellers to use, coming in October. This is great news for buyers because merchants will have an incentive to help them resolve their issues. Sellers benefit because eBay will give buyers a way to edit feedback, and possibly remove it altogether; if sellers do a good job of resolving problems for their customers, their customers will be able to respond by editing/removing feedback.
Lorrie wrote: I hope what I've shared with you today demonstrates our commitment to listening and responding quickly with solutions.
As Was is looking to add one Customer Support person to our team! Our Customer Support people take care of the simpler needs of clients as well as some of the tasks the As Was team can have you take care of.
We're in Tucson, AZ. You're wherever you are in the USA, and you have a home office setup where you can separate yourself from any other beings who share your living space! :) As Was staff are currently in the USA, Canada, the UK, and South Africa. We're not doing the India, Pakistan, Philippines, Asia thing.
You…
Are a huge expert with Photoshop, hand-written HTML, and CSS. Most of your day, you will be working on clients' listing templates, eBay Stores, websites, and other things they need. We don't use FrontPage or Word, we don't use the WYSIWYG side of Dreamweaver, and neither do you. You won't do the designs, but you will need to be able to change images and alter layouts.
Are great on the phone, on live text chat, and over email. You express yourself well, English is your native language, and you’re naturally friendly and patient.
Write well and have lovely grammar. Some of what we do for clients has to do with re-wording policies and information that they want to express to their shoppers.
Have a great sense of humour and fun personality.
Know your way around Microsoft Office including Outlook.
Can fantastically schedule your own day, be self-directed, and manage yourself. We are not going to tell you what to do and when to do it. You'll get projects and tasks, you'll work directly with clients, and you'll need to make sure you're meeting deadlines and keeping people thrilled.
Want something that's not your typical day job! Nearly every day, you'll have new clients, new projects, new tasks, and changes somebody wants to something. This job does not fall into any routine.
Have a suitable home office/fortress, free from distractions.
Can join us full time as a consultant.
Love our work, and want to be part of what we do for eBay sellers!
We…
Love helping eBay sellers start and grow their businesses. It's our passion!
We choose clients carefully, so you will love them too.
Will train you on how to do what we do the way we do it.
Refuse to micromanage. You need to motivate yourself and meet deadlines.
It would be a great plus if you…
Were familiar with one or more listing software systems such as Blackthorne, Inkfrog, Vendio, Auctiva, MarketWorks, Kyozou, Infopia, and ChannelAdvisor Merchant.
Have already passed the eBay Certified Consultant exams. You will need to pass that once you are hired and trained.
Know how to use Salesforce.
Here are some of the duties in no particular order:
Answering customer support emails and phone calls. Helping clients where you can; escalating things back to other As Was staff where you can't help the client.
Quoting prices for clients where the fixes aren't part of their warranty service.
Installing templates into their software. Making changes as needed (some may be graphic changes).
Editing/rewriting policy text & standard language into clients' eBay listing templates.
Representing us in our eBay Live! booth. Possible other travel for conferences.
Duties not on your plate:
eBay consulting. The rest of the team will handle that advice for our clients.
If clients want more services, their Account Manager will give them a quote for that work.
Designing things from scratch. You may work from something our artists already designed, but you will not have to come up with new designs yourself.
Business development. If another company wants a closer or different relationship with us, our CEO will handle that.
We've just released our first video from what should soon be a whole bunch of videos for eBay sellers at all levels. :) Our first one is about marketing on eBay.
Topics include:
Picking the right eBay user ID and eBay Store name for your business.
Tips for item titles, item descriptions, and laying out your information.
How bad layouts and design work against your marketing.
How eBay shoppers perceive you and your item based on how your listing looks.
Listing templates save the day!
Write your policies for higher DSRs and buyer satisfaction.
