Question
How many listing programs are there out there that will list to eBay, Amazon and Yahoo from just the one program? I'm tired of having all of these different programs on my computer to do this and to do that!
Answer
Compared to the number of programs for listing to eBay, there are few that support Yahoo and, in particular, Amazon.
If you want Windows software there is Auction Wizard 2000, AuctionTamer, and Auctiva Power Tools.
Web-based services with all three sites supported are Andale, Auctiva, ChannelIntegration, ChannelAdvisor, CORESense, Infopia, Marketworks, and Zoovy. All of those can be expensive and charge final value or per-listing fees of their own - check their fee schedules.
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I use Auction Wizard 2000. It doesn't support Amazon.
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Irene, I stand corrected. My mistake.
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AuctionTamer supports ebay, Yahoo, and Amazon. I've only used them for ebay and Yahoo but it's been a great program!
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> listing programs are there out there that will list to eBay,
> Amazon and Yahoo from just the one program?
I see this as a trend as more of use eBay as only one part of our overall online presence. Any desktop or web based service you consider, should have tools that allows you to create inventory in batch and post to the different online venues in batch. Not just eBay, Yahoo, or Amazon -- but also bring a presence to many of the search engines, shopping comparison sites, pay-per-click engines, or any online site that you have potential buyers. Additionally, being able to download orders from these venues to one location for processing would be ideal.
Think bigger than online auctions - there's a bigger pie out there for you to grab.
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tekgems, some of that all-encompassing technology is starting to become available with storefronts from the likes of Truition, Vendio, ChannelAdvisor Merchant etc. but it comes at a premium. Sellers with $1 million+ annual revenue and a solid business plan could benefit from one of these services.
Others might be better suited to self-build storefronts such as Make-a-Store, AuctionBlox/osCommerce, and StoreFront.net, or (dare I say it) eBay's ProStores. The problem I see with going onto ProStores is it feels like putting all your eggs in one basket. As you rightly say, diversification is important.
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The issue remains that inventory details and quantity on hand need to be maintained in one place while being able to publish all your inventory (or a specific subset) to different places. Its not just a matter of having an online store - anyone can do that - the unified inventory is key.
I have not passed the $1 million mark, but you can still find off-the-shelf solutions like Stone Edge Order Manager that can do what I've mentioned. Its just a matter of being able to get your stuff in to the program, push it out to the different web sites, and bring your orders back in. Its not hard once its set up. I'd say you only need $1,000 to $2,000 upfront cost to have unified inventory with eBay and another web store front.
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I agree, unified inventory is a must.
I hadn't come across Stone Edge before and it looks like a good order processing system. I can't see that it has integrated cross-marketplace listing tools so at least one other program would be required for that, and if that program doesn't use Stone Edge's inventory database there will be a lot of duplication of effort.
I realise that setting up an online store need not be difficult. It just happens that the software for this industry has evolved from two different directions (auction management and web storefronts), and the most sophisticated solutions are those that have made the cross over into the other sector.
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> cross-marketplace listing tools so at least one
> other program would be required for that
Correct. The Order Manager would be your main program for managing inventory and processing orders. The other programs like SA Pro would do the posting.
> there will be a lot of duplication of effort
With open databases, you can remove a lot of duplicate effort. Lets say I buy a 1,000 different SKUs from a manufacturer in an Excel spreadsheet. I'm not going to re-type all that information. I'm going to build (or have someone build) a process to put new products in inventory. One time job, repeat infinitely. Same thing with cross-marketplace listing. With eBay, Yahoo, or eBay - they all have ways to bulk list. You just create the files to upload to these different places.
For example, I have a daily file I sent to Google for Froogle and AdWords. I built the process once and schedule it to run every day. I have not had to touch it since. As micro businesses, technology is the great equalizer. We can compete online like the Fortune 500 if you have computers automate where possible.