After six months of working within the confines of
eBay's listing tools and a short, frustrating stint with
TurboLister, I switched to
Auctiva, a free suite of auction management tools.
I was skeptical at first -- the lovely templates, the ability to schedule listings, profiles for consistency...it all seemed to good to be free. But, it is. Auctiva's business model is based on offering shipping insurance. If a seller chooses to offer insurance, then Auctiva handles that end of the business. Sellers can choose not to offer insurance on their listings.
There was a brief learning curve to become familiar with Auctiva's terminology and I had a few questions about mapping a domain name, but their online chat with support staff was terrific. That said,
QCatsBiz.com went live on Tuesday, February 3, 2009, just 24 hours after I began this adventure.
Auctiva does not eliminate eBay store fees, but it does provide you with free services for some of the things that carry additional eBay fees. Image hosting is one example. Auctiva provides image uploads and hosting as a free service.
My new
QCatsBiz web site includes a simple menu structure for the "About Us," "Contact Us," and "Blog" sections. The blog tool is a terrific addition. Blogging about your items or services, allows you a way to build a better, stronger relationship with your customers and, hopefully, drive more sales to your store.