Desired tool you would like to see

[mnspro]

Hi there folks,

I was just wondering if there is any tool/software you would like to see to make selling as an Australian seller more efficient or add to your current tools to provide functionality that provides efficiency and peace of mind? The reason I'm asking is because I've gathered information on many tools and wanted to start selling again soon and wanted idea's on functionality that I may of missed that may be beneficial.

It could be small, big or anything to make selling life that bit easier.

An idea's?

[kopenhagen5]

I don't need it, but there is a member that has made some spreadsheets for tax and accounts interacting with ebay that seem to have been very well received.

You will need to do an advanced search, perhaps keyword spreadsheet.

[jensmanchester-australia]

Selling Manager Pro offers lots of functions to make things easier.

Depending on how much you are planning to sell for the Accounting side you can't go past Xero.

[mnspro]

Hi guys thanks for the replies.

Yeah I do consider selling manager pro to be very useful according to the research I have completed of it. But I was also interested in your feedback of potential tools you would like to see that aren't currently available. Is there anything being done manually or in a time consuming manner that you would like to automate? Anything that you wish you could have completed faster or more efficiently? Or any innovative ideas you have that you would like to see a tool provide?

[mnspro]

I can give an example.

I think it would be really great if all eBay tools were integrated into one central system to simplify the selling process/system.

What about an eBay fee calculator? is there one of those around? or do people just use spreadsheets?

[jensmanchester-australia]

Most of the tools you need are available through SMP already so they have made it relatively easy.

Fees are simple to calculate these days - there really is no need for a calculator.

The most time consuming part of selling is things eBay can't help with such as packing, taking photographs etc.

[mnspro]

Interesting. So taking photos is somewhat a burden? How do you currently take photos then? As I imagine it the ideal process would be:

1. Take photo from photo taking device such as digital camera

2. Edit photo (crop, re-size, compress)

3. Add photo to listing (is this done in selling manager pro?)

4. Preview listing

5. Upload completed listing

What exactly is so time consuming for you when taking photos? Is there any obstacle that slows this process for you?

[jensmanchester-australia]

The hardest thing is getting the colours as accurate as possible.

[mnspro]

Ok, yeah I guess eBay can't help there. But definitely your photo taking setup/setting can have an impact on your colours. And the digital camera.

[ozsse]

The steps are pretty much the same for me BUT I have my own software to prepare the listing.

As usual I save the photos to a folder and open my software which has a form to enter description etc for each item. It also upload a copy of the photos to a web server.

So I build up inventory with the software without having to list them immediately

at any time I feel like listing something I pick an item from the record and generate the whole HTML for the body (which also contain the photos) with just one click. Then I just paste the code into the seller form. In this sense I can create a listing on ebay's seller form in a matter of seconds.

If I want I can even export items to a spreadsheet for uploading through Turbo Lister but I don't use it now.

Although there are some manual steps involved I am happy with the software because flexibility is more useful to me than other fully automated software (which is costly with a steep learning curve). Because my software is not fully automated it suits small to medium scale sellers better, although it has no problem dealing with millions of entries.