Should You Use an Auction Management Tool?

Here's the thing. Auction management tools cost money to use. (You can't get good help for free!) So when you decide to utilize a particular auction management service, you automatically increase your business's costs.

Before you decide to use a third-party auction tool, you have to ask yourself if it's worth the cost. Can you afford to spend another 25 or 50 cents per item, just to make your life a little easier? That might sound like peanutsuntil you start adding up all your other selling costs. Remember, you have to pay eBay to list each item and then pay another fee when the item is sold. If you accept credit card payment via PayPal, you'll pay another fee when a customer pays via that method. Add all these fees together, and you can easily be out a buck or more on each item you selland that comes right out of your profit.

On the other hand, if you're doing a large volume of eBay business, can you afford not to use an auction management tool? Add up all the time you spend creating item listings, sending emails, and handling end-of-auction transactions. Is it worth 25 or 50 cents per transaction to cut that workload in half?

An important factor, obviously, is just what operations you can automate with these auction tools. While each site offers a different selection of tools, here are some of the tools you can expect to find at the major third-party auction sites:

Inventory management. Enter and track all the items in your inventory, and automatically delete items from inventory as they're sold at auction.

Image hosting. Host photos for your auctions on the service's web-site, and manage those photos in your item listings.

Gallery. Create a separate photo page of all the items you have for sale so that potential buyers can link to your item listings and browse through all the merchandise you offer.

Bulk listing creation. Create attractive item listings with pre-designed templates, and then list multiple items in bulk.

End-of-auction email. Automatically send notifications to winning bidders, and notify customers when payment is received and items are shipped.

End-of-auction checkout. Provide a dedicated page that customers can use to verify their purchases, and provide shipping and payment information.

Bulk feedback posting. Automatically post customer feedback in bulk.

Sales analysis. Generate reports and graphs to help you analyze your auction sales over time.

Storefront. Provide other nonauction items for sale on the Web.

Note

A few of these sites also offer eBay research and inventory sourcing services, although these aren't normally part of the typical auction management package.

Not all sites offer all these services. In addition, the level of services offered will also vary; some sites are more automated than others. Read on to learn more about what's available.