SoKy Local Business or "SoKybiz"

AP High Tech is running story about eBay encouraging its sellers to to build websites. According to the story, eBay is addressing its slowing growth by offering a website builder and hosting to existing eBay sellers. The new service has been branded as "ProStores" and I could not help but poke around a little.

Like other services found on many of the big portal websites, they are offering a template style design and standard product listing for a nominal fee. The prices range from $6.95 per month and 1.5% successful transaction fee to $249.95 per month and 0.5% successful transaction fee. There is are a few catches to this offering though. 1) You have to be a current eBay seller, no easy task for many technology challenged retailers and 2) you must process the transactions through eBay's own merchant service called PayPal. While I didn't dig very deep, I'm assuming that the PayPal transaction fees still apply too so your successful transaction fees could go up proportionately.

The ProStores website offers a good deal of information about the importance of putting your products and services online as well as tips for security and marketing. One thing eBay has always been good at is motivating its sellers to sell online. After reading some of the propaganda and checking the feature (price) comparisons, I decided to look at their featured stores. The first one offered was Cool Sneaks.

From the ProStores website
	Cool Sneaks "One of our favorite Advanced ProStores features is inventory attributes. We sell shoes, and attributes displays only the sizes we have available for a particular style. It even automatically updates our inventory counts in real time when customers place orders!" Gail Silverman, Cool Sneaks

Since I spent two years developing an online shoe store (weCareShoes.com now closed) and understanding some of the intricate details and complications of shoe store inventory and availability, I decided this was a good site to check out and besides, it was the first featured site listed as well.

I was most disappointed though not surprised to find it impossible to view a single pair of shoes for sale.

I clicked on closeouts, wide widths, mens, womens and even brands... nothing! The page displayed said; "Sorry, no matches were found containing {para}" Really, I could not find one single pair of shoes on the website.

This is where I get discouraged and with a tag line such as this, I can think of no worse example of a contradiction. Steps above the rest in customer service... "sorry, no matches found."

So on to the second "featured site" ... " FakeTeeth.com featuring "The original Billy Bob fake teeth. Oh boy! At least there were products available but to buy a set of "Billy Bob" messed up teeth inserts for $10.00? I don't think so. But seriously, the site appeared custom and attractive if cartooney and the products displayed were at least loyal to the theme. I didn't try to complete the checkout process but on the first page they had purchased an SSL certificate (Encryption protection) so they had at least got the basics right.

Okay, now for my opinion. Services such as this have their place! I have even recommended the service to retailers who have an interest and desire for online marketing as well as the patience to learn how to publish online. There is allot to learn from layout rules to image compression and format. It is also good for the retailer who has a need to be in complete control of their store and unwilling to hire it out. Again, like any service, you can spend the time to learn how to do it right and then accomplish it yourself or you can hire a professional who will seek to make the site work for you in a manner that best fits your business model and marketing efforts.

It's complicated and I will write about this in the future but in my opinion, the services like ProStores have their place just like PayPal and eBay, but for the business owner who does not spend all their time at their computer it's not the best fit. For a business owner who wants to offer a unique shopping experience online, the only real option, just like almost any other part of business, is to make an investment in a professional web design and management company. YES, that's what I do and you might think me bias... but that's simply how I see it through my cyber colored glasses.

This was posted by SoKy : 2:08 PM