The idea behind Selling Manager applications is similar to the idea behind the more famous “app stores” like the ones commonly associated with popular mobile phones. eBay gives participating developers access to the eBay database and Selling Manager system, and these developers in turn create additional eBay features for sellers at a rate and level of creativity that eBay couldn’t maintain by maintaining total control over features development themselves.
A Sampling of Applications on Offer
The new Selling Manager applications store can be surveyed at applications.ebay.com and currently boasts a modest (but sure to grow) list of offerings that include:- TeraPeak, which offers detailed, real-time market research using eBay’s transactions database that is nicely integrated into the Selling Manager toolset.
- My Store Maps, which automatically inserts a map into your eBay auction listings showing the locations of your previous customers in your area or around the world.
- Quantity Manager, which automatically manages your listing quantities to maintain appropriate scarcity levels so that you don’t compete with your own auctions by overlisting.
- Vzaar, which hosts and streams video that can be embedded into your auction listings, giving you a more personal, interactive way to communicate with your buyers.
- Ah!Text, which offers a much more complete, flexible, and configurable interface for monitoring your selling by SMS than eBay’s own notifications system.
- My Store Rewards, which gives sellers automates the creation of cash-back incentive and discount programs, marketing strategies, and similar retention or repeat-buy aids for sellers, with lots of flexibility and very little hassle.
Using Applications with Selling Manager
To add applications to, remove applications from, or configure and use applications in your Selling Manager account, simply follow these two steps:- Subscribe to Selling Manager. Now that selling manager is free, there's virtually no reason not to use it if you're an eBay seller. This introduction and tutorial will help you subscribe and begin to use it.
- Click on the Applications tab. On your Selling Manager page in My eBay, there's now a tab at the upper right marked "Applications." Everything you'll need to add, remove, and use applications is here within easy reach and easy to use.
There are more applications than this on offer, and there promise to be many more in the future as eBay’s applications “store” ramps up, but this first round of applications, in combination with the new, free availability of Selling Manager, promises to change the selling dynamic on eBay considerably in the months and weeks to come. If you’re already an eBay seller, Selling Manager applications can help you to be more strategic and streamlined. If you’re not already a longtime seller, it’s an interesting time to get started.
