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One of the most useful features is the "my favorite sellers" option. Customers get to bookmark their favorite sellers who are then saved as a group to their own page.
As a buyer, I find this feature the best of all:
I know the caliber of service, because I've bought there before.
I know that seller has a selection of items I regularly need or want.
I know I can communicate with that seller and get a reply to my questions.
This feature also sends me a weekly report of what my favorite sellers have up for auction.
Truthfully, as a buyer, I use THIS feature more than any other.
As a seller, I know individuals who have ME listed as one of their favorite sellers is getting a weekly report of items I have posted.
As a Plant Scout vendor, I can link my products to plants found in the plant files. Perhaps when you type in your description, it can give you the option of linking to a plant found in the Plant Files based on what you type in.
I have been looking at other auction sites since this fiasco started with eBay. What has prevented me from listing with any of them is "Categories" Every one that I have visited has everything lumped into one section under "plants" and then it is pages and pages you have to wade through to see what is there. They do have a search but if you don't know the name of a plant and would just like to look it is very hard and time consuming. I don't know what Dave has in mind but If we could have something simple to begin with here that would at least separate seeds, plants. Annuals, Perennials, Tropicals, etc...this would be great. As the site grows then it could get more specific. I think it has been in the last year or two that eBay even got more specific with things we sold.
agree 100% SS. I have run into the same problem,. also people listing 100 somethings and flooding the plant category for pages on end with the same thing. on some sites the pages load so slow it seem to take forever to go through what's available.
other sub categories to consider might be bulbs, iris, daylilies.
I thought of a couple other things.
When you see the listing, could it also include the sellers name and feedback rating at a glance without having to actually click on the auction to see it? I have had this in the past on ebay, said it was beta and now I don't get it anymore, but I REALLY liked it. Saved me going through page after page of listings and finally having to go into the ADVANCED search tab and EXCLUDING certain sellers that had bad feedback to try to cut back on the pages to go through,
And that brings me to my 2nd thing. I do not understand the logic behind listing the same item 50 times in individual actions, why not just make one auction and put qty at 50? Is this a guideline that might be helpful to the buyer, to cut down on all the listings they have to wade through? Although, it might be more profitable for the site to have them listed 50 times, I really have no idea. Just know it is really annoying to have page after page to look through, and not knowing who the seller is without clicking on it, and after getting through all the pages it turns out the majority of the auctions are all by just a handful of sellers!
I hope that makes sense.
Will the listings be all together or broken up in to categorys? Also will there be a search function so I can look for a specific plant/seed with out having to go thru every listing ?
as a seller having a relist option is nice, maybe up to 5 times or maybe more. All because with everyone leaving Ebay, people are scattered and trying to get settled in a number of other sites, and being that its going to take time for buyers to find these sites, traffic is slow (not saying by the looks of it, that would be the case here LOL) but its also a nice option for those that have a number of plants. I know some may think sellers would park their stuff & leave until something sells, but I really dont think that would be the case here. Plants change daily, and well people are addicted to plants LOL
I have seen some auctions sites offer relist if the item sells (for those that have multiple items)
AND an offer to relist if the item does not sell. Both are good ideas.
But being that you have to be a member inorder to get no insertion fee's, this would only be an option to members. I think it would get more people/sellers to be serious and join.
On the seller's preference page, perhaps you could have a choice of currencies for the sellers outside of the US so the auction appears in the currency of their choice. If something is available in more than one country, a currency converter on the auction page would be very helpful, so the buyer knows right away how much it will cost him. That will, once again, require capturing the buyer's information, though, so the $ amount appears on the auction in his currency. The system would have to know what each buyer is looking at and what currency he needs to see... I don't know how hard that is to do.
For example, if I am selling a flower pot for $3.99, someone from Canada would see the $3.99USD, but it would also say $3.97 CAD. Someone from Great Britain would see £1.97.
On the LA you can list items as an INSTANT BUY and list how many you have for sale. As some of them are sold, the number decreases until all sold out. That is a very nice feature that I like a lot.
On their regular auctions I figure the amount of shipping into my maximun bid so I don't pay more that the item is worth. The total has to come in under the average value of the item or I won't bid on it.
The BUY IT NOW items on the LA usually are more than the average price listed in the EUREKA and I seldom bid on those.
I think it was the previous "features" thread where I came across the mention that sellers would be able to send Dmails to people who had added them to their "favorite sellers" lists.
Personally, I love that idea!
But with the idea of keeping commerce out of DG, I think it might be a good idea to either make it quite clear that by adding a seller to your "favorites" you are giving permission for them to Dmail you with special offers and announcements... or to have a checkbox option to choose if you'd like to receive promotional Dmail from sellers on your "favorites" list.
Otherwise, I'm afraid some might see it as unsolicited commercial stuff in their Dmail... ?
"The buy it now" feature, I don't see anything to click for that...Am I missing it or isn't it ready yet?
Also, I have the classified section added to my watched thread. Can I add the Auction? I don't see anything yet for that either. I did bookmark it but would like to keep it right on my home page.
