Saturday, September 26, 2009

Vendio Offers FREE Stores!


If you are looking for another venue to sell your products, you should check out Vendio!

We have been sidetracked since we found the Vendio FREE stores (sorry about not keeping the blog more current). We are building an awesome store and can't believe that it doesn't cost a thing.

They offer several different free templates that you can use to create your store. They even have downloadable instructions to create your own template. So, if you have no tech skills, you can still have a great store or if you have tech skills, you can manipulate your store to be whatever you envision.

Your images are stored - get this - for FREE! There are also special zoom picture effect included, depending on how you create your listing.

It is very easy to use but if you run into trouble, their support people are only an email away. It doesn't take days to get a response either.

You are able to import your eBay or Amazon listings with ease. The one thing that they don't mention or we didn't notice to be mentioned is that if you delete your imported items, you can not do a re-import of them. Make sure that you really want the items deleted before doing so or you will have to manually create them.

You can offer most any payment form that you would like to accept. They do have Google CheckOut and PayPal integrated into their shopping cart. Checks and money orders are also ok.

Vendio also includes instructions on creating your Google Base feed for those who self-host their store. We haven't created one for our Vendio store so we can't comment on how easy it is. They send feeds to Google Base for the stores hosted on their site so their sellers do not have to.

Another great plus is that you can also upload your Vendio store to your own website. Once again, this option is FREE. So, you can actually get 2 stores for FREE and only work on one to create the two. It doesn't get any better than that!

There are lots of shipping options that you can include in your store and they also offer calculated shipping. And guess what? That is also FREE!

Vendio also provides free inventory management and integrates with eBay and Amazon if you would like to take advantage of that feature. This allows you to manage, create listings, schedule listings to upload to eBay or Amazon and etc... (There is a small fee for integrating.)

These free stores are search engine optimized. That is worth a lot all by itself.

You can also offer coupons on your FREE Vendio store. We haven't tried it yet but it appears able to be done in just a couple of clicks.

We almost forgot to mention that Vendio also provides free gallery widgets that you can place on most any website to showcase your items. These widgets are customizable to match website backgrounds and can be set to scroll if you would like.

Vendio stores are also optimized for iPhone. How cool is that?!

And don't forget, this free store is yours to make your own selling rules. There is no one to dictate rules to you like in online marketplaces. Just like you always wanted, you are your own boss!

Vendio provides a store directory of all stores on the site. It is set up in alphabetical order.

There are also all kinds of options you can add to your store for a small fee which are also worth a look.

If you haven't checked out the free Vendio stores, you should. So far, we think they are fabulous!
Get a 100% FREE Online Store. Sign Up for Vendio

eBay 33% Off Listing Fees Special


eBay is running a nice little special right now through October 11, 2009. If you run auctions on eBay, the site is giving a 33% discount on your listing fees. That is a welcomed change!

Items that usually cost 55¢ to list now cost 37¢, $1.00 listings are 67¢, $2.00 auction listings are $1.34 and so on. Final value fees are not discounted.

This special is available on www.ebay.com, www.ebay.ca and www.ebaymotors.com (Parts & Accessories only).

To qualify for the discount, sellers must have a 12-month Detailed Seller Rating of 4.5 or higher on all criteria.

All other fees apply, check eBay for details and restrictions.
Click here to read the announcement and details.