With hundreds of thousands of people regularly buying goods on eBay it is easy to understand its importance as an additional sales channel. Thankfully with the ePages software this channel can be easily exploited allowing goods to be sold from your shop.

Overview of The Steps

The procedure for selling goods on eBay from your shop is simple and straightforward. The basic process is this:

1. Create an eBay seller account.
2. Activate the eBay account in your shop (enter the details from the eBay account).
3. Create a template in your shop that will be used to display product information on eBay.
4. Activate the e-mail notification.
5. Choose, configure and upload products to eBay.

Creating an eBay Account in Your Shop

After you registered on eBay, activate your eBay account in the administration area of your shop:

1. Navigate to ‘Settings’ -> ‘eBay Settings’ -> ‘eBay accounts’.
2. Select the eBay platform you will be selling on, normally ‘United Kingdom’ and enter a name, e.g. ‘Joe Bloggs UK eBay Account’. Click on ‘Save’.
3. To configure this account click on ‘Complete it’. Enter the country you’re selling from e.g. UK, the region e.g. London and the town e.g. London. Click on ‘Save’.
4. The account must now be authenticated by eBay. Click on ‘Request Authentication’, the system will test whether a connection to eBay can be created, if successful a ’Request authentication from eBay’ link will be displayed.
5. Click this link and you will be automatically forwarded to eBay (to be authenticated), enter your account details and click ‘sign in’. Provided there are no problems you will be asked if you wish to link your eBay account to your shop, click ‘I agree’. You will now be returned to your shop and your account will be authenticated.
6. Test it by clicking ‘Test authentication’.

Note your account will not be authenticated indefinitely. You will need to periodically repeat step 5 to continue selling items on eBay through your shop.

Creating The Template for The Product Display

To display more detailed information about your product on eBay you’ll now define a template for the product presentation. You can either create your own or use/edit a pre-configured template. Multiple templates can be created for different types of product you sell.

1.    Navigate to ‘Settings’ -> ‘eBay Settings’ -> ‘Templates’.
2.    Creating your own template:

• Enter a name for the template e.g. Furniture and click on ‘Save’. Navigate into the template.
• If you are comfortable using HTML you can enter code directly into the main text area or alternatively use the WYSIWYG editor (click ‘Edit text’).
• To include product information (including images) in the template simply use the ‘placeholders’ next to the text box.

3.    Use/Edit a pre-configured template.

• Navigate to ‘Select sample templates’. Select the template you wish to use. Click ‘Apply’.
• The template will now be added to your list of templates. You can now edit it as above. Tip – Use the WYSIWYG editor to edit such a template, it’s much easier and quicker to make changes.

Configuring Your Email Notification Settings

Once a sale is completed in eBay the customer will receive an e-mail informing them that they were successful and that the item can now be paid for in your shop. Within the administration area of your shop however it is necessary to configure this e-mail event:

1. Navigate to ‘Settings’ -> ‘E-mail Settings’ -> ‘Events’ > ‘eBay’ – Request to finalise item.
2. Enter a sender address; this is the address the customer will receive the confirmation e-mail from. If you have one set up you could use a special sales@mycompany.co.uk address. If you don’t have this facility just enter your company/personal e-mail address e.g. joebloggs@mycompany.co.uk.
3. Enter a personal/ company e-mail address in Bcc, this is so you can immediately be notified that a sale has been completed.
4. Enter a header/ footer text if you wish to include additional information. E.g. ‘Thank you for shopping with My Company. The order will be processed through my web shop. Please follow the link.’
5. Click ‘Save’.

Choosing Your Products and Uploading Them to eBay

1. Find the product(s) in your shop you wish to sell and add them to the tray.
2. To do this navigate to ‘Products", click on a product and navigate to ‘Portals" -> ‘eBay’  and click on ‘Create new item"*.
3. Click on the ‘item’ and define details like ‘Product item type’, ‘Template’, ‘Categories’, ‘Start price’ and ‘Payment’.
4. For ‘Delivery’ and ‘Payment’ choose the offered methods or ‘Others’/ ‘See article description’ if you want to offer other delivery and payment methods than eBay is providing. In this case you should enter some explaining text in the product description.
5. Navigate to ‘Verification’ and click on ‘Verify’ (any problin case of an error you’ll receive a message with information).
6. Click on ‘Upload to eBay’.

* If you want to upload more than one product within one item (with the same settings) to eBay at the same time, you can choose multiple products and compile them to an eBay item via the tray function.

As soon as an item has been uploaded, it can’t be modified anymore. However you can always view the item and it’s current bids by clicking on the eBay ID link in the product view under the ‘Products’ register.

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