GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Transcription

1 GETTING STARTED GUIDE

2 Contents ebay Listing Formats Supported ways to get started ) Importing existing ebay listings ) Importing product spreadsheet into Xpress Lister... 4 Important - Product codes... 5 Using the Xpress Lister template import file... 5 Import spreadsheet format... 6 Updating data and reimporting... 6 What can be imported by Spreadsheet? ) Creating products directly in Xpress Lister... 7 General... 8 Adding Images... 8 Disabling and deleting products... 8 Displaying more columns in the Xpress Grid... 8 Configuring ebay Listing Categories... 9 Supported Browsers... 9 Setting weight & dimension units... 9 Listing Format, Duration & Item Condition Listing Format Listing Duration Item Condition ebay sales templates Template Editing Template architecture explained How to edit the Listing Template Previewing the ebay Listing Editing the template files Editing the ebay Title Managing Item Specifics after Import Listing on Multiple ebay Marketplaces Choose your ebay Marketplace Multi-variant ebay Listings MVL spreadsheet import format Importing Amazon files Cancelling Xpress Lister Where to get more help

3 ebay Listing Formats Supported Xpress Lister supports Fixed Price listings and Best Offer. Xpress Lister does NOT support Auction listings. 85% of listings on ebay are fixed price format and buyers can generally sell more items more quickly using fixed price because buyers generally don't want to wait to purchase. Use the column chooser to display the Best Offer column. 3 ways to get started 1) Importing existing ebay listings Link your ebay account and choose the listings to import into Xpress Lister (Fixed Price listings only - Xpress Lister does not support Auctions). Existing listings will take a few minutes to import depending on the number of listings and the number and size of images on each listing. Once imported ebay listings will show as "enabled" meaning they are being managed via Xpress Lister. 2

4 You can now make changes in Xpress Lister to change your listings on ebay. (Note any changes made directly on ebay will be overwritten with the values in Xpress Lister for enabled products but that shouldn't be a problem because it's far easier to update Xpress Lister than it is ebay!). Choosing the correct template when importing from existing ebay listings Because ebay combines the template and the product description wording into a single element "Description", when you import existing ebay listings ebay will import both the description wording AND any HTML formatting from your description into the Description field. There is no problem with that EXCEPT you need to be conscious of the template that Xpress Lister applies. To explain, our Default template uses HTML and generally assumes that your Description contains words only with no HTML. If the imported Description contains HTML and you use our Default template you can end up with "HTML inside HTML" and the template may look strange. To fix strange looking templates from imported ebay listings, you either have to use the "Blank" template (which will simply present your Description content on ebay "as is" using any HTML that's included) OR you have to delete all HTML code from within your Description (making it 'plain' words only) and then apply our "Default" template which injects the HTML to make the listing 'look good'. 3

5 2) Importing product spreadsheet into Xpress Lister 1) Import products from spreadsheet into Xpress Lister 2) Configure ebay settings e.g. shipping, returns, condition etc. on imported products in Xpress Lister (the default values are free shipping and 30 day returns). 3) Set products to List on ebay as 'ebay status = ENABLED' 4) Click white 'Save & Send to ebay' button 5) All products set to enabled will be listed on ebay. Xpress Lister LITE, only allows you to CREATE listings using Xpress Lister. There is no live link to listings after creation. Any CHANGES to listings after initial creation must be done on ebay with Xpress Lister LITE. Xpress Lister PRO, allows CREATION & MANAGEMENT of listings i.e. unlimited changes to enabled products without ending the listings using Xpress Lister. All desired CHANGES to ebay listings for ENABLED products (e.g. inventory levels, price, description, shipping, titles etc.) MUST be made in Xpress Lister PRO. Any changes made directly on ebay will be overwritten with the settings Xpress Lister has (for enabled products). Since it's far easier and quicker to make changes on Xpress Lister PRO than ebay directly, making changes in Xpress Lister rather than ebay shouldn't be a problem! But we point out what will happen to direct ebay changes to avoid users wasting time making changes in the wrong place (ebay) and getting frustrated when they are overwritten by Xpress Lister. (This isn't a flaw in the product! - It s how Xpress Lister works to be able to update listings on ebay and reduce inventory levels in Xpress Lister after ebay sales. Xpress Lister needs to be able to read the incremental differences between the Xpress Lister product settings and ebay to know what messages to send ebay to update the listings). When two 4

6 systems integrate, one must take the lead to update the other and be set as the 'source of truth' - that is Xpress Lister PRO (not ebay). Important - Product codes The product code (and related SKU code for multi-variant listings) is what Xpress Lister uses as the 'unique identifier' to know whether a product is a duplicate or a new product. All product (and SKU code combinations) need to be unique. Duplicate products/skus will not be imported. Instead, they will be visible on the error report that can be exported, reviewed, fixed and reimported. Using the Xpress Lister template import file The import template file is in four color sections: Orange - REQUIRED fields. Import into Xpress Lister will not be successful without data in these columns. Green - OPTIONAL fields. Include data in these columns if you wish to supplement your listings. (Images are optional during the import process because they can be added one by one in Xpress Lister but it is generally much faster to import them via URL - see importing Images). Yellow - OPTIONAL Item Specific fields. You can add more columns for additional/different item specifics. During import you define which columns are Item Specifics and 'map' the columns. Blue - REQUIRED FOR MULTI-VARIANT LISTINGS ONLY (ignored if no multi-variant listings are detected). Multi-variant listings are detected by the presence of Parent/child 'product and related sku' codes - see example product import sheet. You can add more columns for additional/different variant titles. During import you define which columns are Variants and 'map' the columns. 5

7 Import spreadsheet format You can use EITHER the Xpress Lister import template OR your own product spreadsheet that's likely in a completely different format. Xpress Lister supports importing your own product catalogue without reformatting. During the import process, you will be asked to 'map' your spreadsheet columns to the values Xpress Lister needs to create ebay listings. Download the sample template file here ImportTemplate.xlsx Updating data and reimporting Once imported, data can be edited directly in Xpress Lister (individually or in bulk). Alternatively, you can reimport a previous spreadsheet (or portion of it) to update the data - NOTE THE PRODUCT CODE IS CRUCIAL TO THIS PROCESS. If Xpress Lister detects product code on an import file that already matches a product code in Xpress Lister it will UPDATE/OVERWRITE the data in Xpress Lister with that being imported. This is useful for example when updating existing product data e.g. inventory levels, prices or anything else you want changing. If Xpress Lister does not detect that any product codes being import match existing product codes, Xpress Lister will CREATE NEW PRODUCTS in Xpress Lister. You can then export the data that is in the Xpress Lister grid, make changes and re-import. What can be imported by Spreadsheet? You can import all elements of your PRODUCTS such as price, title, quantity, description, UPC, item specifics e.g. size/colour/brand, images etc). ebay variables such as categories, shipping settings, return policies etc CANNOT be imported. 6

8 They are quickly and easily set using Xpress Lister AFTER import. It is simple to do this (individually or in bulk) and avoids listings failing to get created because invalid values have been imported (we provide dropdowns for you to choose from). 3) Creating products directly in Xpress Lister Follow the on screen prompts in the 'Add Product' wizard after click the add button in the top ribbon. Note, images and other listing variables are added after this stage. 7

9 General Adding Images Either add individual images by clicking the edit OR Images are imported via URL. E.g. in the 'Images' column. Dropbox (or similar services) URLs also work. (To get the Drop box URL, upload your image files into Dropbox, click the image and 'share link'). Preferably URLS should be direct image URLs instead of general webpage URLs containing images but Xpress Lister will read the largest image (by image size not area) from a webpage and use that. To import multiple images, separate the URLs by commas. Disabling and deleting products Disabling or deleting previously enabled products in Xpress Lister causes the listings to END Displaying more columns in the Xpress Grid To avoid displaying too many columns in Xpress Lister, by default some columns e.g. item condition aren't shown. You can control which columns are shown or not by using the column chooser icon (to the right of the ebay button at the top). 8

10 Configuring ebay Listing Categories Xpress Lister will automatically categorise your listings for you by leaving the listing category column set to 'automatic'. This can save hours if not days of set up time. NOTE LISTINGS WILL BE FIRST LISTED IN "LOTS MORE OTHER" (or similar category depending on international marketplace) but will soon afterwards be categorised into the final auto-cat category. PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH AUTO-CAT FOR THE FINAL CATEGORY TO BE ASSIGNED. If you don't feel the final automatic category is appropriate you can easily change in bulk in Xpress Lister PRO or on ebay directly if you're using Xpress Lister LITE. Alternatively you can manually set (individually or in bulk) the listings categories in Xpress Lister before creating the listings (clicking the white 'send to ebay' button). Supported Browsers Xpress Lister works best with Google Chrome. Internet Explorer is not supported. Firefox and Safari are generally supported but if you are experiencing any problems please switch to the latest version of Chrome. Setting weight & dimension units During the import 'mapping' process you map the dimension/weight columns from your spreadsheet to the Xpress Lister Dimension/Weight fields. To the right of these fields is a drop down for the units e.g. mm/inches/kg/pounds. You may only have one set of units per import. e.g. you cannot import some products with mm and some with inch dimensions. 9

11 Listing Format, Duration & Item Condition Listing Format Codisto MarketPlace Connect and Xpress Lister will list items as Buy It Now. Auction listings are not supported (85% of listings on ebay are Buy It Now). Listing Duration The default listing duration is GTC ('Good Til Cancelled'). But it's easy to change that setting on an individual product basis or in bulk. This field is not imported on the spreadsheet but set after import in the grid. Scroll to the right of the grid until you find the Duration column, select the appropriate duration, apply and "save and send to ebay" by clicking the white ebay button at the top. Note, once an item has been listed as GTC, ebay does not allow it to be changed without ending and relisting the item (which may affect ebay search results and sales history). Item Condition The default item condition setting is "new" but it can be easily changed. Select the "Condition" column from the column chooser. 10

12 Within the "Product Information" column group, the "Condition column is shown which allows the appropriate item condition to be selected, applied and saved by clicking the white ebay button at the top. ebay sales templates Xpress Lister automatically applies a mobile responsive template to all listings making your listings look much more professional. But you can use your own ebay sales template. Follow our editing the xpress lister template guide. (Note the default Xpress Lister template isn't yet compliant with the new ebay Active content rules but don't worry - there is plenty of time and templates WILL be made compliant prior to the deadline. We are currently putting effort into providing more features in Xpress Lister). Template Editing This guide assumes knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and is written for web developers. If you are not familiar with these concepts please refer your web developer to this guide. We do not recommend merchants edit their own templates. We do not provide HTML, CSS or JavaScript support. However, we will provide support for tag specific questions. 11

13 Template architecture explained The Xpress Lister ImageSmart template system is architected differently to some other template systems. Please take a moment to understand the Codisto architecture and the benefits of our approach: Images are hosted on CDN (Content Delivery Network) which speeds up the loading of listing templates regardless of ebay buyer geography. CSS and JavaScript is embedded which makes it fully compliant with ebay listing policies. Other template systems commonly call remote scripts and pages automatically such as JavaScript includes. This is explicitly against ebay policy which risks listings being removed by ebay. Please see ebay's HTML and JavaScript policy. How to edit the Listing Template The powerful live preview of the Xpress Lister plugin accessible via XpressGrid makes template editing simple. Just edit the template files as outlined in this article to see the effect in the preview. Previewing the ebay Listing Preview Button When any product is selected a Preview button will appear from the right of the grid. Preview Panel Click the Preview button to display the Preview Panel. The Preview Panel shows the currently selected product rendered with the selected template. Any changes made to the product will be updated automatically. 12

14 Editing the listing templates Open the Template Editor by clicking the ebay Avatar at the top right of your Xpress Lister screen, then click the Template menu item Editing the template files When you first open the template editor, you will see the template source code for the default template. 13

15 Other template files Other files are accessible via the template tree on the right of the template editor page. Click a file top view it in the editor. Committing your edits Click the Save button to commit your template changes. All ebay enabled products with the edited template selected will automatically have their listings updated with the changes. 14

16 Editing the ebay Title Edits to the ebay title can be made directly in the title cell or by bulk editing. Xpress Lister supports using freeform text and ebay defined variables represented by {ebay_variable}. For example to put NEW at the front of the ebay title, enter NEW {name}. {name} represents value in the Product name field. Managing Item Specifics after Import In this section you will be able to choose what item specifics can be edited from the XpressGrid. From the Account Menu, click 'Manage Item Specifics' From here you will be presented with some suggested item specifics from your already categorized items. Clicking 'Add' will expose those item specifics to the grid. You can also add custom item specifics from the bottom of the list. Click 'Save & Publish to ebay' to commit your changes. 15

17 To expose those columns, click the column chooser from the Xpress Grid and check the columns you wish to edit. You can now add values for those item specifics from the grid. 16

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19 Listing on Multiple ebay Marketplaces Xpress Lister supports listing on one ebay marketplace per Xpress Lister account. It is possible to list on multiple ebay marketplaces by creating multiple Xpress Lister accounts and choosing a different marketplace to list on via the steps above. Prices are imported as the natural price in that marketplace's currency e.g. importing '99' when listing on ebay.com will list as USD99, importing '99' when listing in France will list as EUR Choose your ebay Marketplace Xpress Lister supports all ebay marketplaces globally. You choose the ebay marketplace from the Settings menu under your user icon at the top right: Then select the marketplace to list on from the dropdown: 18

20 Multi-variant ebay Listings There are two ways to create Multi-variant listings (MVL): 1) The easiest is to import them in MVL format via spreadsheet. See Using the Xpress Lister import template and the example data contained in the template file (that can be downloaded at the import stage). MVL spreadsheet import format Single variant or none MVLs must have a product code, whilst every MVL MUST have a 'child' sku code AND an associated 'parent' product code for every sku. Using a spreadsheet, you can quickly copy the parent product codes down the product code column next to the sku code. Spreadsheet import should also contain columns defining the variant names and values e.g. See the example data in the import template for more information See the example template with MVL data here XpressLister-ImportTemplate.xlsx 2) If you have already imported your data or created it manually in the Xpress Lister grid, it's possible to create MVL products manually by selecting the associated products clicking "merge" but it is more manual and much slower. See creating MVLs after import. Importing Amazon files Xpress Lister automatically detects Amazon file allowing you to map your fields from the import screen without having to reformat your Amazon file first! 19

21 Cancelling Xpress Lister There is no contract term. You can request account cancellation at any time. When you request account cancellation billing is suspended to ensure no further charges are levied against your account (refunds for cancellations part way through a month are not provided). Xpress Lister does not end ebay listings when accounts are cancelled (unless the user wants this to happen and actions it): For Xpress Lister LITE there really isn't anything to do except stop using it. For Xpress Lister PRO, if you DON'T want your enabled live listings to end, simply support@codisto.com requesting account closure. We will close your account, 'cut the link' to the listings but not end them. You will be able to edit the listings directly on ebay after that. DO NOT DISABLE OR DELETE PRODUCTS BECAUSE THAT WILL END LISTINGS For Xpress Lister PRO, if you DO want your enabled live listings to end, you can disable or delete products from within Xpress Lister and then support@codisto.com requesting account closure. We will close your account and you'll be free to create and manage newly create listings directly on ebay. Where to get more help 20