Simplx Blog

The McCormic Place West was hopping with this year’s eBay Live! event, spanning three days and serving thousand of eBay buyers and sellers in one of the nation’s largest convention centers. Over one hundred seminars, eighteen formal group discussions, and three dozen computer labs later, it appears that eBay Live! 2008 was just about everything it promised to be.

Seller Focused
2008 is shaping up to be a big year filled to the brim with change, and eBay Live! 2008 reminded all of us that eBay isn’t getting away without a few of its own adjustments. New policies, even good ones, always take some getting used to.

But, even with the changes, eBay is promising not to neglect Sellers in the coming months. The vast majority of seminars, lessons, and computer labs at eBay Live! this year were still focused on the perspective of Sellers, offering instruction on eBay’s new seller-related resources (like eBay Stores) and tips for using PayPal and other services.

Other Vendors
Of course, in addition to services provided directly by eBay at the convention, eBay Live! 2008 gave over 160 vendors the opportunity to offer their eBay-related goods and services to buyers and sellers. Everything from auction research and management software to shipping services were represented, giving visitors the chance to learn about the latest and greatest tools for getting the most out of eBay.

Incidentally, there was also no shortage of “Swag” (free, company-labeled promotional items) at eBay Live! 2008. The subject of which vendors offered the best giveaway materials is still a matter of discussion in our own company….

New Announcements
A few new policies were announced and clarified at eBay Live! 2008 that you should be aware of. Naturally, we advise you to visit eBay’s policy pages to make sure you have the most up-to-date information.

1. As of July first, listings on eBay will need a little extra information from users before they can be posted:

• Item condition (new or used)

• Specifics about return policy

• Handling Time (how long it will take for you to get the product in the mail, rather than simply how long it will take to arrive at the buyer’s door)

2. Beginning in September, eBay will begin routing all e-mail communication between buyers and sellers to preserve anonymity. Users will use temporarily assigned anonymous identifications that will be redirected through eBay to the correct address. As part of this new policy, sellers are not allowed to give their e-mail address anywhere in their correspondence.

Conclusion
And so we bid a fond farewell to eBay Live! 2008, and turn our attention to the news it gave us. Some sellers don’t need to change anything at all in the way they do business, but others are scrambling a little to regroup. Whichever sort of seller you are, we wish you the best and assure you that you can do it!

Popularity: 16% [?]

Simplicity Group LLC, the parent company of Simplx, was just recognized as Utah’s 6th fastest growing company in the Utah Valley Magazine Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies. The Simplicity Group Founders will be attending the upcoming Awards Ceremony tomorrow March 5th to accept this award held at Utah Valley University. Simplicity Group would like to thank the continued support of Simplx members and congratulate all those who participated in the $10,000,000+ in product sales in 2007 through eBay and business websites utilizing their Simplx memberships.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Simplx.com launched an affiliate program last week that pays a 75% commission to affiliate partners for referring new Simplx applicants via the Simplx Broker Application page. As this is a new marketing initiative we are very interested in receiving feedback from affiliate partners to increase the value and appeal of the offering for affiliates. Please send feedback regarding this program to feedback@simplx.com.

Popularity: 84% [?]

We are extremely excited about the upcoming new toolbar currently in development and undergoing an alpha test phase. The toolbar allows Simplx users to visit merchant websites directly without having to log into their Simplx account and ensures that the purchase is accurately tracked and Simplx account credited appropriately. We believe the biggest benefit to Simplx users (initially) with this new tool will be saving time during the research process and dropship fulfillment process of products. Initial alpha tests indicate time savings of 20%. The toolbar also provides the benefit of uncovering merchants that belong to the Simplx network and qualify for a commission as the toolbar dynamically displays this information while surfing the net. Currently the toolbar displays the user account you are logged in as, your account balance, commission percent on the website the browser is currently looking at (it supports tabbed browsing), and additional available discounts or coupon codes. A later feature that we are ecstatic about is live price comparison of products available for drop shipment within the Simplx network while sorting results by lowest CTD (cost to door). We estimate that this feature will save as much as 80% of the time Simplx users currently spend in researching products to sell.

The toolbar will be released initially to a beta test group of users with a FireFox browser and followed by a beta release for Internet Explorer browser users. If you are a current Simplx member and are interested in being part of the beta test group please send an email with your Simplx username to toolbar@simplx.com.

Popularity: 42% [?]

We have been listening to our customers and as a result we have recently launched a new service that will be provided at no additional cost to all of our existing users. The service provides a directory of drop shippers, outside of the Simplx network, of companies that provide wholesale products to drop ship, wholesale products in bulk, blind dropshipping, and other valued services for Simplx users. These wholesalers are not set up with the same commissionable relationship as those merchants with the Simplx network, but do provide some alternate benefits that merchants within the Simplx network do not provide. So as an additional benefit to all Simplx clients we are providing the ShipperPro product at no additional charge. Simplx, DigitalDropship, or ClubDropship users may access the ShipperPro wholesalers by going to www.shipperpro.com and entering the same username and password that is currently required to access your account.

We currently have over 400 wholesale dropshippers listed in the ShipperPro directory which are searchable by a category cloud or a product search field. If you are not familiar with a category cloud you will first notice differing font sizes for each category. Larger fonts indicate that there are more wholesalers in that particular category than those listed with a smaller font. Here are the categories of wholesalers we currently provide in the ShipperPro directory: Art, Automobile, Baby, Beauty, Books, Cameras, Cell Phones, Clothing, Collectibles, Computers, Crafts, Electronics, Flowers, Food, Gifts, Home and Garden, Instruments, Jewelry, Military, Movies, Office, Pet Products, Pottery, Religious, Security, Sporting Goods, Sports, Toys, and Video Games.

To date we have received very positive feedback about the addition of this product for Simplx users. We would love to hear about your experience with this new product and how we could improve its usability and value. You can send your comments to feedback@simplx.com.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Welcome to the new Simplx Blog. It is somewhat curious when I think about Simplx as a high tech company on the leading edge in many ways of pioneering new technologies and concepts, yet, we just now are getting into the seasoned technology of blogging. I will be the first to admit when I see something of value in the high tech world, even if we are slow to fully harness its advantages within our own organization, but for now I will have to rely on the old refrain, “better late than never.” We are excited to utilize the new Simplx blog as a functional tool to help us make the Simplx product better.

Here is a short list of what we are hoping to accomplish with the new Simplx Blog:

• Introduce new ideas and concepts to our customers before we develop them
• Get feedback from our customers regarding newly launched features
• Provide an open forum for discussion of Simplx.com between customers and management
• Create more transparency for the public into the internal operations of Simplx
• Communicate to customers newly added and removed merchants and changes in merchant commissions
• Give Simplx management the opportunity to speak directly to Simplx clients, resolve concerns and highlight successes

We are planning on providing fresh content on a regular basis to the new Simplx blog so in effort to be concise and not completely bore you with our first post I conclude my remarks.

Popularity: 69% [?]