Category: sharing economy

Welcome to the Family! A bit about our friends at Storemates, eDivv and Relendo

We’re thrilled to welcome three new, diverse and creative marketplaces to the eRated family of partners. It’s always a pleasure for us to work with the passionate staff of marketplaces all over the world. Their passion for their products or services, and people who use and share them, is infectious. Helping marketplace teams is what gets us up in the morning and keeps us up at night. Here’s a bit about our new friends!

If there’s one thing everyone in London needs - it’s space. London is one of the most crowded places in the world and, in the 21st century, we all have a lot of stuff. However, some of us have more space than others. Storemates is a marketplace driven toward bringing these two groups together - people who have stuff and people who have space. Storemates lets folks who have additional space rent it out to people who need to stash their stuff. They facilitate finding space, arranging a storage agreement and providing secure payment. Whether you’ve been tossed by a landlord or are moving out of town in a hurry, Storemates can sort your stuff quickly and safely. They’re your mates in space.

Based in the United States, eDivv is an online peer to peer bartering marketplace. You can flip fragrances, trade your nail polish and swap your stock of hair product. If there’s one thing we know about millenials, they get bored with the same thing quickly. eDivv lets users who share a passion for beauty and body care indulge one another’s passion while saving money and getting something new. They offer an exceptional depth of product choice for the whole body, including eye cleansing, skin toning and anti-aging. They have more creams than L’oreal and aren’t afraid to share it. On eDivv, women can trade for free on our easy to use bartering platform. Even the guys at eRated smelling better thanks to this great marketplace.

Relendo is a Spanish community marketplace that let’s users rent everything from sporting goods like a brand new kayak or a skill saw for backyard jobs. Relendo is a marketplace at the cutting edge of the sharing economy. They know that everyone has something they’re not using that may be useful to someone else. Need a great camera for a day out in the woods? What about a pair of binoculars to take out with you as well? You may only have time to do this a couple of weekends per year, so why spend £1000.00 on new equipment when you can rent everything you need from a guy down the street for £25.00? The satisfaction you get is in the day out, not in owning more stuff. The renter gets money and, in some cases, they will rent out their stuff to the point that it pays for itself. The sharing economy is an amazing place and Relendo let’s you take full advantage of it. So why not visit their marketplace before your next Spanish holiday?

Three marketplaces in three countries doing completely different things, but with one thing in common. They’re using erated to help their users get the most out of their reputation in their marketplaces. Using eRated, they’re also building a community of trust that generates more revenue for them and their users.

Keep up the good work!

Starting your own Shop: Your Reputation is your Storefront

Veterans of ecommerce will remember the first 15 years of online trade as being dominated by two parents: eBay and Amazon. In the last five years disruptive, sharing economy platforms like AirBnB and Lyft have led to an explosion of marketplaces for rooms to rent and rides to shares. We’re still at the forefront of this shift to more independent, people-driven eCommerce where thousands of people are being given the freedom to start smaller, local and niche marketplaces. It’s really an exciting time to be in this space!

In just the last year or so, we’ve witnessed the beginning of another trend: A further personalization of eCommerce through the setting up of independent storefronts. Millions of people have dreamed at one point or another about opening up their own store. For most of us, it’s not just about making money, but about sharing their passion with others. If it’s a passion for model cars, Swiss watches, shoes or Belgian chocolate, people want to share it with others through ecommerce. In the real world, setting up a niche shop was often the preserve of the retired banker who could afford the up-front costs. Similar, in eCommerce you needed a friend who could build you a website and maintain it through its lifespan - which is not something we all have access to.

In recent months, thanks to the likes of Shopify and BigCommerce, it’s now possible for literally anyone to setup an online marketplace. Like designing the interior of a house, these providers take you step by step from the conception of your idea through to setting up a payment and feedback system. These guys make it possible to have control over your own storefront. This opportunity is giving longtime sellers in places like eBay and Amazon the ability to leave the confines of these platforms and open up their own shops, without having to pay fees to a large ecommerce provider. It’s a drive toward independence and a way to save money.

So, to continue to save money and gain independence people are packing up their belongings and leaving the old big box online marketplaces to personalize their own storefront and have their own shop. The amount of personal control is liberating - you can design your own layout, rank your own products and connect directly with your own buyers.

It’s great news. However, there can be pitfalls associated with “breaking free” from the big boxes to start your own enterprise. Principally, you don’t have the perceived security of a big brand name behind you anymore. People are more comfortable buying from eBay and Amazon sellers because it’s a name they have come to trust and because they have recourse if something doesn’t turn out as expected. At the end of the day, they just don’t trust you like they did before.

So how can you get the shiny new doors of our storefront to swing open? Carry your old reputation with you. Don’t forget that all those transactions and satisfied customers from other platforms are part of your record, not somebody else’s. All those positive reviews and thumbs up can be transferred from your existing accounts in Amazon and eBay to your new storefront. If you’ve got a 98% aggregate rating from all the platforms you’ve been operating in, why not carry that over to your own storefront? When potential buyers see how well you’ve done elsewhere, they will be much more likely to trust you and buy from you. They may not know your name, but they know you’ve made your name elsewhere.

It’s a bit like a lead singer breaking away from a band to do their own thing. They can do it when they’ve built up enough credibility with the old band to carry it with them solo. If you use a reputation management provider, they can help you carry your reputation over to your own solo storefront.

Check out eRated to find out how you can be the Justin Timberlake of online storefronts.

Every Bit Helps: eCommerce Reputation Management

There are now over one thousand eCommerce marketplaces. While eBay and Amazon are still by far the largest, the likes of Etsy, AirBnB and Blablacar are growing fast in the crowded, peer-to-peer space. Global marketplaces are giving way to niche and local marketplaces where products are specific to interests and tastes, such as SidelineSwap, which sells sports gear and Trampolinn, which lets space in Paris. What this means is that users no longer just have to worry about their feedback in Amazon and eBay, but also in other marketplaces as well. It’s likely that everyone reading this article has more than one account going somewhere, which means you have more than one reputation.

It’s not easy managing online reputation. For example, you might have a Facebook, LinkedInn, Twitter, AirBnB, eBay, Amazon, SidelineSwap and supermarket accounts. As an online seller, you have to be conscious of the feedback and reputation you’ve built up in all platforms - because they can affect your sales.

Your reputation is like the outside of a car. If it looks good people will want to drive it, no matter what’s under the hood. What you look like online matters to your bottom line. If an enhanced reputation means higher sales, how do you manage it?

There’s lots happening in all of these marketplaces, but let’s start with your reputation in Amazon. Here are five things you should know to make sure your Amazon profile is performing well:

Spell Out What You Sell: Make sure you use relevant, clear and precise product titles. Many people find products through a search in the search bar, if you’re not spelling out what your selling, no one will find it.

Stay on Top: Amazon uses price, availability and sales history to advance listings. This is one of the reasons reputation is so important. The better your reputation, the more advanced your listing will be. Products online are like products in real life, people are going to scope out the first few and decide amongst those. They’ll only scroll down if they don’t see what they want.

Get Active: Many sellers mistakenly assume that they are always subject to Amazon’s algorithm for listings. No matter what you do you’ll have to live with where Amazon ranks your listing. That’s not entirely true. If you’ve got a better picture or better data you can actually contact seller support and they may decide you’ve got a better listing and advance you.

Picture your product: All products should be taken with a 1001×1001 resolution, set against a white background and take up about 80% of the photo. Crisp is key!

Be the Buyer: Stand back and canvass your items as a buyer. It’s only by standing in their shoes that can you understand what they’re keen for and what will make them buy. If you don’t like the look of your storefront, odds are, neither will they. Better yet, ask a friend who’s not afraid to tell the truth.

Of course, get on board with eRated and start selling in other marketplaces. Why only have one storefront when you can open a second in another town for free?

 

The Importance of Reputation Management: Ensure buyers leave happy, not bad reviews

This post isn’t for all the perfect sellers out there … it’s for all the ones who’ve made mistakes. The difference between making a mistake, and making a mistake that leads to bad online reviews, is all about reputation management and why it’s important.

Bad online reviews for your business are like pesky spurs in an otherwise functional pair of boots: They can shorten your stride, slow you down and lead to no end of irritation. All it takes is one, bad online review to seriously hamper your projected growth.

Take the case of the Canadian guitarist whose guitar was bashed up by United Airlines. It wasn’t so much that they bashed up his guitar, it was that they refused to apologize and compensate him. He wrote a song about it and made sure several million viewers knew all about it. Then there’s the case of the Colorado restaurant that served a caterpillar with a salad. Instead of making the situation better, they offered the customer half off a dessert. After a couple of really bad online reviews, one of the two restaurants is now closed.

What do these stories have in common? Bad reputation management. Every company makes mistakes, but it’s often how we handle those mistakes that lead people to take the extra step and give a bad review online. These two companies handled these situations badly because they didn’t do what was right … and they didn’t manage their reputation.

eRated’s series on reputation management is all about turning mistakes into learning opportunities, not bad reviews. Here are some tips to manage your mistakes and avoid bad reviews:

  1. Turning a bad rating into a bad review: So you’ve screwed up. Something went wrong and you shipped your cat to someone instead of a box of DVDs. They’re not happy and they give you a bad rating, like a 2 out of 5. It wasn’t your fault because your husband was distracting you. You’re pissed. You write the buyer and give them hell. The buyer then posts a review: “She sent me the wrong product AND emailed me to give me shit. Don’t buy from her.” Your reaction to the buyer just turned a bad rating into a bad review, which is MUCH worse. Additionally, they have another complaint against you. If you hadn’t done anything in response, you could have minimized the damage. Now, you’ve lost your cat and you have a bad review. So don’t turn a bad rating into a bad review by berating your buyers.
  2. Failing to rate your buyers. At eRated, we know that the more positive reviews and ratings you get, the more you’re going to sell. It’s a fact. Unfortunately, only 20-40% of buyers leave a review. So how do you get MORE reviews? One way to NOT get reviews is not taking the time to rate your buyers. If they’ve paid you and it’s been a good sale, give them a positive rating or review. If you pat their back, they’ll pat yours’. Even if you’re making a dozen sales a day, take the time to drop ratings for all of them. If you don’t, they’ll be much less like to rate you … which means you’ll have fewer ratings … which means you’ll make less money.
  3. Shabby shipping. You’ve got eight products to send today. Your kid is whinging about what’s for lunch and you have to feed the baby. You’ve got a lot of balls in the air and you decide to just chuck that book you’ve just sold into an oversized box without any filling and ship. Too bad it was a First Edition you sold for $400.00. It arrives to the buyer bruised like a Canadian hockey player. They are not happy and let you know it by publicly disparaging you for the quality of your product. Bad news for you. It could have been avoided by taking the time to pack properly. If it’s between sending sooner and making sure the product arrives in the best condition, always choose the latter. You can always blame the postman for timing, but you have no one to blame but yourself when it comes to condition.
  4. Taking too long to respond. Have you ever posted on AirBnB and been hassled by AirBnB admin for not responding to potential buyers? They do that for a reason - because buyers hate not being responded to. If someone contacts you, get back to them, even if you have a better buyer in mind. They may leave a negative review based on your bad response time. Additionally, you may be pissing off possible future buyers. Don’t take too long to respond and always respond to queries. They make smart phones for a reason - take it with you to the cinema and get on the ball.
  5. Using unreliable parcel delivery. Buyers comment on two things most often: Speed and quality. If your product takes ages to arrive, it will take half that time for them to post a negative review about it. How can you manage this? Use a reliable parcel delivery service you can count on with a reputation as good as yours’ - because your success is tied to theirs’. If you’re in the UK, why not check out our friends over at ParcelBright? They’re as committed to building your reputation as you are.

Don’t let your mistakes turn into bad reviews. Good reputation management is about doing what’s right and making sure your customers leave happy, instead of leaving bad reviews.

Check back next week for eRated’s series on how online sellers can manage their reputation and get more out of their good reviews.

The Numbers are in and Reputation Matters

Have you ever wondered who the best sellers are in the world’s major online marketplaces? Who’s selling the most in Amazon? Where do they live? What are their ratings like? Heck, what are they eating for breakfast? Online sellers want to know what makes good sellers great and what the difference is between mid-volume sellers and those guys literally making a fortune.

Thanks to WebRetailer, we now know who the giants are. This week, the team over at WebRetailer followed up their 2014 list of top eBay sellers with a list of the top sellers in Amazon.

Not surprisingly the top ten are dominated by sellers in the US and Europe, they’ve all got feedback that’s over 90% positive and they’ve got a track record of hundreds of thousands of reviews. As far as the Amazon popularity contest goes, they’re going to be voted class president for sure.

What else did we learn from the hard-nosed research from WebRetailer? We know that he most successful sellers are those selling across borders, especially in Europe, and that most sellers are selling in multiple across platforms. Great sellers do not restrict themselves to one platform - they take advantage of other markets.

If more reviews and ratings means more sales, imagine how much MORE these guys (and you) could be making if you could bolster your reputation through reviews and ratings you’ve earned in other marketplaces? Well, with eRated, now you can! It’s like compiling your Airmiles with your Aeroplan points and putting them tow work together!

Check out the list and see why reputation matters!

Reputation Management: What are they saying about you?

Your reputation is what others say about you. It’s what they know before they meet you and the only thing they’ll know if they never do. In eCommerce, sellers will almost never know buyers, nor buyers know sellers. This means that what other buyers and sellers have said about you is paramount - they define your identity more than anyone else. In order to be a stellar seller, you need to know how to manage your reputation. In the coming week, eRated is turning its attention to how tens of millions of online sellers can build and get the most out of their reputation.

Fifteen years ago, reputation management was the purview of big public relations firms and departments for large corporations. They wanted to pump up their SEOs and bury down critics by astroturfing reviews and forums, setting up phantom blogs and profiles as well as unleashing a vast array of conventional media to build up their brand.

Since the advent of the sharing economy in the mid-2000s, reputation management has become an individual responsibility. It’s something we all have to be aware of because it directly affects our capacity to buy and sell. Probably more importantly, it represents how we’re seen by thousands of people online. Unlike the big corporations though, we don’t have expensive departments behind us.

So what’s reputation management all about? When you sell online, or buy, or swap or lend for that matter, the end user will likely have the opportunity to rate how you did. They will take into consideration whether or not your product was on time, whether or not it arrived in the condition you said it would and how responsive you were to queries. As the buyer, it’s about whether you provided payment. All of this is taken for granted when you shop at a place like FutureShop or Walmart. However, online we depend on what others have said about us to build our reputation.

Reputation management has become so important to online sellers that some sellers have gone so far as to discount their products in exchange for positive reviews from buyers. Does this sound dodgy to you? If so, you’re right. Online reputation is important because it’s the means by which we trust each other in eCommerce; if we lose faith in reputation systems as a result of greedy, unethical bad apples, it’s bad news for all of those great, dedicated sellers.

What many sellers don’t know is that they don’t have to “game the system” to get a better reputation in marketplaces. Because most of us are using more than one platform to sell and buy, we have additional data we can bring in to our eCommerce marketplaces. That’s what eRated is all about. eRated is a tool for honest, ethical sellers who see it as a way to take advantage of their responsible behaviour in all online marketplaces. If you’ve been a quality seller in Amazon, eRated will help you get the most of out it in eBay or AirBnB.

There’s no secret to having a good online reputation. Everyone operating online should behave ethically and treat others as they would expect to be treated themselves. If you do, you’ll get the reputation you deserve.

Remember, we’re not just talking about how well you buy and sell online. A 2010 Microsoft study revealed that 70% of US companies have rejected a candidate for employment due to their online reputation. If you’ve been a great seller in a number of platforms, why not make the most of it by opting into eRated and building confidence in yourself online?

For more information on how you can get the most out of all your hard work managing your reputation, check out www.erated.co.

Check back next week to find out why reputation management is important and how you can find out what others think about you!

Help for the Holidays: From Gifting to Heavy Lifting

Does this time of year remind you of your parents rushing to sign and post Christmas greeting cards? Your father’s colourful language as he puts up the Christmas lights? The strange aroma of an overcooked turkey, smelling like someone dropped a nuclear weapon on a chicken farm? You’re not alone.

Many of us remember our parents juggling everything to make sure Santa arrives on time, while managing all the usual work and school responsibilities. What if you could delegate Christmas tasks like work at the office? Well, thanks to the sharing economy, it’s now possible to make your Christmas a team effort.

Marketplaces like Sooqini in the UK and Jacando in Switerland allow you to outsource tasks from the commonplace to the complex. Post a task and marketplace users will apply to carry it out. So what can you get done with the help of others this Christmas? Here are 5 eRated suggestions:

Decorate it: Decorating the house sounds like a recipe for broken and twisted limbs, but you want to surprise your partner with lights all over your house. Post the task on Sooqini, an hour later you get two offers. You pick the best one, set a date when their not home and, as if by magic (and £40.00) the lights are up! You post a review (using eRated, of course!) and you’re house is the envy of the neighbourhood.

Deliver it: No truck? No car? Not even a little red wagon? You’re probably not keen to carry that larger-than-expected pine tree from the Christmas tree lot up the road to your humble abode. Never fear! Post on Jacando that you need a Christmas tree delivered on 18th December. After sorting through a few offers, you make your selection and for a small delivery fee, the tree if at your door. Now, if only decorating was that easy!

Write it: You have a thousand reasons to love spending Christmas with your partner, but you can’t find the words. Why not ask a tasker to write up a poem or song for your special someone? It can be done!

Buy it: Do you enjoy malls like a three-hour trip to the dentist? If so, why not task out your Christmas shopping? Some people love shopping, why not give them some money to do what they love? After selecting an eager shopper, all the kids’ Christmas presents magically appear wrapped and ready for ripping into under the Christmas tree.

Host it: Is it your turn to host the street for the annual Christmas party? The last time you did this several guests ended up in the emergency room. This time, try outsourcing your party to someone with experience. Taskers can create invitations, decorate and set-up your event, even sort out the mess for you the next day! Organizing a party can be stressful, so why not pay someone else to help you out?

Christmas is the perfect time to get tasking! Sign up with Sooqini and get £25.00 of free tasks. Jacando is the best way to get things done this holiday season in Switzerland!

Over the holidays, take advantage of all your transactions by using eRated to advance your listings and build a stronger reputation online. It’s like a Christmas bonus!

Merry Sharing!

A Collaborative Christmas: Regifting and the Sharing Economy

The approach of Christmas Day and the full-swing of the Holiday Season predictably leads to the whinging of urbanites against commercialization and consumerism. Much of this “Bah, humbugging” is well-founded. We know many presents, while providing instant gratification, will soon find their way into the backs of closets and boxes in the garage. Their value to the recipient is in the moment of opening, and then they disappear into that limitless space under the bed. But what if you could turn unwanted Christmas presents of past and present into something of real value to someone else? And, ironing over the sense of guilt, actually let you make some money?

This is where the sharing economy comes in. Collaborative consumption is about regifting “dead assets”; those things we own, but rarely or never use, into something useful for someone else. After the wrapping paper has cleared and the dried-out Christmas tree hauled out of the living room, Brits should look to the value their presents, particularly the ones they shake their heads at, by how they can help someone else and perhaps bring them a bit of money.

So where can you get value out of your presents? RentMyItems is a great British marketplace allowing you to make quick cash off of old Christmas presents by renting them out for periods of time. Dust-gathering instruments, power tools and, yes, the fine china and silvery you don’t use anymore can all get a new life for a period of time with someone else.

You can start by simply selling your clutter. On Preloved.co.uk you can post everything from furniture to fine prints by location or category. You can also post items as a charity, so why not round up all those unused presents and fundraise for the leaky church roof? If you don’t want to sell, you can always rent or swap your items.

Like FreeCycle, Freegle is a marketplace dedicated to people who just want to get rid of their stuff. Sometimes it’s just about people wanting more space rather than making money, so taking their stuff off their hands is doing them a huge favour. Some “Freeglers” have even furnished entire offices and living rooms through the free items they’ve collected.

Nothing finds itself in the back of the closet or in the returns queue faster than fashion that’s too small, too large or just doesn’t suit. Fortunately, marketplaces like BuyMyWardrobe and Rentez-vous (proud eRated partners) provide a platform for folks to sell or swap their fashions. Turn presents into revenue for you, joy for others and possibly a new wardrobe. Anything is better than back of the closet!

Finally, if you’ve been successful in selling, giving and renting your items such that you now have loads of extra room, take advantage of StoreMates. Rent out your closet, the extra space in the garage or in the basement to someone who’s overflowing with stuff. It’s your space, so make it work for you!

Regifting doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sharing is the disposal of something unwanted or unused to someone else. It’s about helping others get what they need by letting your present take on a second life. The sharing economy is giving Brits a cheaper solution to store goods, give and swap them away, or sell and rent them out. Sharing is what Christmas is all about, so get into the spirit and join the collaborative consumption movement!

Check out eRated for how you can make the most out of your sharing experience this Christmas!

 

Parcel Bright: A Cheaper, Brighter Future for Parcel Delivery

Anxiety is a painful reality for many SME owners today. Making sure staff are content and properly compensated. Proving your worth to investors. Managing the inevitable snags in operation. But nothing keeps business owners up at night more than making sure clients receive their product on time and in shape. ParcelBright is the UK’s newest solution for individual online sellers and small businesses looking to get their package out on time so sellers can rest easy.

Far from one size fits all, ParcelBright tailors its pricing to you. It’s pretty simple, the more you ship, the more you save. But that’s not all, with many different packages to choose from, ParcelBright will help you find the cheapest way to ship no matter how big or small you are. This is a principle eRated values as well. With time and the right support sellers will increase sales volume. In fact, that’s part of the business model. Helping our sellers grow their bottom line helps us grow ours as well. It’s truly a case of one tide raising all boats.

ParcelBright was founded late in 2013. While the business is just one year old, they are already on track to send 500,000 parcels this year, and have attracted a series of investors who have pledged $1,000,000 to help ParcelBright to continue to support small to medium sized online sellers.

Based in London, ParcelBright has one of the most enviable customer service response times in the industry at 60% response within one hour, and most others soon after. That’s better than most corporations with massive customer support teams. Great customer support, reliability and unbeatable pricing means repeat customers have become loyal mainstays. Clients can trust ParcelBright to get the job done and, if it’s one thing we know at eRated, it’s the importance of trust.

eRated is thrilled to be partnering with ParcelBright because, at the end of the day, we have the same mission: Helping sellers satisfy buyers and scale up. Like eRated, ParcelBright’s door is always open, whether you’re a small scale seller with only a handful of deliveries a week or a High Street chain distributing thousands of packages on a regular basis, they are a solution for all sizes.

Good things may coming small packages, but ParcelBright’s tailor-made solutions make sure good things come in all packages.

To start delivering with ParcelBright, check them out at parcelbright.com

SuperMarket: The Artisans Behind the Art

The big boxes of online marketplaces, like eBay and Amazon, have been around since the beginning. They are reliable and convenient, just like their real-world cousins, but they lack the personal character of smaller marketplaces. Worldly buyers want to know the craftmaker behind the cabinet or the bottler behind the marmalade. That’s where niche marketplaces like Supermarket come in.

Supermarkethq.com is a friendly marketplace where designers are connected directly with buyers. This is like the urban marketplace where you can ask the artisan directly about their sourcing and their inspiration. Just as important for savvy buyers, products are unique - you’re not likely to see the same person wearing your necklace on a night out. Finding the right product is as much about finding a great story. Supermarket connects users to stories as well as their suppliers.

Before eRated’s partnership, Supermarket had no existing reputation system. eRated helped to give marketplace users a reputation. Since integration two months ago, the number of Supermarket users adopting eRated has doubled. More importantly for Supermarket founders, eRated is increasing conversion rates.

In the first month, eRated users increased conversion rates by as much as 90%. By the second month, that number had grown by 185%. On average, Supermarket merchants are connecting 3.5 existing accounts and have imported more than 800 reviews into Supermarket.

Supermarket prides itself on offering a story behind every product and a person behind every story. For one seller, he opted into eRated and imported over 1000 reviews from elsewhere. Before doing so he had one sale on Supermarket, since then he has made 27. That’s the power of eRated.

We’re proud of our partners, so check out Supermarket!

As a seller or marketplace, leverage the power if eRated by owning your reputation. Visit www.erated.co to join today.