Commentary from the staff of Auctiva.com
Auctiva Announcement
6We are proud to have been able to provide you with our eBay listing and marketing tools for free all this time. You might have already read in our Community Forums or elsewhere that, starting in July, we will begin charging for some of our features.
I wanted to post here to let you know how we came to this decision, what it means for you, and what we are doing to make this transition as smooth as possible for all of our users.
Why the Change?
We did not come to this decision lightly. In fact, this adjustment was difficult for us to imagine after four years of being a completely free service.
In order to remain free all these years, our business model included many different sources of revenue. In addition to shipping insurance and our other pay services, like Sellathon.com, we also derived more than half of our income from eBay’s affiliate program.
As you are surely aware, there have been many changes in the world of eBay and e-commerce. Until now, we have been able to remain free despite these shifts. However, eBay recently made changes to its affiliate program that greatly restricted, and ultimately eliminated, this critical revenue stream. As a result, we will have to begin charging for some of our services to ensure we can continue to support our site, adapt our listing services to eBay’s planned changes and develop new tools to help you succeed in all your e-commerce ventures.
We remain committed to providing you with great tools—that save you time and help you maximize your profits—at a great value. In an effort to meet this commitment, we’ve worked hard to develop pricing plans that will be affordable for all sellers.
Fair & Flexible Pricing
We want to make this transition as easy as possible for you. With much time and careful consideration, we have developed five pricing packages to best meet the needs of the many different types of eBay sellers who use Auctiva. In addition, the Auctiva Scrolling Gallery will remain free as will a several of our other great marketing tools.
We will help you select the plan that will offer you the lowest rates. Once the site is fully released, if we have 60-90 days of eBay sales data for you, your Best Plan choice¹ will be highlighted for you.
Remember, if we have 60-90 days of eBay sales data for you, you can estimate your fees and determine your Best Plan right now with this pricing calculator.
We will begin implementing the necessary changes on our site to accommodate our new pricing structure during the first week of June. As a valued customer, you’ll have 30 days to evaluate and select the pricing plan that best suits you. Rest assured, no new fees will be incurred for any activity in June.
Where to Get Answers
You can preview our new pricing plan comparison table here. We have posted several informative FAQs and are responding to users’ questions in a couple of dedicated discussions we’ve created in our community forums. We have also posted links to two webinars we’ll be holding for users next week. We will be monitoring our forums all weekend to help you get your questions answered as quickly as possible.
Your business is very important to us. If there is anything we can do to ease this transition for you, please contact Customer Support. Our support staff will be working long hours to answer your questions as quickly as possible.
Thank you again for your business and loyalty. We look forward to continuing to provide you the services you’ve come to enjoy, as well as others to be developed in the future.
About the author
Jeff Schlicht is the founder and CEO of Auctiva Corp. Jeff gained considerable insight into the needs of online sellers in the late '90s when he wanted to list lumps of coal from the Titanic on eBay. As he did so, he discovered how complicated and time consuming the process can be, which inspired him to create software that would automate the process. This led Jeff to start Auctiva Corp. in 1998, a company that has grown to become the largest third-party developer of tools for eBay sellers.
Hi
I’ve been using your FREE service for a few years, works o.k. for me (but i can do without it just fine,) and now in this time of economic turmoil you’ve chosen to take the same route as e-bay by taking advantage of your users, well guess what, you need us more than we need you, i’ll be closing my account soon and i’m sure many others will also, as seen with omany other operations, you’re out of touch with reality!
Jerry
Hi Jerry:
Or course I’m sorry to hear you feel that way. While our pricing structure is new, and change is always challenging, I’m confident that you’ll be able to appreciate the value Auctiva offers. If you give us a month or two, to see first-hand what your cost might be to list more efficiently on eBay, you’ll be able to gauge your return on investment with true figures. Remember that we have our customer service team available to you to help identify the most cost-effective plan based on your usage or to answer any questions.
Thanks,
Stephanie
free plan even not free – I have to pay to store my pics…
2000 listings with 6 pics in each is going to cost me a fortune ! plus other fees… I will work to pay fees only this way
Surely this could have been phased in for long term users! Why are so many costs separated or charged by item? Why not an all inclusive price that doesn’t nicket and dime us to death?? You are really leaving us up a creek without a paddle here. Not only have Bay fees increased once again, but now those who choose to stay with Auctiva will find it even more difficult to turn a profit. I am sorely disappointed in your decision, and don’t want to leave, but I’m a seller to make money, not give it all to those who merely have a passive role in my sales.
Hi Catherine:
Due to the varied sizes of sellers that utilize Auctiva, we determined it would be more beneficial to our users to offer more choices when it came to plan availability. A one-size fits most plan structure (or flat-fee of $10 as some are suggesting) would not be a fair arrangement for the majority of our users.
I know that right now, after such a big announcement, there are some of our customers that feel Auctiva is no longer working for the seller. But hopefully, once the dust settles, you will realize the value we bring to your online selling, and see the progress we make growing our company and your business by continue to provide seller-focused tools and services.
I hope that before you make any changes to your account/online selling model, you take a close look at our plan choices, utilize the pricing calculator or work with one of our customer service members to help accurately identify a cost-efficient plan for your needs.
I am sorry that Auctiva has had to give in to the monster that is ebay, especially with all of us trying to hang on in this economy. I too will be very sad to leave Auctiva, but with such a high percentage of my money already going to ebay and paypal, there is no more money left for you. I will not be able to fit myself into any of your suggested price plans, all are too high for me. Thank you for being there all these years, it was a pleasure utilizing your site. Good luck.
dawn