auctiva to start charging for their services

shark1970 · May 30, 2009 3:25AM

what a joke, the web site crashes all the time, along with your EBAY pictures they are hosting.

Auctiva began sending out e-mails to its users this week, letting them know the company will soon begin charging for some of its popular eBay-listing services.

"We did not come to this decision lightly," founder and CEO Jeff Schlicht writes in his address to customers.

"In order to remain free all these years, our business model included many different sources of revenue," Schlicht continues. "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. 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."

"This change will help us continue to support our site and add improvements in our quest to become the Web-based solution for those wanting to do e-commerce," adds Spencer Smith, Auctiva's director of marketing.

Schlicht and Smith say they are very pleased to have been able to design a flexible pricing structure that will fit all sellers' budgets.

"When it comes to pricing, one size does not fit all," explains Smith. "While some of our competitors have chosen to specialize in a particular niche of eBay sellers, our user base has always been very eclectic, ranging from the full-time corporate PowerSeller to the occasional or new eBay seller. Our various plans allow you to choose the most economical option to fit your unique eBay business."

Once the new policy change is reflected on the site during the first week in June, customers will have to choose from one of Auctiva's five new plans. Plans range from one with no monthly fees and three free listings per month for occasional eBay sellers to another for high-volume sellers that will cost $24.95 a month and includes a free Auctiva Commerce off-eBay store.

“We're doing our best to give our customers all the information they need and enough time to evaluate it”
"It's important to us to make the transition as seamless as possible for users," Smith explains. "We're doing our best to give our customers all the information they need and enough time to evaluate it."

To provide customers both that information and time, the company began notifying its users before the changes were reflected on the site, or reported by the media. Auctiva has also set up a dedicated community forum discussion to aid communication with its users during the transition. Anticipated questions and answers are included in that forum thread as well.

Additionally, the company has planned a series of webinars to allow users to ask questions directly to management, including one on Monday, June 1, and another on Tuesday, June 2. Auctiva plans to record these webinars and post highlights to its site soon after they are held.

Auctiva will also help guide users to the most affordable option for them. Once released early next week, the site's Pricing Comparison page will recommend a plan, based on the user’s eBay listings and sales during the previous 90 days. Additionally, individual Pricing Plan pages will allow users to enter their own listing and sales data to estimate fees under the various plans.

Current customers will have until June 30 (about a month) to choose their pricing plan and place a credit card on file for auto-payment. (The company expects to also support PayPal autopay by the end of June). Similarly, new users will have an unrestricted 30-day trial period from the day they sign up to evaluate Auctiva's tools and select the best plan for them.

“By adopting this business model, we're closely aligning our revenue with the success of our sellers”
Those who don't specify a plan by the end of their 30-day trial period will be restricted from posting new listings to eBay, but will maintain access to Auctiva's suite of free tools, including Auctiva's Scrolling Gallery, a free Auctiva Store, up to 1 MB of free image hosting, auto marketing e-mails, data storage and access to Auctiva Education. These features come standard with all of Auctiva's five listing plans.

All of the company's plans are month-to-month, and users can elect to switch plans whenever they like, as many times as they wish.

"By adopting this business model, we're closely aligning our revenue with the success of our sellers," Smith states confidently. "We're committed to providing the tools to make it easier for our customers to sell online more efficiently and for greater profits, whether on or off eBay, or both."

While this announcement may come as a major surprise to many, Auctiva stresses its focus is on providing true value to its customers, a principle the company's management says will only be strengthened by this new shift.

Other features of the June release include the company's decision to offer free "live chat" customer support to all paying customers, more detailed invoicing, an ever-expanding library of video tutorials and help content and a newly designed account dashboard that allows users easy viewing and modification of important account settings

GRANDAM · May 30, 2009 3:30AM

Al I can say is "Schlicht" happens

Silverstate · May 30, 2009 3:42AM

Time to look at alternatives.
Turbo lister?

notwilight · May 30, 2009 3:43AM

So why do you use them?

And I didn't realize they were free. How do they make money?

yellowkid · May 30, 2009 3:52AM

I don't have enough volume to use someone like that. I do know that it takes three times as long to pay for anything when the seller uses them.

LindeDad · May 30, 2009 3:54AM

Turbo Lister and Photobucket are both free for the small timers like me.
Now back to making listings and getting those pictures taken for the new ones.

shark1970 · May 30, 2009 3:55AM

ebay charges for pictures after the first one and auctiva was free up to three pictures, when you sell a lot of single coins that need
two or three pictures..........that adds up if your paying for them!

the article says something about ebay making a change that had allowed auctiva in the past to generate
revenue from. I myself have always wondered how they were able to offer so many services for free.

say you sell 200 single coins a month and have to pay for the second picture, at .15 ea thats another $30.

TwoSides2aCoin · May 30, 2009 4:00AM

I'm having a blonde moment.
Maybe I should take my stuff to Coinstar and forget the pictures.

Bochiman · May 30, 2009 4:11AM

Heavens no!!!!

One should be able to get services for free and not worry about paying for anything that one isn't required to have but decides is useful!!!