Selling in both CAD and USD

[dipmicro]

To minimize exchange it would be ideal for me if 1/2 of sales were in CAD to cover payroll and my CAD based inventory purchases, and rest in USD to cover most of our inventory purchases.

I already encouraged CAD sales on our website by offering exact middle rate, used to be 3% above and implementing automatic default to CAD when visitor is from Canada.

Here on eBay do not want to mix USD and CAD under one account, we did that before and it was a mess. Maybe new account that would sell in CAD may be a better option, although it would cost double listing fees since I would have to duplicate all inventory under that account so not sure if it's exactly economical to do that.

Another option is perhaps to list CAD listings of most popular items with immediate payment required to avoid messing multiple currency listings into one order.

Any other ideas ?

[axe_n_gear_music]

I sell our product on eBay in US dollars, and website in Canadian dollars. I have found more website sales this way, as usually (maybe not this last week or so!!) this is an advantage to both Canadian and US buyers alike, which increases web sales.
Also, I'm going to be offering more items with free shipping on the website and less on eBay, again promoting the site.

Cheers,
AXE

[momoftwingles2]

Hi dipmicro,

No ideas here, however regarding your statement:

Here on eBay do not want to mix USD and CAD under one account, we did that before and it was a mess. Maybe new account that would sell in CAD may be a better option, although it would cost double listing fees since I would have to duplicate all inventory under that account so not sure if it's exactly economical to do that.

I don't think with the new duplication rules that you are permitted to duplicate listings even with a different ID.

Make sure you double check the policy!

Susan

[dipmicro]

I don't think with the new duplication rules that you are permitted to duplicate listings even with a different ID.

Make sure you double check the policy!

Susan, type for example "MR16 socket" and sort by lowest first. See the whole page of the same?

Anyway, my second ID would have different look and I would add different overlap image over the thumbnails and also description would use different markup HTML, font's, etc, because if they look exactly same buyers will want to combine across IDs.

Axe, looked up your website. That's a nice rock-bottom there, thumbs up.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Ha Ha Ha, thanks!...
One thing I can tell you from my own personal experience is that unless you have a few good helpers to assist you regularly, selling full time from two id's is extremely trying, to put it mildly.

Add in the maintenance and regular updating that a website store requires, and boy, that is a ton of work. I hardly have time to devote to my 2nd ebay store and my website, because of the time commitments that I have to put into my main eBay store. :_|

Just a thought.
Cheers,
AXE

[iwantmyriokarma]

If you had two listings, one in each currency, every time there was a major currency change you would need to change at least one of EVERY one of your listings. Also, buyers would figure it out and just buy the cheapest one, after the exchange rate. Seems like a PITA.

[dipmicro]

Axe, we have tool that aggregates orders from two eBay channels and our website to our database and we basically do everything on our intranet. Once I finish combining invoices through my tool, there will be no need to log into eBay and I can serve as many eBay accounts as I want without added overhead of logging into them separately.

Updating pricing/quantity is no problem. We are currently updating prices daily. Before that we have been often overselling. It still happens when same item is sells same day on multiple channels. Ultimate goal is that availability will be updated in real time, so when something sells on our website 8:50am, all other sales channels will update within 10 minutes.. I plan to have this within few months.

Once this works perfectly, I will start selling subscriptions 🙂

[axe_n_gear_music]

Wow, sounds amazing...let me know and I will be your first customer! 😉
The time I spend gathering orders from three different places and maintaining three different venues is often draining. But that sure sounds like a tool that would appeal to lots of sellers who have multiple selling venues!

Cheers,
AXE

[zarzuella]

There are several companies offering this service to booksellers, who usually sell on multiple sites. It is a very useful tool.

[dipmicro]

Ann, it's indeed very useful. We operate on fairly low margin and without software tools we would be so ineffective we would not survive.

I also learned to appreciate eBay proxy-email so I do not have to log-in eBay to respond questions plus I can respond questions without worrying which account they came from.

Axe, my software is currently experimental and there is still about 100 TODOs and when I finish the 100th, there will be another 200 new ones :^O Maybe in 3-4 months I could have this in a format that could be used by others without updating invoices directly in PhpMyAdmin.

You are not so bad, you have 240 mostly higher value listings. We stock approx 2000+ items and my pick&pack person has no clue what they do or sometimes how they even look like 🙂 Originally in 2008 we would be crash-burning with 30 orders per day, now our capacity is approx 100 (say after the weekend we have approx 100 and it takes whole shift to pick&pack) and I think with few improvements I can get the capacity to 200 orders per each pick&pack person.

But anyway, enough bragging. I will keep in mind and see if I can make my software public in few months. It would be excellent test-drive if more people are using it before I take my venture to the next level and then crash-burn on faulty tools.

Back to the topic. I guess nobody has any ideas how to attract more CAD sales ?

Well then, I am off to my original idea with most popular items that sell without combining, set them in CAD and "immediate payment" required. Hope that will not deter the buyers that would normally combine.