topic Re: Other E Site in Selling

Other E Site

clubesquire — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 02:34:10 GMT

I can’t help but wonder just where the current serious discontent of sellers will end. I have a feeling it’s much more serious than we understand and that is despite E posting massive profits last quarter.

They seem to be so pig-headedly intent on ignoring basic seller needs, indeed ignoring sellers period, in among some monumental platform stuff-ups. The contempt displayed towards sellers is palpable and only contributing to make a serious situation worse. It has been suggested that sellers are moving on in droves. I think this is pretty accurate.

It seems that one fellow is determined to do there what he did here, although there will be differing opinion on that.

Its pretty bad.

Melina.

Re: Other E Site

pnc75 — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 03:38:23 GMT

You could be describing ebay, Melina!

@clubesquire wrote:
I can’t help but wonder just where the current serious discontent of sellers will end. I have a feeling it’s much more serious than we understand and that is despite E posting massive profits last quarter.

They seem to be so pig-headedly intent on ignoring basic seller needs, indeed ignoring sellers period, in among some monumental platform stuff-ups. The contempt displayed towards sellers is palpable and only contributing to make a serious situation worse. It has been suggested that sellers are moving on in droves. I think this is pretty accurate.

It seems that one fellow is determined to do there what he did here, although there will be differing opinion on that.

Its pretty bad.

Melina.

Re: Other E Site

clubesquire — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 03:40:41 GMT

Hehe 😊. So right. I never thought I’d be able to say another site is worse, but it certainly is at the moment.

Such a shame really, the other E could be a jewel.

Mel.

Re: Other E Site

collect247 — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 07:11:16 GMT

It could be a jewel if buyers would start buying instead of just window ~~shopping~~ looking

Re: Other E Site

digital*ghost — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 08:43:05 GMT

This is what happens when companies go public and shareholders become the top priority, unfortunately, though some of the deeper problems did exist well before then.

Their problem is how to grow (which to most companies like this, means how to increase profits), when the site is more specialised (meaning product range, while extremely diverse, is still limited to things people made, things 20+ years old, or things people can use to make things). The first thing they did was relax the definition of "handmade" (it was already pretty relaxed - modify any item yourself, in any way, it is handmade. But now you can pull a public domain image from somewhere, send it off to a printing company, get the printing company to send direct to your buyer, and that is also "handmade"). That means they have to make more and more allowances for products they never would have in the beginning, and get sellers to pay extra for things that they should be provided as a normal site function (tools to help them sell, tools to get their items actually seen, etc).

My biggest problem with them is that they are fully aware supplies (which is my primary business) are the top money earner for the site, but we pay the highest percentage of our turnover. Low item value + high turnover items are an absolute boon for them, due to the USD 20c listing fee per item sold. On ebay, if I actually had to pay a listing fee, it'd be $1.50 per month, but I could sell 100 items from that listing and never pay another cent for it. On Etsy, selling 100 items from a listing (or even multiple listings) means USD$20 in listing fees, so even though their FVF is just over half what eBay's is, at 5% of price & postage, it cost me more to sell there than here, particularly as I offer international postage. Last I checked, ebay was costing me about 11% of my much higher revenue (no international options here, but I do pay for a featured store and buy postage labels, which is included in the calculation), and the other site was taking 18% with no additional features or services purchased. Obviously this sort of issue is unique to items like mine - sellers with a lower turnover and / or much higher prices will find them more economical than I do.

I suggested to them years ago that a subsciption type option would be ideal for sellers like myself, and they introduced one finally a few months back - nearly $30 a month for features that should be standard, and you get like 10 free listings and a little credit for promoted listings.

Their obsession with postage costs is ridiculous - way worse than ebay's ever was, and also worse than the most postage-oriented buyer I've ever experienced or heard about as well.

But, like ebay, they are a means to an end, for the time being.

Re: Other E Site

chameleon54 — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 09:55:56 GMT

I havnt had anything to do with the E site you are reffering too, but I have to say, I think things may be improving slowly for sellers on this E ( " ebay " ) site. Customer service seems to be much more responsive than in the past. They are actually taking issues seriously rather than just reading pre - prepared script answers and are actually doing something to address problems. Sellers also seem to be getting a fairer hearing in the resolution centre.

While I dont expect miricles, I suspect the message regards seller dis-satisfaction with ebay may slowly be getting through.

Re: Other E Site

jellybirddesigns — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 10:42:52 GMT

I sell over there too and whilst I would say that the roll out of the current system has been pretty dire, if people are leaving in droves, then it only reduces my competition, which is no bad thing.

Wait until they roll out the change here on Ebay to the new Adyen payment system and then lets see how many glitches have to be ironed out and how much moaning and groaning will be going on.

Re: Other E Site

collect247 — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 22:48:03 GMT

Hi Melina could you please clarify which other E site you're referring to is it betsy or sid?

Re: Other E Site

clickbaitoz — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:19:06 GMT

could someone please msg me as to what site they're talking about, the suspense is killing me i'm guessing its not allowed to mentioned here?

Re: Other E Site

digital*ghost — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:34:18 GMT

T'is Betsy, minus the B. 🙂

Re: Other E Site

collect247 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:48:18 GMT

I thought so lol,but I thought that sid was a much bigger site than betsy as they brag that sid is bigger than ebay lol.

I joined up to sid when I got booted off ebay and in the past 3 years have only sold 7 items on sid thus is why I mentioned that there is no traffic coming through but if there was it would be big.

There is only a joining fee,there are no selling fees unless you choose the options that require a fee.

There are some ebay sellers that are on the sid site but we are all doing way better on ebay lol.

It's a very big site but it has been more of a sellers site by that I mean there are no buyers,but it would become great if the views actually turned into sales lol.

I have more views on the sid site than I have sales on ebay lol,I think it's just sellers having a look though.

I don't rely on sid but I'll get a big shock if I do sell something haha.

Re: Other E Site

beautbots01 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 01:34:41 GMT

@clubequire. E's response has been that recent changes to their Finance System is as it was intended which has infuriated many sellers. The UK/EU members are looking at the legalities of overcharging of transaction fees which also impacts the VAT charge plus changing of historical financial records so that they no longer balance with original documents and the problems arising from that. This is in contravention of their (E's ) TOU. In addition all of this only affects Non US sellers. The issue is not likely to go away anytime soon.

Re: Other E Site

clubesquire — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 01:53:06 GMT

As much as there’s no great love for either E, we’re fairly bankrupt for choice I think. Sellers have been treated very poorly by both in recent years, not that such isn’t deserved in certain cases, but the majority as always happens, has been punished because of a minority. That very minority though, seems to be running rampant and unchecked here at the moment. The inequities are robust and very apparent.

Many sellers are like us. They really don’t know what to do, or who to jump into bed with, if any in some cases, because many have just had enough and are starting their own websites. Good luck to them. I wish them every success.

Were still quite inventory rich, with many diversified lines we haven’t trotted out yet, because we’re just not sure of what to do. The other E is good for our vintage ‘stuff’, slow but good, because we do much better margin wise. We’re also 9/10ths of the way there in setting up their sponsored P website. Many will Pooh-hooh this, but it does have some advantages if you can get it hopping along a bit. Some don’t see them, and further don’t realise you can run a P site without listing anything on the other E, but still take full advantage of all the integrations. eBay is great for traffic, and there’s no SEO, or social marketing involved, but the traffic is not necessarily all good traffic. Now, especially if things happen the way they should in December for us, we’re struggling big time about concentrating on opening a store here, or persevering with the other E. I know it makes sense not to have all eggs in one basket, but it suits us better in the foreseeable future to lock down and consolidate. Tough decisions to make, otherwise much valuable time and effort is wasted. This hurts just as much as lost dollars when you are considerably time poor.

But, I’d suggest we’re not alone. Many would be crunching the same numbers and considering the lesser of two evils at the moment. There are others out there of course, but none that really take my fancy after some of the editorial and in depth user reviews I’ve read.

Most public owned ecommerce sites that I’m aware of are yet to strike that magical balance of satisfaction, to the extent it can be struck, between shareholders, the company, it’s buyers and its sellers. It seems such a simple equation to me, but then there would be much I don’t know and difficulties I can’t see I guess. But, I still harbour some doubts.

For now I think we all ‘hurry up’ and ‘wait.’ Wait at least awhile before we make the hard decisions. Although, many and then many more, already have. I hope it’s the right one for them.

Melina.

Re: Other E Site

clubesquire — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 02:03:20 GMT

PS...@Beautbots

Yes, I’m reading up on this now. It appears a big can of worms and one that some shareholders will be regretting was ever opened. A certain smarmy, two faced, CEO too perhaps.

What a total cluster!!

But, as someone in this thread has mentioned, these same ‘adventures’ are to be undertaken here soon. I hope they’re watching the other E’s bungled efforts and any ensuing class actions (very possible) very closely.

Melina.

Re: Other E Site

clickbaitoz — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 02:37:40 GMT

ok thanks......pppssssstttt what is sid? don't worry i won't tell anyone...

Re: Other E Site

davewil1964 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 07:44:52 GMT

@collect247 wrote:
I thought so lol,but I thought that sid was a much bigger site than betsy as they brag that sid is bigger than ebay lol.
I joined up to sid when I got booted off ebay and in the past 3 years have only sold 7 items on sid thus is why I mentioned that there is no traffic coming through but if there was it would be big.
There is only a joining fee,there are no selling fees unless you choose the options that require a fee.
There are some ebay sellers that are on the sid site but we are all doing way better on ebay lol.
It's a very big site but it has been more of a sellers site by that I mean there are no buyers,but it would become great if the views actually turned into sales lol.
I have more views on the sid site than I have sales on ebay lol,I think it's just sellers having a look though.
I don't rely on sid but I'll get a big shock if I do sell something haha.

It's a UK site and extremely eurocentric.

Re: Other E Site

collect247 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 08:23:00 GMT

Yes it is a UK site but it has an AU site and it was the only place I could go 3 years ago haha,but I'm glad that I'm back here.

I've earned my joining fee back and that's about it lol.

Like I said there are so many views with next to no sales so you can imagine how crazy I've ended up haha.

Re: Other E Site

davewil1964 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 09:15:23 GMT

I researched it a year or so ago. I would have had the bulk of the Australian book listings.

If my sales here drop, I will look at it again. I would definitely opt for the FVF model, as otherwise you get very unattractive bare-bones listings.