topic Ebay Vs E-commerce in Selling

Ebay Vs E-commerce

bbwspares — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:16:12 GMT

Hello there,

I am new to running an Ebay store for my workplaceand was thinking maybe a Ecommerce store

would be easier
Due to the number of changes on here our sales have dropped alot since about the start of the year.

I have rectified some problems that were caused by the person before me running this store.

EG: getting our ebay fees down from $900 to around $150.

I am happy to provide any information to people for them to give me some positive information and to steer me in the right direct.

Thanks

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

rakem2011 — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:45:53 GMT

We have an amazing e-commerce shop built for us by an great company in australia, with all the changes to ebay we will be taking most of our products off and placing on our web site, we are over the moon with this new site and the help we have received in getting it set up, we still have a lot of work to do but now we will only have a fee of $99 a year and our site was only $500 to get built it is linked to pay pal and extremely secure once we have all our stock on web site we are going to add adwords to give it a boost, we are also contacting all of our wonderful customers to let them know were we are, this is such a worth while step couldn't be happier, you are welcome to contact us for information on how to get your own e-commerce shop.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

phorum_junkie* — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:17:27 GMT

Have you maximised your ebay store exposure by using a web site which directs people to your ebay store, once you add as many key words as you can think of as time passes you will start to appear higher and higher in google searches?

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

davewil1964 — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:43:41 GMT

I would ask the question most would ask -

Why are you asking whether eBay or your own site is better? On ebay?

You will either get those who wouldn't contemplate running their own site (me) or those whose niche is adequately serviced by their own site. Which means any post on eBay is an advertisement.

Think about it.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

vitaboosthealthstore — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:43:08 GMT

Hi I saw your post on the forum and I tought it was very helpful . Thanks

I am running an Ebay store and I am getting to the same conclusion as you about starting my own ecommerce store.

Do you mind sharing the contact of this person who set up your site? If not I totally understand.

There are so many out there that becomes hard to know who to hire and

It looks like you are very happy with them and it is always good to get a good reference.

Cheers

Gisele

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

haolove13 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 02:38:26 GMT

I am questioning if Ebay is worth it nowadays with increased costs and reduced protection for sellers. And we are having more and more problems with poor delivery by Aus Post whichmeans we can not win in a dispute as Aus Post now do not guarantee safe delivery.

If we use registered post with signature etc the customers complain about high postage costs, so how do we win?

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

davewil1964 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 05:54:16 GMT

I suggest if you want to contact rakem2011, you use the contact a member facility. Although, as this thread is SIX MONTHS old, there is a possibility they have already fully migrated away from eBay. Assuming having their own website was successful.

I would be wary of bandwidth limits if only paying $99pa for site hosting, though.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

grounds.2009 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:13:09 GMT

Yes, me too I'm eager to know these people..can you post a link or you need our email address?

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

clarry100 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 20:23:33 GMT

Yes... we too have just started the process to get our own e-commerce site up and running. We have found a really good developer we feel very happy with. Hope to go live about April next year.

Like many on here, we have been very unhappy with the treatment we have been receiving (as sellers) over recent months by ebay.

We are thinking we will probably keep our two ebay stores alive but definitley in a reduced capacity. Mainly to provide just enough income to pay the much smaller costs associated with the main site startup. And in time as the main site takes over we will close out of ebay altogether.

IMHO if ebay continue to treat their sellers badly they will end up with none/few left. And once buyers are increasingly unable to find what they are looking for on ebay they will migrate (take their $$$) to other sites. I think ebay (at least in Australia) will die a slow death unless they change their business model. They are way too buyer focussed.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

thendreamer — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 21:11:52 GMT

I have two accounts on ebay for both my businesses and currently only one website. The website i have makes over 3x as much per customer then any of my ebay stores but at the moment has a smaller amount of customers every mounth.

@clarry100 wrote:

IMHO if ebay continue to treat their sellers badly they will end up with none/few left. And once buyers are increasingly unable to find what they are looking for on ebay they will migrate (take their $$$) to other sites. I think ebay (at least in Australia) will die a slow death unless they change their business model. They are way too buyer focussed.

ebay is not focused at all to me towards sales, the ads make no sense at all. Listings should be clean and not cluttered up with useless information and ads blinking everywhere to distract buyers. Fraud, Counterfit goods and false item locations are just getting out of hand.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

robbierobbie13 — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 02:18:23 GMT

i run a pretty large ebay store turning over about 200k PA and also a website turning over about 300k.

From what I have seen eBay is totally different to 'normal' ecommerce. When I have them on my site I have 'got them' ( to coin a phrase) more but it is much easier to compare prices on ebay and as such the margins for me at least are a lot lower as my price point on ebay and the price point on my site are very different. I've got a very sustainable business in my website but in ebay much more open to being caniablised by the non gst charging brigade that haunt ebay ( who ebay ignore / wash their hands of very irresponsibly). All in all its much harder work and more expensive to set up a website but if you are in it for the long haul and done well can be much more rewarding. The weirdest thing for me is the 'relationship' that ebay seems to have with its customers which seems to be built on mutual mistrust sometimes bordering ( from the seller) on hatred!

Things I wish I had done would be to have a totally different brand on ebay to my site to avoid issues price gouging etc. dont list all your inventory on ebay save the best more unique products for your site as people often google and then ebay for things.

Anyone who suggests you link to ebay from your website must be mad in my eyes. Why get people to buy on ebay when you can avoid the fees etc and get them to buy off ebay????

ebay has its place but I for one spend as little time promoting that side of my business as possible but it keeps the lights on.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

davewil1964 — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 06:12:55 GMT

I'm not in it for smiles. Whilst my advice might be blunt it is factual. If you want ego-stroking go somewhere else.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

ozstockman — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:15:32 GMT

Let's be realistic about sales through your own webstore. It is worth doing but you should see the whole picture before you start doing it.

Here on eBay most of the sellers do not care about advertisement and mostly do nothing in order to get a new customer. They list their stuff and wait for a buyer to find it and buy it. Why, because eBay is that kind of marketplace where buyers come to shop for stuff. It is the same as renting a shop in a shopping centre.

Now, if you open you own webstore how are you going to get new customers. If we go with "a shop within shopping centre" analogy you are no longer in a shopping centre with a lot of shopping traffic, in fact you are a shop in the middle of a desert far away from all roads and nobody even know you exist.

If you do not advertise it there will be no sales at all. And advertisement will cost you money.. in most cases more than you are paying to eBay in fees. And also keep in mind that you pay eBay fees after you sell stuff. However with ads it will work completely opposite way.. you pay for ads first and then you can only expect to sell it. If you do not sell it 's 100% loss

Will your own webstore be worth doing it in this case? Sure it will if you find a way to be at the top of search results in Google or you will find a cheap and cost effective way to advertise your online business.

Should you close your eBay store if you start selling through your own webstore? I would never do it .. the more selling points(channels) the better.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

billexploited — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 02:47:06 GMT

I still prefer to use ebay over gumtree as there is no seller protection on gumtree.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

clarry100 — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 07:44:59 GMT

What seller protection?

Its the buyers that have all the free rein. Sellers get no/little support. Its all about the buyers.

Re: Ebay Vs E-commerce

billexploited — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 21:13:09 GMT

the problem that I found with gumtree was people kept harrassing me, and also they lack effort to put decent discription when they're selling on gumtree.

on ebay you just pay with paypal thats all I do. done.