Not closing my store

[misslizzysgems]

Oh I got SO angry. I called Ebay every name under the sun. I cursed them, swore at them, and yes, I still think they are money grabbing low lifes.

BUT

There is nowhere on the internet, nowhere, that has the volume and traffic that Ebay does.  And if I close my store, list my average 100-125 goods separately, do that every 7 or 10 days (tedious) and take into account all the other fees attached to auction style listings... guess what.  It's actually marginally to keep the store running even with the fee hike.

I looked into other sites.  No traffic going through any of them.  I thought about my own website.  Too labor intensive, and too expensive... far more than it costs on Ebay.

I will just work harder, rotate my listings more, freshen things up, have regular sales, keep adding new stock.  I can make this work for me and dammit, I will. Ebay is NOT going to get the better of me.

Sleep on this people, sleep on it.  I'm soldiering on.

Take THAT Ebay. I'm not going anywhere.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

IMO websites only work for rare hard to get items, unless you have those, you're best to leave your generic items on ebay.

Another note - websites have far less traffic than the other ebay styled site and we all know how much traffic that place gets.

[ausfast]

IMO websites only work for rare hard to get items, unless you have those, you're best to leave your generic items on ebay.

Another note - websites have far less traffic than the other ebay styled site and we all know how much traffic that place gets.

You're exactly right!

To be successful in your own online store you need to find a product range that is a specialty niche.

Buyers need to have a reason to visit your website as opposed to just buying from ebay if the price is the same. They must benefit somehow over the ebay competition. Offering a lower price or some other incentive can attract them to your store instead.

The other issue is with buyer protection. On ebay the buyers are treated like royalty and have multiple avenues protecting them from fraud or returning items. In your own store it can be a challenge to convince buyers to have the same level of trust that the ebay brand has already built up.

It also needs to be worth your while, if you are usually selling small low priced items then your own store is likely not worth it because it will be difficult to generate the same volume of sales that you do with the small items on ebay.

You need to ensure the items you are selling are higher priced items with a good profit margin. This way if you only sell say 5 items a week, then these 5 items bring enough profit to be worthwhile. 5 items with $2 profit margin on each is obviously not sustainable.

Good luck everyone

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

Ecommercebytes did a good story on this subject.

[superscanner4]

My entire "closing my store" thread has been removed.

[dickos-extreme]

My entire "closing my store" thread has been removed.

Very sad.:-(

eBay just don't like the truth sometimes.

The truth hurts sometimes doesnt it eBay.

There are a lot of very unhappy people out there.

Can you blame us..........................................?

[superscanner4]

Another news story at ecommercebytes is about changes in search function on another site, that disadvantages sellers of genuine vintage items.  Unique and genuine items are now harder to find because they are mixed in with massed produced items, you can't search under "vintage".  The site's owners say that sales are up, but it seems to work along the lines of supermarket selling i.e. you make it harder for the shopper (who knows exactly what they want) to find their item by putting a whole lot of irrelevant stuff in their way but if you're lucky they'll get distracted and buy something else they weren't planning to buy.

That kind of thinking goes against the whole purpose and design of internet search engines.  It is a step backwards and people will soon work this out, they are not stupid.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

reminds me of itunes, they charge us more than any where else and now it's ebay's turn.

The difference with other places like UK, NZ and US is those places have more competition from other online auction sites.

The competition in Aus. is unheard of and unseen leaving the main player with a monopoly.

[jillywinkle]

me neither...will keep on trucking and see what happens. Problem is I dont have the traffic in ebay I once had...but never mind. Still cheaper than renting a real life shop...and better than garage sales or markets...and time to get back to working on my website methinks...jillyB-)

[jillywinkle]

hey superscanner...I was reading forums in that site last night. The handmade one that starts with et....yeah?? If so its such a shame...and I admit it IS hard to find stuff there....I was going to list things there but changed my mind after reading some message boards there...same story as ecommerce rave you read...jilly

[mokbels_yachts_and_gear]

this is one of the best posts I've read on here in a while. But, ebay has got the better of you. You will continue to pay and in the end that's all they care about

They're very glad that you're not going anywhere. that's excactly what they want.

ebay 1 - Cosmogirl 0

Good luck and best wishes