@onekiwi0 wrote:
So less traffic - shame, so far purchases from etsy have seemed more professional the whole experience but perhaps that's just those stores. Another payment system sounds annoying a little complex and I see you review as opposed to feedback so I assume buying and selling is separated ... Meaning as cushions said hard to get ur first sale
For what it's worth, I think E*sy is the best third-party alternative to eBay for anyone who has items that can be listed there (discounting A**zon, for various reasons), so is always worth giving a shot. Australian traffic is low compared to ebay, but if you will post OS there's a very large customer base, some of which are used to the high costs of international postage, so won't necessarily baulk at the Aus Post prices.
I opened my first store there just over 2 years ago and it took about 2 weeks to get the first sale, with low but consistent sales since then, all things considered (4-5 sales a month on average, which I know doesn't sound like a lot at all, but is a very cost-effective and worthwhile venture once the listing fees and FVF fees are taken into account - that shop is jewellery, so a saturated category, no outside advertisng at all, no promoted listings, and inventory has been a little neglected for a while because I haven't had a lot of time to design / make new things lately, in other words I'd probably do a lot better with that shop if I actually invested some time into it).
The second store was opened mid-last year, and once I started listing things I had a sale within an hour - in just a few months my sales in the second store was triple the sales in the first one. That one is purely supplies, though, which is a highly popular category, and I focus just on a particular niche.
Both my shops were opened prior to direct checkout being mandatory, so I was able to keep DC and PayPal separate (I was actually going to switch to just DC, but then they announced if you did that, you weren't going to be able to switch back, I didn't really like the choice being taken away, so I kept my PP separate because I figured it was better to have it than not have it and never be able to get it back). But, that being said, their DC system is not very complicated at all, payments are generally hassle free once everything is verified, and their seller protection is comparable to PayPal's, plus only proof of post is required for international sales (that's not so good for the buyer's though, when they strike a seller who isn't willing to assist with a lost package).
You can't block buyers from purchasing from you over there, but you can cancel a transaction for whatever reason you deem fit, generally without repurcussion or fear of bad feedback (if cancelled within certain parameters), and that, TBH, is a very welcome function by me (so far I've only used it once outside of buyer's actually requesting to cancel, and that was because there was a note to seller mentioning delivery by a certain date that would have been impossible to meet, and the buyer never replied to my messages asking them to confirm if they still wanted to go ahead).
