This is a question I have been asking myself for at least 8 years now. What started for me as trading and selling in and through the Recycler newspaper, has become a half income for me. But, Like many.... I wonder if there is an alternative to the high fees and low support from the Gods of Ebay. They frown on advertising about your other web address on any piece of business that comes from them, so it is completely up to the seller to motivate themselves to not only be a marketeer, but also a customer service rep,a computer whiz,a business person,a stock person,a shipping clerk, and an accountant. Let me say this right off. Ebay has saved our asses so many times I cannot count them on 2 hands. I will not stop trading on that site. I have been on there since 1999, and I will continue my patronage to them. But... Because I have small stock meaning most sells for under 5.00 and I have about 100,000 things I need to list... I cannot see myself digging that deep into the hole to get a 3.00 pattern to someone. I do have 49 people who subscribe to my store newsletter. I am proud of that number. But I want a place I can list all. I have been searching for the perfect place... I have found there is no such thing. Here is my blog of what I have experienced on my search for an Ecommerce site that will give me the most.
Currently I am working hard with iOffer. Now... I know they have tons of hate mail. They also are not completely free. but what intrigued me the most is the number of sales the people who are on iOffer have gotten. That, My friends is worth everything, that is the golden ticket. you find a site that has customers , you have found a home.
First off... It is not Free. Now this is misleading. What Is Great is there is no fee for starting a store. That is a relief. There also is no fee for listing. another score... Those 2 and customer attention is a huge incentive. They also allow you to list as many pics as you want for free. ..
What they do charge for is after the listing is bought... there is a fee. Under I think 3.00 it is .75 cents or under 5.00 it is .75 cents or .75 cents is the lowest cost.. It goes up from there.. I am not sure how much, But it is cheaper than Ebay.
They have shopping carts, and they have Paypal. I know.. No big Feat.. But it is to me. The listing tools are simple.
Here are the things that bug the hell out of me....
First ... they allow transfers from other sites ,.. Ebay included. This is wonderful.. no problem.. The problems come from the young software or old software they use. You cant choose what transfers over. Now my ebay store has over 900 items in it. It took a week and a half to transfer the listings... and hold on... your not finished. once the transfer is in the works.... Your listings now on iOffer are not complete. All they say is Make offer and free shipping. Now hold the boat on this one.. good way to completely loose your shirt. Plus all my listings have different prices.. I have to guesstimate price as I put prices in.
They have a bulk edit button... I thought would work out fantastic. Well.. I was hoping I could take all my patterns and set the shipping price to free for the united states and have a set price for overseas... or have a shipping calculator for everyone and set it at 8 oz. .. No. They will let you set shipping.. but only worldwide and no shipping calculator. I made the mistake of going ahead and putting 3.50 for shipping for everyone ..... Then now I am still in the process of going in and individually changing all 925 listings to have the correct shipping.. I am not on dial up anymore since last month actually, But now I have Hughes Net.. Which is great... Except they have limited bandwidth per day... and ... I don't know if it is the satellite or iOffer, but i am constantly hit with notes saying the web page is unavailable or I will list and list and my things will not show up.
Its frustrating. I also will do key searches to see what is selling and I get hit with the same problems. I know it is an issue that Paypal,Vendio,auctionwatch,Ebay have had in the past, so I am OK with it. It is just frustrating.
What is good is that after a week , I had 2 sales. Now.. you may think that is terrible, but I have stores on Vendio,Ecrater,Etsy,And a few others I will get to ,and there is no sales. Ecrater I was rooting for... but I have had nothing come of the site
Another thing to watch out for is accounting for your merchandise. as I sell on Ebay, I must keep good records and delete the listings on Ioffer and other places so I do not over sell a product.
Again, Listing is a snap. I love that. I listed over 25 things yesterday in 2 hours ... It was Cake.
Another thing that is annoying is searching for something in the entire iOffer catalog, and the search is for entire posts and not just titles. so you get too many things that have nothing to do with what you are looking for, and when you use the sdubcatagories to narrow down the search, many times the site knocks you off, and you use the go back buttons and the website is no longer avalible. this type of frustration will keep customers away. they need to work on the software.
I have already invested time and patience into Ioffer and I am willing to go the distance with it. I feel that if they are able to get something tangible out of the sellers theyare less likly to immediatly start charging listing and store fees. Please God... Dont let them.. I would be very disheartened.
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