There have been several changes at eBay over the last week that haven’t made their users happy. First there was the announcement that they were lowing their listing fees but raising the final value fee, and then there was the announcement that sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback. As a result, there’s a group of people who are working on organizing a boycott of eBay for the week of February 18th through the 25th. They say that it means absolutely no buying, selling, or searching. With this boycott and the simple fact that people are upset over the changes, users are looking for eBay alternatives. A few days ago, CyberNet Reader Michael Dobrofsky asked about alternatives and we mentioned eCRATER. It’s one alternative worth taking a look at, and today we’ll be briefly explaining what they’re all about.
So what is eCRATER? Well, they describe themselves as a free web store builder and a free online marketplace. They say that sellers can create their own online store in a short time for free while buyers can shop for all kinds of products. Additionally, they’ve teamed with Google as an eCommerce partner to allow buyers and sellers to use Google Checkout for payments. They’ve been around since late 2004 and have been growing since then. Certainly they’re not as big as eBay, but that’s to their advantage. They’re definitely one of the places buyers and sellers turn to when they eventually determine they’ve had enough with eBay and their constant rising fees.
I haven’t used the site yet, but I just did several searches for different products and their selection seems to be good. The overall main theme I noticed on the site is simplicity. Everything is simple from setting up a store to a listing. Searching for “Apple iPhone” yielded 202 different results which isn’t bad at all. Of course I did come across a few fraudulent appearing listings (one said they only took Money Gram as a form of payment, big red flag there!), but I don’t think you’ll be able to stay away from fraud no matter where you go.
If you’re a seller on eBay and you’ve just about had enough, why don’t you checkout eCRATER and other sites like it? And for buyers, the next time you need something, instead of going to eBay right away, why don’t you checkout alternatives like eCRATER. There are options out there, it’s just a matter of finding and using them. Like I said, I haven’t used the site yet to vouch for it, but it is definitely a site I will be checking in the future when I need something. If you’ve used them, be sure to let us know how your experience was.
Nice find! :mrgreen: I like that they use Google Checkout. I have a client that is looking for an economical ecommerce option and this may be the way to go. I am going to be looking in to this some more.
It’s a shame eBay is so damn big, but we just need these types of sites to catch on and give them some competition so they don’t have so much power cos power corrupts :( Thanks, nice find.
You got that right! After 9 years I’m so sick of selling on ebay. If you looked at my auction results you’d be thinking I make a lot, but after ebay and paypal get done taking out their fees I’m lucky if I get to keep even half of what I make selling, and then of course you have to deduct what we paid for it in the first place and all the time involved.
I already opened a store at ecrater and am starting my own website.
If anyone’s interested in finding where their favorite ebay sellers are going – and viewing how much the feebay fees are taking out of sellers pockets – come on over to PowerSellersUnite.com. It’s a free, and great informative site.
Looks very good. With eBay cranking up their fees and screwing sellers, I’m sure eCRATER will grow.
@Ashley:
I liked the site which is cleaner and more intuitive than eBay. However, I was disappointed that two sellers that I selected were not offering their products outside the United States.
I’m sure a lot of business is out there, outside the U.S borders.
Regards,
Omar.-
I think e crater is much better and not as complicated as e crater and i myself sell on ecrater and have also bought from ecrater without any problems
Best Regards
Michael
Omar, if eCrater can reach critical mass, sellers will almost certainly _have_ to expand their customer base by selling/shipping ex-CONUS. I’d give it another several months to see how things shake out.
On a related note, I’ve been on eBay since ~1998, and don’t even like the “improvements” that they’ve made to the site, such as revisions of category structures. It seems that they continually change crap for…the sake of changing crap. Maybe all of those programming gazillionaires who work there have to justify their existence by tweaking features that already work fine. I don’t know. What I do know is that I no longer visit there as often as I used to, and selling a textbook on Half.com almost makes me feel as ripped off as selling it back to the bookstore, after I see the pittance that I get after fees are deducted.
Many sellers on eBay only sell within the United States as well simply because of the hassles that come with international shipping and customs. Just as eBay ended up opening up in other countries, if eCRATER catches on, I think they’ll end up in other countries as well.
Wow, 9 years! I did it full time for a little over a year and that was enough.
I have been selling on eCrater.com since March 2005. Unlike eBay where you paid dearly and hope the eBay name brings you a buyer, on eCrater.com it’s up to the individual store owner to do their own promotions and get out there and find their customers. Comparing eBay and eCraters is like comparing apples and oranges. Sure, they are both places you can sell your products but that’s about the end of the comparison. One thing eCrater.com is not is an auction site! Everything is fixed price store listings – no best offers, no auctions.
One SUPER GREAT thing about eCrater.com is they do the feed to google of all the products on the site – 986,715 items at this time. The Google ranking on most stores is superb! This helps bring the shoppers to your items a great deal.
The forum community is full of great people willing to share ideas and help sellers get started.
Have Left eBAy And Trying eCrater But have Many Hits But Do Not Seem To Sell What Am I Doing Wrong
Thanks for the clarification Pat. I definitely plan on selling on eCrater in the future, and seeing that they are on the Google product searches is definitely a nice incentive.
The thing with eCrater is that it is strictly a storefront. It makes a great alternative to eBay stores and Prostores, but not for the auction side of eBay. I’ve tried a few others, and my favorite so far is ebid. It’s got a great interface and really could be a great supplement if not a replacement to eBay eventually.
I assume you work for eBid?
Good article!
eCRATER is really a good alternative to ebay. In it you can post all your stuffs at no cost. A lot of ex-ebayer now are coming to ecrater as their new market place. Ebay sucks up all your earnings.
Good luck and more power!
yes but if you don’t have any one to buy your stuff what’s the point? I see everyone saying this is a good place and stuff but is anyone making money? From what I am reading it looks as it is just another place that sells webs sites to people and than list them on a search engines. Ebay may have it share of problems but it is still the place most everyone I know goes to first for every thing they need sorry that’s me too there has not been one time when I was looking for something that I wasn’t able to find it on Ebay, and as a buyer that makes my life easier
I’m slmost up to 2 year anniversary on ecrater and 16 months exclusive. I don’t pay the rent with what I make but didn’t on eBay either except for a couple of months when they had stores in search. I rarely ran an auction on eBay so switching to an all fixed price format was easy for me.
It is a very nice and friendly place to do business. Real effort is made to discourage and toss fraudulent sellers and the price more than makes up for its limitations.
This is a great site for buyers and sellers of used/vintage/antique and artisans. With low profit margins, the 0 fees makes it worth it. They even offer bulk upload although since I have never used it I can’t speak for the specifics.
I have switched from eBay to ecrater howeveer I have Very Many Hits But No Sales What Am I Doing Wrong
Ecrater is a great alternative to ebay even if its not an auction site… Look at it this way… You pay 8.75% to ebay and 2.7% to paypal so over 11% that you don’t get. With a 20% profit margin you only get 8%. With Ecrater on the other hand you can enjoy all of the 20%… One sell may not make a difference but if you are selling 10 items and paying even as less as 100 dollars to ebay you can spend less than that and get great advertisement with your site. Its your profit so keep it….
I agree with you 100%, Ebay only cares for its self and his buyers, He is forgetting all the profit he makes comes from the seller. I will be the happiest man when I will be able to stop working with the cheaters. I just heard about the CRATER.COM. I will try and hope I will have some sale there.
Also paying 11% to ebay forces you to sell at atleast 20 to 25% profit to make anything. Selling it at 25% will leave you with only 14%. Say you have $1000 dollar sales, $200 dollars should be your minimun profit because you going to pay ebay 11% so you are left with less than $100. Now if you sold only have as my items on ecrater with %20 profit you would make the same amount. If you sold all the items worth $1000 you get to keep $200 profit.
I found ecrater while looking for a few craft items for my wife. While I did like the layout and the ease of finding the items I was halted in my tracks by where the shipping page was located.
An effective site goes:
* Show item count and purchase price
* Gather personal info (shipping address)
* Calculate and post shipping
* Post new total cost
* Then ask for credit card info
Having a site gather your credit card info before you even know how much it will cost is not a good practice.
If they did it that way I would be more inclined to order through them.
@Possible Buyer – You can find out the shipping amount for any item right on its page before you even put it into your cart. Just click shipping and enter your zip code.
Hello everyone. I was reading the article about Ecrater and I have been selling with them since Jan 2008. They are a very nice place to do business and I love that it is free and you don’t have to pay anything to set up a store with them. I set up my Ecrater store in late Dec 2007 and I had a customer in Jan 2008. I create and sell hand painted silks, mostly scarves and wraps, but also pillows and sarongs. I plan to add custom made silk camisole tops in 2009. I have gotten a few nice sales from Ecrater. I hope to do better next year. I do try to advertise my site on various places. I have never sold on ebay and don’t want to because of all the bad things that I heard about them.
If you have been getting frustrated with eBay, just take a look at eCrater, the fees could not be better (absolutely FREE); The site is very clean and bug free, you have control over how you run your own business… your customers are your customers… You can over a multitude of payment options including money orders or checks. And the community is helpful and active in promoting each other. I am thrilled to have found them :lol:
Hello everyone I agree the fees at ebay were insane and mounting year after year I liked the Traffic but that was it I opened up a store with Ecrater and was impressed it was free and I had hits to
my store within mins of posting my items
ecrater rocks!
I left the other site ages ago and now I’m on ecrater.
IARE YOU MAKING ANY SELLS
I have to say so far so good with eCrater. I like that it’s free. It will save me alot on fees each month.
hi everyone i have been selling on ebay for a few years and just want to know if ecrater keeps any fees when you sell something if you could let me know like if i sold a item for 30.00 would i get all 30.00 as ebay is a killer all i do is pay there fees. thanks :)
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:D I sold on ebay when it first started. It was great! As the corporation grew in size, things changed! They stopped caring about the seller. The buyer was king. When ebay bought paypal they had the whole bowl of wax. Things are changing now! eCrater will do well in this market! Its Time….
I sold on e-Bay for about five years and when I first started selling it was O.K. I sell vegetable and flower seeds and the average price for pack is only about $1.89 with the average order being around $15.00. On e-Bay I had to pay a listing fee, that kept going up each year, 8% to sell the item and then another 6% to 8% for a sell through PayPal. I nearly forgot-I also paid a monthly fee for an e-Bay store. When I started it was $5.00 but I think it is now around $20.00 per month! I was basicly making money for e-Bay with VERY LITTLE left for me.
e-Crater has been a wonderful experience and the best part is that it is FREE. My business is seasonal but I can see better sales each month that I am on e-Crater. I would HIGHLY recommend e-Crater to anyone who has a small on-line business. It is GREAT!
I love eCRATER. :oops:
Bye eBay, Hello Ecrater. I sold on eBay for 6 months, with all the changes we left like many others. Found eCrater and I can’t be happier, now I have listed 5 times more line items then I did on eBay and all for free, all within the first month. If we listed this on eBay we would be paying about $300-350.00 just to list, then if we sold something add more $$$ to the fee, then there is PayPal, add more $$$$. Now all the $$$ goes back into the business for more product.
I am a powerseller on ebay and am really sick of the high fees I have to pay them every month and the same goes for paypal which ebay owns. On every sale I make on ebay I have to pay them at least 15%. I have been selling on ecrater which is great because it is free. However, it doesn’t get the traffic that ebay does. Some people have complained about the payment process. It would be nice if my sales would go up and then I could leave ebay completely as now they want to eliminate the insurance option for mailing packages and hold sellers responsible for articles until they are delivered to the buyer. How and why am I supposed to be able to control what the usps does with the package? It is this cavalier attitude toward sellers plus their high fees that really makes me want to leave ebay.
I agree with everything you said. Ebay has been killing sellers. With the new changes, I have seen an increase in the number of buyers who welch on their bids. They don’t pay, or get buyer’s remorse and turn around and want a refund. Anyone else notice an increase in bad buyers like this? It is a giant headache for me to deal with buyers who reneg on purchases, lie to ebay to get a refund, and deal with ebay who couldn’t care less about their sellers. I have been with ebay for over 10 years, and am sick and tired of them tying my hands or nickle and dimeing me to death. And being responsible for the USPS mailings is stupid.
I used to have an ebay store for about a year but found I was really only making money to pay to ebay. There was never anything left over. I then sold on ebay auctions only but the fees were still to high to justify selling small ticket items like second hand clothes. I used ecrater as well. It is fabulous that there are no fees and the site itself it so easy to use. But as the last poster stated, there just isn’t enough traffic. You have to do all the advertising yourself. It can be VERY time consuming but worth the effort if you have the time to commit to it.
I saw ecrater, and i like it \ , i got heats but no sell. CAN ANYBODY TELL ME , IF YOU BUY IN ECRATER WILL YOU ACCEPTED THE PAYMENT OF PAYPAL OR GOOGLE CHECK OUT.. I HOPE THIS HELP ME CAUSE I DONT HAVE GOOGLE I PUT PAYPAL ONLY, TO HELP ME AND BUYERS. ALSO ITS HARD WHEN YOU DONT HAVE ANY FEEDBACK
I was an ebay business seller and had run 3 business accounts with shipping quantity at about six to eight hundred pieces everyday. About 1 year ago I was just so sick and tired of Ebay for a lot of reasons and so, I just stopped selling there. Ebay had rung me for a few times this year. I just told them they are just sux!
Now I have found this site and although I have not visited there yet, I wholeheartedly wish this Ecrater every success in the future!
And…..good luck to Ebay!
I just started a store on ecrater, and so far it’s great. Really easy and I’ve had hits. I think I have figured out what the problem is. it’s the shipping matrix. can anyone help me with it. I want to set it up so it charges shipping based on sale amount. I have my paypal settings set right, but can’t figure out how to get it to show up in checkout. Any help will be appreciated. I emailed ecrater about it but haven’t gotten a response to my question. Thanks.
Ecrater is a good site. Could have more options but is free. What’s better than free? Much better than another free site called blujay. Ecrater has decent but not the best google placement and is growing. For those wanting stores Ecrater is one of the better sites. I have an Ecrater store, my own website and use Ebid too. Between all of these sites I sell just as much as when I used Ebay, or more, and pay much less in fees.
Wow, lots of support for eCrater and rightfully so, it is a nice site. What about the other sites? I sure see a lot of press for Bonanzle. It would be great to see a review of that site as well.
There are many alternative sites available, make sure to visit them all and fine the best that works for your business.
Ecrater is free, that is a plus, but the site is difficult to learn and listing takes too long. I will never venture into the community again, the people treat you like some sort of idiot when you ask a simple question.
Bonanzle was brought into the conversation; social, garage sale sites are not a viable means to make a living. Thanks but no thanks.
I sold on ebay when you had to type a ton of http stuff to even get one picture to load , then it got better , then it got worse , there used to be nice people who loved it when they got their items . Most people were just happy to get the things they bought , Now ebay plays third party transactions with pay pal involved telling people they can ship items fast while they hold the money people agreed to pay you for the shipping , this is all to create tensions between buyers and sellers so they can get more fees .That is part of the reason they won’t let sellers give negative feedback anymore . Even if someone agrees to your shipping times which is supposed to be a binding contract they say , ebay still lets peoples opinions ding your selling status and hurt your sales , how is that fair . I’m so done with crooked business people . I sell at flea markets and meet the nicest people , at ebay 1 out of 5 people are judgemental and mean ,I’m going to try the ecrater it sounds good to me , bye meanbay…
Well, eBay sucks so bad and their fees are just beyond + paypal and you are working for eBay…Moved to eCrater and love it…eBay was good in the old days but those DSR’s are bad…and come April 2010 they are changing terms on those shady DSR’s…Bye eBay
I have been selling successfully on eBay for over a year, my sales are good, feedback is great, profits are dismal. I take into my PayPal hundreds of dollars, then at the end of the month eBay comes through and takes most of back, frustrating !
I have had a few sales on eCrater now and am moving more items from my eBay store to eCrater, and the end of the day it’s all about what you keep in your pocket, not just the thrill of playing an auction game.
Ecrater RULEZ!! I find myself selling more on Ecrater than Ebay! I love it! Ebay is greedy!
How do you sell on ecrater I get LOTS Of hits no sales What Am I Doing Wrong
Me too!!!
I have dozens of items all ready with pictures, and I had been thinking maybe half.com was a good way to go after I decided against ebay for certain things.
But looks like ecrater is a great first step in having your own website. It’s like your own store on training wheels. I love the idea, and that Google is behind it makes it even more attractive.
I think for music related things like CD/LP, there is Gemm, Discogs, ecrater stores, amazon, half,com and finally ebay. Ebay should be used to promote your own stores. You get advertisment out of an ebay listing and sale, and then drive your buyers and question askers over to other venues. It’s called promotion.
Thanks for great article.
I’m trying Ecrater too! I will be able to offer items for MUCH less! I hope my wonderful Ebay customers will find me! I’m a top rated seller on Eslave, and all I do is pay them my profits to sell my items there. Hardly any profit for the many hours of work I put in! I’m so fed up with GREEDBAY!
ebay sucks so bad! I would sell so many items, but by the time I paid listing fees, final sales fees, and paypal fees there is nothing left, I might as well just give all my stuff away to ebay. I was told about ecrater, and looked into it, it is free 100% and I am getting just as much if not more traffic than on ebay. ebay is so greedy, they are going to end up losing all of their business. Good bye ebay, hello ecrater. Check ecrater out then tell your friends about it, I would love to see ecrater take over ebay’s business. Word of mouth goes a long ways.
Personally, I would rather make the same amount of profit selling at a lower volume with no fees on eCrater than at a higher volume with lots of fees on eBay. It means less work and hassle–especially since you just put your items up once and don’t have to worry about relisting auctions. However, I haven’t had -any- sales on eCrater yet (I started putting up my store about a month ago) even though I’ve had decent traffic to my items.
The site is great for sellers. Store setup is easy and simple and (I’ll say it again) IT’S FREE. The problem is that it’s not very friendly for buyers. Sure, a buyer doesn’t have to set up an account but they do have to navigate an un-intuitive site to find your item if they don’t come straight from Goggle and they have to run the gauntlet of unscrupulous sellers and a confusing checkout. As another poster here mentioned a checkout process should NEVER ask for your payment and personal information before you get a total. No wonder potential buyers are scared off.
There’s also the problem of trying to build a reputation on a new site which is noted for being a nest of scammers. When I read about buyers getting ripped off on eCrater I feel disheartened because I do my very best to make my customers happy but I don’t blame them for being suspicious.
Most of the people I hear raving about eCrater are sellers. I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read someone who bought something on eCrater recommend it to anyone else. This is a problem, but if you read the forums on the site you’ll quickly realize that the site management are uninterested in improving either the design of the shopping experience or cracking down on unscrupulous sellers.
For the time being I’m going to stick it out because I really, really hate eBay but I’m always looking for other alternatives.
Actually ebay is getting worse with new restrictive seller policies. I was an ebay user for more than 7 years and since they started to treat me like a thief I am looking for alternatives as well. ebay is dying, long live ebay!
I actually told the last “customer service rep” that I can’t wait to find another source to sell other than ebay. Placing negatives have been made too easy. An individual buyer whose purchases were only (3) tried to place a negative or open a case for non-receipt of goods when he did not receive package within 3 days of payment (on a Saturday)! At least ebay came back with “too soon”. But that did’nt stop my EX-boyfriend for slandering me with a negative with complete LIES. Nothing they could do, unless I get a court order demanding ebay to remove! What BS. I have been selling since 1996 and being ripped off myself I can honestly say it’s the “CRIMINAl MINDED” make a quick buck on the innocent that has changed ebay into the monster it has become. I hope this eCrater works out. Perhaps you can change the name to NOT-EBay. care
I have been on eCrater for about 1 1/2 years and I am quite happy. Yes, the shopping experience is different than with eBay, because there is not the volume of items for sale. (Which, by the way, is becoming a problem when I do shop on eBay — there are so many results for my searches that it is very hard to find what I want — I have to wade through a lot of crap before I find it.) For my store, I did some SEO, and now I can be found on page one of a Google search for my important search terms, which means that I don’t rely on organic traffic on eCrater at all, although I do get some traffic that way. My sales are good, and getting better. If you type in ‘hand dyed wool’ you will see my eCrater store, Ram in the Thicket, down about halfway. and since it is free, it is easy for eBay sellers to give it a try with no risk — just put listings there too to increases exposure.
I like the format, and it is easy to use. No relisting, very few restrictions and those are the kind that keep the marketplace good quality. The only free one out there that is worth anything.
I do have a blog entry that tells how I got on page one, and it may help some looking for ideas, regardless of where you are selling. It’s a jungle out there, and I have tried to make some sense of it.
[susan-raminthethicket.blogspot.com]
Look for the blog post “How to get on page one of a Google search, about 1/3 of the way down. It’s a bit long, but may be of help.
Susan
Thank you Susan for the informative blog post. I too have been with ecrater for a couple of years. I started getting tired of paying for a store that was slowly starting to cost me money(slow sales & higher fees). So I searched the net for somewhere else to go and found etsy & ecrater. I love ecrater and I do believe we need to be in charge of our own marketing, which takes a bit more to learn but pays off better in the end, you’ll get a better following. I’m going to try your idea and see if it works for me. If you get a chance take a peek at my ecrater store.
Anyone thinking about changing over, ecrater & etsy are a great place to move to.
Thank you again for the help!
eBay sellers and their products come up in searches, eCrater does not.
eCrater is a great place to sell and to shop.There are lots of indiviudlay owned stores selling most anything you cn think of,well thats legal and you can think of.I have a store there that sells antiques and vintage items checkout eCrater if your looking for a place to sell and look at my store The Whole Shebang at shebang.ecrater.com
I stopped buying from ebay because almost everything I purchased was not as advertised by the seller. Does this mean all the bad sellers are moving to ecraters and corrupting that site. Hopefully, they toss the fraudulent stores. I will check them out.
I have left Ebay sick of being stoll by ther policy fees,i heaven left a $70 fees dept lol loll
Anyway,now i have open my store on Ecrater and is a great site,simple and pratique,but i am not having any sells until the moment..on ebay for each 10 hits i will sell a product now i have alrady 100 hits and no sells…maybe costumers are more a fraid to buy on ecrater i dont now.I am a international seller outside USA and i am only using Paypal as payment like i did on Ebay.
Ecrater is a very good alternative to ebay. It does not have any fees and it has decent traffic. I have both an ebay store and an ecrater store. On ebay you may have bigger sales, but the fees are so high there, that your profit will be very low. On ecrater however, the fees are inexistent and you get lots of profit from selling your stuff.
eCrater has VERY LITTLE traffic and RARELY comes up in search.
As another (of many!) disgusted longtime ebayer…I am intrigued by this site! I look forward to trying it out very soon, first as a buyer, then as a seller. Good luck to us all!!
^^X^^
I am OVER EBAY and their DISRESPECTFULNESS to SELLERS. Ebay is totally crapping on the SMALL SELLERS that basically got them where they are TODAY! I recently started listing on eCrater and Etsy and DO NOT mind that I have to work a little harder to bring people to my items. I will be posting links inside my Facebook Fan Page as well setting up a blog. Blessings to all and lets SPREAD the WORD about eCrater…..Ebay NEEDS to be hit where it HURTS….THEIR POCKETS!
Hi On ecrater Get a lot of Hits but how and when can you find Solds eBay was great for that always got a flash on computor and emails from Pay Pal What am I doing wrong on ecrater
While eBay has its flaws, the negatives for eCrater are multiple. eCrater sellers often don’t answer to buyer inquiries and perform very little communication if and when they do. I’ve tried to shop there 4 times and had questions about a product, yet none answered. When I did make a purchase, the delivery took too long. I soon inquired about my purchase, and the seller didn’t ship it because he had no idea that he had an order waiting to be filled. Too much time-wasting bother to be shopping there. I’ll stick with eBay and Amazon.
I too, have left eBay because of their total abandonment of any ‘love’ for sellers. My fees were skyrocketing and my sales were unable to keep up with the constantly increasing fees. I still have my account open there, but as more time goes by that I don’t list/sell something, my available sales capacity and overall total sales volume allowed decreases monthly. My DSRs are starting to evaporate too. (I had 5 stars on all) As more time goes by, it will be just like starting from scratch to sell there–and then, they HOLD YOUR MONEY from your buyer for THREE WEEKS until the buyer has left positive feedback! I’m sorry eBay, but if I’m not paid, I’m not shipping anything!
I started with eCrater back in about 2007 and listed a few things and completely forgot about it…then one day, I noticed I had a paypal payment. I saw that I had sold a clock I designed over 3 years ago! I immediately contacted my customer and explained to him that my clock he purchased was such an old design and as my designs improve constantly, I offered to make him a new clock with the coin he was wanting. He promptly responded and appreciated my note. I created a newly designed clock and sent him a mock preview and he wrote back explaining that yes! My designs truly had improved a lot! We agreed to proceed with the transaction and I produced and shipped his clock and as soon as he got it, he was very pleased and that is my first (and only) feedback on eCrater, for now. It’s at least an ice breaker! Since that happened earlier this year, I got back into my eCrater account and deleted all my old listings and replaced them with my new designs. I only have 7 clocks up but I’ve been seeing an increase in traffic. I also figured out how to use the Google feature with brand name and mpn, etc. It makes it easier for Google search to find my items and also, I just hooked up with Google AdSense. I haven’t gotten anything from that, but it’s another tool. It helps me in searches also.
No. I’m done with eBay except for something I may want to auction…but for my clocks, which are fixed price, the eCrater store format is for me. It’ll just take a little more time to get noticed, but with the upcoming holiday season and my fresh, new designs–and the offer for custom clocks for my customers should they have a special request–I believe my sales will go up…
In closing, the lack of fees is also a draw too. The profits I earn simply go back into my business to help me grow (as slow as it is!)–but with eBay, I was simply earning just enough to pay all the fees. I wasn’t earning anything for my time designing, or for anything. It was just work to earn eBay money. I was sick of it.
Please check out my store! Any and all comments welcome! If you should have any questions, please email me, “Mike” @ coinclocks@hotmail.com I do answer my emails promptly and my customer service is 100%. Oh yes…On eBay, I have a score of 645 with 100% positive and 5 star DSR’s..(and falling, lol!!!)