A Yahoo Ecommerce Store or an Ebay Store?
Posted on September 26th, 2009 by admin
I would like to know the pros and cons of both. I have made a list of what I think of each but would like others input just in case I forgot to think about something.
I know with ebay I wouldnt have to advertise so aggressively but then there are the fees and possibly being scammed. And with the Yahoo Merchant store I could possibly design a professional site and avoid so many different fees. Yahoo would requiremore aggressive advertising and still presents the oppurtunity of being scammed.
I would just like the opinions of others. THANX!
CREATING YOUR OWN WEBSITE
Pros
- allows you to establish your own "real estate" on the Web;
- allows you to attract a bigger audience; not limited to eBay buyers (not everyone buys on eBay)
- scaleable as it allows your business to grow;
- allows you to give more information about your business to your visitors and give them reasons to trust you
- allows you to give more information about the product, play around with factors that can increase conversion
- gives you a more professional look
- makes you look like a "big" business (an e-commerce seller that also sells on ebay "looks" so much bigger than a purely ebay seller)
- you can put in as many items you want without paying listing fees
- you can sell as many items as you can without paying value added fees
- less restrictions than eBay (you are more free to write your sales copy)
- easier to market on the Web
Cons:
- requires technical knowhow to create a website (or money to pay someone to do it for you)
- fixed price (price you set is what you get)
SELLING ON EBAY
Pros
- auction format; prices can go up higher than you originally set it for
- eBay’s brand and size of its market
Cons
- listing and final value fees
- lots of restrictions
- harder to get onto search engines
- link exchanges are more difficult
- increasing competition (it is not as easy to sell now on eBay compared to others)
I would say it depends on what you want with your business. If you have a steady supply of product to sell (not just based on what you can find in your attic), I would go create a website – and THEN use eBay as an additional sales channel. You just have more room to operate and grow your business with having your own store.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:01 am
You have the right idea –
Here is an additional resource for you:
http://auctions.first411.com
Keep Smiling!
References :
September 26th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Well, as you stated, there are pros and cons to each. I had both and eventually dropped both and I even tried an Ebay Prostore which I found useless. The Ebay store is the cheapest but let’s face it, it’s limited to Ebay shoppers. There are alot of them out there but you’re still limited to people (a) shopping on Ebay; and (b) shopping for your products. The Yahoo store is a great idea but you have to do your own marketing to get people to the store. Prostores offers free listing to the search engines so that’s a nice feature. Since you can get a 30 day trial on all three, why not try all three to see which brings in the most sales and which has the best software to design the site. Once you decide, you can start putting your site address on your shipping labels, business cards, mailings, etc. You’ve heard the expression, "if you build it, they will come." That’s only true once you get the word out there which is the hardest part of marketing. Try them all.
References :
September 26th, 2009 at 9:42 am
CREATING YOUR OWN WEBSITE
Pros
- allows you to establish your own "real estate" on the Web;
- allows you to attract a bigger audience; not limited to eBay buyers (not everyone buys on eBay)
- scaleable as it allows your business to grow;
- allows you to give more information about your business to your visitors and give them reasons to trust you
- allows you to give more information about the product, play around with factors that can increase conversion
- gives you a more professional look
- makes you look like a "big" business (an e-commerce seller that also sells on ebay "looks" so much bigger than a purely ebay seller)
- you can put in as many items you want without paying listing fees
- you can sell as many items as you can without paying value added fees
- less restrictions than eBay (you are more free to write your sales copy)
- easier to market on the Web
Cons:
- requires technical knowhow to create a website (or money to pay someone to do it for you)
- fixed price (price you set is what you get)
SELLING ON EBAY
Pros
- auction format; prices can go up higher than you originally set it for
- eBay’s brand and size of its market
Cons
- listing and final value fees
- lots of restrictions
- harder to get onto search engines
- link exchanges are more difficult
- increasing competition (it is not as easy to sell now on eBay compared to others)
I would say it depends on what you want with your business. If you have a steady supply of product to sell (not just based on what you can find in your attic), I would go create a website – and THEN use eBay as an additional sales channel. You just have more room to operate and grow your business with having your own store.
References :