Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Alternative selling venues: It makes sense to look beyond eBay

Today a Wall Street Journal news story came out providing an overview of 'the whys' behind so many online retailers jumping off the eBay train.

With eBay's ever-changing policies -- in most cases, not favoring sellers -- more of us who dabble in online sales have been investigating alternate venues. I've been hearing individual stories of seller dissatisfaction with eBay and commenting on the resulting trend of many of them exploring other options for months now. In mounting frustration, some have simply closed their eBay stores.

While many sellers are optimistic for positive income streams passing through other online avenues, the quote below (from today's news story) puts it simply. There's an undeniable reality...

"Entrepreneurs have been trying to displace eBay for years and haven’t managed to do so, says Ms. Mulpuru of Forrester Research. She estimates that nearly one in every five dollars spent online goes to either eBay or Amazon."

It makes sense to experiment with alternate venues. However, it can't be overlooked that the higher exposure your items receive on eBay and Amazon is more promising for sales overall.

Certainly, there's money to be made online wherever there are potential buyers. The challenge for new sites popping up is utimately to attract buyers and keep them coming back. As an online destination, the environment offered will need to both ensure buyer satisfaction over the long haul AND create a worthwhile venue for sellers to invest their time and efforts as well.

Read the Wall Street Journal story for more details, including descriptions of alternative online selling venues.

Scot Wingo offers insights on eBay’s biggest issues on his blog, eBay Strategies.
Read Four Big Gripes of eBay Sellers.

Iris & Lily Insights is a blog written by Diane Falvey about the business of selling handmade crafts online. Today's entry offers a few thoughts specifically about artisians doing business on eBay.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I must agree with the news article that sellers are looking for other areas to sell their products. I for one have been looking into selling on Amazon.

I'm not going to stop selling on eBay. There are too many buyers on eBay. But once there are more sellers than buyers I'm off the eBay bandwagon.

I'm going to look into some of the sites you listed here.

Thanks. May you be blessed in everything you do.

-Carlos
www.yourauctionnews.com