Ebay’s latest decision to apply final value fees to the total price of items including postage has effectively proven that small businesses and artists are unwanted there. They’re switching over to a wholesaler’s market to attempt to compete with Alibaba.com and similar sites, and are phasing us out.
Many people stuck with them through other changes, and will stick with them even now, but just raise their prices, because they think eBay is the only game in town. They are certainly not. They don’t even have the best prices or the most traffic and are not the easiest to use. Most of the best alternatives are free and will show you better returns for less money.
Social Network Selling
The most obvious and best alternative to eBay is, of course, Facebook. Not only can you sell your items to people in your social network, but they have a Marketplace powered by Oodle that can bring your items to both your friends and friends of friends. People who really want the best deals and to buy from people the can trust through social connections look there first for almost anything, especially handmade items. It’s totally free, and works very well. Here you can see my Facebook page for Sheloya Mystical. It’s still a bit new, but it’s working for me already.
Classified Ads
Then there’s good old Craigslist. Some people are confused about Craigslist, thinking that since it hosts local classifieds, that your ads will only be visible locally. This is not the case at all. They’re very Google searchable, so your ads will be seen worldwide. If someone’s looking for what you’re selling, they’ll find it. Just make sure to make it clear that you’re willing to sell to people all over your country, region, or world.
eCrater Online Store Creator
As far as sites where you can create an online store, despite certain drawbacks, eCrater is at the top of the list. You can’t use html in your descriptions and such, but its main advantage over other shopping sites stems from the harsh code restrictions. They rock Google Base like a baby. It’s not an easy thing to do.
When you do a Google search for anything, eCrater listings display in the shopping tab results. This is an awesome advantage if you’re selling unique or hard to find items. What makes it easier for people to find you is that eCrater uses special attibutes that Google uses to find specific types of products and bring people the most relevant results. eCrater is also free. They make money with their ads and by promoting Google Checkout, and don’t plan to ever charge because they’re doing fine as they are.
Alternatives to PayPal
By the way, just in case PayPal starts going crazy like eBay has, it’s a good idea for those of you who can, to sign up for Google Checkout. It’s nice to have as an additional option no matter what happens, but just in case PayPal gets greedier, it might save your online business. I can’t wait until it goes international.
Oh, and remember good old fashioned Escrow. With them, you don’t get your money until the buyer gets their item or the inspection period runs out, but they have a good track record of protecting both buyers and sellers.
Yahoo Stores
Anyway, back to places to sell your stuff…for about $40 per month, you can build a Yahoo Store. I haven’t used it, so I don’t know if it’s worth the money, but surely you will get lots of traffic.
Roll Your Own
Then of course there’s the option to roll your own. You need a web host that can handle commercial needs for dependability, space, and bandwidth. If you have a good handle on HTML and PHP, this is actually your best option. You don’t have to compete with other merchants on your own site, and so long as you stay search friendly, you’ll get traffic. I’d recommend integrating it into a site or blog you’re already writing. This way you don’t have to start from scratch. If you already have readers, at least a few of them will turn into buyers.
Gaining Popularity Fast
In these cases, the alternatives are not currently the most popular, but are getting a big bump to the front because of eBay’s antics. These are likely going to become the places where everyone looks for good deals. They’re gaining popularity quickly with both sellers and buyers.
One is eBid. People describe it as like what eBay used to be before they got crazy. There are super low listing fees, they’re very internationally friendly, very user friendly, and you have the option of PPPay, Google Checkout, or PayPal. It’s easy to see right away that eBid is better than eBay in so very many ways. Soon, they’ll very likely also eclipse eBay as the go-to auction site of the world. Their listing and final value fees are extremely reasonable, and by the way, for a one time payment of $49.49, you can upgrade to Seller + and not pay listing or final value fees again ever.
Another is Bonanza. They specialize in the unique, hard to find, handmade, and just plain fabulous. This is where people who love beautiful things go to shop. Well, there and Etsy. If you are an artist or craftsperson, and you don’t have your own site, you need to be on at least one of them. To be honest, Bonanza is more popular mainly because of the name.
So you see, there are many alternatives that will actually get you traffic and won’t bury you in the search like eBay did. If you were only selling an item or two in a month even though you had quality products and graphically clean but nice descriptions on eBay, it’s because when people select the search parameters they want in eBay, they don’t get what they actually ask for. Search results, even when asking for price+shipping, lowest first, favored their sellers who pay more. So you might want to move to eBid, Bonanza, and Etsy just to not get screwed over.
