BTW, I know of one store that had over 1,000 items listed and another with even more that are saying goodbye real soon. The first one is pulling stock and the second one just wants to pull the plug. WP will be below 600 before the year is out.
Am I wrong in my recollection? Didn't Karay predict that 700 would be the evening out point for stores after they conducted their 'purge' of the unfaithful in the summer?
What truly surprises me at the moment is that sellers are spending Christmas holiday time closing shop. Are they that determined to leave? After all, the next invoice won't be issued until the 10th of January - unless they are bailing based on their anniversary date.
Thank you everyone for the welcome. I look forward to "HealthynAlert" I like the sound of that! I think I'll just keep moving things to two other sites (not ebay) and see if in time I can get brave enough for a site of my own. That is my new goal for 2007 a site of my own with some traffic driving listings on two sites that I have already chosen. WP is not one of the two, and I don't see myself getting comfortable with WP again for a VERY long time.
I just hope I can get everything off there and in the other places before WP pulls the plug (either on me or on the whole site). I seem to be very slow at moving listings. But have no fear it WILL get done.
Thanks again for the welcome and when I get settled and have questions I promise I'll drive you all crazy!!
IllnConfused
Hi all... just need to pick your brains for a sec...
After leaving WP back in September, I slinked back to eBay with my tail between my legs and my head hung low... my last eBay invoice that I just paid was quite a bit but store sales have been good.
Since WP is a dead dog (and I'd never go back there anyway)... where are some other options that are actually getting traffic? Maybe we can lead the WP'ers in a new direction!
Thanks!!
oops... BTW... 600 stores... :turkey2:
Platz, Merry Merry to you and yours!
I'm going to venture with Tazbar in the new year. I can't give testimony towards any benefits but I've heard nothing but good and great about the site. I've poked through their forums for a feel of the place and so far it has been promising. AND NO CENSORSHIP!! Because business oriented questions get answered - not deleted as uncourteous or disrepectful. And bonus - the owners are in the frontline and don't hide behind a woman's skirts. Offense intended Karen...
I know LadyRock is selling there already, maybe she can give us both some insight.
WAGGLEFACT OF THE DAY
I HAVE LEFT WP OR WP IS SHUT DOWN NOW WHAT DO I DO?
The store count on WP is at 600 and still dropping. In fact there is word some larger stores will be closing very soon. Because of our efforts the word is out about WP and the site will continue fall until Ray explodes in a hissy fit among his multiple personalities. So now what do all those sellers do?
Quote:Since WP is a dead dog (and I'd never go back there anyway)... where are some other options that are actually getting traffic?
Read this article in the quote below as it was found on PSU.
Quote:Is eBay a sales channel or a marketing channel? The difference is as a sales channel, you expect to make money. As a marketing channel, you expect to acquire customers for the best cost. Here's how eBay has changed and why your strategy should change too.
Classic eBay, or what I'll call eBay 1.0 was about creating an efficient market to liquidate goods and make money. Back in the late 1990's when the ratio of collectibles (i.e. beanie babies) to consumables (i.e. ink jet cartridges) was 80% to 20% of eBay auctions, this made sense. The collectibles industry lacked the ability to bring the Pez dispenser seller in contact with the Pez dispenser lover. Enter eBay and voila! Prices for hard to find items equalized with demand as sellers found buyers. And sellers made money.
Then in the early 2000's collectibles and consumables switched places. I'll call this eBay 1.5. Gradually, consumables become a larger part of eBay listings until it's 80% consumables and 20% collectibles. But the consumables industry doesn't operate like collectibles. Consumables require reliable suppliers with recurring products and price reductions driven by volume purchases. By manipulating factors outside of eBay, sellers still made some money.
And now we have eBay 2.0. The gap that allowed sellers to make money on eBay has steadily closed. Costs have risen in the form of eBay fees, external tools and competition. Sellers are screaming that they can't make money. Some feel they've hit a revenue ceiling. eBay has responded by purchasing 5x the volume of search terms from Google that they ran last year. They also rolled a completely new platform (Express) to attract a different type of buyer. The challenge for sellers is that no matter how many new buyers eBay brings to the platform, sellers still cannot make money if each product is purchased for the same miniscule net profit.
But eBay 2.0 is no longer a sales channel, it's a marketing channel. And that makes eBay the most cost-effective marketing channel online. Is there any other place where customers pay you to be acquired? Certainly not Google AdWords.
Let me illustrate. Let's say I spend $5000 a month at Google AdWords to attract buyers to my website. The SEO people I know would look to double their money. So if it cost me $5000 to run an ad campaign, then I want to see $10000 in sales, a 50% take rate for Google. Now let's say I spend the same $5000 in eBay fees to list my products for sale. A healthy eBay seller has a 10% take rate or $50,000 in sales. Cost effective? Yes! In eBay 2.0 your role as a seller is to use sales to acquire customers as cost-effectively as possible.
To make this strategy work, a seller must have a profitable sales channel where the newly acquired customers are sent. It could be a website, a retail presence, even a catalog. Now former eBay buyers become your customers who buy directly from you. As long as new buyers continue to find you on eBay, there's no reason to leave. Just get smarter about your strategy.
The above quote was posted on 12/18/06 on the PSU website. I have viewed eBay this way for the past year. The same applies to all other auction or marketplace sites regardless if they are free or not. My plan works a little different however and I am not disclosing it now but everyone that reads this thread sees this on every page:
SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE
Screw eBay. Screw Wagglepoop.
START YOUR OWN WEBSITE!!!!!!!!
I agree to the message above but selling on any auction or marketplace site that has no fees is your learning curve. The end game and goal for anyone who leaves WP or eBay should be to have there own stand alone website.
let the truth be told
u1it4less - "it's all in the name.."
X-POP NATION, A real seller's network
I've taken a peak at Tazbar, too, and like the look. My biggest concern is that it's basically a UK site. Anybody care to comment?
[quote author=Alskling link=topic=3775.msg38217#msg38217 date=1167186925]
I've taken a peak at Tazbat, too, and like the look. My biggest concern is that it's basically a UK site. Anybody care to comment?
[/quote]
We registered (place holder for our screen name for now) but feel as you do Alskling mostly a UK site for now.
let the truth be told
u1it4less - "it's all in the name.."
X-POP NATION, A real seller's network
Askling, Tazbar is based out of the UK, started in Aug of 2006, and they are hoping for one & all to join. Really nice people, the owners are right there with no censorship as stated earlier, and no one even smacks me when I say something wrong. And trust me, that always happens! I wasn't "getting" some of the posts, they say things differently to what I'm use to, so as usual, I have made an asshat out of myself more than once. Luckily, some people over there gave me links to British humor, and I'm starting to get it. Really funny stuff! Discovered Monty Python for the first time in my life! Had never heard of Monty Python before this, amazing huh? Anyways, me & Hollerbackgirl are over there now. It's a fun site, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
Also, they liked Barbie. Yep, she was at it again and will be doing part 2 this week. ;D
[quote author=let the truth be told link=topic=3775.msg38216#msg38216 date=1167186723]
The above quote was posted on 12/18/06 on the PSU website. I have viewed eBay this way for the past year. The same applies to all other auction or marketplace sites regardless if they are free or not. My plan works a little different however and I am not disclosing it now but everyone that reads this thread sees this on every page:
SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE
Screw eBay. Screw Wagglepoop.
START YOUR OWN WEBSITE!!!!!!!!
I agree to the message above but selling on any auction or marketplace site that has no fees is your learning curve. The end game and goal for anyone who leaves WP or eBay should be to have there own stand alone website.
let the truth be told
u1it4less - "it's all in the name.."
X-POP NATION, A real seller's network
[/quote]
Kapow! Kachow!
I'm scurred to start my own website, even tho I'm desperate to. Should I just go ahead with an easy cart solution to start with? I'm not an SEO dummy but I'm no guru either.
[quote author=let the truth be told link=topic=3775.msg38216#msg38216 date=1167186723]
The above quote was posted on 12/18/06 on the PSU website. I have viewed eBay this way for the past year. The same applies to all other auction or marketplace sites regardless if they are free or not. My plan works a little different however and I am not disclosing it now but everyone that reads this thread sees this on every page:
SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE
Screw eBay. Screw Wagglepoop.
START YOUR OWN WEBSITE!!!!!!!!
I agree to the message above but selling on any auction or marketplace site that has no fees is your learning curve. The end game and goal for anyone who leaves WP or eBay should be to have there own stand alone website.
let the truth be told
u1it4less - "it's all in the name.."
X-POP NATION, A real seller's network
[/quote]
Truth, I agree 100%!
This is exactly what we've been doing for the past year. We got a ZenCart website and we direct all of our eBay customers who want to pay via credit card to check out (we don't accept PayPal, we have our own merchant account) through our website shopping cart.
Zen doesn't automatically 'intertwine' with eBay, so I had to find a good work around. Luckily, I found one and it's working flawlessly (Quick Order Mod) most of the time. Most of our customers don't mind going there to checkout and we have a ton of repeat customers who now come straight to the website.