A Bonanzle WooHoo.

[cohibastore]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=18964.msg74981#msg74981 date=1251299059]

10% is still less than 12%

But 10%  is  way  more  than  0%  :twistedevil:
[/quote]

I pay ebay 12% of $150k and get to keep the other 88%.

I pay amazon almost 20% and get to keep the other 80%. (My amazon prices are higher)

I pay my dot come store $9.95 plus 1.5% to paypal for payment processing, but even if kept 100% of the sales from  my dot come store, it would add up to one month of ebay sales.

So I would prefer not to pay any fees to anyone, but I am not walking away from 80% of my sales just so I can say I didn't pay ebay, thats just bad business.

CS

[bargainbloodhound]

even if kept 100% of the sales from  my dot come store, it would add up to one month of ebay sales.

re that dot com store...  tolensmiley:

There are a few changes (on the contact page, terms page, about us page, that  eBayListingTermseBayAboutMe-esque text on the home page :blinkie: , and I would say the privacy policy page but you don't have one) you should make that would take 1-2 hours for you to change and would likely boost your conversion rates. The text you have on those sections of your site now would work on eBay but not on a web site...on a web site what you currently have on those sections is likely costing you sales.

Start a topic in the ecommerce stores review section so we can rip apart...er, I mean review , your web site (expect helpful criticism and no useless fluff like "ooh, I like the colors" if you ask for a site review). 

If you don't want to put your site up for review take a look at the text on pages I mentioned on a store like [removed] almost as much traffic as AtomicSMall.com) and compare it to what you have on those pages of your BISI store and go from there.

[sneakymagenta]

expect helpful criticism and no useless fluff like "ooh, I like the colors" if you ask for a site review

I'm ASSuming that your and valleygirl's TT accounts were hijacked when the 100% FLUFF comments on this thread were posted. :imptongue:

arcasm1:

[amy]

But 10%  is  way  more  than  0% 0.5%-0.75%

0% FVF but you left out the approximately $200 monthly in hosting costs that can be attributed to our stores. 

Websites aren't free but they are much cheaper percentage wise than any of the small 'eBay alternatives' and you don't have to worry about some boinktard closing the site without notice like HiBidder did last week. In absolute dollar terms however the average tiny auction site like PH or ASs that is self-promoted on PSU is much cheaper than a website because 2%-5% of no sales is $0.  tolensmiley:

In eBay and Amazon's defense, their fees are much lower than what it would cost to rent retail space here (average annual rents per square foot average $115 here) 

Yes I have but thankfully I ignored every boycott

The only eBay sellers who can afford to take part in a boycott are people who don't rely on their sales to pay the bills.

So I would prefer not to pay any fees to anyone, but I am not walking away from 80% of my sales just so I can say I didn't pay ebay, thats just bad business.

Making a hasty business decision based on an emotional reaction to an eBay policy move is always a bad move, and completely shutting down your eBay operations without first building up your sales elsewhere is also always a mistake (the exception to this rule is eBay sellers who are operating at a loss month after month--temporarily shutting down and rewriting their business plan might be a good idea for sellers who fall into this group)

If you use eBay as a marketing tool to drive customers to your website you can eventually replace all of your ebay income but the process can take years in some cases.  Sellers who think it will happen overnight (i.e. the people who after an eBay fee hike say "I'm leaving eBay and moving to Wagglepoop") are always in for a rude awakening and usually end up returning to eBay.

[cohibastore]

  If you don't want to put your site up for review....

Are there areas I could improve? Absolutely.

But the web store is a work in progress and for the time I spend on it I am very satisfied with its return on my investment.  It organically placed in the top 10 in Google response for the niche we are aiming at after less than three months and in the top 3 after six months.

Except for supremely low hosting fees and payment processing fees, I have no other site related expenses and I am happy with its slowly improving numbers. It was on course to out perform our Amazon sales, until Amazon instituted their charge when ship program, which seems to have chased off some competitors and helped our Amazon sales.
 
I don't market or advertise the store outside of customers I have existing relationships with, or potential buyers who know us from our posts in appropriate niche forums, so we don't have to falsely portray ourselves as anything other than we are, or spend a fortune building a flashy website.  Little guys are the core of our niche and simple sites are accepted with no prejudice towards an absence of flash and gloss.

Also, since I make essentially the same profit no matter where I sell from, where I sell is less of an issue.

Finally, god forbid if our traffic ever reached 5% of FSS traffic, I’d sell it or torch it and starts over again. I have no desire or intention to grow my business that large. 
CS

 

[bargainbloodhound]

Little guys are the core of our niche and simple sites are accepted with no prejudice towards an absence of flash and gloss.

You don't need flash or gloss, but I think you'd be surprised by the positive impact fleshing out your terms and policies pages, adding a privacy policy, moving some of the policy type text on the homepage to an actual policy page, etc would have on conversions/sales of visitors who find you via a search engine. 

[cohibastore]

By the way your comments are appreciated. Don't think  I'm just blowing your ideas off.


[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=18964.msg75046#msg75046 date=1251653564]

Little guys are the core of our niche and simple sites are accepted with no prejudice towards an absence of flash and gloss.

You don't need flash or gloss, but I think you'd be surprised by the positive impact fleshing out your terms and policies pages, adding a privacy policy, moving some of the policy type text on the homepage to an actual policy page, etc would have on conversions/sales of visitors who find you via a search engine.
[/quote]