Many of my clients and readers ask if they should start their own website and sell beyond eBay. I want share my experience with you because I did not find the success I had hoped for when I started my own site.
People find safety, security, and a sense of protection in buying from eBay, Amazon, Overstock.com, Bonanzle, and other large sites because there are systems in place for recourse if the buyer is not satisfied or if there is a problem with the transaction. Starting your own website not only involves a great deal of time and work in establishing the site and moving up in the Google rankings to get traffic, but buyers simply are not comfortable buying from John Doe online who they do not know.
Last year I thought starting a website to sell American health and beauty products was a good idea – I promoted my website to my international customers (300+ a month and many repeat customers) and they continued to purchase the items from eBay. I asked my customers why they were not buying from my site. They stated that they were just more comfortable buying from a large site like eBay that offers buyer protection. Even if they had to pay a little bit more, they still bought from eBay. I had 3 sales within 6 months (and my products only cost $10-$20 each) so I shut down the site. Definitely a learning experience.
I understand the concern with paying eBay fees, but you will be spending money on your own website for domain name registration, hosting fees, web design, marketing, and spending a lot of valuable time on this venture. eBay fees may be the most cost effective and time efficient way to go.
You may not be able to sell anything on your own website, even after all the work. You may want to focus on optimizing your efforts on eBay and other sites along with affiliate marketing, writing articles, and blogging. eBay has millions of buyers congregated in one place ready to buy. You won’t find that with your own website. eBay fees are a small price to pay for access to millions of buyers.
6 comments:
Hi Suzanne,
What a great blog post! You pointed out the costly and time consuming aspects to starting your own site compared to the ease and popularity of using a site like eBay and Amazon that already have the trust and security of millions of customers.
Andrea
This is certainly something we've considered. I like eBay, have been there since '98. Just wish that some of the more recent changes weren't so seller-unfriendly.
this post is flawed on many levels, but of course you would not allow an honest, constructive comment to be approved and posted on your blog - you only approve those you want, those that agree with you. building a business takes time, and your own website is no different. You mention nothing about the things you have done and failed to do after "opening" your site, and having only 3 sales in 6 months. for all we know, you used a template for your website, and that is the #1 problem these days. Most website marketing these days is free, you need to pay ZERO to google for adwords, but rather grow your business organically. when was the last time ebay allowed you to optimize your ebay store for popular keywords? ebay prohibits that, because they do it themselves, driving traffic to their most converting pages. why don't you talk about that? ebay will not help you promote your product to a niche market (such as health/beauty products in your case). heck, ebay will not even let you buy keywords to your ebay store, unless these keywords are deemed "acceptable" by ebay, and those are basically useless, low converting keywords. In discouraging people from attempting their own website, you need to explain the entire picture - all of the pros and cons, not simply dismissing the idea because you failed ( most probably by not knowing the whats and how-to of promoting your own site. for every person that loves ebay, there is a person that hates it - hence the reason ebay is losing ground fast.
Lisa, I agree with what you are saying. I wholeheartedly agree that my website probably failed because I did not put ample time and money into developing it. There are only 24 hours in a day - and if a person is already selling on eBay, Amazon, Bonanzle, and/or Etsy, this leaves little time for developing a website.
To address your concerns:
No, I did not use a template for my site.
I am fully aware of how to use Google Adwords.
Apparently you have had a bad experience with eBay. I also agree that eBay is not for everyone but it works for many of us and has taken care of me and my children for over 7 years. You won't hear me bad mouthing eBay.
Finally, this is a short blog post. The concept is to keep at at 300 words - I am quite sure I could write a dissertation on the pros and cons of starting your own website. Maybe you can give us a link to an article you have written?
I don't understand why you would say that I would not allow a constructive comment to be posted on this blog? As a rule, I do not post most of the negative eBay-hating comments that are posted. My readers and I don't have time for that. For purposes of a healthy discussion, your comment has been posted.
Thanks Suzanne for your honesty! My husband and I are trying to build an online business. We have started with ebay and when we reach our goal there will probably move to Amazon and Bonanzle. I live in a small town and am constantly amazed at the sales we have all over the world. We pay for exposure with ebay, but I honestly think it is worth the money. As you mentioned, people feel more secure using ebay or a well-known website than a small one. Again thanks for sharing your experience with us. I know many people appreciate your willingness to help others get started selling online. God Bless!
Hey Suzanne,
I do not even think, this is an opotion, I feel the best approach, especially where 'information products' are concerned that you should sell them in physical format on eBay!
And also sell them individually on from their own sales pages eliminating the eBay fees from them sales and the other benefit is if your product is on Clickbank the buyer can access it as an immediate download!
This is the market I am in, and its a great way for not keeping all of your business eggs in one basket!
Great topic....Ed.
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