mikesc Posted September 2, 2017 Report Posted September 2, 2017 (edited) About the only thing you can do towards this is I put a business card in every package I ship from eBay and Amazon sales after someone has made a purchase. I have found that 90 % of my repeat customers will then shop directly from us and they also recommend us by website to their friends. That is precisely the sort of thing I was hinting at..Amazon cannot "come after" sellers who include invoices with their business details in the customers order, especially as in most jurisdictions the seller is legally obliged to supply an invoice ( with their address and contact details , business number, phone number and website etc ) with the goods when they send them out. In France, and all of the EU as far as I know, it is illegal not to send those detailed invoices with any goods despatched by the seller, whether they are selling from Amazon or directly from their own website or B & M. All items that I have purchased via Amazon over the years have always included invoices giving full details of the sellers, insisting that sellers here do not follow French national and EU law would result in Amazon being prosecuted by the consumer protection agencies. Amazon obviously cannot "pull end runs" around someone who makes their own stuff, but what they can, and have done, is, in some cases , when they spot an item selling very well, send details of it to an OEM manufacturer to be made for them, thus competing with the original item. Yes, one can be successful with Amazon, especially as G apply ( for the moment ) the Amazon and pinterest "boost". What can work equally well ( if not better ) is to run one's own pinterest pages with watermarked images of ones items, that give the name of ones own website. Also identifying where ones potential customers hang out on the web ( for example leatherworkers hang out here :) and buying CPM banner ad space in those venues..The can be served from ones own site, ( easy to track the stats and ROI ) or hosted on the displaying site ( harder to track the stats and ROI, but possible with co-operative site owners ) ..specialist sites are not overun with "click bots" in the same way that google SERPs or facebook are, ads on either G SERPs ( adwords ) or their "display network" <= adsense are wide open to "click bots", and will burn through your ad budget very fast, same applies to ads on facebook, running your own pages on facebook can get you paying customers, but if you want "reach" on facebook you have to spend either a great deal of time on it, or pay for reach via ads there, which again are vulnerable to "click bots"..click fraud costs advertisers ( not the ad agencies , but the advertisers ) tens of billions per year, cutting out the middle men and approaching site owners ( who have the sort of visitor traffic that you can sell to ) to buy banner ad space on their sites is worth doing, as long as you are paying for ads viewed and not pages viewed ( pages can be viewed by browsers running ad blockers ), a few tens of dollars can get you a lot of pre-qualified interested eyeballs. Edited September 2, 2017 by mikesc Quote "Don't you know that women are the only works of Art" .. ( Don Henley and "some French painter in a field" )
mikesc Posted September 2, 2017 Report Posted September 2, 2017 (edited) Added separately as multiple edits here play havoc with the quote boxen. I agree with you concerning ebay versus Amazon, ebay is in 99% of peoples minds the "online tat bazaar" where customers go to find the lowest price they can, they are not searching for quality goods, they are searching for "bargains" in both the auctions and the "buy it now", ebay is the "poundland" of the internet, and has a Kafkaesque system. Amazon is more straightforward, and tends to attract those with slightly more purchasing power, and who are not shopping based wholly upon price. I notice that you ( Mark842 ) are in the USA...Lumpendoodle2 and I are both in the EU ( well she is for now at least ) in Scotland and France respectively, Amazon and ebay do not run the same TOS ( with regard to both sellers and buyers ) respectively here in the EU ( and in other countries ) as they do in the USA. They both ( as do any companies or individual businesses operating in the EU member countries ) have to operate in accordance with EU and local national laws that govern sale of goods, guarantees, contract laws, consumer protection etc, they cannot legally, ( nor can any business entity operating here ) include in any contract with any seller, any clause that requires the seller to break the laws, especially the laws concerning consumer protection , such as those which require all goods to be shipped with an invoice that has full contact details of the business ( seller ) and / or the manufacturer. Edited September 2, 2017 by mikesc Quote "Don't you know that women are the only works of Art" .. ( Don Henley and "some French painter in a field" )
Members LumpenDoodle2 Posted September 2, 2017 Author Members Report Posted September 2, 2017 Mikesc, if we behave, and promise to be good, can Scotland stay? We would miss you all dreadfully if we left........ Good advice about business cards and invoices. A very good way to divert future sales to your website. I've been going through Paypal, and emailing everyone I've sold to, but I will follow that up with a postal drop as well. A number of my customers are the more 'mature' gentlemen, who like the fact that I don't mind if they call me up for a chat about the orogress of their rig. Quote “Equality? Political correctness gone mad, I tell you, gone mad!!!! Next they'll be wanting the vote!!!!! “. Anger and intolerance are the enemy of correct understanding
Contributing Member fredk Posted September 2, 2017 Contributing Member Report Posted September 2, 2017 To add my 2p worth. Some Ebay 'rules' do not match UK laws. Me and #1 son got banned from selling on Ebay 3 years ago. In short we were returning buyers money per UK distance selling law, which wasn't the same as Ebays rules Ebay owns Paypal and between them they were getting about 14% of our sales. By cutting us off they were no longer getting £5,500 plus per year from our sales Tried talking with them but the people only had one script I joined an on-line auction site called ebid : https://www.ebid.net/uk/ Its still growing and as yet I've not sold anything thru it, but there again I haven't really tried. I took a punt on it and signed up for the lifetime jobbie at £49.99. No fees at all with that deal, just a couple [at pence rate] if you want 'gallery' pictures, that sort of thing. And at the lifetime membership you can link to your ebay feedback and to payment via paypal. Quote Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
Mark842 Posted September 2, 2017 Report Posted September 2, 2017 5 hours ago, fredk said: Tried talking with them but the people only had one script God, ain't that the truth! I've been dealing with eBay since 98..lol. The few times I actually called them to talk about an issue it was like talking to a voice recorded message. All they say is the same written scripted answer..no common sense. 12 hours ago, mikesc said: Added separately as multiple edits here play havoc with the quote boxen. I agree with you concerning ebay versus Amazon, ebay is in 99% of peoples minds the "online tat bazaar" where customers go to find the lowest price they can, they are not searching for quality goods, they are searching for "bargains" in both the auctions and the "buy it now", ebay is the "poundland" of the internet, and has a Kafkaesque system. Amazon is more straightforward, and tends to attract those with slightly more purchasing power, and who are not shopping based wholly upon price. Yep! Everything I have on eBay is listed as a Buy It Now item and I don't use the "Best offer". My selling price is the price, take it or leave it. I have the same pricing on eBay and Amazon. I will get 2-3 messages daily on eBay asking if I will take a reduced price. I have never, not once in 2 years on Amazon received a message asking if would take a lower price. I actually started on Amazon as an experiment because eBay was pissing me off. The 1st year was terrible. Was making maybe 10% of what I make on eBay. This summer was second on Amazon. I started with 20 products on Amazon. I have 105 established products on eBay. By June of this year Amazon was selling 300% more than eBay with only roughly 20% of my product on it. Needless to say I've been adding a lot more product to Amazon... And yes, I hate the fee's for both of them but I add them into my price and when my customers receive their orders with my biz card they go to my website and find my prices are 10% cheaper which helps even more with directing traffic there. That being said, my website is self built through wix and while it gets decent traffic I'm thinking its time to buck up and hire someone to build me a good one! Quote
Members WoodysWorkshop Posted September 2, 2017 Members Report Posted September 2, 2017 What about selling on Etsy? The guy selling the leather stamps from Bulgaria is selling there, no difference compared to ordering directly from him. I just started looking at Etsy, so I really don't know anything about it. Quote
Members LumpenDoodle2 Posted September 3, 2017 Author Members Report Posted September 3, 2017 Hit another problem with ebay. Because ebay, in retaliation, restricted my account for 7 days, getting in touch with, or checking the details, of customers has been difficult. This has resulted in a panicking Italian customer going through ebay resolution centre to find out what's going on. Even tjough I have sent messages 3 times through paypal to him. They have upgraded the reason for the 'suspension' as consistantly referring/doing business outside of ebay. I only did that on my last listings, As I knew I was leaving, and up to then have followed their policy for years. But why get upset, they don't care. I've got a few weeks work of orders, then any quiet period, I'll treat as an excuse to make some of my own projects. Quote “Equality? Political correctness gone mad, I tell you, gone mad!!!! Next they'll be wanting the vote!!!!! “. Anger and intolerance are the enemy of correct understanding
Members WoodysWorkshop Posted September 3, 2017 Members Report Posted September 3, 2017 I would assume Ebay would get a stick up the backside for doing business outside of Ebay if you are using them as a kind of advertising device. The big wigs there are some pretty greedy Ba$tard$, and have no human compassion at all, unless they are getting paid to Give a $hit. The fact that they are allowing people to sell black powder model rocket engines, which is against their policy (and law to ship without the proper license), is fact money talks. I've complained on every listing of BP engines I've seen, and they never get pulled. Lately, Even AP Engines, cases, reloads and single use (which you need the proper certification to legally buy) are even being sold. I'm sure it won't take long before some idiot will get one off Ebay that requires legal certification to buy the engine and seriously hurt themselves. And when it comes out they bought it off Ebay... Ebay will get their butts sued off, which I would love to see. Not that it would a good thing for us that follow the rules use common sense, because it would probably force the Feds to impose more stricter regulations on us. With Ebay's $$$, I'm sure they have pull in politics. Especially in CA. Quote
Members LumpenDoodle2 Posted September 3, 2017 Author Members Report Posted September 3, 2017 That's the thing, I did my ebay business through ebay, but if someone wanted something extra, I increased the item price by using the 'reply with offer'. This meant that in August alone, Ebay got their cut of aproaching £1,000. I don't have time to try to sell outside ebay, once I add my own shop, and ebay sales together. The only time ebay cares about what you sell, is if their policy enforcement team wake up. Then they are at you like a dog with a bone. I now have 3 customers panicking and going through the resolution centre, because ebay wont let the customer contact me, or me contact them direct, and ebay can't be ar**d. And here was me thinking that life was getting a bit boring lately. Quote “Equality? Political correctness gone mad, I tell you, gone mad!!!! Next they'll be wanting the vote!!!!! “. Anger and intolerance are the enemy of correct understanding
Members brmax Posted September 17, 2017 Members Report Posted September 17, 2017 The great write up here is really beneficial, just wanted to say thanks for the tips. A real eye opener in so many ways. Good day there Floyd Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.