ebay or own website?

[Mr G]

Hi all

Now this is something I am really new at, and out of my depth.

After researching a product that, as yet, is not available in the UK, I've been lead in to thoughts about e commerce. I could add things to start an oline business. The other products are available in the UK but not all under one roof kind of shop. I've sold 1 product on ebay and it sells ok, couldn't make a living on the one thing but it was in my line of work.

Is it easier to have your own website and market products that way or use ebay until things get going. This is really early in my thoughts on what to do so you may all criticize me for this question.

Mark

 

[downsouth]

why not have both, may people do

Ebay obviously gives you access to many 000's of customers in the one place, if its a good product most internet savvy customers will take a look on ebay first, as custom increases then you ideally want them to buy from your own website, ebay fees can be high and if margins are low this seriously dents your profit

Having your own webstore is also good but then you have to put some hardwork and often cash into SEO, adwords etc

 

[Mr G]

never thought of having both, but of course I could have a web link from ebay to my website.

Do you think customers look at the weblink and then buy from my website, thus saving ebay fees?

 

[downsouth]

Ebay not too keen on allowing links to external sites, so you'd have to be careful.

I think that you can link directly to a more detailed description, additional info on a product, but simply linking to a website homepage aint allowed, I may be wrong though

Ideally you'd want return buyers buying direct from your website the next time

 

[Digital Printing]

I do both ebay, and amazon, and I try to promote my own website

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Start with ebay, it will teach you how to do listings/photographs etc. how to price deliveries, how to handle them, postage, packaging etc. And also teach you how to deal with the trickest customer in the world.

When you know all of that you are then far better placed to design & build your own website (or spec).

It also means that if you can't turn a profit on ebay, you discover this BEFORE you spend out on websites.

 

[Digital Printing]

Have you thought about Amazon as well as Ebay, Its another selling avenue

 

[Jheath]

I do both ebay, and amazon, and I try to promote my own website

We have our own website and are just about to launch on ebay next week. I'd love to be able to promote our website on ebay to the maximum extent possible, so our listings become an advert for our company as a whole as well as the item concerned.

Any tips or tricks to help achieve this much appreciated. I don't mind being "against the wire" but I dont want to risk breaking the rules and getting listings ended by ebay if they are deemed to be promoting our website too much!

 

[silvermusic]

never thought of having both, but of course I could have a web link from ebay to my website.

Don't even think about it, the rules on ebay are very clear on that. You risk getting your listings or even account removed. However, use every other opportunity to do so, emails and promotional leaflets sent out with goods purchased on ebay cost virtually nothing. I even know several sellers that use packing tape that has the URL of their web site on it.

 

[matt.chatterley]

Don't even think about it, the rules on ebay are very clear on that. You risk getting your listings or even account removed. However, use every other opportunity to do so, emails and promotional leaflets sent out with goods purchased on ebay cost virtually nothing. I even know several sellers that use packing tape that has the URL of their web site on it.

Just wanted to reinforce this (as silvermusic says):

If nothing else, if you start on Ebay and decide to go it alone (with your own site), you can keep a list of the email addresses of ebay buyers - and then drop them a line to let them know about your launch.

Also put stuff in the box, etc.

Ebay is probably a good way to gauge if it is worth investing time into building up the venture properly - but don't be too disheartened if it doesn't seem to work, since Ebay can be a little bit strange with some items!

 

[Isabella_Smith]

I'd prefer to go with both, a website selling and a eBay selling both are important. eBay is important until your site generate the sales as eBay.

For the starting you should go with both things, as you are selling on ebay right now, just keep going with this. Besides you can launch your website, and I appreciate the suggestion from matt.chatterley; this is good to divert cusotmer from eBay to your website, you can get good number of data and relevant customers. As soon as your site start generating revenue like eBay, you can close the eBay section and concentrate on your website. I think your personal website can give your more profit than any marketplace.

BTW, best of luck for your upcoming business..

 

[justme57]

Hi...

Do both. They are usually (in my experience) different marektplaces in many ways.

If you lack web selling general experience I would consider starting with Ebay just as a way of creating some familiarity with wording, costs, uploading images etc. After a couple of months if you are happy with your ebay experience all in all then look at a website.

Although you cannot create direct links from an ebay ad you are able to put website links in your automated emails and on a page that you create within an ebay shop e.g. terms/policy etc.

I would NEVER put a link 'from' a website to ebay - its a mistake in my experience. The competition is so high on ebay you can usually charge more on a website. However, ebay can bring customers to a website in more ways than one - making use of: including cards/leaflets when you send out your product, emails, links on other pages. None of whcih are ever wasted.

Like I say - test the water and get some experience via ebay then move onto a website. Marketing, sales, prices and your customer base will differ in many respects between the two.

If you would like a link to someone that could help you to create a website with a minimal outlay pm or email me and I will be sure to point you in the direction of someone that is excellent and very cheap.

Good luck too - its always exciting trying a new business. Hope you do well

 

[deniser]

I agree with Boxby. The learning experience you get from Ebay is invaluable and more than outweighs the minimal profits and I don't think anyone should go into Ecommerce before they're fully au fait with the workings of Ebay and Paypal for that matter. You will also have a great opportunity to test the product before committing to large expenditure.

When you have a few hundred Ebay sales under your belt then you can start concentrating on your own website.

From my experience, the two markets are entirely different and don't cross over much. Don't rely on any Ebay customers for your new website. Many of the people buying on Ebay are there for the thrill of the auction or the bargain hunting aspect as much as actually wanting the product at a cheap price and that doesn't apply on a normal Ecommerce site. I had a mailing list of about 750 Ebay customers when I started my Ecommerce site and only one ever bought from my new site when I started it, even with the offer of big discounts.

Good luck.

 

[domainguy]

Definately do both. Ebay gives that instant traffic whereas it takes time to build up your website traffic. You can let customers know about your site once they have bought via ebay and they will hopefully return or pass on the details.
Also regarding your product. You say it's not currently on ebay, I have imported various items from china and sold on ebay that were not there one minute and the market was flooded the next, so it would be worth trying ebay first save having a site done only to find it's no longer a niche product.

 

[silvermusic]

You say it's not currently on ebay, I have imported various items from china and sold on ebay that were not there one minute and the market was flooded the next, so it would be worth trying ebay first save having a site done only to find it's no longer a niche product.

There might also be a good reason why no one's selling it on ebay currently, no demand, high fraud area (i.e. don't try selling mobile phones on ebay) or impossible to make a decent profit from being the obvious one's. Some products just don't do well on eBay, buyers price expectations are sometimes unrealistic as well.

I'm also finding the buyer base on ebay has become very stagnant in the last 18 months, it use to be possible to sell loads of a new line on there, but nowadays multiple sales any one line dry up quickly. The only exception to this is consumable products, where the competition is fierce.

 

[redgrape1985]

I started using eBay to drop-ship products about 2 years ago. My turnover was impressive at the time (it was only a Sunday thing then). Then when it came to profit and accounting for all variables eBay shook their finger at me and said "No No son that hard earned profit is ours". Let's face it eBay is small time and on the grand scheme of things VERY expensive. It is for the person who is selling a bike that has stood in thier garage for three years or it is for the person who makes small soaps in their kitchen and would like to sell online. It is not for a growing internet business!

I started eCommerce for my drop-shipping and then used eBay to market my website, then I phased eBay out after mastering Google Adwords and such.

EBAY WILL NOT MAKE YOU RICH, IT WILL GIVE YOU CASHFLOW. What do you want, short term gain? Go ahead, use eBay.

If you want to be an internet success go eCommerce. It's harder and you do not get spoon fed but no pain, no gain.

I now have 6 internet businesses and work is going well, thanks to both eBay and eCommerce.

 

[Mr G]

Thanks to you all for the great advice.

I think, like Isabella smith recomended, as I've got my ebay account I might as well use it for now. I do want to use it short term though and move to my own website, I like to build a business slowly and keep control of it with customer service always being paramount.

Just one more question if I may?

When I get to the ecommerce stage, how do I get the website to the top of the rankings?

I guess its the wording on the title page? But is it the amount of people who visit the site that push it up or are there other ways?

 

[redgrape1985]

Be very careful if using SEO companies, many of you will know that there are a lot of roags out there who claim to give you good rankings. Shop around and get a good one. I cannot give you advice on one as I do not use them, I build my own links up to get to the top of google, its long winded but its free and most of all I can trust myself.

Use Adwords first, but read the eBook Adwords for dummies, its great and so is Adwords! Then start hitting the likes of Kelkoo and Yahoo for their similar services. Get known through link sharing but watch how much you spend on advertising that is why you need to read Adwords for dummies! (Not that I'm calling you a dummy, I’m just saying)

 

[domainguy]

Buy this book it's excellent for learning about seo
Get to the top on google by David Viney

ps I am not david viney and earn nothing from recommending this book!

 

[danny-b]

MR G, first make sure your product is in demand, or youll have a hard time trying to sell it.

Ebay is a good way to go to get started, you will have to learn a few tricks to funnel traffic from ebay to your external website. It cane be done.

 

[cbpword]

Hi Mr G

Definitely do both. A website is not immediate like ebay but you need it. And while you are setting that up you can be learning ebay and then move on with really pushing your site at a slightly later date perhaps but definitely get one and start settting that up too. I believe all businesses should have a website and having an ecommerce one does not mean you have to push it straight away. I think there has been some excellent points made here and i agree with most of what justme57 has said. I am a great believer too in PPC (adwords for example that someone else has mentioned) for retail sites. Best of luck with it.

 

[Billy_Ben]

i agree with having both. having link in ebay to your website is perfect and then from there you can spread out to other selling sites

 

[silvermusic]

i agree with having both. having link in ebay to your website is perfect and then from there you can spread out to other selling sites

It's a perfect way to find your eBay account closed when you next log in.

Please see...

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-links.html

In particular the info in the "Additional Information" drop down.

 

[Isabella_Smith]

Thanks to you all for the great advice.

I think, like Isabella smith recomended, as I've got my ebay account I might as well use it for now. I do want to use it short term though and move to my own website, I like to build a business slowly and keep control of it with customer service always being paramount.

Just one more question if I may?

When I get to the ecommerce stage, how do I get the website to the top of the rankings?

I guess its the wording on the title page? But is it the amount of people who visit the site that push it up or are there other ways?

Thanks Mr G,

As far as marketing is concern, I think you don't need to worry. Because If you are redirecting the buyer from ebay then you are getting the correct visitor/traffic; this is the traffic so called target traffic. So, with the lesser seo efforts you can get better rank in search engines.

As soon as a buyer complete checkout you will get the offline data (such as email, name, address at free of cost). You can use it futher for marketing, for example you can send them remider email and updating email regarding new products, discounts Or Christmas wishes.

So that you can have continues sales, your extra optimization efforts such as ads and other SEO efforts will be your plus point. They will bring you new customer and as soon as visitors increases, Google will automatically ranked you up. Well, if you want someone for SEO now and later, I’d suggest you Magicsolv.com. They are experienced and aware of ebay and other marketplaces.

I hope this will help you. Good Luck!!

 

[giftoffer]

I started website first, more sales getting through ebay.... so i would like to continue ebay shop