EDirectory Merchant

[No-Posh-Bag]

Hi, I've just been offered a package with www.edirectory.co.uk and have received an email with all the blurb. I am unsure as to whether to take this or not at the moment. Does anyone have any experience of becoming a merchant for such sites ? Any opinions or thoughts would be really appreciated. Thank you.

 

[No-Posh-Bag]

Bumpity ... bump !

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

I'm an edirectory merchant. Tread carefully, don't believe the hype. I have 1730 items on there and in six months they've produced less than 10 orders out of my 800 or so. Needless to say I won't be renewing next year.
It's not easy to administer either.

Contrast this with shopping.com who deliver 25% of my trade!

 

[No-Posh-Bag]

WOW ! Thank you so much for the advice. The hype does sound very convincing and even the testimonials on the site are glowing ... of course !

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

To be fair to ED on the plus side you only get charged a fee on actual sales and sales net of VAT (although that doesn't apply to you) so the system is fair. The big issue therefore is the set up fee. I'll never pay any such site a set up fee again.

Regarding the shopping mall / comparison sites I can only give you my experience. Shopping.com is the most powerful by far but do have your eyes open to the reality of the cost. On average SC costs me around 11% of the gross sales value that it delivers. I'd like that figure to be less because on low margins it hurts but it also delivers a quarter of my business so I can't do without it. It's great for them. They get almost 3% of my total trade without touching a product.

If you join SC you'll choose a pay per click bid. Let's say it's 20p. Sounds good. BUT you need to be aware that humans behave in way that I didn't expect when using a site like that. They use the BACK button! Arrrrrgh!

So they click on an item which takes them to the store to view the details. "mmmm, that's nice". Then they click the BACK button, find another item, often from the same store, click on that, "mmm, that's nice too". You guessed the next part, they click the BACK button again and on it goes.

Pay per click rate might be 20p but I've monitored visitors regularly behaving as above and doing so maybe 12-15 times and then not buying anything. Cost of that visitor £2.40-£3.00.

Of course SC could stop this, but why would they?

It's just stuff to be aware of. I don't know how good SC is for Baby Clothes but it might be worth testing.

 

[bitsnstuff]

I am an Edirectory Merchant and get sales most days, sometimes a few a day, so I will be renewing.

It is a real pain to administrate though as I have so many products on there, but I will be renewing.

Kate

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

It's good to hear a success story. I guess they're stronger on some products than others.

 

[No-Posh-Bag]

Thanks Kate. The package I have been offered at a reduced rate is 50 products. Do you think it would still work ? as far as you could say, obviously.

That's great that you get sales everyday, good luck and lets hope it continues. Do you use any other type of site ?

 

[SillyJokes]

No Posh Bag, I would tread very carefully. Can you afford to loose that money at this stage in your start up?

If you can't afford to loose it don't spend it, because from the feedback I have seen on eDirectory some do well and others (including Malcolm, amazingly as I'd have thought he would do well) get bad results.

Kate, do you pay for a better higher up postition on eDirectory?

 

[bitsnstuff]

No I have just paid for unlimited products and therefore have the ability to list as many as I like. I haven't paid for any special treatment and my items are just listed in with everyone elses. I think it might work well for me as I have products in so many different categories and if a visitor finds an item they like and then clicks on the 'see all from this merchant' tab, then I am usually on to a winner.

I do however spent a significant amount of time carefully keywording the listing, as that has an effect on the amount of times they will appear in search engine results.

I paid for just 50 products when I was a start up and got next to nothing in the way of return, but could see the benefit of the optimisation side, so paid the rest to go unlimited and with the time and effort put in to maximising each products potential, it has paid off. Don't do it if you can't afford to lose the money at this stage, as it is a gamble and also don't do it if you haven't the time to devote to setting it up properly as it is a major task.

Kate

 

[No-Posh-Bag]

I definately don't have the money to loose at the moment, I have decided for the time being not to go ahead. Maybe it's something I can look into in the future. Thanks for your opinions x

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

Probably best that it's not openly discussed but boy it would be interesting to know what folks have paid. (No, that isn't a request). They have a good telesales operation and the set up charge is highly negotiable.

I've decided that Ampalian simply does not pay set up fees for advertising, period.

btw Silly Jokes, you had a go at someone yesterday about use of the shift key. In their defence can I suggest you learn how to spell "lose".

 

[SillyJokes]

Hey, Malcolm, my spelling here can be a bit dodgy, I do my best but at the end of the day I'm not the worst and often don't correct due to pressure of time and interuption of flow.

I try a bit harder on the website.

If I was trying to appeal to a bunch of professionals to give me a free minute of their precious time and experience in my first post and claimed to be at University I would make the effort to capitalise 'I' and get my spelling right.

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

Just a light hearted jibe!

 

[rockuk]

Oh I would dearly love to know what Kate (or anyone else) is paying! I am negotiating the same deal at the moment but am very reluctant to pay for ANYTHING up front - why should we? Nobody else expects this and it removes a large proportion of incentive for them to ensure it works for us!

Not convinced at the moment, especially reading the (very useful) feedback here. If anyone feels like divulging their charges with edirectory, please email me!

If there's a rule about asking such questions, please forgive me, I am new and I didn't see anything which said I couldn't ask! :|

 

[maildodge]

Well im not completely sure of the prices that everybody has got or what the actual prices are but they did keep emailing us some time ago and I asked what "deal" they could do for us.

But we decided not to use them as seemed to much of a risk using that much money to startup. They do make it sound really good and go into detail for how they think we would sell a lot of our products on there.

They offered:
Feature an unlimited number of products for a full year on ALL our sites for either:
£895+vat (10% commission) or £995+vat (8% commission)

Hope that helps and let me know how you get on if you proceed.

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

I ended up paying about that following negotiation. They started higher because I sell jewellery I expect.

As I said before I wouldn't do it again. I now adopt a firm policy of not paying set up fees, ever.

 

[Russetk]

I keep looking at E-directory but i am not sure how well my teas would fair on it. Plus its eems an awful lot of money to pay upfront for a chance at sales.

Has anyone tried stuffed-bags? I thought their deal/idea looked better but they are quite new and may take a while to get going.

 

[rockuk]

Thanks for all the replies & info. I am still negotiating, walked away from them Thursday as they will not play ball re: upfront payment. They called me Friday though to discuss it but I have been out of the office, so maybe more to report today.

Sales guy spouts a lot of scripted info & hasn't really been up to a decent business negotiation. At least he has at last dropped the jackanory he used as his opening gambit. I am pushing them - they know I have the budget and I am walking away, in the direction of their competitors (who do not charge up front) ... fading into the distance .... as is their Christmas bonus on the deal !!

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

Cool. Stick to your guns. They talk a good game but they don't always deliver on it.

 

[Malcolm Cooper]

Quick update. Today they offered me set up at £200 and 4.5% sales commission charge on sale value net of vat. Anyone wanting to deal with them could use this as a benchmark.

I won't deal with them on principle.

 

[rockuk]

Thanks for the reminder! I have been meaning to pop back on here and post an update on our edirectory experience so far!

We got the deal as good as we could on unlimited products (I think it was about £900 + VAT) but we stretched it to 15 months instead of 12 and agreed to pay in 2 installments - which made them get their finger out when things weren't quite right to get the 2nd installment. We also got the commission down considerably.

The sales guy 'left' - to be honest he wasn't very good, but the new account manager has been much better and he got us some product features and banners to make good on the sales guys mistakes. We get a reasonable level orders, and it was very good over christmas.

Admin has improved a bit. They can take up to a week to get new products live though. We have our product data file on our server and edirectory just keeps reloading that and looking for changes - if it finds any then they check it and make any edits before putting the product live. Getting the file together in the 1st place is a nightmare but updating isn't too difficult. They have been very helpful by optimising the keywords, categorising products and connecting them to similar products.

The online admin system is a bit clumsy but OK and they have just integrated payments directly with our processor - protx which has been a big improvement over the previous process. I believe they have had to do the same for other processors too due to new legal requirements.

The comission charges are minimal and the money we paid upfront probably is worth the service and exposure as I am sure plenty of people come over to our website and purchase direct instead.

I am not sure why, probably just their sales patter but they DO come over as a bit dodgy - however all seems OK 6 months on!

It is worth bearing in mind that we have about 450 products listed in lots of different categories, so as someone else here mentioned, people are more likely to find us.

If you do use edirectory to sell, just keep checking everything is working as it should, that your product pictures are displaying (don't trust their missing images tool - it doesn't work!) and that your product titles have all the important keywords in them. We just 'go shopping' like anyone else would from time to time to check it is all OK.

 

[welshandy]

Beware of Edirectory

I was unaware when I signed up last week, that I could not get a refund even before the services had been provided to me. I got cold feet because they offered me a package of 35 products for 10% commission and £395 annual subscription. They really do put the hard sell on as they have approached me at least about 10 times.

I gave in last week and paid them the subscription to setup my account £464 (inc vat). I signed the form and email it back and the next day a friend told me they were offered the same package for £295. That is £100 less than I had paid and then I realised what sort of company I was dealing with so even before I had uploaded any of my products or finished the full registration I asked to cancel my order which was refused.

What I hadn't appreciated at this point was that the 'Distance Selling Regulations' do not apply to Business to Business contracts and they seem all too delighted to throw that at me and just take over £400 off me for absolutely nothing.

I wouldn't receommend this company as far as I could throw them because you will never know if the package they offer you is the price that another merchant would pay.

They are nothing more than a pushy hard sales outfit who are onto a winner as soon as you have signed up.

Be very careful if you do sign up with them that you are absolutely sure that you want to use them because as soon as you have handed your credit card details over then that is that.

Now I could just use the service that I have paid for but the distrust and their pushy tactics doesn't leave me wanting to give them any more of my profit. I will put this down to a learning experience and quickly forget about edirectory.

I will copy the letter that was sent to me today below:
>>>
Dear ......
We note your wish to terminate your agreement with freecom.net and request a refund for the amount paid, however we are unable to process this request.

As we are engaged in a business to business contract we can only offer to complete the listing and as a gesture of good will, on receipt of content for your listing we will be prepared to extend the end date of your contract to ensure that you do not lose out on any period of service.

If you still wish to cancel the agreement then we can do this for you with immediate effect, but no refund will be made.

We do wish to work with you to complete a listing that will bring a standard to your business. We hope this clarifies the situation and we look forward to receiving some information from you shortly.

Should you require any further information then please do not hesitiate to contact the undersigned.
<<<

(No contact telephone number or email address is provided for the undersigned)

If anyone is aware of any loopholes that can be employed to get some or all of my money back then I would appreciate some help!

 

Interesting to hear from you Ampalian as you're in the same biz as me and I quite often admire your range I'm also an edirectory merchant and so far it's not proved to be a successful experiment for me either. I get some sales as a result of click thru' to my site, but because I chose to go with the low level entry version EDirectory just insist it would be better if I upgraded - although the price they now offer for that is not the £200 they originally quoted to upgrade so I haven't bothered.

Out of curiousity BitsnStuff how much did they charge you to upgrade from 50 to unlimited if you don't mind me asking?

They approached originally claiming to be from the Sun, and I got a lot of hype about how infrequently the slot comes up for jewellery shops and that they like to make sure everyone is unique and not selling the same products, but I know from doing product searches on there that it's not true at all.

I've found the maintenance of it so far quite arduous and time consuming and not always that helpful either - apart from of course when they try to sell you something!

 

[rockuk]

Hi, see my previous posting re: unlimited charges and comments!

We get several orders every day from edirectory and overall it works out reasonably OK and against other PPC shopping sites, it's manageable from a finance point of view.

The downside is payment up front and the initial setup effort. Once you have your products up and running it's pretty easy to download the file and update it. We use an FTP file, there are other options, but that works for us.

The initial sell is ridiculous, they have various stories to tell, including The Sun one (heaven help them if they loose that syndicate) but you just have to push back on them. I am of the opinion that many of their sales crew are self employed - are handed a selling pack and left to get on with it! Our sales rep was useless, but since leaving we have an account manager who has turned out to be pretty helpful. The admin team are helpful too, although under resourced.

Edirectory does come across as unprofessional when dealing with them, but they send plenty of customers our way and they do seem to deal with customer service queries quite professionally so, for the money, at the moment, we will keep using them.

On the contract front, I have no idea what your position is - perhaps try asking in the legal section of UK Business Forums? I shouldn't think an emailed contract is binding - I had to fax then post the original for mine - or maybe that was my doing, I can't remember!

Good luck

 

rockuk - I find it quite interesting that they've integrated your with Protx, I guess that must be the way round the changes with Maestro, but they haven't contacted me to change mine so god knows how I'll get the funds now? There seems to be no one managing my account whatsoever, and there inconsistent approach is unprofessional. Was your original sales bod Gerry?

Re the contract welshandy, I would certainly see if you can get some advice in the legal bit of the forum, I would have thought businesses are just as entitled to a 'cooling off period' as any other consumer, particularly when they use a pressurised sales technique.

 

[rockuk]

Indeed - Gerry - went back to the planet he came from I think!

If you need info on credit card integration - pop an email to the admin fella - Phil Newton I think - just the admin email address should do.

Give their head office a call for a grumble re:account management, just mentioning Gerry should get you put onto a replacement!

All the best!

 

[SillyJokes]

Given the amount of negative publicity this refusal to cancel has given them on this thread I'd say it was a very expensive decision by eDirectory indeed - I shalln't be using them.