NotOnTheHighStreet.com Is it any good?

[PAIDINFULL]

Has anyone had any experience selling via the website notonthehighstreet.com?

Is it any good and bringing in the sales?

 

[james_firmsites]

AVOID would be my advice.

Never used them my self but herd lots of horror stories from people who I know have.

They charge large fees and from what I have herd generate very few sales (certainly not enough to cover the costs). But the worst thing is their terms and conditions which prevent you selling at a lower price on your own site or if you have a sale or promotion forcing them to be included.

Stick the money you would spend with them into adwords and get a good ecommerce system and you will make much more!!

 

[Esk247]

Never managed to get a product on their website. They always send a stock reply just saying their not interested. Even though our products are handmade, in England, by us and fit perfectly in their homeware category. Apparently that's not what they're looking for :|

Not sure on fees but I believe there's a £250 fee to pay if you somehow manage to get your products featured, don't quote me on that but i've seen figures thrown around on forums.

 

[james_firmsites]

I've herd its closer to £600 to join, and then a transactional cost which causes people to up their prices to compensate and further hamper sales.

 

[Esk247]

I've herd its closer to £600 to join, and then a transactional cost which causes people to up their prices to compensate and further hamper sales.

The price matching will be the same as Amazon, they also don't like you selling at below Amazon price on your own website.

20% of our turnover goes on fees, 19.8% to be precise. Shudder to think what NOTHS charge per sale plus the set-up fee.

 

[james_firmsites]

The price matching will be the same as Amazon, they also don't like you selling at below Amazon price on your own website.

20% of our turnover goes on fees, 19.8% to be precise. Shudder to think what NOTHS charge per sale plus the set-up fee.

Wow that's a big chunk, is that you selling via Amazon? Have you considered putting say 10% of turnover via adwords then tracking the ROI via your own ecommerce site. Seems that you must be able to drive that down a bit...

 

[Esk247]

Wow that's a big chunk, is that you selling via Amazon? Have you considered putting say 10% of turnover via adwords then tracking the ROI via your own ecommerce site. Seems that you must be able to drive that down a bit...

I'd like to do that and would happily use 10-15% of our turnover on adwords to increase our profits by 5 or 10% but AdWords needs a specialist, we've dabbled, its no good. We were spending £150 a month and getting no sales at all so only pay for a few things on AdWords now, get a few sales through that per month plus natural sales.

90% of our turnover is away from our website though, Amazon and other websites, forums, voucher sites etc. Thats why we looked at NOTHS but we can't get any products listed, they're not interested, plus theres no way i'm handing over £600 without some sort of guarantee that we'd make that back in 12 months.

 

[james_firmsites]

I'd like to do that and would happily use 10-15% of our turnover on adwords to increase our profits by 5 or 10% but AdWords needs a specialist, we've dabbled, its no good. We were spending £150 a month and getting no sales at all so only pay for a few things on AdWords now, get a few sales through that per month plus natural sales.

90% of our turnover is away from our website though, Amazon and other websites, forums, voucher sites etc. Thats why we looked at NOTHS but we can't get any products listed, they're not interested, plus theres no way i'm handing over £600 without some sort of guarantee that we'd make that back in 12 months.

Do you mind if I ask your current domain so I can take a look, just for curiosities sake. If your selling via amazon then there must be a demand for your product but seems odd that those sales can't be made up on your own site. I always recommend people spend a little bit of money having their adwords managed, after all it is such a large expense but can be very profitable if managed and tracked correctly, especially with ecommerce goal tracking.

Would love to see NOTHS guarantee anything, but it's never going to happen. I can't stand businesses that seem to operate solely on contract lockins and upfront fees, if your service is good then why not just do it as a rolling monthly/yearly fee, but I guess they must have people who want to get on there and make money else they would be gone by now.

 

[Jeff FV]

If you'd asked me 6 months ago I'd have said OK, but nothing special.

But you are asking me now so I have to say "excellent" October, November & December saw orders flying in and January - through its sale - has also been very good to us. We sell more through NOTHS than through our website, but both are doing well.

It is some years since we joined - we had to pay an upfront fee and we pay a commission on each sale. They have changed their fee structure several times since then and I think they now offer several different ways of joining e.g pay a fee and pay a lower commission, pay no joining fee, pay higher commission etc. For comparison - I think Amazon's fees are a little lower, but please don't quote me on that.

Like all things, its not easy - you still need to take time to maintain and improve your listings. When we joined, NOTHS had circa 900 partners, its now in the thousands. The key is being found amongst those thousands.

I think that NOTHS are becoming the 'Amazon' for their marketplace - people shop there 'cos they know of it and they feel secure ordering through it, unlike some independent websites. NOTHS even ran TV ads this Christmas. This makes me sound like a NOTHS fanboy - I'm not, but the last few months have seen them bring home the bacon for us.

J

 

[Esk247]

I think that NOTHS are becoming the 'Amazon' for their marketplace - people shop there 'cos they know of it and they feel secure ordering through it, unlike some independent websites. NOTHS even ran TV ads this Christmas. This makes me sound like a NOTHS fanboy - I'm not, but the last few months have seen them bring home the bacon for us.

J

How on earth do you actually get on NOTHS though? We've never been accepted for any products, all were rejected, from handmade cushions to printed cushions to candle holders to luxury handmade bath products, we've never even managed to talk to anyone about selling our products on their.

 

[Clareville Communications]

I must say i have never looked into selling on NOTHS, but I have looked at the website to make purchases, my view is you will not sell a lot on there as all of the items seem to be extremely high in price which I think will put many people off. I understand from reading the comments above that this is probably due to sellers having to charge more to cover the costs, but I personally think you would be better off spending your money getting well ranked in search engines or on adwords.

 

[Jeff FV]

How on earth do you actually get on NOTHS though? We've never been accepted for any products, all were rejected, from handmade cushions to printed cushions to candle holders to luxury handmade bath products, we've never even managed to talk to anyone about selling our products on their.

Its about 3 or 4 years since we joined - can't remember exactly what the process was, but we did have to apply and be accepted, I seemed to remember them at the time quoting that they rejected about 90% of those applying to join. Having seen the site grow over the years, I'm sure there was a period when they lowered their standards, but I think they realised that standards were slipping and have upped them again.

If you are trying to join good photos would be my top tip and a back story of small, cottage, designer maker, industry.

Once you're accapeted you don't have to have your new products apporved, you can just upload them onto your shop front (although if they're carp I'm sure they will ask you to remove them.)

J

 

[Jeff FV]

I must say i have never looked into selling on NOTHS, but I have looked at the website to make purchases, my view is you will not sell a lot on there as all of the items seem to be extremely high in price which I think will put many people off. I understand from reading the comments above that this is probably due to sellers having to charge more to cover the costs, but I personally think you would be better off spending your money getting well ranked in search engines or on adwords.

I have to disagree with you on that one.

Experience has shown me that you can sell a lot on there, we're doing very nicely out of it and I know of a number of others doing very, very well out of it.

On a number of items we (our website) outperforms NOTHS on google for a number of terms, but (alas!) we still get more sales from NOTHS than our website. I think that this is for 2 main reasons:

• Although ours is a well built, 'professional' website with lots of testimonials etc. and we've been selling online for 4+ years, buyers still like the trust/confidence of buying through a 'mega' brand website like NOTHS (or Amazon etc.)
• Buyers go to NOTHS as a first port of call and search/shop from within it - they may never search Google for (say) wrapping paper, but they will search NOTHS for it.

With respect to price, think middle class mum's. It is my experience that the 'typical' NOTHS shopper is not too price sensitive and are prepared to pay for quality and something a little different. (and personalised - we don't sell any personalised products, but they do very well on NOTHS)


J

 

[arcon5]

During my canvas printing time I had a business client selling personalised 8x8" and 12x12" canvas prints (they wasn't just a standard photo though) on NOTHS - selling about 6-10 per week at about £50-£70 and paying me less than a tenet including postage each as he would send them in 4s or 2s. I know he did very well through them

 

[fisicx]

As a customer, we (or rather the missus) buys loads of stuff from them.

It works because we get a nice brochure to flick thorugh and a really great website. Double thumbs up from me.

So if you are a seller then it's got be good.

 

[Esk247]

I guess it's like Amazon but for people with a better disposable income and a bit more specific with their buying. Scarf at rakish angle on a push bike in York etc.

We'll just keep plugging away at it. Would like to have items featured but no such luck yet, we'll try it again when we get our new photography done next month. Ours are looking a bit washed out.

 

[a1anm]

How on earth do you actually get on NOTHS though? We've never been accepted for any products, all were rejected, from handmade cushions to printed cushions to candle holders to luxury handmade bath products, we've never even managed to talk to anyone about selling our products on their.

We sell on NOTHS and find it to be quite good. We only sell our products with high margins to ensure we still make a decent profit after their fees.

They contacted us and asked us to join about 6 months ago (I hadn't heard of them before that).

 

[elephantfrills]

Is it just good luck getting accepted? They LOVE saying 'we reject 90% of applications' - seems a bit odd to put numbers like that out there, what if they get 100 brilliant applications, they then have to reject 90 of them because that's what they advertise.

 

[Jeff FV]

I think for every 100 brilliant applications they probably do get 900 rubbish ones. I don't think that it is luck to get accepted, but you can help make your own luck by having great products with brilliant photos.

Since its a year this I last posted - here's a little update: since the last week in October, NOTHS has been stellar for us, and it hasn't let up - this week is on target to be one of our top weeks for sales (in £s): the sale time orders have just kept on pinging in. However, we've been doing it for a while, have the photos & coherent range, like everything, it takes some work.

NOTHS are proud of the fact that they have created 6 "turnover millionares" since they began (sadly, not us!)

J