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JewelryDesignsByCher



Posts: 296

PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fancyflappers wrote:
My items are unique and I sell here. I think e-Crater is trying to keep the exact same items, which are not yours and mine, from flooding the searches.


Me too, fancy...my items are unique, and I agree. Like yourself, I sell on other auction sites, and I see it happen continually, so I think it's refreshing that those of us who do have OOAK items won't be buried in multiples in those categories. It must frustrate some buyers, otherwise they'd be searching on ebay. Wink

And, I'm tickled...cuz I just had my first sale here! Yippitty!!!! Laughing
Cher Cool
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fancyflappers



Posts: 650

PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

First sale happy dance

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plussizelingerie
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aspencounty wrote:
ecrater wrote:
I think I was clear enough. It's not only SMC, it's any other "we give you products to sell" type of web sites.

Once again, the reason why these products are being filtered out is to prevent flooding the eCRATER with the same products.

I will recommend reading carefully our terms before opening an ecrater store in order to avoid surprises.


Electronic, computers, fragances, name brand clothing, sunglasses, cosmetics, automobles, just about anything other than handmade, one of a kind items falls into this catagory. So unless you are the only one selling a truly unique item that no one else has your being filtered out? Just think, I was shopping here for a new computer monitor and there must have been a dozen sellers selling the same thing. Shocked


That's my point, where is the line drawn?
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raspberrynights
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Uniqueness is wonderful & I certainly applaud it. However, not everyone is so gifted. My creative talents lean more toward writing & marketing, than designing & crafting.

My "idol" is Donald Trump. The man isn't doing anything unique. But he is a marketing genius and I admire his confidence, his ability to roll with the punches of business, and still remain standing. He's not afraid to take a risk and maybe fail, but just learns from it and goes on. That's an attitude I can relate to.

I can't let ecrater's business decisions affect my own too much. Besides, I don't even use Froogle myself, so I'm not too concerned about it. Having thought about the issue for a few days, I've come to realize it's up to me to develop good marketing strategies to get customers to my store, not ecrater. They're providing a free storefront and I'm happy with that.

Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter. Happy selling, whether you're Froogle-ized or not.

Namaste,
Cheryl
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plussizelingerie
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheryl I agree that the marketing is in our own hands as it should be but alot of buyers do use Froogle so to me it is important to be there and if eCrater isn't feeding my items then I need to know so I can take care of it myself Wink

I'm sorry if I came across "grumpy" but I'm sure Mr Trump would also want to know if this was being handled so that he could take the right steps to see that it is.

All I'm doing is trying to make heads or tails of this eCrater rule is all Rolling Eyes


BTW - Namaste is the last thing my children and I say to each other every night at bedtime Wink
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raspberrynights
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi plussizelingerie.

You weren't "grumpy" at all. Just concerned.

I checked out Froogle for "romantic lingerie" & found one of my items on page 5! Shocked

I honestly thought my stuff would be buried somewhere around page 30 or 40, so didn't think of using it as a promotional tool. It was kinda neat to see my item in the top 5 pages. Smile

As for Donald, I can totally see him now: "What do you mean my products aren't on Froogle? Apprentice teams, here's your task..." Laughing

Namaste,
Cheryl
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bathtastic
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ecrater wrote:
I think I was clear enough. It's not only SMC, it's any other "we give you products to sell" type of web sites.



Wait a minute...doesn't this apply to every wholesaler out there?
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sarajane



Posts: 13

PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2006 1:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Years ago I joined SMC for $300.00. I was starting to sell at flea markets/ swap meets as I weaned myself from the corporate world. Many vendors were carrying SMC merchandise so I quickly lost interest in SMC. Also, I was starting to use the creative part of my brain after years as a technical geek.

I have a store on eBay and eBay is pulling store and fixed priced items into a new venue, eBay Express. As I check my listings in Express one thing that really surprised me is how many mass produced items there are in the jewelry area. And many of these mass produced items are categorized as Artisan Handcrafted, sure, handcrafted by a metal stamping machine. I'd bet the ranch that many of these machine stamped items come from SMC.

I only have a few items listed here as since joining I have spent most of my time modifying my listings to fit eBay's requirements for eBay Express. However, I will be listing lots more here as it sounds like eCrater will be a good home for my handcrafted, mostly unique jewelry items. I'm sure some people do well selling SMC type merchandise, I just haven't met any.
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aspencounty



Posts: 815

PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2006 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Where is your ranch at? The SMC product line only consists of 10 items in the jewelry category, all watches. There are so few that I don't even bother with them on my website. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that what you're looking at does not come from SMC. Oh, and you have met one now Very Happy
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sarajane



Posts: 13

PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2006 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice to meet you aspen. I doubt that you would want the ranch, it's five plus acres of high Arizona desert dirt, no water, no electricity. I use it as a once or twice a year get-away and leave when my fresh water tank is empty. It is beautiful country and peaceful.

So SMC is down to only watches? I guess the copper bracelets they sold are no more. I've seen many vendors selling the moving music items (I did like the train), molded Native American knock-off, fiber optic lights, etc.

We could agree to disagree. I prefer to sell jewelry of my own making.

The best of luck to you.
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aspencounty



Posts: 815

PostPosted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nine to meet you too. Your ranch is larger then mine Sad but I do have electricty Laughing .

You have some very beautiful jewelry! I really like your jade work. I forgot about the copper bracelets. Yes we still have them, a few toes ring ( not my style) and some other simular small items.
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memorylaneplaques
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PostPosted: Wed May 03, 2006 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yes i use to sell smc stuff also........when yahoo was doing pretty good sold there and saw so many smc stuff and very few sales..... one thing too was the high shipping charges from the west coast to the east where most of the population is..........then i saw similar items from a wholesaler in north carolina and their prices beat smc by maybe 40 %.... but they may not be as dependable as smc in drop shipping... BUT with smc drop shipping was a problem also... seems like when one would buy about 1 out of 12 would be sold out which causes big problems ....i guess ecrater is thinking about that problem too...

and what finally finalized not selling smc stuff is i saw the same stuff in dollar stores EXACTLY the same ones .. where the lowest price from smc one can get was .95 it was a 1.00 at the dollar store... with shipping charge it would cost me over 1.00 just to get the product and then i saw where they rarely sold on ebay and would lose money there... and saw where people have seen this stuff everywhere flea markets and now dollar stores and seems like the buyers are just tired of seeing these.... ecrater maybe thinking of this problem
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homegoods



Posts: 4

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

raspberrynights wrote:
Uniqueness is wonderful & I certainly applaud it. However, not everyone is so gifted. My creative talents lean more toward writing & marketing, than designing & crafting.

My "idol" is Donald Trump. The man isn't doing anything unique. But he is a marketing genius and I admire his confidence, his ability to roll with the punches of business, and still remain standing. He's not afraid to take a risk and maybe fail, but just learns from it and goes on. That's an attitude I can relate to.

I can't let ecrater's business decisions affect my own too much. Besides, I don't even use Froogle myself, so I'm not too concerned about it. Having thought about the issue for a few days, I've come to realize it's up to me to develop good marketing strategies to get customers to my store, not ecrater. They're providing a free storefront and I'm happy with that.

Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter. Happy selling, whether you're Froogle-ized or not.

Namaste,
Cheryl
I will now be staying here Thanks for the lift in spirits. I have a website I am working on and was given this site to check out. xyxyyxy.... I like your statement. i'll fill my store on ecrater and market as I do my website. enjoy your day. www.giftsandbags.com
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rnncollectibles
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ecrater wrote:
think I was clear enough. It's not only SMC, it's any other "we give you products to sell" type of web sites.

I had to comment on this topic, after reading all the misguided, and misinformed information!
first of all, SMC doesn't give its retailers anything! They have to purchase their items, just like those who sell the lingerie.


[quote="ecrater"]
BigTallMensClothing wrote:
Just curious as to how you know it's SMC products or not?


[quote="ecrater"]They all use the same photos, description and title. The photos are provided from the parent web site. You will not see "made by the seller" photos in these stores. Often the photos are stolen from the manufacturer's web site too.[/color]

You are only partially correct. Not everyone uses the pictures that SMC provides. Many SMC supplied retailers use self-made photos for their products and revamp the descriptions provided by SMC. Also, many SMC supplied retailers also sell merchandise which originates from other distribution companies or that is hand-made in their own home. In regards to the accusation that SMC supplied retailers are stealing photos from the SMC website, they do not! SMC supplied retailers are provided with stock photos they may use for their advertisements, just as grocery stores and chain stores are given stock photos to use when running print ads. Take a look at your "Sunday Ads" for the three biggest grocery stores in your area and you will most likely see the same picture displayed for a box of Captain Crunch Cereal in each.

BigTallMensClothing wrote:
How can you stop some products from going to froggle and not others?


ecrater wrote:
I just mark them as "affiliate" and they do not appear on Froogle and eCRATER searches. They also go at the bottom of each category. In fact I have discussed that issue with the Froogle team and they were very clear that they did not want similar items in the bulk feed.


Once again you are incorrect! I know for fact that Froogle themselves do not have a problem receiving similar items in the bulk feed. Because, I have some of my "SMC" products list on a site called ****, and so do a few other SMC members, and our products are sent to Froogle, and show up on Froogle's search pages when the item is being search for.

It shows up, and the link in which it says where the item can be seen at says, "****".

Also, you incorrectly label SMC as an affiliate company. In fact, using your label, any distribution company would be considered an affiliate company as they do not manufacture their own merchandise. Take a real life look at the marketing world:

    1. Folgers manufacturers their coffee at one of their numerous plants; Tide manufacturers laundry detergent, and Pringles manufacturers their version of potato chips.
    2. Proctor and Gamble, a major distribution company in the United States, solicits Folgers, Tide and Pringles to create a distribution contract allowing P & G to purchase their products at wholesale prices and resell them to retailers across the country.
    3. P & G begins solicitating retailers for the right to become the retailers primary sources for their products. If the retailer believes the relationship with P & G will be profittable, they agree and sign a contract. P & G requires the retailer to make a payment for those reseller rights, as monetary agreements are normally more binding and important to each party.
    4. The retailer makes regular purchases from P & G, sometimes chosing to carry the stock on hand, othertimes by ordering as the merchandise as needed to satisfy demand. The retailer pays "sub-wholesaling" prices for the items they stock and determine the retail price they will list the items at.


Now, a look at the reality of the SMC marketplace:

    1. Manufacturers (primarily from overseas) manufacture various "self-made" products and begin soliciting for distribution companies in the states.
    2. SMC (Speciality Merchandise Corporation) signs contract with merchandise manufacturers to import their items.
    3. SMC then solicits for retailers willing to sell the merchandise they have imported.
    4. Willing retailers then sign marketing contract with SMC, make a contract payment to SMC and determine their marketing techiniques to ensure profittability.
    5. Retailer then resells the merchandise in accordance with the rules that govern free-enterprise
.

SMC and P & G are extremely similiar in their distribution techniques...each trying to flood the marketplace with "their" prodcuts to ensure they will survive.

In MHO I think that you (ecrater) were once an SMC member and that you had a bad experience with SMC, and that is the true reason why you hate both SMC & anybody who sells their merchandise.

Now that I know your feelings about people who choose to purchase products from SMC and your willingness to discriminate against normal business and marketing practices, I am not only going to close my store but I am going to inform everyone that I come in contact with, to avoid eCrater like the PLAGUE! And to be 100% honest...there is only one "item" in this world that is truly unique: HUMANS. No material item that has ever been created has ever remained unique for long. If it is decent and profittable, someone, somewhere will copy it and resell it.
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    aspencounty



    Posts: 815

    PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

    Rnncollectibles, very informative comments. It's unfortunate that many, including ecrater, do not understand the dynamics of Free Entreprise and the market place. Your comparision of SMC to other vendors is every acurate. What SMC does is no different from any other conpany that provides products and services from a variety of manufactures which in turn are sold through numerous other outlets.

    Again you are correct. I submit SMC products from my websites to Froogle on a regular basis. The suggestion that Froogle will not accept them is incorrect to say the least. This is a concious decsion by ecrater and has nothing to do with Google/Froogle.

    It's sad indeed, but you can't educate those that do not wish to be educated.
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