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newenglandsalvage
Posts: 16
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:54 am Post subject: About Ecrater self promotions/advertising |
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Can you tell us sellers where to look, to see where this advertising money is being spent?
I spend money on two search engines to drive sales to my site. Now, i will be looking at a third bill at the end of the month. I believe i will be dropping one of the services. I need to make comparisons, to see what search service will work for me.
Has the advertising program started prior to May 1st.? If it has, we should be seeing additional hit counts on our store items.
Thanks,
Allan |
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elpereles
Posts: 3430
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:45 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | I spend money on two search engines to drive sales to my site. |
In search engines or ads from Google/etc? |
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cosmicray
Posts: 7286
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 9:19 am Post subject: Re: About Ecrater self promotions/advertising |
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newenglandsalvage wrote: | Has the advertising program started prior to May 1st.? If it has, we should be seeing additional hit counts on our store items. |
Only eCRATER would know if it had been turned on early. They won't be charging us for hits, only against completed sales, and then only from the Marketplace. |
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MoonwishesStore moderator
Posts: 17389
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 9:53 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | WE ONLY SHIP TO THE LOWER 48 STATES! |
Allan, You are aware aren't you that to sell on ecrater, you have to sell to ALL 50 states? You could be suspended for not including all of them.
As to what ecrater is charging for, you will only have to pay for any sales coming through the ecrater marketplace, so how much that would be would depend on how many sales you are getting, how much you will have to pay. With the amount of sales you have had in the last 5 years, I don't think it will break the bank, so to speak, for you. I wouldn't be depending on seeing more hit counts within your store as that can be bots or whatever. You might want to see if you are seeing any changes in google analytics, if your traffic goes up there.
None of us knows exactly what the team will be doing to increase ecrater traffic, so I'm not sure how we can track it. I'm not sure what search engines charge to drive traffic to a store. Can you tell if your traffic went up when you started using them? Many of those different sites that charge look like scams to me, so I would want to know what I was getting for my money with them. |
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newenglandsalvage
Posts: 16
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 2:52 pm Post subject: shipping |
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[quote="MoonwishesStore"] Quote: | WE ONLY SHIP TO THE LOWER 48 STATES! |
I will ship anywhere and have shipped to Asia.
The problem is the cost! The time it takes to figure out how much shipping is to Alaska. Fortynine out of Fifty inquires for a shipping quote will tell you it is too costly and decline. It is not the price of the item it is all about the shipping when you deal with large and heavy.
Their are many ways to ship at reduced rates. The shipping matrix is very limited. I have to know my clients zip code before i can give a price. Many times the shipping matrix will quote prices much higher. I need the option of finding the right shipper.
Antique dealers, furniture sellers and salvage sellers like myself are all in the same boat. If a client wants to know how much, they will email me for a quote.
Ecrater is very aware of the this situation. Most of the sellers here are selling small items. They use fedex, Ups and the Postal service.
I wish that Ecrater would offer more choices such as, Personal pickup and Email for a shipping quote. |
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cosmicray
Posts: 7286
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:29 pm Post subject: Re: shipping |
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newenglandsalvage wrote: | I have to know my clients zip code before i can give a price. |
After glancing around your store... are the larger heavier items usually shipped via Motor Freight ? |
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newenglandsalvage
Posts: 16
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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Some are shipped by motor freight. Some are blanket wrapped and shipped strapped to the side of a van. The problem is the Google free shipping sign. I need to turn that off! If you do not use the shipping matrix, the only two other choices are free shipping or one set fee to ship anywhere in the us. If you select the latter, you pay the same rate to Chicago as you would to California. That fee can look outrageous if you are only live two states away. |
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SheilaDeesPostcards moderator
Posts: 4620
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Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:40 am Post subject: |
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While I understand it would be hard to determine the price for shipping to some locations, you have chosen to sell on eCRATER. The shipping matrix can be completed to show the shipping to both Alaska and Hawaii as being different from the shipping charged for the lower 48 states. Since you have free shipping to the lower 48 states, maybe you would want to add an amount to be charged for each of those two states. I wonder if you realize you have active stores in both the UK and AU which show free shipping to those countries also. You need to complete your shipping matrix for each country to which you wish to ship. If you don't want to complete the matrix for a country, you should remove it from your shipping zones.
The current Terms of Service for selling on eCrater state the following related to this matter:
Quote: | 4.3 Basic requirements
- The sellers must be able to ship throughout the United States.
4.4 Content requirements
- Shipping must be set-up in the store to all locations that are selected in the shipping zones. It is not allowed to request shipping or additional costs after an order has been placed. The buyer should have the full cost upon checkout. |
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cosmicray
Posts: 7286
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Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:03 am Post subject: |
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My 2-cents about all this... while the seller has indicated they will ship to Alaska, I'm willing to bet that different zip codes in Alaska will have significantly different charges for Motor Freight. For that matter, US-Mainland (in the shipping matrix) will vary widely by motor freight distance.
USPS Calculated is sensitive to zip code, but only in determining the zone (USPS almost assuredly amortizes the expensive to reach destinations into the entire USA). The Shipping Matrix is not sensitive to zip code (certainly not within Alaska). I know what the ToS says, I know why it says this, but some stuff is just too far out on the edge to be done (with any of the currently available tools from eCRATER).
Maybe the upgrades will help with atypical shipping calculations. |
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MaggietheCatsMeows
Posts: 2853
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Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 2:50 am Post subject: |
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And I thought shipping from Canada was difficult. The heaviest thing I ship is a thick book. |
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MoonwishesStore moderator
Posts: 17389
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Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 5:32 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | I will ship anywhere and have shipped to Asia |
You may say this here on the board, but I couldn't find it anywhere in your store. All I saw, several times, was the statement about only shipping to the 48 states.
Seems part of it could be resolved by telling the buyer to contact you ahead of time wherever they live so that you can give them accurate shipping info as the shipping is based on the furthest place not the closest. MOST intelligent people in those states should understand this and are more than aware that large heavy items ccost a lot more to ship to them in HI and Alaska. What they don't understand is if something that fits in a flat rate priority envelope has a charge of double of that in the continental states and they have every right to be confused. |
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newenglandsalvage
Posts: 16
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Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 3:34 pm Post subject: To Moonwishes |
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All my items that have to be shipped motor freight are listed in description as Email for a shipping quote. This pretty much takes care of the problem on Ecrater.
The biggest problem is on google when your items show up as free shipping.
I need to be able to turn off the free shipping sign.
You people are all small item sellers and don't understand because you do not ship motor freight.
I know you are trying to help but the only way you can understand is having to ship large and heavy items.
So please do not waste your time. I was hopping that someone from Ecrater could give me some guidance as to whether or not this is something that could be changed in the future? In the form of{ Personal pickup} and{ email for a shipping quote} to be included under shipping.
If you look at furniture and go randomly to sellers sites you will find outrageous prices to ship items. This is because of the shipping choices on Ecrater. Let the sellers be creative with who they ship with and you will see the prices reduced.
Look at their feedback......they don't have any or very little and if they do it is the smaller items that are showing the feedback.
They also have poor feedback percentage because shipping items is a science in itself. Many of them ship with greyhound to make it somewhat cost effective.
I cannot fathom the idea of shipping a chair in the belly of a bus. These people are bus drivers not merchandise movers.
It is unfortunate that many sites model themselves after Ebay and amazon to try and compete with THE FREE SHIPPING MANTRA It only works with the smaller items.
I would be more than happy to discuss this further with someone from the Ecrater team. |
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thecheapskirt
Posts: 2123
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Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 4:45 pm Post subject: Re: To Moonwishes |
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newenglandsalvage wrote: | You people are all small item sellers and don't understand because you do not ship motor freight.
I know you are trying to help but the only way you can understand is having to ship large and heavy items.
So please do not waste your time. |
Then why aren't you emailing ecrater directly? This is a forum for users.
PS, you don't have to sell here. There are plenty of shopping cart solutions that have more flexibility. |
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newenglandsalvage
Posts: 16
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Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 8:26 am Post subject: Re: Shipping large & heavy items |
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I would like to hear from large and heavy item sellers. Please share your shipping concerns and any other possible improvements that you might have.
Please keep it constructive and on topic.
Thanks,
Al |
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MoonwishesStore moderator
Posts: 17389
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Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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I know nothing about heavy shipping other than what I have learned by way of my in-law family that makes their living driving truck. The ONLY reason I even brought the thing with the 48 states up to you is because you can be suspended here for not selling to all 50 states. So muliple statements stating you only ship to the 48 continental states can have you lose your ecrater store. How you ship your stuff is obviously your own concern. I personally don't use free shipping because there isn't any such thing. |
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