About Ecrater self promotions/advertising

newenglandsalvage · Posts: 16

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

elpereles · Posts: 3430

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

newenglandsalvage · Posts: 16

[quote="MoonwishesStore"]

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

newenglandsalvage · Posts: 16

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.

SheilaDeesPostcards · moderator Posts: 4620

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:

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

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.

MaggietheCatsMeows · Posts: 2853

And I thought shipping from Canada was difficult. The heaviest thing I ship is a thick book.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

newenglandsalvage · Posts: 16

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.

thecheapskirt · Posts: 2123

newenglandsalvage · Posts: 16

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

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

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.