....Need Help with confusing Ebay Importing ...blah!

StephaniteSilverandBeyond · Posts: 7

I use to sell on eCrater about 4 years ago and I even used the Ebay importer before; However something has changed or my mind has lost some memories , cause I can't figure out how to import anymore!! Arghh

When I go to the "Bulk List/eBay import" tab, it gives me a list of all my passed and failed imports, but that's it. How do I import??? Is there a button or a link to use to import my items? There's isn't any options available to do anything, why? Am I in the wrong place to Import my Ebay items?

.........................help ...... Confused

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

Because you can only import your items one time, so if you are trying to import items you already imported in the past, you can't do it again. Besides, it's easier to copy your listing manually to get them right, when you use the importer your listings are a mess when they upload to ecrater, in the wrong cateogories, with ebay auction text still left behind which confuses buyers here since we don't have auctions, and if you had any listing designer features like borders or fancy text, that will show up as a bunch of illegible code in your listings here. So it really it is better to do it manually. And you can't open another store and import from there because a new store would still recognize that you already imported from your ebay account once before.

StephaniteSilverandBeyond · Posts: 7

One time? You mean like, Ever!? For as long as I have this account?

None of the items I have imported in the past (only 3 items that are listed) are the items I am trying to import now (approx. 300 items).
Even with this amount to be imported, you still suggest manually?
Thank you for your help!

StephaniteSilverandBeyond · Posts: 7

All the other items that I imported years ago have been sold or deleted hence only having 3 items left.

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

There are sellers here who had problems with the importer or copied their listings here before the importer was created and they had to list thousands upon thousands of items manually, so think how they felt. I've had to do it before too. It may take some extra time but it's not impossible.

If you try to import anything you already imported before it won't work, also if you tried importing any items and the attempt failed for those items, those items are still counted as if the transfer actually went thru and it won't work again. We are supposed to be able to import any new items we have not previously tried to import and the program is supposed to ignore the stuff we already pulled over in the past however, there is always someone saying the option disappears after the first try even if all of their items failed to transfer on the first attempt and even if they are trying to import all new listings so you might wanna contact ecrater because it seems like there is a major flaw but a few others have been asking them to fix this for a few years.

Go to ecrater.com and click on contact, lower right corner, and see if they can help. If not, you might wanna rethink this if you have to do all those manually because ecrater is not what it used to be since you were here last. Site has changed a lot, we now have fees here, sales are slim to none even for long time sellers that used to get tons of sales daily, and no one wants to fix anything that's broken so stuff just remains flawed. So now, we are paying fees to sell on a site that's only half of what it used to be. So just a heads up. Good luck.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

As one of the ones that manually imported my ebay listings to here, if you only have 300, just do it manually. It will save you buckets of time, since you can set up each listing like you want to and then use the copy/paste feature to change only the info that needs it. Way to many ex-ebayers have come here and imported their stuff, never even seemed to bother checking to see what it looked like, left it in the ebay import mess and then disappeared apparently expecting tons of sales from that mish mash and little work. If you want a decent store you might as well do it manually as in the long run it will probably be much faster and a better chance at getting sales sooner, since once you have the basic of the About me, terms, contact, home page and your shipping set up, as soon as your first listing is up and looks good, you can go 'live' instead of waiting till you have everything finished.

elpereles · Posts: 3430

It is a topic we read at least weekly.

Not offense, but if in 4 years you visited more the forum. You will had your answer before the Holidays season.

StephaniteSilverandBeyond · Posts: 7

Thank you all so much for the help. I will be fine doing it manually then, seems easier. I didn't realize that ecrater is now charging fees? Wha the? Wow certainly has changed. I'm going to have to check on the fees.
Thanks again for the help

SammysSupplies · Posts: 1631

The fees really aren't much, much lower then other places. Some people just like to focus on the bad. Yes, sales have dropped, but unless eCrater raises fees a lot for the things that may help, there really isn't anything we can do. Other then self promotion of course. But, for me.....I just try to roll with the punches. From my experience with live auction site I was on, one thing that would help, would be an app and app promotion. So many buyers now buy from their devices. Then we would not be dependent on Google for buyers.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

Just to put things in perspective on the fees. In October 2013 I had the highest 'fees' from eCRATER than I have had. They were $11.19 for 29 orders through the marketplace. That was when we only had the 2.9% fees available. Now if you want you can CHOOSE to go up to 12.9% to hopefully get more views and click through to buyers. You ONLY pay if they buy something. For a few months I had opted in to the 5.9% fees and then dropped back after a couple of months to just the 2.9% and this past month I had less than $3 in fees. Out of 15 eCRATER orders, only 7 were through the marketplace. I do a lot of promoting myself and have been since day one here. I don't depend on Google, but that is how I choose to run my business. Others do it differently.

I would suggest that you, as well as all the other sellers, as part of your monthly bookwork track where all your eCRATER sales come from. This is very easy to do as they show up right with the order on your order page. I've had 9 eCRATER orders so far this month with 5 of them being marketplace, 3 from Pinterest and one from Google organic. I'm very pleased about the Pinterest ones as that is the best I've done in one month and I focus heavily on Pinterest for marketing.

Anyhow, when thinking about eCRATER's fees, there isn't really much to think about except do you or don't you want to try the higher fees. That is about it. If you stay with the 2.9% you will have to sell a huge amount of goods -YEAH!- to end up with a huge fee and by then who cares as you just made a lot of money anyhow. Very Happy

elpereles · Posts: 3430

Yeah, the final fee for sales in the Marketplace in eCrater. Sorry, but it is technically old news. Laughing

tigercreekgifts · Posts: 6293

No the fees are not bad compared to other places, but you said it had been a few years since you were last here so I thought I would let you know in case you haven't noticed the billing section and end up wondering why in the world you are getting billed after sales start coming in.