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ECrater Good For Sellers
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A-Better-Way wrote:
And no, you need more than 17 items, would you love a garage sale with 17 items ? seriously ?

REALLY!.
I sell elsewhere with less than that. I have had more than that and sold nothing.
I would NEVER hold a garage sale.
When I did flea markets, the less I brought, the better I did.
People see the items. They just do not buy here.
SOOOO is there a magic number? Do I need 50 items? 220 items?
There IS something wrong here for me. I don't know what, the biggest factor is not item count.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I look at stores and just see a few items. Can't even see all of the items. A very difficult website.
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A-Better-Way



Posts: 3363

PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think you should just close it down.

This site requires more work on the sellers part.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 6:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for your thought. Thanks even more for your wonderful answers to my questions.
The work is not the problem.
THE PROBLEM IS THE TOTAL LACK OF GUIDANCE.
There is no way to come her and know what to do.
Type in the white area, but you can type more that will be allowed? How much is allowed?
I know, give up. Thanks again you are so helpful.
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SammysSupplies



Posts: 1631

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I opened my store, after spending time reading reading posts, I went and explored every clickable item I could find. (Most on the left side of your admin page) then looked at what it did to my store from a customers view. There have been several people that have tried to help just to be told no. I truly hope you get to a place a place where you are comfortable with your store.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only people that have been told "no" have been those who either told me I should go away, was a terrible person because I found fault with Ecrater or those who told me my whole problem was just too few items.
I have other places I need to do business, places where I CAN make some money. I also manage a household alone while dealing with serious medical problems. Endlessly exploring a site with no guidance sounds great for many. For me , it is not happening too quickly.
Once again, write text in that white are. BUT if I write too much, it won't show up. WHY, WHY no guidance as to how many characters or words. Why in 2016 nothing in the program to give a hint.
This place is run by a tiny bunch? FINE, still no progress into the 21 century.
The only thing appealing about this site, they don't run the dealers business.
If I could find someplace else I would be left alone that had 21 century programming, I would go. This place is my sad compromise.
Off now to try and make a few dollars. And deal with domestic chores.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"To see your store as a customer would see your store, click on the preview button from your admin section. You can also enter www.normsplace.ecrater.com in your address bar or click on the www button below a post you've made in the forum. Clicking on the www button for any poster in the forum will take you to their store."
So, a customer does not see all of my items. Just a few selected by Ecrater. That is what I thought. How does someone see the rest of my items?
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only way anyone can see all of my listings, go to advanced search, look at each category. Is anyone going to do that? This is a big problem. If I put up 200 items and the same 8 show up????
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SheilaDeesPostcards
moderator


Posts: 4614

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NormsPlace wrote:
Thanks for your thought. Thanks even more for your wonderful answers to my questions.
The work is not the problem.
THE PROBLEM IS THE TOTAL LACK OF GUIDANCE.
There is no way to come her and know what to do.
Type in the white area, but you can type more that will be allowed? How much is allowed?
I know, give up. Thanks again you are so helpful.
The amount that will be shown to the public depends on which template you are using. The classic templates allow less text to be shown than the newer templates that have the welcome message in the left column. Having it un restricted allows sellers the freedom to switch between the two styles of templates as they wish.

You keep complaining about a lack of information on how to use the site, yet you keep posting about things that are covered either in the question marks posted in the admin section, the help section from the main site, in the tutorial available from the main site, or in the FAQs in the forum.

For the benefit of other sellers who may be reading this information, be sure to click on the the question marks that appear in your admin section. Also, be sure to go to the home page of the marketplace www.ecrater.com and click on the FAQ button. There you will find General information, Buyer information and Seller information. If you click on Selling and scroll to the bottom of the page, the last question in the Admin section contains a link to open or download a tutorial. Other sellers are here in the forum to help with questions, but some information is provided.

I would never suggest a seller close their eCRATER store. I do agree that only having 17 items for sale is going to give an extremely low sale volume unless those 17 items are really "hot" items that customers are going to be searching the internet to find. Sometimes you have to think like a buyer. If a buyer wants a used items, they are probably going to do an internet search for that item or go to a destination site to start their search. Unless they have gone to a marketplace in the past or a friend told them about a site, they are probably going to go to eBay (or maybe Amazon) to start their search. This is the reason it is critical to have good titles AND good descriptions for your eCRATER items. If you only have 17 items offered for sale, you have limited your sale potential to the number of potential customers who are going to go to a search engine to look for your product. It could take several years before that one customer looking for that one item found your item from the internet. If you have 8000 items listed, the chance of a buyer looking for one of your 8000 items today is WAY better than 17 items. On the other hand, today may be the day that buyer that wants your item that you just listed yesterday. There is no "magic number" of items for a store to have sales. No one was suggesting you should consider taking your items to a Flea Market, but the point is a really big store (at a flea market, at a mall, on the internet or free standing) will always have a better chance of making sales than a tiny store).
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

For crying out loud! Did you try clicking on the 4-8 items you see on a seller's home page? Did you try clicking on the categories word up there between View Cart and FAQs on the home page? Clicking in either of those spots will open a Pandora's box of listings from the sellers. If you go to my home page you will see each of those pictures on my home page are different categories, the first one being Sewing Patterns. Click on that you you will find the ability to see over 7000 listings for sewing patterns and to the left on that page you will see all my sub-categories for sewing patterns. Click on the Christmas Store button and you will see all the variety's of things in my Christmas store which is a store within my store. Everything is listed by category and the sewing pattern categories are set up pretty much like the pattern catalog at a fabric store so it is familar to buyers.

You can either set up those pictures on the front page as categories to bring people into the section of the store they are interested in or a random sampling of what you have for sell. I have had with the exception of one, the same categories on my home page since 2008. It hasn't been holding me back at all as I am very near 5000 orders. Least you think I have a tremednous amount of free time and nothing else to do, I too live with serious chronic health problems, try to keep up with my home as much as possible, etc. Lots of us here do. It isn't unusual. We all make the best of our time.

If you want to know how much text, you can type into the 'white' box. Type something into that space on the edit text screen and see what happens. If you get cut off, then edit. If you have enough space to type in more, then do so. It isn't rocket science and that is what is so frustrating to most of us about your incessant complaining about how hard this site is to use. Click buttons and see what happens. Open up those spots to the left and see what your options are. Find old posts about the matrix since I looked at every single thing you currently have in your store and they could all ship wonderfully using the matrix.

I can't figure out even why you would have chosen to sell here if all you saw were minimal listings and couldn't even comprehend how each independent store works and how to find another sellers inventory.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

8000 items here? SURE...
First off I sell stuff not easily found.
I could list thousands of items, All I would have to do would be, stop selling anywhere else, ignore my home and my life, depend on a site with really crappy traffic.
This is a place I came to trying to sell some additional stuff. NOT make a career.
The bigger display sells more at the flea market of co op? Are you sure? I and others have found that less stuff allows customers to focus. Too many items creates a blur.
You gave me some suggestions that sound reasonable.
Back to listing where my photo will be seen, maybe... And perhaps actually bought. Similar number of views, very different results.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

MoonwishesStore wrote:
For crying out loud! Did you try clicking on the 4-8 items you see on a seller's home page? Did you try clicking on the categories word up there between View Cart and FAQs on the home page? Clicking in either of those spots will open a Pandora's box of listings from the sellers. If you go to my home page you will see each of those pictures on my home page are different categories, the first one being Sewing Patterns. Click on that you you will find the ability to see over 7000 listings for sewing patterns and to the left on that page you will see all my sub-categories for sewing patterns. Click on the Christmas Store button and you will see all the variety's of things in my Christmas store which is a store within my store. Everything is listed by category and the sewing pattern categories are set up pretty much like the pattern catalog at a fabric store so it is familar to buyers.

You can either set up those pictures on the front page as categories to bring people into the section of the store they are interested in or a random sampling of what you have for sell. I have had with the exception of one, the same categories on my home page since 2008. It hasn't been holding me back at all as I am very near 5000 orders. Least you think I have a tremednous amount of free time and nothing else to do, I too live with serious chronic health problems, try to keep up with my home as much as possible, etc. Lots of us here do. It isn't unusual. We all make the best of our time.

If you want to know how much text, you can type into the 'white' box. Type something into that space on the edit text screen and see what happens. If you get cut off, then edit. If you have enough space to type in more, then do so. It isn't rocket science and that is what is so frustrating to most of us about your incessant complaining about how hard this site is to use. Click buttons and see what happens. Open up those spots to the left and see what your options are. Find old posts about the matrix since I looked at every single thing you currently have in your store and they could all ship wonderfully using the matrix.

I can't figure out even why you would have chosen to sell here if all you saw were minimal listings and couldn't even comprehend how each independent store works and how to find another sellers inventory.


I did click on items in other stores. NONE of that happened. It seems if I want my stuff displayed I have to use a pay template. No thanks.

"You can either set up those pictures on the front page as categories to bring people into the section of the store they are interested in or a random sampling of what you have for sell." And just how do I know that technique? Another Ecrater mystery to me.

"If you want to know how much text, you can type into the 'white' box. Type something into that space on the edit text screen and see what happens. If you get cut off, then edit. If you have enough space to type in more, then do so. It isn't rocket science and that is what is so frustrating to most of us about your incessant complaining about how hard this site is to use."
SURE, just waste my time. Far better that the site publishing what the limit is. A mystery is much better.

I have listed on Ebay, Ebid, Bonanza(Bonanzale) and Delcampe. All had simple listing formats and plenty of easily accessible help.

The matrix indeed. An insanely complex way to handle the simple deal with shipping. There are postal calculators the management could insert for free that figure postage. Also one for UPS.
NO, go learn and deal with a matrix. Sort of teach a kid to ride a bike and first blindfold them.
"Find old posts about the matrix" Oh I have. 99% frustrated mystified victims.

The martial Arts master has it figured out. He studied his whole life. Devoted himself.
I am 68 years old, I just want to sell some stuff and make some money, not rngage in endless research. I understood coming here the traffic was slack and had to be acquired by each dealer. But mysteries within mysteries with no clues......
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
It seems if I want my stuff displayed I have to use a pay template


Not true. I don't pay for my template. I don't even like the looks of the other templates. I went to your home page yesterday, and from there went to each item that you have listed as I already mentioned. I found absolutely everything that you have for sale. The only person it seems that can't see your stuff is you. If you go to my page as I mentioned you could also find everything I have for sale.

Quote:
8000 items here? SURE...


Sure enough. I have 8004 items currently listed. All of which I did manually and since I have sold well over 5000 items, that means that over the last 8 years I have had at least 13K listings. It is doable. And to top it off, I also sell elsewhere where I have almost 5000 listings, yet again all entered by hand. This is why I have sales. I sell some hard to find, rare, items like you do and I have a whole bunch of them. I also some more available items which helps bring those folks into my store. I also promote like crazy, and take time to try to help people on this forum, although I have never run into anyone who makes excuses all the time for why nothing works like you do. Ecrater is the same for all of us. None of us pay any special fees for being more prominent in ecrater itself (although you can pay fees to be more prominent on Google Shopping which I don't do). This site is a level playing field for all of us. Yet for some reason, things that work for the rest of us, like clicking on a picture on the home page takes us to a listing or the category, you apparently get a blank screen.

I have sold on Amazon, ebay, alibris, half.com, and a variety of much smaller sites. Ecrater has been above all of them the easiest site to list on and become familiar with.

Sheila gave you some excellent advice. Take it. I promise not to bug you again.
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NormsPlace



Posts: 104

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I won't live long enough to post 8000 items with my present energy level and schedule.
I am so happy this is a great place for others. For me so far it has been difficult and zero on reward. If my number of listings is such a big problem, how do you explain the views every month?
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Shaelily



Posts: 328

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NormsPlace wrote:
Yes, there is modern stuff we could benefit from.
Also changes in things like not using ounces and pounds in weights, using weird percentages. The whole bizarre shipping matrix. Having a site for people to sell with should mean making it easy to sell, not requiring an alternate universe. I understand this is a budget, small staff operation. Some stuff needs change and would not require any outlays.
Websites require time to mature. Require work. There are deals run by one person that do well. Selling here requires work and time. A person has to choose where to put their time and energy.
So far this site has not produced any sales for me. I am going to continue and try to list more items. Eventually I will have to decide what is the best place for my limited time and energy.

You stated this over a month ago.
Again today:
NormsPlace wrote:
I am so happy this is a great place for others. For me so far it has been difficult and zero on reward.

If this site is not working for you why are you still trying to put your energy into it? It seems that it is time for a serious evaluation as to what you want out of a selling venue and what is realistically possible. Make a list and personally rate sites on ease of use, visibility, cost, etc. What site(s) work best for you? There are free and low cost sites that are more work and/or less fancy. There are expensive sites with fancy pages and most of the really hard work is done for you. There isn't a fancy, dummy-proof site that's free or even cheap. You can't have the best of both worlds. At this point in time it doesn't exist. You must either figure things out and do the work yourself or pay someone else to do it. Plus, not every site is a perfect fit for everyone and every seller has different needs. A perfect example is the shipping matrix used here. Some sellers LOVE it. It's perfect for their business. For me, it doesn't really matter either way. It works. I use it. Some people hate it and don't understand it and some just complain and don't want to understand it. By the way, this isn't the only venue that uses a shipping matrix. I've seen several. It's not this mysterious, unheard of way to calculate shipping as some make it out to be. But again, if you don't like it or it doesn't work for your business then it doesn't make sense to try sell on a site that uses it.

I have sold on many, many different sites at one time or another. After weeding out what works for me and what doesn't I currently sell on 4. eCRATER is my personal favorite and I certainly hate to discourage someone from selling here. However, if you don't like the way eCRATER is set up, it doesn't meet your needs, it's not easy for you to use, you're not making money here, etc. then perhaps it's time to move on. You have to do what's best for you and not only accept but expect that not every site will work out.
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