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Solutions to Common Questions - The History of eCRATER.com

 
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:25 am    Post subject: Solutions to Common Questions - The History of eCRATER.com Reply with quote

The Name


When I asked Dimitri How did eCrater get it's name?
This is what the man says:

Quote:
I was thinking of a domain name for a long time. When I found that ecrater.com is available I liked it because:

1. "e" in the beginning stands for ecommerce

2. It was related with the moon. Moon indicates different than the "normal" one. That's was the goal. To create something different.

3. crater is a big hole. I was hoping to see it full of many different sellers
and products Smile)

And that is how eCRATER got it's name.

So on October 17, 2003 the domain name of www.ecrater.com was purchased for the purpose of creating the worlds best free online marketplace!
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The birth of eCRATER.com

Dimitri's background is as a programmer, and early in 2004, he started putting eCrater together, working alone from home. "It took me about four months to put all my ides together and code the initial version. I had the idea of what the marketplace should look like. It was quite overwhelming and time consuming at the beginning, coding module by module from scratch. At the time, I had lost my job, so my wife and I decided that instead of looking for a new job, I would stay home to work hard on the marketplace and launch it as soon as possible. "


Dimitri Slavov doesn't intend to directly challenge eBay. His eCrater marketplace (http://www.ecrater.com) isn't intended to compete directly with the "big dog" in the field. But it does provide an alternative venue for both online buyers and sellers.

"Taking on eBay has never been my intent," says Slavov, 31. "In fact, I'm not even familiar with their selling model. I had a vision of a nice, clean marketplace - a place where buyers could easily buy and sellers would happily sell. I focused on that while building eCrater."

Slavov got his vision five years ago, and his impetus came not from visiting eBay but from another big ecommerce marketplace.

"Five years ago, I ordered a book from Amazon.com," he explains. "I found the Web site a little hard to navigate. I knew there was an easier way."

One of the ways Slavov streamlined the site is also one of the most radical - the elimination of any fees charged to buyers and sellers. "I thought that I myself would really enjoy selling in a marketplace with no fees. Selling online should be free, just like searching. Sellers already pay enough in transaction fees and advertising." Thus, the idea of a free marketplace was born.

eCrater.com was born few minutes before midnight on September 27, 2004 in Irvine, CA. We celebrated the event with a bar of a Swiss chocolate (that was all we had at that hour of the night).


September 28, 2004 the first store opened
www.memoryplaneplates.ecrater.com but they have never listed anything on eCRATER.


December 8, 2004 - Paypal link was added to the order placement page. At a click of a link, the buyer can now complete the purchase transaction.

May 14, 2005 - an additional 4 images was added to each product. (prior to this each item has one image only).

June 15, 2005 - Simple counter was added.

June 16, 2005 - The on hold feature is now available in the admin tool.

July 7, 2005 - The bulk lister was added.

December 3, 2005 - A new completely re-designed admin tool has been launched.

December 10, 2005 - Sorting on product name, price and number of hits has been added to the product page in the admin tool

January 2, 2006 - Feedback system has been launched.

January 14, 2006 - The product page has now a new improved look.

March 7, 2006 - 10 photos per item are now allowed.

March 20, 2006 - Order's tracking through the admin tool has been added.

March 23, 2006 - Product search option has been implemented in the admin tool (menu Products)

April 14, 2006 - Admin Tool: Menu Orders - The sellers can mark manually their orders as paid and delete them.

May 1, 2006 - Icon for rss feed has been added in all screens that show listings (browse, search, advanced search and filter)

May 23, 2006 - max qty feature has been added

July 25, 2006 - Support for google checkout (aka gbuy) was added today

August 14, 2006 - The speed of the search functions has been dramatically increased

September 28, 2008 - Google Checkout has been fully integrated in eCRATER

October 6, 2006 - eCRATER is listed on Google Checkout's website as one of their ecommerce partners.

March 1, 2007 - eCRATER Manage has been launched. This is a tool that allows our support people to have full control over the whole marketplace. It will not directly benefit the sellers but it will help eCRATER to keep up with its growth.

April 11, 2007 - eCRATER started to upload bulk files to Microsoft's Live Product Upload Beta.

August 13, 2007 - Inventory Control has been added.

August 21, 2007 - "eCRATER mods" has been launched. It is a system that enables eCRATER sellers to become moderators.

October 23, 2007 - Support of more than 40 additional Google Base attrubutes has been added.

December 11, 2007 - Support for Google Analytics has been added

March 16, 2008 - New Bulk Lister has been launched.

April 1, 2008 - eCRATER Widgets is live now

April 3, 2008 - All login pages have been ssl-ed.

May 24, 2008 - Copy Feature added


Last edited by zickit on Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:37 pm; edited 11 times in total
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SELLING FACTS


The oldest store with products that is currently on eCRATER
http://mockingbirdstudios.ecrater.com/

The first item that sold was a CD by the rock group Motorhead, which went for $10.99.

The strangest thing that sold was something called the "Royal Screw." It was literally a metal screw that someone could send to a person who had done something wrong to the purchaser.

The most expensive item sold on eCrater to date: a 2005 Chevrolet Corvette.

January 28, 2006 - eCRATER.com has reached 100,000 listings.

May 8, 2007 eCRATER reached the 500,000 item mark

First week in February 2008 there was a 213% increase in registrations

March 10, 2008 eCRATER reached the 1,000,000 items for sale in the marketplace!

April 1, 2008 - 41,987 active stores

April 23, 2008 - order #200000 was hit

October 2008 - over 300,000 placed

October 24, 2008 - 1,500,000 items listed on ecrater.com

January 11, 2009 -
65242 active accounts on eCRATER
10630 suspended accounts
95773 stores have been created since the launch of eCRATER.

June 6, 2009 2 MILLION items currently listed on ecrater.com


Last edited by zickit on Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:03 pm; edited 7 times in total
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Forum

On February 24, 2006 at 17:01 PST time the ecrater forum was opened.
The first post of course was the forum rules.

The famous Advertising ideas for PROMOTING your store topic was also started on that day and to this day is still going strong.
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2008 3:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The birthplace of ecrater.com

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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1 new employee has been hired in 2008.
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Today - 2/22/2010 eCrater made news!

THREE MILLION listings!
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECRATER
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pam and Linda of www.ShopaholicSisters.ecrater.com are proud to be the seller with the one millionth order at www.ecrater.com!

Order number : 1,000,000
was for a
PINK VINYL TABLECLOTH FLORAL DESIGN 52x90 OBLONG RECTANGLE NEW
1 x $13.50

Order Date: 04-21-2010 17:59 PDT
to a customer in Staatsburg, New York
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zickit



Posts: 21857

PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ecrater announces a new fee if 2.9% only for items sold directly on the marketplace and not in the individual stores
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