Coming from Froogle to my store

[wtcollectibles]

My store has been on hold forever while I rode out 2006 which turned out to be the year from you-know-where for me! But I will survive, as the song says, and get this store up and running!

Can someone please tell me what I need to put in my listings to keep a customer in MY store if they come in from Froogle? If I am reading recent posts correctly, they will come in to see my one item; but then if they click on "Categories" or other links on MY page, they go off to the greater ecrater site. What do I tell them to click to see MY categories or MY other items? If they click on my logo, will that keep them in my store?

I really mean no disrespect to anyone else, and I hope everybody sells! These posts I've read just have me confused!! Thanks a lot and Happy New Year to all!!

Becky

[jwautographs]

There is a store link in the top basic information area they can click to visit your individual shop. You may want to refer to it in each of your item descriptions.

[wtcollectibles]

Thanks for the info! I used you as my "learning aid"--hope you don't care! Went to Froogle and typed in "shirley temple autograph" and then clicked on your ecrater store to see what would come up.

That was my whole problem--I've never searched for anything on Froogle in my life, so I had no idea what I would see. Once I got to your Shirley Temple listing, I could see that your logo wasn't there, just Ecrater's.

Man, I sure wish that link to our individual store were bigger or red or stood out somehow!! Of course, I guess ecrater is more interested in having buyers shop around the whole site, not just my store.

Thanks a bunch for pointing me in the right direction! Best wishes to us all!!!

Becky

[poopsheet]

Yeah, I guess it might be a good idea to add something like "See more items like this at http://wtcollectibles.ecrater.com."

I haven't done that but I think I'm going to.

[HandcraftedDollsbyLu]

Hello wt,
Yes, the navigation set up is very confusing to sellers and to shoppers! The confusion comes from our ads looking different depending on whether the shopper is in our store or if they come if from the search engines. When they come if from search, all of the links in our ads; terms, about, contact, faqs, and the categories link will all lead to ecrater's info, not ours! Clicking on our logo will go back to the storefront, but, when coming in from search, our logo is not present in our ads. So, you can't say, "click on my logo above to visit my store" in our ads, as sometimes the logo is not there.
It was mentioned about the store link on the upper right, same situation as the logo, it is there sometimes, and sometimes not, if you say something like "use the link at top right to visit my store", it will cause some questions to the shoppers who are in your store, because this store link is not in our ads if they are already in our store. So, it's really not a good idea to mention the store link because it is not consistent and not always there.
Unfortunately, many, many sellers do not realize that this is the case, and many, many ads say "click on my faqs above" or "click on my terms below", and they don't have a clue that doing this will not lead to their information in some cases. There have been posts about this, but as of yet, no comment by admin.
That the store link is very small and unclickable looking and is among other links that do look clickable has been discussed too. Puzzling as to why this is?! Many people do not even realize that this is even a link to begin with! There is no way to consistently lead all of our shoppers to our store or our other items for sale with the links or logo.
The only way so that it's not confusing to some of the shoppers some of the time, is to do as poopsheet has suggested, put your store url in each ad, but the shopper will have to cut and paste to use it. I'm not sure if many shoppers will do this! And it is so unprofessional to ask shoppers to cut and paste!
This navigational confusion will keep coming up again and again as sellers realize it and when buyers start asking, which has happened to me twice. The shoppers just assumed that the links were broken and not working properly, they expected to go my information, they emailed me to let me know the links did not work! It is very odd that our links do not lead to our information, it really doesn't make any sense, and if there is a reasoning behind this, I would love to know what it is?? And, if there is a reason, is it worth all of the confusion that it creates?? I love ecrater, the look and the ease of set up and listing, I wish it was more buyer friendly!
Have a great day!
Lu

[capitalus]

I'm also adding an extra reference to my store, though I don't mind if a buyer comes to visit your item, and ends up buying mine . I think you would still be happy if it happens the other way around That is why we opened these stores not as a stand-alone, but rather under the same roof.

[capitalus]

Lu, it's not in reply to your posting, we typed at the same time:)

I agree with you the 2-in-1 in unusual and confusing, but it has a great potential. Hopefully ecrater will figure it out how to make it work better.

[HandcraftedDollsbyLu]

Hello capitalus,
I want all ecrater sellers to succeed, and I agree ecrater has great potential! I'm looking at this from a shopper's viewpoint. Shoppers like to browse items from a seller and buy more than one item to save on shipping and for the convenience. Shoppers are used to having easy access to a seller's other items and a seller's information. If a shopper goes to seller's links and ends up at ecrater info, it's not what they expect, they think the link is broken, they wonder what's going on, and, they might just click out of the page! Changing the links to go to our info, having our logo within all of our ads, and making the store link look clickable and within all of our ads should be very easy to do, and would end the confusion. I'm also hoping that ecrater will address this because buyer ease and friendliness is really important and essential.
Have a great day!
Lu

[jwautographs]

Probably not many will agree with me but here goes.

eCrater has created a shopping cart system, at no charge, with easy set-up where small businesses can use to promote THEIR SHOPS as a stand alone.

They do a great job of not leading your customer away when they enter your store via your individual url address.

They are not a fee based service and, in my opinion, are greatly enhancing your item to be seen by submiting it to Google at NO CHARGE!

When a potential customer finds your listing via eCrater's efforts it's a GIFT to you! Thank them!!

Thank-you eCrater!!

[wtcollectibles]

I agree with everything and I thank everybody who pointed things out for me as I try to get this up and running!

I didn't intend to sound critical of ecrater if it came off that way. It confuses ME that my pages will look different depending on where the customer comes in. I don't know if it will confuse the customers or not and it may not make a big difference. I have my own domain name and am hoping to advertise it heavily to drive traffic directly to my own store that way. I'll just have to wait and see if anybody comes in from Froogle and gets lost!

If someone started out looking at another seller's items and then fell into one of mine and I scored a sale from it, no, I wouldn't complain! On the other hand, if the customer ends up paying more shipping for the two items (full shipping charges to each seller), will s/he be irked enough to complain or not come back? Maybe I'm just worrying about stuff that will never come up! (won't be the first time...)

I'm sure this will all become clearer as I get to work and go "live". Thanks again to you all who chimed in--big help!!!

Becky

[jwautographs]

Try to think of it this way. You have an individual store with an individual web site address. It is your responsibility to promote your business and attract customers to your store.

Having eCrater promote your listings via Google is a super bonus that you would never have if you started your own independent web site. It greatly enhances and provides you with an outstanding opportunity to drive customers to your store with no extra effort other than listing your products here.

eCrater wins as your listings add content and additional exposure to their site and you win everytime you make a sale via their marketing efforts.

Your customers will soon understand the process and will return as long as they find what they want, at a price they will pay, and receive good customer service.

We are a team.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

1720 listings later I learn I need to put my store url in every listing. I guess it is better late than never. Thanks for whoever posted that info.

[zickit]

ecrater.com works very similiar to Amazon.

99% of the time buyers at the ecrater.com site don't know they are buying from different sellers. Shipping is listed per item - so that should not come as a surprise at checkout time. Checkout time is when they might realize they have 2 different sellers.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

I just made a listing and added my url but it doesn't show up as a link just more type. Is there any way we can enable our browser/buyer to remain in our store?

[zickit]