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Will Ecrater remain free?
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MaggietheCatsMeows



Posts: 2853

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not sure what the point of this discussion is. So far eCRATER has given no indication they will be charging fees in the future and have stated a few times in the past they they will not ever charge a fee. By law they have to give us fair notice if they plan to change. Since they haven't done so I do not expect to suddenly wake up to a bill from eCRATER.

Personally I don't believe any amount of fees collected from eCRATER sellers could put us in a league to outbid eBay, Amazon etc. so we would be flushing our money down Google's toilet. As a seller of "unreal" goods, I do not want to pay for key words for camping gear or mobile phones any more than you would want to pay for key words for vintage tablecloth or JJ cat pin.

I pay nominal fees at 2 other sites neither of which will be able to compete when it comes to bidding for keywords. At one I have a couple of sales per year and at the other I have a couple sales per month. So in my case paying fees is not really getting me anywhere. Seems to me that if you want the clout of eBay you should go to eBay and pay their fees and put up with their BS.

The internet began as the great equalizer but like the rest of the world has sold its soul to industry giants. For us to pay to play on Google is as offensive to me as the 99% who pay taxes so the 1% doesn't have to.

Get something through your heads. Paying Google to play will not get you in the starting lineup because as long as someone outbids you you will remain invisible. All you will be doing is lining the pockets of stockholders.
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thecheapskirt



Posts: 2123

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MaggietheCatsMeows wrote:
I'm not sure what the point of this discussion is.


I'm pretty sure the point is to spread fear and misinformation Wink Rolling Eyes
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campingoutlet



Posts: 68

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:33 pm    Post subject: Re: all of us united Reply with quote

thecheapskirt wrote:
The $10/mo site is not a store site. You claimed if you get more than 100 visitors a month hosting is expensive. But it isn't. http://lifeinlofi.com/

All my stores used to be on that same $10 a month account. I moved them, though, from Dreamhost (where that one is) to Hostgator (coupon code: thriftsyhostgator25 for 25% off).

As far as the rest goes:

Most shopping carts have payment modules to be are handled via PayPal and Google Checkout, just like here. It is pretty easy to set up, actually.

Also, most sellers do have to buy inventory, just like here.

And most sellers have to do their own advertising, just like here. (If you are waiting for ecrater to do your advertising for you... good luck)

Coding? Many many open source shopping carts out there that work right out of the box, and are free. I think I might pay $50 to buy an add-on to do USPS calculated shipping for one, not sure yet if I want to go that route or not. Customers seem to really like the "free shipping" model.
i thought we were talking about webstores, not a blog site. nice blog site though.
coding refers to the code you have to write to design and implement a webstore.
im talking about inventory management, not buying actual inventory lol.

sorry i think we are not even talking about the same thing. it is easy to open a bunch of free stores and accept paypal and all that jazz, my grandmother could do it probably.

we agree on one thing though, if you dont have free shipping you are a stone age retailer.

my whole point is, before everybody nit picks around certain statements i made because they dont like google this or google that, even though the majority of internet shoppers use google, is that depending upon what happens with GS, a fee for users to implement what we currently have in ecrater to get on GS is something that ecrater should take a look at. all the fees combined would pay for us to get on GS,...the way it works now anyway, when someone clicks to you from GS it goes to ecrater.com, not your store. so imagine ecrater.com as a smaller amazon.com

as long as you get on GS that is all that matters because hopefully your price point is competitive enough so that when they sort the results by price, you will be there and there is your sale.

just for example cheapskirt, i understand why you dont care about GS, used clothing is not going to show up really on GS, whereas new products with upcs, gtin, mpn's have there own categories and show up with all the big boys. so i can be listed right next to amazon currently for free. i dont mind paying for it either in the future, it would just be nice to get together with everyone else on here to combine our ad spending power. and the rest of ecrater can go about in their free stores.
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securityalarmguru



Posts: 79

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well y'all. I'm one of the new guys here, and I gotta say I'm glad that eCRATER is free, I'm sure it will stay free( at least I hope), and I will continues to advertise my REAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, to the best of my ability, using as many free services as I can. I pay good money for the equipment that I sell, then I spend my own personal time working with my customer and thier system. It's not about if I can pay the small fee, it's that every small fee I save on, allows me to put a little more food on the table (I think I would like to be heavier than I am).

I'm glad it was free, because if it weren't, I would never have met many of you fine community members.

So to those of you who want to pay someone, you can always visit my store and invest in the safety of your family. LOL. Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

But I will simply agree to disagree with you.

But maybe you could use that money that eCRATER does not charge you, and get your items listed for yourself (not sure if/how you can do that). Let eCRATER remain free peacefully, and everyone is happy. Right?
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thecheapskirt



Posts: 2123

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just love it when someone makes judgement calls about the type of seller I am based on limited information available in one store.

And that is all I have to say about that here, rather than get in a pissing match with someone who wants ecrater to change into something it is not, rather than dealing with reality. Not worth my time, as I have packages to ship out and excellent customer service to provide right now. After all, I have standards to uphold with my "cheap rinkydink crap". LOL
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aspencounty



Posts: 815

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This entire conversation is pointless. Even if Ecrater started charging fees, which I don't think will ever happen, I don't think it would even be possible for them to participate in the new Google Shopping paid model even if they wanted to. I'm making these figure up as an example so don't hold me to them. I read somewhere that Ecrater has 3 million+ products listed so the cost just to list them for a month would be staggering. Since this sounds like it's going to be based on some kind of a bid for placement or pay for action system, who would determine how much to bid and when and on which products?
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campingoutlet



Posts: 68

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

its not a pointless conversation because the people that actually use GS and benefit from it have already started planning and trying to figure out what they will do if GS is eliminated from ecrater. so instead of reacting to it the day that everything is removed from GS and traffic drys up, better to be prepared and have a back up plan.

if you recall about a year or so ago ecrater stopped getting products on GS, there were countless people on here complaining and like "i have no traffic!! no sales!!!" people seemed pretty pissed because a large portion of ecrater stores rely on GS.

i would assume since ecrater has an agreement with google on the checkout, they could come to terms on a GS agreement as well since ecrater is sending them checkout business. maybe ecrater pays a flat rate to get ecrater products on, most definitely at the bottom, and also have tighter standards/minimum checkout revenue to get listed.
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thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat



Posts: 10158

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm out of this conversation. Camping you obviously do not see eCRATER as a site for all to sell on and want to remake it into your own image. Who was the last person to try that? Oh yes. God.
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lastade-designs
moderator


Posts: 2903

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:06 pm    Post subject: Re: all of us united Reply with quote

campingoutlet wrote:
if you dont have free shipping you are a stone age retailer

Never heard this one before. I must be a stone age retailer. I usually charge a modest shipping fee. I usually pay shipping fees also. Free shipping is nice if offered, but I did not ever consider offering free shipping. I must be behind on eselling savvy again.
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campingoutlet



Posts: 68

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat wrote:
I'm out of this conversation. Camping you obviously do not see eCRATER as a site for all to sell on and want to remake it into your own image. Who was the last person to try that? Oh yes. God.
oh no i do that is why i said they might want to consider getting the users that want GS to pay a fee, while everyone else can enjoy a free store. So that would include everyone. Im not really sure I understand, seems like people just want ecrater to be business as usual, things change, deal with it and try to evolve. GS will cost money, GS drives a lot of traffic, we should probably figure something out, hopefully ecrater does.

If you dont use GS why are you even in here talking about it?????
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My apologies to the rest of you as I know you are all honest and hardworking business people and perhaps I'm cranky from getting groceries as my feet swelled in the heat and I hurt more and more and then I come here and see this exceedingly odd, nonsensical conversation.

What pray tell is where your head is at Camping? You talk about 'real stores' and you have 20 items in yours--MANY ARE DUPLICATES. You talk about reliable sellers, etc. and your feedback is at 72%. You have duplicate listings--A SUSPENDABLE OFFENSE here at ecrater. You have garbage in your terms trying to tell people who can and can't shop here. You don't own this site including your store and you have no power to enforce those 'rules'. The great sellers you talk about being here, well frankly you aren't quite in that group. Have you taken care of your customer that hasn't received their May order yet?

Apparently, I too am in the stone age of selling, as I charge shipping and my customers gladly pay it. I sell real products all of which I own outright and our income & expense ledger is in the black so everything we sell at this point is pure profit with close to 20,000 products waiting in the wings, over 3300 sales so far here at ecrater and that comes after about 10K sales at ebay plus varying amounts at Amazon, half, Alibris. We are long term sellers and at least to this point in time have NO not one negative feedback. How much better can you do than that as an on line seller?. I have no intention of paying fees and I don't think ecrater has any intention to charge them. You have your head in the clouds or whacky tobaccy in your pipe as you talk as if you are in this cohort of high powered ecrater sellers that are just begging to pay fees to show up in GS. Many of your statements are lies or if not unsubsatiated drivel that you thought up and can not prove.

Until and if ever, ecrater tells us they are going to charge us fees, I plan on supporting this site in any way I can. I do not expect fees. I do however expect to keep working my business plan to reach my sales goals. I think that is all most of us want to do. That is why we came to ecrater, knowing full well it is our responsiblity to promote our own stores and not depend on ecrater to do it.
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campingoutlet



Posts: 68

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i am sorry i didnt realize everyone would take everything so personally, i never called anyone out so im not sure why everyone is so sensitive.
i never once said anything bad about another persons store, but here i am getting made fun of.
i think this GS thing is a big deal. obviously it is since it is largely integrated into ecrater experience of listing products. i see everyone saying oh no big deal, we dont like google or GS anyway. i think that is way off and just not a smart way to go about this. GS is not hurting any stores here , but it is most definitely helping and driving a ton of traffic to most. i hope that ecrater management knows that and im sure they do, hopefully they strike a deal and also let us know what is going on before the fall when GS starts charging.
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aspencounty



Posts: 815

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

campingoutlet wrote:
its not a pointless conversation because the people that actually use GS and benefit from it have already started planning and trying to figure out what they will do if GS is eliminated from ecrater. so instead of reacting to it the day that everything is removed from GS and traffic drys up, better to be prepared and have a back up plan.

if you recall about a year or so ago ecrater stopped getting products on GS, there were countless people on here complaining and like "i have no traffic!! no sales!!!" people seemed pretty pissed because a large portion of ecrater stores rely on GS.

i would assume since ecrater has an agreement with google on the checkout, they could come to terms on a GS agreement as well since ecrater is sending them checkout business. maybe ecrater pays a flat rate to get ecrater products on, most definitely at the bottom, and also have tighter standards/minimum checkout revenue to get listed.


Not sure what kind of "agreement" you think Ecrater has with Google Checkout. They were one of the first market places to offer it as an option and listed as a preferred merchant. Perhaps Ecrater makes a few bucks from referrals but I doubt they get any special treatment.

From what I can tell the new G shopping is a pay per performance or bid for placement system and what I am saying is, I don't see how it's even possible for Ecrater to participate in such a system. Beside, what's the point of paying Google to get listed in Shopping if you are buried on the very bottom never to be seen or as Maggie said, "Flushing our money down Google's toilet." You would be much better off spending your time and money getting better placement in the regular search engines and doing something you actually have a level of control over.

The way I understand this is each individual will need to set up a listing/add from within their Adwords account and from their AW console set their budget, bid amounts and duration for each add/listing. It would have to be an individual account so you could increase/decrease/delete listings/adds or increase/decrease your monthly budget independent from everyone else depending on their ROI. I guess if Ecrater really wanted to they could charge us a some sort of a sliding fee depending on how much you are willing to pay for exposure.

I admit I don't fully understand it but I just can't see how Ecrater could administer such a monster. It would take a full time, top notch accounting department just to keep up with the bids not to mention the extra resources to take care of all the other add/listing requirements plus customer support to take care of the folks complaining that I paid my fees this week why aren't I on page #1!!.

Of course everything is speculation at this point and none of us knows what will happen. I imagine Ecrater is waiting to see exactly what G is going to do and one of the best things Ecarter could do is tell us as soon as possible if G Shopping is in or out.
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
i see everyone saying oh no big deal, we dont like google or GS anyway. i think that is way off and just not a smart way to go about this


I had never heard of GS until I came here to these forums. My hubby had never heard of it either and it isn't because we didn't use google or shop on line--we did. We just never noticed GS. Over the years I have checked my product placement and for the most part when I have checked I have much higher placement in the main Google search than I do in the GS which is how I like it. I would prefer not to have my products lumped in with all the other sellers. I have worked hard to brand my store and maintain a good reputation. Unfortunately google has been messing with their search and things don't show up well anywhere on it anymore. Several sellers here have tracked their GS hits by way of google analytics and they don't get enough hits to truly be worried about this, so yes for some of us it is no big deal! I would suspect a lot of regular folks that don't sell on line have never heard of gs either especially since it is in tiny letters that blend into the background of the page which is difficult for many to read.
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TyreeTrading



Posts: 1608

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 4:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess U-Line must be a stone age retailer since they charge for shipping.
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