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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Chris and welcome to eCrater...a much different experience than you will have elsewhere. Let me explain a bit about how eCrater works and the benefits that you CAN realize here...

First, the most important thing to remember is that the high fees you pay elsewhere are what help to cover the vast amount of marketing they do that draws in traffic FOR YOU. Here, we don't pay those high fees, so must draw in our OWN TRAFFIC and Google Shopping is just one of those ways. We use social media, blogs and other means to MARKET OURSELVES.

Secondly, since you're obviously new to having to deal with Google attributes, you WILL find issues with "invalid" GTINs even though they aren't. The reason is simply due to the fact that Google creates a catalog of products using the GTIN attribute so they can lump all like items together. If a GTIN doesn't match the one provided via the listing they chose as their base reference, then it will come back as "invalid". You can either ignore it and hope Google creates a "new" product in its catalog, which could take a LONG time IF it ever happens, or you can go to Google Shopping, find the listing where all like items are lumped together, and glean the UPC they used so you can be lumped in with them. It might not be right, but Google doesn't give us much choice in the matter, now do they?

Thirdly, it is our choice how much we pay for exposure in the eCrater marketplace, Google Shopping, Bing's shopping feature, and any other external marketing tool eCrater submits our listings to. It's on the Admin page under Options > Select Google/Bing/Yahoo advertising level. 2.9% is the default, but the more you pay, the more exposure you get. You don't even have to pay the fee each month, but you will lose any external placement that eCrater provided for you. So, basically, the fees you pay are being put toward providing you a service -- not lining their own pockets with millions they don't need.

Now, for general mentions...eCrater does NOT make constant changes that effect our visibility and overall functionality. eCrater does NOT meddle AT ALL in our businesses, even when there is a problem with a customer. They leave it up to the payment processor (PayPal or Stripe) to act as the moderator if one is needed. We are allowed to run our businesses how we see fit and are good to go as long as we are complying with eCrater's terms of use, which are basic requirements to ensure we're doing things legally and not selling things eCrater does not have permission to sell themselves (firearms, other weapons, etc.).

You are not the first new eCrater user who's joined to find that things are much different here than where you're used to selling, being told how to run your business and even forced to do things their way, having your listings throttled in search, and being nickeled and dimed to death even if you don't make a sale. Here, we only pay if something sells and we're not required to pay if we want to sell here.

So, if you want to sell on eCrater, you have to resign yourself to the fact that it's like selling on your own site where you have to drive your own traffic with the option to pay one of four percentages for external placement in certain places by eCrater. Also, if you want placement in Google Shopping, you will have to provide the attributes, which is basically the same thing as adding meta tags for search engines to find your stuff, but with specific formats. If you need help with that, I have a few links I can provide to Google's own help pages (not third-party guesser sites). The fact that other sites like eBay and Etsy don't require the insertion of attributes can lead to placement and ranking issues; whereas we have more control over that here because we DO insert them.

So, as Moonwishes mentioned, patience is key. It will take time to build your business here, particularly since we have to drive our own traffic. BUT, you won't have all the headaches that sellers are constantly given by selling on sites like eBay and Etsy. So, the way I and other long-time eCrater sellers see it is, if you like paying a lot of money to be treated like crap, even if you don't sell anything, and possibly even have your business ruined (like Etsy ruined mine by hijacking my Google links), while expecting others to do the work for you, which they often do not no matter how much you pay, then eCrater isn't the site for you.
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

To clarify one thing Purpleiris said, and that is as a newbie you have to have a certain amount of orders before you can go higher of the fee you are willing to pay for better placement on GS (Google Shopping). Personally, I stay with 2.9%.

I don't see a screenshot to see if what you are havings problems with is something simple. Many times newbies say they are doing everything correctly with the attributes, and then when they show us, we instantly see the space that we are conditioned by school (at least back in the dark ages) to put after a colon.

May I suggest a few other things to look at? You have not made up an About Us page, nor a Terms of service page where you can explain your refund and return policies, etc. Also unless my count is off, you currently only have 8 items for sale. In the large ocean of online sales, that is only a fraction of a micro drop. Google and the other search engines aren't going to give you a prominent place in search when they can stick someone with a couple of thousand comics in that spot. Keep listing.

I also sell on Amazon and if I stop listing for a couple of days due to too many doctor appointments, my sales there start dropping. Back 17+ years ago when I started selling online, I read a book about selling books online (very early days yet of selling online) and the guy advocated that if you aren't listing, you are selling. Throughout the entire 17 years, we have noticed this to be true, while other sellers have their couple of items that they only sell, they pooh-pooh that idea and then cry because they have had no sales. I have over 5000 things listed there and have added over 20 more this week and my sales have stayed up. Came home from my doctor's appointment to find 3 new orders and have had another since. Yet I am sure more people on Amazon are still complaining of 'no sales' where they used to get 100 a day. Just saying, it might help to get a few more things up for sale. Some seem to think that they will list say 10 items and then wait to see how it goes when it is really better to list what you can as soon as you can. When I started here for every 1000 new listings I put up, I got more and more sales. Then Google got into our business and that is another story. I still am getting orders and I am still listing as much as possible.
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BubbleLoveSoapsandScrubs



Posts: 1

PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 6:33 pm    Post subject: CHANGING PAGE TITLES Reply with quote

IS THERE ANY WAY TO CHANGE THE NAME/TITLE OF THE FREE SITE PAGES.
I NEED TO CHANGE THE "TERMS" PAGE
AND IS IT POSSIBLE TO ADD ANOTHER PAGE TO THE SITE
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SheilaDeesPostcards
moderator


Posts: 4614

PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The names of the text pages are set and can not be changed. There is also no way to add additional text pages. You have 3 text pages, About, Terms and Contact. You also have an FAQ page for questions and answers.
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