New store introduction

[woodenbox]

Hi, I am a long-time seller on ebay, but am hoping to eventually switch to ecrater. I have imported my ebay listings and edited them all. I believe I have completed all steps of the store setup, except entering the meta description tag and meta keywords tag. I cannot find any information in the forum about what I am supposed to write there.

I didn't add any FAQ questions because it seems like everything is covered in the Terms area.


https://woodenbox.ecrater.com/

Also, based on what I have read in the forum, I am supposed to collect CA sales tax. In my item listings, it says "Sales Tax: check" and when you click on that, you have to select your state to see if tax is being charged. That doesn't make sense to me -- I thought everything sold from my store in CA has to have sales tax added. But this is only adding sales tax to things sold to residents of California.

Your feedback on my store (and answers to these questions) is greatly appreciated.

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

Welcome to eCrater and to the eCrater Community. I took a good look at your store last night, but was called away before I could respond. Your store looks really good you've done a good job. I would suggest you complete some FAQs rather than leave the page blank. The search engines like to view the text pages and the FAQ page gives you one more spot to have information for both customers and the search engines. It doesn't hurt to repeat information, some people may not check the Terms for questions.

I see you handled the media shipping by simply offering free shipping. That works. Some eCrater sellers have 2 stores, one for media & one for everything else.

Regarding the Sales Tax, State & Use tax is a tax on the consumer. The states require the merchant to collect from the consumer for in state sales. The consumer is supposed to pay the state a use tax if they didn't pay state sales tax at the time of the sale. The merchant only collects sales tax if the item is delivered within the state. So if the customer lives outside your state or outside your country, AND the item is delivered (mailed) to the customer, you don't collect sales tax. Every state I've ever checked works this way, however I always say you should check your own state. I did a quick search of CA sales tax laws and it appears it works the same in CA, but please check for yourself.

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

I forgot to mention, you must be registered with your state in order to collect and pay the sales tax for your CA customers. If you are a long-time seller on eBay, you probably took care of that a long time ago. Now that site is required to collect sales tax on everybody that lives in a state that has a sales tax and they have to send the collected tax to the state. This site isn't required to collect the tax, so each seller must met the rules of their state.

One other quick observation, I looked at your Dansk canister and saw you have Google ads on the item page. There can be several reasons for this to happen, but in this case you have the item listed in one of the eCrater Global categories (Glass & Pottery), but you omitted the subcategory. Items need to be listed at least one level down from the Global Category or you'll have ads on your item page. The categories are used by eCRATER when they submit the feed to Google Shopping. Look at your store as a customer and search for the canister and you'll see the ads. All you have to do is edit the item in your admin to add a subcategory to remove the ads. Since it's designed to go with a major dinnerware pattern, I would add it to Glass & Pottery>Pottery & China>Dinnerware, but you may want to stop at the first subcategory.

[woodenbox]

I really appreciate the time you took to look at my store and provide the advice about the sub-categories. I wasn't aware that was happening and I will view my listings as a buyer so I can check them.

Thanks, also, for the tax info. That definitely clarifies things.

The last question I had was about the meta description and the meta keywords text fields. What am I supposed to put there?

[woodenbox]

Never mind -- I did find an answer!

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

Meta tags are placed in the html coding for a page in the "head" section. We are allowed on eCRATER to add general information that will be used in the head section of every page in our eCRATER store. The search engines can see this information and the search bots use this as additional information about your store in general. I've also read that it is sometimes used by search engines when they are indexing the pages in your store.

The meta description tag is also used by some search engines and browsers to show the snippet in the search results. Some browsers use the info as part of the default description when a page is bookmarked.

The description should be a brief description of what you sell in your store. The meta keywords tag should be keywords that apply to what you sell in your store. When you go to edit one of these tags, there will be a circle with a ? that will give you a little illustration of what to add.

[asset-liquidators]

If you sell a lot on ebay don't expect this to ever replace it. This site is okay for the occasional sale but don't get yuor hopes up.
It used to be okay years ago but it is pretty much a ghost town these days and really not worth listing on.
As long as you temper expectations you will be fine. Good luck with your sales.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

Welcome to ecrater. If you sell books at your prices, let me know. I need to raise mine.

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

Maggie, I believe you charge shipping for your books. Woodenbox has "free shipping" on all their books (shipping included in the price).

Woodenbox, I think the volume of sales on eCRATER depends on the type of products you sell, the demand for those products, and how well you promote your store.

[woodenbox]

I guess my listings made it to Google, because 30 were rejected. I know I am missing some Google attributes and it is possible some items are not allowed.

It was a happy surprise to get that email.