which works best - Ebay or Website

[purpledragon]

Sorry PurpleDragon, How does this have anything to do with pricing?
In any case, I dont understand your logic, should we therefore NOT advertise our prices to customers, just in case a competitor might undercut it?
For the record, regarding the sign business, we personally did better business from making an initial phone call to a potential customer and then a follow up letter than the business generated from our website. (ooops! might have said too much).
Sorry only joking but come on! lets be realistic about this.

it really is juzt my opinion i dint really expect ridicule for this, yes we do advertise our prices and im sure we all research those prices but why make it easy for your competitor you want to find out how much stuff sells for then go and spend the time researching it like the rest of us do, as for your signage i used what you said as an example what you did with initial phone cals and the like is your business i think ive just remembered why i dont bother posting to often on here apparantly you cant have an opinion with out being open to ridicule

[mrs maggot]

I sell on both ebay and our website, ebay has given me some sales on the website i might not have had (dont let ebay here that please) but for me my own websites are important for other items i sell.

[Ian M]

With the greatest respect also Ian , I think you have missed the point of my question and perhaps the point of this forum or any forum, to that matter.
I merely asked for peoples views and experience of sales from Ebay vs their own website. This is hardly a question about "how to market my business".
I have run my sign business for nearing 20 years now and have become quite knowledgeable on matters of marketing.
I have also been running a website for this business but not as an online shop and therefore it is for this reason, I am asking the question "which works best - Ebay or Website" not "how do I market my business"
I would not want you to part with your expert knowledge that you have spent serious money on, I don't need it, thank you..........but as a discussion forum for which I assume this is, personal views and experiences are always welcome.

What I was trying to get across was that if you sell via Ebay you still have to market your products there like anywhere else. How many times do you see a poor image of the product plus a poor desription too & as they say 'a picture paints a thousand words'. Isn't this marketing a product on Ebay to grab people's attention to get them to buy from you & nobody else?

Just recently we did have a discussion about selling on Ebay & directing buyers to your website. This showed that some of the members of this forum were using both Ebay & their own web shop to sell their products to good effect.

As Brett said in the past we have had lots of new members asking what prices they should be charging etc. A lot of them go off after quickly learning from our own experiences never to be seen again. A lot of us here have had to learn the hard way because, we didn't have anything like this forum to seek help from the more experienced. You also have to take into account that not all members on here have their own business & do this to make a living. I think we have all lost count how many people we have join this forum after they have bough an instant get rich quick dye sub set up from Ebay of all places. Quite a few of these are going to produce things like mugs & sell them on Ebay whilst having a full time job. People such as these are always going to try to undercut others on Ebay & that is why some of us instantly put our guards up when people ask for advice or others experiences.

I have my own online shop & I also sell items via Ebay too. I also use other online facilities too to promote my business & this is where the marketing side of things comes into play. I hadn't a clue how to get to the top of Google search etc & that is when I asked for help from someone who is a marketing expert. After his advice I soon shot to the top in Google search & I achieved very quickly what can take others a long time to do. That is the reason I'm keeping that kind of knowledge very close to my chest.

So, to answer your original question 'which works best for you?' both but, what works well for someone may not work well for someone else.

[GoonerGary]

Gary, ....... If I transferred this amount of money to Google ads, would it get me near to the top of the searches? How much do you spend on advertising your website Gary, if thats not too personal question to ask.

I spent nothing on my website apart from normal hosting fees and a nice theme. I've never done adwords, but may have to rethink this as Google have changed the playing field. No more free Google shopping listings( after I spent weeks upon weeks changing my listings to meet their listing requirements!!!) Now they have the cheek to force me to have an adwords account and the two will be linked. Whilst my Shopping listings may disappear, the organic results should be ok. I don't know if ebay listings will still appear in the Google Shopping results....I'm too busy to get into all that right now.

[bigj2552]

ebay died a few years ago when they introduced the best match system and also the '1000 sold' doesn't help either against your '1 sold'.

ebay is a race to the bottom and you will find your listings on page 74..who is going to click through that many pages? I'll go with the 1000 sold listing.

Also the price has dropped considerably so the profit margin isn't great. I think of ebay as an advertisement page for my website. Open the ebay shop and post a link back to your website in the 'About Me' pages.

I get more sales through my website than I do through ebay, but only because I'm high in the google listings.

not so my friend, not so -

i just opened my first ebay store last month or so and it compliments my own web site very well indeed.
As for race to the bottom - my listings are mostly on ebay page ONE !.....clever marketing and other tweaks help, is all i,m saying on that one.
And i only have 1/2 items for sale(in each category) at any one time due to ebay limits and i,m selling !
so as soon as i get my "new seller limits" lifted shortly, i will be listing a hell of a lot more than i have now, which in turn should generate more interest = more sales = happy ol git me
my own site product rankings have taken a hammering as i have been concentrating on getting this ebay store up and going. Once that is stable, with more products for sale, then i will get back to getting my own web site product rankings back up again.

your own web site marketing is an ongoing thing - as in every week you are at it to try and keep up with the competition for sales / exposure ect...very, very time consuming process indeed !

[bigj2552]

Gary, what you are doing is exactly what I would also like to do. (sorry another newbie trying to get in on the act). I agree with you totally regarding Ebay 1 sold against the 1000 sold listing. With items I spend on avaerage £125 per month on Ebay fees selling various signage, (unrelated to sublimation). If I transferred this amount of money to Google ads, would it get me near to the top of the searches? How much do you spend on advertising your website Gary, if thats not too personal question to ask.

tell you now my friend.
you WILL need deep pockets for Google adwords. YES it works, but it will suck yer wallet dry in quick time if not used properly - i been there and learned the hard way when i started up my own site :rolleyes:

and anyone with any adblock software on will not see your ad,or any ads for that matter

[GoonerGary]

not so my friend, not so -

i just opened my first ebay store last month or so and it compliments my own web site very well indeed.
As for race to the bottom - my listings are mostly on ebay page ONE !.....clever marketing and other tweaks help, is all i,m saying on that one.
And i only have 1/2 items for sale(in each category) at any one time due to ebay limits and i,m selling !
so as soon as i get my "new seller limits" lifted shortly, i will be listing a hell of a lot more than i have now, which in turn should generate more interest = more sales = happy ol git me
my own site product rankings have taken a hammering as i have been concentrating on getting this ebay store up and going. Once that is stable, with more products for sale, then i will get back to getting my own web site product rankings back up again.

your own web site marketing is an ongoing thing - as in every week you are at it to try and keep up with the competition for sales / exposure ect...very, very time consuming process indeed !

The listings which tend to rise to the top are auctions and the use of keywords in titles, but your listings will soon plummet as your top rated seller competitors will be given priority ranking. As a new seller, your DSRs will not be high enough to rank highly. Best match is designed to squeeze out small scale sellers. They probably bumped your listings to 'sucker you in'! I would always get a peak in sales coming up to ebay fees pay day. I wonder why?

[bigj2552]

The listings which tend to rise to the top are auctions and the use of keywords in titles, but your listings will soon plummet as your top rated seller competitors will be given priority ranking. As a new seller, your DSRs will not be high enough to rank highly. Best match is designed to squeeze out small scale sellers. They probably bumped your listings to 'sucker you in'! I would always get a peak in sales coming up to ebay fees pay day. I wonder why?

such a negative attitude bud - you will go far in business :rolleyes: but good luck to you if that's what you think....and about 85% of my listings aint "plummeting" anywhere ....in fact, there going up the way. 90% are on 30 day listings !

onwards and upwards for myself then

[GoonerGary]

I've been on ebay for 13 years. My businesses progressed beyond ebay. When I realised that ebay and Royal Mail were making more profit than me. Everyone else is just stuffing envelopes for them.