Fed up with ebay lets promote ebid

[tonyreddevil]

theres no catch 22 we dont want or need sellers who wont stick around,they have no business sense, they do more damage than good, we need sellers who understand a business plan , commitment ,

"correct"

[kreativebargains]

Sid.

I agree entirely, we need sellers who will stick around, but that is far more likely to happen if they get the sales, without enough buyers that is less likely to happen. I wish there was an easy answer. The best I can come up with is targeted advertising where eBid has strengths, for example postcards and stamps. That could build up a following and start to get the name out more, maybe not for everyone's items, but philatelists wear clothes, have houses and kids, so they will buy more than just stamps.

[cerealmunkee]

yes, this is interesting....how can sellers (who are making no or little sales) be enticed to stay here?.....i suppose its pointless assuming that they view Ebid in the same manner that i do....in so far as i understand that in the future this could be the natural site of choice for the average small loft clearer/private seller, and the smaller business seller.....and even right at this very minute sales can be made here.....no in large volumes, but they can be made nonetheless......how can this message be put across to the people that we need here?.

D'you recall the incident last year where a supplier of motorcycle/scooter seat covers came to the forum complaining about how they found it hard to make their products sell over here?....i believe that they left the site, and i'm uncertain if they returned. This is exactly the type of product that we need to see traded on Ebid as its another category that is/was unpopulated.

We have a seller of die cast models who is sticking with the site despite no sales....they've taken all of the usual "advice"......such as running their listings using auto repost....they still no sales to my knowledge.
How many times will the disgruntled be offered this same parrot fashion "advice"......most of us realise that it will make no difference and we hold our breath in the knowledge that they'll be back a couple of weeks later telling us that they still have no sales....so what d'you ell them next?......i reckon to be upfront with everyone is the best policy, and asking them to lower their expectations could cause less ultimate bad feeling.

Also....i feel that those sellers who also are selling elsewhere aren't listing their better items over here, and instead view this site as a dumping ground for what fails to sell on their first choice site....in fact i know of one seller who does this and even hints at this in their all about me page.....proclaiming that all of their "low cost" records (unplayable), are only listed over here, while their more costly are reserved for you know where....this isn't the way to create sales over here.

[cerealmunkee]

Sid.

I agree entirely, we need sellers who will stick around, but that is far more likely to happen if they get the sales, without enough buyers that is less likely to happen. I wish there was an easy answer. The best I can come up with is targeted advertising where eBid has strengths, for example postcards and stamps. That could build up a following and start to get the name out more, maybe not for everyone's items, but philatelists wear clothes, have houses and kids, so they will buy more than just stamps.

i guess that due to there being advertising budget available then concentration on the sites strong areas would be the way to eventually drag more traffic here, but we get back to the issue of its all well and good pulling in more potential buyers, but what will they eventually buy.....too many categories are blank of results, and this is not good.

I know there'll be many who won't like to read this, but honestly, and i don't want to sound predictable....but,Google is the only route to Ebid at this present time and all that can be done is to squeeze as much from this search engine as we can.

[kreativebargains]

yes, this is interesting....how can sellers (who are making no or little sales) be enticed to stay here?.....i suppose its pointless assuming that they view Ebid in the same manner that i do....in so far as i understand that in the future this could be the natural site of choice for the average small loft clearer/private seller, and the smaller business seller.....and even right at this very minute sales can be made here.....no in large volumes, but they can be made nonetheless......how can this message be put across to the people that we need here?.

D'you recall the incident last year where a supplier of motorcycle/scooter seat covers came to the forum complaining about how they found it hard to make their products sell over here?....i believe that they left the site, and i'm uncertain if they returned. This is exactly the type of product that we need to see traded on Ebid as its another category that is/was unpopulated.

We have a seller of die cast models who is sticking with the site despite no sales....they've taken all of the usual "advice"......such as running their listings using auto repost....they still no sales to my knowledge.
How many times will the disgruntled be offered this same parrot fashion "advice"......most of us realise that it will make no difference and we hold our breath in the knowledge that they'll be back a couple of weeks later telling us that they still have no sales....so what d'you ell them next?......i reckon to be upfront with everyone is the best policy, and asking them to lower their expectations could cause less ultimate bad feeling.

Also....i feel that those sellers who also are selling elsewhere aren't listing their better items over here, and instead view this site as a dumping ground for what fails to sell on their first choice site....in fact i know of one seller who does this and even hints at this in their all about me page.....proclaiming that all of their "low cost" records (unplayable), are only listed over here, while their more costly are reserved for you know where....this isn't the way to create sales over here.

My own opinion is that if eBid can become a leader in one or two areas or countries then it would provide a platform to build in others, after all is that not what eBay, Amazon, Google and Apple have done? The site needs buyers, yes it needs sellers as well, but if the buyers are proven to be there the sellers will come, and if the sellers actually sell then they will stay. The process would be helped by more sellers taking the long term view, but not all are in a position to do so and they cannot always see the logic that it costs nothing to list and every sale on eBid brings a greater profit.

As for the 'parrot fashion' advice it will not work for everyone, but it will work and has worked for some. And at least if people are trying to make eBid work then they have a chance, far better than those who transfer their eBay listings straight in, complete with eBay links, raise the price then hit the forums with the 'nothing sells' mantra. If all that the advice does is gets them to improve their keywords then it will help them and eBid to get exposure.

Like others I still see a great future for eBid, and like others I wish that future was just around the corner. But if we want eBid to remain pretty much as it is then we are going to have to be patient, there is no magic bullet. Things do seem to be moving in the right direction, hopefully as people develop things for the API to make integrating sales easier there will be more sellers who jooin and stay, until those sellers arrive all we can do is make our listings as good as possible, sell as much as we can and spread the word whenever possible.

[cerealmunkee]

So far, we know that Ebid has a better presence in the UK than any other countries....but i have seen a few more buyers from the United States, which i'm particularly happy about as this is the main destination for my none UK sales from other sites.

Buyers or sellers?....which should come first?....i say without a doubt it must be sellers....there's no good in buyers coming here if there's ....well....nothing to buy.

Drumspares tells us that they've seen the category that they've seen the category that they sell into grow within the last three weeks , and if more like minded sellers feel its worth coming over here, then maybe this could be an interesting period for a lot of us here.

[HandmadeElect]

but i have seen a few more buyers from the United States

So, you were the one who pinched my customers.

Buyers or sellers?....which should come first?....i say without a doubt it must be sellers....there's no good in buyers coming here if there's ....well....nothing to buy.

eBid will have to promote their name more. Amazon and ebay are giant here in the US but there is no reason eBid can't become a serious player by getting their brand more coverage on the net. With the growing anti small seller attitude over at ebay, eBid could get seller variety easy enough.

Your observation is correct, eBid lacks a great deal of the variety ebay has. I have done some searches on ebay I may pull up a few pages of listings, here I may get one listing. On the other hand, I do not get page after page of the same thing at the same price from Chinese sellers (the effect becomes visually numbing).

I think if eBid could add a few features such as a volume discount schedule for listings that have many of the same items for sale, eBid could easily bridge the void between an auction site and a store. Many customers do not want to wait for an invoice, they want to make their buy and leave.

[willow1234]

Hi,

Just would like to say that I am here - and here to stay. Just started on E-bid as a seller. I know that I need to put effort in and I will.

Terrible situation at E££y ( I was constantly worried about the changes ) dsr/collect etc. In their eyes only the buyer counts not the seller. ( they are always wrong) so disheartening - even when we done nothing wrong, it was ALWAYS the seller's fault.

I just had enough, and could take no more.

Let us hope more people come over just like me and others. We can only hope that they will.

GOOD LUCK to all SELLERS and BUYERS here on E-bid.

I would be interested to know if anyone has recently left E££y - and do they feel the same as me??

Look forward to any replies.

Kind regards,
Pauline.

[TiasTreasures]

Hi,

Just would like to say that I am here - and here to stay. Just started on E-bid as a seller. I know that I need to put effort in and I will.

I would be interested to know if anyone has recently left E££y - and do they feel the same as me??

Look forward to any replies.

Kind regards,
Pauline.

This sounds like something I posted when we left TOS over five years ago. Our listings were invisible (way back behind multiple listings of imported junk), sales had dropped to zero for two months, the fees were going up, and then they announced some new changes. I saw it was only going to get worse.

I did a lot of research and picked eBid.

One of my better decisions.

[cerealmunkee]

Hi,

Just would like to say that I am here - and here to stay. Just started on E-bid as a seller. I know that I need to put effort in and I will.

Terrible situation at E££y ( I was constantly worried about the changes ) dsr/collect etc. In their eyes only the buyer counts not the seller. ( they are always wrong) so disheartening - even when we done nothing wrong, it was ALWAYS the seller's fault.

I just had enough, and could take no more.

Let us hope more people come over just like me and others. We can only hope that they will.

GOOD LUCK to all SELLERS and BUYERS here on E-bid.

I would be interested to know if anyone has recently left E££y - and do they feel the same as me??

Look forward to any replies.

Kind regards,
Pauline.

The main effort that i think you'll maybe need to put into ebid is the different listing approach that's needed....by this i mean, that almost all of my sales are brought to me via Google search and Google shopping and its this search engine that needs keeping happy and the way to do this is to use as many keywords in titles as is feasible and enter the makers name and barcode/part number into the listing form.
In the case of your yarn this could prove useful as in desperation i would guess many potential buyers especially when searching for discontinued yarn would use makers product numbers and barcodes as a last ditch attempt to trace what they need....assuming you carry any discontinued products, but its well worth considering. You can, of course enter the word "exempt" into the field , but if you have the already mentioned information then its inclusion can make a big difference.
This is the main effort i'm talking about.....the other bit of effort you'll need to make is to flood Ebid with as many listings as you can put together. What this will achieve is casting the widest net for you to grab the attention of potential buyers. Many sellers report that the more listings they have the more sales seem to come their way.
After all, if you're committed to making this site work for you then i'm pretty sure that you'll be eager to get as many listings up and running as possible.

Its reasonable to say that E££y are possibly this best sites advertisement in many respects, the harder they make it for those that remain then its possible that they may drift to Ebid. We know that standards have been very high or sellers on the other site, and on this site the standard is only essentially the one that you decide on, but i reckon that it'd be a good idea to set the same high standards for ourselves on Ebid too.

I haven't stopped trading on the other site. I'm not sure if i feel the same way as you, but i agree that the bar has been raised to a level where the average privateer and the small business seller for that matter will struggle to meet the sites growing demands, so Ebid is the ideal place for many to migrate.