is it now near impossible to have a small business on ebay?

keaton

I plan on having a small business selling unique hand made items (I'll also be selling on etsy too) I'll be selling around 400 items per year on eBay hopefully.

After reading the new defect rating system it has me worried it'll be near impossible to stay on eBay, you can't please everybody all the time, no matter how Hard you try and some buyers won't realize sending a message in certain categories, opening a case resulting in a defect.

With only 5% of defects allowed meaning 20 out of all my sales, I think that will be used up by buyers who open a item not as described case because its not the exact col our they thought it was, or cases where the item arrived late due to the post.

It just makes me think eBay have made it near impossible to run a small business on their site.

mrcol1000

We run a small business on Ebay. We have a few problems but most of our customers are a pleasure to deal with. I can well imagine if you have low sales then problems would be serious.

I think the secret is to have a low value item you can sell in bulk cheaply. We have an item that we purely brought to sell to keep our transaction numbers up and after all the fees we make about 10p each on. They are simple to send. They keep our transaction numbers up so our rare unhappy customers do not cause too many problems. It also means we are not blackmailed by them. If they leave low stars then it does not cause too big an impact. Previously though we were left just giving the item for free if a customer was unhappy to avoid poor feedback.

The majority people though if you are polite and try and help then they are normally okay. The attitude of some sellers on this board, I can well imagine why they get poor feedback. You will get customers who are unhappy no matter what you do, but that is life.

RFW

You can only do what you can do. Try it and see. The days of just using Ebay in a business like that are long gone, Etsy and Folksy are other possibles. Also try notonthehighstreet.com. Amazon will allow you to put your own made items on in certain categories too (no need for barcodes).

keaton

RFW wrote: »

You can only do what you can do. Try it and see. The days of just using Ebay in a business like that are long gone, Etsy and Folksy are other possibles. Also try notonthehighstreet.com. Amazon will allow you to put your own made items on in certain categories too (no need for barcodes).

Thank you, what categories are those? I've read that the defect rate on amazon is 1% though that's a very tight margin of error.

RFW

keaton wrote: »

Thank you, what categories are those? I've read that the defect rate on amazon is 1% though that's a very tight margin of error.

I don't do my own made items so not entirely sure on categories (I know jewellery but you need to be pre approved, not always difficult).
Amazon's defect system is little more sensible than Ebay's. Respond to questions in under 24 hours (under 1 hour is best), despatch within 2 days, don't cancel orders, etc.

FidgitsID

keaton wrote: »

It just makes me think eBay have made it near impossible to run a small business on their site.

I would say the number of issues you may have on ebay is very dependant on what you sell and how you sell it.

e.g. Iv seen hand made sellers get hammered on ebay. The one I bought from made the wood item to order, the listing stated very clearly it was made to order in 5or7 days I cant remember. But the seller "Dispatch time" star were just about at 4.6, so was well on his way to being banned by ebay :-(

keaton

FidgitsID wrote: »

I would say the number of issues you may have on ebay is very dependant on what you sell and how you sell it.

e.g. Iv seen hand made sellers get hammered on ebay. The one I bought from made the wood item to order, the listing stated very clearly it was made to order in 5or7 days I cant remember. But the seller "Dispatch time" star were just about at 4.6, so was well on his way to being banned by ebay :-(

Yeah I've seen that before, some people seem not to read the listing. I'd only be selling things that I've already got made.

Obviously_the_best

Have you looked at https://www.notonthehighstreet.com as well? Better suited than eBay.

RFW

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

Have you looked at www.notonthehighstreet.com as well? Better suited than eBay.

They're very picky, I say that as someone they turned down! I do compete with one of their big sellers so that may have been a factor.

Stoke

In my opinion there's no point running a business on eBay unless you're selling items that require collection and then half of your eBay audience is gone anyway.

soolin

Stoke wrote: »

In my opinion there's no point running a business on eBay unless you're selling items that require collection and then half of your eBay audience is gone anyway.

I believe quite the opposite :j

I would think eBay is the last place anyone should consider for collection only items, although I run a successful business on eBay my more expensive collection only items are sold elsewhere. I wouldn't let eBay anywhere near them.