Any eBay sellers here with your own website too?

Arfa__

Do any of you serious eBay sellers run your own website as well to help promote your business and sell your wares? Is it worth doing, does it help you sell your stuff? How do you show your stuff on your website, do you just add a link to your ebay store, sync up ebay items to your website or sell via some other independent e-commerce solution on your site? Any tips, what works well, anything that's hassle or complex to sort out?

soolin

Arfa__ said:

Do any of you serious eBay sellers run your own website as well to help promote your business and sell your wares? Is it worth doing, does it help you sell your stuff? How do you show your stuff on your website, do you just add a link to your ebay store, sync up ebay items to your website or sell via some other independent e-commerce solution on your site? Any tips, what works well, anything that's hassle or complex to sort out?

I used to have my own websites but never sold a thing , and when costs started to go up I just deleted them all. I do have some seller sites via FB (you can have a selling page linked to your personal account) and I find it variable and not terribly productive for the effort. I sell considerably more just using FB marketplace and various specialist sites that I have found . at one point when I sold something on eBay I would add a little thank you card to my parcel with a link to my shop, absolutely no one ever bought anything and seemed to prefer repeat buying on eBay.

The issue is, and I suspect some of the other regulars here may have different views especially if they are more techie than me, is how do people find your website? Advertising costs are high but without advertising no one will find you. The benefit of established third party sites like FB marketplace and eBay are that people look there and will see you, I’ve also started on Vinted and whilst the sale prices are quite low stuff does seem to shift quickly on there.

Buster_Danog

I'm not too techie but I would imagine that some kind of blog / articles might be a way to generate traffic to a website, but that is easier said than done. Failing that you might need to pay someone to do Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) but I don't kow how useful that would be for any given line of products, or if it would allow you to sell things at prices you can get on ebay.

GadgetGuru

Buyers are also aware the eBay is a buyers market. They feel safer buying from there since it's easier to return and get around the eBay system - returning a change of mind item as faulty for instance, meaning no return postage costs, and so on. They have a large organisation covering them a lot more then someone may be prepared to do via a website.....

Buster_Danog

Unless Paypal was used. I think they offer some buyer protection, but I don't know if it is valid for 30 days.

soolin

IftiBashir said:

Buyers are also aware the eBay is a buyers market. They feel safer buying from there since it's easier to return and get around the eBay system - returning a change of mind item as faulty for instance, meaning no return postage costs, and so on. They have a large organisation covering them a lot more then someone may be prepared to do via a website.....

As a seller we face the same issues on our own websites, buyers have a legal right to a return and if they don’t want to pay return costs they just claim SNAD and force us to pay. I know it’s easier on eBay to get return labels, but a determined buyer can cause a lot of issues for a seller just starting up. 

Spoonie_Turtle

soolin said:

IftiBashir said:

Buyers are also aware the eBay is a buyers market. They feel safer buying from there since it's easier to return and get around the eBay system - returning a change of mind item as faulty for instance, meaning no return postage costs, and so on. They have a large organisation covering them a lot more then someone may be prepared to do via a website.....

As a seller we face the same issues on our own websites, buyers have a legal right to a return and if they don’t want to pay return costs they just claim SNAD and force us to pay. I know it’s easier on eBay to get return labels, but a determined buyer can cause a lot of issues for a seller just starting up. 

While this is true, with eBay protection a buyer knows there's very little room for a seller to give them the runaround, and if the seller does abscond with both money and item, eBay will refund them anyway.

Some independent sellers also have illegal policies on their own website, which although illegal would take more effort to get enforced than it's worth.  That can make it harder to trust that other sellers know what their responsibilities are, especially if they have very stringent policies.

I'm not saying that I'm too wary myself, but just musing on some reasons why buyers might prefer the perceived safety of an online marketplace.

forgotmyname

Old school here and often check sellers details to see if they have a website.  Sometimes they give more information or it's
cheaper but not always.

Had websites sell stuff directly and sites that push you towards their ebay sales or shops.  Depends on the market.

Make sure your email is the website URL...   Not gmail etc.   myshop@mywebsite.com  etc.

Arfa__

I totally understand how purchasing items on ebay rather than from a random website inspires more confidence. As such, I'm thinking of a solution where items are just listed on ebay, and setup a section on a website which displays the latest ebay items with links to ebay for users to buy the items there.

Could this give you the best of both worlds? Buyers use the checkout on ebay and thus gain the reassurance that comes with that, and the website can be promoted separately (blogging etc) to help drum up traffic to find the items up for sale.

What do you think? Anyone tried this approach? It would certainly save the hassle of setting up a separate ecommerce store on the website and managing stock between it and ebay.

soolin

Arfa__ said:

I totally understand how purchasing items on ebay rather than from a random website inspires more confidence. As such, I'm thinking of a solution where items are just listed on ebay, and setup a section on a website which displays the latest ebay items with links to ebay for users to buy the items there.

Could this give you the best of both worlds? Buyers use the checkout on ebay and thus gain the reassurance that comes with that, and the website can be promoted separately (blogging etc) to help drum up traffic to find the items up for sale.

What do you think? Anyone tried this approach? It would certainly save the hassle of setting up a separate ecommerce store on the website and managing stock between it and ebay.

I can see what you are trying to achieve, but why go to the expense of your own website if it is only to drive people to ebay and pay another fee? I can see the argument that as a business your website costs can be set against income, but is that enough to be worthwhile?

 I suppose if you are an established blogger or influencer and you have a large following it might work- but then if you have enough of a following to get interest then your own website might succeed without the need for ebay - not being a blogger (or whatever) I did overlook the importance of these direct sort of sales.I am aware that sort of the mega influencers even have their own brand, so perhaps someone with fewer followers, but still very high numbers might be in a position to advertise their website- I expect it depends on what you sell. I can imagine, from my limited experience, that if for instance you are a make up blogger then a website selling makeup might work- but then perhaps just persuading the big companies to allow you an affiliate link might be more productive as you won't have to buy and stock your own shop.

Do you have an established business that you can use to fund this enterprise, or are you looking to just start up. Also o you already have repeat buyers on any platforms ?

I have avoided asking what your area of sales is- many of us keep our niche products secret to avoid competitors getting ideas, but I can see some items being more suited to this as a business than others- especially if you have an established supplier line already.

Spoonie_Turtle

My comment above was mainly referring to coming across independent websites 'in the wild', as it were.

If you're an eBay seller directing people to your website, you've already earned some trust with those buyers when they have a good experience buying from you on eBay.  So that is quite different from simply being a random website they encounter. 

Similarly, if you are promoting through social media of whatever variety and build up a following who trust you, again that may make people feel more confident to buy from your site (as long as it is professional and with all your policies clearly stated).

I also now, for established businesses with good feedback profiles, tend to look to see if they have their own website, to see if it's cheaper because of having fewer fees - there the trust is built from having a good track record even if I've not personally bought from them before.  I don't know how common that is amongst the population in general, but there is a decent awareness of it in artistic communities at least.