This Year's Sellers Choice Rewards Sites with Traffic

by: toolguy

Holy Cow I'm on the winning team for once!

Viva La Ebay

by: iheartjacksparrow

I'm glad to see that eCrater has moved up in the rankings.

Toolguy must have stuffed the ballot box to get eBay to the Number One position.

by: NiciArt

Did Ebay actually move up the ranking or did Etsy just move down?

by: pace306

IMPOSSIBLE for eBay to be #1.

With poor customer service, abuse of its sellers, little to no sales, and a complete lack of a business plan - it CANT be #1.

Either no one voted for anyone else, or TOOL paid off Ina :)

by: macsbaby

Im shocked. I don't know how ebay could be number one....I used to do 400K a year, and was down to 120 when I gave it up with the customer is always right rule, even though I had only 1 neg and over 14000 positives in 17 years. It is about the traffic and what you can tolerate....I cant afford to have items stolen with the aid of the site I sell on. My profit margins have fallen from 70%, to less than 20%...but that is the antiques and art market right now.  

by: ewegolf

Each year, from 2011 onward Artfire (8.02), the winners winning overall score has been on a downward slide to Ebays 6.21 this year which would have placed them 4th last year.  I believe it shows a commonality among the sites in which nothing has been done that is beneficial for small or micro sellers for years.  Their main focus is increasing fees for existing sellers and getting them to pay more and receive less.

by: Al G

Maybe a useful metric would be the type of goods being sold by the respondants, i.e. new/used, collectibles, electronics, etc.
That would give sellers an idea of the relevance of each platform to the items being sold.

Ruby Lane and ETSY may be mutually exclusive whilst Amazon and eBay are competitors for the type of merchandise offered.

by: DingDong

eCrater is a great place and is building up steam.

I can't believe that Bonanza has great communication. If you watch the forums, so many sellers have posted that they have contacted support several times in a week and still haven't heard anything.
And the month of February for Bonanza is their month of freedom at some vacation spot. (for working).
Bonanza is making money off their advertising packages and increasing their revenues 3 times last year. Check Seattle Craigslist for jobs Bonanza.com and check their benefits.

Ebay still has the traffic until people can get their own sites up and running. I send them to ecrater or to my tictail.com sites.

by: Sierra

I'm surprised to see eBay ranked #1, but I've had slightly better sales there this year, so MAYBE Devin is doing something right?

by: toolguy

I SOLD it on EBAY

Maybe that's because it's the only place I sell.

But eBay has always been a WINNER in my eyes.

by: iheartjacksparrow

I guess toolguy has been smoking his inventory again.

by: toolguy

Happy Valentines Day to all my auctionbyte girl friends!

You gals love me and you know it :-)

by: NiciArt

We didn't even know Bonanza had traffic. I will have to go back and see if we had any views last year.

We've been up this year on Ebay about 10% vs 2015, so hopefully things are improving. My worry is Etsy and that 4th quarter report due out on the 23rd. Etsy has been rather rough since Jan 1st

by: Toy Boy

Ahhhh, what a joke....!
All those preaching the end of Ebay here on this board and whining and bitching....there you go: Ebay is No. 1 (in words: O N E ).
Voted by those who promised the downfall of the empire of evil.

by: Mythkitty

Reading the laments and whining about this company or that in these surveys and blogs it always amazes me to realize how ignorant people are of how mean comments could affect the businesses of their peers. Or even their own, since (strangely) some clearly continue to use the same venues they complain so bitterly about. I make a very good profit and don't appreciate chronic malcontents or those who were possibly kicked off the site where I do business telling lies in public forums about why they 'left' it or telling my potential buyers how horrible that site is. I know marketplaces change, and not always for the better, but doesn't anyone remember how it used to be in the early days of selling online, when we all loved our respective sites?

"We built (fill in the blank) and now they've changed the rules, raised the rent, make us jump through hoops, treat us like...." Yawn. And your point is? Guess what, children, no marketplace OWES you ANYTHING. They are in business, just like you, and also just like you they can and will take their business in any direction they feel prudent. Stop taking it all so personally.

Sellers who enjoy grumbling about their current selling venue(s) will one day suffer vain regret for having wasted so much energy and time talking smack about online marketplaces. It will come to them in a most unpleasant way that their finely honed complaint skills would have been much better spent sternly advising their elected representatives NOT to vote in favor of the Remote Transactions Parity Act of 2015 (RTPA) or any similar bill like it.

Created by those who claim to be "....tirelessly working hard to help grow the economy and fight for the hard working families and small businesses in their districts." if passed the RTPA will effectively end the Golden Age of unregulated Internet sales. This is no joke.

Within a few years after it becomes law international sellers shipping into the U.S. from overseas and large U.S. retail companies will be about all that continue doing business online in America. That is because the RTPA will require ALL U.S. based sellers to collect and remit sales tax to any jurisdiction to which they sell items. The size of your business doesn't matter. If you utilize an electronic marketplace for the purpose of selling goods or services to the public you'll have collect and pay when it becomes law. Have your own website now because you so abhored eBay? 3 years after inactment, you'll have to collect and pay, too.

If RTPA goes into effect as it is currently written I will close my decade old online business and its a safe bet untold thousands of others will do the same. People will go back to selling at local antique malls, fairs and flea markets rather than deal with the confusion, paperwork and potential for fines and possible prosecution that RTPA will bring about. Without enough independent sellers to keep them afloat many of the marketplaces that today cater to Mom and Pops and small businesses will also close, leaving fewer buying choices for shoppers and collectors.

Since the Internet's rich vein of diversity and eclectic choice could be about to end, this year in my voting I complained about nothing. Instead, I'm publically tipping my hat here to all marketplaces. I can only hope the name on the masthead of this company doing the survey doesn't turn out to be propehetic, EcommerceBytes (the dust).

This is an election year when many House representatives are up for re-election, so if you love selling online take some time to read up on the Remote Transactions Parity Act of 2015, which is currently in committee, and then tell your elected officials exactly what they can do with it: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2775/cosponsor
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by: Mythkitty

I must apologize for going so far off topic in my previous post. But I just couldn't help myself. The question you asked was 'what to advertise, and where.' Regardless of the site, I think it is important that its sellers try to help themselves when it comes to marketing. Unlike in the early days of online sales when we were mostly just talking to each other on internal boards, these days there are many social venues where people can interact with the general public - so use them. eBay and Etsy became household names within just a few years not because of paid advertising, online or off, but because their users (buyers and sellers) loved them and told others about them.

by: Rexford

I thought toolguy went to the swap meet? Are their two toolguys here? Split personality maybe?

by: Shop and Ship

Right-o! ToolGuy meet MythKitty  

by: Whatever

I sell on 5 different venues and ebay beats them all hands down. And what's the bottom line for most of us? Profitability. At least that's why I do it.

by: Rexford

And I mean "are there", not "are their".  :(