Is eCRATER Really all it is cracked up to be?

[The Bar Keep]

So I was at eCRATER in early 07' and closed my stores there except for maybe one over the summer. Are you noticing an increase in sales or decrease as we approach the holiday shopping season? I for one believe the traffic numbers are grossly inflated at eCRATER for a number of reason's but I would like to hear your selling experience with eCRATER before I tell the reason's why I feel eCRATER is not the answer to online sellers.

[BooKooGuru]

I love ecrater for its simplicity and the people there are great and very helpful.  I have had my store there for over a month and have not had one sale.  I have my items priced reasonably and my descriptions and photos are very nice.  I get alot of looks at my products (according to ecrater's counters), but I just don't know where the buyers are.  I accept Paypal, Google checkout, and mailed in payments, so I just don't know what else to do. 
I am anxious to hear your thoughts about this and maybe some ideas about what I may do to help my store.  I have been selling on "feebay" for many years and have 100% positive feedback, but the fees for my unsold items ate up any profit I made on the items that I sold. 
Thanks in advance for your help.  Ramona
BookooGuru, Your KISS headquarters and more!
Check out our Hard Rock Café pins and artisan-crafted jewelry.

[2boysandtoys]

Joe - hard to say....I do agree that it's super easy to use.  I also like that html is 'not an option' - only because I have high speed internet and there are some sites (ebaY is one) that when the seller gets super fancy - it takes a lifetime for the page to load.  I can't imagine how many dial-up users just bail on those auctions ----- if it's slow 4 me - it's gotta be an all-nighter for them!

I can't speak to inflated looks.  I know that I count when I bop over there and click thru one of my items to see if anybody has left any new feedback.  I can say that until October, I was consistently getting sales, which includes during the summer.  Am I making a living?  Nope - but I am selling there.

Now - in defense of the site, I do not market, nor do I go overboard to promote.  Actually, I've not done a darn thing - as I don't really understand 'all that' peripheral stuff.  I need an online marketing 101 class -  !!!

I can say that when it was time to leave HiBidder and Yahoo closed down, it was 'there' and a savior for me.  I was very 'anti-venue' - esp. new ones and bitter towards the whole auction thing.  Lurkey has a post at PSU in the Zolanta thread which is 'spot on' - we invest a ton for sites - not always $$ ---- but extensive time (which time is money). 

So - is eCrater the end-all-be-all.  I don't think so.  Is it another marketing/promotion tool -  sure.

Here's what I like about it:

1. Easy to list.
2. Easy to shop.
3. All listings look the same.
4. Very Little System Issues.
5. Fast Page Loads.
6. Inventory Management.
7. Decent Sales/Order area.
8. Integrated with both Paypal and GCO.

Here's what I don't like about it:

1. One one photo at a time - have to do more key strokes 4 add'l photos.
2. Search stinks.
3. Shipping matrix is way too complicated (I gotta MBA, and I got lost after 3 lines) - I have no patience for 'non-simple' stuff.
4. Photos have to be 'square' perfectly to show just right.

I'm certain there will be more thoughts from me - I gotta drive the teenager to Scouts....

I'll be back in a short!  Great topic Joe - interested in other thoughts!! 

[chiquita]

My last sale on ecrater was in Sept. 

I always have tons of views, and no buyers. I did initially submit the store to hundreds of directories online. Nothing really in the way of marketing in a very long time, but it didn't really make any difference. I do think you get good placement with google on ecrater, however converting the lookers into buyers isn't happening for me.

It may depend alot on what you sell. I am not sure about that, just a feeling. Sadly Ebay still has the buyers hands down over all the alternatives and even the buyers are going to well known sites like Amazon. Independent websites are also doing well in certain categories too.

I do believe buying is down across the board due to the rising costs of food, fuel, and housing. The biggest retailers are already slashing prices early in hopes of getting a slice of the holiday shoppers. They are also offering free shipping and in many cases there is no condition or minimum purchase required. I know that makes it tough for me to compete.
 

[QUILT]

Love Ecrater!!!!!  Yes I do!  If I was paid for as many sales as people sign up for I would Love the place even more.  I have had sales on ecrater, but the true be told it is not worth the hassle trying to figure out if the buyer is actually going to pay you or not.  There is no penalty to them if they don't and I believe this is why it continues to happen.  

The actual sales I have had on ecrater were great.  Super buyers who just get in and follow the rules.  The site pretty much takes care of itself once you load the items.  Very easy to list and there are some extremely nice people there willing to help you if you have any questions.  

I believe if you focus your sales on ecrater and promote you are likely to do quite well.     If anyone has any questions I am happy to help as best I can.

[BooKooGuru]

I hope you're right about that, because as it stands right now, that is where I am focusing all my attention.  I will not go back to "feebay", but I may try some of the other sites like etsy or blujay.  Anyone have thoughts on those? 
Thanks in advance.  Ramona   

BookooGuru, Your KISS headquarters and more!
Check out our Hard Rock Café pins and artisan-crafted jewelry.

[chiquita]

Ramona,
Etsy is really a great site, and it has gotten alot of press coverage. For your jewelry items it sure might be worth a try.
 

[QUILT]

Etsy is great for handmade items.  Blujay is much like ecrater.  The price is right and very very easy to use.

[The Tavern Wench]

I opened an eCrater store last December...the 30th to be exact.  

I took one look around, saw I couldn't tweak it and make it "my own" (no html) and I was outta there.  

Actually I did struggle with it for several days, listed three items, tried to make the store look decent.  I was exhausted, left and never even turned it on to the public...until tonight.

Here was my feeble attempt at an eCrater store:  Chandler's Cottage

I hated it for the following reasons:

1) The Shipping Matrix was a living nightmare.
2) No Html (major issue for me!!)
3) It was a PITA to list...one at a time, one photo at a time.
4) I just couldn't make it 'my own' - there was no way to brand myself.

 

[The Bar Keep]

ok so we got a few thoughts and I want to start out by saying eCRATER is a free site but, I view eCRATER as a transition site and here is why:


Ok so let's take Erin's post, not to pick on you Erin but you had the best explanation.

I can't speak to inflated looks.  I know that I count when I bop over there and click thru one of my items to see if anybody has left any new feedback.  I can say that until October, I was consistently getting sales, which includes during the summer.  Am I making a living?  Nope - but I am selling there.

So why did Erin's sales slow in the beginning of October? For a number of reason's but most importent is that eCRATER is a google partner that for the most part relies on google product search for advertising. Yes your eCRATER store will show up in organic search but unless you know what you are doing with SEO your good search results on average will last about 6 months. Ok so Alexa says eCRATER has such and such a traffic rank right? PSU says eCRATER has so many listings, right? What does that matter? Well Alexa is only a tool that most have no clue how it works once you get outside the top 100 sites. The PSU listing counts are so mixed up you can't count on them being right anyway due to you have marketplace sites and alternative sites all mixed together but, don't dare include the total number of listings eBay has because then all the other sites will look like an ant from the top of the empire state building.

Why did Erin's sales fall all of a sudden? I will tell you why and she said it herself, she didn't do anything to promote it. I am not talking about putting your wares in a forum either. I am talking about the SEO portion of what it takes to keep the bots and spiders that account for 50% of the traffic at eCRATER, interested in your site. So everyone thinks it is as simple as listing your meta tags or placing keywords in your titles, well it is in a way but all that can go stale after a while. When that happens your search results drop (mostly on google because eCRATER is a google partner). Have you ever noticed that after you list in eCRATER and you go back the next morning and all your items had a view? Guess why? That was the google bots indexing your items. Did you notice that when the hit counter gets reset every month that your views go down per item each and every month? Guess why? The items are now stale and the bots are losing interest hence the 6 month survival rate on SEO in eCRATER at most.

Here's what I like about it:

1. Easy to list.
2. Easy to shop.
3. All listings look the same.
4. Very Little System Issues.
5. Fast Page Loads.
6. Inventory Management.
7. Decent Sales/Order area.
8. Integrated with both Paypal and GCO.

My dislikes of the above:

1. Easy to list:

Yes but this is why I call it a transition site. Since it isn't auctions why can't you list a choice listing? For example if you have a pair of jeans in 5 different sizes why not allow 1 listing with a size choice that will be in an attribute box.

2. Easy to shop.

Yes if you can find your store from the home page which is not buyer friendly.

3. All listings look the same.
4. Very Little System Issues.
5. Fast Page Loads.
6. Inventory Management.
7. Decent Sales/Order area.
8. Integrated with both Paypal and GCO.

I agree but the SEO issues and the way I see it as a transition site while moving away from auctions to your own website outweighs the pluses because I can get that just as easily from just about any cart for an independent website.

1. One one photo at a time - have to do more key strokes 4 add'l photos.
2. Search stinks.
3. Shipping matrix is way too complicated (I gotta MBA, and I got lost after 3 lines) - I have no patience for 'non-simple' stuff.
4. Photos have to be 'square' perfectly to show just right.

Can't say I disagree with those either!!!


I know a lot of what i said above may seem like a foreign language but ask me questions and I will explain how I know all this to be the case with eCRATER.


Joe - The Bar Keep

[ABeautifulSecret]

I opened an eCrater store in April, shortly after my decision to leave WP. I had another store before that, but I didn't do anything with it.

Within my first week of opening the new store, sales started to come. I was doing pretty good there for awhile. Then I opened my own site and moved all the H&B items there.

As soon as I did that my views and sales dropped off to nothing. Last month I sold one (1) item all month. It's been kind of sad.

I agree with Bar Keep with the Google hits. I would watch while I was listing. As soon as I listed an item within 15 minutes there would be at least one hit on each item I had listed. At first I thought WOW! People are really finding my items fast. That was until I realized it was just Google coming in.

I had items sitting at eCrater that I decided to do a test with. I've added a lot of different items within the past two weeks to Secret to see what would happen. Well within 5 days of me listing some of those items they were selling (shipping supplies and computer parts).

So SEO plays a big part to getting your items sold. I enjoyed eCrater while there, but I will slowly be moving things to other places since it no longer is making sales for me. I will stick with my store - easy to list, HTML available and its a lot easier to make my items stand out.


~Patti~

[2boysandtoys]

All you say makes perfect sense to me - a self-admitted, self-proclaimed SEO numpty brain!

In the first 'months', I was steadily adding inventory.  I then hit 'the wall' - RL got/gets in the way.  Time is limited and .... I could go on forever.

I agree 100% it's a transition site. Here's my own personal issue that I'm trying to work out - if I run outa time to promote or keep my items fresh on eCrater, won't I have the same issue on my own site?   

As hard as I try to allocate % of time to 'work my online stuff', invariably, each year or each season, something happens that truly limits my time.    :blink1:So - totally self-inflicted issue here, but how do you or sellers manage to keep items/content/etc. 'fresh' if/when you have to step back for a bit? 

One other thing that is quite annoying - there's no sell similar.  While that's not a huge deal, when I gotta variety of 'like' items - it would be nice to have a framework that I can just edit some content and then 'go'!   :FOFRBananasoccerHL1: 

[QUILT]

These are some excellent post regarding Ecrater.

Erin I understand what you are saying about time limited or your sites being completely interupted for life issue.  I have had to start and stop so many times it isn't funny.  One of the great things about Ecrater is you can put the site on hold and come back and click a button that reactivates everything.   I use my Ecrater listings as a perfect place to store items that can be cut and pasted to a different site at a later date. 

Further more in regards to sell similar.  Somehow or other the site has a little glitch.  Every once in a while when I least expect it the site will allow me to make multiple item listings.  If I go to list an item and continually click the mouse it will duplicate the information that I just put in.  At that point I just go in and tweak the listing to make it fit the rest of my listings.

[2boysandtoys]

I didn't know that - so .... I might just have to give it a try!!  I agree - great discussions on eCrater -  to all for contributing and also to Joe for starting the thread!!   

[The Bar Keep]

Somehow or other the site has a little glitch.  Every once in a while when I least expect it the site will allow me to make multiple item listings.  If I go to list an item and continually click the mouse it will duplicate the information that I just put in.  At that point I just go in and tweak the listing to make it fit the rest of my listings.

When was the last time you tried doing that because if I remember correctly this worked when I posted the original work around for sell similar on another forum several months ago. From information I have gathered that work around for sell similar is now rendered useless since they implimented changes like inventory control. Just curious if maybe there is a difference from operating system to operating system (AKA - Vista, XP etc...).