posted on January 12, 2001 10:12:20 AM
How many of you eBay sellers out there have a Web storefront?? I love selling on eBay! I also work a fulltime job so any money I make is extra!.. However my wife has got to the point that she wants to quit work and be at home with the kids. She already participates in the eBay process by doing most of the shipping.
I have said that she could do this from home and would give her the flexible hours she needs. My question centers around creating more profits from the same products I offer on eBay. Out of the sellers who have a website, do you realize increased profits after expenses? Do you do all the web work yourself or do you pay someone to create and maintain the website??
I'd love to hear everyone's opinions, stories, tips etc..
posted on January 12, 2001 12:17:45 PM
I have a web site that I maintain myself, to keep costs down. The main problem I have is that my site is a retail site, I sell new jewelry. Even though we are a good 20% under regular brick and morter stores, the web site doesn't get many buyers from Ebay, itself. The reason is simple: most ebay buyers want their purchases to be the price of wholesale or within 10% of normal wholesale.
If you sell items that are not new, I would think that it would be a whole different matter. But then again, you would have a lot of time wrapped up in searching out used items.
I set up my own site using front page, which worked out fairly well for me. Though I am now over 110 pages on the site. My site's name is www.EgoOx.com if you want to see it.
Good luck, I was probably not a lot of help, but at least this post will take your question to the top of the page again.
I went to your site, it is a nice looking site.. I'm glad to hear your using FP to do the site. I use FP to create some of my ads for ebay.
Do you mind telling me what shopping cart you use and what credit card processor? I started to set my site up about 6 months ago, and struggled with this.. I had the Merchant company pointing fingers at the Shopping Cart Software and vice versa.
What do you estimate your costs to be to have an website like this.. Considering all the monthly fees for a webhost and merchant accounts etc..
posted on January 12, 2001 01:25:38 PM
I use "just add commerce' for my shopping cart. It has worked out fine for me. As for credit card processor, again, I may not be much help. I have a regular retail business, and have had a merchant account for years with "Novus' they are Discovercard, basically, but carry Visa, and Mastercard also. My rate is around 2.1%, but fluctuates (sp?) maybe .4% never more then that. They charge absolutely no monthly or transaction fee, just a percentage of the sales. So if you have no sales in a off month, there is no fee. My site is hosted out of a company in Cleveland Ohio, which charges $29.95 a month.
So, to answer your question, if I sell absolutely nothing in any given month, I only pay the hosting fee of $29.95.
Hope this helps.
Soldby
This is great information, I looked at JAC for my shopping cart, and thought it was expensive.. But if it works well and that gives you a peace of mind it is worth it..
I really appreciate the info you have been extremely helpful.. I'm hoping to hear of other peoples successes on the web!
posted on January 12, 2001 03:10:35 PM
soldbyj....went to your website to check it out...just to let you know, I can't access any of the (what I assume are) individual buttons to get to specific items...I looked at the Southwestern Jewelry page & all I get is your text and a bunch of grey rectangular buttons from which I have no option to go anywhere....
I do a bit of web shopping & typically do not have problems like that....I wish I could tell you what browser etc I was running, but my tech (read: husband) is not home & he takes care of the technicals on my system....Just wanted to let you know....
