If I asked you to picture yourself buying and selling online, there's a pretty good chance you'd immediately envisage eBay, or perhaps Amazon.
While these two marketplaces are the hands-down winners in the ecommerce world in terms of traffic, there are an increasing number of buyers and sellers searching for eBay and Amazon alternatives.
There are many alternatives out there, and some sellers find that the smaller, boutique auction sites can actually work better for them than the big players. The problem is sorting through the chafe and finding an alternative that best suits your needs (yep, there are a lot of BAD auction sites with zero traffic as well!).
As a new player to this online selling business, you will inevitably face well-established and fierce competition. And nowhere is the competition greater than at the biggest online marketplaces of eBay and Amazon.
Of course, you can 100% successfully tackle this competition (and we will be revealing some ways to do this later on in our newsletter series) - but initially, while you're still growing, things could be tough.
Additionally, a lot of eBay and Amazon sellers also like to sell on a couple of different ecommerce sites at the same time, as targeting a few different markets can be beneficial to your bottom line.
So for a number of reasons it's a good idea to not only consider what your unique product niche will be, but also consider some different selling location options.
Let's review some possible alternatives to the default location for many - eBay.
Craigslist is a no-frills, community-moderated hive of local classifieds, forums and other community-generated information.
There are two things that make Craigslist a fantastic alternative to eBay.
- Firstly, it gets a lot of traffic to the website which will help you get sales. How do we know this? Craigslist has an Alexa traffic rank of 37. To put this into perspective, the lower the rank, the more hits the site gets. Google has a ranking of 1, eBay has a ranking of 23, and Amazon has a ranking of 18. With over 700 local sites in 70 different countries, Craigslist has a widespread presence and it is huge!
- Secondly, the no-frills, non-corporate culture feel of the site is reinforced by it being free to use! Only specific services cost, and these include job advertisements, adult and therapeutic services. This is good news for many sellers who are sick of being stung by the high seller's fees on eBay and Amazon.
Funny fact
The more liberal, non-commercial feel of Craigslist can generate some interesting listings, for example: 'Worn knickers of a 21 year old artist'.
The bad news about selling on Craigslist is that there is no safety net in place for selling your items. eBay has all sorts of policies for when a sale goes wrong, and encourages the use of safe payment systems. Craigslist has none of these bells and whistles - the ball is in your court.
With an Alexa traffic rank of 359, Etsy.com is already a proven success - and is still growing!
Etsy.com is "your place to buy & sell all things handmade", and is a flourishing marketplace selling beautiful and unique handmade and vintage goods. This marketplace is great for smaller merchants looking to attract buyers who are after that something special rather than a bargain - whether it be for a gift or for themselves.
With a free online customizable shop for sellers, and only 20 cents for a 4-month listing, plus a 3.5% transaction fee upon sale, this is an affordable place to sell your goods. Keep in mind though, sellers are not permitted to sell handmade goods created by someone else, or any items that aren't classified as handmade or vintage (older than 20 years).
This site is growing, so if you're selling vintage or handmade goods I suggest you give it a go!
ArtFire has been praised by sellers and the wider e-Commerce community as being the best marketplace on the web (yes, it was even rated as a better place to sell than eBay!) This might surprise you if you are a new seller and you have not heard of it before!
Here are 3 things that you will love about ArtFire:
- It is free to list items on ArtFire. They make their money from their Pro memberships which offers an array of benefits to sellers such as more exposure for your listings and speedier customer service. Get a free 30 day trial to a ArtFire Pro membership here.
- ArtFire has created a Google feed which automatically sends your listings into Google Base which greatly increases the number of buyers who will view your listings
- The strong community means there is a lot of support available if you have questions or need assistance. The founders and managers of ArtFire are also heavily involved with seller affairs and work hard to keep them happy.
Like Etsy, ArtFire has a strong focus on handmade and vintage items. It's not the best platform for you if you sell consumable items like DVDs or sporting equipment, but sellers have experienced impressive levels of success here.
Like ArtFire, Bonanza doesn't align itself with the same popular product niches as eBay. In fact, Bonanza strives to be very different.
Bonanza is a place for buying and selling "everything but the ordinary". They focus on categories including art, collectibles, fashion and jewelry. It is a place for smaller merchants to make their mark who cannot compete against larger merchants that dominate the more popular online marketplaces.
With no listing fees, and the opportunity for sellers to have a 'bonanza' once a month - a sale that gives your products feature space on the homepage - this is an affordable and fun option.
The drawback of this site is that it largely remains a hidden secret. We've seen a lot of Bonanza users rave about how great it is - but also how hard it was to find!
You could set up shop here and tap into a relatively competitive-free niche - but you could also run the risk of having very little buying traffic directed to your items. In our opinion, Bonanza is best used in combination with one or two other marketplaces.
Bonanza is seeing tremendous growth now though and is definitely emerging as a strong marketplace.
Finally, two other good auction sites worth a look are:
Want even more freedom?
Just think of the freedom you would have if YOU were the boss of your own website, that was linked into an auction site! It would be beautiful...
- There would be no selling fees
- Much more scope to market your products exactly how you see fit
- You can have them listed for as long as you say so - not until eBay tells you your time is up!
But wait, I hear you cry - isn't building a website complicated?! And imagine the issues you could have trying to get your site noticed and traffic coming through!
There is an answer. Introducing SaleHoo Stores!
You may have stubled across SaleHoo Stores before but even if this isn't your first time, you should know that SaleHoo Stores is one of the best options available for owning your own e-Commerce website.
SaleHoo Stores makes everything really easy: Just fill in your personal settings, list your products and you are ready to go to show your brand new store to the world!
There is no need for any programming knowledge, or any fussy work with HTML code... as long as you can list an item on eBay, you have the skills required to manage your own store. But even that's not the best thing about SaleHoo Stores: You will love how affordable it is!
We know sellers and we know that many of our SaleHoo members really want their own website, but they don't know how to build one on their own, OR they can't afford to pay someone to do it for them. And that's why we have spent over 2 years creating a system that breaks down the barriers and allows sellers just like you to easily get your own website up and running.
Find out more about SaleHoo Stores here.
Quick Recap: Action steps
Wow! There are so many places online bursting with the potential of success for you! You will go and check them out, right?
The collective wisdom that points everyone to eBay as the 'it' place can drown out some really bright ideas. Don't let that be you. So what should you do?
1. Visit these places - see for yourself what is out there, and form your own opinion.
2. What is the competition for your product niche like? If it is tough, look at branching out into one or three alternative selling platforms that suit your product niche - ArtFire if you are selling vintage items or Bonanza.com if you're selling collectibles.
3. Compare your success on the different platforms and assess what it is that makes one site better for you than the other.
4. Move your business gradually in that direction. It doesn't have to be an instant switch or a complete move from one site to another. But if it's going to benefit your business in some way, a little change is better than none.
Remember, it is best not to place all your eggs in one basket - and that goes for your online selling platform too!
In our next newsletter: We've got an exciting SaleHoo seller success story coming your way. Learn From Steve who has been with SaleHoo since 2006 and now runs a successful online retail business. What exactly does Steve sell? Find out in the next newsletter... coming soon!
