RustyMikeRadio Interview Summary – First Time Sellers

Just a few notes about the online radio broadcast from last week on Rusty Mike Radio.

Firstly here is the podcast of our segment from the show:

In the interview, Afternoon Schmooze host Nettie Feldman was mostly interested in offering some direction to new entrants into eCommerce on how to get started. To cover such a broad topic properly could easily have taken over Nettie’s full show that day, and only begin to scratch the surface.

As a result, I decided to give first time sellers something they could actually try in order to see if the experience gets them (you?) excited about the possibilities, or even just to test the acceptance of their product in the marketplace.

Established Marketplace vs. Dedicated Site

The very first question to ask yourself is:

How much time and money am I prepared to invest in my new venture (selling online for the first time)?

If you already know what kind of site you want to create, and have the time and budget to hire:

  • a web developer
  • web designer
  • SEO specialist

and you are ready to engage in various form of online marketing which will likely include a mix of

  • text based search ads
  • a targeted pay per click and display ads campaign as well as
  • all the work that is needed to get yourself noticed in the social media circles

then a dedicated site may be a good option for you to consider. Otherwise, a fully hosted and well established marketplace may be the right place for you to start. Following are a few marketplaces to consider, and few words about each.

Hosted eCommerce Marketplaces

Selling Globally

eBay corporate logo

Image via Wikipedia

eBay

The largest marketplace in terms of total sellers and buyers as well as total sales. Payments are easily integrated with PayPal as well as credit card and other payment options. You can target regional eBay sites too. Sell on ebay.fr or ebay.co.uk if you want to target these markets directly instead. eBay.com is viewed by a global user base in general, but less used by buyers in countries that have their own localized eBay site. At the bottom of the eBay.com home page is a link the list of 30 localized eBay sites. Not all are branded as “eBay,” but that could change over time.

amazon-logo

Image by jonobacon via Flickr

Amazon

The fastest growing marketplace and also has a huge amount of traffic. Amazon has their own payment platform integrated called Amazon Payments. Great tool for US based sellers, but Amazon Payments is still not available for international sellers, AFAIK. The site is a textbook in the study of Best Practices for all aspects of eCommerce, but my #1 pet peeve is still violated by the site: new users are forced to create an account before they can buy. Surely, with the amount of traffic they generate they must have a good reason for it, but I don’t believe that smaller sites should emulate this practice.

Sense of Fashion

A great new startup from Israel that is globally focused on letting fashion designers and trendsetters from all over the world meet in a well designed eCommerce environment that includes social media and marketing tools. Once again, payment is integrated with PayPal so that a new seller can get started right away.

Auction Bytes Sellers Choice ReportCheck AuctionBytes for More

Also check AuctionBytes.com for their in depth report: Seller’s Choice: Merchants Rate Ecommerce Marketplaces, where Editor Ina Steiner and more than 1,400 sellers rate the various marketplaces on a wide range of attributes. Interesting findings indeed.

Here are links to the individual reports for each marketplace rated: Amazon • Atomic Mall • Blujay • Bonanzle • CQout • Craigslist • eBay • Ebid.net • eCrater • Etsy • GoAntiques • iOffer • Onlineauction.com • Rubylane • TIAS.com

Selling to the local Israeli Market

Auction Israel Home Page

AuctionIsrael.com

An eBay-style marketplace with the option to list items for auction and immediate sale. The site is targeted at the growing Anglo community in Israel, and has recently been given a complete facelift. The navigation is very similar to eBay and it has even integrated PayPal for local payment by credit cards and PayPal balance. I have not made a purchase on the site since it was revamped to test the integration, so I am interested to hear how the integration goes for anyone out there that has purchased on the site recently. Sellers can list for free, or pay to have their listing featured on the home page (20 NIS) and/or featured on the category page (2 NIS). To my knowledge, there are no fees on the buyer. Sellers can list in any of these four currencies: NIS, USD, EUR, GBP.  Fact is that PayPal will allow the seller to collect in any of their 23 support currencies (see list here).

Anything In Israel

Anything in Israel is a Classified Ads webspace

AnythngInIsrael.com

A site that makes it easy to list items in the classic format of a classified ad. There is no fee for listing a personal item with a single or no picture, and extra pictures are just 5 NIS. The site is also English and therefore only focused on the growing but smaller Anglo community in Israel. Fees do apply for companies listing items. For example: an auto dealer selling cars on the site can pay a monthly or per sale fee, whereas an individual can list their car for free.

craigslist Israel home page

craigslist Israel home page

craigslist

The web’s answer to the way we used to list things in the local newspaper in the Classified Section. According to the Fact Sheet in the About section: craigslist is a “Local classifieds and forums – community moderated, and largely free” which is even better than it was in the newspaper. The site epitomizes the adage that less is more, being minimalistic to a tee. Hardly any graphics, besides the few images that users post for their items. For Israeli sellers, the site has three regions: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. All in English.

Image courtesy of Appshopper.com

Yad2.co.il

Great site for person to person (P2P) selling, but also used extensively by companies to advertise first and second hand items for sale all over Israel. Besides the items for sale through Yad2 (literally translates as second-hand) itself, the site acts as an eCommerce portal. The iPhone App is a wonderful new addition too.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but for first time sellers in Israel, it represents a good few places to start. Just for fun, here are a few more local places to sell:

Have you had any experience with any of the above these sites? Any thoughts on them?

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