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Quick Tips for Sellers in Search of an eBay Alternative Auction Site

Posted on October 26, 2008. Filed under: eBay, Tips - for the eBay Seller | Tags: ebay alternatives, eBay Refugee, eBay seller |

If you are still looking for eBay alternatives, this blog post is for you!  For somone who has been selling on eBay for many years, the idea of searching out alternatives and starting over may seem like a daunting task.  After all, sellers have a limited amount of inventory and a limited amount of time so it is impossible to offer your wares on every auction site on the net.  And now that there are SO many eBay alternatives it may be tough to figure out where to list your items.  So where do you start?

Your first stop should be the Powersellersunite.com website:

Then Visit some of the eBay alternative sites you are considering and do some quick research:

1. How much does it cost to list items and how much are the final value fees?

2. What payment methods are sellers allowed to accept?

3. Is there any kind of import feature which would allow you to import your current eBay feedback and listings (big time-saver here)?

4. Try searching for a few common items to see how many results are returned.  The more listings and the more sellers, the greater the potential buyer traffic.

5. Review some of the sellers who are offering items.  How long have they been selling there?  How much feedback have they earned in that time (which would give you a fair indication of whether sellers are just listing or whether they are actually selling)?  Also, check the feedback to see if the buyers who are leaving feedback are exclusively buyers or whether they are also sellers.  Sellers purchasing from other sellers is good but buyers purchasing from sellers is even better. 

After the quick research, but before you sign up as a seller and list items, you should:

1. Register on the alternative site.  That way you can see how the site welcomes new buyers and whether there is any buyer verification process.  (Note: unverified buyers generally leads to more unpaid items).

2. Purchase something from the site and follow through with payment.  Many a site “looks” great but performs poorly.  I once tried an eBay alternative site where I couldn’t figure out how to pay a seller.  After 20 minutes I contacted the seller through the required messaging system and explained that if they could tell me how to submit payment I’d be happy to complete the transaction.  No response from the seller for 3 weeks and when they responded, they told me that they rarely checked their messaging account for that site because they received few emails and even fewer orders.  Hmm… big hint that the site was NOT for me.

3. Contact customer support for the alternative site, either by email or by phone, with a legitimate question to see if they respond.  Note how long the response took and whether the response adequately addressed your question or concern.

Careful consideration should be given before deciding to switch to an alternative site.  It takes time to learn a new system and to establish a presence on a new selling platform.  And it requires an inventory commitment since items you offer for sale on an alternative site should be available to ship if / when they are purchased.  Failing to do so will earn you a poor reputation from the outset which will be difficult to overcome.

Most importantly, remember that it takes time to build up a business anywhere on the internet.  It could be days or weeks before your first sale on the new auction site.  And, of course, you cannot rely only on the traffic generated from the auction site itself to build your business there.  You need to market to your previous customers by letting them know that you have moved and you need to take steps to drive traffic to your listings on the new site. 

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