Is Facebook marketplace the next big thing?

[samspalace]

Originally Posted by yankee

Most of us in the USA dont want to mess with a local market. We ship, same as ebay and amazon. In the USA the payment processor is paypal..... Buyer pays facebook, facebook a week or three later sends payment to our paypal account. This is called "Shops" on marketplace. That is what I am talking about. There is no way in hell I am going to try to meet people face to face by the hundreds a week. I closed my retail stores a decade ago for the same reason. Need a nationwide market, not meeting a few thousand locals ONE time.

Yeah I see your point it’s completely different over their. It depends on what your selling if your selling cheap profit items then it wouldn’t be worth doing it but if your selling hot products with big profit margins so only have a few to sell to make good money then it’s definitely worth it. I wouldn’t do it if I had 100s of cheap items.

It depends on what you like I’ve been doing eBay for years and I’ve made some good money but the time has come for me to now move off eBay just because I get bored of printing labels off posting items at the post office it’s a one man band and doesn’t appeal to me anymore and I’ve never felt safe with eBay either.

I’m not saying I would never go back to eBay but as for a long term business having just eBay is not for me. I’m sure some people have multiple eBay accounts and continue to do what they do successfully but for me I’m enjoining new markets and it’s working so I can’t complain.

[Camaro2SS]

Forget about shipping your own products. Most sellers who sell on FB shops are dropshippers. Some making 15k profit a month.

[DENDEN76]

Originally Posted by Camaro2SS

Forget about shipping your own products. Most sellers who sell on FB shops are dropshippers. Some making 15k profit a month.

It doesn't make sense unless you're running a large operation with employees. How do you guys scale when you're meeting all these people in person. I simply webscrape data and upload a CSV file and I'm making sales.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by samspalace

Yeah I see your point it’s completely different over their. It depends on what your selling if your selling cheap profit items then it wouldn’t be worth doing it but if your selling hot products with big profit margins so only have a few to sell to make good money then it’s definitely worth it. I wouldn’t do it if I had 100s of cheap items.

The items I sell on the marketplace I have made for $8-10 and sell for $50-100 and sell a few hundred a week for 6 weeks of the year. It for sure inst worth meeting people for me anyways. I would have to have a retail place, have posted hours and nearly 100% of the buyers dont live within driving distance. Plus, you have the damn messages man. Even one message is too much time. When you meet someone you have to plan, schedule, then meet, etc.... It is a huge waste of time compared to printing a label with zero communication at all and when UPS/FEDEX/USPS comes to our warehouse daily anyways.

Meeting people is for casual sellers with nothing but time on their hands or retail establishments etc... Im talking business, not selling your couch or a car etc... That of course is a local face to face market(although I almost exclusively sell autos, power sports and RVS online and never meet the buyer too)

[samspalace]

Originally Posted by yankee

The items I sell on the marketplace I have made for $8-10 and sell for $50-100 and sell a few hundred a week for 6 weeks of the year. It for sure inst worth meeting people for me anyways. I would have to have a retail place, have posted hours and nearly 100% of the buyers dont live within driving distance. Plus, you have the damn messages man. Even one message is too much time. When you meet someone you have to plan, schedule, then meet, etc.... It is a huge waste of time compared to printing a label with zero communication at all and when UPS/FEDEX/USPS comes to our warehouse daily anyways.

Meeting people is for casual sellers with nothing but time on their hands or retail establishments etc... Im talking business, not selling your couch or a car etc... That of course is a local face to face market(although I almost exclusively sell autos, power sports and RVS online and never meet the buyer too)

The items I sell go for is around £300-£400 and that’s one product. I can sell 10-15 a week so it’s a good business not just a couch being sold here lol. I work my own hours and I deliver when it’s convenient for me or the customer but I get like 20 messages a day so I’m always busy or always got a delivery ready.

Sometimes I even get paid for fuel as well so it’s not like I’m spending my own fuel money I travel like 50 to 100 miles furthest I’ve gone is 166 miles so it’s not that bad for the money I earn.

I don’t have any issues with feedback, return cases, getting paid, money on hold, evaluations of accounts.m etc etc etc etc. It’s so much better for me but each to their own whatever works for you works for you. This works for me and that’s why I’m sticking with it.

[BlackLion]

Originally Posted by yankee

The items I sell on the marketplace I have made for $8-10 and sell for $50-100 and sell a few hundred a week for 6 weeks of the year. It for sure inst worth meeting people for me anyways. I would have to have a retail place, have posted hours and nearly 100% of the buyers dont live within driving distance. Plus, you have the damn messages man. Even one message is too much time. When you meet someone you have to plan, schedule, then meet, etc.... It is a huge waste of time compared to printing a label with zero communication at all and when UPS/FEDEX/USPS comes to our warehouse daily anyways.

Meeting people is for casual sellers with nothing but time on their hands or retail establishments etc... Im talking business, not selling your couch or a car etc... That of course is a local face to face market(although I almost exclusively sell autos, power sports and RVS online and never meet the buyer too)

On average how many messages do you read/respond to? I'm going to give 50-100 products a try, and see how it goes. I never knew people were getting that many sells via marketplace. I figured it was just people meeting up to sell items here & there. I didn't know people were treating it as a "business".

[yankee]

Originally Posted by BlackLion

On average how many messages do you read/respond to? I'm going to give 50-100 products a try, and see how it goes. I never knew people were getting that many sells via marketplace. I figured it was just people meeting up to sell items here & there. I didn't know people were treating it as a "business".

Some days, it is insane. Some days, I dont get any messages at all. I only answer messages that actually have a question that is logical. This spring, I might have a VA handle messages with a new product I am producing for the home and garden market. It can be great. I havent had a problem with disputes, but if you get them, it is hard to win from everything I understand.