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For those running a website & eBay...
 

I have a question for you hybrid sellers. I'm building a website to start pulling away from eBay. Does anyone have any suggestions for inventory control? I usually post my new items to my website first, and then list them on eBay. Since my website is new and gets little traffic, I always end up selling everything on ebay before I sell anything on the website.

Now, I'm not complaining, because at least everything's selling.

My point is, that I'm spending several hours updating the website, just to change it all around in 2 weeks.

Is this just a matter of needing to buy bigger, and work more on website advertising, than my eBay listings?

Any insight would be helpful.

Thanks,
:typing:

idk what type of e-com script your running but some let you mark the item as - SOLD OUT - That would be the best solution - then you dont loose content from your site - good for seo too

Hi this was also my case as I had my own website and ebay listings as well. What I did was have a seperate section in my storage space for ebay items and throw anything that gets listed on ebay into that ebay storage corner...

That way I know that the buyers on ebay will never get angry at me for having sold them an out of stock item... a customer on your website may be a little more understanding (via a nicey nicey email) if the item they selected is out of stock, whereas the ebay customer may certainly end up giving u bad feedbacks and get u in trouble with EB.

You may also want to try an excel spread sheet.... to keep tab of ur stock

I used to also include a nice little note in the invoice I sent with my EB customer's parcels with introduction to my independent site and some form of incentive for them going there like a 10% discount voucher or something... This was a good way for me to steer my customers away from ebay and straight to the site. It worked well for me but depending on your product lines I suppose?


Good luck :yar:

Thanks NadiaLauren.

That's actually what I've been doing, and seems to work so far. As I sell more and more, it seems to be getting more of an issue. I recently separated my products into 3 different ebay accounts, and that seems to help a little.

I also use these wire cubes from Walmart for organizing the different sizes, colors, etc.

I was really just looking to see if anyone else had a better way.

Thanks for the marketing tip. Never really thought to put in flyers/coupons for my site. I just ask them for permission to send promo email.

:typing:

Have you tried using one of the open-source shopping carts? I've tried Magento (nice but hard to manage), PrestaShop (horrible) and Zen Cart (the best IMHO).

Zen Cart is my main production store and it includes the option to manage inventory. You can upload your products and inventory in a txt file. You can also upload specials prices and sale dates as well as a lot of other info. It's pretty easy to use and very stable. If you have a Fantastico package on your webhost it will install ZC for you. Otherwise, it's an easy install. Lots of payment gateways too. ZenCart.com

Send me a PM if you need ZC help. I have a few sites of my own, but my day job is managing zen stores for a large merchant so I'll prob be able to answer your questions.