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Which is really better your site or ebay/amazon
 

Which do you think is better: having your own site or amazon and ebay.

Can you ever get the the level in sales which you have done on those sites?


Thanks

I dont have my own site but im gonna say it will be tougher to sell on your own website because those big name auction sites are already well established and have huge traffics. Ebay is better to me then Amazon just my opinion though and as far as sales go, I would say it but im not because I want people that arent selling much on Ebay & Amazon to have HOPE.....

It depends upon what Product or Service you provide.

People flock to Ebay because there are many Eyeballs (lots of traffic) guaranteed. Almost instant traffic.

Ebay has control, NOT you.

Using 3rd party sites such as Ebay should be one of your traffic resources, not your ONLY traffic resource.

It also depends upon your Profit margins. The Higher your profit margins the more you can Spend/Invest to attract customers.

Ideally, you want to "sell a product to GAIN a customer." Most people Sell a product to make a SALE. <<< That's the wrong/hard way.

The best way to calculate is to Reverse Engineer your sales funnel. How much money do you make (net) per sale?

Let's say you make $10.00 net. Can you afford to spend $15.00 to Gain a customer? Many Fortune 1000 companies lose money on the 1st sale, but make up the difference in Upsells, cross-sells, downsells, and repeat business/referrals.

Google and Facebook give away almost all of their product for FREE. 2 of the 800lb gorillas on the web.

The real money is having a list of customers to sell to over and over again.

Just ask Aspkin! He has a list of all our emails. Used correctly he can make much more money on the Back-end sales than he can on a measly $37.00 for a Stealth Guide.

Without going back over the great advise Roscoe has just listed. You will never match the traffic generated by the big sites but depending on what you are selling it could be worth it.

We sell high volume low margin items so we generate 1000's of sales each month through Amazon and eBay. For every package I include an a5 size leaflet thanking them for their order and offering them 10% of their first order on our website.

This works as we are sending leaflets out to 1000's of customers and a direct sale through our website is still more profitable after a 10% discount as we are saving eBay/Paypal fees.

Also as mentioned we are building up a customer database that we can target with promotions and new products

All 3 are nice to work with - if you have time and resources.

That's a much better way of doing it. I'm going to have to visit Ebay one of these days and find out how the heck that site works, lol. :rolleyes:

A customer database is the only way to survive long term. This allows you more ways to contact your customer.

Increased profit margins which allow for more advertising/marketing dollars such as mailers and email. I'd rather give a 10% direct discount to MY customer than to Ebay fees.

Is there any way to have an Ebay/Amazon customer visit your site?

You could have an Opt-In to capture their email address.

Send them info about new products, warranty, guarantees, upcoming new products, discount coupons, etc...

If I were an Ebayer or Amazon seller my main purpose would be to sell a customer from those sites to get them on my email list. I would not be concerned about making a profit from those sales.

If you could get their home address now you can send physical mail.

You could direct them to your site, opt-in, send emails, physical mail, newsletters, etc... get them away from Ebay.

its like you don't do eb4y at all........

all your info is great, but it totally breaks all the TOS and would get your account canned.

If you're talking to me, then you're right, I don't Eaby, period. Here for Payapal.

I know sellers who include paperwork inside the packaging that directs a buyer to their own website.

There are all kinds of ways to get Buyers to contact you. ;)

Relying on one time buyers from any site is a recipe for disaster. Any business that knows what they're doing will collect as much data about you as possible.

eb4y will also buy FROM YOU... and if said packing has included flyer.... POOF. --- customer poaching.. you'd be pissed too ---

all your tactics work great for a stand alone e-com...... if thats what you want to do... don't mix the kool aid.

Really eBay buys from you?

I would not worry about this too much