Why use eCommerce platforms?

[thebomb]

Before I get started, I want to mention that eCommerce is not my primary source of income, meaning that my knowledge of this industry is not at the expert level.

However, when I saw all the stories about LEGIT sellers getting their accounts closed because of PayPal's rash impressions of their transactions, I began wondering why no one creates their own website and uses a payment processor like stripe, PayPal (PayPal, not eBay),authorize.net and others.

I mean, sure stripe and authorize.net have their own set of requirements and stealth is virtually impossible, but why need stealth? IF you have your own eCommerce site established, it won't take long for them to deem you trustworthy enough. Sure, they might request "additional information", but that's for the sake of security and shouldn't pose a challenge.

Now I assume the common answer or reply to this question would be that there are "competitors" ranking on major search engines and some may even argue that people trust ebay,Amazon, and other popular sites because of their reputation.

While I value the latter conclusion, I would like to point out that I come from a marketing background where my job consists of helping local businesses and other internet companies rank on Google.

People do buy from websites like eBay and Amazon ( I DO TOO!), but not all the time and I personally think that eBay and Amazon are doing a good job at creating a stereotype of this matter to prevent or dissuade people from having their own website by instilling fears like: expensive, time consuming,etc.

However, that shouldn't be the reason to justify not creating your own eCommerce website and ranking on Google.

Now let's hop back to the first assumption that I mentioned and that is, sellers believe that there are competitors are are virtually impossible to rank.

'tis True...

But not for ALL keywords and who said you can't outrank them?

Many markets are competitive, but on that note, I would also add that eBay is competitive too!

We see all these people trying to get reviews to somewhat establish a profile that will increase the chances of people coming across them.

I, for one, know that there are people that rank their shopify,etsy,and personal ecommerce websites on Google and make tons of $$$.

Question is, what's keeping you from doing the same?


Also, I'm not saying to solely rely on your own website and Google. I'm saying to use ALL the platforms possible.

If it were me, I would use Amazon and my own website

Did you know, that if you have your own product (private label) you can rank your amazon product page on Google?

People do it all the time and I have had people that have come to me in the past to get help.


Anyways, I won't go into much detail because I want to hear what you think. Tell me the biggest reason or perhaps even "fear" that dissuades you from creating an eCommerce website.

[incniu]

Choice



Platform needs millions of products

[comic19]

My background is in Publicity- meaning, my clients are well "known" and my job is to keep them well "known" by way of Radio, TV, Print, etc. I use the word "known" in quotations because what is "known" as fact to the masses- is manipulation. My client and my team decide what the public "knows" about my client. We make. You believe.

In almost every act of your daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics, entertainment, or business, in your social conduct or your ethical thinking, you are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who pull the wires which control the public mind.

This is the answer to, what I feel, is a brilliant question.

The person who asked the question "Why use eCommerce platforms" It shows freedom of mind.

In Plato's Republic, each individual was not actually allocated the opportunity to find his own place in life. This was determined by the elite class of philosophers.

The point being- the individiual, or the individuals ability to think, was not as equal to this ruling class. We begin to see the consequences of this "Freedom Quest" as carried out in the trial, guilty verdict, and death of Socrates. His crime? Questioning the accepted norm.

When the question was raised (and I'm paraphrasing)

"why use eCommerce? It is mediocre, small, unfair, and makes cowards of us. Lets change that. Competition? I welcome competition. Conflict and exploitation is a way of life."

And the response? Completely dismissive. The thought of unabashedly imposing ones will upon the world and rising to greatness...well, you know.

I believe we should be asking questions about Google.

Google stays relevant my changing the rules. Controlling the algorithms. Sending "spiders" to read your "content." And then GOOGLE decides who's website will be seen.

Do you realize the implications?

Google has COMPLETE control of the WORLD WIDE INTERNET.

Why is this wrong? Because it's the opposite of Capitalism.

I believe that content is king- I guess we're not assuming it's well written content. Can Google's spiders determine if something is well written, or funny, or profound? When they go to your site, do the spiders appreciate how genuine and customer service oriented the content feels?

Let me put it to you like this....Google is not your customer. Google will never buy **** from you. CUSTOMERS are you CUSTOMERS. We need Customer Optimization. Not Search-engine Optimization.

By the way...this is why I love this website- it's rebels against social pressure and bland conformity with an unbending will.

[Mitsu]

The way I see it, at the end of the day, if you manage to get people to your site-- what's the driving factor in them purchasing from you?

You need a unique product line or a very focused niche to make it your own storefront effective... because if it isn't, even if you make the best experience available by offering great product videos and focused bullet points that explain why the product is so great and why they need it-- there's nothing to stop them from heading over to amazon/eb and buying it there, where they're already signed up and have all their information saved.

I've always viewed the challenge of creating a successful storefront is successfully turning a visitor into a customer, not so much getting the visitors. If you have the right product & focus you can definitely do it and you should get a functional storefront going ASAP, but if you don't I'm not as optimistic.

[pegasus]

Originally Posted by thebomb

Before I get started, I want to mention that eCommerce is not my primary source of income, meaning that my knowledge of this industry is not at the expert level.

However, when I saw all the stories about LEGIT sellers getting their accounts closed because of PayPal's rash impressions of their transactions, I began wondering why no one creates their own website and uses a payment processor like stripe, PayPal (PayPal, not eBay),authorize.net and others.

I mean, sure stripe and authorize.net have their own set of requirements and stealth is virtually impossible, but why need stealth? IF you have your own eCommerce site established, it won't take long for them to deem you trustworthy enough. Sure, they might request "additional information", but that's for the sake of security and shouldn't pose a challenge.

Now I assume the common answer or reply to this question would be that there are "competitors" ranking on major search engines and some may even argue that people trust ebay,Amazon, and other popular sites because of their reputation.

While I value the latter conclusion, I would like to point out that I come from a marketing background where my job consists of helping local businesses and other internet companies rank on Google.

People do buy from websites like eBay and Amazon ( I DO TOO!), but not all the time and I personally think that eBay and Amazon are doing a good job at creating a stereotype of this matter to prevent or dissuade people from having their own website by instilling fears like: expensive, time consuming,etc.

However, that shouldn't be the reason to justify not creating your own eCommerce website and ranking on Google.

Now let's hop back to the first assumption that I mentioned and that is, sellers believe that there are competitors are are virtually impossible to rank.

'tis True...

But not for ALL keywords and who said you can't outrank them?

Many markets are competitive, but on that note, I would also add that eBay is competitive too!

We see all these people trying to get reviews to somewhat establish a profile that will increase the chances of people coming across them.

I, for one, know that there are people that rank their shopify,etsy,and personal ecommerce websites on Google and make tons of $$$.

Question is, what's keeping you from doing the same?


Also, I'm not saying to solely rely on your own website and Google. I'm saying to use ALL the platforms possible.

If it were me, I would use Amazon and my own website

Did you know, that if you have your own product (private label) you can rank your amazon product page on Google?

People do it all the time and I have had people that have come to me in the past to get help.


Anyways, I won't go into much detail because I want to hear what you think. Tell me the biggest reason or perhaps even "fear" that dissuades you from creating an eCommerce website.

This really depends on the business model. Full time seller, part time seller, seasonal casual seller, what are the individual's goals etc A lot of people use eBay, since it's a lot cheaper to operate and run. Furthermore, the traffic that comes through that site is crazy, for example I had sold (Vans Waffle Iphone case) in 2012 beofore xmas and my product was ranked on the first page on eBay search results.

Did I have to pay Google to rank my search No, did I have to hustle and get creative with my marketing to move the products HELL YES. Competition is not a bad thing, it means there is a market for what you want to sell. However, it is up to the individual to be creative and come up with a strategy to differentiate product positioning.

SEO cost a bucket load for smalls businesses and sometimes it's not even worth the ROI. If you were doing $1000-$2000 per month I wouldn't bother with a website, if you were selling your own products and making $10000-$25000 100% invest in one. Since, this will allow you to get into the wholesale aspect of the business (B2B) is where the $$$$ is at.

I don't think it's the competition or the reputation that is stopping people from creating their own site. I think it's more of the time, personal goals, and the cost effectiveness of it.

When you talk about creating your own website to sell that is another level of work. Product position, market segmentation, product research, branding, marketing etc.

In conclusion, if people want to sell on eBay let them LOL

[Kylie81]

Originally Posted by comic19

My background is in Publicity- meaning, my clients are well "known" and my job is to keep them well "known" by way of Radio, TV, Print, etc. I use the word "known" in quotations because what is "known" as fact to the masses- is manipulation. My client and my team decide what the public "knows" about my client. We make. You believe.

In almost every act of your daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics, entertainment, or business, in your social conduct or your ethical thinking, you are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who pull the wires which control the public mind.

This is the answer to, what I feel, is a brilliant question.

The person who asked the question "Why use eCommerce platforms" It shows freedom of mind.

In Plato's Republic, each individual was not actually allocated the opportunity to find his own place in life. This was determined by the elite class of philosophers.

The point being- the individiual, or the individuals ability to think, was not as equal to this ruling class. We begin to see the consequences of this "Freedom Quest" as carried out in the trial, guilty verdict, and death of Socrates. His crime? Questioning the accepted norm.

When the question was raised (and I'm paraphrasing)

"why use eCommerce? It is mediocre, small, unfair, and makes cowards of us. Lets change that. Competition? I welcome competition. Conflict and exploitation is a way of life."

And the response? Completely dismissive. The thought of unabashedly imposing ones will upon the world and rising to greatness...well, you know.

I believe we should be asking questions about Google.

Google stays relevant my changing the rules. Controlling the algorithms. Sending "spiders" to read your "content." And then GOOGLE decides who's website will be seen.

Do you realize the implications?

Google has COMPLETE control of the WORLD WIDE INTERNET.

Why is this wrong? Because it's the opposite of Capitalism.

I believe that content is king- I guess we're not assuming it's well written content. Can Google's spiders determine if something is well written, or funny, or profound? When they go to your site, do the spiders appreciate how genuine and customer service oriented the content feels?

Let me put it to you like this....Google is not your customer. Google will never buy **** from you. CUSTOMERS are you CUSTOMERS. We need Customer Optimization. Not Search-engine Optimization.

By the way...this is why I love this website- it's rebels against social pressure and bland conformity with an unbending will.

you know, this sounds really interesting, I've never thought that way, absolutely different angle of viewing things, I've been thinking of the platform itself to blame, not visitors or customers...