Well it’s been a funny old year for all of us, a very different world and difficult circumstances that have caused pretty much all of us to re-evaluate life and how we go about things. We are no different, its given us cause to take stock of what we are and what we want to do.
We’ve sold on eBay for yonks and yonks ( that’s years and years for those that don’t speak Warmanese) as well as selling on our own site. Gradually it’s started to feel more like we are employees of eBay with a very over bearing boss who controls our every breath than masters of our own tiddly destiny. We’ve been a Top Rated Seller on there for 10 years plus with a huge feedback score etc but Oh My Word do you have to jump through administrative hoops and increasing costs to do so and maintain their sparkly badge of honour.
It also causes a nightmare on stock as we have to split our physical stock between our site and the eBay store meaning that at times our own site is short on stock – that’s the place where our loyal customers shop – and the eBay store has stock for casual one off buyers. It’s something that has always griped us.I could go on as the list is huge as to things that aren’t quite right but…………..
In short – it does my head in.
So we are going to try a little experiment.
We’ve currently suspended the eBay store for a month and will only be selling through our own website during this period. Our own site has always sold at around 10% less than the eBay price and increasingly people have started to realise this. Hopefully more and more will do so as the weeks roll by.
We are still very much alive and kicking and active, just concentrating on direct sales through our own site rather than running round like headless chickens satisfying the hunger of eBays coffers