My Ecrater Review, eBay alternative

With all the eBay changes announced late January, it finally got me moving into the direction I have been meaning to go for years. While we do use other local venues such as Craig'slist, antique flea markets, dealer contacts, etc....I just never took the time to truly develop another online presence. So, thank you eBay, for kicking good sellers and buyers in the teeth and getting me motivated.

Everyone looking to relocate or open up another shop has to take into account what they sell and if they prefer an auction or flat priced format. We sell vintage collectibles and neat old stuff. We try to stay above the $30 profit margin mark on eBay to get paid for our time and really prefer a store venue. I would love to pass on every cool vintage item, but if I did that, I would need a house four times as big as I have now. And, quite frankly, call me crazy, I like to get paid for the work I put in when listing an item. Due to researching the snot out of things before we list; what we do list has a search ability factor...which is good for google which means exposure. Those are some of my main factors...yours may be different. What works for one, does not work for all.

I looked at Overstock..no..20,000 listings? No thank you. I looked at ubid..no..looked at Ruby Lane, maybe soon, Cyber Attic, maybe soon...iOffer, tried it, slow servers, software glitches....didn't have the feel I was going for, as a main business site, does have 2 million listings and does have potential...... I might list some personal doohickies there, but not our business. Bluejay...no....I started building a store at buyitsell it due to the company being owned by inkfrog. I have used inkfrog auction tools for years and love them. I think this is a great new venue to use like ecrater..more on BISI later.

Then I truly took some time to investigate ecrater more..... I have to say ecrater has by far exceeded my expectations.

It is a no brainer that started over is a pain, it is a no brainer all will have to learn new tricks, it is a no brainer ecrater is not ebay and will require a lot of work to build, but frankly, ebay took a lot of work and has become a royal pain...so what do I have to lose??..... overall, ecrater is a very cool site. There numbers are drastically climbing fast.

Powersellers Unit Auction Count Watch


What I like the most about Ecrater:

• Well, I am mixed on this, but I know many will love it...ecrater is 100% FREE
  

• Ecrater is a venue only. It will NOT get in the middle of seller and buyer issues. While it does actively shut down bad sellers or fake storefronts, it is a a VENUE..what ebay started out as is what ecrater is.

Think of a mall. A mall location is a venue. Each store gets their own space. You deal 100% with the store, not the mall land owner.

• Ecrater is for people who have flat priced store items. No auctions. Ecrater is for people who have things that have a search factor or marketability. Do you have a scrapbook / Pokemon / Makeup , insert your widget here, store on ebay with lots of return customers? Then ecrater may be right for you. Do you have rare items that always sell at a profit you are happy with that can come up on the top page of google? Then ecrater may be right for you. Do you sell in categories with a high sell rate? Then ecrater may be right for you. Are you willing to learn new things and implement those new things to be the best store you can be? Then ecrater may be right for you.
  

• There is a wealth of information in the community threads for those who will take the time to learn new tricks. Meta tag structure, RSS feeds, Squidoo, free advertising sites, promotional ideas, google analytics, and more. Due to ecrater being only three years old; people are used to having to promote their own store by any advertising idea they can grasp. They share a lot of knowledge in their forums.

Now, I have no doubt with the recent eBay shift.....my next favorite will definitely come more into play.

• Ecrater has a common search feature, like eBay. While many long time ecraters seem to downplay this feature because they are used to having to promote their own individual stores; we cannot deny the new shift will greatly increase ecrater exposure and searches through this search function.

Which means; when buyers and possible sellers come to ecrater, they can easily search from all the sellers who use ecrater software. It is a fact people are drawn to and feel safer in a mall like atmosphere..use it to your advantage.

Which means; let's use the store analogy again.

A new mall has 50 spots. Only 10 are filled and this mall gets traffic for these 10 spots alone. Many people drive by with barely a glance because overall it looks so empty.

Now let's fill all 50 spaces. Now the entire mall is filled which brings in lots more traffic. Store A is getting sales because of people who originally came for store C, etc.

Take the whole Starbucks situation. ...Briefly;

Starbucks tried to buy out small moms and pops coffee shops in the venues Starbucks was building in. Many of those moms and pops that stayed had a major boom in their own business due to the traffic Starbucks brought into the mall complex.

Read articles here:

Starbucks good for small businesses

Another Article


What does all this mean for everyone? The more good stores that open, there more that will buy. The more good stores open, the more good stores will attract other good stores. We all need exposure. People = traffic = exposure. Let's not forget sellers are buyers too. I bought 6 things within my first few days of being at ecrater..I refuse to even shop at eBay any longer. It also means you have a much smaller chance of getting lost in google when people can shop through the ecrater search feature.

• Ecrater streamlined software is my next love. They have a very decent program. May not have all the cutsy features some Gymboree Boutiques may want, it is very functional...and FREE.Yes, many will feel it is limited. But you know what? If you have good items /good pictures / fair prices, they sell themselves. I have saved so much time by not worrying about font colors and templates. I really enjoy the simplicity and my store looks good....just click..ok...95% of our inventory has not been moved, one by one yet...but it will be soon, I promise..but overall, I really like the look.
  

The Nostalgic Nugget


They have a great category features, places for terms, about us, etc...and everyone gets to do what is right for them within the laws of the land...wonderful.

• The ability to meta tag into google and other spots. Our items were coming up at the top of google within one day..and I am a brand new baby when it comes to any of this technical stuff.
  

• Ecrater allows 100 spaces, yes, 100 spaces in the title bar. THIS IS A LOT!
  

• Ecrater allows meta tag structure in your pages that REALLY help with searches. Yes, they also give fairly simple tutorials to learn about meta tags as well.
  

• Ecrater allows uploads of more than one photo. I believe the amount is 10, but don't quote me.
  

• Ecrater has RSS feed ability.

• Ecrater does have a bulk upload system from an excel sheet in your computer. I do not use it though.

Things I am not keen on:

• There shopping cart feature needs work. If someone comes through the ecrater search function, selects an item to search, say Fenton, then finds an item they like, clicks on it, adds the item to the cart, if they click the back button, it removes the item from the cart. If they click continue shopping, it takes them to the ecrater home page. When you add this item to your cart and then you go into the seller's store and add more, the first item will be gone from the cart.

Now, I know it does not have to work this way at all. Other venues have the same search feature and when someone clicks on an item, a new page with the store URL opens up and all is good.

I know ecrater is aware of this and I truly believe they are working on getting this fixed.

• Ecrater software does not support flat priced shipping combined items. They do have a good calculated shipping matrix, but for flat rate items, if a buyer has picked out more than one item, they have to complete checkout up to the payment page and what for an invoice from the seller.

BISI has a wonderful program I am hoping ecrater takes on.... It allows sellers to mark items with a *when combined to another item the price will be* feature. I am sincerely hoping ecrater takes this cue.

• Ecrater's feedback program makes little sense. Evidently they added the feature a couple of years ago at the urge of people who had the eBay mentality. This has caused some...contention in the matter.

How it works:

Since this is a store venue, and buyers do not have to have an ecrater account to purchase, only buyers can leave feedback. Fine.

However, only buyers who use Paypal or google checkout, the only two services Ecrater uses right now, can leave feedback. This is good and bad. While is eliminates the ability for people to click and buy and then leave false negs or pos fb, true purchases paid by mail do not count.

Fb count is for the past 12 months. Fine.

There is only one FB comment per entire order, not per item. Fine.

The main issue: the matrix shows a count *unrated items*.

Well, not only does this lead buyers to believe this number reflects total sales, which can easily look like people have nothing good to say since you can see the number of people who have not left feedback. The number also only represents online pay items. So what is the point?

I dunno, I know as a buyer when I was looking for things to buy, before I knew how the system worked; I saw the FB. I saw the number left and the items *sold* and I wondered why so many people bought but did not leave fb...which made me rethink about doing business with that seller.

This is not good and I am hoping ecrater will change this. It makes absolutely no sense.

• Ecrater does not have a bulk import feature for your listings from other places. You do have to list one by one to get your store inventory back up. *Now you know my excuse for not having everything up.*

• My last issue. I wish ecrater would charge SOMETHING. With free sites comes bottom barrel mentality. A lot of people will make stores because they have no money to lose, at any free venue. If ecrater started charging $19.99 a month, I would pay it in a heart beat and I have no doubt many sellers clearing out there kmart closet would close...which would be good for the overall look of any venue. If a dedicated and serious store cannot afford $19.99, something is wrong with that business model.

Now, none of these are deal breakers and I fully, 100% feel Ecrater is a wonderful program. I believe in ecrater, I believe in many of the people who have used their program for a long time and I think it is by far the best choice for systems like it. I think ecrater will definitely be a great choice for many hard working ebayers and support it 100%. You can find the link at the top.