Originally Posted by
Cancelcollector
Rankings are nifty, but tell only part of an overall picture.
The world's second largest online auction site (which many here have probably never heard of) is Delcampe.net, based in Belgium. It's a "specialty" site, however... stamps, coins, books, paper collectibles. It currently has a little over 41 million listings and 600,000+ members. Like eBid, it has free listings (FVF only, except for listing upgrades); like eBid, it has a "premium" seller program; like eBid, it has been around for a long time (since 2000); like eBid, it has multiple free-standing country/region sites and like eBid, its primary domain is a ".net" not a ".com" (although they do own the dot-com and use it as the landing page for the US site).
UN-like eBid, the monthly number of "sold items" runs in excess of 600,000.
And yet? Their Alexa rating is in the 17,000s.
How is this possible? Well, for one, their "bounce rate" (e.g. percentage of users who load only ONE page and move on, rather than stay on the site) is only 19%-- eBid's is in the mid-30% range. Second, their average visitor looks at 15+ pages-- eBid's looks at around 10. Third, their traffic is relevant/targeted... not "just traffic."
I bring this up because (A) it seems like a more reasonable comparison than eBay (B) perhaps it is more prudent to learn from another "alt" site that has done very well.... with MANY sellers who have gained feedback ratings in the 10,000, 20,000, even 50,000+ range selling ONLY on that site.
I've been selling there since 2003... and it was VERY slow in the early going. However, as soon as revenues from sales started to ramp up, the company founder invested heavily in server capacity, bandwidth and generating targeted global awareness of the site, both through printed specialty media and online venues. Which, I might add, paid off quite well.
Bottom line, really... if you've got good and desirable merchandise at a fair price, it should sell. If it doesn't, there's a good chance something is not right with your selling method. Or venue. Or auction site you're using. One the other hand, if you're offering the 373rd copy of the same used book 372 other sellers have on offer, then the web site/auction site is not at fault... it's probably your sales strategy that needs to be examined.
Maybe that sounds harsh... but when I look at people who enjoy success with online sales, they tend to be highly "differentiated and specialized;" that is, they take a small niche and do it really, really, really well... often with some kind of approach nobody else is using. I think the days of being able to make an income from simply "selling stuff online" are long gone.
Well, I've probably been too outspoken, already...
Cheers,
~Peter