Promoting your online business

[*artsbanquet*]

Hi *artsbanquet*

I don't actually cross-promote with our competition, what I try to do is find companies that sell comlementary products - in our case, perfume, shoes, boots, handbags, jewellery etc. That way, we all benefit from each other whilst not actually stepping on each others toes...

ATB
OJ

Yes, that's a good idea. But the Ebay stores cross-promotion facility - does it allow which stores you can cross-promote with? I think it does it automatically. I don't know if anyone understands the particular function I'm referring to. If it can be changed so that we can pick the stores we want to cross-promote with I'd like to do that if it's possible.

[ojleap]

No, you can choose your cross-promotion partners, however, they have to accept your cross-promotion request, and you can only have 10 at anyone time... have a look under Marketing Tools and Cross Promotion Connections if you have a shop there...

[kengillam]

I assume you tell all your ebay buyers that you have a shop here, is there an advantage for them to buy here as customer lethargy comes into play. If you can offer as good a choice and at slightly more competetive prices that is the carrot you should be giving them.

As regard sthe inertia thing all the time they can buy from you over there what is going to motivate them to here, less choice there perhaps. Folk are basically out for an easy life there has to be something in it for them to motivate them to leave eBay.

[*artsbanquet*]

No, you can choose your cross-promotion partners, however, they have to accept your cross-promotion request, and you can only have 10 at anyone time... have a look under Marketing Tools and Cross Promotion Connections if you have a shop there...

Ahhh...I see. Thanks for the clarification.

[*artsbanquet*]

I assume you tell all your ebay buyers that you have a shop here, is there an advantage for them to buy here as customer lethargy comes into play. If you can offer as good a choice and at slightly more competetive prices that is the carrot you should be giving them.

As regard sthe inertia thing all the time they can buy from you over there what is going to motivate them to here, less choice there perhaps. Folk are basically out for an easy life there has to be something in it for them to motivate them to leave eBay.

That's very true. Ebid sellers should try to lower their prices here if possible. However, price is not always the greatest motivation - I suspect that ease of buying and the "feel good" factor of the site may be even more important to some people.

[ojleap]

This is the problem you see - ideally, what all shop owner want is to cut out the middlemen - Ebay / Ebid / Tazbar, because somewhere along the line they are taking a cut, however... what these mediums give you is the volume of traffic cheaply and effectively.

The problem that Tazbar and Ebid are both faced with is that there is simply not the volume of buyers and sellers on them to compete with Ebay.

I do tell people of Ebid when they purchase from Ebay, as well as our website, however, the majority of repeast customers (which we don't get a lot of) will still use Ebay to purchase again. Getting them to swop is nigh on impossible

OJ