Online purchases. The choice between ebay or a private website
For the majority of people buying online the numerous amount of retail websites in existence provides a daunting task when it comes to choosing which one to buy from.
A search for the item you wish to purchase will throw up thousands of results. It is fairly common knowledge that the average person only scans the first page of the search results which will usually show the major high street stores who also happen to have a website, however, the search results, more often than not, show the item as an ebay link.
In the last few years many sellers on ebay have complained about being given a raw deal by the company. High fees being the predominant complaint. Buyers on ebay may not realise how much it costs a seller to actually sell the item to the buyer.
To begin with there is the insertion fee, the amount paid for listing an item for a period of time from a few days up to a maximum of 30 days. The final value fee, which at present is a little under 10% of the value of the item purchased and finally the paypal fee, the amount paid by the seller to paypal for handling the financial part of the transaction, this is approximately 3%
Add up all these fees to the wholesale cost of the item and the profit margin for the seller is extremely low, especially as most sellers use a mark up percentage of only 50% - 60% in order to be competitive with other sellers.
Compare that with the cost of running a private website and most webmasters will tell you that it is far cheaper to own an independent website, indeed many ebay sellers are leaving the site and setting up their own websites in the hope of making a decent profit.
We must not forget that, unlike the person working for an employer and receiving a weekly wage or monthly salary, the online retailer is self employed and relies solely on part of the profits from their business to provide them with an income. No sales, no income.
Despite the many independent websites selling all sorts of quality items, buyers still seem drawn to ebay at the expense of the private website. Why?
Do they, the buyers, feel more protected by ebay because of its safety policies and huge size in terms of a company?
Is it an easier site to use than private websites? maybe it is just easier to type in the ebay address, or click on the ebay bookmark, than search through the endless pages of search engine results.
I have had to open an ebay store to compliment the Oaktree Home and Garden website, my sales on ebay have increased noticeably since adding a link to my ebay store on the Oaktree homepage.
Like other ebay sellers who have independent websites, the prices on the websites are, in general, cheaper than the same items which appear on ebay yet still people flock to ebay.
Happy Shopping.