I am looking into moving my business away from eBay and Amazon as their fees are constantly cutting into my profits.

Does anyone have any valid alternatives? I know they're the biggest sellers out there but there must be something else that offers better deals and helps out cutting away seller fees or similars.

Have you tried Google Product Search? It's becoming increasingly popular, and they don't charge to list products (Google Product Search for US and Google Product Search for UK).

Also, while it's good to search for new sales avenues and increase traffic, you should also consider nurturing your existing customers. A person who buys from you once is, on average, 70% more likely to buy from you again than a person who has never bought from you. It's therefore sensible to optimize your relationship with your existing customers before you seek new ones.

For example, when a new customer buys from you, consider sending a survey to gather information on his preferences in your industry (for example, "Which sport are you most enthusiastic about?", and then based on his answer try to understand which aspect of the sport is most important, or which position they play in). You can later send them highly relevant newsletters related to their specific interest, demonstrate that you care about informing the customer only about his specific interest, and surely you are much more likely to get a sale then, or a recommendation.

Hello prosilverlining,

I have to agree with Admin ! "Google Product Search" is an excellent tool and they do not charge any fee.

To answer your question, you might want to take a look at a few other sites.

For US resellers:

Bidville Auctions (also know as uBid)

To start selling on Ubid, visit: Enable Holdings - Sellers

uBid has recently announced that their business is growing exponentially due to increased fees on Ebay. It doesn't charge any listing fee but does apply extremely reasonable fees when the auction closes.
Is currently considered Ebay's biggest rival.


PriceGrabber (who recently partnered with Yahoo Auctions)

To sell on PriceGrabber visit: PriceGrabber.com

The latter is particularly useful as it allows access from your mobile phone through a Blackberry /Iphone App. and this means you'll be potentially reaching far more clients than on other auction sites. Unfortunately as of January 2010 it started charging listing fees, but not closing fees, which is still quite interesting since it won't cut into your profits too much.


Bonanzle

To sell on Bonanzle visit: https://www.bonanzle.com/booths/sell_splash

A real contender to eBay, offers lower selling fees (about 75% lower) than eBay and has a more social approach to selling. For a list of reasons why you should be selling on Bonanzle, visit: Top 10 Reasons To Bonanzle - Bonanzle


Craig's List

Visit: craigslist classifieds: jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, events, forums

The largest classified ads site in the US. Inevitably attracts scammers like many other classified ads sites, however it also attracts huge traffic. Also, because it attracts scammers, it has great potential for selling to local customers who, knowing that some craigslist listings are fraudulent, wish to pick up goods personally or inspect goods before completing their purchase. Craigslist also forces you to list items by location, a restriction that increases its geographic relevance. Craigslist only charges a fixed fee to list in some categories (the more popular a category, the more likely it is that there will be a charge, and that the charge will be higher).


ShopWiki

Visit: ShopWiki (available for US, UK, Australia, France, Deutschland, Nederland, Espana, Ireland)

Offers aggregator, similar to Google Product Search but with more advanced search features for buyers. Free to list.


eBid

To sell on eBid visit: Listing An Auction

eBid works on a membership basis. If you are a regular seller, you simply buy a seller membership for the length of time for which you require it, and you can sell unlimited products with no listing fees and no final value fees. They also tend to favor sellers just as much as buyers. Main disadvantage is that traffic is low.


Wigix

To sell on Wigix visit: Wigix.com - Keeping Fees at Bay

Entirely free to list and sell, but it's attracting quite a lot of counterfeit goods listings.


iOffer

To sell on iOffer visit: iOffer: A Place to Buy, Sell & Trade

Like Wigix, you can list on iOffer entirely free, however you will need to pay a finaly value fee for successfully sold items. Like Wigix, this site is also attracting a lot of counterfeit goods listings, therefore beware.


Etsy

To sell on Etsy.com visit: Etsy :: How To Sell on Etsy

If you make your own goods (ie handicrafts) this is the ideal venue to resell them.


Your own web site

If you decide to go for a store, you can go for the free ecommerce store offered on eSources, or if you sell through a multiplatform, may I suggest you look into Ecommerce Solution: Create a Free Online Store and Sell with eBay software, Amazon & More. Their fees are extremely competitive if you are able to keep you customer base; in fact listings fee are always free, you can sell at the same time on different websites and also, the more you sell, the lower the Marketplace selling fee commission.


Other options:

https://auctions.overstock.com/cgi-bin/auctions.cgi?PAGE=REGISTER
https://www.ecrater.com/login.php
The SOC Exchange
https://www.onlineauction.com/beta/register/seller/index
Choose a Category
Wensy.com Online Auction - Free Online Auction Site



For UK Resellers:

Play.com PlayTrade

To sell on Play.com visit: Play.com (UK): DVDs, Music CDs, MP3s, Video Games, Books, Electronics & Gadgets - Free Delivery

Play.com focuses on offering a resale platform for Games, DVDs, CDs and Books. It's also a popular UK online retailer; they will position your listings in comptition with their own (very much like Amazon), thus sending as much traffic as possible to resellers listings. Their fees are available at Play.com (UK): DVDs, Music CDs, MP3s, Video Games, Books, Electronics & Gadgets - Free Delivery


CQOut

To sell on CQOut visit: https://www.cqout.com/user_login.asp?go=sell.asp&ctrm=176

The UK's second largest auction site.


eBid

To sell on eBid visit: Listing An Auction

eBid works on a membership basis. If you are a regular seller, you simply buy a seller membership for the length of time for which you require it, and you can sell unlimited products with no listing fees and no final value fees. They also tend to favor sellers just as much as buyers. Main disadvantage is that traffic is low.


Gumtree

To sell on Gumtree visit: Jobs, Cars, Property, Free Classifieds and More - Gumtree.com

It's free to list on Gumtree, with paid options for premium positions. The fact that it is free attracts quite a lot of scam listings, therefore over time buyers are likely to be less responsive to offers posted on this site, although it still accounts for a large percentage of deal making online.


iBootSale

To sell on iBootSale visit: iBootSale - Register

It's the quivalent of a car boot sale, but online. Good to sell unwanted stuff.


Ad Trader

To sell on Ad Trader visit: Ad Trader classifieds, Free local classified ads with images ads online now.

Free classified ads site, similar to Gumtree


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All these sites have over a million listings, and this number seems to be getting stronger. I know that probably compared with Ebay's average 12 million listings each day you'll think potential costumers will overlook them but in my experience quantity does not always equal quality. I do in fact believe these sites might just have a more flexible selling scheme than eBay, and they are likely to attract many more potential bidders / costumers over time.

Remember to check that the selling platform offers a method to secure buyers payments, such as PayPal or any other Escrow payment option. Also, and like on eBay, make sure that the platform you sell on offers a Seller's Feedback summary that lets buyers make a jusdgement on sellers before purchasing. Such a tool is an indication that the web site cares about the buyers experience, and buyers are therefore more responsive to sellers offers as a result.

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As a final note, there are many eBay sellers who overlook eBay's potential as a list building tool, rather than just an instant profit tool. If you find eBay is not a profitable option, in many cases it's because the competitors in the market sector you have chosen are using eBay to build a customer list. They consider eBay an advertising / customer acquisition cost, and then they market to the list outside of eBay for subsequent purchases. Repeat customers can be great spenders, and good marketers know this.

What exactly do you sell, or do you sell a little bit of everything? I know of a few places but I am not sure if they are niche specific or not.

You can try Kenzy's Online Auction Links Page, it offers a large list of online auction sites by industry, however many of these secondary auction sites are likely to have minimal traffic.

If you go anywhere else, be sure to take your customers with you. If you don't, then your new found lack of traffic will cut into your profits more than anyone's fees do.

Try splitting up your sales between different sites and wait to see which one gets you the most traffic. It would be better, I think, than putting all your eggs in one brand new basket.

I sold on ebay a few years ago and I want to get back into selling at online auctions again. I'll be checking out some of the auction sites that are listed. Is anyone here currently selling on any of them? I'd really like to get more information about them if I can. It's tempting to sell on ebay, but maybe starting off with another that has lower fees/costs would be better.

Hi Sally,

Bonanzle and Addoway are two sales platforms which are growing in popularity. They currently offer free listings because they want to grow their user base.

Is there any platform in particular you would like feedback on? There have been quite a few mentioned in a post above: http://www.wholesaleforum.com/ebay-a....html#post1404

You should also try Google Product Search, it's free and it attracts increasing interest from searchers and buyers.

I'll start checking out the sites that are listed and it looks like I'll be busy for a while. I keep saying I'm going to sell on ebay, but if I could find another venue that would generate good sales and avoid ebay's fees, I'd certainly try one or more. Does anyone know if any of the sites listed are geared toward crafts and homemade items? I know I saw a site a few years ago that was. If no one knows of any, I'll see if I can find some while I'm gathering information about sites that are already posted here and add them to the thread.

The information in this thread is very helpful to me and I'm sure others who are starting out or wanting to switch to another site. Thanks to everyone who posted it!