Looking at what is the best marketplace for your product sales I looked at the Seller Choice Awards. This is done with sellers submitting their favorite venue for selling their products. Below is how these polls turned out, about 2,800 sellers participated.
AuctionBytes 2011 Sellers Choice Ratings
(Ratings were by profitablity, customer service, communitcation, ease of use, and recommended)
Marketplace Overall Rating:
1. Artfire 8.2
2. Webstore.com 8.1
3. Rubylane 7.4
4. Bonanza 7.0
5. eBid.net 6.8
6. Amazon 6.1
7. Oztion 6.1
8. Atomic Mall 5.9
9. eCrater 5.8
10. Etsy 5.4
11. Craigslist 5.3
12. Tias.com 4.8
13. Zibbet.com 4.8
14. eBay 4.2
15. Blujay 3.8
16. iOffer 3.6
How It Broke Down - Profitability
Webstore.com scored highest on profitability, followed by ArtFire and RubyLane.
Customer Service
ArtFire scored highest on Customer Service, followed by Webstore.com, Bonanza, RubyLane and eBid.net.
Communication
How would you rate (marketplace name)'s communication with you as a seller?" ArtFire scored highest on Communication, followed by Webstore.com, RubyLane, Bonanza and eBid.net.
Ease of Use
Webstore.com scored highest on Ease of Use, followed by ArtFire, RubyLane, Bonanza, eBid.net and Craigslist.
Recommended Selling Venue
"How likely are you to recommend (marketplace name) as a Selling venue to a friend or colleague?" ArtFire and WebStore.com scored highest on Recommended Selling Venue, followed by RubyLane.
Here is the summary from the polls:
Each marketplace is unique, a marketplace may be particularly strong in one particular area - stamps and coins, for example - so sellers should take this into account when evaluating each marketplace.
Marketplaces can also be classified into a number of categories: auction, fixed-price, classifieds or storefronts, and some offer a mix of formats.
In addition to the overall rating, two of the most useful features of this survey are the last question - "How likely are you to recommend (marketplace name) as a selling venue to a friend or colleague?" (Artfire, Webstore and RubyLane scored highest on this) and comments from sellers.
Notes about findings:
1. Artfire:
ArtFire came in first place with an overall rating of 8.2 on a scale of 1 to 10. Its highest marks were for Communication (8.63). While its is lowest marks were for Profitability (6.64), that was second highest score among all the marketplaces. "I feel it has a lot of potential, especially with its connection to social networks," wrote one respondent. Another said, "They allow me to promote all of my other venues: my website, my other shops, my Google blog and I can blog right on their site too."
4 Bonanza
Bonanza came in fourth place with an overall rating of 7.0 on a scale of 1 to 10. Its highest marks were for Ease of Use (7.6) - "Bonanza presents the simplest method to post a new or duplicate listing with multiple photos; does not require off-site photo hosting or charge for photos in listings," seller's response.
7. Amazon
Amazon came in seventh place with an overall rating of 6.1 on a scale of 1 to 10. Its highest marks were for Ease of Use (6.51). Amazon's lowest marks were for profitability (5.48) - comments revealed that some respondents felt fees were too high, others felt prices realized were too low.
"Fees are on the high side. AZ does not provide enough shipping allowance to cover international sales," stated a seller.
10. Etsy
Etsy came in tenth with an overall score of 5.4. Its highest marks were for Ease of Use (6.34) and its lowest marks were for Customer Service (5.08). " In 5 months I made more sales on etsy than I did on eBay, craigslist and bonanza altogether." "Constant listing and re-listing is necessary to remain visible on Etsy, which can result in a substantial monthly fee. Certain sellers seem to be favoured and are featured ad nauseum by admin," said one seller.
11. Craigslist
Craigslist came in eleventh place with an overall rating of 5.3. Its highest marks were for Ease of Use (6.89) and its lowest marks were for Communication (4.0). "You need to jump a few hoops and put up with some spam, but it keeps it really local and quick," wrote one respondent. "Too many spammers, criminals, and rip off artists, but it is free and local, and you can sell livestock!" Lots of professional sellers too.
14. Ebay Ebay came in fourteenth place with an overall rating of 4.2. It lowest rating was for Customer Service (3.44) and its highest was for Ease of Use (5.52). Despite complaints, many respondents commented positively on eBay's high traffic, though there were even more comments about high fees. "Very expensive but does have a lot traffic," and "Ebay is still the #1 place to sell. They get the most traffic," stated a seller.
The bottom line is you have to decide what is the best venue for selling your particular items. I personally like Etsy and Artfire for handmade and for everything else I vote for Bonanza!
Source: auctionbytes.com
