Power Sellers Unite

bangkok bint · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 37

Well, I tried ECrater yesterday. Wasn't too thrilled that every store looks pretty much the same and their template design is horrible but figured I could live with it.

But, once I started to set it up it just became an exercise in futility.

Their shipping options are ludicrous - for instance, I couldn't choose to just do flat shipping to anywhere, even though that's how I run my business - same price to anywhere as all my items are shipped international airmail and the prices are very similar. So then I had to start going thru that ridiculous shipping chart, manually adding the rate for EVERY country I ship to.

Then I tried to upload product, and tried and tried and tried. Couldn't get one single item to finish loading so I finally gave up.

I guess you get what you pay for - LOL - and that's exactly what I got. Nuthin'.

Glad it's working for some of you, but it's not something I'm going to struggle with. Plus, the services that are free scare me. They've no incentive to stay in business and all your hardwork can go down the drain when they suddenly decide they're not in business anymore.

Nikkicute · Joined: 27 Jul 2005 Posts: 879

Don't give up so easliy!! :(
Did you go to the ecrater chat boards and ask for help?

bangkok bint · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 37

Nikki, no, I've got really limited time at the moment and spending 2 hours to get absolutely nowhere was frustrating. It just doesn't sit well with me when the first time I get on a site to try something and the site isn't working properly. It certainly doesn't make me want to go back.

I even checked other websites to make sure it wasn't my internet connection that wasn't working correctly, but every other website access was fine - just ecrater - could get on fine, could change certain specifications fine, but couldn't upload a product for love or money :-)

It's a pity, because it is nice to have a free service available but not if that service wastes too much of my time with little reward.

2ndhandrosefrommo · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 456

Hi,I have been at ecrater for a while without a sale but a lot of people are having sales there. If you state on your website that shipping is free why don't you put your items on ecrater that way and forget about the shipping chart? E-You,Later!

bangkok bint · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 37

2ndhandrose, thanks - I think, if I go back to ecrater, that's what I'm going to have to do.

I really wanted to run one site WITH shipping included and one site with shipping ADDITIONAL and sort of do a side-by-side comparison to see if shipping can affect sales. But, with the way ecrater is set up, it doesn't look like that's going to be a time-efficient option unfortunately.

Now, all I have to do is figure out why I can't get a single product to upload onto ecrater - I'll try again now and see if it's any different.

By the way, thanks for the fast replies. I only joined PSU yesterday but what a nice group of people you are :-)

princessmirandajo · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 341

Give it a go another day. eCrater is great, well it used to be. My sales have slowed and the site has been timing out almost every time I use it lately. Seems eCrater's having some trouble with all the products listed. BUMMER!

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

I use flat-rate shipping for my items there. All I do is put in weight - 0, then select flat-rate shipping as it applies - US, AK, HI, Can....

I do not use the shipping thing they have - way too complicated for me! I'm sure sorry it gave you headaches - that does stink when time is limited and ya get nowhere ... Been there and done that (but not on eCrater).

It's very strange that some are having issues and some aren't...I can't figure that one out - :? :roll: :cry: !!

dreamweaver · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 103

I do the same as Erin. I just put the weight in and put in a flat shipping. I only ship to US mainland, Hawaii, Alaska and Canada though.

I can't figure out their matrix either so don't even try. I like ecrater though and have had more sales than anywhere else. You can make the store different by putting in different pictures etc.

Joyce

kathyscorner · Joined: 28 Apr 2005 Posts: 610

I am so glad to hear others had some trouble with the shipping, I resorted to Flat Rate too, after staring at the matrix information for quite a while!

Overall though I am thrilled with the ease of getting it all up and running. I was able to upload all the pictures into all the right places fairly easily. And I am a true technomoron, my poor PSU store is still just a shambles.

At first I wasn't sure about the look of the pages, but I am already coming to really like them. When the site stays uniform like that, the merchandise automatically becomes the star feature on the pages, which is what we all need to make sales.

A site without all the bells and whistles is actually very nice I think. I had seen a few people post in these threads about their sucess, and figured there really was nothing to lose. Even hooking into Google checkout was pretty easy.

I started Sunday morning, and now have a store all opened for business. It's just a matter of getting pictures done now. I am really happy with ecrater so far!

BTW, I have a new name over there, it's an idea I've been sitting on a while. And I think I finally found the place.
www.retroworldUSA.ecrater.com

lightning_lash · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 367

For me it is the same as Erin said. I enter 0 for weight, click on the “fixed shipping to” dot and then enter the shipping cost for the item. It is easier for me than others, as most of my items ship media mail, and the cost is the same for all 50 states. I always put the shipping cost in the description also. I do not offer international shipment on ecrater, but I would make exceptions for items with a price high enough to make it worth my time to stand in line at the post office.

bangkok bint · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 37

Sorry guy, I finally just deleted my ecrater store this morning. Couldn't get a product description uploaded for ages. Finally got one description uploaded but it didn't upload the photo. Tried that several times but the photo wouldn't upload. So, three hours of my life I'll never get back later, I deleted it.

I'll just stick with my website. Items and photos upload in less than 3 seconds and I love my site because it's so pretty :-)

princessmirandajo · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 341

Those of you who use flat rate shipping, beware that if you don't have your matrix set up and you ship internationally, your international buyers will be charged $0 for shipping.

frontporchdreaming · Joined: 16 Sep 2006 Posts: 877 Location: s/e USA

Agree with everyone about the shipping matrix (too complicated for me). I use flat rate too and put a blurp in my descriptions that I recalculate using buyers zip code and will send an invoice showing adjustments as it MAY be less than shown. Some people just pay anyway, some wait for the invoice.

My only real problems at Ecrater are I have a horror trying to post to their forum and also took me forever to set up my categories and subcategories (computer illiterate here).

I do like the ease of listing there and even tho the site is no bells & whistles, I think the speed of listing more than compensates for the bells!

The things I really like about Ecrater is they seem to come up quicker and higher in google than other sites and most important to me, they have a GREAT search system. I'm finding that some of the smaller sites searches are near useless.

Sorry you had problems getting going bangkok. I don't sell internationally just because I think the shipping is so complicated and time consuming to estimate. I sold to Canada & Australia on feebay but really never felt the number of sales I got justified the extra time used figuring postage, not for me anyway.

bangkok bint · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 37

Well.....COMPLETELY IGNORE WHAT I SAID EARLIER. I LOVE ECRATER :-)

I deleted my ecrater store yesterday and then decided to give it one more shot, re-opened it and it worked!!

So last night, I designed my store, designed a logo, uploaded a home page photograph, loaded 36 items with photos, wrote the About Us, Terms and Contact pages, got keywords added and a whole lot of other things and IT ONLY TOOK ME THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

Unbelievable!! What a great service. I'm soooooo happy with my ecrater store :-)

I'll be adding about 150 new items over the next few days, but check it out and let me know what you think....

Michelle

princessmirandajo · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 341

bangkok bint wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")Well.....COMPLETELY IGNORE WHAT I SAID EARLIER. I LOVE ECRATER :-)

I deleted my ecrater store yesterday and then decided to give it one more shot, re-opened it and it worked!!

So last night, I designed my store, designed a logo, uploaded a home page photograph, loaded 36 items with photos, wrote the About Us, Terms and Contact pages, got keywords added and a whole lot of other things and IT ONLY TOOK ME THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

Unbelievable!! What a great service. I'm soooooo happy with my ecrater store :-)

I'll be adding about 150 new items over the next few days, but check it out and let me know what you think....

Michelle

R. O. F. L.

hilarious! your store is awesome, love your stuff. Welcome to eCrateR!!!