If you sell products online, you’ve no doubt wondered about eBay and
Amazon. Is it worth it to set up shop on either of these sites, given
the steep commissions they charge?
I’ve been managing my client’s e-commerce on Amazon for the past five
years and on eBay for the past three. Both sites sell a good number of
his many automotive accessories. But the price he pays, along with
numerous accompanying annoyances, make it a questionable relationship at
best.
What They Charge
First, to stay competitive, we offer free continental U.S. shipping
on both sites which can range anywhere from a few dollars to $35-$40 per
order depending on weight. Amazon then takes 12 percent of the total
cost. With eBay, which has an incredibly confusing system of fees and
charges, it’s next to impossible to figure out what it is getting per
item. After wading through the murky waters of its monthly listing fees,
I figure a $100 item costs my client $11.20 or 11.2 percent. Add to
that the three percent PayPal fee he must pay when buyers charge their
accounts. What’s left must cover his manufacturing costs, company
overhead and taxes.
Buyers are Protected; Sellers are Suspect
Although my client sells his products on his own website as well,
with many fewer complications, when he sells on eBay or Amazon, buyers
seem to have more reasons to complain. “The product was not what they
expected.” “The product didn’t fit the vehicle as described.” “The
product arrived damaged.”
Both eBay and Amazon stand behind their buyers, putting the fear of
God into sellers who will end up with a bad rating if an issue goes
unresolved. It’s easy to stipulate in your company policies that the
buyer must pay return shipping. But when it comes down to a problem
where the customer says the seller is at fault, it is easier and safer
to just pay the return shipping and get rid of the problem.
Bad seller ratings can devastate a business.
Sellers: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
One morning I opened my e-mail to learn that a large Asian automobile
manufacturer for which many of my client’s products are made to fit had
alerted eBay that one of my client’s listings was counterfeit and was
infringing on its copyright. eBay promptly removed our listing and
provided the e-mail of the source of the complaint. After conferring
with my client’s lawyer, we decided to just ignore this incident and
relist the item, which the lawyer had confirmed was totally valid and
legal in every way. With some 130 other listings on eBay all presented
in a similar way, we worried that next we might see all of our listings
removed without warning. We have heard nothing of this issue since.
Questionable Technical Support
Of the numerous problems we have encountered on Amazon, the most
frustrating has been our inability to get our 180 to 200 products listed
in the automobile part finder search engine. For years we’ve been
trying to determine the cause of this roadblock. Amazon first claimed
our listings were non-compliant with their listing format. Yet, after
all were corrected, the products still did not enter the part finder. We
were recently told that our products needed to have UPC codes. My
client obediently paid the $1,500 annual fee to the national registrar,
and I promptly registered our first 20 products.
After much waiting and further pleas to the Amazon help desk, those
parts failed to enter the part finder. We were then told our products
had to be included in the American Aftermarket Association’s ACES
database, the implementation of which would require the engagement of a
specialist. It was then my job to provide him with a very detailed
spreadsheet database of every product specification so he could
re-scramble that information into an XML file to ultimately submit to
Amazon. Once again, after paying his fee and submission of his 500-plus
product file (since every color variation must have its own file), we
find ourselves still not in the part finder. This time we were told
there was a disagreement of data in the specification of our brand name.
Having added a missing space in our company name to be consistent with
older Amazon records that are now obsolete, our specialist resubmitted
our data and we await the results. With so much time, effort and money
spent for the purpose of this goal, it hardly seems likely that our
sales can possibly increase enough to justify all these expenses, even
if we do manage to get in the part finder this time.
Out of Touch with Reality
On eBay, whose listing template includes a compatibility chart, we
cannot specify that our accessories will fit the 2013 car models until
January 2013. Yet, anyone shopping for a vehicle can purchase a 2013
model as early as August 2012. Although eBay suggests that we include
text in our listing confirming the 2013 fit, not a day passes when a
buyer distrusts our listing because it does not confirm the 2013 fit in
the compatibility chart.
While I have to admit communicating with the eBay support staff is
far easier than that of Amazon, satisfying results are still hard to
accomplish on both sites. Usually eBay phone reps must confer with
background technicians who rarely have solutions to problems. But unlike
Amazon which keeps phone contact mysteriously impossible, a live eBay
rep can be reached by phone within as little as two minutes. That is
reassuring, at least.
When Hurricane Sandy hit us hard this month, eBay offered exceptional
assistance in protecting sellers from customer shipping delay
ramifications. Amazon offered no such support. I personally was without
electric, heat, hot water, phone and Internet access for six full days.
Our inventory was flooded and UPS shipping was temporarily suspended.
Luckily I was able to post a note on our website in time to alert buyers
that delays were unpredictable before our power was rudely cut off.
Inconveniences Galore!
Because eBay stipulates that we must keep our total listings under a
certain maximum dollar value, I must monitor our sales on a daily basis
to safeguard against delisting if we sell out. For instance, with many
of our products priced between $100 and $300, we can only list an
available quantity of two or three of each so our 130 products don’t
exceed our total monthly allowance. If a product delists, we have to pay
a relisting fee when reinstated. If I catch it before it delists (at a
quantity of one available), there is no relisting fee charged. During
the Hurricane power outage, my Internet access was dependent on using my
local library’s Wi-Fi that sometimes could not accommodate me due to an
overcrowded bandwidth. As a result, I was not always on time to prevent
delisting. Fortunately, Amazon has no such requirements for our 200
products, allowing me to assign a quantity of 50 items or more per
listing, which is much more convenient.
Please, Release Me!
However, unique to Amazon and inexplicably obtuse, if you want to
change any of your company policy information, you must first set up a
“release date.” And you cannot release any of your changes until you
“approve” your release. You cannot approve a release unless you have a
future release date set up simultaneously. Huh? After five years of
consternation about this illogical, cumbersome system, I still stumble
through the process whenever I need to update our returns or shipping
policies.
Yet I can set up a sale on a moment’s notice without the need to release anything.
Template Differences Affect Your Sales Appeal
Although eBay has a template which controls listing format, it offers
an area where you can present your photos and text however you prefer
as well as add interactive links to related pages or documents
associated with the product.
Amazon’s format is very rigid and does not allow use of interactive
links or design formatting of any kind. In fact, within the last year,
Amazon terminated use of its relatively easy online listing template.
This was replaced by the need to use a temperamental Excel
Spreadsheet format that habitually prevents successful upload due to
coding errors out of the user’s control. My only recourse when that
happens is to keep removing the offensive items until the file finally
uploads and then restore the missing information or photos separately.
Thank goodness that works.
However, neither site allows global management of all listing data.
This means that each of our 330 files must be edited separately, which
becomes a monumental job when quick changes are needed.
Changes made to an eBay listing are evident immediately. Changes to
an Amazon listing can take up to 12 hours to appear – not too efficient
if you’ve just sold out of something.
Several days ago, when our website server went down for a few hours,
eBay could not access any photos, logos, referenced documents or links
associated with our website, leaving our product pages eerily empty.
Amazon did not suffer the same consequences since all of our artwork is
uploaded to their server, not accessed from ours.
Search Engine Considerations
If I search Google for any of the products my client sells, his
website comes up at the top of Page 1. If I add the words “on eBay” or
“on Amazon,” his listings on each respective site are at the top of the
list. Preferring to sell from his own website first, since that is most
profitable and customers usually pay shipping (unless we have a sale
with free shipping), he is quite pleased with his search rankings.
My client also appreciates that eBay and Amazon have their own
legions of followers who enjoy the safety of customer protection and
intervention in case of a problem. This is one of the main reasons he
agreed to set up extensive stores on each site.
Despite the many difficulties associated with selling on eBay and
Amazon, I believe my client is resigned to continuing with them because
his notoriety on Google has compounded exponentially as a result of his
associations with these Internet behemoths. While he makes very little
from product sales on these sites, his presence could be considered free
advertising to an entire planet of customers.
Someday he may capitalize on the many global requests he gets now by
setting up an international distribution network that would allow him to
offer his products worldwide.
Until then, both eBay and Amazon provide us with excellent exposure
we could never afford to purchase, sometimes netting us a small profit
in the process. By staying cognizant of customer feedback on both sites,
we’ve maintained fairly high seller ratings as well as good reviews. It
may take a little extra effort but, in the long run, I’d say both sites
serve a very good purpose.
Marilyn Bontempo, Post from: SiteProNews
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Selling on eBay and Amazon