I was browsing around some of the “other” marketplaces this weekend and found this interesting. According to a ShopHandmade comparison…
Cost: 35¢ per month per item plus 12% of sales
eBay’s 12% commission is the highest anywhere, making it an expensive place to sell.
Because this venue sells everything from televisions to handmade items to condoms it is not a place that people seeking arts and crafts would normally visit. eBay is known to sellers to be a price-sensitive commodity-driven marketplace.
Cost: 20¢ per item plus 3.5% of sales
This market has grown so large that each of its 200,000 sellers quickly get buried. List an item and within a day it will typically be on page 100.
The remedy is to pay another 20¢ listing fee on each item bring it back to the top of the haystack for another day; but the cost of that is $6 a month per item, making this venue more costly than even eBay.
It almost seems that this venue intentionally buries items to force 20¢ relistings with their limited searching and difficult page switching features. 40% of all items listed will remain unsold after 4 months, according to their own statistics.
Cost: $20 Absolutely Free $7 per month
This new venue is still trying to find itself. According to Quantcast market research “This site attracts a less affluent audience”*.
Many of the claims of this site lack credibility:
- They claim to be “absolutely free.” This is true only if you ignore the monthly and other fees or get your friends to sign up for $70 a month in non-free services.
- They tout their massive advertising program, but in truth it seems to have little reality; they hype their 2-million ad views but this has a value under $800 which is hardly much at all. While they “plan” on a $7 Million to $10 Million advertising campaign they don’t actually seem to have the funding or the advertising contracts for it. In short, this site has a significant “reality distortion field” in operation. That is, the truth seems to be more than the typical distance from the claims.
Somehow Dawanda was overlooked…
Cost: Free (until January 2009) plus 5% of sales
Listing your items is currently free but they are planning to introduce a small listing fee per item in the future.
“We have not decided upon the date yet - we are planning to introduce such fees once DaWanda has reached a certain size and number of buyers. In any case, we will not charge listing fees before January 1st 2009.”
I’ve heard that listing fees are already being implemented on the German side of the site. In addition, when you sell an item they charge you 5% commission on the sales price of the item sold.
Free to list for now, but not forever.
Now looking at what ShopHandmade has to offer…
Cost: Free with Sponsorship (during Beta?)
ShopHandmade claims to be 100% free since their sponsorship program pay for most if not all of the listing costs. But there are lfees. There is a 25¢ fee for every item that you list for sale for up to one month. You can “top-Up” your listing for 25¢ at any time and this will move your listing to the top again.
Sponsors have volunteered to pay all or part of your listing fee. With 100% sponsorship the entire 25¢ fee is paid for you, and you can sell your item for free. With 50% sponsorship your cost is only 12¢ to list an item for sale. When you list an item you can choose if you want the listing to be sponsored or not–if you do you get the benefits offered by that sponsor.
Sponsors do not cover the top up fee.
“You can sell items fee-free through ShopHandmade. Sponsors will pay all or part of the listing fees during our beta program.”
What happens after the Beta period is over?
And there’s us…
Cost: Free plus 2.5% of sales… or $5 per month all-inclusive
WinkElf has two packages available. There’s a free basic store package with no listing fees, no limits and a small 2.5% selling only fee. Upgrades are available for those who want more exposure on the site, but all upgrades are optional. You can list for one week or one month so no topping up is necessary.
There’s also an all-inclusive store package for a flat $5.00/month fee… not a special promotion… everyday. Featured stores and items get more exposure throughout the site.
And we offer members a $2.50 selling credit for each member they refer as sellers… and buyers too. We don’t discriminate. :o) Selling credits have no expiration or limitations. They are available to use until you close your account.
And your referred friends receive selling credit too so they can give us try too.
What’s really different about WinkElf is that we’re working to build your business by offering all sellers unbranded stores and full shopping cart widgets so that your clients can shop with you… Either on our site without being exposed to all your conveniently located and competing neighbors or right on your blog and webpages without ever having to leave your site.
;o)
