Well mummy pig went online (really!) and searched the internet, found the one they wanted then ordered and paid for one all on the computer. Does this remind you of anything you may have bought online?  The next day the toy cupboard arrived.

What should this say for your online business?

Well firstly if ordering online is normal for a kids cartoon you can bet its normal for all…. so is your business keen to take customer payments and orders, if not why not?

The customer wants to search through great images of your products, if they are unable to see what the product looks like so they can envisage it working for them, why would they buy from you?

Payment needs to be simple, clear and easy – so make sure you dont have loads of different forms to go through.

Keep delivery simple, can it be either a fixed price OR even better free?

When anyone orders online they expect the products immediately – can you offer next day delivery?

Hello there! If you are new here why not subscribe to my RSS feed for updates on this and other topics.

I am now beginning to question whether I shall continue to use eBay as I have experienced a number of issues with the site and them recently which leads me to think there are better options out there,

Integration between eBay and PayPal
I work in the Internet Industry and I have to say the payment gateway between these two is rubbish, simple as that, they clearly haven’t read any sort of documentation of attaching a shopping cart and making it work properly.
Fees
In recent months the fees for private sellers have gradually crept up to such an extent now that small items being sold, you really have to question if it’s worth it. The fees are structured with an insertion fee and a final value fee and the ‘optional’ upgrade fees and payment fees.
Insertion Fee Private Seller fee
£0.01 – £0.99 No fee
£1 – £4.99 £0.15
£5 – £14.99 £0.25
£15-£29.99 £0.50
£30.00 – £99.99 £1
£100 + £1.30

Final Value Fee
If the item doesn’t sell then no final value fee, just the insertion fee
If the item sells for £0.01 and above you pay eBay 10.0% of the amount of the winning bid, up to a maximum Final Value Fee of £40.00
And then to add insult to this process if the buyer uses eBay, yet more fees, these are currently quoted at up to 3.4% plus 20p per transaction.

Private Seller Support
I have had a number of issues recently with chargebacks and Postal strike issues and I have to say the support I was offered by eBay and PayPal was poor at best, so be warned.

Also check out my post Debenhams Outlet on eBay.

In future posts i shall cover some other options for you that may suit you better.

To be honest I don’t really care about this dispute and this is simply because I can do absolutely nothing to affect the outcome, all I know is this dispute affects a lot of my customers and businesses I work with who rely on the Royal Mail to fulfill thier orders.

Also if you sell on eBay or Amazon or indeed any of the online auction sites the results of this strike could affect your feedback and this will directly affect you and your customers possibly for a considerable time to come.

So are there any alternatives? Well yes there are and it all depends on how often you send ‘stuff’ and to where you send it. Companies such as Interlink or UPS all offer great value despatch for regular items, or if you have one off items who not use an aggregator like Parcel Monkey. On their website they state;

‘Whether you’re a sole trader, ebayer, small to medium business or even a local courier company, give our sales team a call to see if we can offer you an even bigger discount on our already great prices. We too are a growing business and love to help other businesses grow!’

So maybe you have never had time to look or consider other options until now, and while you’re at it why not have at your other despatch items – packaging boxes, tape etc. All these can be saved on, and all of these saving you can make drop straight onto your bottom line.