Amazon/Ebay sales v own website

[Paul David]

Has anyone got a website that outperforms amazon and eBay in terms of sales of physical products?

Haven't recently been suspended and reinstated on Amazon which at the time was 40-50% of sales it prompted me into evaluating my business model. It's very very important to not have all eggs in one basket however I've never had any real success in sales on my own website.

Between costs of ppc/seo and not only worrying about selling but attracting customers it's never really worked out and I've spent a lot of money on it. Amazon and eBay have always outperformed.

There is obviously a great need for physical products however I can't see a website selling anything under the sun working. There's no brand, no usp. It does work on eBay and amazon however.

I'm actually leaning towards multiple businesses selling physical products on eBay/amazon and other marketplaces. I'd have to get permission to open other amazon accounts but if this was approved I'd be spreading risk. With eBay you can open as many selling accounts you require within reason.

Or has anyone got a website that outperforms the other marketplaces or information to prove I'm wrong in my thinking?

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[Solrac]

There is obviously a great need for physical products however I can't see a website selling anything under the sun working. There's no brand, no usp. It does work on eBay and amazon however.

I'm confused. Are you saying your product is generic? Or are you saying other products are generic?

If your not branded I don't really see how you can claim sales on your site. If you are, it's just a matter of figuring out the traffic "problem" and getting people to the site to see it, at least I think it is.

 

[wazboy]

Amazon & eBay definitely outperforming for me vs own website. However, a good way im finding to advertise your website (assuming you have potential repeat customers) is to include a flyer of a discount code/coupon with your sales that are coming from ebay & amazon. Still learning PPC but did manage to get very few sales with it

 

[Paul David]

I'm confused. Are you saying your product is generic? Or are you saying other products are generic?

If your not branded I don't really see how you can claim sales on your site. If you are, it's just a matter of figuring out the traffic "problem" and getting people to the site to see it, at least I think it is.

I currently sell my own branded products. I'm not saying you can't get a website to outperform Amazon/Ebay selling your own brand however i dont' think it's going to be an easy thing to do. I've yet to meet anybody who's said their website far outperforms any other marketplace.

 

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[JAJT]

It comes down to buying traffic, pure and simple.

Amazon has a ton of traffic ready to buy. Plug your product in and it's just a matter of someone seeing your product on the shelves. Like putting a new brand of cereal on a grocery store's shelves.

If you have your own website you need something to pull people in. Better pricing, unique product, emotional attachment, drive traffic in the millions ways you can do that. You are basically a street vendor trying to pull people in who have no idea who you are.

The thing is, if you setup both and do nothing with either, Amazon will always (should always) outperform your solo store. But if you are actively working to give people a reason to visit you, you can of course do better on your own than in Amazon, but you need to work at it and give people a reason to visit you specifically. There are a million examples of people making money hand over fist in the physical product space without ever setting foot in Amazon because they give people a reason to buy from them.

 

[GuestA4319]

If you're doing PPC correctly, it will beat the marketplace.

Most people don't know how internet marketing works, you need to learn a few tricks to make it profitable. Affiliate marketers are ones that perform at this stuff, since their only job is to promote a product and get paid. You as an owner have so many things to take care, so you can't beat someone who is doing internet marketing full time.

Big product owners have their own media buying teams, but for a start-up it's hard to find an experienced marketer, most of them go to affiliate route where they have unlimited earning potential instead of getting paid a salary.

Even though PPC/SEO is not efficient for you, you need to have a website, mostly for existing customers or to convert easier the interest you got from word of mouth.

 

[Paul David]

The problem I've encountered personally with ppc is low search volume keywords. A lot of the products I sell have obscure part numbers that customers will search for however Google will not show the ad.

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[Vigilante]

tough.

I think the best diversification strategy includes:

Amazon
eBay
other online marketplaces (Sears.com, Buy.com, others)
Off channel sales
Own website
Physical distribution to stores
B2B
Mass Market
Sales funnels (ethical ones)

The more streams you have, the better.

I am sure there are others not caught in the catch all above.

 

[Paul David]

tough.

I think the best diversification strategy includes:

Amazon
eBay
other online marketplaces (Sears.com, Buy.com, others)
Off channel sales
Own website
Physical distribution to stores
B2B
Mass Market
Sales funnels (ethical ones)

The more streams you have, the better.

I am sure there are others not caught in the catch all above.

I certainly agree. I'm considering using Channel Advisor so i can diversify onto more marketplaces. I also know of a competitor who does $20m a year and doesn't sell on any online marketplaces except their own website, trade and B2B (schools, government etc). That's another route that's interesting me.

 

[Vigilante]

There are three ways to get school/government business.

1. Hire someone like @andviv that has connections into certain sectors (as a rep, broker, or consultant)

2. Find out how the RFP's/RFQ's for your industry are solicited

3. Have a product that is considered "no bid" (meaning, you are literally the only place they can get it)

The fastest is hiring an expert. The slowest is to build organic awareness into a no-bid situation. That sector is extremely lucrative, but requires strategy and expertise to penetrate it.

Good point, Paul.

 

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[Paul David]

Thanks Vig. I am based in Liverpool, UK so not sure if they same applies. I now know what my current homework is though!

 

[Creatingnow]

I had a conversation the other day with a guy who works for an online brand. He told me that his Amazon sales account for around 5-10% of their income vs their ecommerce store. For me, it's the exact opposite. The biggest difference that sets us apart is
1. Their Instragram page has several hundred thousand followers. While I have a couple of hundred.
2. My Amazon products have a healthy amount of reviews, pics, etc. Their products have 0-1 reviews each.

I guess it's about where we put our focus. I'm now starting to build the social media following to see what the results are. So far, I've seen a spike in traffic to my site from Pinterest and Facebook ads. I can't track Instagram sales directly but I suspect some traffic has flowed from there as well.

 

[Ecom man]

I sold on eBay from 2008 until February of this year. I did about 250k in sales last year on eBay. In February I set up my own website. Had very minimal sales in February as I learned the ropes of ppc etc. Sales on my own website so far since starting in Febuary... 238k. I will have sold more in 6 months on my own site than I sold all of last year on eBay.

A side note, my adwords costs are 12-15% of sales.

 

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[Creatingnow]

I sold on eBay from 2008 until February of this year. I did about 250k in sales last year on eBay. In February I set up my own website. Had very minimal sales in February as I learned the ropes of ppc etc. Sales on my own website so far since starting in Febuary... 238k. I will have sold more in 6 months on my own site than I sold all of last year on eBay.

A side note, my adwords costs are 12-15% of sales.

Ecom man, did you use any training programs? I'd love to learn Adwords. Any tips?

 

[Ecom man]

Nope didn't use anything. Just followed the step by step tutorials by Google and tweaked from there. First thing I learned, don't use display advertising.

 

[JonnyC]

@Ecom man

Thanks for posting that, it's really good to know some ecommerce entrepreneurs are killing it with search PPC. Could you please share why you don't like display advertising?

I was recently educated on the merits of search over display starting out, but you seem to be 100% against display?

 

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[Ecom man]

@Ecom man

Thanks for posting that, it's really good to know some ecommerce entrepreneurs are killing it with search PPC. Could you please share why you don't like display advertising?

I was recently educated on the merits of search over display starting out, but you seem to be 100% against display?

I started out with search ppc and it has been profitable from day 1. After 3 months or so I set up a display ad for one of my products. In 3 hours I burned $1,000 had 2000 visitors and not a single sale. Average time on the site was under 3 seconds. I thought I had done something wrong so when a google rep called me for a monthly consultation I asked her to help me get it set up. She walked me through step by step had me only advertise through desktop display, no mobile ads etc. The display ad went live again and within a few hours I burned through another $800. Again, with no sales to show for it.

 

[JonnyC]

That's pretty crappy, sorry to hear it. Thanks for sharing though, I appreciate the reply and information.

 

[Paul David]

I sold on eBay from 2008 until February of this year. I did about 250k in sales last year on eBay. In February I set up my own website. Had very minimal sales in February as I learned the ropes of ppc etc. Sales on my own website so far since starting in Febuary... 238k. I will have sold more in 6 months on my own site than I sold all of last year on eBay.

A side note, my adwords costs are 12-15% of sales.

Thanks for the reply.
How come you're no longer selling on EBay?

Profit margins are very low on my products (sometimes $2.50 per sale) which isn't ideal for ppc. I think it's definitely worth another look though.

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[wazboy]

I sold on eBay from 2008 until February of this year. I did about 250k in sales last year on eBay. In February I set up my own website. Had very minimal sales in February as I learned the ropes of ppc etc. Sales on my own website so far since starting in Febuary... 238k. I will have sold more in 6 months on my own site than I sold all of last year on eBay.

A side note, my adwords costs are 12-15% of sales.

Great to hear. I saw few posts mentioning change of algos on google, would that hurt your website?

 

[GuestUser140]

I started out with search ppc and it has been profitable from day 1. After 3 months or so I set up a display ad for one of my products. In 3 hours I burned $1,000 had 2000 visitors and not a single sale. Average time on the site was under 3 seconds. I thought I had done something wrong so when a google rep called me for a monthly consultation I asked her to help me get it set up. She walked me through step by step had me only advertise through desktop display, no mobile ads etc. The display ad went live again and within a few hours I burned through another $800. Again, with no sales to show for it.

You can set a limit on how much you spend... test cheaply.

 

[Paul David]

I've just been informed by a supplier of mine that one of our competitors is having great results with google shopping ads.
I've never tried these before. I think it's also a way around the Low search volume issue that plagues adwords.

anyone had any joy with google shopping ads directing traffic to their site?

 

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[Ecom man]

Thanks for the reply.
How come you're no longer selling on EBay?

Profit margins are very low on my products (sometimes $2.50 per sale) which isn't ideal for ppc. I think it's definitely worth another look though.

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Been screwed over too many times by scamming buyers. On eBay what they say goes and sellers have no protection against unscrupulous buyers. On my own site I have total control. Sure people can still file charge backs with their credit cards fraudulently but my biggest thing on eBay was PayPal and eBay would 100% of the time side with the buyer, and buyers knew it so they would game the system.

 

[Ecom man]

Great to hear. I saw few posts mentioning change of algos on google, would that hurt your website?

Algorithm updates will affect SEO but I haven't even started doing that yet. Algorithm changes are mainly to stop or slow down people who are using black hat SEO tactics to push their site to the top. I am not doing that so algorithm changes don't affect me much.

 

[Dicky Dee]

Algorithm updates will affect SEO but I haven't even started doing that yet. Algorithm changes are mainly to stop or slow down people who are using black hat SEO tactics to push their site to the top. I am not doing that so algorithm changes don't affect me much.

@Ecom man Thats amazing to hear, i remember when you just started selling on your website through the other thread in this forum and its great to see you are doing outstanding!

Im in a similar boat having just started my website 8 days ago with 1 sale from it only unfortunately it wasnt from PPC. Did you really have no other form of guidance except following the google adwords tips they give you?

 

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[Ecom man]

@Ecom man Thats amazing to hear, i remember when you just started selling on your website through the other thread in this forum and its great to see you are doing outstanding!

Im in a similar boat having just started my website 8 days ago with 1 sale from it only unfortunately it wasnt from PPC. Did you really have no other form of guidance except following the google adwords tips they give you?

Nope just followed the initial tutorial on Adwords and then tweaked it from there. I tried some different wordings for ads. I added some things, took things out etc. I did a few different ads and saw which one was converting better and then improved on that as well.

 

[Dicky Dee]

Nope just followed the initial tutorial on Adwords and then tweaked it from there. I tried some different wordings for ads. I added some things, took things out etc. I did a few different ads and saw which one was converting better and then improved on that as well.

time to go study the tutorials.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

The more streams you have, the better.

Thought about this alot lately, and it totally makes sense.

Gotta get your dope sold on every corner of the city!
Obviously some corners will convert better than others,
depending on the nature of the product and the customer.

 

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[Dicky Dee]

Nope just followed the initial tutorial on Adwords and then tweaked it from there. I tried some different wordings for ads. I added some things, took things out etc. I did a few different ads and saw which one was converting better and then improved on that as well.

What kind of daily budget for adwords did you start with?