Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello Everybody,

Just a little introduction of myself. My family owns a small business that sells mainly hats and accessories at local flea markets and festivals. I myself is your typical college student dealing with classes and student loans. I recently created a website and an e bay store showing some of our products. The website (www.yanlultd.com) acts as a catalog for potential wholesale buyer and the ebay store is strictly for retail sales. I am no computer wise by any means and any crtitic and suggestion is highly apperciated!

Thank you so much for your help in advance!

I`d check your spelling, especially for title tags.  And your description MetaTag is too long and not inviting.  Also, check for separate description MetaTags for each page.  You do not want to confuse the search engines!


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Hi there :-) Welcome to the community.

I`m wondering what specifically you`re trying to find out? The Web site you`ve posted (www.yanlultd.com) is just what you said; a catalog. It looks okay and works normally.

But you`ve said it`s what....not your ordinary or main site? It sends people to the eBay store in order to purchase?

Are you asking whether there`s a market for hats and accessories? Or do you want a way to build a stand-alone e-commerce site?

Originally the www.yanlultd.com is intended to be an online store. However there was just not enough revenue to upset the cost of maintaining a shopping cart which cost an additional 49.99 a month through yahoo.  That’s the reason I opened up the EBay store (which is cheaper) and with a little better success rate.

My question is should I continue with the eBay store? Should my “main” site (www.yanlultd.com) have the option to sell my products through a cheaper shopping cart or a pay pal button? (If so, which one is best?) How can I Improve my site to attract more potential customers to my site? What services are available on the web that is affordable to improve the quality of my page? My biggest question is, How can I make my sites profitable?

Thanks again for all your input and I apologize for the informality of this response. I’m responding this between classes.  

Kathy and I began with eBay, about 3 years ago. Since then, following John Donahoe`s taking over CEO position, we`ve watched the company self-destruct. They`re intentionally getting rid of sellers, making it harder and harder for buyers and sellers, and generally wiping out "the little guys." We believe it`s a strategy to convert eBay over to something like Amazon, but with a high focus on Asian markets only.

We`ve tried many alternatives, and the one that seems to be growing most quickly, is the most popular, and works the best is Bonanzle. If you need to point someone from a Web site to a `store` for the sake of a quick shopping cart, that`s what we`d recommend.

Your other option is to build your own shopping cart, but without the programming skills, it`d be pretty hard.

Before we went with Bonanzle, we chose to use PrestoSell. That`s a basic invoice system, with a link to PayPal, Google Checkout, credit cards, whatever. You can choose what you want to accept, and design your own invoice. The first is $10.95/month, and additional invoices are $5.95/month.

The advantage is that you can have an "order" page that takes the customer to your personalized PrestoSell invoice. They fill out the information, it`s secure, then they get an email. In that email is a link they can click to go to PayPal and make payments. Very simple, not hard to customize the invoice, and you`re not making an actual money transaction directly from your site.

Our thinking is that whatever gets you away from eBay is best.

I believe with the eBay stores, there`s no individual item listing fee, it`s part of the monthly store fee?

Are the items handmade? Try Etsy.com.

I`d also look at WordPress E-comm options or a default install of Magento.