Online Listing Site Questions

[Lowrancer]

If I am out of line by posting this just let me know.

 

After watching the recent threads on online shops for handcrafters I am debating putting up a site to handle these items. This site would not have any advertising on the site so in esence it would be your own online store with your own shopping cart.

 

Now the questions I have are as follows:

 

Would you rather pay for you listings by a flat monthly fee for X amount of items, or by a set fee per month per item?

 

If you prefer a flat fee how many items would you want included for that fee?

 

If you prefer a flat monthly fee, what would you consider to be a fair price?

 

If you prefer a per item per month charge what would you consider a fair price?

 

What additional features would you want in such a site?

 

Would you want to include electronic delivery as part of the site for pattern, etc....?

 

that it for now and thanks in advance for your replies.

Robert

[kariholtz]

IMHO I would like to see a place where you had a choice of maybe a per item fee until you got more established then the option to have a set monthly fee.

 

I'll think on prices etc awhile and come back when I have a clue (LOL) becasue as far as that goes right now I wouldn't have an idea.

[Lowrancer]

Thanks Kari,

 

any insight will be helpful so i can begin developing a site for this and keep the fees resonable for bandwidth usage and storage space. Once the site is established and paying the operating costs I may run a monthly (or more frequent) giveaway to a random subsciber for a gift cert for supplies, cofee etc...

[RachelG]

I'm sorry to...umm...break in on this thread...but I've been working on a major site like this behind the scenes for at least a month and it is set to debut in a few days. I bought the domain yesterday and everything is practically all set up, but we're testing and working out the final kinks. I've been waiting to tell all of you, but wanted it to be a surprise. I can't tell everything yet, but I will be able to SOON.

[RachelG]

Thanks Kari,

 

any insight will be helpful so i can begin developing a site for this and keep the fees resonable for bandwidth usage and storage space. Once the site is established and paying the operating costs I may run a monthly (or more frequent) giveaway to a random subsciber for a gift cert for supplies, cofee etc...

 

I'm sorry, we posted at the same time! I didn't know anybody else but me was considering this! Our site is practically read to go... I just don't know what to say...

[RachelG]

Oh I do want to mention (to clarify) my new site pertains to crochet only and to patterns (not finished crochet products)...if that helps.

[crochet smartcat]

I don't think that there can be enough choices for hosting sites. I would love to see many more sites that are truly devoted to handicrafts. Maybe the more sites that offer reasonable hosting services, the more people will realize that what we do is a serious business also. So don't worry RachelG or Lowrancer that having one would preclude the other from starting up a site also. Everyone has different ideas and options and so I don't think having both of you hosting sites is a bad thing.

 

 

Variety is the spice of life.

To Lowrancer, I agree that having 2 options available would be nice. I am just now starting to consider starting to sell my items online, and don't have alot of inventory at this point, so paying by the item would be better for me. But if I had a large inventory than, I would prefer paying a flat monthly fee. I have no idea what is reasonable pricewise, since I do not sell online yet. I think having the electronic download option is great too, it makes buying patterns online a breeze, and usually encourages me to buy, more than I would if they had to be mailed. Also I would like to see a site that allows you to sell any type of craft or pattern, not limited to only crocheted items or patterns only. I am planning to sell instructional materials, finished crochet and knitted items and patterns, and therefore can understand people having varied interests and wanting exposure for all their items in one place. There are alot of people here that bead or have other craft mediums (like homemade lotions and such)that would sell just as well as crocheted items (maybe better) and it would be nice to be able to have a shopping site where you can put everything together, separated by menus or something.

[Lowrancer]

Rachel I am more looking at finished products perhaps we should get together and "combine our effors" to be mutualy supportive (I was about to drop the issue because I would hate to compete with someone else from the ville.)

 

As far as the site I am putting together is for all crafts/arts not just crochet and will focus on the finished product but set the option for electronic delivery of plans/ patterns.

 

Robert

[RachelG]

Robert,

 

Oh, no, please don't drop your idea! From what it sounds like, if you're doing more than crochet and focusing on finished products, our sites wouldn't "cancel each other out" at all. I hope to have my site up by Monday and I'll post in the Websites section here at C'ville around then.

 

Thank you for being so understanding...it's a little awkward, having secrets...having same ideas...but I think it is going to work out fine. And, as crochetsmartcat said, variety is just fine.

[jenuine226]

I like the idea of having a variety of different arts and crafts products instead of just crochet. And I agree with crochet smartcat, for people who are heavy sellers with lots of inventory, they would probably prefer the monthly fee option. But for people with less inventory on their hands, it would be much better to offer the per item fee option. It just seems to me people with less inventory would not participate if they had to pay a monthly fee just like the heavy sellers. My suggestion for determining the "reasonable price" for these fees is to base your calculations on the per item fee structure eBay (or other online marketplaces) has.

 

I also like the idea of having downloadable patterns. I've been turned off of buying many patterns online because I just didn't want to go through the hassle of trusting sellers to send hard copies in a reasonable amount of time. And, you know, sometimes you just want a pattern RIGHT NOW so you can start on it instead of waiting weeks for it to get shipped out to you.