Fairy Goodies
Ben Biscoe eBay only- Amazon is too competitive and not possible to make it work financially. eBay also very useful as a marketing tool to drive customers to our own websites and newsletters.
Fleurtations
Graeme Wiser The web is already so tight in its profit margins that to take off another percentage with commission makes selling items almost non profitable. The best thing to concentrate on is getting your site onto Google page one organically, yes it is difficult but not impossible and the huge plus is that it is FREE.
Gulliver’s Toys and Gifts
Hugh Faulkner In theory these are great ways to get our products out to our customers but because of their nature you have to sell items so cheaply that by the time we have spent ages getting our products onto their systems the profit is practically non-existent. You have to turn over a huge amount before it becomes worthwhile.
Hanover Lane
Anthony Barker We use Amazon sparingly as it is an awful channel to sell on. eBay is better and we do much more on there but personally I would prefer it if neither existed.
Jumping Clay
Nick Turkington We had made the decision to stay away from both Amazon and eBay for a few reasons. The main reason for not using the service is due to the levels of commission that both sites charge for their services. When comparing the various options available, the levels of commission were among the highest we found. This was also the first year that we went online and we wanted to maintain a certain amount of simplicity as we were new to the whole scenario. We currently use both paypoint and Google checkout to facilitate our
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online sales and have only started with Google in the past month. However in our first year we have began to discover the sheer power of web and believe that we will eventually expand onto eBay in order to increase sales further. Based on the experiences of others. we are quite reluctant to use Amazon in the near future, but will explore the option in greater detail.
Kernow Toymaster
Daphne Churcher Great for selling end of lines.
Kiddy Kars Dan Luong We use them very much begrudgingly because they take massive commission and some of the grey area sellers are very questionable because the price they are selling goods is unbelievable: well below trade prices in a lot of instances.
Kids Toy World
Andrew Gardner We use these channels for lead generation and don’t look to make a profit.
Leapsterrific Kids
Mel Southward We use eBay, although we only sell a small number of products there, or use it to clear older stock. It provides a large customer base, particularly overseas customers, many of whom then return as future customers by shopping directly with us. We sell a few things on Amazon but the profit margins are tiny and if Amazon see a product selling well they inevitably start to stock it themselves and undercut your prices.
Stable Mates
Alan & Jackie Mitchell Whilst we do not use them currently, this is an area that we may have to look at in the future. One or two of our trade customers have Amazon shops and sell our products to complement or enhance their range of toys.
Stork Gifts
Natasha Rushbrook We abandoned Amazon earlier this year after several years of selling on there as we now see it as a long term liability. We have never sold on eBay to protect our brand integrity. Amazon,
Play.com and Tesco are the biggest threat to the independent market, much as they were for game, video and book shops. Don’t really see the point in sharpening the axe ourselves!
The Faraway Tree
Amita Mehta We tend to go to eBay for personal items and to check if we can get a product cheaper. We recently started a retail eBay site as a test and found that lots of sales were coming via this channel. I prefer shopping from a website - it gives the customers security and you can speak about the product lines more - but price always determines in the end I guess.
The Organic Toy Company
Natalie Southgate I would be extremely reluctant to use eBay because I’ve heard nothing but negative comments relating to their unfair bias against sellers. I was going to try Amazon a couple of years ago but just didn’t have the time to get started with the seemingly laborious setting up process and abandoned it. I am planning though on giving it a try again early in 2012.
Tots And Tiddlers Toys
Rachel Jeffries We have just signed with Amazon and have been running for four weeks and definitely seen an increase in sales. As for eBay, we don’t bother as its too hard to compete with others who have listed the same product at silly prices and often below wholesale.
Toyjeanius
Jean Spalding Our main suppliers do not allow us to sell their products on either eBay or Amazon, although we’ve noticed that some of our competitors do seem to get away with it!
Toys To You
Julie Rae We can’t afford to sell our toys at the prices people want to pay on eBay and Amazon. I do, however, have a Facebook shop.
Wow Stocking Fillers
Matt Hastings Due to the increased competition and high fees, we have developed our own websites, one of which is outperforming Amazon and eBay sales put together. These sales channels are a great way to increase sales and to gain more customers, which you can encourage to use your own website. You do need a good pricing strategy for this to be successful though. Amazon is very competitive as your products are listed with your competitors and so you have to perform both on price and customer service (feedback).
Toyworld 21
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