About eCrater : the Free Online Marketplace
Many people use Amazon and eBay to set up their ability to sell online; weather it's items from a commercial business that they want to resell, services, handmade goods, or things from personal collections. Dolls; toys, trains, books- whatever you have, there's probably someone online whose willing to pay for it. While those services can be profitable and relatively simple to use, there are a couple of other services I'd like to highlight.
The first I'd like to mention here is eCrater. It's a lot, like a more user friendly version of Amazon and eBay combined, that runs for free. I said the magic word, FREE. I'm trying it out as an alternative way to sell a large collection of toys and books, and really am just in the set up process. Already I'm kind of amazed. It's very easy to set up an online storefront particular to your goods, break it down into easy categories, and create multiple ways for potential customers to pay you. You of course are responsible for sending the goods once paid for, eCrater is simply an interface for people who want to make sales online and customer's who are interested in what they have.
Like on Amazon and eBay, seller's receive a rating from customer's based on if they were happy with their purchase. Over time, having a good ranking increases the shopper's sense that they are doing business with someone they can trust. You can set your sales to be at a fixed price like on Amazon, or you can take place in auction type sales as done on eBay. The difference between using eCrate and Amazon or eBay is that there are no fees. No listing fee, unlimited items, you manage your eStore yourself. No closing fees, or special weird requirements to use there services.
Like with Webs, which will allow you to build a website for free, eCrater does offer paid options with special features. However, it seems set up well enough that you can functionally set up a professional looking online store and expect to make some money from it. Like with other things, how well you do will probably largely have something to do with how much you put into it. If you are willing to maintain the storefront with regular updates, and can do some self-promotion of your web store, you may find that this is a useful service to know about.
I'll post more as I evaluate how effectively eCrate works, but for now have a look yourself:
http://www.ecrater.com/
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