eBay Alternatives - Where Else Can You Sell?
The e-commerce landscape is changing. EBay may have been the only game in town when it came to online auctions eight years ago... but there are now a raft of options out there for you to choose from. Chinavasion provides you with the products, descriptions, and blind drop-ship service... now all you have to do is go out to these sites and sell for profit!
That's not to say that eBay didn't have any competition way back then. There were several online auction houses and classified sites to choose from in the 1990's but they just couldn't compete with eBay when it came to traffic. EBay was also being nice to its sellers then.
But that was then and this is now. Other e-commerce sites are starting to take some market share from eBay. One reason for the seller and buyer drift from eBay may be caused by eBay executives sudden case of power intoxication. The eBay board has recently put in place sweeping changes to policy and practices, changes many sellers think were made to:
- Squeeze more money out of the sellers using the site
- Push the little guy from the site
- Just irritate the sellers on the site
Here are just some of the changes eBay has put into place in the last five years:
- Numerous increases in fees
- Sellers are no longer able to leave neutral or negative feedback on buyers accounts
- Pressure in Australia, the UK and now the US to get Paypal as the only electronic payment system on the site.
- Higher volume sellers get discounts and added benefits for staying with the site
- EBooks and other non-physical items can no longer be auctioned
Other part-time sellers have also commented on a spotty customer service record and tendency to cancel accounts with no disclosed reason and make it difficult for the person to re-open them.
That being said there are still few better places to bring traffic to your own e-commerce site or online shop as there are a still an incredible number of people shopping on eBay.
If you're looking to boycott eBay or get out of eBay completely (just because you think that eBay sucks and not for the eBay boycott), Or you want to put your eggs in some other online auctions baskets then here is a list of more than 50 sites that you might want to check out:
Is there something missing? Have we missed your favorite site? Let us know and help this free resource grow.
A British classified site which has been online since 2007... It offers premium and free listings and even has some video functions.
An Australian-run auction site that's been around since 2001. It gets a reasonable amount of traffic. Most business happens in the automobile section. Listing fees are between 40 US cents and one US dollar with sellers paying an end commission of 3%-3.75%.
An international auction site registered in California in January 2008. It has already built up quite a bit of traffic but that could be because of all the free swag -- (swag including free listings, no final sales cost).
The site that needs no instruction.... If eBay was the alpha male of the eCommerce community then Amazon would be the community member always competing for top-dog position. And if recent examinations of spending figures are to be believed it's making some ground on its claims to the ecommerce throne. For those people living under a rock it was set up in 1998 and it owns the popular traffic volume monitoring application and site Alexa. It has also recently launched its very own cart system.
An auction site that's been around since 2000. It has a pretty low traffic volume figures considering its name.
An American auction site that's been online since 1999. The design may be tres Web 1.0 but anybody selling this site won't be paying any listing or commission fees. It gets similar traffic volumes to other sites.
The Australian online auction and e-commerce market is very crowed apparently. Here's another Australian online auction site. It's been around since 2006 and is offering free sign up as well as a cash incentives to sign on as a seller or buyer (if AU$10 could be called an incentive)
An American eBay alternative that has been around since 2004. It has okay traffic and seems to allow anything under the sun to be listed.
An American auction site that has been around since 1999. DMOZ describes it as a place to find and sell computer peripherals... but pretty much everything under the sun is up for offer on this site and it gets the average amount of traffic.
This auction and classified site has been around since 1998. The owners of the site state that they specialize in high-end audio equipment but seem to have listings for almost everything that is entertainment and home theater orientated. They have a fairly good traffic rating with listing and purchasing but no end commission.
Run by Tradus (formerly known as QXL) This online auction portal has branches in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and The Ukraine.
The auction-only sites enjoy fairly high page rank in these regions and fees are fairly competitive. For example, in the Czech Republic sellers pay between 0.2 Koruna and 5 Koruna to list an item and between 0.5 Koruna and 10 Koruna on successful sales.
This is yet another Australian online auction site. It's a fairly new site that looks like it's trying to take advantage over the recent turmoil caused by eBay Australia's push to get sellers and buyers to use its subsidiary PayPal.
This new US-based online auction site was set up in 2008 and hasn't been the location much business yet as a result. There are a range of different auction methods available, including dutch auctions, normal auctions and buy it now buttons and buyers also get the ability to set up a proxy bidding service to save them some time. The site only currently supports PayPal payments and has a basic listing cost of US50c with various enhancement fees available. The site doesn't charge a commission on sales.
An Australian site founded in 2007 by Ron Gully (now you have someone to pin the blame on if things go belly up). It doesn't have too large a traffic base as of yet but the early reviews look good.
Bidtopia is another online auction site that was set up in the states in 2002. They don't charge a listing fee but they do have a commission of 2.75% for successful sales and a 25 cent fee for failed listings.
Bid2trade is an Australian auction site that was set up in the second half of 2008. The site does have some listings despite having, at the time of writing, little Alexa and Page Rank love. Services offered include auctions, wanted adds and stores. They also say that sellers can choose their preferred method of payment, opening up options outside of PayPal. Basic listings are free although there are enhancement costs and the final seller fees range from 3% to AUS$89 depending on the item and sellers get to attach three pictures to basic listings.
An American online classified site that doesn't charge buyers and sellers. It says it makes all of its cash from banner advertising. It's been around since 1998, making it one of the older ecommerce locations on the internet and seems to get most of its traffic from the states.
Bonanzle is a Seattle-based shop forum showcase set up in 2007. It works similar to a shop in a mall, gives sellers live chat and email functions and lets sellers import listings from eBay and Craigslist. It has garnered a lot of press from around the worldwideweb, including Powersellers Unite, and has already gained a PR of 4 and an Alexa rating of 38,000. Most of the traffic for this store comes from the US with a small number coming from Canada, the UK, China, India and Australia.
Buy Sell Trades is an American eBay clone set up in 2002. It has similar traffic to other sites and promises a raft of free services.
Cqout calls itself the UK's second largest online trading marketplace. It does have a lot of traffic for what it is. Launched in 2000 it gets most of its traffic from the UK and US. Its fees for sellers are based on the commission and will gradually drop as the sales profits get higher. It charges buyers a one-time registration fee to join.
Craigs list has the name recognition of Amazon or eBay. It's perhaps the local classified site known the world over. Launched in 1998 Craigslist doesn't have that great a page ranking but its Alexa rating is through the roof. EBay owns 25% of Craigs list and the two have wrangled in the courts as recently as 2008.
An eBay clone. It's been around since 2005 and sells things internationally. It is registered in Florida and has similar traffic to Altec Trader, even though it has been around for a couple more years.
Formerly Mercado Libre's main competition De Remate was bought out by the South American giant in 2008. The site itself owned and operated for other domains, including De Remate in Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, De Remate, Mexico, Peru, Uraguay and Venezuela. The group also controlled the De Rento name in Columbia and Mexico.
The De Remate name has fared pretty well from the takeover and the sites still enjoy relatively volumes of traffic. Sellers are able to sell via auctions, stores or classifieds. De Remate's fees are a little bit cheaper than that of Mercado Libre with sellers paying 1% listing fees ($1-$10) and 4.49% in commission for auctions and 7.99% for classified and shop listings.
On a somewhat related note, if anybody in South America could help us out with the difference between the markets De Remate, De Reto and Mercado Libre operate we would be grateful.
De Reto is part of the De Remate stable. Formerly Mercado Libre's main competition De Remate was bought out by the South American giant in 2008. The site itself owned and operated for other domains, including De Remate in Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, De Remate, Mexico, Peru, Uraguay and Venezuela. The group also controlled the De Rento name in Columbia and Mexico.
The De Reto name has fared less well than De Remate, particularly in Columbia. Sellers are able to sell via auctions, stores or classifieds. De Remate's fees are a little bit cheaper than that of Mercado Libre with sellers paying 1% listing fees ($1-$10) and 4.49% in commission for auctions and 7.99% for classified and shop listings.
On a somewhat related note, if anybody in South America could help us out with the difference between the markets Deremate, De Reto and Mercado Libre operate we would be grateful.
An auction site that was started in 2001 it gets better than average traffic, most of which comes from the US and the UK. They don't charge to list but have a 3% fee for a successful sale.
A free auction and ecommerce store creation service that was set up in 2001. There is a bit of buzz around this site. They use the Google checkout system and say that they are parters with Google in this regard.
A US eBay copy that was set up in 1999 'to level the playing field' (according to the site owner). Private sellers can sell everything up to, and including, a car for free while business sellers are able to set up an online shopfront with the site.
A site with a Pacific community in mind. This ecommerce site is aimed very much at online shoppers and traders in the Pacific Islands, with much of that focus being on Samoa. While it is very new (it was set up in 2008) Fia Ola has already garnered a page rank of 3. Sellers can offer items up either via Auction or in stores and is free to list in (if you do it yourself) The Fia Ola crew will also help list the item if you give them 25 Tala or, for 50 Tala, handle the whole process.
Google's foray into the ecommerce world (apart from Google checkout, Google's shopping cart system, and Google product search, which is linked to Google base) Items can be listed for free with this system.
An online auction site that has been around since 2005. Sellers are able to set up a store and offer items up for auction as well as set up a free store. There are no lisiting fees and most of the enhancement fee costs seem pretty low.
Hoobly is a US-run global classified site set up in 2002 that gets fairly good traffic. It has a free ad service and an interesting premier ad system where you bid on how much you are willing to pay for an ad.
Wouldn't you know it... it's yet another American eBay clone. This time it was started up in 2002 and has very average traffic volumes.
An ecommerce site that's been around since 2001. It gets a large part of its audience from the US but a large proportion also from the rest of the world. It touts itself as being an ecommerce community where people can negotiate prices for things. You can even swap things if you want. There's a final listing fee of 5% for sales and one US dollar each for successful swaps.
The European branch of Liquidation it was set up in 2006 and uses the same US server.
Liquidation is a US site created in 1998 designed for the sales of lots. It's got a bit more traffic than most other sites.
An interesting ecommerce mashup between a couple of Dutch and Mexican IT experts in 2005 where everything within reason is free. An interesting slogan near the top of the home page is 'Better than feebay', who could they mean? According to Alexa Mercado De Ventas gets most of its traffic from other countries (translation all over the place) with the most concentrated traffic coming from Spain and Peru. Listing auctions, classifieds, stores and wanted ads are free (they even have a fee page, but who knows why) The site is put together in Spanish and English with the default language being Spanish.
Not so much an eBay alternative as an eBay additive, this Spanish and Portugese only meta ecommerce portal is eBay's exclusive South American partner (eBay owns 18.37% of the South American giant). the site draws an incredible amount of traffic and has a page rank of 7 and an incredibly high Alexa rating. According to Wikipedia [citation needed] Mercado Libre has 32 million registered users, 40,000 of which make a living off selling through the site.
The company was launched in Argentina in 1999 and quickly spread to other parts of South America. Most of the site's traffic comes from Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina although its coverage of most of South America is quite strong. At the time of writing Mercado Libre had sites in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Dominicana, Uruaguay and Venezuela. Mercado Libre also owns Mercado Pago, the South American equivalent of PayPal and the ecommerce portal De Remate (which operates the De Remate and Dereto brands).
According to Wikipedia [citation needed] again there are some complaints by sellers that there is a lack of protection against bad buyers and that first-time buyers and buyers with bad ratings can still bid on expensive items, the site doesn't mediate or claim any responsible for business carried out on the site and will not completely refund fees for sales made to non-paying buyers.
The auction site has classifieds, shops and traditional options. For auctions it charges sellers a 1% listing fee and 4.99% commission and for classifieds ads it charges a 9.99% commission on sales.
Another US eBay-like auction site that's been around since 2003 but hasn't gone too well in the traffic department.
A site with an interesting name and layout. The name is reminiscent of where the wee dongles would go for a drink and there are a menagerie of sea creatures on the front page for some reason. It was launched at the start of 2008 as the 'friendly auction site' and has already gained a fair amount of traffic (most of it from the US). Its fees are pretty standard ranging from 10 US cents to five dollars US for listing enhancements and final fees of 2.75% to 1.5% for successfully sold products.
The online reverse auction where buyers make the listing and sellers bid for the sale. It's been around since 2005, is based in the US and has British and French offices.
Oneway has New Zealand and Australian branches and was started in 2005. This makes it one of the older sites in the antipodes. The banner stating "The largest kiwi owned auction website", which appears on both the New Zealand and Australian versions of the site, must go down really well with those on the Western isle. It's free to join and list on the site. It'll charge various service fees depending on the service (NZ$2.50 for a classified listing and 40 New Zealand cents for a bold or feature listing) and a 5 percent final value of the sale which doesn't go higher than NZ$199 (an item that sells for NZ$2000 will get a fee of $54 for example).
A US site that has been around since 1999 and does most of its business in the US, although there is a little traffic from India England and Canada. Overstock is different to most of the other sites on this list as it deals with wholesale lots and requires you to apply to stock goods through their store.
An Australian eBay clone started up in 2005 in Melbourne. There is quite a bit of traffic for this site but reviews are decidedly mixed...surprising since there are no listing fees. Most unhappy reviewers warn people heading to the forums to watch for trolls..
An Australian online auction site (unsurprisingly). While its been around for a while it hasn't made much impact on the market.
ARRRR it be the ecommerce site you be visiting to offload your booty ARRRR. But in all seriousness it's an all purposes ecommerce site that is Canadian-based and was started in 2003. You can auction things off, trade things or set up your stall through this colorful site and most things are free or fairly cheap to do. Its traffic is a little lighter than other sites and Google doesn't seem to like it for some reason or another. Perhaps they prefer ninjas.
An online auction site that's been around since last year. Its fees are pretty low and it seems to get reasonable traffic.
Formerly QXL, now Tradus it was started in 1999 and floated on the Nasdaq soon after. QXL is only one of the trade names but it is one that seems to keep people happy according to the people who use Ciao.
The QXL name seems to be best known in Norway and Denmark where it is a quite a popular ecommerce portal
The online auction sites in this stable include:
- QXL (Denmark)
- QXL (Norway)
- QXL (United Kingdom - to be shut in May 2008)
- Aukro (Bulgaria)
- Aukro (The Czech Republic)
- Aukro (Slovakia)
- Aukro (Romania)
- Aukro (Ukraine)
- TeszVesz (Hungary)
- Allegro (Poland)
- OtoMoto (Poland)
- otoDom (Poland)
- Ceno (Poland)
- Plat Nosci (Poland)
- iStore (Poland - handles the sale of online ecommerce tools and software)
- Ricardo (Switzerland)
- Molotok (Russia)
If you're peddling the finer things in life then this site may be an option. It was set up in 2007 and is more like an online mall where you set up a shop within the site. Setting up a shop costs and they charge a listing fee per item as well as an advertising fee. But they do claim to advertise in several trade journals to boost rankings and increase your chances of sale. It's yet another US site and gets most of its traffic from the US although there is more than a little traffic in the UK, Canada and India as well.
A site that calls itself "Australia and New Zealand's low cost online auction site" free to join up with an AU$5 credit once you do. The fees, which are explained on a page fairly far back in the site, are pretty good. You'll pay nothing to list the item and a fairly low price for buy it now and reserve options (five Australian cents for 'buy it now' 10 for reserve). Final commission fees are 3% for things under AU$75, 2.75% for things over AU$75 and 2% for things over AU$1000. And if you're planning to sell get ready to go through a clearance check and you're going to have to use PayPal.
An auction site for Australian vendors, it's been given the thumbs up by vocal eBay critic EBay Exodus (AKA f*** eBay) so it can't be too bad.
A global online auction house, registered in the UK. The number of visitors it gets is pretty low but those who have used it seem to like it.
Tazbar is an ecommerce site that offers fixed price sales, auctions and wanted adverts. It was set up in 2006 and gets most of its business from the UK with the next biggest amount of traffic coming from the US. It has a varying level of memberships which gives you different levels of access and exposure depending on how much you spend. At the basic level you're required to pay a 3% commission on successful sales.
A New Zealand online auction site that is possibly the best known ecommerce site in New Zealand. This could be because it was set up by the son of a TV economist, sold to the media conglomerate Fairfax and then tied to Stuff, the most widely-read news site in the country. It also could be because it's free listing nature allowed users to post unusual items for sale (like eBay). Some of the things have included a handbag used by the All Black captain to hit another player in a nightclub, the unsuccessful All Black World Cup squad of 2007 and a Prime Minister's signature. Listings are free and enhancement fees aren't too bad. Final fees for successful options range from 6.9% for items under $150 to NZ$71 and 1.9% for items over $1500. Most of it traffic comes from New Zealand but there's also a smattering of traffic from the US and the UK as well.
Trocadero is similar to Ruby Lane in that it is more of a shop front for people looking to sell the finer things in life than it is a place to auction off things. You pay a monthly subscription to get access to the site with more cash getting you more services. It was set up in 1999 and has a reasonable amount of traffic.
A very new eBay copy (it's only been ariound since 2007) based in the US. Even though it's traffic isn't huge the site owner is relatively proud of its record so far (well you'd think so she's put up a stats page) they sell everything, have auctions and fixed-price sales and charge 2% of the value of the item on final sale and five cents US for basic listings.
A British eBay equivalent that doesn't have much listed on the site even though it was launched in 2003. It has both small house lots listed and wholesale lots listed.
An online auction site that gets most of its traffic from the US, Canada and the UK. If you are looking to sell items on Wagglepop you'll need to pay a monthly subscription fee, which will allow you to sell what you want. It has been online since 2004.
Webidz is an ecommerce site where you can place classified ads or list auctions. It's been around since 2004 and gets most of its traffic from the US, although there is more than a little traffic coming from India, England, Australia and Canada. They don't charge listing fees or final sale fees but do charge a little for enhancements and an initial $5 'verification fee'.
Yet another US-based eBay copy that's been around since 2004 (but was registered in 2003) and which seems to make most of its money from banner advertising and doesn't charge its users.
