# is having an ebay store worth it?



## [email protected] (Oct 26, 2007)

Does anyone here sell on ebay? 

I had thought that might be an option for us but I spent hours looking at the soaps available and it cannot be possible that people are making money on the soaps. I saw prices of 12$ for 2 lbs and 3 (4 oz) bars sold for 3.50$ ouch, is all I can say. 

I did buy some nice 6 lb batch molds though. :lol


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Ebay is not so great for most handmade items. Better to try etsy I think. We sell some of our craft items there. But be forewarned, there are lots of B&B products on etsy. And the key is to list OFTEN, like daily. Better to list 10 items over a week's time than all in one day. Keeps your shop closer to the top on search results. Then once people get in your shop they can see what else you have for sale. And good photos really help too.


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## [email protected] (Oct 26, 2007)

Have you ever heard how much business folks tend to get through either of these venues?


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I see some soap sellers there that do very well. And some not so well. I haven't had much luck on there with soap BUT I haven't tried very hard. My dd on the other hand sells children's items. Her best day she got 12 orders in one day and some were for multiple items. She's gotten private orders and wholesale orders from people who saw her stuff there to start with. She was so busy at one time she had to stop listing to catch up. But it comes and goes. She's hit a lull right now but some is due to camera and pc problems that are keeping her from listing as she normally does.

It's free to open a store and only costs 20 cents to list an item which then stays listed for 3 months (I think, could be longer). Then they take a 3.5% commission when you make a sale.


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## [email protected] (Oct 26, 2007)

Do you think an etsy shop is better for soap sales than a dedicated web shop that is part of the farms website? 

I know there are different choices we make when trying to decide how best to market and sell our product. We have a very small farmers market in our town, but there is already a cp soap seller there. The market is so tiny that I don't even want to try selling at it. Farmers markets require more time away from the family which I don't think I could do right now (I'll have an infant to care for next year, too.) So I am just brainstorming about how to get a foot in the large world of goat milk soap. 

I also want to get my soaps in the city, where people want the locally made farm products. It simply sells better there, which is why I am trying to get my soaps in the health food store I mentioned earlier. I wonder if a website would be better for those who live further away form us. 

I'm in a chatty mood tonight. :lol


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

We have a website for our farm and we do list our soaps there but I have yet to get a soap sale off it. It is more for locals and people who already buy from us or know us to see what we have. And we don't have it set up that people can order directly from it, but they can email us. I know there are things you can do to get your site to come up higher on search engine results but I've never had time to research any of that. Hopefully one of the other ladies who do web sales will chime in.

We have a very small farmer's market too. I am the only soap person. We also bake and bring other crafts and sometimes produce to the market. The baking really takes a lot of time (not to mention the mess in my kitchen twice a week) but I often make more on that than anything else so we keep it up. By the time Oct. comes we are so glad for it to end. No way could I do it with a baby though. Last year was our first year and I had a 1 year old who was still nursing and that was hard enough. THe market in the closest big city already has a 3 soap vendors so I don't think that's worth pursuing. Plus it's a 30 minute drive and there's a fee. I'd like to find other outlets.


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## Sheryl (Oct 27, 2007)

I personally wouldn't do ebay. I had an ebay store for a while, and although I did get quite a few sales, I ended up in the hole cause of all the weeks I didn't have sales and kept re listing items trying to get sales. So I finally decided I couldn't afford to pay for it. They tempt you with lower listing fees if you have a store, but the more itemsy you list, the higher the fee, and if you go through a week or two of not selling, you still have the listing fees. It ate into too much of my profit.

Just my two cents. I on't know anything about etsy, except there are a lot of soapers products on there.

Sheryl


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I got several of my bed and bathes from an add they all ran in Southern Living magazine. I simply sent a bar of my soap and a small 2 ounce lotion, and a sample size of my square cube soap and of the 10 or so Stephy sent out we got accounts from 3. I had a friend who does caligraphy write on this beautiful paper that I had seen their article and thought my product would fit in their B&B perfectly. The square cubed bars are a tray I got through Susan when she did her mold coop. It's a nice size tray and easy to swirl in etc...

I have a templet for white butcher paper that you cut to wrap into a sqare with the last piece closed with a small label NS...for Nubian Soaps, same logo on the lotion. Only the small ingredeint listing has my nubiansoaps.com (which I need to get forwarded to my website still!!!)

I also would bet that you have family in other towns or friends who have friends with shops, it just takes one person to tell the right person about your products, then send it to them for free.

Also your bank...do they give Xmas gifts to employees? Do they do local flowers for illness or having babies? why don't they have a brochure in their desk for you instead? There are so many ideas out there, the trick is to give away your product to the buyer, you want them using your product, loving your product, then they can sell your product. vicki


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