I'm not sure whether I have a pyschological barrier meaning I'm comfortable to pay a certain amount in fees on each platform or if overall the platforms work out costing a similar amount.
I started on eBay. I don't think any other platform would or could have facilitated the business I have. As a result I have a certain loyalty and respect for eBay. They are the platform who have a UK presence (that bit of understanding of the domestic market is very valuable), in the most part recognise we are a seperate country to America, they do communicate with sellers and whilst change isn't fast I feel they listen and we do get some change. I get more involved with eBay than with other platforms but have done a few bits on others. As a result I get more back maybe have been offered more opportunities to speak with people and feel more intouch. I have styled my business to work on eBay and the fees are now making it just about my most expensive platform but it still stacks up. They offer the best seller support of all the platforms I'm familiar with - I'm not saying its perfect and I've had the odd quite significant issue but they are significantly better than any other platform in this area - the bar is quite low. I do agree it feels like there's been a lot of take lately (particularly with our extra percentage in jewellery) and would like to have a bit of push back, I've just posted on another thread about a bigger Top Rated Seller fee discount, if we're consistently bringing in repeat customers and have a low customer service overhead, shouldn' t we be rewarded and incentivise others to up their game.
Etsy is a good sales channel for me. They do offer some seller development programmes. I find elements of the platform absolutely infuriating. They don't recognise any domestic issues, bank holidays, all our postage options (yet hold us to postage timescales), the promotions options are pay per click. I had an abusive customer last week - accused me of accessing their bank account and taking two amounts. They had made two orders. Once I worked this out I explained to them what had happened and offered to cancel and fully refund one - which I did. They then left two 1* reviews, returned the one item sent as they were so angry. This is almost enough to knock me down from being an Etsy star seller. Even though one of the orders was cancelled the buyer under federal law is allowed to have an opinion on the order according to Etsy. Etsy encourage sellers to price to cover their costs where as eBay encourage to reduce, reduce, reduce. Buyers on Etsy appear to be happy to pay more and my international sales are far greater than on eBay where I feel something hasn't been right for a while (could be my set up) with international visibility. I struggle with sellers who are buying to sell on and that Etsy promote as handmade, when I'm a rule follower and my designs are actually my designs and production partners declared. I also find the forums heavily moderated, I respect eBay allowing debate and expression of opinion. Fees I'm paying including promotions are very close to eBay
Amazon I feel walk the tightrope between genius and evil. I sometimes make the decision to pull off, others times start to push. Presently I'm a bit on the fence. Fees currently just under eBay for me. I don't pay a lot of promotions and may do better if I did. Staff are very hit and miss, communicating with Amazon is very hit and miss.
Debenhams is a bit of an ego trip. As someone who struggles massively with imposter syndrome, Debenhams makes me feel like a grown up with an actual business. That has a certain value. December was a great sales month and January not bad. Fees were a bit under eBay. The new fee is going to make subsequent quarters an interesting analysis. I'll need a year under my belt to be able to review the actual annual fees.
Shopify I've only really worked on since the Autumn. Fee's very low, don't do any paid promotion. I watched a shopify learning webinar the other day and its suggested that sellers pay a minimum of 10% turnover in paid advertising, 20% is typical and 25-30% is usual if looking for growth. Thats a lot higher than I'm paying on eBay and its pay upfront not a guarantee of sales. My organic is slowly building traction - I need to be more social and get on social media regularly as well as looking at paid promotion. I'm taking on an apprentice in the summer and they're doing a social media marketing course so this is on the cards. Not a lot of free support for paid advertising available - so its risk money.
The marketplaces the majority of fees are paid from sales income - eBays fixed/ variable non sale related overhead is low if you're not using promoted advanced so the risk is lower - lower risk also has a value to me.
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