General Question for Retail stores

[Candlestore]

How many of you with a Physical Retail store and website also use other sales channels such as Etsy, Ebay, Amazon.....etc?

Is it worth the added hassle and fees?

I am trying to reach more customers and people across the US, not internationally.

Do you price your items the same on those sites because of their added fees etc?

I am not saying to dump Square but add 1 or more of these other sales channels to what I have now.

Good and bad points are welcomed as I am trying to figure if I want to do this.  All my items would be shipped by use so not FBA for example in the case of Amazon.

Thanks in Advance.

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Hi Candlestore,

Interesting question.  We currently have both a physical location (Studio & Gallery) and an online presence (our own website with a link to our Square Online site).  For us, that's all we want to handle but, that's a personal decision.  In the past we tried Etsy and Ebay, both love to nickle dime you to death.  Never tried Amazon - we're way to small for them.  One thing that really worked great for us in the past was Farmer's Markets (out here they call them Farmer's Markets but, there really no farmers - more like art and food) and other outdoor events.  You get exposed to tons of people consistently - there's some costs up front and the logistics can be a challenge.  Tents, tables, permits, separate business licenses for each location, fire department inspections and mother nature.  Selling out of a tent in the rain or snow or hail or high winds can really be a character test.  We finally decided that was enough and settled down with a physical location and a website.  Life is much happier now.  What works great for some might not be the solution for others - it's all an experiment.

jk

[PartyManiaMD]

Honestly I've been alternating between wanting to sell online via shipping versus just sticking to my in store and store pickup for products. The problem with party supplies online is you get what you pay for but the lowest price wins.... Which creates a race to the bottom in terms of quality that we automatically lose because we work with reputable manufacturers. Amazon charges a premium compared to us because of shipping so even if we want to sell online I would have to factor shipping into our prices or charge for it which becomes its own headache.

At this point I'm content with store pickup and brick and mortar because at the end of the day online has a lot of issues such as returns, shipping costs, theft of package, damage of package during transit, loss of packages, etc.

I'm just not convinced selling online is worth it if you're getting pennies per order and competing against a 500 pound gorilla (amazon) or the big chain party stores.