Is craigslist a good and viable alternative to ebay for e-commerce?
I have a home decor warehouse and want to increase revenue. Ebay seems far to busy with cheaper alternatives of similar products. Does Craigslist reach a similar demographic?
Public Comments
- Yes, Craigslist is awesome. But, be careful!!!
- Craigslist is ok for advertising. You won't reach a wider selling base since most Craigslist are set by location. You may increase local sales. Also Craigslist is a pay if you sell, where ebay is a pay to list type place. If you have a website just try and get that out there. Good luck.
- I agree with what's been said here about Craigslist. I personally use and enjoy it's results. However, Stay with Ebay! They have TRAFFIC which is king! Consider bundling your products. Test what bundle works best. People shopping on Ebay are looking for the best value or unusual. Give them that. Otherwise consider Amazon. You can sell as a store on Amazon and it reaches more than Craigslist. People shop Amazon to find it fast and they are willing to pay retail. It may cost a bit - but that's the price of doing business.
- Craigslist is cheaper, meaning free. Ebay costs money. Craigslist by its very nature is setup in small demographic niches. If you are attempting to sell something, you can list it in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. If you want to list it in other areas, you can, but it is more work unless you want to get into blackhat software. Because Ebay takes your money, they are not as restrictive. Craigslist allows other viewers to flag your ad for almost any reason (such as being a competitor) which results in the ad being rejected. Craigslist also has software that enforces their rules such as allowing only posting the same ad once in a 48 hour period. Other rules written and unwritten include such things as disallowing affiliate links, email addresses from free email providers and and other things deemed spammy or "too commercial". Craigslist lists its ads in a category in chronological order. It also does not have a very sophisticated search facility. So, if someone is browsing in a category such as jewelry for a Mickey Mouse Watch, after 2 or 3 days, your ad for that watch (if it is still there) is on page 10. And the potential buyer may have seen only 1 or two watches. Best advise, look at what other vendors are posting. Try it for a while and see what results you get. There are other free classified ads out there like Craigslist, just not a famous. Have you looked into eBay classified ads?
- Visit www.zikbay.com!
- Yes, there is a lot of traffic on craigslist and its free to place ads. I use it daily with a craigslist automatic posting tool called craygo
- Craigslist is easily the best place for e-commerce. However, don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Just because Craigslist is an excellent marketing avenue, doesn't mean it's the only avenue that you should pursue.
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