Written as a ghostwriter for a private client. The original publication is no longer available. Raw copy shared for portfolio purposes only.
25 August 2021
Best Selling Platforms + How To Create A Website And Sell Online
- Overview
- Costs
- Personalization
- Usability
- Marketing tools
- Payment gateways
- Shipping and fulfilment
- Apps vs integrated features
- Audience
Whether you’re decluttering, discovered a new talent for making things, or are interested in the entrepreneurial lifestyle that comes from running your own store, there are many reasons people turn to the internet to sell practically anything they can think of.
That said, it’s one thing to have an amazing best-selling idea for a product, and quite another to actually sell your products. Whether you dream of the huge audiences of eBay or Amazon, want to connect with the crafty shoppers on Etsy, prefer more causal marketplaces like Craigslist or Facebook, or are ready to build and market your very own online store, there’s an option for everyone to buy and sell online.
In this guide, we’re going to compile a complete list of online marketplaces for a range of different sellers, products, and shoppers, so you can connect to the perfect audience and get your products out there. We’ve compared everything from price to performance to help you find the perfect ecommerce platform for all your product needs.
Selling Platforms
Online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon are household names these days, and you can easily sell anything on one of these sites. Although you’ll have your own “store” on the platform, sellers benefit from millions of customers already using these well-known sites to buy everything from cat litter to designer handbags to “Weird Stuff.” https://www.ebay.com/b/Weird-Stuff/1466/bn_1865282
eBay
Founded in 1995, eBay is often considered to be the original online selling platform, enabling people around the world to sell anything to anyone. From bespoke items to online garage sales, there’s almost nothing you can’t buy on eBay.
The selling platform generally works like an auction, where you list items to sell (with or without a reserve), and buyers can ‘bid’, with the winner walking away with the product. Today, you can also list “buy it now” products with a set price.
Costs
eBay charges two main types of selling fees: an insertion fee for listing an item, and a ‘final value fee’ which comes into play when an item sells. These fees are all percentage based, so the actual amount you’ll pay depends on the value of your product.
Each month, eBay allows you to list up to 250 insertion fee-free items. After that, the percentage you’ll pay depends on the product category.
When you sell an item, eBay will also charge a single final value fee. This will be a percentage of the value of the total sale (depending on product category) plus $0.30 per order. For most product categories, you’ll be looking at 10-12% of the total price of the item, including shipping.
Personalization
Anyone can open an eBay sellers account and start selling on the platform in minutes. However, if you want a more professional appearance, you could also open an eBay Store. Doing this provides you with extra benefits and the chance to further personalize your eBay presence to attract and retain customers.
eBay stores can select a design for their store, add the name and business logo, set up custom categories, promote specific listings, and more.
Usability
Chances are, most of us have at least used eBay a couple of times since its inception, so you know how easy it is to create an account and start buying/selling items to your heart’s content.
If you decide to open an eBay Store, you’ll find all the information and tools you need in the Seller Hub and Seller Center.. http://www.ebay.com/sh https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/run-your-store/why-get-an-ebay-store.html
Marketing tools
eBay offers a variety of “powerful, easy-to-use marketing and promotion tools” to Stores subscribers. These tools will help you manage products, track inventory, and store templates for future listings, along with many other essential selling features.
The Promotions aspect of the Seller Hub is where you’ll find options to add discounts, coupons, sales events, and more to your listings. If you decide to offer a coded coupon, eBay also provides the ability to share these promotions on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WhatsApp, or via an email campaign.
Payment gateways
eBay permits the following payment gateways:
- PayPal
- PayPal Credit
- Credit or debit card payments
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Payment upon pickup (this should still incorporate an approved electronic payment method)
For select product categories, you may also be able to accept payments from the following gateways:
- Escrow
- Bank to bank transfers (including bank wire transfers and bank cash transfers)
- Cheques
- Money orders
- Other online payment services
Shipping and fulfilment
eBay makes it easy for sellers to print shipping labels directly on the website, with negotiated rates to save you shopping costs. In the US, you can print FedEx, UPS, or USPS shipping labels from your eBay seller’s platform or the Seller Hub. They also offer a Global Shipping Program for international sales. https://www.ebay.com/help/global-shipping-program/default/global-shipping-program?id=4646
Apps vs integrated features
eBay tends to offer an all-in-one solution to your selling needs. For many people, it’s a convenient online alternative to a yard sale, although professional sellers and stores do exist on the platform.
Because of the causal selling nature of eBay, most features will be integrated into the platform and you won’t find many (if any) apps or add-ons here.
Audience
Possibly the biggest perk of selling on eBay is the huge audience. As of Q1 2021, there were 187 million active eBay users worldwide, and this appears to be steadily growing. https://ebay.q4cdn.com/610426115/files/doc_financials/2021/q1/Exhibit-99.1-ER-eBay-Q1-2021_FINAL.pdf
Not only does eBay offer a huge market, but it also has international reach, with users registered across 190 different markets. https://www.ebayinc.com/company/who-we-are/
The only potential downside to such a wide audience is that you’re also likely to experience plenty of competition, particularly in popular product categories. In Q1 2021, eBay reported over 1.3 billion listings, which exceeds the number of users on the platform, and may make it difficult for sellers to stand out from the crowds.
Amazon
Amazon is arguably the most famous online marketplace in the world these days. With over 4,000 items being sold PER MINUTE (Amazon, 2019), this trusted, household name is one of the best online selling sites if you want access to a massive audience. https://d39w7f4ix9f5s9.cloudfront.net/61/3b/1f0c2cd24f37bd0e3794c284cd2f/2019-amazon-smb-impact-report.pdf
Costs
Amazon aims to make selling on the platform easy and personalized, with costs depending on your selling plan, fulfilment strategy, product categories, and other variables. There is flexibility in Amazon pricing, so you can find the perfect combo to suit your online store. https://sell.amazon.com/pricing?ref_=sdus_soa_hp_pricing
The cheapest option for selling on Amazon is to open an Individual Seller account. With this account, you’ll pay $0.99 per item plus percentage fees depending on the product category. This option is only suitable if you don’t plan on selling over 40 items per month.
The next seller plan is the Professional account. This costs $39.99 per month plus additional percentage-based selling fees and provides a plethora of extra features including the ability to create bulk listings, inventory management tools, promotional features, multiple users, and more.
In addition to your selling plan, Amazon also charges Referral Fees for each item you sell on the platform. These will vary depending on the product category and are usually between 8% – 15%.
There may be other costs associated with selling on Amazon, such as fulfilment fees, long-term storage costs, or premium account services depending on how you choose to run your store.
Personalization
Like eBay, Amazon sellers are taking advantage of the good reputation the selling platform has built for itself over the years. However, Amazon and eBay do both allow you to customize your online store to build up your own audience via the site.
For Amazon sellers, you can personalize your store once your brand is approved for the Amazon Brand Registry using the A+ Content tools. The design process is relatively straightforward with handy prompts and a preview function to ensure every page and listing contains your consistent branding and looks perfect.
After editing, you will need to submit your customized store and listing to Amazon for review. This can take 7 business days. If your design is not approved, you will be able to edit the page and resubmit it.
In addition to branding and design, Amazon stores also get their own web address once enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry, plus other perks. https://sell.amazon.com/build-an-online-store?ref_=sdus_soa_baos_n
Usability
Amazon and eBay both aim to make the buying and selling process as straightforward as possible for all, and there’s a reason its one of the most popular selling platforms out there.
However, although the Amazon dashboard is straightforward to use, the company can be relatively strict on who they will allow to sell on the platform and there is an application process you will have to pass before you can list your items.
While this might feel like an unnecessary hurdle for sellers, it is designed to make the selling platform safer for buyers. As we all know, Amazon has a reputation for being a trustworthy online marketplace with no spam stores and product listings shoppers can trust.
Marketing tools
Amazon advertising and sponsored posts can be invaluable in getting your products in front of as many potential customers as possible. The ad campaigns are incredibly easy to set up, and you even get $50 in free clicks for your first campaign (in accordance with the Ts and Cs). https://advertising.amazon.com/legal/terms-conditions/sponsored-ads-signup-promotion?ref_=ussd_grow_ads_xads_tcs&initialSessionID=145-3884145-7503765&ld=SDUSSOADirect&ldStackingCodes=SDUSSOADirect
Most sponsored ads are charged on a cost-per-click model, and you can set your own budgets to stay in control of your marketing costs.
Payment gateways
Customers of your Amazon store (US) can pay using any of the following payment gateways:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Discover
- American Express
- Diners club
- JCB
- Amazon store cards
- Amazon secured card
- NYCE
- STAR
- China Union Pay (credit card only)
- Prepaid credit or gift cards
Shipping and fulfilment
Amazon offers three options for your fulfilment needs: in-house, third-party, or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
In-house fulfilment
In-house fulfilment is a viable option if you:
- Sell low volumes of products
- Have an established and functional logistics network
- Sell products with complex shipping and/or packing requirements
Third-party fulfilment
If you don’t want to deal with packing and shipping items yourself, you could take advantage of a third-party ecommerce fulfilment provider. These businesses will take care of everything from inventory storage to order processing, packaging, and shipping. https://sixads.net/blog/e-commerce-fulfillment/
Fulfillment by Amazon
In 2019 and 2020, Amazon invested over $30 billion upgrading its logistics, services, tools, programs, and people in order to provide a superior fulfilment option for small and medium-sized businesses. https://d39w7f4ix9f5s9.cloudfront.net/4d/8a/3831c73e4cf484def7a5a8e0d684/amazon-2020-smb-report.pdf?initialSessionID=time%3D2082787201l&ld=SDUSSOADirect&ldStackingCodes=SDUSSOADirect
Following this investment, many retail businesses on Amazon now use the FBA service to provide Prime shipping that meets customer expectations and makes it easier to scale your Amazon store.
You can also now use FBA as a multi-channel fulfilment option. This means you can use the fulfilment centres to process and sell orders even when the sales have been made on your own store or another sales channel.
Dropshipping
Amazon is well-known for offering some excellent dropshipping options. There are fees associated with dropshipping on Amazon (usually around 15% of your revenue), but this provides access to a plethora of tools and a huge market to take advantage of. https://sixads.net/blog/amazon-dropshipping/
Apps vs integrated features
While Amazon and eBay both contain plenty of fantastic integrated features, Amazon does take this a step further with the Amazon Partner Network. In the APN, you’ll find a huge selection of approved third-party software and services to help you grow your business. https://sell.amazon.com/tools/amazon-partner-network?ref_=sdus_soa_spn_n
The Amazon Partner Network is filled with over 2,000 applications, 1,900 different services, and is available in more than 20 countries worldwide. So, no matter what software or service you want to add to your Amazon online store, chances are that there will be “an app for that!”.
Audience
According to Amazon, there are over 300 million active customers shopping on the platform around the world. So, this is clearly the best platform to sell online if you’re looking for a substantial online marketplace to share your wares with. https://sell.amazon.com/?ref_=sdus_soa_home_n
In April 2021, Amazon launched its Amazon Audiences sponsored display functions. This enables sellers in selected areas to categorize and engage with customers in four new and exciting ways: https://advertising.amazon.com/resources/whats-new/sponsored-display-amazon-audiences
- In-market: Advertizers can engage audiences “in-the-aisle” – meaning they’ve recently been shopping for similar items.
- Lifestyle: Perfect for awareness campaigns, lifestyle audiences are grouped based on their shopping and viewing habits, with segments including “foodies,” “sports enthusiasts,” “tech enthusiasts,” and other lifestyle-related options.
- Interests: Similarly to lifestyle, interest-based categories help raise your brand awareness with prospective customers based on their frequent browsing/buying habits. These might include headings such as “interested in Canadian history” or “interior design.”
- Life events: Finally, life events allows brands to target prospective customers based on upcoming life events. A good example of this is the “travelling soon” category for people planning a vacation.
Etsy
Etsy is probably the best online marketplace to sell handmade or bespoke items, art, collectables, and antiques with a dedicated audience and growing online presence. Although Etsy is a relatively new online marketplace (founded in 2005 in Brooklyn, New York), its unique character and dedication to “unique and creative goods” has allowed it to become a household name and the best online marketplace for homemade items.
Costs
Etsy prides itself on “simple, transparent, secure” pricing plans with no additional monthly fees and plenty of seller protection.
On a Standard sellers’ account, you’ll be charged a $0.20 listing fee with covers the listing for up to four months. When you make a sale, you’ll pay a further 5% transaction fee in addition to a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee. The final cost to consider is a 15% offsite ads fee, but you will only pay this if you make a sale from an ad placed via Etsy’s Offsite Ads feature.
If you want to build a bigger online store with Etsy, you might want to upgrade to the Etsy Plus plan. This includes an expanded selection of tools to build your brand and costs $10 per month.
Personalization
Like Amazon, eBay, and other online marketplace platform options, Etsy Standard doesn’t provide many customization options for your brand as you’re selling products based on Etsy’s reputation. However, if you upgrade to Etsy Plus, you’ll be able to stand out with loads of customization and branding options to get your store just the way you want it.
Usability
Building an Etsy store is relatively quick and easy and doesn’t take much special knowledge. You’ll receive more tools if you opt for Etsy Plus, but even the Standard plan gives you access to everything you need to get started.
What’s more, Etsy is dedicated to customer service, and offers plenty of support and education to help sellers thrive.
Marketing tools
The primary marketing tool you’ll be using on this platform is Etsy Ads, which is a cost-per-click marketing strategy based on the Etsy algorithms to determine the likelihood of a customer buying your product. There is plenty of guidance for advertising on Etsy available in the Etsy Ultimate Guide to Advertising. https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/the-ultimate-guide-to-advertising/667692755093
Payment gateways
Etsy Payments allows you to accept payments from a wide variety of gateways, including:
- Credit and debit cards
- PayPal
- Google Wallet
- Apple Pay
- Etsy Gift Cards
Shipping and fulfilment
Apps vs integrated features
Audience
Ruby Lane
Bonanza
Local Sales and maketplaces
Facebook Marketplace
Craigslist
Nextdoor
Build your own store
Shopify
Wix
Squarespace
Magento
WooCommerce
Niche-specific sites – Poshmark (clothes), Cardaddy (cars), GearTrade (outdoor equipment), Chairish (furniture and home décor)
Best for…
It’s worthwhile not picking just one of the best platforms for selling. Most ecommerce builders will enable you to integrate your sales across multiple channels and platforms. For example, if you build a Shopify store, you’ll be able to link this with your social media platforms and sell your items directly on channels such as Facebook marketplace. Not only is this incredibly beneficial from a marketing point of view, but these integrations and apps will also streamline the process for you: so your inventory and reporting is always up to date, no matter how or where you make a sale.
