Which free online marketplace is best? eCRATER or Shopit?
This lens offers a feature by feature comparison between eCRATER and Shopit. Both offer sellers free online storefronts in their marketplace. Sheridan Collectibles has created a store at both websites.
Although both have unique features, it is impossible to write this lens from an objective point of view. You'll find a summary at the end of the lens with our conclusion. Of course, the ultimate proof will be a comparison of sales made at each. (We also sell on Blujay. Do I sense another lens in the making? :)
Sheridan Collectibles on eCRATER
Sheridan Collectibles on Shopit
Although both have unique features, it is impossible to write this lens from an objective point of view. You'll find a summary at the end of the lens with our conclusion. Of course, the ultimate proof will be a comparison of sales made at each. (We also sell on Blujay. Do I sense another lens in the making? :)
Sheridan Collectibles on eCRATER
Sheridan Collectibles on Shopit
eCRATER vs Shopit Lens Contents
- Facts About eCRATER and Shopit
- Storefront Visual Appeal Comparison
- Sheridan Collectibles eCRATER Store Home Page
- Sheridan Collectibles Shopit Store Home Page
- eCRATER Store Product Page
- Shopit Store Product Page
- Store Setup & Product Features Comparison
- eCRATER Product Admin Interface
- Shopit Product Admin Interface
- Marketing & Community Features Comparison
- eCRATER RSS Feed
- Shopit RSS Feed
- eCRATER Store Widget
- Shopit Store Widget
- Store Traffic Statistics Comparison
- eCRATER Traffic Statistics - Google Analytics
- Shopit Traffic Statistics
- eCRATER or Shopit? You decide.
- Our Conclusion: eCRATER vs Shopit
- Revolution Money Exchange: A Paypal Alternative
- There's more than just eCRATER and Shopit.
- A Sampling of Roxy_Calamari's Squidoo Lenses
- Roxy's Guestbook
Facts About eCRATER and Shopit
Marketplace longevity:
- First release of eCRATER was September 2004.
- Shopit appears to be in BETA. There is launch date listed on their About page, but the oldest date on the site appears to be 2007.
- 4,665,051 products on the Shopit marketplace as of August 13, 2008.
- eCRATER reached 1,000,000 items in March 2008.
- eCRATER has a variety of new and used products.
- Most items I have seen on Shopit are new. You can also advertise services on Shopit.
Storefront Visual Appeal Comparison
Storefront design options:
- eCRATER offers a variety of professional store designs. After selecting a design, you can change the color scheme and upload logos.
- There are two store design options at Shopit, personal and store. You can change colors, upload a logo and background image. In my opinion it is not particularly user-friendly. A unique storefront option that you can add is a video commercial.
- eCRATER has no advertising.
- Shopit's interface is littered with full-color banner and video ads.
- ECRATER separates its "adult" product listings.
- Exotic lingerie is featured next to tricycles on the Shopit home page. Not exactly a family-friendly website...at least not in my opinion.
Sheridan Collectibles eCRATER Store Home Page
Sheridan Collectibles Shopit Store Home Page
eCRATER Store Product Page
Shopit Store Product Page
Store Setup & Product Features Comparison
Store product organization:
- eCRATER has categories for their marketplace. You can easily create custom categories and subcategories for your storefront and upload photos for each of your 5 featured categories.
- Shopit has limited categories, that appear to be unused by its marketplace shopping interface. There is no marketplace directory listing categories and your storefront products are not categorized.
- eCRATER provides bulk upload from a tab-delimited cvs file. You must wait for a day or two for a person to process the file, but it's worth it. It worked well when the file was eventually processed.
- Shopit features bulk upload from a comma-delimited cvs file. This means that you cannot have any commas in your product descriptions. The file is immediately processed--no wait here. It is supposed to upload your products instantaneously, however it is a bit buggy. My second upload did not work correctly. The products were in the store administration view, but did not appear in the store as customers saw it. The second upload also caused the RSS feed to my Squidoo lens to fail. You can also import products from eBay or from a Yahoo store.
- eCRATER offers up to 10 photos for each product.
- Shopit limits photos to 4 per product. Shopit allows you to upload multiple video commercials, one of which can be linked to a specific product.
- Neither allows html. eCRATER makes editing the product description much easier. Paragraphs can be added by simply pressing the "enter" key.
- Shopit's product description field is very small which makes it difficult to edit. Only one paragraph is allowed, making lengthly descriptions impossible to read. Shopit provides a multiple product edit option which makes global changes to a field value, such as shipping or category, very quick to do.
- eCRATER has a sales tax option. Shopit does not.
- eCRATER offers a shopping cart with Google Checkout and Paypal.
- Shopit's preferred online payment method is Revolution Money Exchange. Shopit also offers sellers Google Checkout and Paypal, and is considering adding Amazon Payments.
eCRATER Product Admin Interface
Shopit Product Admin Interface
Marketing & Community Features Comparison
Product submission to Google Shopping:
- As part of its free services, eCRATER submits your products for inclusion in Google's product search. Each product has fields for adding Google product attributes. Using our main keyword phrase, our products hold 3 of the first 10 products on Google Shopping search results.
- Using several broad search terms, Shopit does not appear on the Google Shopping store list.
- eCRATER has an excellent forum. Sellers post "how-to" information, promotion tips, and welcome new sellers.
- Shopit advertises itself as social commerce. You can network with other stores.
- eCRATER offers a 6 widget configurations: horizontal, vertical, and square, each in small and large. Widget code is available in html or flash.
- Shopit's widget has two design options. You can change the color scheme and add a header background image. You can post the widget directly to MySpace, Blogger, Friendster, Zanga, Piczo, TypePad, Live Journal, Facebook, Bebo, AIM or get the html to paste elsewhere.
eCRATER RSS Feed
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byShopit RSS Feed
Fetching RSS feed... please stand by
eCRATER Store Widget
Shopit Store Widget
Store Traffic Statistics Comparison
Traffic statistics:
- eCRATER provides a field to enter your Google Analytics account information. Google Analytics provides free website traffic statistics . . . the best I've seen.
- Shopit counts the number of visitors viewing your products or storefront.
eCRATER Traffic Statistics - Google Analytics
Shopit Traffic Statistics
eCRATER or Shopit? You decide.
Our Conclusion: eCRATER vs Shopit
Sorry, Shopit. eCRATER wins hands down! The storefront and product design is professional and has features you would expect from a web hosting site costing $50 or more per month.
Here are some more unique features that set eCRATER above all the rest:
Here are some more unique features that set eCRATER above all the rest:
- eCRATER has a product copy feature that allows you to create similar products very quickly.
- eCRATER stores come with the following pages: Home, About Us, Contact Us, Terms and Conditions, and FAQ. You can easily add and edit text that appears on those pages. You can also edit the Title Tag, Meta Description Tag, and Meta Keywords Tag for search engine optimization.
- eCRATER has a "Hide this product" feature.
- You can select a product to feture on your eCRATER store home page and select which product to display at the top of the product listing in its category.
- Add Revolution Money Exchange and Amazon payments to its list of payment options.
- Change the thumbnail image programming so the image isn't as severely cropped. Some images are hardly recognizable in the thumbnail.
Revolution Money Exchange: A Paypal Alternative
Sheridan Collectibles' Preferred Online Payment Method
Sheridan Collectibles offers its customers Revolution Money Exchange as an online payment method. Revolution Money Exchange is a legitimate, secure online payment service founded by AOL's Vice Chairman, Ted Leonsis, and AOL co-founder Steve Case.
A MoneyExchange debit card is offered to Revolution Money Exchange account holders. It is honored at nearly 150,000 store locations, including Barnes and Noble, Macy's, Walgreens, Office Depot, Circuit City, and many more. Revolution Money Exchange is currently running a promotion offering a $5 credit to your card for each of your first three $25 purchases.
After you set up your own Revolution Money Exchange account, you can earn $10 for each person you refer who opens a new account.
Oh, and did I tell you it is FREE? It's . . .
FREE to register for an account
FREE to add money to your account
FREE to send money
FREE to receive money
FREE to request money
FREE to transfer money to your bank account
FREE to get a debit card
A MoneyExchange debit card is offered to Revolution Money Exchange account holders. It is honored at nearly 150,000 store locations, including Barnes and Noble, Macy's, Walgreens, Office Depot, Circuit City, and many more. Revolution Money Exchange is currently running a promotion offering a $5 credit to your card for each of your first three $25 purchases.
After you set up your own Revolution Money Exchange account, you can earn $10 for each person you refer who opens a new account.
Oh, and did I tell you it is FREE? It's . . .
FREE to register for an account
FREE to add money to your account
FREE to send money
FREE to receive money
FREE to request money
FREE to transfer money to your bank account
FREE to get a debit card
There's more than just eCRATER and Shopit.
Loading poll. Please Wait...
A Sampling of Roxy_Calamari's Squidoo Lenses
- Antique & Vintage Collectibles Group
- Antiques & Vintage Collectibles is a Squidoo group for collectors, buyers and sellers of antiques and vintage collectibles. An antique is a relic or object of ancient times, or a work of art, piece of furniture, or decorative object made at an earlier period and according to various customs laws at least 100 years ago. Vintage is not characterized by number of years, but rather describes an item "of old, recognized, and enduring interest, importance, or quality." This group was created for the enjoyment of persons interested in these wonderful relics and nostalgic treasures from the past.
- Sheridan Collectibles: Antiques & Vintage Treasures on eCRATER
- Among the unique items offered at Sheridan Collectibles is a wide range of vintage toy guns including antique toy pistols, toy cap guns, western cap guns and holster sets, pop guns, click guns, potato guns, vintage Mattel toys including Shootin' Shell pistols and rifles. You may also find rare and unique treasures such as Madam X and Ask Swami 1-Cent fortune teller napkin holder vending machines, Seeburg and Wurlitzer wall-mount and countertop jukebox remote consoles, vintage board games, and 1950s pink flamingos by Maddux.
- Sheridan Collectibles on Shopit
- A Squidoo lens created directly from a link on Shopit.
Roxy's Guestbook
submit
-
Reply
- nysilly nysilly Jun 23, 2009 @ 10:24 am
- Thanks for the comparative info, was a little sad to see you didnt mention 1freecart but then again, I really like ecraters user friendly interface.
-
Reply
- emilyava emilyava Aug 21, 2008 @ 5:07 am
- Good lens to know about market place.
-
Reply
- Noadi Noadi Aug 17, 2008 @ 11:17 am
- Great job! Welcome to the eCrater Resources Group and 5 stars!
by Roxy_Calamari
Hi! I'm Roxy Calamari:) No, that's not really my last name, but I do like to eat Squid...oh and I'm a five-year-old Yorshire Terrier with a high IQ an... (more)
Explore related pages
My Internet Business Strategy- "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off y...
Selling on the Internet. Add a Different Marketing Channel with Ecrater.- As sellers, we are always looking for alternative places to showcase our goods o...
20 Ways To Make $100 A Day Online- As a member of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle (TIMIC) I helped create an eb...
Free IQ - The Marketplace for Ideas- "Free IQ is undoubtedly one of the most ingenious Web 2.0 sites to hit the...
Start your online dream store now- Join Shopster and get a top of the line E-Commerce website complete with invento...
Toy Cap Guns of Yesteryear- Growing up in the 1950's provided children fewer choices of play than is now ava...
