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Free Online Stores: eCRATER versus Shopit

Roxy_Calamari by Roxy_Calamari

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

eCRATER vs Shopit Lens Contents

  1. Facts About eCRATER and Shopit
  2. Storefront Visual Appeal Comparison
  3. Sheridan Collectibles eCRATER Store Home Page
  4. Sheridan Collectibles Shopit Store Home Page
  5. eCRATER Store Product Page
  6. Shopit Store Product Page
  7. Store Setup & Product Features Comparison
  8. eCRATER Product Admin Interface
  9. Shopit Product Admin Interface
  10. Marketing & Community Features Comparison
  11. eCRATER RSS Feed
  12. Shopit RSS Feed
  13. eCRATER Store Widget
  14. Shopit Store Widget
  15. Store Traffic Statistics Comparison
  16. eCRATER Traffic Statistics - Google Analytics
  17. Shopit Traffic Statistics
  18. eCRATER or Shopit? You decide.
  19. Our Conclusion: eCRATER vs Shopit
  20. Revolution Money Exchange: A Paypal Alternative
  21. There's more than just eCRATER and Shopit.
  22. A Sampling of Roxy_Calamari's Squidoo Lenses
  23. 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.
Number of items in marketplace:
  • 4,665,051 products on the Shopit marketplace as of August 13, 2008.
  • eCRATER reached 1,000,000 items in March 2008.
Range of products in marketplace:
  • 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.
Website advertising:
  • eCRATER has no advertising.
  • Shopit's interface is littered with full-color banner and video ads.
Family-friendly marketplace:
  • 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.
Bulk uploads:
  • 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.
Product photos:
  • 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.
Product text editor:
  • 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.
Sales tax:
  • eCRATER has a sales tax option. Shopit does not.
Online payment methods offered:
  • 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.
Seller community:
  • 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.
Widgets:
  • 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

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Shopit RSS Feed

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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.

Which one is best?

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eCRATER

glassdabber says:

ecrTer

Shopit

 

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:

  • 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.
We can only think of two areas eCRATER could improve:
  • 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

Refer A Friend using Revolution Money Exchange

There's more than just eCRATER and Shopit.

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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

  • OutbackJack Feb 11, 2012 @ 6:17 am | delete
    I came looking for a link to take me to shopit as I had never heard about it. Couldn't find a link, also tried the links near the top for collectibles but couldn't connect to the pages??
  • zalt57 Nov 2, 2010 @ 10:12 am | delete
    Good article
  • DarrenVE Feb 15, 2010 @ 1:43 am | delete
    I noticed someone mentioned 1freecart......I like this better than ecrater. However www.WebplusShop.com has better support than both and they allow adult items. I was unable to get any type of support from 1free cart.
  • nysilly Jun 23, 2009 @ 10:24 am | delete
    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.
  • emilyava Aug 21, 2008 @ 5:07 am | delete
    Good lens to know about market place.
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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 Yorkshire Terrier with a high IQ a... more »

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