Just over a year ago I wrote a post about choosing an online marketplace.  I outlined the pros and cons of using a marketplace, and wrote a few details about the big ones and ones I have used such as Ebay, Etsy, Meylah, and Zibbet.  I also linked to a few others that I knew of but haven’t used myself.

Today I wanted to update about Zibbet, as it has gone through some changes in the past year (good ones!).  So if you are looking around for an online marketplace, you might want to take a look at Zibbet.  Click here to view all of the necessary information on their site.  Here are some highlights:

• Fees: there is a low monthly fee, but there are NO transaction fees and NO listing fees!
• Sale Mode: If you want to have a sale, it’s SO easy!  Choose your whole shop or just certain sections to be on sale and the prices will adjust for you.  Awesome and easy!  The coupons are great too.
• NEW Your Own Website: Your Zibbet shop comes with a standalone shop as well as your marketplace shop.  Both have the same backend control, so everything updates on both shops at the same time.  You can even have your own custom URL for your standalone shop!
• NEW Digital Downloads: This is what I have been waiting for!  This feature has been in the works for awhile and has just been announced.  Now if you sell digital files (such as my PDF tutorials) you can upload them right to Zibbet.  When someone purchases them they are able to download it right away, so easy!  Etsy has this feature and I have been waiting for Zibbet to get it as well.  I’m thrilled they finally have it!

I still have a shop on Etsy, but I mostly just list my tutorials there.  It was costing too much for me to have 200 listings of jewelry, as I had to pay to renew each listing every 4 months.  On Zibbet there is no renewing, no listing fees, etc.  One downside could be that it is not quite as big as Etsy (though it is growing, there are more than 50,000 shops!) so it doesn’t get quite as much traffic.  But you know what?  No matter where your shop is, you cannot depend on traffic within the marketplace for your sales.  I used to get a good number of sales from within Etsy UNTIL they changed their search algorithms and suddenly I wasn’t showing up anymore.  Then my sales plummeted.  I’m still not sure what happened, though I know it was not only me.  Many others were affected.

In order to get sales in any shop, whether standalone or marketplace, you need to get your customers from elsewhere.  Have a website, social media accounts, newsletter, etc. etc.  If some traffic comes from the marketplace that is awesome!  But don’t forget the other avenues as well!

I just wanted to write this post to share the new features on Zibbet since I think they are great and I am looking forward to what else they come up with this year and in the coming years.

Do you have an online shop?  Is it standalone or part of a marketplace?  What do you like/not like about your shop features?

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