Selling On Amazon/Buy/eBay - SaaS & Order Process?

[olimits7]

Hi,

I've been looking to integrate my website with these marketplaces (buy.com, amazon.com, ebay.com), but I don't know which option I should take.

I can either build my own custom pages that would work with these marketplaces, or I've been looking to use a 3rd party SaaS service like ChannelAdvisor, Zoovy, Mercent, Channel Manager (espsoftware), or Merchant Advantage. I've contacted these 3rd party SaaS sites; so I'm just waiting to hear back from them now.

For people who currently sell on Amazon/eBay/Buy; did you develop your own system to manage orders from these marketplaces, or do you just use a 3rd party SaaS? If you use a 3rd party SaaS; can you message me who you're currently using and if you like using them?

Also, for people selling on Amazon/eBay/Buy; could you provide me with a quick walkthrough of how you process orders from these marketplaces?

I have a general idea of the process, but I don't have a full grasp on it. I'm sure if I saw the steps that other ecommerce members take I would understand this process a lot better.

I'm guessing I would export open orders from these marketplace, and import them to my system? Then once I ship the orders export a shipping file and import it back to the marketplace?

Thank you,

olimits7

[gpilling]

I tried to use ChannelAdvisor for two years and it was just a frustrating and bad experience. I have not used them since 2008, so things might have changed. The issues that I had:
- the admin interface did not make any sense. For example: Checkout settings would be in one section, but Google Checkout settings were in a completely different menu.
- Channel Advisor was not well suited for eBay Motors, which is where I was selling. The main focus is on the main eBay site with little attention to motors
- the software would only let you display your product in one avenue at a time. So if I had one unique item, I would have to pick which marketplace to display it on. I couldn't show it simultaneously on my site, Amazon, and eBay at the same time and have it pull off the marketplace when it sold.
- software would be updated and they would have no documentation for the changes. This was extremely frustrating. In fact I spent money for a training class, traveled to a neighboring state and spent two days in a classroom listening to the ChannelAdvisor instructor telling us "In the old software it goes like this, but I don't know how to do it in the new software". The HELP and the training manuals were both out of date. Hard to get anything done.
- The site has limits on what you can do with it. I was never happy with the site, but the details escape me now (its been a couple years!)
- I got a new account rep every 3-6 months who would contact me and tell me that they were going to help me sell tons! I would ask for help on an issue and never hear from them again. I would hear from their replacement in a few months. It was like "Groundhog Day" the movie with Bill Murray.

The order processing was done in the ChannelAdvisor software, so the one spot was a nice thing. You do have to be careful though, a little bad data can ruin your week. With CA and its automation tools, my assistant launched a thousand auctions one day that had not put tax and shipping on them. She then spent a long long time fixing each listing manually.

Good luck with your choice. If you are selling shoes or books or DVDs then one of these will probably work well for you. If you are selling anything a little out of the very main stream then you may have trouble. YMMV.

[olimits7]

Hi gpilling,

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate hearing your experiences with using ChannelAdvisor!

I talked to them and looking at them from the outside/in their platform looks good, but it could all be smoke & mirrors. Also, their pricing structure was kind of pricey for me at this time.

I'll continue talking to some of the other 3rd party SaaS that I mentioned above; hopefully I can find an SaaS that fits my website needs!

Thank you,

olimits7

[gpilling]

I was paying $500 per month with a percentage on top of that. It never felt like a good value for the amount of business I was doing. I have talked to people shipping a couple hundred orders a day from Amazon/Ebay and they basically felt that they couldn't function without CA or an equivalent.

[olimits7]

Yes, that's around the price they quoted me at too.

I love the idea of being able to sell on all these different marketplaces using an SaaS service, but just trying to find the SaaS service that would best fit my needs is the difficult part.

I'm still in discussions with the SaaS companies I mentioned in my OP; so I will see which I decide to move forward with.

Thank you,

olimits7