eCrater got the biggest boost in the final voting, jumping up two spots to place 8th (and missing 7th place by the narrowest of margins) in the 2021 Sellers Choice Awards for Online Marketplaces. eCrater showed improvement from the previous year in all five criteria, but still ranked near the bottom in profitability.
In January 2021, EcommerceBytes asked readers to rate the marketplaces on which they had experience selling. An introduction to the Sellers Choice survey along with a summary of the overall ratings can be found here, along with links to results for each of the 10 online marketplaces included in the survey.
Profitability:
Customer Service:
Communication:
Ease of Use:
Would you recommend:
Ecrater
Year Established: 2004
Description: Fixed price and storefronts; general merchandise and collectibles
More Info
Summary:
eCrater came in 8th place in the 2021 Sellers Choice Awards for Online Marketplaces.
eCrater is a hybrid site – sellers can use it as a storefront, but can also benefit from the eCrater marketplace that allows shoppers to search and browse across all sellers’ listings.
Fans say it’s a friendly site where it’s always free to list and only charges when a sale comes through the eCrater marketplace (2.9%), and they like the flexibility in payment methods (including PayPal, Stripe, checks, and money orders).
Some sellers also said they appreciate the hands-off approach by management. “It’s a hassle-free selling site that affords independent small sellers the flexibility to run their shops as they best see fit,” said one seller.
eCrater needs to do additional advertising, some sellers said, and it needs to work harder on getting exposure for listings on Google – “many of their SEO aids are antiquated,” one seller said.
“eCrater is a great marketplace alternative to Amazon and eBay. Sadly, it just doesn’t muster up the traffic the big houses do,” one seller wrote, “which is a shame, because eCrater makes it easy for sellers to focus on selling, instead of keeping up with endless barrage of new rules, policies and fees.”
One seller said the help pages have not been updated in years, so new sellers to the site must rely on help from fellow sellers in the community forum.
One seller said they’re happy they can now add HTML to descriptions, a newly added capability.
eCrater received a 5 in Profitability; a 5.03 in Customer Service; a 4.88 in Communication; and a 5.6 in Ease of Use. It received a 5.05 from sellers when asked, “How likely are you to recommend eCrater as a selling venue to a friend or colleague?”
Reader Comments: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
eCrater is, in my opinion, the best of the smaller alternative sites. First, they leave the sellers alone to conduct their business as they choose and don’t try to impose penalties. They seem to have built up a base of customers now and you will make some sales there.
Love it ! Free unless you opt-in their marketplace to benefit from their ads and such. They still only take a tiny amount so it is very worth joining it. Easy to use and no hidden fees!
I have used eCrater for several years. This site is easy to use. I have enjoyed running my business on this no-hassle and owner-friendly site.
I rated eCrater’s communication and customer service as a 5, but the fact is I’ve never had a need to contact them. I like eCrater because they let you choose how much your fees are going to be, we can link our payment processors, and we can manage our shipping costs with a reasonable degree of effectiveness.
eCrater has had a slow start out of the gate, but during this entire time, they have remained a decent place to list and sell. It is an easy site to list on. They have simple and understandable rules, and you can make your store one that is truly yours. It may not have the largest audience, but eCrater makes up for that with more profitability and little interference.
I started selling on eCrater almost 12 years ago. I loved it. I had a few days that I puzzled over the shipping and then decided on the matrix and haven’t had a problem with it in all these years. This venue is run by a small team that is very responsive and sends emails that speak to the matter of what you wrote to them about, instead of the nonsense ones you get from Amazon that starts out, “I understand that your problem is this…” and then goes on to prove that they have no clue what we are talking about. eCrater rarely changes any rules, but what they change is generally for the better. You will need to do some self-promoting so that it helps if you sell within a niche. Selling even 5 vastly different types of products can cause problems in promoting your store. However, you are allowed more than one store! You are allowed up to ten pictures free, 100 character titles, a description as long you need to describe your item that is for sale. We are now able to add in some HTML coding which we couldn’t do before so we are happy about that. I enjoy selling at eCrater and have made some good friends with some of the sellers there.
I have sold on eCrater since 2009. As long as you follow eCrater’s Terms and Conditions, they allow you to run your own business as you see fit to run it. There are no restrictions, constant changes or rules imposed on the seller. The eCrater owner and team have been a pleasure to work with. eCrater is my favorite site to sell on!
eCrater allows you to list your items for free. The final fee/advertising fee is low for those that participate in the Marketplace. It requires time to understand how the sites work. Many of the sales are from the marketplace. For extra sales, you will need to promote (Pinterest, forums, etc.) and follow some SEO techniques.
You can make great money if you do the leg work – free to list and sell, overall the best online selling place so far.
My currently preferred site, though I’m still learning. I feel that additional advertising is needed, such as promoting products on YouTube or Facebook in order to direct traffic there. I paid for an upgraded membership in order to save on individual fees. Overall, much simpler than eBay.
eCrater is a really good marketplace as it is more like having your own website, but with built-in help. You do have to spend a lot of time and effort to promote your items though, in order to be profitable.
eCrater is a great marketplace alternative to Amazon and eBay. Sadly, it just doesn’t muster up the traffic the big houses do – which is a shame, because eCrater makes it easy for sellers to focus on selling, instead of keeping up with endless barrage of new rules, policies and fees. eCrater could work harder on getting sellers ranked higher in Google search – many of their SEO aids are antiquated. Still, it’s a hassle-free selling site that affords independent small sellers the flexibility to run their shops as they best see fit.
I have trouble selling on eCrater but I love this site. The shipping is a little confusing, but other than that the site is very easy to list on. I wish they would advertise for us a little more.
I just started selling on eCrater this year. Sales are fair (certainly nowhere near what I sell on eBay), but their site operates well and their customer service is generally good. Also, their fees are extremely low, which allows me to offer a better price to my buyers. I did have a little trouble entering identifiers (UPC, format, etc.) at first, but their customer service was able to explain it to me. I just wish there was more traffic on the site, but overall, this is a great place to sell.
Some things need more work like an easier way to set up shipping charges and they need to get on board with tax collection, but it’s been decent.
Like the site but could use more traffic for my store.
eCrater does not get a lot of foot traffic, however, it is a FREE to list site with minimal selling fees.
Have been selling items on eCrater for years. Easy to use. Not too many buyers. Final value fees can be low or high depending on advertising rate picked. OK selling site.
Profitable, although I don’t sell a lot through the site. Fees are low, which is great. Service is minimal, but has been helpful when I have a problem. I like that eCrater allows various payment services for buyers.
It is a pretty basic selling venue, but the infrastructure works well. Keep in mind that there is hardly any marketplace audience and you need to bring in your own customers. But overall it is a solid, if basic selling site. I seldom (actually if ever) have had problems with the site’s policies, unlike other places like Amazon, Bonanza, eBay and Etsy.
The question about communication, since we run our own store there is hardly any red tape to need to communicate. Slow sales but eBay was just as slow but without all the constant relisting, eCrater is the only place I trust.
Ecrater Support is like a separate entity. No direct contact available. Love fee structure and site visibility.
Never had to deal with customer service or communicate, so not sure. The FAQs are pretty good. Variations don’t seem available. The bulk revision function could probably use some help, redesigning.
The website options are not user friendly and design is very naive. Else this is okay.
Much easier to set up a shop on eCrater than many would let on. Simpler set-up than both Bonanza and eBay. The only time-consuming part of bulk listing is converting the shipping tables. I signed up a couple months back, had much better traffic than expected. No sales yet though, frustrating, but it’s free to use.
Will import your eBay inventory but does not sync it. Very minimal traffic.
I can’t figure out how to do things as their instructions are so obtuse! I am using trial-and-error to find my way. They are WAY cheaper to use and I’ve sold some items. I will use them more in the future as eBay continues to gouge me with fees and headaches.
eCrater is basic but somewhat archaic and not-up-to-date features and tools for sellers, but a seller does have the capability to adapt to the site with time and much effort. The seller help pages have not been updated in years, so new sellers to the site have to rely on help from fellow sellers in the community forum.
eCrater need to make update to their systems so that sellers can have a better way of keeping up with their inventory. Like it is now it is hard to keep up with it.
Pictures come out warped, once you start the account it is hard to get anything fixed without starting over.
eCrater is OK as a selling site but listing items is not that easy and set up is a bear. Have sold a few things but very small sales. Unless you’re an expert, to list all Google attributes is hard. Not really worth my time and communication to talk with someone when you need them is nonexistent.
Been selling on this site for about 10 years off and on, not very profitable and customer service is nonexistent.
I use eCrater since eBay feeds directly into it. But I don’t get many sales there. I’ve debated if it’s worth the hassle to keep my listings up to date.
Very difficult to use. Listings from eBay don’t port over properly. Setting up shipping is a nightmare.
You get what you pay for. eCrater does little or nothing for its vendors. You can pick up an occasional sale if you drop your price and it gets picked up by searchers. Not user friendly. Can only list one size and color of items. No way to list various shipping choices. Can’t figure out why people set up sites like this and don’t work to improve them.
eCrater suffers, still, from decades of neglect by the owner who offer little hope of improvement and banishes users who complain. Google ignores the entire site in searches leaving sellers forced to promote and advertise their items elsewhere. While the site is technical “free to list” there are fees if the item is sold from web links on search engines eCrater pays to promote. Don’t just take my word, search the internet way back archive to see the total lack of updates to eCrater since day one. Sad because it has the possibility of being much better.
I’ve been on eCrater for about five years and have sold one item. It’s too unknown to attract buyers, and the format doesn’t really inspire too much confidence in buyers. On the plus side, there are few selling restrictions, no listing fees and low commission rates. Listing items is easy, except adding photos is difficult and time-consuming.
Sellers Choice Awards:
We thank all readers who took the time to rate the marketplaces. If you have comments about the Sellers Choice Awards, please feel free to post them below.
eCrater really needs updating. They did some but it wasn’t enough.
* Adding items using 3 different tabs : most of the description, a picture section, a google attributes.
* AND you better make sure to fill in the quantity in the mixed. If you don’t, the default is that you have a large quantity of items instead of a default of one (1).
* You really have to play around with the shipping section. Ughhhh !
* The instructions are not up to date. You have to ask the forums and hope for the right information.
* Seems to have problems with buyers checking out and having 2-4 times the repeat sale that sometimes go through.
At least they have both Stripe and Paypal and leave you alone to run your business.