Bonanza came in 2nd place in the 2020 Sellers Choice Awards, jumping up four places from last year. Bonanza also picked up three individual awards – for Customer Service, Communication and best Ease of Use. Many sellers use Bonanza to supplement their sales, made easier by its ability to sync across other platforms.
In January 2020, EcommerceBytes readers rated 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.
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Bonanza
Year Established: 2008
Description: Fixed price listings, general merchandise, fashion, collectibles
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Summary:
Bonanza came in second place in the 2020 Sellers Choice Awards, up from 6th place last year. It earned the top score in three categories: Customer Service; Communication; and Ease of Use.
Bonanza is easy to use and offers a lot of flexible selling models. Numerous sellers said they like that they can sync with other marketplaces, and eBay in particular.
“Importing from Amazon and eBay makes it super easy to populate the booth,” said one seller. “The Webstore feature is very very easy. And it is populated by the booth so there isn’t a need to go open a webstore somewhere else and fiddle with inventory management.”
“You can choose to pay for upgraded advertising,” another wrote – “You are never locked in to a plan, you can always change your mind.”
Some praised Bonanza’s customer support, others panned it.
One seller wished Bonanza offered features tailored to automotive listings. Another bemoaned the lack of variations – “We have several rings on Bonanza, but they cannot be listed together… therefore each ring has to be listed individually, so it makes it look redundant.” And another said they were unable to list using the app.
One downside cited by sellers; Bonanza doesn’t pull in the traffic that the bigger sites do.
“It’s really not worth my time or energy,” wrote one seller. “I sell a minimum of 10 items a day for the other sites I list on but less than that a year on Bonanza and I have over 4,000 listings.”
One seller expressed frustration that the marketplace doesn’t advertise and wrote, “After a decade they should be a household name like eBay or Etsy, but no one has heard of them. It seems as though a site would almost have to put effort into being so unknown. This is regrettable and hard to understand.”
Bonanza suffers from a “lack of vision from the company to gain marketshare,” one seller said.
“They appear to be taking a note from eBay by finding every way possible to add costs to the seller without doing much to help promote traffic and sales,” said another.
And while many sellers liked the syncing feature, one said it doesn’t always work right, which can be burdensome. “Item sells on Bonanza, sometimes does not get delisted on eBay and sells in both places, meaning I have to choose which one to cancel. This will be costly now that PayPal is keeping the payment fee, and also makes me look bad. If they are going to offer the function, it needs more help.”
Some mentioned other problems with Bonanza’s syncing feature, with one writing, “Bonanza should not be pulling in listings from eBay that have 0 quantity.” Another wrote, “I have over 60,000 listings on Amazon. I cannot import all of them, so I don’t know which ones are on Bonanza”
One seller said there were issues with shipping. “The shipping rates or categories are convoluted and in the wrong place. They’ve had issues with international shipping which haven’t been corrected, and they place a surcharge on shipping charges to collect credit card service fees, which makes the ability to quote a proper shipping cost impossible.”
One seller summed up the reason behind Bonanza’s high placement: “It’s a profitable site to sell on, and it’s relatively easy to use. I like that I can sync with my eBay store, so that makes things a little easier.”
Bonanza received a 4.61 in Profitability; a 6.80 in Customer Service; a 6.93 in Communication; and a 7.57 in Ease of Use. It received a 6.29 from sellers when asked, “How likely are you to recommend Bonanza as a selling venue to a friend or colleague?”
Reader Comments:The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Bonanza has a great look and feel. I love the unique way they approach online sales and how they promote opportunities to sellers.
Bonanza makes it very easy to set up a shop and booth and their customer service is one of the best if not the best!!
They still don’t pull in the traffic that the bigger sites do, but regardless I have had one of my best years on Bonanza to date. Profits rivaled that of eBay for Q4. I plan on continuing to use Bonanza for as long as I am a seller.
So super user-friendly, self-explanatory, very easy to use site. Love that they post to other sites and put on the web. Really like the Booth idea.
This site has the best listing opportunity for the best selling costs. You can just do a basic selling listing or you can choose to pay for upgraded advertising. You are never locked in to a plan, you can always change your mind. A very pleasant selling experience.
Bonanza is really easy to use. Always has been from day one. Listing form is one page (imagine that!) Importing from Amazon and eBay makes it super easy to populate the booth. The Webstore feature is very very easy. And it is populated by the booth so there isn’t a need to go open a webstore somewhere else and fiddle with inventory management.
Bonanza is a good site to sell on. I do not sell on there to make a profit, just to try and break even and get the same amount of money back that the items were originally purchased for. I also sell items that I inherited or received for gifts and will not be using.
Pros – good customer service, easy to list items for sale, low fees. Cons – lack of sales, lack of company advertising, lack of audience, no buyer loyalty program, lack of vision from the company to gain marketshare.
I have had Bonanza for several years in conjunction with eBay. Though I don’t sell a tremendous volume through Bonanza, it still comes through with some sales when eBay sales begin to lag.
I like the reasonable fees, though as a smaller site there are fewer customers but the fact you can earn points to offset fees gives it a big boost. The ability to bring items over from eBay is nice though not always perfect as I have had one experience where an item wasn’t automatically removed and someone else bought it on Bonanza on the same day. The interface for uploading items could use a little speeding up as it seems to take more time to upload to Bonanza than eBay.
It has really excellent customer service and communication and it has features to help sell my item by advertising my items on many other sites, but it seems very difficult to make the item sold. Many people viewed my item, which is very good indeed, but the thing I always wondered – why it seems very difficult to make the sale. I don’t know what went wrong. Also, the option for shipping is rather confusing, but other than that it’s very good. It has a chart to track how many people view the item for 60 days, 30 days, and 7 days.
Bonanza is very easy to use since all of our eBay listings are automatically imported into Bonanza, however, Bonanza is lacking in the eBay Motors department, it needs to have the vehicle fitment chart imported as well, since most parts fit many different vehicles, and unless the fitment chart is pulled over, it is not searchable. Therefore, our sales are very low on Bonanza, but the potential is there. If they get this fixed, sales could dramatically increase.
Even though I am limited in what I list to sell, the site is easy to use and the customers are superb. Customer service is very helpful…it’s a great site for buying and selling!
It’s a profitable site to sell on, and it’s relatively easy to use. I like that I can sync with my eBay store, so that makes things a little easier. Any time I have a question for support, I don’t get satisfactory answers and I can’t get them to understand what I’m actually asking, so I give up trying to get an answer.
I respond better with direct contact as with eBay staff. Even without paying for store fees $21 per month or not, I have their staff’s full involvement to settle issues, correct errors, even interface to improve sales or personally suggest or show step by step handling sales domestically as well as world wide. They just do that for Newbies or Sellers. With them several years.
Great platform, have unresolved issues with connecting my other store so products can be uploaded. I have submitted many tickets with no positive response or resolution, which means we are both losing out on profits.
Bonanza charges no fees for listings. Fees on a sales are competitive with other low cost venues. Bonanza allows downloads and uploads of listings to other venues. I am shifting more of my listings from other venues to Bonanza.
Love the ability to choose your own fee percentage. Automatic import ability from eBay is a must. Sales are low but it’s a great second-tier marketplace that requires very little upkeep once you set it up to sync with eBay.
I’ve been at Bonanza since September 2008. In the early days it was fun and new and social. Fees were low and customizing your online presence was doable. I’ve sold some things there off and on. Fees are still reasonable, and as long as I hunt down all my own customers and get them into my Bonanza booth I make sales, with a few exceptions. For crafts, books and such it is still my preferred online selling venue.
Bonanza has very good customer service for sellers. The site is not as popular or well known as others, so there are a lot less sale. The commission is pricey – and unfortunately managing inventory is a bit difficult as there is no way (that I have found) to easily view and edit all your inventory. Overall – a good site with a lot of potential that does seem to be growing.
Though I’m a small seller with just a booth, Bonanza still helps me get a pretty good number of sales and maintains their usual high standards as a venue. My only gripe is that they promised to soon offer Stripe to all sellers more than six months ago, but nothing has been said about it since.
I like that Bonanza is easy to use with my eBay listings, but there is no customer service except for by email, and this is very difficult as questions don’t get answered nearly as well as they could be or as easily if I could just pick up the phone and speak with someone. If you pay more I think this can be done, but I don’t, so maybe this is actually my fault. I get less than 10% of my business from this site but it does get decent traffic at times which is good. They do charge higher fees than other sites which I don’t love but it’s hard not to use it as it is really simple in some respects.
I haven’t had any issues with Bonanza but only sell a few items a year here opposed to the other forums I sell on. It’s really not worth my time or energy. I sell a minimum of 10 items a day for the other sites I list on but less than that a year on Bonanza and I have over 4,000 listings.
I sold for about a year ending about 2 years ago and had around 165 sales. It was okay, but when sales get slow, Bonanza keeps trying to get you to spend more (like try their Web Store for $25 per month or buy a a booster package to get more exposure.) Bonanza seems more interested in lining their pockets than yours as a seller.
Absolutely everything about Bonanza is great. Everything. EXCEPT that they don’t advertise and have no traffic. After a decade they should be a household name like eBay or Etsy, but no one has heard of them. It seems as though a site would almost have to put effort into being so unknown. This is regrettable and hard to understand.
Bonanza treats the sellers like the customer. Half of their business is selling things to the sellers. They should focus on helping you to sell so both seller and platform make money. And if you have a webstore url via them, I’m not sure they’re honest about what sells where. They don’t get a fee if it sales off your store. But there’s no way besides just trusting them, that it didn’t sell off your store. They should advertise and stop squeezing their sellers for cash constantly.
1) Good: – Approval policy for sellers quickly – Number of products sold that meet the seller well – Simple and convenient sales service fee for seller 2) Not good: – Sales fees are too high compared to other platforms – The amount of product advertising on the platform to Google Shopping to consumers is limited – Limited number of items allowed to be sold on the platform
Bonanza is bad to delete items without notifying the seller. They do not advertise on well known venues, therefore there is little traffic. They appear to be taking a note from eBay by finding every way possible to add costs to the seller without doing much to help promote traffic and sales. They do not follow through with promises such as the promise to add Stripe for everyone as another payment option in 2019. It has not happened yet.
Stripe for all was suppose to have happened last fall. Still no implementation.
I found site’s online seller help to be too spread out and in several, various areas and therefore difficult to find an answer sometimes. They need a well-organized “menu” of what there is and where to easily find it on the site. The SEARCH bar in “Help” rarely shows me what I’m looking for. Email help is sometimes good, other times not on point… more of a “canned” response… and can take days to respond.
Sync feature is still not working right after over 5 years. Item sells on Bonanza, sometimes does not get delisted on eBay and sells in both places, meaning I have to choose which one to cancel. This will be costly now that PayPal is keeping the payment fee, and also makes me look bad. If they are going to offer the function, it needs more help.
We have several rings on Bonanza, but they cannot be listed together… therefore each ring has to be listed individually, so it makes it look redundant. Also, we haven’t spent much time on Bonanza to see if there are changes.
Not having live chat is pretty bad. having to email customer service and waiting 1 business day is downright unreasonable. What if I have an urgent issue right now? Also no telephone number to call I guess keeps costs low but leaves me as the seller in the dark if I actually want to talk to a live person. Maybe screen calls for priority? The low fees do really help profitability as I can afford to sell more items on Bonanza in comparison to say Amazon. Also the premium membership was kind of a waste. The $400/month titan membership did not bring a lot of traffic. The difference statistically from the titan vs normal no membership is not too much.
It takes a long time to list on Bonanza because they want a lot of details. You must have a certain kind of phone for the site to even work. You must look up UPC codes that I never knew was when I first started. UPC codes are not easy to find. Wish they had a bar code scanner. I don’t make many sales on Bonanza. I might sell something every 2 weeks. On other selling sites I sell a few items every day. I do like Bonanza because I’m able to list almost anything and fee isn’t crazy like Mercari. I don’t mind a fee if I am able to sell things and feed myself. Bonanza app does not work for selling. It didn’t last time I tried. I remember I got 1 bad feedback from someone who wanted free item and refused to return to me. Another lady did it to me also. I don’t mind refunding if they return the product. I don’t give free things away. It seems there are a lot of scammers there. Bonanza took buyer’s side and gave me a warning when it was first time someone left bad feedback. I didn’t like that. I would list a lot more if it were easier to list. It takes a lot of time. I have to use my laptop. I can never use my cellphone. I hope they can fix these little things because it could be awesome if I could list something quickly and on my phone.
Bonanza is a good venue but has little to no seller service. I just sent an email to them about an issue (3 days ago) and have not heard back.
I do not sell much on this site and don’t understand why. I don’t want to up my fees to the 13% bracket but want to acquire more customers in the bracket that is competitive with the other online ecommerce sites/apps. Also, I have trouble with the Google analytics not matching, which is completely confusing and I’m unsure how to fix (especially when I’ve added all the criteria).
I feel like you only give “the best” so sellers that pay for your monthly fee. I want to be able to arrange my products in a certain way and can’t, I want to be able to create coupons for specific items and can’t. I can do all of this on Esty without having to pay extra. It’s not fair that you are asking me to pay extra when I haven’t even made a lot of money on Bonanza yet. You help me make more money then I will start paying you a monthly fee. You are not the only game in town, you’re not the #1 site but you are the most rigid and the most expensive when giving out additional services.
Have not had a sale in months. I pay extra for a service and unless I do the work of advertising, I get no sales from it. I have been a seller for 12 years on the site with very little profit if any.
Bonanza has quirks you need to learn. I have had two things sell on eBay that sold on Bonanza months later even though I didn’t have them in stock. I’ve also had more problems with buyers on Bonanza than makes it worth selling on that platform.
I have been using Bonanza for 5 years and have only had 50 sales there. Average one sale a month or less. I pick up tokens and refresh my booth, but it really doesn’t help. The fact that it pulls from eBay is the only reason I use them at all. I would like them better if I had several sales a month. Bonanza should not be pulling in listings from eBay that have 0 quantity.
The issue is I have over 60,000 listings on Amazon. I cannot import all of them, so I don’t know which ones are on Bonanza. Also they don’t have an easy way to modify or change them, but most of all I make zero money on this site, I get a few sales a year
They sometimes take more than 24 hours to answer a question through email. Also, the process to make an ad for your booth is a little complex.
There are issues with the shipping. The shipping rates or categories are convoluted and in the wrong place. They’ve had issues with international shipping which haven’t been corrected, and they place a surcharge on shipping charges to collect credit card service fees, which makes the ability to quote a proper shipping cost impossible.
Very inconvenient as far as customer service they have no phone number to call. Everything is done through messaging, then you have to wait until they reply back. If you have questions you have to keep emailing back and wait for the next day to get your message. There’s a lot I don’t know on this site, but it would be nice for somebody to be able to talk to you and tell you different things and answer your questions.
When I first used Bonanza, shortly after it started, the site was ideal for small sellers (the little guy) and Bonanza made its money on commissions, very reasonable. But when Bonanza’s business model changed to one based on fees to sellers – in exchange for actually advertising and promoting what the sellers were selling, which they originally did for free – and promoting on-line stores (the big guy), in short – I got dumped in the dirt. To be fair, I haven’t been kicked off the site, it’s still free, and once every two or three years a buyer on Google will stumble on something I have for sale. All of my buyers had never bought anything on Bonanza until they bought from me. Now it’s just another eBay (ugh).
No immediate response for questions. High membership rates, high commission rates and added costs for getting items advertised. No way to attach pictures of alternative items to customers. No international shipping program although there are many available in the country. I wanted to make this my primary site, but there were too many drawbacks.
I have a lot of items, and with as much I have on there, there should be lots more sales coming in, but they are not, so I think they just send to the other sellers who paid to sell on there. I can’t pau until I have lots of sales that would cover the cost.
Bonanza’s syncing system from eBay is not good (i.e missing pictures, mismatched estimated delivery time from eBay estimation), default negotiable price which I don’t like, I have many shipping options to customer, but here I can only specify/charge one option only. The international shipping table can’t be imported here, I have to do it manually for all my Bonanza listings. Bonanza should refund partially for seller if they refund customer partially, currently, we can only get refunded for the selling fee if we refunded customer in full, it’s not fair.
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.
I am really surprised that Bonanza was ranked this high.
Either getting rid of Mark and his “canned answers” or the 500 tokens give to them after the sellers take the survey got them that ranking.
I still see sellers complaining about customer service that it takes days or a week before an answer is finally received.
Some of their customer service questions.
How long does booth review take ?
I got an email on 2/11/2019 saying the review process should be completed in 1 day. Its now 3 days later and still no update
https://www.bonanza.com/community_help/How_long_does_booth_review_take__
Can someone confirm if my store even works?
I cannot tell if the store even works.
Nothing imports from ebay.
No replies from support.
Beginning to question if Bonanza is safe to work with.
https://www.bonanza.com/community_help/Can_someone_confirm_if_my_store_even_works_
So HOW LONG do I have to wait before getting my 500 Bonus tokens for filling out the eCommerce survey that BONANZA reminded me about on Feb 1, 2020 in an email???
https://www.bonanza.com/community_help/eCommerce_Survey