When you are unemployed or have a zeal to start a business of your own, one of the things that seem quite lucrative is that you sell your stuff on e-commerce platforms. You just list the items, sell them and earn a tidy profit. But wait. Things are not as simple as that. You will need to face many challenges constantly if you take up selling stuff as a full-time occupation. Top 5 challenges faced by online sellers are listed right here. Do read them all before leaving your well-paying job for a stint as an online seller.
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Buyer Feedback: Most of the online e-commerce platforms give more power to the buyer (the revenue bringer) over the seller (the revenue taker). So, some unfair rules might bother you as a seller. One rule is that if a buyer is dissatisfied, he or she can leave negative feedback for the seller and this feedback cannot be removed.
One mistake and your entire business might be ruined as people won’t prefer to buy from a seller who has negative feedback. Also, there are no investigations into the matter so even if the buyer is fake, you have to deal with repercussions of negative feedback for months or even years.
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High Fees: It is a known fact that whenever you sign up on any e-commerce platform, you will have to pay a fee for listing, a commission for product sales, a fee for PayPal and even a fee for upgrading the listing. Only PayPal’s fee structure is established, so you know what you have to pay for each transaction (right now it’s is 2.9% plus USD 0.30).
The fee charged to list your product would depend on fees that are calculated after considering many factors like starting price, selling format, optional listing, selling price, upgrades, category and many such factors. So, you might end up spending more time calculating the fees rather than selling the products.
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Difficult Communication Channels: If you are a newbie on an online e-commerce platform this point will annoy you the most. There is lack of human customer service agents, and you will be redirected from one webpage to the other or one bot to the other in search of an answer.
It takes a lot of time and patience to get your call through to a live human agent, and if the call drops, you have to go through the entire ordeal again. A better option would be to just search the answer in search engines than trying to contact customer service agents.
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Complex Rules: Some of the rules established by the e-commerce platforms are quite annoying and seemingly illogical. One of such rules is that buyers can take as much time in paying for the product and the seller has to wait.
In contrast, if a buyer doesn’t receive an item on time (even if it’s due to shipping mishaps), the seller would be blamed for it. Buyers can also file a complaint that the item was not received even if the seller dispatched it on time.
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Hoax Buyers: Many of the e-commerce platforms are so enchanted by the money offered by the buyers that they consider buyers to be nothing short of gods. Sellers can be reported as fake, but there are hardly any provisions to report a fake buyer.
Sometimes, conmen pose as buyers, claim that they have not received the product and the seller has to give a refund. Even if the package is lost during transit (or the buyer claims so), the seller not only loses the product but might also need to pay the buyer on his or her own. This is a no-win situation for the sellers.
If you are also annoyed by these rules and want a change, then it’s time you consider exploring the best eBay alternative to grow your business. TrueGether has the biggest advantage of being totally free. You can buy and sell stuff without any commissions or listing fee which makes the experience worthier for both, buyers and sellers.