The results are in, and Etsy is the winner of the 2015 Sellers Choice Awards for online marketplaces, followed by Amazon, Bonanza, Ruby Lane and eBay.
Each year, EcommerceBytes asks online sellers to rate the marketplaces on which they sell. Over 12,000 sellers rated the 12 finalists in four key areas – profitability, customer service, communication and ease of use.
This was Etsy’s second time coming in first place – the niche marketplace for handmade and vintage goods also placed first in 2013. This year Etsy earned also the highest score of all marketplaces for Customer Service and Ease of Use, and it earned the highest marks from sellers when asked how likely they were to recommend Etsy as a selling venue to a friend or colleague.
Sellers Choice goes beyond ratings – sellers take advantage of the opportunity to leave detailed comments describing each marketplace. For example, here’s a response from a seller who is candid about what they like about selling on Etsy and areas they believe need improvement:
Etsy has a simple and very user friendly listing format. What I dislike about Etsy’s listings? Five pictures aren’t always enough and this amount is low comparison to other venues. Their fees are fair and the buying/ selling /shipping process works well. There are improvements to be made: a shipping calculator is desperately needed and their review system leaves too much open to interpretation (ultimately making it unfair to sellers).
There is a friendliness to the site and an overall fun atmosphere. Unfortunately this is starting to slip with so many resellers now present and new customers arriving who don’t understand (or appreciate) how Etsy is different from other venues. Many of Etsy’s categories are saturated and it’s not so easy to make sales there. They also have an unfortunate tendency to use their members as beta testers on the live site. This causes confusion when there are a few different versions of Etsy at any given time.
That said, I wouldn’t hesitate recommend Etsy. It’s just a fun site to buy and sell on. For me the positives have always outweighed the negatives there.
Amazon placed second, Bonanza came in third, and Ruby Lane came in fourth. eBay, which placed fifth overall, earned the top spot for Profitabilty, while Bonanza earned top spot for Communication.
You can read more details on the EcommerceBytes website.
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