New General Listing Site: Vangoe.com

Vangoe.com has extensive categories for handmades listings.

EcommerceBytes' newsletter shared a sponsor that is a new listing site called Vangoe: the art of online selling. It's not a site dedicated to handmades, but open to all products, even cars and trucks. They claim to feature a fair feedback system, free re-listing of up to 52 items (above that there must be a fee to relist), and a whopping 14 payment methods.

Click the BUY button and be served a plethora of categories, including 36 under Arts & Crafts. That is really great, and encourages me to list there. There is also a separate Arts category, as well as Aviation, Bulk Items and eBay Imported Items. Interesting! The FVF is 5%, except for a small number of categories, which have a higher fee and/or a flat listing fee.

Going to bookmark this site for consideration.

LTC

ArtYah ~Vs~ Aftcra

Looking forward to opening a new shop, Paper Nirvana, at ArtYah. Been looking at another handmades venue, Aftcra, for a couple of years now, but it does not have a community forum. ArtYah has one at G+. This is a great feature that I always appreciate.  It's one of the reasons that I like Bonanza.com​ so much.

Aftcra has a feature to fav and wishlist products, and ArtYah allows watching a product. Neither offer faving/connecting to shops though. Etsy and Artfire still offer this fast-disappearing venue feature.

Searching For Norma's Shop: First I typed in Norma's and another shop, Natural something, came up. Then I searched Normas and this came up: http://www.artyah.com/Browse?FullTextQuery=normas. From there I went to her shop.

I like that shop policies at ArtYah open in a popup window. One thing I don't like is that from the product page it seems a little difficult to find the shop/gallery name to click on to see all of a shop's products (unless I'm missing something). From product page I don't see the shop banner/avatar anywhere. Instead, there is a colored tab beside the "Listing Details" tab.

Visitors are used to seeing at least the shop avatar on each product page. Makes it easy to click to go to shop home, and it's an obvious reminder of which shop you are browsing. This is an important branding feature. Also, the shop name on the tab is all run in together AND in lowercase, such as with Norma's gallery, normasbathandbody's Gallery. When I went to review Norma's feedback, there was no link on the page to return to her shop home. I had to use the browser back arrow. These little annoyances won't stop me from opening shop though. I DO need to send them as suggestions to admin.

***Note***
Don't forget that all products listed at Aftcra must be priced at $10 or higher. This venue inspires developing product packs versus single-product listings; especially for paper-crafted handmades.

LTC

No Shop Headers At Scott's Marketplace :(

I know the product is the most important thing, but my shop banner is a major part of my brand. If I'm going to invest time to list, I want my banner in place.The main thing that I don't like about Scott's is that they do not offer the feature of adding a shop banner/header. Sellers are allowed a small shop avatar with the shop name text beside it. It's really small; only enough room for a couple of initials or one simple motif. I wrote and asked about a header, and they said maybe in the future they will offer that feature.

I like the simple layout, abundant white space, good search feature and ease in visiting other shops. No stats though, that I can see, but I don't have a membership so can't see an admin panel.  Saving the link for future possibilities. Michelle T. from admin was quick to get back with me when I asked my question. Great first impression, Scott's!

Here's one nice shop, Ross Creations in Burlington, NC. Nice bookmarks and other personal accessories. Finally, a shop with an avatar! I must have looked at at least 6 shops before I found one that is taking advantage of this promotion opportunity. So many with the ugly, well not really ugly, but you know what I mean, stock avatar.

LTC