Any Not On The High Street sellerss here?

[Buddy2go]

I thought I'd been selling quite successfully on other websites but wondered about trying NOTHS since a person whose FB page I've 'liked' has been sharing her screen shot milestones - they are in the 1000's per month and put mine to shame! ( greeting cards, gift wrap and pictures) .

The outlay is a lot but doable if I thought there was return to be had. I know she's been doing it for a few years and perhaps got in when it was easier to be noticed and get good sales - forums are complaining its too crowded now. I know good sales always boosts your position in searches so her good sales lead to good sales plus she's very good at FB which I hate.
Any thoughts anybody?

[InteriorsMum]

Yes my business sells through noths, been there since 2010, they do get the right level of customer and plenty of them but there is a huge number of products on there now and they are hugely picky when choosing new sellers. We don't get 1000's of sales a week and I think the percentage of partners who do is quite small but we are in their top turnover group -for now-

[CheeseBored]

Watching with interest. I've been having some success with Etsy, and like it alot. But was thinking about NOTHS too. I didn't realise you had to apply for a virtual stall. I do jewellery so I imagine it's saturated, but possibly no more so than everywhere else.

[gamerchick]

I look on noths but I don't buy direct. I'll search the seller or equivalent out so it's cheaper.

[Buddy2go]

Thank you for the replies. Where else can /do you sell interiorsmum? I can't see the terms only how to apply which it don't want to do right now . The commission I've seen quoted else where seems really high though not sure if it's true and there's VAT? (I'm not vat registered at the moment) . I only sell a little on etsy which I guess is the closest site to NOTHS and worries me but then my photos are very plain / white background as required by Amazon my main site and I haven't spent time creating a 'story' for my products like most people seem to have done.
I'm wondering about putting some of my designs on t towels, aprons etc and selling them through noths but keeping the wrapping paper and cards on Amazon -would that be allowed?

[dwinnol]

Hi Buddy2go
I sell through Etsy and have 3-4 sales a month which is ok for larger ticket items and since we both work full time but I'm looking for another platform. NOTHS has put me off as we will need to increase our prices significantly to get the same return.
Can I ask you about selling on Amazon? How do you go about setting up there? Sorry for hijacking.

[NEScribe]

Hi dwinnol,

I saw your query about Amazon. As someone who hates amazon but sells on it :( I thought I'd give you some info.

Listing is a lot more complicated than ebay - for example, if you were selling something in 6 colours you would create a parent item and then 6 variants for the colours. Each one needs completed (but can cut and paste) and pix stupidly need uploading for each one - not just parent item which is a real pain. Your items need barcode numbers. If you are selling manufactured goods that is no problem but if it's your own item, you need to buy barcodes - although they aren't very expensive.

their commission is a little higher than ebay I think although commissions differ for categories. They pay by bank transfer so unlike ebay where paypal gives you the dosh at once, you get paid every 14 days or so although they have been promising to improve this and pay every 3-4 days.
They sometimes keep 10% back from new sellers in case of returns/chargebacks.
You can sell on all amazon sites in europe - eg france, germany, spain etc at the moment without paying an extra monthly fee but you have to translate items into different languages (google translate isn't brill but we get by with it).

They respond to seller queries very quickly - often calling you within 2 mins of clicking "Call me" on their seller support but at the moment, thousands of sellers are up in arms because their products have been made invisible while they pass a new ID verification scheme. Should take 5 days but there's a huge backlog. I have read some very sad stories of people virtually out of business because amazon was their main selling platform. We had our listings removed for 3 weeks but fortunately don't depend on amazon.
Sellers are also cross that now, as well as showing the companies selling an item, they show you external websites with the item (often cheaper) and a button to click to go to the competitor's website :(

Hope this helps. They also have a seller forum where you can ask newbie questions etc.