#aliexpress rules this was like 15$

[cutecipher]

Anyway, terraforming.

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), LATE JULY 2024

Things have been hectic so this is a long one update - all the Etsy and other ecommerce news from the past month, broken down for your convenience!

Next week could be a big Etsy news week, with the 2nd quarter report being released, and the mature items ban kicking in. I'm also working on analysis of the new Creativity Standards, but we may not have more substantial information on those until Etsy makes another move. Right now the categories are a mess, but that could change.

A reminder that you can receive more timely updates plus exclusive content - including live chats with me on select topics such as Etsy's new Creativity Standards - by supporting my Patreon: patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

The European Union is considering making packages valued under 150 euros subject to customs duties when entering the EU. This is widely seen as a way to reduce Shein and Temu orders. 

The Etsy Creativity Standards announced on July 9th have a lot going on; here is my short summary so far. [post by me on Patreon] While I would not worry too much about this just yet, I expect them to be more important in the near future.  Etsy adding "Made by", "Handpicked by" to every listing is currently full of errors, but more disturbingly, even when a seller points out these errors with arguments from the written policy, Etsy Support is sometimes insisting that the designations are correct. For example, original paintings are lumped in with AI designs and digital downloads. [Post by me on LinkedIn] 

Amazon is imposing new rules regarding on-time delivery rates (OTDR); sellers that do not meet the standard of 90% on time delivery will not be able to continue selling. Businesses are exempted if they use the following tools: Shipping Settings Automation, Automated handling time, and Amazon Buy Shipping. Amazon is allowing only 5 days after shipment for products to arrive within the US. You can read the announcement and vigorous forum discussion here, and EcommerceBytes did a summary of the changes and some complaints.

ETSY NEWS 

As Etsy's widespread ban on many adult-themed products is about to take effect on Monday, I considered why Etsy felt the need to take far more drastic steps than Amazon & eBay has in the same markets. [post by me on Tumblr] The upcoming ban started by getting media attention from Mashable, and quickly escalated to the New York Times [not a gift link; soft paywall]. Etsy is still not commenting on why they are doing this. From the NYT article: "Even before the ban, it was getting harder to run his business, Mr. Goldstein said. So, he thought, “Why don’t we just make our own marketplace?” This year, he started the website Spicerack as an independent alternative to Etsy. The online boutique already has about 75 sellers, which are vetted to make sure they’re not “dropshippers” or simultaneously listing products on e-commerce behemoths like AliExpress or Amazon. Mr. Goldstein said that Spicerack is in the process of adding about 100 more sellers, half of whom signed up when the Etsy ban was announced." From the BBC: “In many countries there is pressure on platforms, sometimes backed by new legislation, to do more to prevent under-18s from encountering explicit content, and to remove illegal or "harmful" content from their platforms. Payment processors are also increasingly wary of working with platforms that enable sex based commerce....those concerns could be addressed by more clearly labelling and separating adult product listings..." The Guardian interviewed a few sellers who are affected.

While Etsy previously stated that the new shop set-up fee would be $15 USD, they quietly changed that, to whatever they feel like charging. [post by me on Patreon]

In case you missed it, the new listing form seems to be triggering Etsy Ads campaigns to start without the seller’s knowledge. [post by me on LinkedIn] Since my post, there are still more reports of this happening, and even more. 

I regret to inform you that Etsy’s Search Analytics are going to disappear after August 14 [post by me on LinkedIn], per a banner on the page.

Canadian sellers will have to pay a 1.15% “Regulatory Operating Fee” on all of their sales income (including shipping and gift wrap) starting August 15. This is likely due to a new law taxing large ecommerce platforms 3% of their Canadian income, which came into effect June 28. The tax applies retroactively back to the beginning of 2022, so Etsy is likely overcharging us to cover those earlier amounts. 

Sellers having difficulties with the domestic pricing tool not working correctly may want to try these tips from an Etsy forum thread: Set the domestic price to the global price amount, save, and then go back in and change the domestic price to your preferred amount, then save again. This apparently works for both new and existing listings, but there are 3 drawbacks: 1) it is time-consuming, 2) it needs to be done any time a listing is changed/edited (including renewals), and 3) it doesn’t seem to work for France. (I don’t ship to France so I cannot test the last point.) Remember, if you have a sale go through for the wrong price, contact Etsy and demand to be compensated the difference. 

Still don’t believe that Etsy is serious about shipping on time? See this Reddit thread by a seller who ignored a 30-day warning, so all of their items were removed from search. From this screenshot, it appears their average order value was fairly high, but that doesn’t mean Etsy will tolerate late shipping from shops with cheaper items, so beware. 

Etsy is testing filtering out digital items from search results unless the terms match a digital item search. See Etsy forum threads here and also here. 

A new academic study calls out Etsy and other online marketplaces for allowing illegally-killed bats to be sold on their sites. “We refute any assertion that the online bat trade is ethical. Again, statements that bats were captive-bred are absurd—bat farms are nonexistent—and it would be impossible for suppliers to find bats that have died naturally in the kind of condition and numbers needed to supply an ornamental trade. These bats were hunted.” The New York Times has also now covered this story [soft paywall]. 

The virtual seller education event Etsy Up is scheduled for September 10. You can register here, but there is no program yet. Usually this event has almost nothing worthwhile for experienced shops, and Etsy generally uses it to push their paid services and integrations along with basic info. 

Etsy is looking for sellers to join their Advocacy program and “share your story”. Beware that sometimes Etsy’s “advocacy” is as much for Etsy as for its sellers, so they are looking for stories that fit Etsy’s own goals. 

The Etsy Design Awards have opened; the final date for submissions is August 8. 

Etsy’s second quarter results for 2024 will be released July 31.

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

General

Shein and Temu are facing investigations under the EU’s Digital Services Act. “In a press release, the EU said it’s asking Shein and Temu for more information about measures they’ve taken to meet DSA obligations related to what’s known as “Notice and Action” mechanisms, which should allow users to notify the marketplaces of illegal products.It has also requested info related to the design of their online interfaces, which the pan-EU law mandates must not deceive or manipulate users, such as via so-called “dark patterns”.” Temu is also being sued by Arkansas for having an invasive app that is accused of harvesting data without user permissions. “According to the complaint, Temu is allegedly obscuring its unauthorized access to data through misleading terms of use and privacy policies that do not alert users to the full scope of data that the app can potentially collect. That includes not telling users about tracking granular locations for no defined purpose and collecting "even biometric information such as users’ fingerprints."

Amazon

Amazon now has an AI shopping “assistant” on its US app, called Rufus. “Customers can ask questions about products, comparisons and buying considerations. The AI can provide suggestions for specific tasks or projects.” As per usual with AI, “tests show Rufus doesn’t always provide accurate information.” A review from Marketplace Pulse notes that “Amazon’s AI assistant fails to help shoppers find the best product among the millions in the catalog. It transforms broad questions like “What are the best cycling gloves for winter?” into a few links to product searches — the same searches a shopper could have typed themselves. It refuses to make product recommendations, show specific products, or suggest from the thousands of options. It can’t directly answer the question, “What are the cheapest batteries for my TV remote?”

Any sellers who had items removed for being plants or seeds when they actually aren’t should follow the instructions linked to here to get the situation resolved. An Amazon employee warned sellers: “Please do not acknowledge the violations as these will result in the deactivation of your listings.” Affected businesses should instead appeal the flags.  

Amazon is planning a discount drop shipping from China section, widely seen to be competition to Temu and Shein. However, “[i]t is not clear if these shipments will be made using a U.S. trade provision that exempts individual packages worth less than $800 from U.S. customs duties.”

The European Commission has asked Amazon for more information on “recommender systems, ads transparency provisions and risk assessment measures.” 

Only 1% of US Amazon sellers also offer their items outside of North America. “Due to its proximity to the U.S., Canada has more successful sellers from the U.S. than Canada.” If you have a unique product, this could be an opportunity.  Amazon returns are creating huge workloads for UPS stores and other retailers that accept them. “Amazon “makes up about one-tenth of our profits, but it takes up about 90 percent of the working day,” said Jeremy Walker, a store associate who worked at a UPS Store near Dallas that received between 300 and 600 returns per day.”

Depop

After trying it out in the UK, Depop is removing selling fees for the United States, starting July 15. Payment processing fees still apply. “[B]buyers will now be charged a "marketplace fee" of up to 5% plus a fixed amount up to $1.”

An interview with Depop CEO Kruti Patel Goyal reveals they plan “to bring Depop to a bigger and broader audience over time.” 

eBay

eBay is slowly rolling out changes to the Active Listings page. 

eBay sellers can now get cash advance loans through Liberis, the balance of which gets paid as a percentage of the seller's sales. 

New sellers in the UK might see “automated feedback” on some of their orders, to "help [users] buy and sell with confidence". It will say "This seller successfully completed an order", and is removed once the actual buyer leaves feedback. 

Michaels MakerPlace

Abby Glassenberg reviews Michaels’ MakerPlace popups inside their retail stores. Results seem mixed.

Shopify

A few hundred thousand Shopify users may have had their names, addresses and other data put up for sale on July 3 after a breach. Shopify denies it had any security issues and claims the data came from a third-party app. There was a known data breach at Evolve Bank and Trust in June; that institution is a supporting partner for Shopify Balance. It does appear that Shopify is notifying the affected individuals.

Walmart Walmart is adding pre-owned collectibles to its marketplace. “Eligible categories include Toys (Figures, Dolls, Trains, Plushies, Games, LEGO, Funko, Diecast Cars & Hot Wheels); Media & Music (Movies, Vinyl, Music, SteelBooks, Musical Instruments & Entertainment Replicas); Trading Cards; Comic Books & Books; Sports Memorabilia; and Coins.”

All Other Marketplaces

Indiegogo is opening an ecommerce website for items created through crowdfunding campaigns on the platform, called IndieShop. 

Etsy-owned Reverb now has an “outlet” page, where businesses can sell off their overstock, seconds and out-of-date models for 20% off and free shipping. Most products sold through the main portion of Reverb are used, not new, so this competes with regular sellers. 

Not sure if selling on Faire is right for your business? Here’s a handmade-focussed review of the wholesale site.

Payment Processing

Klarna is now available through Adobe Commerce (previously Magento). 

Shipping

USPS rates for labels on most platforms went up July 1, ahead of the previously-announced July 14th increases. Ina Steiner re-posted the numbers from eBay and Pirate Ship. 

USPS released the addresses and other data of logged-in Informed Delivery users to Meta, LinkedIn and Snap. The company claims it didn’t know the data transfer was happening. 

The free USPS Priority medium shipping tubes are no longer being made, but you can still order existing stock. 

Royal Mail’s Tracked 28 & 48 are now available at post offices. 

UPS’s holiday surcharge rates for the US have been released; the lower surcharges start September 29th.

Shippo has new Canada Post rates from now until January, and the Tracked Packet rates to everywhere but the United States are cheaper than Etsy’s (which are based on Level 4 of Solutions for Small Business). Remember that Shippo makes you pay for a higher tier of service if you use over 30 labels per month.

[brehaaorgana]

barren-and-trivial-words

Who?

to answer seriously, i'm naming modern day sweatshop marketplaces which became wildly popular due to their dirt cheap prices and "hauls" on social media. they sell things besides clothes, but hauls are usually clothing hauls.

other fun facts:

"Product tests on 47 SHEIN products found that seven of them (15%), contained hazardous chemicals that break EU regulatory limits, with five of these products breaking the limits by 100% or more, while according to the tests a total of 15 of the products contain hazardous chemicals at levels of concern (32%)"[Greenpeace Germany]

oh also: "A Marketplace investigation found that out of 38 samples of children's, adult's and maternity clothes and accessories, one in five items had elevated levels of chemicals — including lead, PFAS and phthalates — that experts found concerning. Scientists found that a jacket for toddlers, purchased from Chinese retailer Shein, contained almost 20 times the amount of lead that Health Canada says is safe for children." [CBC News - article + Video]

shein is valued at like, $100 billion

"In May [2021], the company became the most popular shopping app in the US on Android and iOS, and, the same month, topped the iOS rankings in more than 50 other countries. It’s the second-most popular fashion website in the world after Macys.com." [The Guardian]

"While Zara was introducing almost 20 new styles a day on average, and Boohoo was churning out nearly 50, Shein was dropping more than 860 new items. Things have only sped up since then: The State of Fashion report notes that Shein is now producing an astonishing number of new items—2,000 to 10,000—every day." [Quartz]

shein vs temu legal case (discussions of copyright in

infringement, which they also both do against small artists, and intimidation of suppliers)

"A congressional report published in June said both Shein and Temu were avoiding import taxes through a century-old trade rule — known as de minimis — that allows them to import packages valued at less than $800 as long as they are packaged and shipped directly to consumers. " (same link as above)

shein is hoping to get approved by chinese regulators to go public on the US stock market

Overall, the fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions, according to the UN - more than the aviation and shipping combined. [BBC]

also

the rise of shitty cheap ultra-fast fashion/marketplaces is the bane of the planet's existence, and also mine. shit like Shein, Temu, Wish, Boohoo, Cider, Zaful, Aliexpress FashionNova, etc etc. I won't claim I have been a perfect consumer, but also buying Zara at TJ Maxx taught me that their pants pockets literally disintegrate from wearing them, and Shein/Temu spend less time designing and producing their clothes. and that is just regular fast fashion!

it's like, i don't want my clothes to fall apart, poison me, or destroy the entire planet and be made with forced labor. and i DON'T want to have to navigate avoiding so much shein garbage when I go thrifting.

In 2024 we're no longer excusing or justifying "acceptable" purchasing from shein/wish/temu. It's killing the planet and we live here.

[kanaesparadise]

HELLO??? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??? AM I JUST SEEING WRONG??? ONE DOLLAR IS 15,68 TURKISH LIRA RIGHT NOW AAAAAA

When I shop from foreign sites such as Aliexpress, this dollar rate affects me and I am affected by the incredibly high customs taxes in my country.

For example, I bought a product for 1 dollar; First, it becomes 15 Turkish liras, then 2 taxes are added, namely VAT and SCT. On top of that, when customs clearances are added, this product can cost up to 50 Turkish liras for me.

But foreign people can buy the product I bought for the price of a pack of sugar.

In our country, this is called "buying a few products to the state". Because customs taxes have nothing to do with dollars it's directly goes to state. That's why even the young people in our country are constantly checking the dollar rate.

Because of a certain party in our country, we have been governed by the same president for about 17 years, and he is entirely responsible for them. I feel like I live in a country ruled by a monarchy because even when I was born it was ruled by the same person.

I'm here at night right now, it's 21:50. I also had a bad day and didn't have a friend to talk to, so I thought I'd talk about a different topic for a little change for myself.

BUT THIS IS ALSO A DISASTER ISSUE LMFAO

[discyours]

Depressed passing guide

I see a lot of passing guides around, and they’re great, but they usually assume you have 100% of your energy to put into passing. For those of us who have like 24 other mental illnesses that make gender dysphoria take the backseat, that’s not always realistic. So here’s some shit I’ve noticed can help you pass that doesn’t take much effort. I’m pre-t FTM so most of these tips will mainly be applicable if you are too.  Ps, you’re not required to pass in order to be “”valid””. Most of us want to and it can be important to stay safe, but remember you’re doing this for you, not the rest of the world.  General : Most pre-t guys will naturally look closest to 12-15 years old if they do pass. I know most of us hate not being treated our age but embracing this will make passing 100x easier. Match your mannerisms to those of teenage boys, and when looking for clothes/hairstyles try to match your perceived age rather than your actual age.  Clothing:  General rule for all clothes: don’t underestimate the kids’ section, and shop online if you can’t find your size. If both of those fail you, you can try to order internationally. Asian men have much smaller frames so clothes from China work great, just be careful not to order from dodgy sites. Tailors are also a good option if you can afford them.  Never get your jeans in the women’s section. They’ll be cut to accentuate your hips 99% of the time. If you can find men’s or boys’ jeans that fit your hips, straight leg is best. If you can’t, don’t sweat it you have other options. 

Sweatpants/joggers are great. They’ll go past your hips without issue because of the elastic, and if you don’t already pass nobody will look at you weird for going into the mens section to buy what’s widely recognised as very fucking comfortable clothing. Get a pair that’s looser on top and tighter on the bottom if you can, it keeps you from looking like a total slob. Stick to dark colours as they’ll slim down your hips.  For t-shirts, get something slim fit/athletic fit, and get it as close to your size as possible. Aside from your chest, your arms are the most obvious sign you’re not cis on your upper half. Getting shirts with tighter arm holes will give the illusion that you’re muscly, or at least not a total string bean. Once again, stick to dark colours. Large colour differences between your top and bottom half will draw a line across your body, making you look shorter. Graphic tees are a hit or miss. They can help conceal your chest and they fit the teenage boy look, but since they’re unisex they could end up making you look like a tomboy.    Avoid flannel, it’s associated with butch lesbians and could make people think you are one too.

Hoodies are a lifesaver. They’re easy to layer with (especially the zip-up kind) which will help conceal your chest. Rolling up the sleeves to your elbows makes them hug your arms tightly, making them look more muscular. Putting up the hood will make you look masculine, or at least hide feminine features somewhat. If you’re too small for men’s jackets, layering a zip-up hoodie with a (faux) leather jacket will look masculine and mimic the style a lot of men’s jackets have.  Binding: 

First of all, if you’re going to bind, be as safe as possible (there’s always risks, keep that in mind). 8 hours a day MAXIMUM (and maximum does not mean that that’s an allowance you need to use up every day), take it off as often as possible, and don’t ever sleep or exercise in your binder. Listen to your body, take a break when it hurts. Don’t bind with ace bandages or tape, just generally avoid homemade binders. And for the love of god, don’t get a cheap amazon/aliexpress/wish/ebay binder. If you bind unsafely, you can break your ribs, permanently deform your rib cage/collarbones, damage your soft tissues (which seriously reduces your chances of getting good top surgery results), permanently reduce your lung capacity, and just generally damage your body so much that you will never be able to bind again. Don’t be stupid.  Gc2b and underworks are the most popular and safest binder brands. Generally speaking, gc2b is better for smaller chests and underworks is better for larger chests.  There are two main styles of binders, tri-top and full tank. Tri-top does everything you need, full tank binders just add more (non-compressive) fabric to the bottom. Tri-top tends to be more comfortable as there’s no extra fabric to bunch up, but if you want your binder to be subtle if you have to change in front of people/are wearing a tight shirt, getting something that looks like a tank top is your best bet.  Gc2b binders are available in a range of colours, while underworks offers black, white and beige binders. I decided to get a binder that matched my skin colour since I could only afford one and I didn’t want it to show through any clothing. I HIGHLY regret it. Cis men do not wear skin coloured garments under their shirts. If your collar slips up in the slightest, there’s an obvious sign that you’re trans. Cis men DO wear undershirts though, so get a binder that’s the same colour as an undershirt (usually white but black works too).  Some trans men use kt tape to bind, and transtape is a product made specifically to improve upon kt tape binding. Mind you, putting tape on your skin is very fucking bad for it and you will likely get blisters, as well as risk losing skin elasticity (something that’s important to retain if you want top surgery). Only do this as a last resort if you’re in a situation where regular binders are even more unsafe or would out you, such as while traveling. Look up how to apply it properly first and remove it VERY carefully.  Hair: If you want long hair that’s your choice, and some trans men do pass with long hair. But keep in mind even square-jawed cis men will get misgendered from the back if they have long hair. If you’re not okay with regularly getting she’d, keep it short until you’re on t for a while. 

If you have yet to get your hair cut short, a barber may refuse to cut you. Some of them really do only work with men/boys and if you don’t pass, you’ll be turned away. Just go to a unisex salon, if you don’t want to out yourself then find a picture of a woman with a masculine haircut. Show them that, then get them to make it even more masculine (ask for your sideburns or “the bits on the side” squared, it makes a world of difference). You’ll be able to go to a barber for your next haircut after that.  Resist the urge to get a buzzcut. It’s very low maintenance but it makes your face shape extremely apparent, you will look feminine.  Get your hair as short as you can stand on the sides and leave some length on top. If you get the sides really short, you should only have to brave your social anxiety every two months orso to get a new cut. Style the top upwards with some product (wax, gel, whatever). Your face will look less round if you do this.  To avoid talking to your barber and possibly outing yourself, just find a picture of the haircut you want and show it to them. I’ve found barbers are far less chatty than people at unisex salons so you’ll probably be okay just not speaking.  Wash your hair as little as possible. Don’t let it get greasy, but allow it to build up some texture. Cis men’s hair is a lot rougher and less silky than cis women’s, so you want to mimic that. Throw your conditioner in the trash.  For body hair, leave it alone as much as possible. Don’t touch your eyebrows, either. Let them get bushy, don’t pluck any stray hairs. You can fill in your eyebrows to make them look thicker but I’d recommend against using makeup in any form as a trans man, it’s hard to make it look subtle and people will instantly think you’re a woman if they notice you’re wearing it.  You can shave your face if you want to, but it’s honestly a waste of time. Your skin will look softer without the peach fuzz, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve. Hair doesn’t grow back thicker after you shave it, so don’t bother doing it for that reason. Body composition: Dysphoria TW for mention of biological sex.  A lot of guides make a major point of this. Work out 5 days a week, eat as little as possible, get your body fat percentage down. One of the most popular guides there is for FTMs even suggests you get down below 20% body fat, acknowledging that that’d be an unacceptable advice for cis women but going on to say it’s okay because we aren’t cis women.  My advice on this is to do your best to shut THAT advice out. Our bodies are (unfortunately) female, they play by female rules. The notion that we can (and should!) starve and exercise our way into a male body is harmful and wrong. Having a female looking body isn’t a personal failure or a sign that you’re not working hard enough, it’s an unavoidable consequence of BEING physically female.  Building muscle helps. Lower bodyfat helps. If you’re overweight and can manage to go on a diet, go for it. If you can start working out, go for it! Just don’t sweat it if you can’t for whatever reason. I promise it’s still possible to pass.  Mannerisms

Sit with your legs open. Manspread a little. You want to be sitting in a way that would get old ladies tutting if a lady in a dress did it, but don’t go so far that you’re doing the splits.  If you want to cross your legs, do it with your ankle on your leg. Crossing your legs too tightly will crush the dick you want people to think you have.  Walk with your legs slightly apart, and try not to sway your hips. Visualise having something between your legs that you’re trying not to crush (because cis men do).  Put your hands in your pockets as much as possible. Standing with your hands in your pockets basically draws a straight line down your body, minimising the appearance of your hips. It also makes you look like a bored teenager so it’s perfect.  Don’t smile too much, especially not in pictures. If you do smile, smirk. Try to look cocky.  Cis men have stronger brow bones and eyebrows closer to their eyes. You can mimic this by frowning mildly.  There are tons of voice training techniques you can look up to get your voice to go deeper, but to be honest it’s a lot of effort. You need to actually put force behind your voice to get it to come from your chest, and god knows I’m too depressed to do that 90% of the time. I’m fond of the “never fucking speak to anyone” technique and it works out just fine.  Confidence is absolutely the most important part. If you’re showing that you’re sure of yourself and act like you being a man is the most natural, obvious thing ever, people are unlikely to doubt you. If they do doubt you, just laugh it off. Act like the notion of you being anything but male is ridiculous. I don’t even do all the things in this guide. I’m very short with wide hips and a very high pitched voice, but confidence is what consistently gets me to pass. If you’re not confident, fake it till you make it.  Feel free to add!

[yoonyjeong]

51 serious k-pop questions

1. When did you first get into (group name)?

2. Who first caught your eye?

3. Did they remain your bias?

4. Who are your bias wrecker(s)?

5. What is your favorite concept from your group?

6. What is your least favorite concept from your group?

7. Favorite hair color your bias has rocked?

8. Least favorite hair color?

9. Is there a hair color/ clothing style you want your bias to try that they haven’t yet?

10. What clothing style suits your bias best?

11. What is your least favorite outfit your bias has worn?

12. What song is your all time favorite, could listen to it non-stop, never get tired of it song?

13. What song is your least favorite, I think the album could do without it, song?

14. What was your favorite album?

15. What was your least favorite album?

16. Favorite MV?

17. Least favorite MV?

18. Even though you fully support your idol, did you ever watch a live performance of them and think that they need more vocal training?

19. Do you think the main vocal of your group deserves that title?

20. Do you think your bias would succeed/ be more popular if they had joined a different group?

21. Do you think if your bias goes solo eventually, do you think they will succeed (be really honest here)?

22. Do you think your bias has more positive fans or toxic fans?

23. What careers would your favorite group succeed at if they hadn’t become idols/ artists?

24. If/ when the group disbands, do you think your bias will continue to sing/rap, or will they choose a different career, i.e. acting, directing, variety show MC, CEO, businessman, comedian etc?

25. If so, which one?

26. If you could enforce one rule in your fandom/fan club that everyone has to follow, what would it be?

27. Do you think that your idol’s entertainment company treats them well?

28. Have you ever gone to ‘battle’ for your bias, against another in the same fandom or another group’s fan?

29. Have you ever been disappointed in your idol, whether by their actions or words?

30. What would make you ‘un-stan’ from your bias/group?

31. Do you think k-pop has become over-saturated with groups?

32. Do you have a group you can’t stand, no matter how hard you tried?

33. What kind of group would you like to see that you haven’t yet?

34. Cutesy concept or sexy concept?

35. Rap songs or Vocal only songs?

36. Do you support idols dating each other?

37. Would you support them if they came out as gay or bi?

38. Would you stay a fan if they dated someone that you don’t like?

39. Do you think it’s okay to ship?

40. If so, do you ship and who?

41. What is a Koreaboo to you and do you think it’s okay to be one?

42. Do you think it’s okay to buy non-official merchandise, i.e. from Wish/ AliExpress/random seller on eBay or Amazon? Why or why not?

43. Have you ever tried to emulate your idol’s style or behavior, whether on purpose or instinctively?

44. Do you like aegyo?

45. Do you think that someone who isn’t Asian or part Asian will make it in the kpop industry?

46. Do you think your bias would ever marry/date someone that isn’t Korean or East Asian (be honest)?

47. If you and your bias were friends, would you get along all of the time or fight all of the time?

48. If you and your bias were dating, would you have a push-pull relationship, or be lovey-dovey?

49. Although you support your bias, if you could change one thing about them, what would it be?

50. What is the first feeling that comes to mind when you think of your bias?

51. What are your thoughts/wishes/prayers for your bias now and in the future?

[narika-a]

85 Statements Tag

I was tagged by @theycallmebaepsaeee7 a long long time ago 😂 Thanks!

RULES: Answer these 85 statements about yourself then tag 20 people

LAST…?

1. Drink: Green tea

2. Phone call: My dad

3. Text message: "O tai ji galvoji ten labai moka ta portugalu 😂” translated to English it would be something like ‘you think she knows that much Portuguese?’. I was texting with my mom about my sis 😂

4. Song you listened: Tell Me by Infinite

5. Time you cried: when I found out my exam results 😂

EVER…?

6. Dated someone twice: Nope

7. Kissed someone and regret it: Nope

8. Been cheated on: Nope

9. Lost someone special: Nope

10. Been depressed: Yeah, I mean who hasn’t in this time and age? 😂

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Nope

12. Favorite color: Purple and/or shades of violet

13. Favorite color: Soft greens

14. Favorite color: idk anymore omg 😂

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU…?

15. Made new friends: Yesss

16. Fallen out of love: Nope

17. Laughed until you cried: Yeah! And a lot! 😂

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yeah, there is always someone out there who just wants to talk shit

19. Met someone who changed you: Nope

20. Found out who your friends are: There was even no need for that, I know my friends well 😂

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook friend list: Excluding my family members then nope 😂

GENERAL

22. How many of your Facebook friends you know irl: All of them

23. Do you have any pets: One abaubauabuab freaking adorable cat

24. Do you want to change your name: Nah, I love my name

25. What did you do for your last birthday: Went out to eat with my dad and auntie

26. What time did you wake up today: About 9.40 am or smth

27. What where you doing at midnight last night: Unboxing kpop albums 😂

28. What is something you can’t wait for: To go back home

29. Last time you saw your mother: Almost 2 months ago

30. What are you listening to right now: Sweet Lies by EXO

31. Have you ever talked to a Tom: Yeah, I had a classmate named Tom tbh 😂

32. Something that is getting on your nerves: Waiting for the dates and ticket sale time for Up10tion European tour 😂

33. Most visited website: Youtube, Tumblr, Makestar and a shit ton of online shopping sites like ebay, cdjapan, aliexpress, ktown4u etc. I need help, I think I’m addicted to online shopping omg 😂

34. Hair color: Brown

35. Long or short hair: I would say they’re pretty long now

36. Do you have a crush on someone: Nope

37. What do you like about yourself: Everything 😂😂 Jk jk I think my personality, also my imagination and organization skills 

38. Want any piercing: Yesss! I’m slowly going up the ear, I’m thinking of getting a helix one soon. I also always wanted a nape piercing but I don’t think it’s very practical, so I will see~

39. Blood type: If I remember correctly, it should be B+ 😂

40. Nickname: None thank god

41. Relationship status: Sexy, free and single. I'm ready too, bingo 😂

42. Zodiac: Taurus

43. Pronouns: She/her

44. Favorite TV shows: Oh gosh, there are so many of them omg. Some of my favourites would be TWD, Z Nation, Supernatural etc and ughhh I haven’t been keeping up with a lot of them lately

45. Tattoos: Not yet

46. Right or Left handed: Right

47. Ever had surgery: I don’t think so?

48. Piercings: 6 and all of them are for ears

49. Sport: Nothing at the moment. I’m a lazy 💩, okay? 😂😂

50. Countries you visited: Latvia, Poland, France, Ireland, Czech Republic

51. Trainers: I recently bought two new pairs and they’re so comfortable omg

MOST GENERAL

52. Eating: All day every day. Favourite food? Traditional Lithuanian dishes! Cepelinai!! Yasss

53. Drinks: Black and green tea, coke 

54. I'm about to watch: Some Pewds videos 😂

55. Waiting: For Arctic Monkeys concert

56. Want: To finally concentrate on studying

57. Get married: Meh, not really interested. At least for now.

58. Career: Astro physics/astronomer!!

WHICH IS BETTER

59. Hugs or Kisses: Hugs def

60. Eyes or lips: Eyez eyez baby

61. Shorter or taller: Taller but it all comes down to personality in the end

62. Older or younger: Older

63. Nice arms or stomach: Both?

64. Hookup or relationship: Relationship

65. Troublemaker or hesitant: Troublemaker

HAVE YOU EVER

66. Kissed a stranger: Nope

67. Drank hard liquor: Nope

68. Turned someone down: Yes oh god

69. Lost glasses: Yeah in my own house 😂 I think they were on my head or smth 😂😂 Also this is a bit off topic but I once was cleaning my glasses and I guess I used to much force or smth and one glass fell out fml 😂 

70. Sex on first day: Nah

71. Broken someone’s heart: I hope not

72. Had your heart broken: Nope

73. Been arrested: Nope

74. Cried when someone died: Yeah

75. Fallen for friend: Nope

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…?

76. Do you believe in yourself: Yesss 💪

77. Love at first sight: Yeah

78. Santa Claus: Wait what? Santa is not real???????????????????????

79. Miracles: Yeah 

80. Angels: Yeah

OTHER

82. Best friend name: Diana and Ramunė

83. Eye colour: Hazel

84. Favourite movie: Omg don’t ask me stuff like this, it’s impossible

85. Favourite actor/actress: Now that I think about it, I don’t think i have one

And done!

I’m tagging: @heebiejbies; @emma-no-sekai; @huangamoto; @illegirl-shesus; @elliechoc; @kihobebe; @kttendrama; @kangseungsicc~

[bitterccffe-blog]

Tagged by: @prosecutorsoffice ((thank you for tagging me <3))

Rules: Tag 15 people you’d like to get to know better.

Tagging: You want to do it? You are tagged (~=w=)~

Relationship status: Not comfortable enough to be in one.

Lipstick or chapstick: Chapstick

Three favorite foods: Spaghetti, cheesecake, chocolate block 

Song stuck in my head: “Ain’t gonna die tonight” - Macklemore

Last movie I watched: “Sexmission” ((This title sounds bad, doesn’t it? :V))

Top Three TV Shows: The A-Team, Monk, Over The Garden Wall

Book I am currently reading: I don’t have any at the moment

Last thing I googled: aliexpress

Time: 11:24 pm

Dream trip: I don’t really have one? ^^;

Anything you want: For everyone else to be happy

[thedappleddragon]

today I woke up pretty calmly from a really detailed interesting dream I can't remember and just kinda hung out. I made some deviled eggs for my mom and took a shower and washed my hair then took down one of my WIP fursuit heads the monsters looking one with huge ears. I snipped at some of the foam to fix up a few little bits and pieces, but I definitely want to go back and do mare re-shaping because tbh it’s kind of wonky and now how I want it yet. I sewed up some teeth for the side of the mouth, but I may remake one side and add a few more stitches to the other to add another tooth. I made color mockups of both WIP heads and how their full body designs would look. I contemplated giving the bat monster one a mouth tail, but idk. I might if I find a good tutorial. it might be fun if I put a pocket in the mouth like how daisy dukes my furby has. I looked online for different listings for neon lime green faux fur, since I only have pink brown and white right now, and fursuitsupplies.com has some pretty good prices. I also need to get some long pile white fur so I can make a neck for my other dog head and make some tails and to use as accents on the monster head and maybe add some hair poofs to my 2 white dog suits? idk man. at some point in the day I was watching tiktos and found out what r4s are (they're basically x number-in-one game cards for the ds) and I ordered one off aliexpress. I heard there’s like a time bomb that will brick the cartridge unless you download firmware for it? I'll look into it more when it arrives probably. I got a 208 in one with a bunch of Pokemon games and a few harvest moon games and a whole bunch of stuff. tbh I just skimmed the list. there were options for over 500 games but 1) realistically I would never play them all and 2) I didn't want to read the entire 500+ list to see if it had anything good. like it could exclude all the Pokemon games and just have 300 imagine babies games. and even if it doesn't work it’s only like $15 including shipping. and I spent an hour or so playing games with my friend over text because she texted the goupchat that she missed everybody and I wanted to be supportive but I couldn't think of words to say. oh one funny thing I discovered is that if I put a magnet over some spot on my MacBook then it goes into sleep mode because there's a corresponding magnet on the lid so it thinks the laptop Is closed lmao. idk why I always assumed it detected it through the hinge like a ds. speaking of fursuits I made a tiktok in my Puppermint fursuit of that trend where you hold up different fingers on the beat to some vocaloid song. it was fun but my hands almost cramped up lmao. its hard enough with your hands free but having to flex them extra hard to get the same amount of movement in paws is HARD. and tiktok kept fucking up when uploading the video so I re-uploaded it a few times until it worked. also my dad came home with some foodstuffs from an Indian market that he visited with w work friend or something. it was just ok :/ anyway that’s all I can remember so I'm gonna break my personal rule of no food after midnight and try to go to sleep probably. (to give myself some structure I game myself the rules no water after 10pm and no food after midnight but tbh I don't care right now.)

[omegadrop]

New Product has been published on https://hardware.omegadrop.com.ng/product/11-6-inch-nextbook-windows10-tablet-pc-1gb64gb-quad-core-1366768-ips-hdmi-dual-cameras-with-pin-docking-keyboard

11.6 inch nextbook windows10 Tablet PC 1GB+64GB Quad-Core 1366*768 IPS HDMI Dual cameras  with Pin Docking Keyboard

  Accessory bundles for option:

  Two colors: Black and silver, please leave us a message when you place your order, otherwise send Black by default

    Model  G12 Type Tablet PC with Pin Docking Keyboard Operation system Windows 10 Home CPU: Intel (R) Atom (TM) x5-Z3735G CPU @1.33 GHz Storage RAM 1GB DDR ROM 64GB Flash memory Extention card  TF card up to 128GB (not included) Display Screen 11.6” LCD Screen Screen type P+G COB Resolution 1366*768 IPS 16:9, Capacitive, 10 Points Multi-touch Network Support Network WiFi  WIFI 802.11b/g/n wireless internet Bluetooth Yes ,BT 4.0 Media Formats HDMI Yes, mini DHMI AV out jack 1080P Audio formats  MP3,WAV,WMA  Video formats 1080P,3GP,MP4  Picture formats BMP,GIF,JPEG,JPG,PNG  E-book formats PDF,PowerPoint,TXT,Word   MS Office format Excel,PPT,Word   Camera Camera type Dual cameras Camera Front 2MP:Rear 2MP Connectivity  TF card slot Yes Micro USB Slot Yes  HDMI Yes Host USB Yes DC  Yes  3.5mm Headphone Jack  Yes  Languages Pre-installed Language: Windows OS is built-in English, and other languages need to be downloaded by WiFi. OS supports multi-language  Additional Features Additional Features: Bluetooth,Browser,Calculator,Gravity Sensing System,MP3,MP4,Wi-Fi  General Battery build in rechargeable battery 3.7V/9000mAh AC adapter 100-240V 5V 2A  GPS N/A G-sensor Supported Skype Supported Youtube Supported Speaker Supported MIC Supported Google Play Store Supported  Dimension: Table:301*184*9.4mm Weight: Table:778g  keyboad: 589g Package Included:  1 x Windows Tablet  1 x Pin Docking keyboard 1 x Charger adaptor

  For Customers 1: How to make payment? You can pay using Visa, Mastercard, Paypal,Western Union, Qiwi and bank transfer so on.  If you have any problem with the pay, please contact us freely. 2: When will you ship my order? After you pay, we usually arrange shipment within 24hours. All the product will be tested well by QC before send.  If you have any problem with your order after you pay, please contact with us ASAP. 3: When will I get my order? If you choose AliExpress Standard Shipping, it’s normally takes 15-25days for delivery .  You can track it on https://www.17track.net/en   If you choose DHL, UPS,the shipment normally takes 3-7days to delivered, some countries takes 4-8days. All Parcels have tracking number. Note: If your address is Remote in DHL office, We will leave message to ask you to pay 38usd remote fee  or change to registered airmail parcel without add money also we will refund the extra DHL fee you paid.  Or you may have to cancel your order, or change another address which is not remote in DHL system. 4: Why I have to pay customs fees(TAX)? According to Aliexpress Rules, buyer has duty to pay customs fees in parcel destination country. (tax upon to receiver’s country customs policy）   If you want us declared as you want, please leave a message with the order, we will do as you request. 5: What’s your guarantee? And the return cost? We always offer 12months guarantee. If you bought the: Service: repair warranty (5% fee on the order amount),  you can get free repair warranty in your local country directly. If tried every method we offer you still cannot solve the problem,we may have to do replacement. Please send the defective item back to us via your local post office airmail parcel, when we receive it,  we will send you a new one immediately.we will give your some discount for your next order or  send your randomly gift to reduce your return cost,please kind understand. 6: About the Warranty 1: If the item is defective on its arrival,Please kind pack well to return back to us , we will pay the back  shipping cost, and we will change a new one for you within 7days.( Please make sure that all the items  are undamaged and in resalable condition when ship it back), And please offer us a valid for the quality problems. 2: If you dont like the product, you can return it to us within 3days with full original packing on  your expense and we will refund you the cost of the total order amount. 7: What can I do if the package still not in my hand? If time is go beyong in your order, please contact us in time, we will refund you or extend the receipt time  for you, and try to find out the reason for delay and solve . 8: About Receipt

When the parcel comes ,please check it face to face,sign after checking,Please open the parcel in  post officer’s presence.If the parcel damaged or empty(stolen),please ask the post office to provide  official document,especially the claim request paper.

9: About Feedback If you are satisfied with our product and service ,please leave us 5 STARS! If you have any problem  with product,delivery,service, please contact us,we will response in time, please don’t leave any negative feedback  or open dispute directly.We are responsible seller who focus on service and will offer the best solution to  satisfy you if you contact us !  

[songofthecagedmoose]

20 Questions

Tagged by @royalrowena ,thank you! rules: answer 20 questions about yourself and tag 20 people. you don’t need to answer questions you’re not comfortable with and you can change the questions if you like. - 1. favorite color black 2. favorite songs Banks- 27 Hours Charlotte Cardin- Dirty Dirty Dean Lewis- Waves Dua Lipa- New Rules Jaira Burns- Ugly 3. favorite band Pentatonix 4. fictional place in which i would like to reside:Storybrooke, The SPN universe 5. gender female 6. hogwarts house Gryffindor 8. birthday 02/24 9. places i want to go Mallorca, Los Angeles, London 10. places i’ve been to Greece, Germany, Turkey 11. currently: Having breakfast while scrolling through Tumblr/IG/E-mails, accompanied by some good tunes 12. shows i really like Supernatural, Once Upon A Time, Doctor Who, Penny Dreadful 13. current lockscreen/wallpaper Lock Screen: Misha having picked up Ruth bts Home Screen: A "Ruth Connell- Poison Ivy" pic 14. why did i choose my url When I decided to make a SPN account on ig, I ended up making a multifandom one that was also dedicated to the violinist Lindsey Stirling, who has write a song named "Song Of The Caged Bird". Thus I decided to combine it with Sam's nickname. And then I made a blog in here, so I connected the two accounts. 15. are there people from this website i’d like to meet Probably every member of the Rowena Trash SquadTM 16. salty or sweet sweet 17. last book i read The Stone Cutter by Camila Läckberg 18. favorite online shopping site Aliexpress 19. favorite movie Dead Silence (2007) The Fault In Our Stars (2014) 20. what did i want to be when i grew up a veterinarian ~Free Tag~

[savetopnow]

2018-03-15 21 ECOMMERCE now

ECOMMERCE

A Better Lemonade Stand

The Ecommerce Guide to Shipping Boxes: Shipping Boxes & Mailing Envelopes 101

MOQ Meaning: What Is MOQ & What You Need to Know

Email Popups for Ecommerce: How to Collect Emails & Grow Your Sales

Scout Spotlight: Increase Conversions by Developing Strong Customer Relationships

Drop Shipping 101: The Definitive Guide to Building a Drop Shipping Business in 2018

BigCommerce

7 Brands Discuss the Benefits of the New Cashless Economy and Apple Pay’s Growing Ubiquity

How Landing Pages Catapult Brands to Beyond $20,000,000 in Online Revenue

How I Turned My Father’s 90s B2B Business into California’s Fastest Growing Online Succulent Seller

Promotional Effectiveness Metrics & Email Capture Benchmarks Across 10 Ecommerce Industries [2018 Report]

Word of Mouth Marketing: How to Create a Strategy for Social Media Buzz & Skyrocket Referral Sales

Bootstrapping Ecommerce

How to Create A Return Policy That Will Make Your Buyers Come Back

Budget Sales Strategy: How to Increase Your Sales on a Budget

4 Steps to Start an Online Store With a Tiny Budget

How to Find Dropshipping Products that Sell Like Crazy

The Best Business Books of All Time: 15 Books Every Entrepreneur Needs to Read

E-Commerce Times

German Court's Privacy Ruling Against Facebook Will Have Far-Reaching Effects

Healthcare, CRM's New Vertical

Data Storage, Privacy and Metaphysics: SC Weighs Arguments in MS Case

The VR Experience: Challenges for a Growing Market

Amazon Courts Medicaid Recipients With Deep Prime Discount

My Wife Quit Her Job

How To Use Facebook Messenger To Sell Online – A Guide To Building Chatbots For Ecommerce

199: The Best Way To Source Private Label Products From China With Nathan Resnick Of Sourcify

198: The Software Tools I Use To Run My 7 Figure Blog With Steve Chou

197: A Better Way To Launch Products On Amazon With Scott Voelker

The Dangers Of Selling On Amazon And Horror Stories From Real Amazon Sellers

Nerd Marketing

Podcast 35: Top Nerd Travel Tools

Podcast 34: Productivity Insights After Six Months on the Road

Podcast 33: The Podcast is Back and Three Updates for 2018

The Five Simple Steps to Lose Money Over the Holidays

Black Friday Ecommerce: The Hype and the Reality

Reddit ecommerce

What packaging do you use?

Very Niche, But Needed... site feedback on branding

New store, looking for feedback

anyone here who dropship more than 100k per year from aliexpress?

Returns logistics hubs?

Sleeknote

Upselling for E-Commerce: How to Increase Your Average Order Value

Use These 10 Proven Product Photography Tips to Drive More Conversions

Harry’s Marketing Revealed: What We Learned from Reverse Engineering a $400 Million Startup (Case Study)

A Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing Emails for E-Commerce

Behavioral Marketing 101: The 3 Best Personalization Tactics You Haven’t Tried

Store Growers

Building From Scratch – February 18 Update

How I Set Up Google Adwords Campaigns For My Online Store

How Elon Musk’s New Rocket Helped My Online Store Take Off

Building From Scratch – January 18 Update

The Confusing Thing About Google Shopping Campaign Priority

Traffic and Sales

5 Tips for Designing a High Converting Website Pop Up (Plus 4 Bonus Conversion Tactics)

3 No-Cost eCommerce Marketing Strategies to Increase Conversions to your New Shopify Store

The Importance of Shopper Loyalty and Loyalty Programs

How to Increase your Sales with Better Product Photos

Stick With It

[rubynienowus]

eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping | Should I Dropship on Shopify or eBay?

eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping | Should I Dropship on Shopify or eBay? eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping - Should you Dropship on shopify or eBay? Find out more about Zik here http://bit.ly/eBay_vs_Shopify_Dropshipping Subscribe to our channel here http://bit.ly/2m9UCiw Download the Guide here https://www.zikanalytics.com/Resources/Guide?id=beginners-guide-how-to-start-dropshipping-on-ebay In this video, Ela goes over the Pros and Cons of shopify dropshipping vs eBay dropshipping 0:05 eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping 0:12 Which platform should you start your dropshipping ecommerce business on 0:20 Main differences between Shopify vs eBay - 0:40 How eBay drives Traffic vs how Shopify drives traffic - 0:43 How to get traffic on eBay - 1:05 How to drive traffic on Shopify 1:33 Finding products to sell on eBay - 1:38 Can use tools for ebay to do competitor research such as Zik Analytics, which gives accurate data - 1:50 Can also research other sellers to find their profitable products 2:05 Finding products to sell on Shopify - 2:10 Product research on Facebook, AliExpress and Google Trends - 2:15 Data is not 100% accurate 2:28 Preparing items to be sold on Shopify vs eBay - 2:32 Set up time to sell on eBay - 2:35 Need an ebay account, Paypal account and time - 2:45 Traffic handled by eBay - 2:53 Set up time to start selling on Shopify - 2:56 Create website, - write content - Find products - Create Facebook ads and creatives - Run and optimise ads - Find winning ads and eventually makes sales 3:21 Potential and limitations of each platform - 3:35 Is shopify better than eBay? - 3:37 Limitations and potential of selling on eBay - 3:39 Postage, communication and quality is highly regulated on eBay meaning we need to abide by their rules to keep selling - 3:44 Traffic has a possible limit on eBay (But it is huge) - 3:50 It is possible to get your account banned if not careful - 4:11 Is eBay better than Shopify? - 4:14 Limitations and potential of selling on Shopfiy - 4:15 Free to sell and do as you wish including - Build email list - Retarget customers - Delay shipping if required without risk of being shut down - 4:33 Unlimited potential of traffic on Shopify -4:40 You need to pay for traffic on Shopify 5:05 Pros of selling on eBay - 5:05 No investment needed for selling on eBay 5:14 Pros of selling on Shopify - 5:18 No risk of account being banned Full Script ---------------- Ok so let’s just go over the main differences between eBay and Shopify: -eBay is a search engine just like Google where people go to search for products And Shopify is where you need to drive traffic to your website in order to get buyers. no traffic – no buyers. Now that we have the main differences let’s elaborate: Pros & Cons: eBay Dropshipping vs. Shopify Dropshipping: 1. Drive traffic and make sales Because eBay is a search engine you don’t need to be worried about traffic, all you need to do is list items to your eBay store with simple research and you will start making sales. eBay has over 180 million buyers that search for products on daily base, so you can start Dropshipping on eBay with 0 investment and just allow the traffic on eBay to do the job for you. To be able to make sales on Shopify you need to drive traffic of relevant people that are actually willing to buy your items! To drive traffic you can use different traffic sources like, Google ads or Facebook ads Most people drive traffic from Facebook which is super expensive and you can’t start without investing money. The more money you can invest - the higher your chances to make a profit using Shopify. 2. Finding products to sell When dropshipping on eBay you can use tools like ZIK Analytics that show you accurate data on: The sales history of items sold on eBay, the competition and which title to use to drive sales, You can even research other eBay sellers and see what are some of their top selling items. Once you have found an item all you need is to optimize the title and list it to your store and you’re good to go. Finding products to sell on Shopify includes research on facebook, ali express and google trends, And even if you use all of these tools - you will never be 100% sure if this data is accurate. Once you have finally find an item to sell – then begins the start of a whole new project – preparing your item to be sold. 3. Set up time - How easy is it to start? To start selling on eBay all you need is an eBay account, paypal account and time to research for new items. Once you have found your item you then list it to your store and wait for sales, no money invested and you don’t need to think about getting traffic through your products because eBay does the job for you. To start selling on Shopify you need to: create a website, write content, find products prepare creative facebook ads, start running ads, optimize the ads, look for winning ads and hopefully make sales. Watch on YouTube here : https://youtu.be/3hq-AaeGDb0

source https://zikanalytics.weebly.com/blog/ebay-vs-shopify-dropshipping-should-i-dropship-on-shopify-or-ebay

[frankgriffithus]

Liked on YouTube: eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping | Should I Dropship on Shopify or eBay?

eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping | Should I Dropship on Shopify or eBay?

eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping - Should you Dropship on shopify or eBay? Find out more about Zik here http://bit.ly/eBay_vs_Shopify_Dropshipping Subscribe to our channel here http://bit.ly/2m9UCiw Download the Guide here https://www.zikanalytics.com/Resources/Guide?id=beginners-guide-how-to-start-dropshipping-on-ebay In this video, Ela goes over the Pros and Cons of shopify dropshipping vs eBay dropshipping 0:05 eBay vs Shopify Dropshipping 0:12 Which platform should you start your dropshipping ecommerce business on 0:20 Main differences between Shopify vs eBay - 0:40 How eBay drives Traffic vs how Shopify drives traffic - 0:43 How to get traffic on eBay - 1:05 How to drive traffic on Shopify 1:33 Finding products to sell on eBay - 1:38 Can use tools for ebay to do competitor research such as Zik Analytics, which gives accurate data - 1:50 Can also research other sellers to find their profitable products 2:05 Finding products to sell on Shopify - 2:10 Product research on Facebook, AliExpress and Google Trends - 2:15 Data is not 100% accurate 2:28 Preparing items to be sold on Shopify vs eBay - 2:32 Set up time to sell on eBay - 2:35 Need an ebay account, Paypal account and time - 2:45 Traffic handled by eBay - 2:53 Set up time to start selling on Shopify - 2:56 Create website, - write content - Find products - Create Facebook ads and creatives - Run and optimise ads - Find winning ads and eventually makes sales 3:21 Potential and limitations of each platform - 3:35 Is shopify better than eBay? - 3:37 Limitations and potential of selling on eBay - 3:39 Postage, communication and quality is highly regulated on eBay meaning we need to abide by their rules to keep selling - 3:44 Traffic has a possible limit on eBay (But it is huge) - 3:50 It is possible to get your account banned if not careful - 4:11 Is eBay better than Shopify? - 4:14 Limitations and potential of selling on Shopfiy - 4:15 Free to sell and do as you wish including - Build email list - Retarget customers - Delay shipping if required without risk of being shut down - 4:33 Unlimited potential of traffic on Shopify -4:40 You need to pay for traffic on Shopify 5:05 Pros of selling on eBay - 5:05 No investment needed for selling on eBay 5:14 Pros of selling on Shopify - 5:18 No risk of account being banned Full Script ---------------- Ok so let’s just go over the main differences between eBay and Shopify: -eBay is a search engine just like Google where people go to search for products And Shopify is where you need to drive traffic to your website in order to get buyers. no traffic – no buyers. Now that we have the main differences let’s elaborate: Pros & Cons: eBay Dropshipping vs. Shopify Dropshipping: 1. Drive traffic and make sales Because eBay is a search engine you don’t need to be worried about traffic, all you need to do is list items to your eBay store with simple research and you will start making sales. eBay has over 180 million buyers that search for products on daily base, so you can start Dropshipping on eBay with 0 investment and just allow the traffic on eBay to do the job for you. To be able to make sales on Shopify you need to drive traffic of relevant people that are actually willing to buy your items! To drive traffic you can use different traffic sources like, Google ads or Facebook ads Most people drive traffic from Facebook which is super expensive and you can’t start without investing money. The more money you can invest - the higher your chances to make a profit using Shopify. 2. Finding products to sell When dropshipping on eBay you can use tools like ZIK Analytics that show you accurate data on: The sales history of items sold on eBay, the competition and which title to use to drive sales, You can even research other eBay sellers and see what are some of their top selling items. Once you have found an item all you need is to optimize the title and list it to your store and you’re good to go. Finding products to sell on Shopify includes research on facebook, ali express and google trends, And even if you use all of these tools - you will never be 100% sure if this data is accurate. Once you have finally find an item to sell – then begins the start of a whole new project – preparing your item to be sold. 3. Set up time - How easy is it to start? To start selling on eBay all you need is an eBay account, paypal account and time to research for new items. Once you have found your item you then list it to your store and wait for sales, no money invested and you don’t need to think about getting traffic through your products because eBay does the job for you. To start selling on Shopify you need to: create a website, write content, find products prepare creative facebook ads, start running ads, optimize the ads, look for winning ads and hopefully make sales. Watch video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/3hq-AaeGDb0 source https://zikanalytics.blogspot.com/2019/12/liked-on-youtube-ebay-vs-shopify.html

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The World’s Top Online Marketplaces 2019

Find out which online marketplaces rule their countries, regions and product categories in our definitive list of marketplaces worldwide.

Globally, more than 50% of ecommerce sales were made through online marketplaces in 2018, and that is forecast to grow to about two-thirds within five years.

We are well acquainted with the likes of Amazon, eBay, Rakuten and Alibaba – the giants of online retail – but who are the rising stars? Who are the other big players around the world? Which are the best places to sell niche products?

In this post, we have compiled a definitive list of all the online marketplaces around the world,  and we answer those questions and more.

We start with the complete list of 146 marketplaces, then we look at the most popular product categories, and the best-served global regions. We include a detailed breakdown of the top four product categories – fashion, books, homewares and electronics – and finally take a look at the top marketplaces by region.

What is an online marketplace?

There are two key features that define an online marketplace:

There are many sellers and buyers trading through the same website.

Buyers are able to purchase products without leaving the site (or app).

This excludes price comparison sites like Shopping.com. Although they have products from many sellers, you cannot make a purchase without leaving the site. They are advertising channels rather than online marketplaces.

It also excludes some sites where you can sell used products such as decluttr and ubup. With those, you can only sell your stock directly to the company, so there is only one buyer. They are sourcing products from you to resell themselves (often through online marketplaces!)

For this article, we have focused on marketplaces that meet two further criteria:

The buyers are mainly consumers, not businesses.

The marketplace sells physical products, not just services.

This means that marketplaces that only support business-to-business (B2B) trade, such as diamond trading site RapNet, are excluded. Marketplaces specializing in services such as freelancing website Upwork and also excluded.

In summary, we are looking at true online marketplaces where you can sell physical products to consumers.

The world’s top online marketplaces

# Type Name Region/Country Product Category Visits/month 1 Amazon Global General 4.6B 2 eBay Global General 1.8B 3 AliExpress Global General 865.2M 4 Mercado Libre South America General 634.7M 5 Rakuten Global General 384.9M 6 Walmart.com North America General 286.2M 7 JD Worldwide Global General 264.0M 8 Tmall East Asia General 202.5M 9 Shopee Southeast Asia General 195.4M 10 Allegro Europe General 193.9M 11 Flipkart India General 192.6M 12 Etsy Global Arts, Crafts & Gifts 183.1M 13 Lazada Southeast Asia General 152.3M 14 Tokopedia Southeast Asia General 128.8M 15 Yahoo.co.jp East Asia General 125.1M 16 Best Buy North America Electronics 118.8M 17 Yandex.Market Russia General 118.4M 18 Target.com North America General 104.7M 19 Americanas South America General 101.0M 20 Wayfair North America Home 79.2M 21 Wish North America General 79.0M 22 Snapdeal India General 77.4M 23 Zalando Europe Fashion 71.3M 24 Cdiscount.com Europe General 61.9M 25 Discogs Global Music 56.8M 26 GittiGidiyor Europe General 50.0M 27 Newegg North America Electronics 49.1M 28 Ozon Russia General 48.6M 29 Souq Middle East General 45.9M 30 Bandcamp Global Music 45.4M 31 eMAG Europe General 45.3M 32 Marktplaats Europe General 40.8M 33 OTTO Europe General 40.3M 34 Fnac Europe General 39.7M 35 bol.com Europe General 39.5M 36 Submarino South America General 25.3M 37 ManoMano Europe Home 24.4M 38 Taobao East Asia General 24.1M 39 Myntra India Fashion 23.9M 40 GMarket East Asia General 23.7M 41 Houzz Global Home 21.8M 42 Dafiti South America Fashion 21.2M 43 Jumia Africa General 20.8M 44 Barnes and Noble North America Books 20.4M 45 Trade Me Australasia General 20.1M 46 Overstock Shopping North America General 20.0M 47 Poshmark North America Fashion 19.6M 48 G2A.com Global Electronics 18.7M 49 Rue du Commerce Europe General 18.6M 50 Extra South America General 17.3M 51 Sears North America General 17.3M 52 Reverb Global Musical instruments 17.2M 53 La Redoute Europe General 15.7M 54 Darty Europe General 15.6M 55 AbeBooks Global Books 15.4M 56 Joom Europe General 14.7M 57 Real.de Europe General 13.8M 58 Coupang East Asia General 12.9M 59 Conforama Europe Home 12.3M 60 GunBroker North America Weapons 11.6M 61 Vipshop East Asia General 11.2M 62 Qoo10 Southeast Asia General 9.4M 63 Tradera Europe General 9.4M 64 Linio South America General 9.1M 65 Ricardo Europe General 9.0M 66 dba Europe General 8.8M 67 Beslist.nl Europe General 8.0M 68 Spartoo Europe Fashion 8.0M 69 Zalora Southeast Asia Fashion 7.6M 70 digitec Europe Electronics 7.6M 71 Grailed North America Fashion 6.4M 72 Privalia Europe Fashion 6.4M 73 iOffer Global General 6.3M 74 shopgoodwill.com North America General 5.9M 75 Bonanza Global General 5.8M 76 Aukro Europe General 5.6M 77 Wehkamp Europe General 5.4M 78 ePRICE Europe General 5.2M 79 Fruugo Global General 4.6M 80 Catch.com.au Australasia General 4.5M 81 BrickLink Global Toys 4.5M 82 Vestiaire Collective Europe Fashion 4.5M 83 Kaola East Asia General 4.3M 84 GAME Europe Electronics 4.1M 85 Depop Global Fashion 4.0M 86 Lelong.my Southeast Asia General 4.0M 87 Jet North America General 3.8M 88 The Iconic Australasia Fashion 3.7M 89 Delcampe Global Collectibles & Antiques 3.6M 90 Storenvy North America General 3.6M 91 Casas Bahia South America General 3.4M 92 Okazii.ro Europe General 3.4M 93 Tophatter North America General 2.9M 94 Cel Europe General 2.8M 95 notonthehighstreet Europe Arts, Crafts & Gifts 2.8M 96 Galeries Lafayette Europe Fashion 2.7M 97 Rue La La North America Fashion 2.3M 98 Tradesy North America Fashion 2.0M 99 eCRATER North America General 1.9M 100 Biblio.com North America Books 1.9M 101 hood Europe General 1.8M 102 ZVAB Europe Books 1.7M 103 Fyndiq Europe General 1.7M 104 Alibris North America Books 1.6M 105 Jane North America Fashion 1.5M 106 ASOS Global Fashion 1.4M 107 Coolshop Europe General 1.3M 108 Kilimall Africa General 1.2M 109 Cratejoy North America General 1.2M 110 Ruby Lane North America Collectibles & Antiques 1.2M 111 Nature & Découvertes Europe Home 1.1M 112 miinto Europe Fashion 1.0M 113 Property Room North America General 821.3K 114 Trouva Europe Home 765.9K 115 Konga Africa General 760.2K 116 Gun Auction North America Weapons 733.1K 117 MyDeal.com.au Australasia General 680.8K 118 MassGenie North America General 667.4K 119 Delamaison Europe Home 639.4K 120 OnBuy Europe General 624.3K 121 TeszVesz Europe General 589.3K 122 ArtFire North America Arts, Crafts & Gifts 558.1K 123 Tanga North America General 544.0K 124 OpenSky North America General 509.3K 125 Hip eCommerce North America Collectibles & Antiques 501.6K 126 Pixmania Europe General 451.1K 127 Yatego Europe General 426.6K 128 Pricefalls North America General 417.0K 129 eBid Global General 370.4K 130 1st Choice Spares Europe Auto 347.9K 131 eCampus.com North America Books 338.4K 132 Valore Books North America Books 289.9K 133 Zibbet North America Arts, Crafts & Gifts 242.1K 134 Folksy Europe Arts, Crafts & Gifts 173.6K 135 Flubit Europe General 140.8K 136 TextbooksRush North America Books 136.7K 137 Yumbles Europe Food & Drink 128.1K 138 sell.com North America General 104.0K 139 TIAS North America Collectibles & Antiques 94.0K 140 uBid North America General 47.1K 141 GoAntiques North America Collectibles & Antiques 38.5K 142 Modnique North America Fashion 36.2K 143 Cosmetics Megastore Europe Health & Beauty 24.0K 144 MatchaPart.com Europe Auto Parts 20.0K 145 MarkaVIP Middle East General 17.7K 146 oodlique Europe Arts, Crafts & Gifts 10.0K

Key: = marketplace and = retailer

1 – Estimated monthly visits for February 2019, from SimilarWeb.

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This post The World’s Top Online Marketplaces 2019 is from Ecommerce In Depth.

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Should You Be Building Progressive Web Apps?

Take a close look at Monetate’s Ecommerce Quarterly Report for Q2 2018 and you might not be happy about the state of mobile websites it depicts.

The good news is that smartphones drive significantly more traffic to websites than all other devices with 52.73%:

But conversions? Ehhhh…

Smartphone conversions lag behind all other devices with 2.03%.

It’s not just conversion rates that are low either. There are also fewer pages looked at, which means engagement rates suffer on the mobile web, too.

It’s no wonder, then, why businesses want to create mobile apps. According to a Criteo Mobile Commerce Growth report from 2017, mobile apps convert at a rate of 3x their web counterparts.

That said, no matter how well users convert on mobile apps, the cost to build and maintain one is out of reach for many businesses. So, what do you do when your client wants to capitalize on this mobile-first world? Tell them to be content with the mobile web for now?

Nope! It’s time to turn their attention to progressive web apps.

What Is a Progressive Web App?

In the simplest of terms, progressive web apps (or PWAs) bridge the gap between the mobile web and mobile apps. They take a basic set of components — an app shell, service workers, and app manifest — then serve them through HTTPS to give users the convenience of the mobile web within an app-like experience.

Google has a bunch of starter guides that will walk you through the process of building a PWA from-scratch, in case you’re interested in learning more.

PWAs are:

Secure

They must run through HTTPS, which makes them inherently more secure than mobile websites that don’t always have SSL certificates in place.

Fast

According to this infographic published by AppInstitute, progressive web apps are 15x faster than native mobile apps.

Unlike mobile apps that tend to drain battery power and bandwidth, PWAs don’t have that problem since they’re served over the web.

Searchable

Users don’t have to dig through an app store to find a PWA. They can find them in their mobile search browser as this search for Flipkart’s PWA demonstrates:

That also means less work for you.

Prepping information and screenshots for an app store listing takes time. If you’re already doing SEO for your clients’ websites, then you can just use that for your PWA.

And working with each of the individual app store’s rules and timelines (because you have to submit separately to Apple and Google) is a pain. Whether you’re launching an app or pushing an update through, launch will never truly be predictable as their teams have to review and approve your app first.

PWAs, again, are much easier. You own it all, which means that when someone searches for and finds the PWA in search, the latest and greatest version is what they’ll encounter. There’s no red tape here.

Convenient

PWAs can be saved to mobile home screens the way apps can, too. For example, here is the Weather Channel PWA:

Users can then save it to their home screen, so that the icon displays alongside their other apps:

If you want to help mobile users get the most out of it, let them know it’s easy to get one-click access to with a small popup notification.

Online / Offline

PWAs are a really great choice for businesses that want to get the mobile face of their company into the hands of a global audience. For visitors that live in remote areas or ones that simply have unreliable Internet access, the offline storage component of PWAs make them the obvious choice over mobile websites.

Feature-rich

Unlike mobile websites which are limited by the technology sitting behind them, PWAs are like mobile apps in that they can leverage a smartphone’s features. While PWAs don’t have the ability to directly integrate with mobile apps, they can sync up with your users’ telephony features (like push notifications).

Great Looking

Building a website that works just as well for desktop as it does for mobile can be a challenge. Thanks to the app shell, a PWA has a significantly improved and upgraded look from a standard website on mobile.

For instance, this is the Twitter Lite interface:

Notice how the stream of content fits beautifully within the borders of the page. Also, check out the header and blue new tweet button. These elements hold firm no matter where visitors go on the Twitter website or how far down the page they scroll.

You can also greatly improve the UI of things like internal search and filtering as Housing.com does:

By improving the look and functionality of your web presence with a PWA, you’ll encourage more mobile users to engage.

PWAs Are Engaging!

All of the elements above will certainly help drive up engagement rates and conversions if you’re making the switch from a mobile website to a PWA. There’s plenty of proof online that demonstrates how and why this happens, too:

AliExpress saw twice as many mobile visitors and an 82% increase in iOS user conversion rate alone after switching to a PWA.

Lancome decreased the time it took their mobile web page to become interactive by 84%. In turn, their bounce rate dropped by 15% and they had a 17% boost in conversions.

MakeMyTrip used their PWA’s increased speeds to increase shopping sessions by 160% and conversions by 300%.

Needless to say, your clients don’t need to feel trapped or held back by the constraints of the mobile web. While it’s still important to have a presence there to start, the PWA is where they should be headed next. It’s cheaper and easier to build than a mobile app and there’s a lot to be gained in terms of engagements and conversions.

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