Friday, August 1, 2008

K.I.S.S at Bonanzle

Keep It Simple Sweetie at Bonanzle

This is an interesting site, it was launched two months ago, still in beta, but remarkably functional. This is one of the few new sites that is oriented to buyers on the home page. How about that!

Support is speedy, friendly and to the point. At this time Seattle based Bonanzle is fee free. Unlike some other sites, there is an advertising budget but organic traffic is gaining velocity. The goal was to target primarily sellers in July, and then target both buyers and sellers thereafter. I have seen booth numbers triple in the last two weeks. I am pleased to tell you there have been sales.

So What is Bonanzle?

Bonanzle is bright and uncluttered, easy to navigate and it feels friendly. It appears to be a hybrid of Craigslist, Etsy and the very very old eBay (the community feel) but better and it is not auction format, fixed price only. Booths (Bonanzle for store) have a cart!

This is not a cookie cutter out of the box sales site. It is a carefully thought out uniquely designed sales venue into which founder Bill Harding and his team have put a tremendous amount of work over the last year and a half.

You can entertain offers on your items if you wish, or not, as you choose. You can ship or offer local pickup for large items like couches and furniture. It is extremely web 2.0 in that there is a live chat option, you can list multiple means of contact, IM, Skype, e-mail, social network, website, blog, or plain old fashioned phone.

The listing format is great. It is truly simple and intuitive. When you click the Sell button a single screen comes up, just that one screen has all the fields you need. No html, decimal free (list in round numbers) and you can duplicate items if you have wording or layout you want to keep consistent.

Pictures are quick and easy to upload from your computer, there is a built in editor and more importantly your pictures look good on the site.

I found the listing process to be extremely fast to learn, completing my first ten items in about 20 minutes. Once I had the process down I was listing an item a minute. Wheeeeeeee! There is a feedback grabber from eBay and I believe you can also bulk import listings from Excel, eBay and Craigslist.

Each seller can have a Bonanza once a month, a Bonanza is a short term super sale.

For a few hours we will let all visitors know that you are having a sale, that they had better check it out, and that all in all, we think you are pretty great. You choose the time to put your goods up for sale. We direct site traffic to your booth. Magic happens..


Bonanzle welcomes non US sellers, Bill says
We're open to sellers from other countries registering (quite a few already have), but our shipping is only setup to specify rates within the US right now, and all our prices are in dollars, so it is admittedly not ideal for them yet. We're hoping to add more internationalization in the coming months.


Bonanzle for buyers
As a buyer you have complete control of how you search. There is a semi-conventional search box on the home page which allows you to search by keyword and then price or speed. You can search for local items, most recently listed, shop in a Live Booth (where the seller is online) or browse more conventionally by category. In the Booths you can choose from six sort options.

Bonanzle has a unique cart system, the buyer drags items to the sellers cart, checks off options and makes an offer if that option is checked. The seller can fine tune with any shipping discounts etc and respond. Currently the site is set up for Paypal and Google Checkout.

I have tested quite a few sites since February and I now know which ones I do not want anything to do with. My gut feeling on this one? I like it, it is going places. I am in on the ground floor, which is a good place to be.

So here is a special offer, all sellers who get in and stock their booth before the beta period ends will be grandfathered in, and not be charged fees for six months after everyone else starts getting charged.

Tell 'em Henrietta sent you, (full disclosure, I am not getting paid to do this)

Y'all come back


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! I looked at the site, it's beautiful. I was just clicking around, and found the Felicitations booth! The thumbnail pictures are the best I've seen on any selling site!

I think I'm in love!

Henrietta said...

I just heard of this site as well and googling it led me to your blog. Thanks for some great information from one Henrietta to another :)
We're going to try and get in on this one too, it looks like one that will definitely be around for awhile!

Anonymous said...

I like the attitude and feel of Bonanzle. It's so hard to give up my dependence on Ebay. But with less sales and less final price, it's becoming easier. I'm so sick of Ebay!!!

Anonymous said...

Great article and I recommend everyone to read all of her works here!
And you can find out more on Bonanzle @ http://www.squidoo.com/groups/bonanzle

Come Join the fun! (after you visit the diary of course!)

Anonymous said...

I sell at Bonanzle. I have been searching for the best alternative to ebay and have registered and tested quite a few auction/selling sites and Bonanzle is my light at the end of the tunnel!
FUN FUN FUN to sell at Bonanzle! I feel happy as a seller again! PS- The owner is not only friendly and supportive but is also CUTE! You'll have to go see for yourself!

Anonymous said...

I was reading about the "small sellers" finding a place to sell outside "Ebay world" and I can truly say I love it over at "Bonanzle" I have lots of great quality used brand name clothing.
Ralph Lauren, A& F, Timberland, and many others. It's been good for me.
Check me out.http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/VeronicaOko

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.

Anonymous said...

Bonanzle is truly a breath of fresh air. I have sold on most of the sites out there and this one is the most promising. The community is fantastic, the sales are beginning to happen and the site is growing by leaps and bounds daily. It's great for both shoppers and sellers. :-)

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/GarageSaleBoutique

Unknown said...

Bonanzle.com

I have been a book seller on eBay for the past 5 years. I have done well over the years building a repeat customer base and welcoming new customers every day. I still have my eBay site. I have also imported all of my listing to a new site www.bonanzle.com. Bonanzle is free to list and free to have up to 4 photos. The guys who run the show there are very good at what they do. They will personally answer you and even ask your opinion in the forums. You can chat live with a person who is browsing your items and interact with other sellers.

I guess after researching the many alternatives, I have found this to be the best. The display when you first log in to Bonanzle is professional. It is a clean, easy to use site with "booths" for the sellers who offer what ever payment type they choose.

The beauty of it is that the seller can be linked to Google Base where your items will eventually appear at the top of the pages when your item is searched. And this is free! There are FVF's, but minimal compared to eBay.

The site is growing leaps and bounds everyday. Of course, it doesn't have the notoriety that eBay does, YET. If you, as a seller, want a great alternative and grow with this site, it can't hurt at all to list your items parallel to what you currently have listed on eBay and eventually get out from under the grips of a "sinking ship".

So, come on over and check it out. You will find many eBay refugees, in fact most of the sellers are. Many former PowerSellers that are making the transition, one of them is me.

http://www.bonanzle.com/SusansBooks
www.susanscollectiblesclassicbooks.com