At present my jewelry is put for sale in 3 different internet shops: etsy.com, dawanda.com and – since a couple of months – bonanza.com. The bonanza site has not been a bonanza so far, actually I doubt whether it is the right platform for handmade stuff. My first – and only – sale on this site has turned out to be a flop.
Since the law of attraction works with me in a way that all things – both good and bad ones – come in pairs, I was always afraid of a situation when my item sells double on two sites at the same time. Theoretically, with about 100 shop items, the chance is very small. But every time my item was sold on one site, my first action was to suspend it on the other site (I only delete items permanently when the purchase is irreversible, i.e. no return possible). But this evening I came back from the gym and saw the same item sold within one hour, with just 15 minutes difference – both through dawanda.com and bonanza.com. Making a choice was easy: the first purchaser gets it. So I wrote an email to the second purchaser and reimbursed the purchase price immediately, paying not only the PayPal transaction commission but cancellation costs as well. And of course, since it is my fault that I could not remove the item in time, I still owe sales commission to bonanza.com.
So, let’s sum up the ‘revenue’ of this double whammy:
The item was sold for 18 euro’s at dawanda.com minus:
1. 5% dawanda sales commission = 90 cent
2. PayPal transfer commission of 3,5% + 35 eurocent = 1 euro 8 cent
3. 5% bonanza.com sales commission charged on the total price (including shipping costs) of 28 dollar = 1 euro 10 cent
4. PayPal cancellation costs of 1,09 dollar = 80 eurocent
Total charges = almost 4 euro.
Since the total price dipped under the material costs, this item has been sold at a loss. My only possible reward is the absence of negative feedback and maybe – maybe – some positive feedback.
This situation is just a big piece of bad luck – a double whammy – which can not be avoided. If you want to offer your stuff through different shops you have to take this risk.
However, there is one possible solution – to switch off the automatic order confirmation option in all shops but one, and confirm the orders manually, thus being able to say “item sold” in time.
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