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At Bonanza, We're Listening!
BonanzaSarah Feb 25, 2020

At Bonanza, We're Listening!

Hi Bonanzlers! Shelly here, your new Seller Happiness Manager. What does that mean? It means that I will be listening to you, sharing information and advocating for you behind the scenes. It also means that I’ll be communicating with you during every step of our evolution. I’ve been with Bonanza from the start, previously working in customer support and assisting sellers with Google Shopping feeds. I enjoy helping our dedicated sellers and have seen many of the wonderful ideas you’ve had over the years get implemented on the site. I’m excited to put together your feedback for the team to drive future improvement. 

First, a big thank you to all of you who participated in our recent Seller Survey! We’ve finished reading through your responses. Several items stood out as most important to you. These include understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on Bonanza, shopper traffic, implementing Stripe for all seller accounts, ensuring our importers are reliable, and that our pricing for optional subscription plans is matched with value for your dollar. We hear you and are placing all of these on our product road map.

We also learned that many of you are selling online for supplemental income or as a hobby. That means you don't have a lot of time to devote to online selling. So, we need to continue working toward making Bonanza easier to use.

Our one-page New Item Form has been celebrated by sellers for its simplicity. Our Broadcaster page lets you choose or adjust your advertising rate to meet your business needs with complete transparency about your feed to Google Shopping. Our goal this year will be to extend this simplification into all areas of our site while providing you the best value in the industry.

Last week our new VP, Greg, told you that we want to regularly hear your input as one Bonanza Seller community. We seek to utilize your knowledge, harness your passion and ideas in conjunction with our experience to unlock the immense potential in our businesses. This two-way street will become our foundation. What we hear, we will aggregate and bring you in on the planning, testing, and execution.

Based on what we’ve heard so far, I will be using this blog to provide you with the information you’ve asked for. In addition to updates on our roadmap, be on the lookout for posts providing tips for SEO on Bonanza, how to use our free marketing tools, make commission-free sales, a big state sales tax update, and more.

As your Seller Happiness manager, I’m here to keep your needs at the center of all we do. You can reach me to share your feedback and ideas at [email protected]. Even if you don't see your ideas go live right away, I want you to know that every comment is read and appreciated. We are excited about the candid responses we've heard so far. I look forward to working with you this year!

Thank you!


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48 responses to At Bonanza, We're Listening!

ooak says: 02/25/20 at 17:36:53

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING !

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:01:34

You’re welcome! We appreciate all the input we’ve received.

lumpsofstuff says: 02/25/20 at 17:39:14

Thank you! This seems to bode well for the future, and I look forward to the implementations – AND increased sales!!!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:02:36

You’re very welcome, we are also looking forward to new features to help increase sales!

darcinut says: 02/25/20 at 18:11:22

I would love to see TV advertising. Your company is the best.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:08:37

Thanks for the input, darcinut! We’re glad to hear you are enjoying Bonanza

Catbyrd says: 02/25/20 at 18:12:05

Is this something that sellers will see as in results and improvements, or is it some mumbo jumbo bs that means we won’t be taken seriously?

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:17:28

Hi Catbyrd! Thanks for your question. We do expect positive results from implementing our seller’s ideas and input.

SpaceAgeAntiques says: 02/25/20 at 18:45:02

Okay that sounds great, looking forward to it!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:18:42

We are as well!

JoycesVarietyShop says: 02/25/20 at 19:09:31

We have always completed the survey when requested and have no problem doing so but, just so you know, the last two times we have not received the promised 500 bonus points on our account. We’re happy that Bonanza is doing well and we really enjoy selling on this platform!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:20:14

Hi JoycesVarietyShop! Glad to hear you are happy selling with us on Bonanza. If you can check in with our support team at [email protected] they can add the tokens for you. Thanks!

Home_and_Goods says: 02/25/20 at 19:12:46

Hi,

Speaking of SEO, what would you recommend to be improved on our end. My page seems to get a good amount of visitors, but there are no sales.

If you take a look at my page, is there anything that I should be doing in order to get sales?

I will appreciate you input.

Regards
Joao

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:24:45

Hi Home_and_Goods! We will be posting more information on SEO in the next few blogs. If you would like a support agent to check your set-up you can ask at [email protected]. Thanks!

NutrimentBoutique says: 02/25/20 at 19:12:58

Hi, one thing I noticed when the quantity on a listing goes to zero, listing delists. Can that be fixed? Listing should stay active.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 10:27:00

Hi NutrimentBoutique! Thanks for your suggestion that listings with a zero quantity not be removed. If you check in with [email protected] they can tell you how to save the listings as “Reserved” or relist them from the sold order page.

SkyeTaylor says: 02/25/20 at 20:24:09

It would be great if we could ad a video on our shop page to showcase our products or who we are.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:36:42

Thanks for the suggestion SkyeTaylor. You can add a video to your booth from the booth settings page. Our support team, [email protected] can provide you with all the details.

fantazy007 says: 02/25/20 at 21:06:54

Very little traffic, few sales, sales dropped, views dropped,it is hard to be optimistic.I have about 600 active listings.I am thankful to be on here for free.Bonanza needs to have a better online presence and marketing campaign. I hope that will happen soon.Amazon is winning the battle.Thanks again! Larry

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:43:47

You’re welcome Larry! Thanks for your feedback on increasing our marketing.

ZipseB says: 02/25/20 at 21:39:18

I’m impressed to hear that you guys are really wanting to make this a “seller’s platform”, because that’s what we need! Now, we as sellers need to really give you the push that you need! All our heads together are better than one!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 09:46:01

Absolutely, ZipseB! Thank you!

MagnoliaScreens says: 02/25/20 at 21:53:36

Thanks for the update, Sarah. We look forward to more of them, in the coming days. Kindness wins, always! :)

Sorry, maybe I meant Shelly?

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 10:22:35

Thanks MagnoliaScreens! We agree, kindness wins :)

ostfrspezialitaeten says: 02/25/20 at 21:59:30

It would be super helpful, if items, which are out of stock, would be listed on a page (maybe Items → Items out of stock) because the synchronizing of the stock would be much easier.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 10:32:16

Hi ostfrspezialtaeten! Thanks for the suggestion!

wilrue99 says: 02/26/20 at 01:00:10

Advertising leads to more selling and that’s what we need. Sales are just so sluggish on Bonanza it’s hard to hang out here; and wait hoping something will happen.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 10:59:27

We hear ya wilrue99! We appreciate your input and if you have any specific ideas concerning advertising I’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

Bluelucy says: 02/26/20 at 01:07:22

Thank you. SEO has always been a mystery to me.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:01:29

You’re not the only one, Bluelucy. We will be addressing the specifics of Search Engine Optimization in the next few blogs, so check back soon!

jewelrymandave says: 02/26/20 at 01:17:10

None of this matters unless you DRIVE more BUYERS to Bonanza. When i started here years ago i had consistent sales. Over the past 2 years the only sales i have had have been to fellow Bonanza shop owners. GROW THE CUSTOMER BASE.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:09:51

With the help of our sellers, we are working to improve the experience at Bonanza, and our goal is turn that experience into more sales. Thanks!

Uniline says: 02/26/20 at 01:43:45

Are you sure you are?

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:07:19

Yes, we are! If you have any ideas for Bonanza you can reach me at [email protected] For booth concerns, our support team would be happy to listen and help at [email protected].

Erikastore2008 says: 02/26/20 at 02:47:38

Thank you very much for listening to us, I wish all the changes that are coming, so that we sellers can be happier on this wonderful platform!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:23:24

You’re welcome! Thanks for being part of our community. I’m looking forward to working with all of you!

LadysClothesJewelry says: 02/26/20 at 03:07:14

Hi Shelly. Thanks for the update. Like many sellers here I love Bonanza. My sales are few, but it is my love that keeps me here knowing that Bonanza is great and can be even greater. By keeping an eye on the errors that eBay and Etsy are making and listening to what the sellers are saying about it, will keep Bonanza going up and up. Everyone looks forward to Stripe coming, more traffic and lots of plain fun selling.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:22:17

So glad to hear that you are enjoying Bonanza. We are looking forward to more fun too! So glad to have you here!

Virtual_Mamas_Place says: 02/26/20 at 04:15:31

Hi Shelly, Nice to meet you!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:19:52

Great to meet you too, Virtual_Mamas_Place!

GuitarBling says: 02/26/20 at 05:15:11

Thank you.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:24:52

You’re welcome, thanks for joining our community of sellers here at Bonanza!

Grannys_Goodies says: 02/26/20 at 05:17:54

Sounds great. We all will benefit from more traffic.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:25:21

Absolutely!

MarthaC234 says: 02/26/20 at 05:18:20

My main goal for selling is to be seen and make sales to supplement my ‘BIG’ social security check. I have a site on eBay, Etsy and Bonanza. Changes were made to eBay making fixed price sales ‘good til cancelled’ which takes away from my number of items listed without paying extra entry fees. Etsy is for vintage items only so that limits my items. Bonanza was recommended to me by a friend but in the months that I’ve been on the site I’ve only made 2 sales. I don’t know what the answer is but hopefully, together, a solution can be found and stores can be made. Thank you for listening. Martha

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:33:33

Hi Martha! Thanks for your kind comments. If you would like to check in with [email protected] they can check your booth to make sure you are set up correctly. We appreciate your support!

jerseyboymusic says: 02/26/20 at 05:47:35

I would like the option of importing ONLY certain items from Ebay, rather than EVERYTHING… I mainly sell records and blue jeans, but have other misc items on Ebay that I don’t want to import onto Bonanza. Currently, I have to batch import everything and then remove the items I don’t want to sell on Bonanza, which is a headache. HELP!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:39:20

Hi Jerseyboymusic! Thanks for your suggestion of improving the importer to only bring over certain items. I will pass your idea on to the team. You can also use the “Reserve” status to keep items from importing, you can get specifics from [email protected].

EsyKlassyCollections says: 02/26/20 at 06:13:20

Thank you

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 11:40:37

You’re welcome! We’re happy to have you here.

DaveMinNJ says: 02/26/20 at 07:53:30

I found this comment on the Ecommercebytes Sellers Choice Awards 2020 to be on point. It stated the following:

Pros – good customer service, easy to list items for sale, low fees. Cons – lack of sales, lack of company advertising, lack of audience, no buyer loyalty program, lack of vision from the company to gain marketshare.

Shelly – we do need a buyer loyalty program and more innovation in the areas of advertising, payments, Bonanza hosted deals, coupons, incentives etc. It seems to me that Bonanza positioned itself as a conduit for sellers to sell goods comparable to a flea market setting up tables and letting the seller do all the work. Ebay is much better at doing the heavy lifting for sellers. Bonanza needs to take a cue from ebay in this regard. Just my 2 cents.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 12:10:08

Hi DaveMinNJ, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I like the idea of a buyer loyalty program. I will be passing it on to the team, thanks!

Shelleyscollectables says: 02/26/20 at 08:04:40

From one Shelly to another. Thanks for listening! :)

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 12:13:01

Hi Shelley! Nice to meet you!

vintage-duchess says: 02/26/20 at 08:12:23

Shelly, when you use an ancronym how about spelling out the whole thing the first time you use it. ex. SEO or Search Engine Optimization. There are beginners or part-timers who may need an explanation of what you are referring to.

Thanks!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 12:16:38

Great point, I have edited it. Thanks!

uniquecollector says: 02/26/20 at 08:20:21

I have sold two things, but never received payment. No follow through, no e-mail contact. I am somewhat disappointed.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 12:21:33

You will want to check on that with [email protected]. They will look into what happened to your transactions. Thanks!

hubbardstoncandle says: 02/26/20 at 08:33:18

Thank you Shelly for the information.

In my opinion marketing Bonanza is a big priority. As others have said that most of us have only heard about Bonanza through forum posts from other sellers, but without that I would have never known Bonanza exists, or what Bonanza is.

Secondly, customer traffic is definitely extremely low and it might not be for some categories, but it is for candles it seems. On of of the pages it shows the top 5 category sales for the previous day. It seems that some categories do very well. We need more traffic to other categories.

We have purchased a year subscription in advance to see if that would boost traffic and it has not so far.

Please keep up the communication whenever you can. I believe that Bonanza could become a great marketplace for both sellers and buyers.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 12:55:54

Thanks so much for your feedback. We agree, we need to let everyone know that Bonanza is a great marketplace!

DiscountCrafts4U says: 02/26/20 at 08:34:39

I like seeing the adds in the paypal accounts that is a great start.
My biggest compliant is Item Variations on Bonanza I have called you guys on this for years and you say we are working On it. I hate to say anything Good about Ebay but their variations listing program is the best I have Seen. When you have as many listings as I do you haft to start doing a lot of variations listing or owe your soul to Greedbay. You only allow 15 pictures per listing so I haft to make many listings on your site split them up for one variation listing on Ebay and when you drop down on the item it does not show in the picture of the item people haft to guess which one in the order of the pictures. I know you can fix it because Ebid imports from Ebay perfectly including the Variations listings so come on I really like you guys even though most of us do not Make enough sales yet to leave that sinking ship called Ebay. Maybe when Ebay sinks for good our sales will increase. Thanks for listening to my venting. Jeff

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 13:08:39

Thank you Jeff for reaching out to us about the variation limitations. I am hoping we can get this done for you!

MarieADawson says: 02/26/20 at 08:42:01

Thank You Shelly, Looking forward to sales this year like everyone else.Thank You for all the Bonanza teams hard work and listening to the sellers.Warm Regards,Marie

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 13:09:53

Hi Marie! You’re welcome. We are lucky to have so many wonderful sellers like you!

music4many says: 02/26/20 at 10:39:19

Thanks Shelly
I’m sure you’ve heard this many times before but there is very little traffic and with this comes very little sales. We really need Bonanza to do some advertising so the word gets out more as to what a great site it is.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/26/20 at 13:28:13

Hi Music4many, thanks for your feedback about advertising. I agree with you and we are working hard to make it happen! Here’s to a great 2020!

coatofarms says: 02/26/20 at 11:17:14

I’d love to see FTP or something similar to bulk upload the full size file for my digital products. I have over 50,000 of them, and I can’t imagine how long it would take to upload the files with the current system. I’m able to upload the product info and thumbnail images. But I’ve yet to figure how to upload the whole file that I’m selling.

azseller says: 02/26/20 at 11:51:10

Please get a phone!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 10:38:22

Thanks for your feedback about customer service by phone. I’ve added it to our goals. :)

pendragons_books says: 02/26/20 at 12:24:43

Thank you for all you do.
I like many others would just like to see more traffic in the future.
I came here with the hope of kicking EBAY to the curb. :(
Pen the Dragon

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 10:40:40

We hear you pendragons books! Thanks!

VeroStores says: 02/26/20 at 12:47:35

Gracias, se ven muy buenos los puntos a mejorar!!!

dcpinc says: 02/26/20 at 13:34:47

Finally got 1 $10 sale on Bonanza in a month and noticed paypal charged 6% fee instead of the normal 3.5% on ebay sales to the same paypal account – anyone know why the much higher paypal fee for Bonanza orders ?

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 10:46:56

Hi dcpinc, thanks for your comment. Paypal should not be charging you more for transactions here than on other sites. We would recommend contacting them about the charge. Thanks!

meliandjo says: 02/26/20 at 14:46:14

How do you keep Chinese sellers off this platform. Etsy for instance is plagued by it and it ruined the ability for homemade sellers to make a decent living, when China goods are sold at China prices. They also call everything handmade when it’s all made in bulk in China and resold as handmade and resold here in USA. It’s why I am leaving Etsy and finding hopefully another format such as this to try on. Thanks!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 11:58:20

Thanks for your feedback!

RedbirdRidge says: 02/26/20 at 21:01:41

Encouraging blog post! I hope this new friendliness at Bonanza continues. Thanks, Shelly!

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 12:49:43

You can count on friendliness here, and we appreciate yours as well!

onemanstreasure16 says: 02/27/20 at 05:02:09

We sell on 3 other sites. Bonanza has had the least sales for the last 2 years. While we like Bonanza, it’s not worth the time to keep a lot of items listed.

More seller/buyers are using apps to list or purchase items. The Internet marketplace has changed drastically over the past few years. Competition, sales taxes, increasing shipping costs, returns, etc., have driven sellers off some sites. Time will tell….

Jax_Music_Supply says: 02/27/20 at 06:19:51

Always good to see improvements. However, Bonanza (to state the obvious) needs more customers. I’ve yet to see what makes Bonanza a better experience for customers than EBay, Amazon, Etsy (for that market) and a myriad of others. What can be done to make Bonanza stand out from the crowd?

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 12:48:16

Thanks for taking the time to comment, we appreicate it and are taking all ideas into consideration.

LUVDOC says: 02/27/20 at 07:20:50

DEAR SHELLY – THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR ENTHUSIASM ! I LOOK FORWARD TO A GREAT YEAR ON BONANZA..LUVDOC

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 12:08:34

Thanks LuvDoc!

tomjr1955 says: 02/27/20 at 08:14:55

Welcome Shelly
More traffic to drive sales without having to buy turbo traffic. A customer reward program would help repeat sales. The bottom line is without an increase in traffic, there will be no sales.
Also having a way to send offers to buyers would be a way to increase sales. I also have a store on ebay and traffic is 100 times higher than here on Bonanza. Your fees are lower, but lack of sales doesn’t help the lower fees.

BonanzaShelly says in response: 02/27/20 at 12:45:38

Thanks so much for your feedback tomjr!

Couponeer says: 02/27/20 at 11:19:05

Thank you. Congratulations on your promotion. Nice blog.


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