Information on eCrater
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https://www.ecrater.com/
eCRATER is both a free web store builder and an online marketplace. If you are a seller you can create your own free online store in minutes. If you are a buyer you can browse and search among millions of products. All eligible products are submitted to Google Shopping. You can also easily import your eBay products.
Store Features
What is eCRATER?
The eCRATER platform has two functions:
1) It is an online marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers from all over the world.
2) It is a FREE ecommerce website builder providing sellers with customizable online stores. All products uploaded to a seller's store are automatically included in the marketplace.
How do I become a seller on eCRATER?
Getting started is easy! Just visit this link to register an account and start selling: https://www.ecrater.com/reg.php
Are there costs to sell on eCRATER?
It is absolutely FREE to open a store on eCRATER! This means you won't pay any fees, final value fees, monthly fees or commission to open your own store and sell your products. You will get 100% of all the sales that you bring to your store. If eCRATER brings you a sale through the main marketplace, we will collect 2.9% marketplace cost. This marketplace cost will not be imposed on shipping and tax or fully refunded/reversed, cancelled or unpaid orders and will only occur for buyers coming from the marketplace.
Can I opt out of the marketplace completely and still keep my store?
You can minimize your marketplace traffic by selecting "Send minimum buyers from the marketplace". Then your products will appear behind in searches and when browsing categories in the main marketplace. Your product pages in the marketplace will show products of other merchants instead of other products from your store. The items may still be accessible in the marketplace if you directly enter the product url or through links in search engines or they may be completely removed from the marketplace. While selecting this option will allow you to incur minimal marketplace costs, you will be losing sales and the additional exposure that the marketplace provides.
What will happen if I do not pay the generated invoice for my marketplace sales?
This will result in all penalties described in the previous question + we may completely remove your items from the marketplace and stop showing your products in Google Shopping. Your store will remain active but you should be able to drive your own traffic and sales.
Why should I pay marketplace cost?
We are spending considerable efforts and money to drive buyers to our marketplace. This small marketplace cost will allow us to continue bringing you buyers and sales originating from the main marketplace.
When is the marketplace cost due?
If the main marketplace generated sales for you for the past month, an invoice will be generated 15 days after that month ends and you will be notified by email. In some cases when the due amount is higher we may generate the invoice earlier.
Does this mean that eCRATER is not free anymore?
No. You can still sell completely for free. How? If you receive an invoice from us, just do not pay it. We will not suspend your account for this. We will decrease your ranking in the marketplace or may completely remove your products from there and do not feed your items to Google Shopping. However your store will remain active and operational.
I'm an international seller and I don't want to ship to the United States. Is this allowed?
No. To sell on eCRATER, you must be able to ship throughout the United States.
Do I need to download special software to set up my eCRATER store?
There are no software requirements to build and manage your store. Just use your web browser and Internet connection. Currently, eCRATER is optimized for the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari & Konqueror.
Is there a limit on the number of products I can sell in my eCRATER store?
There is a limit of 10,000 products per store. If you have good amount of sales, you can contact us and we will possibly increase your product quota. All quota adjustments are done on case by case basis.
Can I open more than one eCRATER store?
It is possible to open multiple stores on eCRATER. Each store must be registered with a unique email address and must be in compliance with our Terms of Service. Note that you cannot create additional stores if there are unresolved issues in your previous or current store. All outstanding issues must be resolved first. Creating new stores to circumvent account suspension is also not allowed.
Can I import products to my eCRATER store?
You can directly import your eBay products. It is also possible to import products in bulk if the listings are already in a tab-delimited text file, saved with UTF-8 encoding.
What payment options are supported on eCRATER?
PayPal Payments Standard, PayPal Express Checkout, Direct Credit Cards Processing through Stripe, Money Order, Cashier's Check, Personal Check, COD (Collect on Delivery is a service offered through United States Postal Services only available to US sellers)
Do I need separate accounts for the UK and AU marketplaces?
No. You administer your store with one account, where prices are based in US dollars. You can choose to have the US dollar prices automatically or manually converted.
I don't want to sell in GBP and AUD.
By default, if you ship to UK or AU, your items will automatically appear in the UK and AU marketplaces in the respective currencies. If you do not wish to sell in these marketplaces please remove the GBP and AUD prices. This can be easily done with the global editor. Please also check off the "Do not auto convert prices" option in the Options menu.
How can buyers find my eCRATER store and products?
Buyers can find your store through an item in the marketplace, or by going directly to your store's URL. All eCRATER store URLs are in this format: http://storename.ecrater.com . Also you can provide a link from your website.
What are Google attributes?
Google Attributes are characteristics that describe the product that you are uploading to your store. Attributes are required if you wish to have your products fed to Google Shopping. For more information please click on the "Promote My Store" link after logging in to your Administrative Tool.
How do I add products to my eCRATER store?
Products can be added to your store by going to "Products" in the left-side navigation menu once you are logged in. Click on the blue "Add New Product" button and fill in the required information for your item.
How do I upload photos for my product?
To upload a photo, you will first need to add a product to your store or item to sell. Follow the steps to add a product and there will be an option to upload your first photo. After you have added the product, you will see a Photos tab on the top of the page or a small camera icon beside your product. Click on either and you will have the option to add up to 9 additional photos (you can upload up to 10 photos total).
What shipping options does Ecrater support?
eCRATER supports 3 types of shipping: flat rate, weight matrix and USPS calculator that is only available for US merchants.
a) Flat Rate: For each flat rate zone, you can define two rates. A primary rate, and a secondary rate (with another item). The secondary rate determines the shipping in case the product is purchased with another item or multiple quantities from the same product are purchased.
b) Weight Matrix: Select Weight Matrix when you add/edit products and make sure you filled out the shipping rates in the Weight Matrix menu. In the matrix you can define rates for the different weight ranges.
c) USPS Calculator: It overrides the other shipping options. You can enabled it in menu Options. We support both domestic and international destinations. We recommend that when you use the USPS shipping calculator you also set up the flat shipping rates or fill out the shipping matrix. In rare cases when there are connectivity issues between USPS and Ecrater (or when the USPS API is not working), we will fail back to these "back up" rates.
How do I set up and use the flat rate shipping?
Before you start with flat rate shipping, please make sure that you already defined your flat rate shipping zones. The zones can be selected in menu Flat Rate Zones.
Once you define your flat rate shipping zones, then these will appear in the add product/edit product/copy product menu. For each flat rate zone, you can define two rates. A primary rate, and a secondary rate (with another item). The secondary rate determines the shipping in case the product is purchased with another item or multiple quantities from the same product are purchased. The secondary rate is optional and if omitted will be equal to the primary rate.
Example:
Product #1:
primary rate: 10
secondary rate: 5
Product #2:
primary rate: 6
secondary rate: 2
a) if the Product #1 and Product #2 are purchased together:
- Ecrater look for the maximum primary rate of the two products. In our case this is $10 (the primary rate for Product #1)
- for the second product we use the secondary rate. In our case this is $2
So total shipping will be: 10 + 2 = 12
b) if we purchase 5 of Product #2:
-Total shipping: 6 + 4 * 2 = 14
Can I use my own domain with my eCRATER store?
Yes, you can. Custom domain is a premium feature that costs $5 per month. It allows you to use your own domain with your store. There is free 5 day trial period so you can see how it works.
Below are the steps to enable it:
1) Log into your eCRATER account and go to menu Options. Enable custom domain and enter your domain in the way you would like it to appear. You can use:
www.example.com
example.com
store.example.com
etc.
Do not use http:// in the domain name.
2) Log into your domain registrar (gandi, namecheap, godaddy, 1and1 or whatever you used to register your domain). Then select the domain and add a CNAME record. As a value enter yourstorename.ecrater.com, where yourstorename is your actual store name in eCRATER (the name you are logging with).
Wait until the domain changes propagate across the web. This can take from several minutes to several days depending on your internet service provider.
Please note that you do not need to purchase an SSL certificate. The checkout pages will still go through the eCRATER domain similar to how your store is working now.
You can see an example of using custom domain at: www.gsmbg.com
Please make sure that you removed the A record for the domain and added the required CNAME record. You can find below links to tutorials for how to add CNAME record for some of the most popular registrars:
GoDaddy
1&1
Namecheap
Register.com
Network Solutions
Is there a full tutorial for the Administrative Tool?
Yes, you can download it from here or from here
eCRATER is both a free web store builder and an online marketplace. If you are a seller you can create your own free online store in minutes. If you are a buyer you can browse and search among millions of products. All eligible products are submitted to Google Shopping. You can also easily import your eBay products.
Store Features
- Tax Zones
- Color Schemes
- Flat Rate Shipping
- Notification of orders by Email
- Up to 10 photos per product
- Weight based Shipping Calculator
- Inventory Control
- PayPal Payments Standard Support
- PayPal Express Checkout Support
- Stripe Support
- Store Widgets
- Direct Credit Card Processing
- Copy Product Feature
- Google Analytics Support
- Money Order, Cashier's Check, COD
- Fully Editable Store Texts
- Google's Attributes Support
- Google Shopping feeds
- Facebook app
- Earn money with AdSense
- Feedback System
- Upload Category Pictures
- Free Web Store Hosting
- Bulk lister
- Set Promotional Products
- Unlimited Disk Space
- eBay importer
- Set Promotional Categories
- Your Own URL http://you.ecrater.com
- USPS Shipping Calculator
- NO 3-YEAR RULE ON LICENSE PLATES!
What is eCRATER?
The eCRATER platform has two functions:
1) It is an online marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers from all over the world.
2) It is a FREE ecommerce website builder providing sellers with customizable online stores. All products uploaded to a seller's store are automatically included in the marketplace.
How do I become a seller on eCRATER?
Getting started is easy! Just visit this link to register an account and start selling: https://www.ecrater.com/reg.php
Are there costs to sell on eCRATER?
It is absolutely FREE to open a store on eCRATER! This means you won't pay any fees, final value fees, monthly fees or commission to open your own store and sell your products. You will get 100% of all the sales that you bring to your store. If eCRATER brings you a sale through the main marketplace, we will collect 2.9% marketplace cost. This marketplace cost will not be imposed on shipping and tax or fully refunded/reversed, cancelled or unpaid orders and will only occur for buyers coming from the marketplace.
Can I opt out of the marketplace completely and still keep my store?
You can minimize your marketplace traffic by selecting "Send minimum buyers from the marketplace". Then your products will appear behind in searches and when browsing categories in the main marketplace. Your product pages in the marketplace will show products of other merchants instead of other products from your store. The items may still be accessible in the marketplace if you directly enter the product url or through links in search engines or they may be completely removed from the marketplace. While selecting this option will allow you to incur minimal marketplace costs, you will be losing sales and the additional exposure that the marketplace provides.
What will happen if I do not pay the generated invoice for my marketplace sales?
This will result in all penalties described in the previous question + we may completely remove your items from the marketplace and stop showing your products in Google Shopping. Your store will remain active but you should be able to drive your own traffic and sales.
Why should I pay marketplace cost?
We are spending considerable efforts and money to drive buyers to our marketplace. This small marketplace cost will allow us to continue bringing you buyers and sales originating from the main marketplace.
When is the marketplace cost due?
If the main marketplace generated sales for you for the past month, an invoice will be generated 15 days after that month ends and you will be notified by email. In some cases when the due amount is higher we may generate the invoice earlier.
Does this mean that eCRATER is not free anymore?
No. You can still sell completely for free. How? If you receive an invoice from us, just do not pay it. We will not suspend your account for this. We will decrease your ranking in the marketplace or may completely remove your products from there and do not feed your items to Google Shopping. However your store will remain active and operational.
I'm an international seller and I don't want to ship to the United States. Is this allowed?
No. To sell on eCRATER, you must be able to ship throughout the United States.
Do I need to download special software to set up my eCRATER store?
There are no software requirements to build and manage your store. Just use your web browser and Internet connection. Currently, eCRATER is optimized for the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari & Konqueror.
Is there a limit on the number of products I can sell in my eCRATER store?
There is a limit of 10,000 products per store. If you have good amount of sales, you can contact us and we will possibly increase your product quota. All quota adjustments are done on case by case basis.
Can I open more than one eCRATER store?
It is possible to open multiple stores on eCRATER. Each store must be registered with a unique email address and must be in compliance with our Terms of Service. Note that you cannot create additional stores if there are unresolved issues in your previous or current store. All outstanding issues must be resolved first. Creating new stores to circumvent account suspension is also not allowed.
Can I import products to my eCRATER store?
You can directly import your eBay products. It is also possible to import products in bulk if the listings are already in a tab-delimited text file, saved with UTF-8 encoding.
What payment options are supported on eCRATER?
PayPal Payments Standard, PayPal Express Checkout, Direct Credit Cards Processing through Stripe, Money Order, Cashier's Check, Personal Check, COD (Collect on Delivery is a service offered through United States Postal Services only available to US sellers)
Do I need separate accounts for the UK and AU marketplaces?
No. You administer your store with one account, where prices are based in US dollars. You can choose to have the US dollar prices automatically or manually converted.
I don't want to sell in GBP and AUD.
By default, if you ship to UK or AU, your items will automatically appear in the UK and AU marketplaces in the respective currencies. If you do not wish to sell in these marketplaces please remove the GBP and AUD prices. This can be easily done with the global editor. Please also check off the "Do not auto convert prices" option in the Options menu.
How can buyers find my eCRATER store and products?
Buyers can find your store through an item in the marketplace, or by going directly to your store's URL. All eCRATER store URLs are in this format: http://storename.ecrater.com . Also you can provide a link from your website.
What are Google attributes?
Google Attributes are characteristics that describe the product that you are uploading to your store. Attributes are required if you wish to have your products fed to Google Shopping. For more information please click on the "Promote My Store" link after logging in to your Administrative Tool.
How do I add products to my eCRATER store?
Products can be added to your store by going to "Products" in the left-side navigation menu once you are logged in. Click on the blue "Add New Product" button and fill in the required information for your item.
How do I upload photos for my product?
To upload a photo, you will first need to add a product to your store or item to sell. Follow the steps to add a product and there will be an option to upload your first photo. After you have added the product, you will see a Photos tab on the top of the page or a small camera icon beside your product. Click on either and you will have the option to add up to 9 additional photos (you can upload up to 10 photos total).
What shipping options does Ecrater support?
eCRATER supports 3 types of shipping: flat rate, weight matrix and USPS calculator that is only available for US merchants.
a) Flat Rate: For each flat rate zone, you can define two rates. A primary rate, and a secondary rate (with another item). The secondary rate determines the shipping in case the product is purchased with another item or multiple quantities from the same product are purchased.
b) Weight Matrix: Select Weight Matrix when you add/edit products and make sure you filled out the shipping rates in the Weight Matrix menu. In the matrix you can define rates for the different weight ranges.
c) USPS Calculator: It overrides the other shipping options. You can enabled it in menu Options. We support both domestic and international destinations. We recommend that when you use the USPS shipping calculator you also set up the flat shipping rates or fill out the shipping matrix. In rare cases when there are connectivity issues between USPS and Ecrater (or when the USPS API is not working), we will fail back to these "back up" rates.
How do I set up and use the flat rate shipping?
Before you start with flat rate shipping, please make sure that you already defined your flat rate shipping zones. The zones can be selected in menu Flat Rate Zones.
Once you define your flat rate shipping zones, then these will appear in the add product/edit product/copy product menu. For each flat rate zone, you can define two rates. A primary rate, and a secondary rate (with another item). The secondary rate determines the shipping in case the product is purchased with another item or multiple quantities from the same product are purchased. The secondary rate is optional and if omitted will be equal to the primary rate.
Example:
Product #1:
primary rate: 10
secondary rate: 5
Product #2:
primary rate: 6
secondary rate: 2
a) if the Product #1 and Product #2 are purchased together:
- Ecrater look for the maximum primary rate of the two products. In our case this is $10 (the primary rate for Product #1)
- for the second product we use the secondary rate. In our case this is $2
So total shipping will be: 10 + 2 = 12
b) if we purchase 5 of Product #2:
-Total shipping: 6 + 4 * 2 = 14
Can I use my own domain with my eCRATER store?
Yes, you can. Custom domain is a premium feature that costs $5 per month. It allows you to use your own domain with your store. There is free 5 day trial period so you can see how it works.
Below are the steps to enable it:
1) Log into your eCRATER account and go to menu Options. Enable custom domain and enter your domain in the way you would like it to appear. You can use:
www.example.com
example.com
store.example.com
etc.
Do not use http:// in the domain name.
2) Log into your domain registrar (gandi, namecheap, godaddy, 1and1 or whatever you used to register your domain). Then select the domain and add a CNAME record. As a value enter yourstorename.ecrater.com, where yourstorename is your actual store name in eCRATER (the name you are logging with).
Wait until the domain changes propagate across the web. This can take from several minutes to several days depending on your internet service provider.
Please note that you do not need to purchase an SSL certificate. The checkout pages will still go through the eCRATER domain similar to how your store is working now.
You can see an example of using custom domain at: www.gsmbg.com
Please make sure that you removed the A record for the domain and added the required CNAME record. You can find below links to tutorials for how to add CNAME record for some of the most popular registrars:
GoDaddy
1&1
Namecheap
Register.com
Network Solutions
Is there a full tutorial for the Administrative Tool?
Yes, you can download it from here or from here
