Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Pros and Cons of Zibbet

As promised, here are my thoughts on my free Zibbet shop. I decided to start with this one first since it's my favorite of the three free alternatives to Etsy that I've tried. I started listing items in mid-November and now have 42 items up for sale. Click on the image above if you'd like to see my shop.

Pros
  • Easy integration of existing Etsy shop. I was able to download a file from Etsy and upload it to Zibbet. Not everything translated exactly correctly, but with a little editing I was able to get most of my items up without completely re-writing everything.
  • Nice community. I've had a few of my items pinned on pinterest by fellow Zibbet sellers. I was also featured in a blog within a day of setting up my Zibbet shop.
  • Shop performance stats. I've been able to check up on my items. When I'm updating and listing items, I get a decent amount of views. The shop stats aren't as detailed and extensive as they are on Etsy, but at least they're there.
  • No fees for selling with a free account, even if something sells. Zibbet makes all their profits from paid, premium accounts.
  • I've heard lots of rumors that Zibbet will be unrolling an update in early 2014. I'm asked at every turn what I think of my experience on Zibbet and how it can be improved. It will be interesting to see how they evolve.

Cons
  • Lack of (free) features that Etsy has. You can't list multiple quantities of an item without paying extra.
  • Limit of 50 items unless you pay for a premium account.
  • No item variations. From what I can tell, there's no way to let a buyer select a variation on an item (size, etc.) even if you pay extra.
  • It appears that buyers have to use paypal. There is no "direct checkout" like on Etsy.
  • Almost TOO similar to Etsy. It would have been nice to get a fresh look from this new site, but it just feels like a copycat web site.

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