First Sale at eCrater!

We opened shop at eCrater on May 30th, and today we got our first sale. Processing the transaction through Google Checkout was a breeze - the address was verified without my having to do anything, and they automatically sent the customer a confirming email. Once I processed the transaction (again with a click of a button), had the item boxed up and ready to take to the post office, Google sent another email confirming the shipment to the customer. I fiddled a little bit with the eCrater screen in order to print out a packing slip to put in with the item - I just didn't want to send something out without any documentation. Google doesn't seem to have the option of printing out a packing slip, or it's possible in my excitement and rush to get the order to the post office before it closed (today's Saturday) I just couldn't find it.

Then I looked at Google Analytics to see exactly how the customer had found us - we had been Googled. So that stuff is all working well for us - we show up on targeted searches there and on Google Shopping, with a thumbnail photo right from the website. Every item in our inventory has Google attributes associated with it, basically descriptors that identify the brand, product type, material, and country of origin - this helps items get picked up by the search engines.

I also noticed that the message boards I've posted at, for collectors, have resulted in some hits. So that's nice so see, that some of the work I've been doing is starting to pay off. And all this, so far, without having to pay for advertising, or listing. It takes my time and effort - but it's so satisfying to now see the reward.

Mostly, I must say that I am impressed with the comprehensive help that's available at the online forum at eCrater. What a motherlode of information, ideas, guidelines, out-of-the-box and inventive bunch of individuals that have collected there. Although I found it mind-boggling at first, and overwhelming, if you tackle the building of the store according to the simple instructions available to dealers, it's pretty hard to go wrong.