Buying and selling online is getting easier and more prevalent. Sure, you can host a garage sale, but then you can only potentially spark the interest of your neighbors. Online sales help you get your goods seen by hundreds, which ups the possibility of finding interested buyers. WebStore is among the top online auction sites that are really driving this modern garage-sale concept. The ad-supported site has many options for helping you find things that you are interested in buying, and many more options for selling your wares. The site is simple and straightforward, which allows you to jump right into this auction experience. Best of all, it's free. That is why this is our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award winner for online auction sites.
WebStore takes a very different approach than its top competitors do to monetize its site. Most other online auction sites charge fees for listing, final-value fees, relisting fees, highlight fees and fees for various other things. WebStore, however, doesn't charge fees of any kind. It's free to register, to list, to add additional pictures of the product you are selling and so forth.
Websites have to make money to remain current, maintained and functional. Sites that aren't profitable can be picked out of the crowd easily because they're not updated and not professional looking. WebStore meets its bottom line by charging no user fees so you can get the most for what you are selling and, on the flip side, get the best price for what you buy. The site's monetization alternative is advertisement. Sponsors pay for the site upkeep in exchange for ad space. This online auction site is one of the only ones we reviewed that offers the ability to buy and sell online without paying user fees.
If you're looking to sell, WebStore offers many useful tools for getting your products posted, seen and purchased. For instance, they allow you to post Dutch listings, wherein you list multiples of the same items. Buyers can then indicate how many products they want to purchase, and finalize the deal with one click. This works great for small businesses that are trying to empty their inventories of older products.
There are many times when products can be categorized in multiple areas. This online auction site lets you place your product in more than one category. If you want to sell a romance comedy movie on WebStore, for instance, you can place it in the romance section as well as the comedy section, and thereby reach people looking in both genres.
This online auction site gives you a few other important selling options. You can run private auctions. You can open an in-site store where people can view everything you are selling, and you can set up your own personal return policy for customers. To go with that, you can cross-promote items that go well together. If you ever need to cancel a sale before it is final, you have the option to do so. You can also pause your store if you are away on vacation. When you get back, everything you listed before repopulates automatically. Furthermore, buyers can make an offer on any product and close the deal with sellers right away, without waiting for the auction period to end.
Another benefit to WebStore sellers is its recently improved social media integration. You can update your store's Facebook page right from your Webstore account, for example. In addition, every item you post for sale will automatically generate a tweet on Twitter.
When it comes to buying, the WebStore online auction site makes it easy. To help you get started, there is a search option where you can type in the name of what you're looking for. If the term you search for brings back too many results and you want to narrow them down a bit, there is an advanced search option. If you're not sure about the exact product and want to browse by category, you can do that too.
You can also search locally with WebStore by entering either your zip code or finding your state and city from a list. That way, you can arrange for local pick up and forego shipping costs altogether.
Once you find what you're looking for and click on it, this online auction site directs you to that item's page, where you can do a number of things. You can read the item description, view enlarged photos of the product, ask the seller a question, check out the payment methods that the seller accepts, see how much shipping is going to be and, of course, bid on or purchase the item instantly with the Buy Now option.
This online auction site puts a lot into security. It doesn't offer its own return policy, but the site is set up to help you avoid scams and to get your money from buyers and your products from sellers. WebStore also lets you leave comments about transactions so that merchants and buyers build up reputations over time. The company then reviews this feedback on a regular basis. The best-rated sellers get special top-seller status, while the worst are banned from the site entirely.
With Webstore, sellers also get a communication score that's based on how quickly they reply to potential buyers' questions. If the sellers are quick to reply, the rating goes up. Between the communication score and the comments that people leave about the transaction itself, you can be better prepared for your online auction site experience.
If you have problems or need help with the WebStore online auction site, the company will be happy to assist you in any way it can. The site is full of instructions and steps to take should a buyer not pay, or a seller not send a product. If you do come across a fraudulent buyer or seller, you can directly impact them so that others aren't ripped off.
Because WebStore doesn't offer a warranty, if you are scammed or ripped off, the company can't recover the money or the item for you. We recommend checking the credentials of the person you intend to do business with before any transaction takes place. It's also wise to use one of the two available checkout methods, PayPal and Google Checkout, to ensure security. The companies that provide these services give buyers recourse in case of fraudulent sales.
There are several online auction sites available nowadays, and each has its own perks. WebStore is one of the best choices available because it has extensive options for both buyers and sellers, which will help them to find and make deals that everyone is happy with. WebStore wants people to have a smooth and enjoyable experience, but the best part is that the company wants you to do so free. This ad-supported, community-based online auction site charges no user fees. For many of us, that makes all the difference.
