Following last week’s blog post on selling on Amazon.com, I thought I would shine the spotlight on Ruby Lane in today. If you haven’t heard of Ruby Lane, get familiar, because Ruby Lane is fast becoming a preferred marketplace among online sellers.
What is Ruby Lane?
Ruby Lane is much more than just another eBay alternative. It offers a platform for you to launch business and promote your business. Like other emerging marketplaces such as Addoway and Bonanza, Ruby Lane has a focus on antiques, art, collectibles and artisan jewelry.
Who shops at Ruby Lane?
According to Ruby Lane, their website visitors are well-educated web users who are comfortable buying online and have disposable income to fuel your business. 87% of Ruby Lane buyers are female and 93% are aged 40-79. Furthermore, 76% of users who come to Ruby Lane earn more than $50,000 per year.
What are the fees like?
Ruby Lane does not take commissions on sales, but that doesn’t make selling on Ruby Lane cheap! To set up your shop, you will pay a one-time fee of $75 then a $15 monthly maintenance fee. Additionally, you will pay a $20 advertising fee which goes towards online and print advertising. You also pay a one-time listing fee of 30 cents for each item. If you sell over 150 items, you will get a discount on listing fees.
That’s a lot of fees! However, if you are making regular, profitable sales, the fees are money well spent. So how are Ruby Lane sellers going? Let’s take a look at the traffic levels and profitability of the site.
How much traffic does the site get?
Ruby Lane gets over 1.8 million unique site visitors each month, or 60,000 per day. Note: “unique” visitors mean just that; if someone visits the site more than once, it’s only counted as one visit. That makes 60,000 a pretty respectable level of daily traffic!
Even more important than traffic is profitability. The good news is that sellers on Ruby Lane are reporting good rates of profitability. Ruby Lane was recently rated as the 3rd most profitable marketplace, second only to eBay and Amazon. With less competition and lower fees and both eBay and Amazon, you can be fairly confident in selling on Ruby Lane!
While the fees on Ruby Lane are high, but they appear to have the traffic and ready-buyers to make the fees worth it in the end. However, as with all online marketplaces, you will need to work to earn sales: Listing your items is only half the job!
Have you tried selling items on Ruby Lane? How do you rate it? Share your comments below.
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