Seller Survey 2016 Results
The results are in! First and foremost, we'd like to extend a massive THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the 2016 Annual Seller Survey. It's important to Bonanza that we are constantly improving, and your valuable feedback makes it that much easier to figure out what we're doing well and what we can do better. So, what did our community of Bonanzlers have to say?
Our Superlative: Most Recommended
Over 78% of you responded that you would be likely to recommend Bonanza to a friend - how exciting! We love that so many of you are having a positive experience. Considering that over half of our sellers are also selling on other sites like eBay, Amazon, and Etsy, it means a lot to us that we are providing an effective marketplace to the majority of our sellers.
Bonanza's hidden gems
There were a few features that many sellers requested that already exist on the site. We wanted to take a moment to share some information about these highly requested features currently at your disposal:
Accepting OBO Offers
To change your settings to allow buyers to negotiate and make offers, select “Booth settings” from the Selling dropdown menu. Select the “Payments & Purchases” tab, and change the “Allow shoppers to negotiate and make offers (OBO)” setting. Choose "yes" If you'd like to accept offers, and choose "no" if you don't want to allow buyers to make offers on your items. Be sure to save the changes after your preferred option is selected.
Sharing Item Listings on Social Media
You are able to share your listings on social media sites including Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter by using the "Share" button on any item listing page, just under the "Add to cart" section.
Sorting Items in Your Booth
Lots of sellers requested more freedom with booth sorting. We're here to let you know that the possibilities are endless with our booth sorting features. You can choose to sort your booth alphabetically, or by popularity, upload date, or price. You can also create a custom order. For more information on Custom Sorting, check out this help page. Do your items require specific categories that we haven't yet created? You can make your own custom booth categories, too! Learn more here.
Importing Items from Shopify
Another popular request from sellers was a way to import items from their Shopify stores. I'm happy to tell you that we currently support Shopify Importing! To learn how to import from Shopify, read this help page, which will walk you through each step to connect your Shopify account.
You want thingamabobs? We've got 20!
We'd be remiss if we didn't talk about last year's survey results. After we read your feedback last year, we set to work improving the Bonanza experience for you. We were encouraged by Kanye West to "Reach for the stars, cause if you fall, you'll land on a cloud." We were assuming that cloud would then take us back to Bonanza HQ in Seattle, where we could try again until we succeeded.
And thanks to your feedback, a plethora of neat features were added to the site, including:
- A better item stats page. You guys asked for more comprehensive stats on your booth and item performance. We obliged - view your stats dashboard here.
- Ability to edit attributes in-place in the Batch Editor. This suggestion has saved sellers thousands of clicks per year and made editing items quicker and easier.
- Make it easier for sellers to separate active and inactive items in their booths. This change made it much clearer for sellers to know the status of each item, and provides a key to explain which color dot corresponds to which status. This change also gives sellers much more control of sorting and filtering. Check out the new view to our listing manager, coming soon:
- Provide a "Save and duplicate" option on the new item form. This is located at the bottom of the new item form, so you can easily list another item that is very similar to your current listing. We are continuing to make improvements to the new item form in 2017 as well.
- Provide a way to market towards past buyers. Being the go-getters you are, our sellers wanted to see a way they could proactively market to your past customers, effectively building your own customer loyalty program. If you haven't tried out our Customer Marketing Tool, you're in for great fun. Check out all you need to know about the CMT here.
What's up next? 
I bet you're wishing you had a crystal ball to predict what we've got up our sleeves for 2017. We read every single response to the survey, and based off that feedback we were able to create a pretty killer to-do list, if we do say so ourselves. Coming up in 2017:
- An updated mobile app (currently in development!). A lot of sellers requested a more functional mobile app. We've spent some quality time testing the app and identifying each and every bug or kink in the system, and are now currently developing the app of your dreams. We are hoping to have our mobile app relaunched for iOS and android sometime during Q2 of 2017.
- Improvements to the item listing process (currently in development!). We're listening to your suggestions for improving the item listing process and have many tweaks in the pipeline.
- Improvements to the shipping process (currently in development!). We made some big moves in 2016 with the introduction of our Global Shipping Service, which makes international shipping much more accessible to sellers. We'll continue to streamline the process and add new shipping features, like allowing users to set “ship from” locations for individual items, for example.
- Improvements to the eBay importer. We recently revamped the interface of our eBay importer, and will continue to better the eBay importer by focusing on several of the bugs related to duplicated listings or synchronization discrepancies.
- Order Refunds. There are lots of exciting improvements in the pipeline for 2017 regarding the refund process.
- Customer Support. As we touched on in our previous blog post, our Support team has improved tremendously in the past year, and doesn't show signs of slowing down.Our team has been challenged to exceed 90% customer satisfaction in our support responses this year.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts. Want to share more insights and opinions about what features we should add or improve in 2017? Let us know! Our Feedback Forum is the perfect place for your brilliant musings.
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58 responses to Seller Survey 2016 Results
Can you get more sites to sell on that would be great
Great job everyone!!!Looking forward to 2017 improvements.Thank You Bonanza team,and do the “happy dance”,am doing it with you.You deserve it.
Please bring back the option to share on Google Plus. It helps with indexing our items directly to Google.
Thanks for the update, BGrace!
Thanks!!
I agree with customseatcreations further above on Google plus. I recently became active again and had no idea we could no longer Share from here to Google plus.
Question, for bullet 3, are you referring to adding new shipping features for us to use for our international buyers? As it stands right now, I wish that when we list I could enter international shipping specifics as calculated shipping, but this means that I need to have another area separate from where I enter for the USA (I tend to use flat rate for the USA). I do not do flat rate shipping to international. I believe I suggested this in the survey….
I did suggest this in the Feedback section on Bonanza. I got an email about it from Bonanza and the person said that there was a way to do shipping to international separate from the USA, but that is only for flat rates. I do not think the person understood what I was talking about to be honest.
Thanks!!
The Sorting Items in our booth is for Pro members only or has that changed? The link that you gave shows that it is not available to all sellers on Bonanza. I truly wish that it was. It’s pretty standard practice over on eBay to show newest first regardless plus this is the case on other selling sites, too.
Thanks again,
Sharon
Thanks for responding! You’re correct – the Edit Items page hasn’t changed yet. The changes shown are under development and will be available to ALL sellers soon. We’re hoping this will make sorting and filtering items a bit easier.
I would like to see offer First Rate Intenational Shipping in our listings. Calculated Sellers offers shipping doesn’t cut it..
I am new to bonanza and am getting very familiar with the site it is easy to work very well designed.
Congratulations that always look for evolution of the virtual market and that we can achieve great success in 2017.
I wish all my friends sellers and Bonanza a lot of success at all.
I took the current 2017 survey under my Embellishmart shop (using the link in my seller dashboard) AND my BeadTonic shop (using the FBook link). How do I get my badge for my BeadTonic shop? Will email support.
Six years later Bonanza; love you guys but where have my views gone?
Completed the survey :) I love selling on Bonanza and I’m doing very well here seeing I just opened my shop in November 2016 and I just recently opened a second shop.
Keep up the good work!
Very nice—most recommended
-but that’s the Miss Congeniality award -people like you but you didn’t win. The one you want to win is profitability for your sellers—and traffic on the site needs to increase.Call me crazy but my Edit Items Page looks nothing like what is shown here….or is this for ones with memberships?
“Make it easier for sellers to separate active and inactive items in their booths. This change made it much clearer for sellers to know the status of each item, and provides a key to explain which color dot corresponds to which status. This change also gives sellers much more control of sorting and filtering. Check it out:”
Thanks for responding! You’re correct – the Edit Items page hasn’t changed yet. The changes shown are under development and will be available to ALL sellers soon.
LOVE IT
Yay! Go Bonanza!
Thanks so much for sharing the results – and being such an awesome company through which to sell!
Thanks for this post. I learned a few more things about Bonanza.
Good job bonanza, keep it up, you’re the best, 2017 is yours! We are with you.. thank you for this great selling experience.
Thank you for posting this. I love the site but I get so little traffic on this site is there something I can do to improve.
Month almost over still waiting for my first sale this year on Bonanza. But my store, website, and other 3rd party sites are down from last year. Not a goose egg but down about 40%.
Improvements looking great for 2017! But like to have ship from option when listing products example ship from United States, China, Untied Kingdom and so on. EBay has these options and others too.
Looking forward to the new changes.
I WOULD like to see the default booth sort as “Newest”. It gives a returning shopper a new look every time.
The popularity sort doesn’t work worth beans and I’d rather customers got a ‘new look’ each time, rather than the same old ‘popular’ item.
I’ve seen the improvements and the results just in the short time I’ve been selling on Bonanza. Love it! Thank you.
Could you bring back the menu option for “Nearest Distance”? If it is local, I could pick it up and save the shipping charge from seller. ebay has this and I use it frequently to see what is selling in my area and for how much.
I would like to see an option for canceling an order without having to take a screen shot of the refund and going through multiple steps to achieve the cancellation. I have an order right now that I fully refunded the Buyer for, immediately, because the item in question was sold months earlier.
Otherwise, I’m happy with current improvements and the forthcoming ones too!
Thank you for your response robospence.
This is excellent news on booth sorting. Hallelujah.
It’s good that you are making changes, upgrades and improvements. I did not do the survey because I am too new to Bonanza, still less than 2 months here. However, I have noted that traffic is very light on Bonanza. (Very light!) I probably have averaged about 1 item view per day (maybe 1.5 at the most) for well over 500 items. What can be done to increase that to an ebay level, which I believe is hundreds of views per day for the same number of items listed?
Sorry, but you can make all these changes, but if it doesn’t lead to more sales, it is for naught. I know, you will point me to pay for increased traffic, but paying 13% of my sales make it more much more expensive than eBay. Note: I did turn on increased traffic and have only had a one sale.
Love Bonanza!!
Yeah! Bonanza! We are enthusiastic fans.
Thank you all, and succes!
Thanks for showing my views, but still looking for a sale!
As I said in the survey, Bonanza needs to do something to generate traffic. I have nearly twice as many items on Bonanza as on Etsy (very similar items) & I get many more total views weekly on Etsy than I do in a month on Bonanza (which really means many, many more views per item in a week compared to the number of Bonanza views in a month). Virtually all my Bonanza sales are from friends/existing customers who know I have more items on Bonanza from which they can choose than I have on Etsy. I can’t remember the last time I made a sale to a new Bonanza customer.
So far this channel has not proven to be of any significance. average eight orders a month? I get 10 a day from Amazon, Walmart and eBay. Dont get me wrong Ill take the additional 77 orders but this channel is a joke compared to the others I am listed on. Ans yes I have opted in for aggressive commissions and also tried Turbo ads. JOKE! What do I know I have only been selling online since 2001…
I have sold 1 item this month but have sold 14 on ebay. You all need to be doing some advertising or something. Last year I only had 32 sales but had 89 on ebay (for 11 months).
Thanks bonanza, i like the changes and it appears from my traffic it is bringing in sales also. My traffic is increasing along with sales. And i only have the 9% rate .makes my fees lower than ebay.
I’m going too agree with most of the posts about lack of sales, If you go with the turbo traffic you pay more in fees than eBay but! not enough sales too cover the cost of products your selling. I sell a niche market product but on eBay I would sell it like crazy, I’ve even sold stuff on eBay on my personal account, not as silkundershop and have sold more there then here on Bonanza. I’ve spent way more than 10% in marketing here then I’ve even sold here on bonanza. I’m not new too selling online I’ve been doing this for thirteen years. So I guess I’ll have too pack up shop and sell off my twenty thousand dollars of stock. I’m not online selling too make us rich, myself and my wife kept it going just too save for our boys education, we both have good jobs but! never hurts too get more income too help out. I feel for the people who are just trying too make extra income to support there family or get extra income if there retired. The copy and paste below from my PayPal transactions last year on eBay. I’t didn’t copy that was 68 transactions, that’s $43.83 per transaction.
February 2016 Transactions
Payments received $2,980.68
Shipping collected $0.00
Sales tax collected $0.00
PayPal fees -$50.80
I will continue to stay with Bonanza, but like the others I am concerned about lack of sales.
Keep up the good work and lets keep this site growing
First time I bought an item here I got ripped off seller won’t respond to any of my e mails or send a tracking number ! Screw bonanza !
You need to update direct checkout payment also for Europian sellers
You need to update direct checkout payment also for Europian sellers
Meaw ! I love Bonanza ! Meaw!!
Aw, cute bear!
New here.
Interesting.
Good Morning! This is all Great Stuff! BUT you need to advertise Bonanza! Few people know about it and our sales are reflected accordingly! Of our 3 sites Bonanza lagged way behind the other two. We collected more tax revenue on the other sites than sales revenue on Bonanza!
0 views today. 3 views yesterday. 1 view the day before. Looking to the year ahead, it looks as though it is not worth it to put time and effort into adding listings and trying to build a business here. I don’t want badges. I want views.
Thanks and enjoy!
On the duplicate feature it is not working. When I click duplicate on an item and it creates a new listing it is not carrying over the main description section. When will this be fixed? I am having a real hard time getting things listed as it is taking me much longer having to go in and copy/paste listings. Not sure if you are aware this is happening but I cannot be the only one experiencing this.
I wish you would update the combined shipping function. Make it to where we could add a “with another item” amount when we create a listing. Currently it is 1990’s mode. I will never sell more than 1 item as it is now.
I started my booth by paying for a Silver plan. And my stats are only “projected” views which are not accurate. I have been waking up in the morning with 1-3 “projected” views and finish the day with even fewer after they drop. I wish they would give accurate views or none. “Projected” views are useless.
So Google Analytics is a FREE service, but we have to pay you to have it for our booths??? Wow.
Bonanza has such great potential to become better than Ebay, Amazon AND Etsy! But there is only SO much promoting a seller can do! After awhile, people get tired of seeing the same items showing up in the Twitter or Pinterest feeds. Same with FB. And I’m tired of kissing Google’s ass with UPC’s, MPN’s, and other attributes that half my items don’t have. I’m exasperated! There’s really not more I can do. I will continue to keep my items here, but I’ve listed on other venues in hopes of some sort of profit. I’ve made nothing from here since reopeing. Don’t make me go back to Ebay.
Could you release the part of the description for html I’m already accustomed to chatting with my ads in html and the descriptions are much more beautiful and organized and with much more life. It is possible to include youtube videos in html as own product videos or brand commercials which is quite legal.
Could release the part of the description for html will also be great.
But the site is to be congratulated.
Yesterday morning my “projected” views were 4 listings views and 3 advertising views. By midnight they had dropped down to 1 listing view and 1 advertising view (ridiculous stats).
0(zero) views today. That makes zero views for more than a full day.
No sales in nearly 2 months. Well, I have made 2 sales. 1 was to a friend from Etsy who bought from me as a favor, and will add the items to her shop. The other sale was to a buyer from a sale on Etsy who came here and bought from me. Zero new customers on here in nearly 2 months. It took me only 7 days or so to start making regular sales on Etsy way back in Jan 2011. And with fewer listings than I have on here.
Hi Bonanza. With the utmost respect, I would like to ask for some help in Bonanza reaching out across the internet more to promote Bonanza, please. I do not mind paying 13% FVF due to advertising cost but is Bonanza advertising the site as well? Thank you.
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