HONEST REVIEW: Selling on Sears.com Marketplace (Amazon / eBay Alternatives 2020)

Posted by Big Brand Wholesale.com on 7th Apr 2020

We are continuing on with our 2020’s Places to Sell that ARE NOT Amazon or eBay! Yesterday we did a deep dive into selling your merchandise on Walmart.com so today we are scubaing into Sears.com’s Marketplace for sellers. Let’s go!

OUR TOTAL RATING FOR SEARS:

Do you agree or disagree? Let us know why! Here's what we based our opinion on:

Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably know Sears / Kmart (they are the same company) has had a really rough couple years. Primarily because, while other companies were evolving, Sears / Kmart stayed stagnant. They were late to the online-game, Walmart and Amazon slid-in and capitalized on deals while other sites like Macys overtook Name Brands, and they just never really took the time to learn what Millennials like. The same millennials they ignored are now adults and 60%-70% of them have children, who still don’t shop there. BUT it is not too late to win those millennials over and Sears is FINALLY getting the picture that damn-near-everything is now online based. So, although they are super late to the game, it seems they’re trying hard to get in AND taking it really seriously. With that in mind, DON'T COUNT SEARS OUT! As of Feb 2020, they rank #159 in the WORLD for top ecommerce sites because they still get boatloads of online shoppers monthly; last I read it was around 20 million! With 20 million visitors a month, we have to say that even though Sears isn't at the top of their game, they're still a force to be reckoned with!

I did a couple quick searches on Sears Marketplace to see how the private-seller items look and to check out the selling prices. Here's a search for Calvin Klein Dresses:

As you can see, the dresses are NOT "ebay prices". Every dress listed is fair market value for a 3rd party seller, or a little less.

And here's a search for Victorias Secret:

As you can see, stuff on Sears Marketplace isn't selling for rock bottom prices. In fact, every single one of the perfumes shown above are listed at WAY over retail. In my opinion, it's too crazy-high for Sears.com and these products would do better on eBay (because people actually go to ebay to find rare stuff).

My point here is that it isn't a race to the bottom to have the lowest price.

Ok, so we see that people ARE selling on Sears Marketplace, which gives them yet another channel to utilize, but is it worth it? Baby Haven get’s 1-2 sales a day from Sears.com whereas ChristmasCentral.com’s overall yearly sales consists of 1.2% Sears orders. So it seems like Sears isn’t going to be a major channel for you, but can be another source to build upon your current revenue.

HERE’S HOW TO DECIDE IF SEARS IS RIGHT FOR YOU:

The cost to sell on Sears.com is $39.99/mo plus 15% commission…. Which makes it damn near as expensive as Amazon (however SEARS is less insane than Amazon when it comes to rules - if you have read our blog posts, you probably already know what we consider Amazons rules to be pretty psychotic) so, with that in mind, how much stuff do you need to sell to make this worth while?

$39.99/mo x 12 months = $480 / annually

How much do you sell a typical item for? If your average item sale is $25, then paying $39.99 a month to sell 1 item a day is a no-brainer… why WOULDN’T you?? In fact, you would be LOSING by not joining.

Even if you only sold 10 items total a month ($250), you are still making extra profit after paying $39.99 +15%.

Obviously, if you’re average item is $50 sell-price, then you only need to sell 1 a month to make it worthwhile. Again, totally worth it!

On the other hand, if you are pedaling $5 headbands, you would need to sell 8 of them just to pay the $39.99/mo and that’s not even considering the 15% fees. At that point, it’s likely not worth it unless you have the type of product that sells 10 times per day. But if you're $5 headbands doing sell like hotcakes, you should probably lean towards eBay instead.

The 15% commission is also tough, considering Walmart.com takes the same commission but markets for you for free and Amazon takes the same commission but is the biggest platform in the world. However, if you are not making Sears your “everything”, then it’s livable if your only goal is that 1 extra sale a day.

Let’s review what we covered so far: SEARS is fine if you are using it as an ADDITIONAL selling channel. DO NOT make this your primary business.

Moving along; SEARS has been smashed with a ton of awful reviews lately (2018 - current).

The reviews have virtually nothing to do with the marketplace sellers and everything to do with “actual Sears”, specifically their customer service sucking. As a matter of fact, i can explain EXACTLY why they have such horrid feedback; here's my personal Sears story:

The last time I went into a Sears store it was a nightmare… well, kind of. My goal was to grab some stocking stuffers for Christmas. The shelves were mostly empty even though the store wasn’t going out of business, however I did find a giant cartload of great deals… finding good stuff wasn’t the problem. The problem was that there wasn’t anywhere to pay!!! Like seriously, where the F is the cashier? I went upstairs, downstairs, scoured the entire store and couldn’t find a single register that had an employee at it. I finally found someone by a fitting room and asked them where I can pay. She said she would “call” someone for me. I then went to wait by the register. Nobody ever came. I began hunting for a checkout lane again. I saw an employee wiping down the jewelry counter and asked her if she could ring me up. She said I am not allowed to pay at the jewelry counter unless I am buying jewelry. I asked her where I can pay. She said “The register at the front should be open”. To make a long story short, it took me over 2 hours to pay. I have NEVER gone back.

(I did not leave a bad review for Sears. In fact, we buy liquidations through Sears warehouse, so I am factually a fan)

My point of the story was that the bad feedback regarding Sears has utterly nothing to do with Sears Marketplace sellers, yet does it impact the ability to sell on Sears.com? I'm not sure. Is it fair to say that if Sears had 4-and-5-star reviews that more people would be buying from Sears.com? Most likely.

Moving on, Sears has a full Rule Book / Guide https://seller.marketplace.sears.com/SellerPortal/d/help/vig.pdf - I have tried to do the work for you and skim through the entire thing (it’s VERY long). The only thing that stood out to me is the insurance requirement.

The book says, “if requested”, the seller (you) must provide Sears with Liability Insurance (Section 5.2 of the booklet)

Quote from book:

“Every Seller selling merchandise to customers through the Sears Website is required to maintain and provide proof of Product Liability insurance (generally part of a Commercial General Liability insurance policy) at Sears’ request. If you provide re-labeled or re-packaged goods, you must provide evidence of your own insurance coverage. “

Ok, that may sound scary however, you really truly SHOULD have insurance if you have a lot of inventory., even if you work from home. if all your inventory is at home and your house is flooded, your insurance company will NOT cover the cost of your inventory, unless you insure it. Our insurance policy for BigBrandWholesale.com is for like 5 million (or something like that) and it’s around $500-$600/mo. So if you’re getting a policy for 1 million it won’t be that expensive BUT you absolutely will sleep better at night knowing that if someone broke-in and robbed you or if your home/warehouse caught fire, you wouldn’t lose everything.

The “book” also says:

“Seller must use an insurance company that has a rating of at least A-VII as published in the current edition of A.M. Best’s Insurance Reports.” - I have been in business since 2005 and I have no f-ing clue WTF this means other than Sears wants you to have a specific insurance company (LOL I guess)

BUT, again, it does say this is “upon request”, so I really am thinking that this is just talking points for legal reasons.

Besides that, I didn't notice any Amazon-Dictator-Style rules. It did suggest your images be 1800x1800, but this isn't even mandatory from what I read.

I would encourage you to check into Sears IF you are already stable and looking for MORE sales. If you are just getting started, I would encourage you to first sell on eBay and Facebook then move onto adding Walmart.

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