Against a backdrop of increasing fraud on the internet, PriceMinister’s approach of acting as a trusted third party and guarantor between buyers and sellers has been welcomed by many as a much-needed competitor to eBay and other sites which do not take full responsibility for transaction assurance.

eBay alternative, PriceMinister, was the first website to bring together individuals and professionals who sell and buy new, used or collectable products at fixed prices. There are about 23 million visits to the PriceMinister sites each month, 127 million products are for sale, and PriceMinister now has 10 million members.

As interest in PriceMinster’s UK website grows amongst disaffected users of other online trading websites, the need for a discussion forum where information and opinion can be shared about this new community has become apparent.

eBayAlternative.co.uk has launched the PriceMinister UK discussion forum exclusively dedicated to providing information and a free exchange of views about PriceMinister in the UK. The forum is currently in beta trial, but is now open to both members and non-members and provides a totally independent platform for discussion and review of all things related to PriceMinister in the UK.

In addition to discussions, the forum includes answers to Frequently Asked Questions about PriceMinister as well as references to news items and related articles on other websites.

The eBayAlternative website provides a regularly updated analysis of traffic rank for the top auction and business/consumer-to-consumer e-Commerce websites operating in the UK. These sites include eBay, Amazon, Play.com, PreLoved and eBid, as well as PriceMinister. Sellers wanting to keep an eye on how the various sites compare in terms of changing traffic rank are provided with a convenient portal to help them make informed decisions about where best to advertise their items.

Potential new PriceMinister members can also use the eBayAlternative website to keep up to date with videos about the latest vouchers, offers and “Invite a Friend” financial incentives that can be viewed on the PriceMinisterUK Youtube channel.

eBid Auctions

eBid is one of the larger eBay alternative auction sites which is, so far, doing quite well and many sellers opt to list their items on both eBid and eBay. Some sellers have left eBay completely due to the lower costs at eBid.

Here are some of the key features of eBid:-

Listing is free, so no sales means no cost to the seller. eBid generates its revenue in two ways; from final value fees and from subscriptions.

As a basic seller, subscription to eBid is free and charges are only a final value fee amounting to 3% of the sale price for each item sold. For occasional sellers, this basic subscription is probably the best option.

The Seller plus subscription is based on a chosen time period (for example 7 days costs £1.99, 30 days costs £6.99 etc).

There is also an option for a lifetime subscription costing £99.99 which also gives access to a variety of additional features on the eBid site and there is no 3% final value fee.

Basic photos added to item listings are free unless, as a Seller Plus, you choose the Gallery format, in which case there is a 2% final value fee on the item’s selling price.

eBid’s preferred secure payment partner is PPPay.com although other payment processors, including PayPal can also be used.

The big negative point about eBid is that they are still a small player in comparison with eBay and the lower number of buyers means much lower selling opportunities too.

Amazon Marketplace

Amazon Marketplace has rapidly achieved a position as one of the largest eBay alternatives, providing a venue for buying and selling new, used and refurbished items.

Amazon provides a fixed-price online marketplace that allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon’s direct offerings and operates in the UK, France, Germany and most recently Japan. Buyers can buy both new and secondhand items which are sold by a third party through Amazon.com using a similar concept to eBay’s half.com.

Unlike eBay and eBid, Amazon Marketplace is not an auction site and sellers must set the price of items that they list. However, recent changes at eBay may indicate a move away from the traditional eBay auction format towards fixed price; a strategy not favoured by many small “treasure in the attic” sellers.

There is no listing fee on Amazon Marketplace, so no sale means no fee

Listings usually have a 60 day duration, unlike eBay where there is generally a ten day maximum before having to relist them and incurring additional listing fees.

Charges are made on the basis of a completion fee of £0.86 plus a closing fee amounting to 17.25% of the selling price. The exception is when selling electronic and photographic items for which an 11.5% fee is levied.

The postage charges are determined by Amazon rather than the seller. A fee is taken from the buyer which includes Amazon’s administration costs and the remainder is passed to the seller as a “postage credit”. Since the credit can amount to more or less than the actual post and packing cost the seller needs to make sure this is reflected the selling price.

Sellers’ own photographs aren’t usually allowed next to the item because typically Amazon will already have product details including photos. However, for certain products, a photo link can be inserted although it still won’t appear next to your ad. but will be available to people browsing that category.

Amazon operates its own secure payment system which is similar to PayPal, but is free for all sellers to use.

The main negative aspect of Amazon is that there are fewer categories than eBay. Not a problem if what you want to sell or buy is electronic, books, CDs, DVDs or similar items. But if you want to sell a car or a house, then eBay is still the place to be at the moment. However, French eBay alternative PriceMinister has recently launched in the UK and will probably shortly offer these categories over here.

This added dimension of video and sound gives a seller considerable advantages over the competition, especially where a buyer has the choice of several similar or identical products. Video can be used to highlight the condition of used items or features that are often difficult to describe effectively using only words and still images.

Unlike eBay, where videos need to be uploaded to separate video hosting sites, PriceMinister provides direct upload facilities that make integration with the listing quicker and simpler.

Not everyone will wish to make use of this service, but for the increasing number of people who have video cameras or even video recording on their mobile phones, Price TV offers a novel way to give more information to buyers and to differentiate themselves from the competition.

For buyers, the opportunity to see the product they are interested in being demonstrated in a video gives added assurance that they are making the best choice.

We look forward to the Price TV service being introduced on the PriceMinister UK site soon, but meantime here’s snapshot of some of the videos on the French site.

Price TV Video on PriceMinister

First you need to join PriceMinister UK – that doesn’t cost anything and you’ll get a £5 voucher to spend on a wide range of new and second hand items ranging from clothes and jewellery to laptops and televisions. PriceMinister is a great alternative to eBay or Amazon and has millions of items for sale at prices up to 90% off retail.

Then invite your friends to join and receive their £5 discount voucher by using the PriceMinister email system. All you need to do is login to the “Invite a Friend” page on the PriceMinister UK site and…

1. Enter the names and e-mail addresses of your friends (and add a personal message if you wish).

2. Send e-mails using the PriceMinister email system.

3. Once one of your friends (or guests – you don’t have to personally know the people you invite) makes a purchase on the site using their gift voucher, you will automatically receive a discount voucher worth £5 with a £10 minimum purchase necessary.

4. You can automatically send reminders to your friends/guests and invite up to 100 people to win up to £500!

Your name will automatically appear as the sender, but if you prefer to use another name, you can do that too.

Here are the Priceminister rules of the Invite-a-Friend Program. The wording is a little strange in places (possibly still a fairly rough translation from the original French version), but the program is very worth while joining – easy money to be made here for anyone with a few friends wanting to get their own £5 introductory voucher.

ARTICLE 1 – PURPOSE

1.1. PriceMinister Company SA, company with capital of 340 975.40 €, whose headquarters are located 57, boulevard de la Villette 75010 Paris – FRANCE, registered with the RCS Paris under number 432 647 584 00023, whose propose an online marketplace (www.PriceMinister co uk called Site) organizes an affiliate marketing program (Program), exclusively on the Internet to promote its service to users.

1.2. Program is available on the Site or any other URL, link, button, etc … published on another site and redirecting it to the Site and on any website substitutes Site

1.3. Program aims to encourage a maximum of users of PriceMinister to register and purchase items. It aims to encourage members of PriceMinister who wish to promote PriceMinister (Affiliates), that is to say to the Site awareness for others (not yet members) and encourage them to join PriceMinister, by sponsoring, and conferring the status of a New Member.

The New Member could become Affiliate and a New Member has only one Affiliate.

1.4. To participate, the Affiliale must accept the present agreement (Agreement) and all codes of conduct, as well as laws, and generally all regulations.
ARTICLE 2 – CHANGES OF THE AGREEMENT

2.1. The Agreement can be found on the Website.

Members (Affiliate or New Member) can address any issues relating to the Agreement and Program from the “contact” page of the site.

2.2. PriceMinister may amend the present Agreement without notice. All amendments will take effect immediately. PriceMinister particularly could amend for whatever reason the dates of Program.

2.3. The current Agreement is a permanent contract. As such, it can be cancelled at any moment by PriceMinister or by the Affiliate and can be terminated without reason; one party can simply inform the other of their intention to terminate the contract. In this case, the PriceMinister cannot be held liable in any way and the Affiliates or New Members could not claim any compensation or damages.

2.4. PriceMinister reserves the right to sue anyone who defrauded or attempted to do so. PriceMinister cannot be held liable in case of fraud committed by the Affiliate or the New Member.
ARTICLE 3 – CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

3.1. WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? IN WHAT LIMITS?

The Program is open to anyone over 18 years of age who is a legal resident of the United Kingdom, excluding staff members or his or her family members (parents, brothers, sisters, or any other person living in the same house) of the company PriceMinister and of its subsidiaries.

Someone cannot have more than 1 account on PriceMinister and a member of PriceMinister can affiliate a maximum of 100 New Members (ie 100 different users).

3.2. HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

To participate, users must visit the site and register as a member by completing and giving the required information (name, address and e-mail, and a username and password).

Any member may become an Affiliate through two ways :

- Through the classic Affiliation:
The member could fulfil the form provided, which specify the email addresses of New Members. These New Members will receive an email in the name of their Affiliate with a link including a code identifying the Affiliate.
Or
The Affiliate forwards a specific message provided by PriceMinister to future New Members, with a link including a code identifying the Affiliate.

- Through the Invite-a-Friend Widget and/or Product Widget:
The Affiliate must publish the widget on its website
New Member must not refuse cookies, except to lose the benefits of this Program.

An affiliation link is considered valid when the New Member opens its account and buys his first item and when:
- The New Member is not already a member of PriceMinister when the affiliation link is established;
- The New Member is a different and distinct person from its Affiliate and members of his household;
- The New Member is totally independent from its Affiliate (to connect to its account, to pay or to receive orders)

The Affiliate is notified by e-mail whenever a affiliation link validated is credited.

An Affiliate could have a maximum of 100 New Member by type of program.

Each New Member must be a different person to be considered valid.

An Affiliate can not sponsor himself, sponsoring several times the same person or sponsor someone who was already a member of PriceMinister or who is a member of his household.

PriceMinister reserves the right to verify the identity of the Affiliates and their New Members, and to exclude sponsorship or PriceMinister, at its sole discretion, people whose behaviour did not seem to satisfy the Program.

In proven cases of fraud of Program, a penalty equal to the amount of sums fraudulently obtained, plus fee of up to 20% off fee of the total fraudulently obtained, is due in two weeks.

3.3. TERMS OF USE INVITE-A-FRIEND WIDGET AND PRODUCT WIDGET

The provisions of the Agreement, and in particular modalities of participation that are exposed, are fully applicable to the use of Widget Program by the Affiliate.

In particular, an Affiliate can not sponsor himself, sponsoring several times the same person or sponsor someone who was already PriceMinister member or a member of his household.

An affiliation link is considered valid when a New Member opens his account on PriceMinister and buys his first article.

An affiliation link is considered valid when the New Member opens its account and buys his first item and when:
- The New Member is not already a member of PriceMinister when the affiliation link is established;
- The New Member is a different and distinct person from its Affiliate and members of his household;
- The New Member is totally independent from its Affiliate (to connect to its account, to pay or to receive orders)

Affiliate may sponsor a maximum of 100 New Members through the Widget Program, in addition to the 100 allowed by the classical program.
ARTICLE 4 – What’s the benefit for Affiliate and New Member?

Each affiliation link validated gives the Affiliation a right to receive a coupon of £5 valid only on PriceMinister with a minimum purchase of £10, excluding shipping costs. This coupon must be used in the year after the affiliation link has been validated and registered by PriceMinister. All the coupons are not cumulative between them.

Each Affiliate will receive a maximum of 100 coupons.

An e-mail will be send to inform the Affiliate to each validated affiliation link and will explain the conditions of use of the coupon.

PriceMinister reserves the right to modify the conditions of these coupons (duration, amount, minimum amount, maximum use of coupons) or change the nature of the benefits associated with affiliation, or to delete, in its sole discretion.

Any change to this article would apply immediately without notice.

PriceMinister reserves the right to promote the Program, offering various promotional benefits to New Member.

PriceMinister reserves the right to remind the New Member and to remind him the benefit of the Program.

Each Affiliate acknowledges to pay any tax, social contribution or any other rights of any nature whatsoever, due under applicable regulations. PriceMinister will be relieved of any liabilities in this regard
ARTICLE 5 – LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

5.1. Affiliates will be solely responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of their content or website.

5.2. PriceMinister cannot be held liable for any direct or indirect damage resulting from an interruption, malfunction whatsoever, for any reason whatsoever, or to any direct or indirect result, in any way, a connection to the Site. Any visitor must take all appropriate measures to protect its own data and / or software stored on their computers against attacks. The connection of any person to the Site and participation to the Program is under their full liability.

5.3. In instances of Act of God, the liabilities of the affected party shall be suspended, in particular if the situation arises due to:
- An act or omission by a government or the appropriate authorities
- The blockage or failure of a telecommunication network
- Insurrections, civil war, war, military operations, national or local state of emergency, fire, lightning, explosion, strike, flood, storm, the act of a third party.
ARTICLE 6 – DATA PROTECTION

6.1. In accordance with the French Data Protection Act (1978), Affiliates and New Members have a right of access, of modification and of suppression of the personal data, held by PriceMinister at the address given above. The information on the Affiliates and New Members can be used by PriceMinister or its partners, in order to provide a better service and to keep them informed on new products or offers which may be of interest to them (subject to their express consent or, in some cases, in the absence of any opposition).

6.2. Affiliates are informed that in accordance with the Data Protection Law, they must first check with New Members, they agree that their names and e-mail address are transferred to PriceMinister.

This current agreement is subject to French law.

All disputes with an Affiliate acting as a professional, which emerge during the interpretation and/ or execution of the contract fall under the jurisdiction of the Commercial Court of Paris.

PriceMinister has more than 10 million members and is benefiting from rapid growth in France and a recent launch in the UK. With PriceMinister`s traffic tripling last year, the new content delivery system is vital in enabling it to stay ahead of eBay and Amazon in France’s online used-goods market, says vice president and CTO Justin Ziegler.

Says Ziegler, “In the highly competitive market for the online sales of used goods, having a fast and reliable site that customers trust is a make-or-break issue. The new content delivery system is key to PriceMinister’s success by enabling visitors to find things fast while relieving the retailer from stress on its servers due to spikes in network consumption”, he added.

PriceMinister’s specialisation is in selling used items like books, clothing, digital cameras, DVDs, laptops and CDs, although new items are also for sale.

Whilst PriceMinister is a major competitor to eBay, it also differs significantly because there are no auctions, only fixed prices, similar to the Amazon approach.

To list an item, the seller enters the title or barcode of the item they wish to sell, as well as the price at which they wish to sell the product. Listing the item is free of charge.

PriceMinister provides secure online payment and when the buyer chooses the item they wish to purchase, they pay PriceMinister directly with their credit or debit card rather than the eBay practice of payment being made via PayPal direct to the seller.

PriceMinister informs the seller that their item has been sold and lets them know where to send the product. The seller must then send the item directly to the buyer.

Once the buyer confirms they have received the order, PriceMinister transfers the value of the sale minus the PriceMinister commission to the sellers bank account.