Hello everyone! Hope you’re enjoying your weekend! I’m sure It’s feeding day for a lot of you!
I just had a couple questions about selling here on MM…
I own a petstore located in Midlothian VA… I recently signed up to a 12 month premium account which was not cheap and started adding some animals I have for sale. I’ve been a member over a month now and have not sold a single snake?
There’s a local breeder that I have been doing consignment deals with in the past that claims he is selling 8-14 snakes a week on here? and no longer wishes to leave snakes on consignment at my petstore because he is selling what he produces so fast. Now I have to say I have already paid him over 4000$ in the past 3-4 months which is a 50/50 split on what I sell retail… How could someone do that kind of volume? Is he being honest?
Any pointers and tips would be greatly appreciated as I would like to expand my operation here and start franchising my Petstore and online presence.
I’ve been selling here for a short time and have sold a number of animals already. I would recommend checking to make sure that your photos are clear, attractive, and properly cropped, as well as checking that your prices are competitive.
@westridge hit it on the nail. Also a little description, current weight, and birth date is something I look for when purchasing a snake. I’ve only gotten into ball pythons in the last 2/2.5 months and have already purchased three snakes off of MM because the breeders had a small description, multiple photos, and a quick response time. I could also creep them on instagram if needed >.<
I just checked your store page. You have animals that are overpriced and your shipping says it is $35-$350. I can tell you from a buyers point of view that I wouldn’t want to buy from someone that prices a simple Kingpin at $400, and that I could potentially have to pay over $100 for shipping. It can take a while to build up a good reputation on MM, but keeping your prices reasonable, and shipping with Ship your reptiles and Fedex can help lower shipping cost. Once people gain a good following on MM they can easily sell out of their stock quickly, especially if they have good prices. Your name might also make people want to avoid you, as there are many people who have had bad experiences with wholesalers. The best thing to do in this case would be to give a good description on every animal, and maybe even give pictures of the parents.
I think the big thing you have to remember, this site isnt a brick and mortar. $700 for a purple passion is pretty steep. You may get that in a display case, and some just falls in love and has to have it. But on here it’s a no risk browse. If you dont have exceptional animlas, exceptional prices , a reputable name, and a comparable shipping price everyone is going to keep browsing. Just my two cents based off how I’ve made my decision to purchase before. Cheapest doesn’t always win. But without a reputable name, you better have exceptional animals if you’re going to ask well above “market”.
I agree with @rhutcherson77. Prices between breeders, or from a breeder directly to a pet owner, are typically lower than the prices in a brick and mortar store. You may be able to ask those prices on location because a lot of people walk in to a pet shop without knowing what else is out there, but on MorphMarket you’re competing directly with people who don’t have the overhead of running a store. Because we don’t have those costs, we can keep our prices lower.
Try and see it from a buyer’s perspective. If you had the option of buying a kingpin for $400 and one for $200, provided they were both equally good looking, which would you pick?
I’m a hobbyist breeder and I sell about half of my snakes on MorphMarket, with the rest split between Cragislist, FaunaClassifieds, and Facebook. MorphMarket reaches the most people hands down, but you really should browse around and see what you’re competing with. Don’t price yourself out of the market.
First is reputation, a reputation is not built overnight and keep in mind that sending money to someone that just appeared in the pet industry, at least online and has had no presence online presence until now not even on online communities takes a lot of faith on the customer’s part.
Your name, whith the name of your company people will have expectation of wholesale prices when in reality your prices are reflecting pet stores retail prices.
Pricing, your prices should reflect the prices of the market you are competing in, pet store prices are one thing but with a little research you will see that when it comes to online market your prices are way off in some cases. Knowing your market is what it is all about and there is store, online and show pricing.
Shipping, shipping should reflect the cost of the anima placed in the ad in the lower 48 which we know would never be $350. For a potential buyer seeing this kind of number is pretty scary.
I would also say that with a name such as Wholesaleexoticpets I would be inclined to believe 1) you have low prices and 2) you move a lot of animals wholesale. For me, I wouldn’t purchase from someone moving animals in big groups wholesale to protect my collection. But that’s just me, possibly. I’d encourage you to share more info about you on your store page as well. On mine, I mentioned that I vet buyers to some degree, which I do. Since posting that, I’ve had a significant reduction in haggling tire kickers, an an increase in serious buyers who can provide good homes. This is my 2c as a newbie who has had success so far and really is loving MM!
IMO smart buyers look at more than just the price, so reputation & reputation for healthy animals like @stewart_reptiles said is key. Price is secondary to customer service and reputation for many buyers. It’s also true that bottom line price is the only thing that matters for many buyers though.
I would not want to buy animals from someone who has the word “wholesale” in their name. It would lead me to believe that 1) They did not produce the animals themselves, and I strongly prefer to buy from real breeders instead of individuals who buy and resell animals. 2) They have huge numbers of animals that do not receive individualized care, may be housed communally and do not have individual feeding records. I would also expect that they have not had the animals long and do not know anything about their history.