Wigix, the "Want it, got it Xchange" launches in public beta today with the intent to standardize online marketplace listings, and consequently make it easier for consumers to find the products they desire.
Wigix is not a new auction company, its modeled after a stock style price-matching system. Buyers and sellers list their desired prices for a particular item, and the system will notify people when they have matching orders there is no bidding involved.
Buying and Selling
The new SKU based selling system is setup with an auto-listing feature. The feature is similar to that found on eBay when selling books, movies or music. Sellers will no longer need to go through the task of describing items and posting pictures. Instead, they find the item in Wigix’s database, select it, and choose a price.
Similarly buyers need only find the item they’re looking for through a single search. Once they’re on the page for that item, they can see the last prices it sold at, how many buyers and sellers there are, descriptions, reviews and more. If they want to buy it, they put in a bid for a buy price; when a seller list and item thats meets the price, the transaction will be made.
Fees
The fee structure changes dramatically over eBay's system. Wigix charges no listing fee, and any transaction less than $25 is free. Wigix always charges the buyer $1.50, but the seller pays a variable amount: $1.50 for a sale between $25 and $100; $1.50 plus 2 percent of the amount above $100 for a sale between $100 and $1,000; and $21 plus 1 percent of the amount above $1,000 for a sale of more than $1,000.
For example, if somebody buys a digital camera for $200, Wigix charges the buyer $1.50 and the seller $3.50--$1.50 plus 2 percent of $100.
Make Money Without Selling
Wigix is also offering members several way to make money without selling items.
Category experts get paid 1% of the category's revenue (advertising and transaction fees) for checking listing and approving items.
Homesteading or category creation, allows user to add and expand the Wigix catalog of items. If you find something new that is not in the database you will earn 5% of that item's revenue (ad revenue and transaction fees)!
Golden Items, in an attempt at driving traffic to more areas of the site Wigix has secretly marked hundreds of items with a golden SKU. When you see the gold bar, click on it and your Wigix account will be credited $1!
Referrals, what site would be complete without a referral service? Wigix will give you up to 4% of any revenue (advertising and transaction fees) made by your referral's homestead items as well as a share from second and third tier referrals.
My thoughts
While looking over the site researching the post I saw it as an interesting idea. I did see a few areas I don't care for. For starters as a bargain hunter I'm not big on the "want it now" buying style. That cuts down the chance at getting any great deals. Which for me is one of the biggest draws to an auction site.
I also have a few concerns about listing items. I like to see pictures of actual items, not just a stock photo. The same goes for listings, I want an accurate description of the item I might be buying, not the generic one provided. You'll be forced to ask sellers to provide details and pictures, which would otherwise be provided in an eBay type environment.
But I'm willing to give it a chance. I'll try it out over the next week or two and see how I like it and post a review of my findings then.
For more on Wigix check out these great articles:
Beware! I just lost $120.00 to a fraudulent seller on Wigix. It took a few days before Wigix replied back to me to let me know that this seller was fradulent when I inquired about the shipment. Paypal was unable to recover the money and had they let me know about the this thief when they found out, maybe Paypal could have helped. They do not have buyer protection, if you lose money, you are on your own to try to get it back. This was my second purchase. I have never had a problem on Ebay but they offer buyer protection. I hope everyone will reconsider using this site, the seller also did this to other buyers on the site. I feel they should give me my money back since they allowed a crook on the site to begin with and also, since they did not let the buyers know of the illegal activity immediately so that Paypal could have gotten the funds back before the seller emptied his account.
ReplyDeleteI never really explored their buyer protection options so I'm very surprised to hear that they have none what so ever. Things like these always come to light after the fact so it really stick buyers in a bad position.
ReplyDeleteI can say just because you've never had an issue on eBay you shouldn't take that for granted. There aren't many eBay users out there that don't have a fraudulent seller story or a pay-pal horror story. eBay at times can be just as bad if not worse than any other site out there.
You have to dig but they do not have buyer protection. The Wigix in Canada will back up buyers up to $325.00 but due to the fact that the one in California is a fairly new company, they have nothing in place here like Ebay yet. I had to dig to find their Terms and Conditions. I feel that if they had acted and contacted Paypal or the buyers about the seller immediatley, myself and the other buyers may have had a chance to get our money back before this seller emptied his paypal account. They emailed me amd said it was up to Paypal and pretty much told me it was my problem and maybe I should contact the police. I have the emails from Wigix and I may post some of them. Seems as if they do not screen sellers well. A friend of mine had a similar problem on Wigix. I have over 300 transactions on ebay, one problem but Ebay & Paypal reimbursed me on an item I never received. I guess I have been lucky. I always make sure the buyers have a 99 or 100 feedback. Most of the seller on Wigix have a O rating.
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