The PeC Review: The SOC Exchange Offers A New, Inexpensive Selling Channel

Selling online can take many forms and merchants can use several channels to market and sell their wares. The SOC Exchange is a new online storefront that lets merchants post and sell products for as little as $10 per year with no hidden fees.

The site allows ecommerce businesses to create a simple storefront and sell products using The SOC Exchange’s tools and domain. It acts like a mall and an auction house—at one moment bearing a resemblance to Amazon and the next looking like a young eBay. While the jury is still out on how many sales The SOC Exchange can generate for ecommerce businesses (an essential factor), it was easy to work with, inexpensive, and functional, earning it three and a half stars out of a possible five in this The PeC Review.

The SOC Exchange Concept

As I mentioned above, I see The SOC Exchange as a sort of hybrid between Amazon and eBay, both of which allow sellers to post products. The difference is that Amazon and eBay are household names that attract millions of potential buyers. To earn that sort of traffic, Amazon and eBay spend mounds of money on advertising and marketing. And I believe that if The SOC Exchange hopes to be even marginally successful, it must make a significant financial investment in advertising, something that I have not yet seen.

In some sense, The SOC Exchange is banking on its ability to be better at marketing than the average online merchant. If that is not the case, there is no real advantage to using the service.

Very Inexpensive

Having just written that I believe The SOC Exchange must make a significant investment in advertising, I have to point out that they are so cheap to use that almost every online merchant can and should give the site a try.

For a mere $10 per year, or a pay-as-you-go rate of $1 per month, a merchant can list as many products as desired with no additional fees.

As I was reviewing the service, I kept waiting for some catch or some string attached to a hidden fee, but there was none. It is simply very inexpensive. One or two sales should easily cover the yearly fee.

Very Easy to List

The SOC Exchange has also made setting up a storefront and listing your products a snap. While I was reviewing the tool, I established a store and listed a couple of products for sale in less than ten minutes.

The site’s tools were almost all intuitive, and when I did have a question, easy-to-follow tips were at the ready.

From the Consumer’s Point of View

The SOC Exchange is also very easy to navigate. As a consumer, it is easy to search and find products, and there are a lot of extra features like RSS feeds, email alerts, and merchant blogs.

Summing Up

The SOC Exchange is a very inexpensive sales channel that is certainly worth a try for most ecommerce merchants. The site is also relatively easy to use. But, I have some concerns about just how much traffic The SOC Exchange will be able to generate. All told, I am giving The SOC Exchange three and a half stars in this The PeC Review.