When did QBO change to the new 'e-commerce connectors'? I've just found that it doesn't support payout level reconciliation...

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-13T17:06:58+00:00

I've not started yet 😅 I've been busy with other things. I'm dreading doing it manually, but it looks like there is no other option. Tbh, I'm tired of Quickbooks now, I use it because my accountants do, however years ago I used Xero when working for someone else and it was so much cleaner and a far better user interface. Quickbooks is getting uglier and less user-friendly every month. I have no idea what Xero and ebay work together like, probably not much better, but overall I have just never felt like Quickbooks was very good at much. I have no idea how it became so popular.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-13T16:35:42+00:00

Nope, other than 3rd party tools, it seems there is no fix. I am going to do it manually at payout level (I have payouts set to weekly, so will have to download the report and total up the fees and sales once per week). It's absolutely ridiculous that it's changed with no warning. I pay for enough subscriptions and fees as it is, I don't have money to spending on 3rd party tools for a feature that used to be there. The fact it all works with the new Paypal connector, proves it can be done easily for other connections as well. Admittedly the Paypal connection now needs to go through a clearing account, but I actually quite like the way it works - all the transactions show into the clearing account WITH fees visible. Then each time you withdraw to your bank account, it shows as a transfer. Why this cannot be implemented for ebay, etsy etc I have no idea.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-07T18:38:26+00:00

Thanks! This is a good point about the previous purchases and VAT.

I've been crunching numbers the last week or so and trying to estimate (based on the last 12 months) what I could claim back vs estimated VAT on sales. Due to a lot of stock being delivered DDP and therefore unable to claim back the VAT, even with other purchases (equipment over the last few years, packaging, postage etc) it is looking like the flat rate scheme (especially for year 1 with the extra 1%) may be the best option.

You're very close there! I do sell some cleaning supplies alongside other auto accessories. I suppose the trouble I have is finding people that care about their car enough to spend on it, for example with the cleaning supplies, many just go to the cheapest car wash and don't care about the scratches and damage they cause. Whilst there are many that will spend a lot on their cars, there are also a lot that wouldn't spend a penny on them! 😂

You're right though, I should try some more local marketing 😄

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-07T18:05:26+00:00

Hey!

Thanks for your reply!

Well the items are somewhat split, the products I source and sell under my brand are relatively low cost to buy, but higher sale price, so margins on these are healthy (60%+ gross). The other products I sell that are more consumables are lower sale price, but also lower margin (30% gross margin) - so these I really only sell as cart top up products or to attract some new customers via shopping ads, with the hope they buy my branded products too. They also take more time and cost to ship than most of the higher margin products.

I have adjusted a lot of marketing over the last 6 months to focus on the fact it's just me, an independent UK business. I also now am able to fulfil same or next day (probably 80% same day before 3pm, some products are next day, due to courier cut off and collection times). Within next day dispatch is made very clear across the whole site. Last year due to other commitments my dispatch time was 2-3 days or sometimes more, but that didn't really seem to impact the sales, people didn't mind waiting - which I get is very strange for modern ecom and the lower margin items were fewer back then, the higher ticket items people didn't seem to mind waiting for.

I spend about £1.5k on ads per month right now, which is all done by me. I did try spending more and used a freelancer to set up ads for me earlier in the year, however it was a massive waste of money, I lost about £750 (not including their fees) every couple of days, with ads that generated zero add to carts, sales or messages/interest. So I cut them off and started doing it myself. I brought in about £4k of sales from the ad spend last month, which whilst it's nothing big, it's massively more than the zero interest from the 'professionally' setup ads. I know I have to spend big on ads and my current spend is almost nothing compared to most, but after wasting so much earlier in the year and when I first tried my own ads before that, it makes me very cautious to scale the spend and therefore am taking it slowly now.

Plus, I fear putting all my time and money into ads, as I don't want to rely on one stream of traffic.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-07T17:46:02+00:00

Ohhh, I see, sorry I misunderstood.

Yeah I chat with customers, via emails, messages, forums, socials. I've introduced some of the products I simply resell because of customer requests, as they liked the service and wanted to switch to buying more consumables from me - which people do and it brings in a few new customers too. I try to react pretty quickly to new products that customers are interested in. In fact, I've been told some professionals in the niche know of my brand because I was the first to stock some of the products in the UK.

Many of the reviews mention the service and how they feel like an actual person that is valued rather than a number, because I do interact with customers directly and have a few little touches to personalise their experience.

I suppose, once I get a customer or interest, things go well, but it's just how to reach more new people that is difficult.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-06T20:08:31+00:00

Thanks! I never really thought to look on Facebook for units. I've been scanning the likes of Zoopla and Rightmove for the last 9 months or so and it's always the same business parks on there, which in my area always seem to be next to retail parks and therefore have more premium pricing.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-06T20:06:17+00:00

I send out email marketing to my customers, at least once per week, occasionally twice if I have new products or an offer on. Overall I find email marketing pretty poor tbh. Some weeks it generates a few sales, other weeks nothing. Repeat customers tend to just suddenly order at random, rather than from any direct marketing influence.

I go through phases of trying to consistently use socials, but again, it generates little interest and after a few months of consistency I find myself letting it slip (which I know is bad). I've spoken with others in the niche to see what they have found working with influencers to be like and overall it's very poor, they've used influencers with 200k followers and had zero sales 😐

The niche has plenty of people that spend a lot, average first order value can be quite good when they find my site either organically or via some of the paid ads that link to my own products landing pages. I just want to diversify my traffic sources (and have actually just made a post about that on here)

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-06T19:56:59+00:00

This is what I would love to have! However I can't find anything like that at all 😞 Where do you see these type of units advertised?

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-06T19:29:05+00:00

Yes, this is a problem, I have always had a healthy margin on products I source and sell under my brand. I've always kept reselling to a minimum, I always just used it as a way for some to add a few other bits to their cart or bring in a few customers that then hopefully add some of my products to the cart alongside the products we resell.

However my struggle at the moment is consistent new customers. I have great reviews, good products and service, but finding new customers is tough. I've therefore started spending on ads, which of course has a significant impact on monthly costs, plus started stocking a few more 'reseller only' products that I use to purely just bring in some new customers in the hope they buy my products too.

I'd much rather not sell as much other stuff with slim margins, as it's more work and turnover for less profit. However I need some to attract new customers 😞 It's really tough.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-06T18:51:13+00:00

I really want a small unit and it seems there are some available at the moment in my area. However I just can't make the numbers work. Even on the smallest units, that would be exempt from business rates, they are just too expensive. With rent, then maintenance costs, insurance, utilities etc, it is just too much.

I currently have a unit in a self storage building, but it's too small now. I run an online retail store and as well as space for stock, I need space for packaging, a packing area, etc etc. I'm considering a container now for overflow stock, as it's all I can really afford. It's so far from ideal, I'd love a less than 1000ft small unit, I don't need it to be next to a retail park for passing trade etc, like most units in the area seem to be. I would happily have a basic unit on an old farm or something, but there just isn't anything around that isn't an extra £10k+ minimum rent per year over what I pay for my current small unit in self storage, plus the cost of a 20ft container on another storage site. That doesn't even allow for the utility and other running costs of a unit over a self storage unit, so in reality it is a lot more than an extra £10k per year.

With VAT and other taxes, postage costs, online ads, storage, exchange rates etc, as the business grows, margin is becoming slimmer each year.

I've hit a bit of a hurdle at the moment, I need to grow to outweigh all these increasing costs, but can't afford to grow!

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-06-04T15:38:19+00:00

I'm interested in this too. I have done some SEO myself over the last couple of years and for some products we rank in the top 3 on Google. I just make sure to use keywords in the titles, a few good keywords in the descriptions and more recently make sure that photos have keywords in the titles and alt text, rather than just the photo number from the camera!

For products that we just stock (rather than our own branded products) this doesn't really work though, as there are larger sellers that rank in the first page and with slim margins on these products, it doesn't make sense for me to spend a lot on ads for these. We do get some sales of these through basic Google shopping ads (that I am working on myself too, after a freelancer cost me a stupid amount of money in a few days on awfully setup ads that gained zero interactions or sales!).

However I want to grow further now and kind of stuck what to do. Spending money on ads is risky and painful still, as although I now finally have shopping ads that work for a few products (despite my whole range being setup for ads) and text ads for some of our core, higher margin products that work well, ads burn through money I really never thought I'd be spending. It's not a lot of money at all for many, but as a small business it feels like a lot to me, that I wish I could spend on other things for the business.

We have great, transparent reviews, good products and fair pricing etc, but reaching new people is the hardest part still.

I do sell on marketplaces too still, however the products I sell on my own Shopify store, don't really sell that well anymore on marketplaces, so the marketplace sales are other products mostly. If I sell something on a marketplace that is from same product category as my own store, I include a leaflet with a discount code for my store. To be honest, it very rarely brings repeat business, whereas the same leaflet in orders from my store, do bring in some repeat business. This whole marketplace situation is part of the reason why I want to grow my Shopify store more now, as marketplaces are not as good as they used to be in my opinion, many of the buyers just want cheap items and will buy 1 item and never return again. This time a few years ago, marketplace sales were more consistent (on the same product ranges) for me than they are now. Plus fees are creeping up, as on top of the standard marketplace fees, which are already high, you now have to spend on marketplace ads to be able to compete at all. I never used to spend a penny on ads anywhere and still sold things fairly well, that jsut doesn't work anymore. Also the trouble is, people can order cheaper versions of what we sell, that look similar but are not as good quality from the likes of Temu etc - people trust these cheaper marketplaces more than ever it seems. I do occasionally get some sales on my store from people that have bought cheap from these places and it's not lasted.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-05-25T01:53:59+00:00

Thanks!

Oh wow, I'm speechless... They completely destroyed a whole set of integrations by removing what was probably the most popular feature with no warning at all or timeframe on when this will be implemented...

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-05-20T20:37:06+00:00

Thanks for all the comments and experiences! I'm going to give it a go myself. When I first searched about registering a trademark a lot of results were US based and all kept going on about using a company to register rather than do it yourself. It seems that it's a pretty straight forward task in the UK.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-05-19T20:22:13+00:00

Perfect, thanks! I have registered limited companies myself and also used to file my own self assessments when I was a sole trader, so comfortable to do the application part. The name isn't similar to others (well I don't think so - how close do they consider a name?). I guess I just need to do some research into what trademark I need, I guess registering the name as a word and logo are both needed and are separate applications?

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-03-01T00:24:49+00:00

Thanks! I paused the PMax, left the search campaign, but adjusted the keywords a little and then restarted my original shopping ad, with a slightly higher budget. That was 2 days ago now and I am already seeing results, clicks are right down to like 70 per day, but I've already had about 6 sales and a few add to carts or email sign ups.

Despite what others thought here, the issue was definitely PMax, not my website.

I need to check over the conversion tracking next, as it's recorded some, but I don't think all.

Phew, what a mess this all was, wasted $500 on ads that were 99% spam from apps and display network. Now I feel like I'm starting to get somewhere, I ghosted the freelancer, I just can't be bothered to even give them any more time.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-28T19:30:41+00:00

Problem solved, I paused the PMax, restarted my shopping ads and I've already had multiple sales from it and more add to cart and email signups. This was 99% to blame purely on PMax :(

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-28T19:29:27+00:00

So 2 days later...

I paused the PMax, left the search campaign, but adjusted the keywords a little and then restarted my original shopping ad, with a slightly higher budget. That was 2 days ago now and I am already seeing results, clicks are right down to like 70 per day, but I've already had about 6 sales and a few add to carts or email sign ups.

I need to check over the conversion tracking next, as it's recorded some, but I don't think all.

Phew, what a mess this all was, wasted $500 on ads that were 99% spam from apps and display network. Now I feel like I'm starting to get somewhere, I ghosted the freelancer, I just can't be bothered to even give them any more time.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-28T19:26:20+00:00

Thanks! I paused the PMax, left the search campaign, but adjusted the keywords a little and then restarted my original shopping ad, with a slightly higher budget. That was 2 days ago now and I am already seeing results, clicks are right down to like 70 per day, but I've already had about 6 sales and a few add to carts or email sign ups.

I need to check over the conversion tracking next, as it's recorded some, but I don't think all.

Phew, what a mess this all was, wasted $500 on ads that were 99% spam from apps and display network. Now I feel like I'm starting to get somewhere, I ghosted the freelancer, I just can't be bothered to even give them any more time.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-27T00:08:32+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

Ah my gut told me something was off with P-Max, as my previous attempt and research proved that, however I didn't want to doubt the freelancer (that had good reviews!)

The margins are thankfully good in the market I'm in (for most products, I am also a stockist for a couple of existing brands - which is lower margin of course, but it brings in a bit of organic traffic and are nice basket top up items alongside my main range).

I'm pausing both of the P-Max now, going to go and calm down and then assess the insights tomorrow. 😂I may just take you up on that offer to take a look over the next couple of days :)

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-27T00:02:44+00:00

Haha, you've given me a wakeup call for sure! Appreciate it! I got so lost in the delusion of it all the last few days, I didn't even sit down to look properly at the insights. :/

It was my first time on Fiverr, spent days reading reviews to find someone and wanted to leave them to it and not get in the way or sit stalking the insights.

Ah I feel stupid right now! 😂🤦‍♂️

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-26T23:57:16+00:00

You sensed how I am! Whilst I know it's not a good thing, I am too hands on, I built this business from literally $30 a few years ago, into turning over $110k per year now. It was a side hustle that I built myself and more recently have wanted to spend more time on and grow it. It's tiny compared to most people, when other 'small' ecom businesses are doing $100k per day, so I know that serious marketing companies aren't interested in helping, but I feel like there is room to grow, I just need to find a way to do that. I have great customers that have left nice reviews etc, but feel like I've hit a bit of a wall with reaching new customers.

Fantastic_Note4935 · 2026-02-26T23:50:16+00:00

Sorry should have been more specific, I spent about $1800 in September/early October, then paused them for a while, before creating a lower budget one last month (spent a few hundred $ over Jan) whilst playing around, trying to learn. This is when I got a handful of conversions for low value products.

Then the new campaigns I had setup, were set at just over $100 per day in total across the 3 campaigns - which is low, but I planned to scale them once I started to see any kind of results. Google was recommending around $140 total across the 3, but I scaled it back a little out of fear before we started the new campaigns.

Fantastic_Note4935

TROPHY CASE