profit tips - Phunn2bRich.com

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Copyright © 2005 SaleHoo
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Part One: Getting started
1
Introduction: Who can make money on eBay, and how to use this book
1
Who can make money on eBay?
2
Chapter 1: Yes, you CAN make money on eBay
4
In this chapter
4
Avoid scams
4
Sign up for your eBay User ID, and for PayPal too
5
Sign up to PayPal
6
Learn eBay by bidding on eBay auctions
7
Your first eBay auction
7
Setting goals for your eBay business
9
11
PROFIT TIPS
Chapter 2: Familiarizing yourself with the eBay environment
13
Streamline your eBay listings
13
You’re a trader now: finding goods to sell on eBay
18
First impressions count: packing and shipping
21
PROFIT TIPS
22
Chapter 3: Building your eBay store
23
Ready, steady, sell –setting up your eBay store
23
Improve your listings: use customized templates
25
Photos that sell: how to photograph items for eBay
26
More than words: make your auction titles count
28
Buying on eBay as market research – and to stock your shop
28
Outwitting the snipers on eBay – and becoming a sniper yourself
29
PROFIT TIPS
29
Part Two: The eBay expert – your business is your store
30
Chapter 4: Buying cheap and selling dear – it’s all about your
margins
30
Get it wholesale: buy items just to sell in your eBay store
30
The secrets of eBay pricing
33
Keeping records
35
Your store turnover
35
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PROFIT TIPS
36
Develop an easy inventory system: use a spreadsheet
37
Inventory storage: grow and track your eBay inventory
39
Future sales: buying items at the end of a season, so you can resell them next season
40
Capitalizing on trends: dealing with manufacturers and wholesalers
40
Attending auctions and storing the items you buy
41
PROFIT TIPS
41
Chapter 6: Keeping in touch with your customers
41
Your customers: it’s all in your contacts list
42
Building your contacts list (or lists) is a longterm strategy
43
Build your list and develop joint ventures
45
Create a newsletter
46
PROFIT TIPS
46
Chapter 7: Standing out from the crowd – developing a Web site to
drive business to your eBay store
47
Your Web site is your key to search engine marketing success
47
The three steps to opening a Web site
48
Create the site
49
PROFIT TIPS
51
Part Three: Building your eBay business
52
Chapter 8: Containing costs
52
Containing costs when buying for resale
52
Containing costs on packaging
53
Containing costs on shipping by exploring your drop-shipping options
53
Hiring helpers – what can you outsource?
54
PROFIT TIPS
54
Chapter 9: Building buzz for your eBay business
56
Local buzz – let everyone know you have an eBay business
56
Online buzz – the opportunities are endless
58
Blogging – buzzing an online conversation
60
Help your buzz by creating a brand
62
The results of your buzzing? You become an eBay expert
62
EBay weirdness builds buzz
62
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Chapter 10: Software to make it easier to post auctions and track
your business
65
eBay’s free auction listing software: Turbo Lister
65
Need more? Try eBay’s Seller Assistant products
66
Other eBay software options
67
Chapter 11: Saving time on your auctions with automation and
drop shipping
Can drop shipping work for you?
69
69
Chapter 12: Expanding and growing your eBay business –
borrowing capital and more
71
Borrowing money to help your business to grow
71
Growing your business without borrowing
73
Full steam ahead: planning for million-dollar growth
74
Chapter 13: Top ten eBay secrets
75
1. Information! Give as much (and more) information as your seller is likely to need
75
2. Customer support – your customer is king
76
3. Be honest about an item’s condition
76
4. Select a couple of categories in which to specialize
76
5. Use loss-leaders to attract attention to your auctions
77
6. Become familiar with keywords
78
7. Keep your customers and sell to them again and again
78
8. Research the market before you buy stock
78
9. Put on stop-loss on items which don’t sell
78
10. Knowledge is power, so get knowledgeable
78
Chapter 14: Into the future – trends, building partnerships and
growing your business
80
New hot trends – how do you get in on the ground floor?
80
EBay partnerships: building relationships with other businesses
81
Setting goals to grow your business
82
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Part One: Getting started
Introduction: Who can make money on eBay, and how to
use this book
Would you like to work from home, work only the hours that you choose, and
have the opportunity to make an unlimited income?
You can, on eBay.
eBay at http://www.ebay.com is BIG. It’s the world’s largest online auction
site – or collection of sites – with revenues of over eight billion dollars in
the second quarter of 2004. You can buy and sell almost anything on eBay,
from sewing needles to automobiles and beyond.
However, eBay is much more than a mere auction site. On eBay, you can create
your own retail business, selling to a global audience.
After a decade, eBay has half a million sellers, many of whom are entrepreneurs
who run their own successful businesses from home, and you can join them.
For information on how eBay started, Wikipedia has a brief overview http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay which gives you historical and other data.
You don’t need to know anything much about eBay to start your own eBay
business. However, keep in mind these eBay essential tips:
♦
eBay is global, with 28 auction sites in countries around the world. You can
opt to list your items on your country's eBay, or on any other country's eBay
site. However where you LIST isn’t vital, because your items will appear in
the eBay search results for anyone anywhere in the world. Yes, you can sell
to people in China, India and the UK as easily as you can to people in the
USA – this means that your market is enormous, and so is your potential
income;
♦
You don’t need anything other than a computer and a desire to run your
own business to make eBay work for you. EBay is a system, and has a
fantastic global infrastructure, which lets you focus on your auctions, and
later, when you've created one, your own eBay shop;
♦
You can pay for auction items, and receive auction payments online directly
and easily through eBay's financial services business, PayPal. You don’t even
have to visit the bank to have money transferred from anywhere in the world
to your own bank account;
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♦
EBay stays in business by charging various fees. You need to be aware of
these fees, so you can maximize your profits;
♦
Essentially, eBay is not a location, or in any way physical: it's a software
program – a large software program which uses indexes based on keywords
in searches. If you're aware of the importance of keywords from the start,
you'll have great success on eBay;
♦
Most eBay buyers and sellers are honest – the eBay Feedback rating system
keeps them that way. However, occasionally you will encounter buyers
who don't pay for an item they have won. eBay has an automatic process
in place which lets you reclaim your eBay fees on unpaid items, and relist
those items;
♦
The more you can streamline your listing and selling processes on eBay, the
more profit you will make. Your profit (margin) on each item you sell is not
as important as your overall profits over time. EBay has sales reports and
other data which help you to monitor your eBay activities.
Who can make money on eBay?
YOU can make money on eBay.
Yes, you. To start an eBay business, you need little more than a computer and
some spare time. If you wanted to start a bricks and mortar store, you’d need
startup capital, inventory, a lease, and much more. The bureaucratic red tape
alone would be endless, and you certainly wouldn’t be able to run your store in
your spare time.
You can start out your potential eBay business in the way that even the most
successful eBay PowerSellers (sellers who have a high volume of money sales and
excellent feedback ratings) have started: by auctioning off an unwanted household
items, discovering that the auction sales process is fun, and then going on to sell
more and more items and developing your own business.
The major benefit of eBay over all bricks and mortar stores and other online
ventures is that the eBay infrastructure does all the work for you. eBay posts your
auction, buyers see the auction and bid on it, without you monitoring anything.
When the auction ends, and you get the money (plus postage and handling) for
your item, you send the item to the auction winner. The entire process couldn’t
be simpler, or easier – although eBay is always working to make the process faster
and hassle-free.
So, how do you get from auctioning one small item to creating a successful eBay
business earning many thousands (or hundreds of thousands) dollars a year? Read
on.
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How to use this book
Our aim in this book is to help you to make money, so please use this book as
an operations manual. Follow along with the book, and you’ll grow your micro
eBay business into a real small business. We’ll start by helping you to become
familiar with eBay and how the site works. We’ll progress until you’re running
your business with confidence, and are building your business and its profits
steadily. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find tips which will help you to build
your profits, called, as you might guess: PROFIT TIPS.
Initially, if you’ve never bought or sold anything on eBay, the site can seem
overwhelming. You’ll soon find however that eBay is designed with YOU in mind.
Help for anything that confuses you is never more than a click away, as you
can see on this image of the eBay menu which appears at the top of every eBay
page:
Above: the eBay menu.
When you get stuck, click either the Help or the Community button on the right of
the menu, and you’ll get all the help you need. EBay has many different forms of
Help, including startup tutorials and movies. The other members of eBay will be
especially useful as a resource too – eBay has dozens of Community Help Boards,
Discussion Boards, and Category Specific Boards, as well as regular workshops.
Access the community from the hub at http://hub.ebay.com/community. You’re
never left without someone to turn to for help.
If you’re feeling slightly nervous, that’s fine – everyone is, when they start out. Take
each step as it comes, and be assured that you can’t really make a mistake, and if
you do, your mistakes are easily smoothed away. Each and every eBayer started
somewhere, and you can too. The New to eBay Board at http://forums.ebay.com/
db1/forum.jspa?forumID=120 is a good place to get information on eBay basics.
Everyone on the board understands what it’s like to start out on eBay.
Are you ready? Excellent! Let’s go.
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Chapter 1: Yes, you CAN make money on
eBay
In this chapter
In this chapter, you’ll get your eBay User ID, and you’ll sign up for the financial
transactions’ services company PayPal, which is owned by eBay, and which makes
it easy for you to accept money and pay for eBay items, at the press of a few
keystrokes.
You’ll start your first auction, and you’ll set goals for your new eBay business –
including deciding what you’ll sell, and where you’ll store your eBay inventory.
Tip: Guard your eBay and PayPal user information from the menace of
phishing
Phishing (pronounced ‘fishing’) attempts on eBay and PayPal users are common.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
: “... phishing (also known as carding and spoofing) is the act of attempting to
fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card
details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for
such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message (most
often an email, or an instant message).”
Both eBay and PayPal discuss phishing and other scams on their Help systems.
Follow the companies’ own warnings and advisories, which are regularly updated,
and you’ll be fine. Remember, millions of eBay buyers and sellers use the system
regularly and sidestep scams.
Avoid scams
You can avoid all scams by following these simple rules:
*
*
*
*
If you’re ever in doubt about ANYTHING that happens on eBay or PayPal, log
in to the sites and look for Help on the topic, or ask for Help in the forums;
Never give out your eBay or PayPal passwords, to anyone, for any reason
– not even to members of your own family;
Run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on your computer. Visit http://
www.download.com/ to acquire these tools;
Watch activities on your PayPal account carefully – and on any bank accounts
and credit cards linked to PayPal.
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Sign up for your eBay User ID, and for PayPal too
The first step in becoming an eBayer (a person who buys and sells on eBay)
is to sign up for your eBay User ID.
You can sign up from the eBay home page at http://www.ebay.com If you’re
not in the USA, sign up for your own country’s eBay site from the link at the
bottom of the Home page.
The sign up form looks like this:
Above: Getting started on eBay is easy. Just fill in the form to get your user ID.
Click the Register button, and follow the process. Within a few moments you’ll
be a member of eBay.
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Sign up to PayPal
Most eBay sellers accept a various forms of payment, including debit and credit
cards, electronic checks, money orders and personal checks. However the most
popular form of payment is via PayPal.
PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/ makes your financial dealings on eBay a
breeze. With a PayPal account, you can pay and can accept money from anyone
who has an email address.
This is the PayPal Home Page – click on the Sign Up Now button.
Above: Sign up to PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/
Follow the instructions, and within a few days, or in some cases immediately,
depending on the options you choose, you’ll be able to use PayPal to send
and request money.
When PayPal has activated your account, and you begin to list auction items
on eBay, PayPal logos will automatically be inserted into all your auctions,
and PayPal options will be offered to your winning bidders. The beauty of
the PayPal system is that much of it is automatic – you don’t have to do
anything to manage the money on your eBay business, PayPal manages it
all for you.
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Learn eBay by bidding on eBay auctions
Perhaps you’ve already bid and won eBay auctions. If you have, you’ve got a head
start on your own business, because you know how the bidding process works.
If you haven’t bought on eBay, get started doing so. Buying from others gives you
valuable experience. Ask questions of sellers, check their feedback rating, and
experiment.
Your first eBay auction
You’ve got your eBay ID, and you’ve signed up for PayPal, so you’re all set to run
your first auction. Before we do that, let’s think about what you’ll base your eBay
business on -- what products you’ll sell – by looking at the categories on eBay.
EBay categories
Above: eBay categories at http://hub.ebay.com/buy
EBay offers hundreds of categories of items. You can buy and sell almost anything
online, although dangerous goods, livestock, and other types of items are
prohibited. Check out eBay Pulse at http://pulse.ebay.com/ to see some of the
weird items that people sell on eBay.
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The eBay categories are not set in stone. EBay constantly revises and updates its
categories. When you’re running your eBay business, review the categories at
least once a week, so you can ensure that you’re listing your items in the most
appropriate areas – where the buyers are.
It’s important to note that the categories are hierarchical. Click the Cell Phones
category for example, and you’ll discover a couple of dozen sub-categories. Click
the sub-category Cases/ Pouches, and you’re greeted with a list of cell phone
brands.
At this early stage in your eBay adventure, you don’t need to decide what categories
you’re going to choose for your business. Just be aware of the many categories,
and start browsing the auctions in the categories that you’re drawn to, to see
whether people who are using those items are selling.
Running your first auction
You’ll find that listing your first item for sale is easy, because eBay provides wizards,
which are step by step guides, to help you through the complete process.
Let’s look at the first couple of steps to get you started. After you’ve signed into eBay,
choose Sell My Item. The next step is to choose a selling format. Your choices are
an auction, a fixed price, and as store inventory. We’ll go through the formats in
detail later. Just note that the default is Sell Item at Auction, and click Continue.
Above: Listing your first step – choose a selling format.
The next page lets you choose a category for your item. Navigate to the appropriate
category and sub-category, and click Continue.
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Above: Choosing a category for your item.
Keep selecting options, and filling in the forms, until you’ve listed your first item.
Now the excitement begins, as you wait for bidders to begin to notice your item
and to start bidding on it.
There – you’ve started on your eBay adventure; you’ve completed the first steps to
creating your own successful eBay business.
Setting goals for your eBay business
Now you’ve run your first auction, it’s time to set some goals for your eBay
business. Even at this early stage, setting goals for yourself means that you’ll work
at your new business proactively – if you don’t set goals, you could be caught in
the Some Day trap, telling yourself that you’ll start your business when you know
more, when you have more time, or when conditions change in your life. The best
time to start is NOW.
How to set goals
Decision time. Remember that you can change any of your goals at any time.
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Setting startup goals is just a way to work profitably, so you’re not cruising without
a destination.
Basic startup goals:
♦ What items you'll sell (check the categories);
♦ How and where you'll get your inventory;
♦ Where you'll store your inventory; and
♦ How much money you would like to make in your first year on
eBay.
You also need to set some time management goals.
Time management goals
If you’ve got a lengthy To Do List here’s the key to moving tasks from to To Do List
to your Completed List: schedule each task, and then work your schedule.
Consider the startup goals you’ve set above, and create an eBay To Do list from
those goals. For example, once you’ve decided on the categories you’ll be selling
in, you’ll need to build up your inventory, so you could create To Do items such
as:
* Browse garage sales
* Go through all the rooms in the house and choose items to sell on eBay
* Check newspapers for local estate auctions
Slot each of these tasks into your daily schedule, so that they get done. Each
Sunday evening, or any other time you choose, conduct a Weekly Review, during
which you move tasks from your To Do list into the next week’s schedule. During
the week, whenever you think of an eBay-related task, write it on your To Do list,
for later scheduling.
When you begin selling regularly on eBay, you can keep up this practice. You
can also schedule recurring tasks like taking sold items to the post office for
mailing, and entering transactions into a spreadsheet, or into a financial software
program.
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PROFIT TIPS
TIP: Use Completed Listings (ended auctions) as pricing guidelines
On the left side navigation bar on all eBay’s listings pages, you’ll find SEARCH
OPTIONS. One of the Options is Completed Listings.
Above: The Completed Listings checkbox (checkbox # 5)
Completed Listings are auctions which have ended, and they’re a great pricing
guideline. We’ll have more to say on pricing later, but for the moment, be aware
that you can check to see how much an item is likely to sell for, by using the
Completed Listings.
The Completed Listings are also useful when you’re wondering whether you can
resell an item at a profit. For example, let’s say you’re cruising a garage sale, and
you come across a 1980s Cabbage Patch doll in great condition. You can buy the
doll for $5. Can you resell it at a profit? Remember that you need to take your own
expenses, including listing time, and eBay’s fees into account. Aim to buy items
less than at a third of what you are certain you can resell them for. This Cabbage
Patch doll would need to sell for at least $15 on eBay.
Let’s check:
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Above: Completed Listings – the items with prices in green sold, the items with prices in red didn’t
sell.
As you can see a couple of these dolls didn’t sell at all. One sold at a great
price. Make your buying decision: you now have enough information to
buy and sell with confidence, using eBay’s Completed Listings as a research
tool.
TIP: Watch for HOT product categories
Many people start their eBay business selling in categories related to a special
interest or hobby. This is fine, because if something is your hobby, then you have
knowledge of the field, and experience in how much to pay for items so that you
can resell them at a profit.
For example, let’s say that you’re a keen amateur photographer. You decide to
sell items that you buy second hand in the Cameras & Photo category, and in
the Vintage sub-category, if your research tells you that that category is hot. (A
hot category is one in which there is a lot of buyer interest: at least half the items
listed in the category sell on listing.) You decide that you’ll watch the category for
a month to see what sells, what doesn’t, and how much competition there is in
that category, before you start to buy in stock to list yourself.
Follow this process yourself for any category in which you decide to buy items to
resell – if you do some research first, before you buy items to sell in a category,
you’ll have a great chance of making a profit in a category, and building your
eBay business up rapidly.
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Chapter 2: Familiarizing yourself with the
eBay environment
In this chapter, you’ll learn more about eBay listings, eBay fees, taxes, and how to
manage your eBay customers.
Streamline your eBay listings
How long did posting your first auction listing take you? If it took you an hour
or longer, you may be wondering how you’re ever going to make any money on
eBay – you’ll be spending all your time creating new auctions!
Relax. You’ll soon be posting your auctions like a pro. Now you know how the
listing process works, you’ll become faster at it with each item you list, especially
when you starting using software which makes the process almost automatic. We’ll
discuss listing and other eBay software later in the book. When you’re starting to
enter your auctions, work manually, because it gives you more control, and you’re
less likely to make errors.
Another benefit of entering your listings manually when you start out is that you’re
made aware of the cost the various listing options, and you can select and remove
options (like Gallery), to stay within your budget.
Now let’s look at the listing process more closely.
Ebay’s three sales formats: which should you choose?
You don’t need to limit your listings to auctions. EBay provides three primary ways
for you to list your items. In many cases, it will make more sense for you to sell
items either at a set price, or in your eBay shop – we discuss opening an eBay
shop in the next chapter – than as an auction.
You’ll find an explanatory table of eBay’s formats at http://pages.ebay.com/help/
sell/formats.html
In brief, there are three main eBay sales formats: auction, Fixed Price, and a Store
Inventory (shop) item. Let’s look at the benefits and the challenges of each of the
formats. Once you understand the benefits and challenges, it’s much easier to
choose the right format for an item.
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Auction format
This is the format with which you’re most familiar. You set a starting price for the
item, and wait for the bidding war to begin. The auction format is beneficial when
you’re not sure how much an item is worth, or when you want to sell an item
quickly. All auction items are indexed, so they show up in eBay searches.
The challenge with auctions is that if you set your starting price too low, you may
only get one bid, and you may have to sell an item for less than it’s worth. Some
sellers do pull auctions if they realize that they’ve priced an item too low and the
bids are small, but this process is frowned on by eBay. Remember that eBay is very
much a community, and your standing in the community is vital, because your
ability to trade depends on the earned trust from the community.
Fixed Price format
You set a price for an item and choose the listing period at which you want to offer
an item, or items, at that fixed price. You’re charged eBay insertion fees and Final
Value Fees. Buyers can buy your item immediately, at the price you’ve set.
The benefit of the Fixed Price format is that you get exactly the price you want
– you don’t get a nasty surprise when the item you thought would sell for $10 at
auction is won for just $1.99.
The challenge of the Fixed Price format is that although you get the price you want,
you may have to wait for it. It’s difficult to get buyers, because in comparison to
auction items in the category, your price can look high, and eBay purchasers love
a bargain. Plus, when potential buyers add the shipping cost to the item cost, it
can be hard for them to justify their purchase unless your item is rare or otherwise
to obtain.
Store Inventory
Once you’re selling items regularly, you’ll want to consider opening an eBay shop,
because the eBay listing fees for store inventory are much lower. When you’ve
opened a shop, you can designate items Store Inventory, which means that you’re
items are listed in your shop, at a fixed price.
The benefit of Store Inventory items is that the eBay fees are low – just cents a
month to list an item, and you can keep your items listed until they sell. Another
benefit is that your shop items appear in your auction listings, so if a buyer has
won an auction, she may want to buy a couple of store items too, to save on
shipping costs.
The challenge if Store Inventory items is that they don’t appear in eBay’s Search,
which means that you need to find ways to get people to visit your eBay shop.
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What’s a Dutch Auction?
You can read more on Dutch Auctions here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/gdutch-auction.html
You need a Feedback Rating of 30 or above before you can sell using the Dutch
Auction format.
In a Dutch Auction, the seller has a set of items for sale. He sets a minimum price
for each item. Thereafter, the bidding proceeds, and the winning bidders pay the
same price per item.
Dutch Auctions are a useful format when you’ve got a big inventory, and want to
sell off items in lots.
eBay’s fees
There are two major fees that you need to keep in mind: Insertion Fees, and Final
Value Fees.
You’ll find a complete listing of eBay’s fees here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/
fees.html
When you list an item, you’re charged an Insertion Fee based on the amount
that you’ve chosen as the Starting or Reserve Price. The higher either of these
prices are, the higher the Insertion Fee. It’s dangerous to set a low Starting Price to
minimize the fee, because your item may sell for much less than you hope.
The Final Value fee is charged on the price the item sells for, varying between five
and ten per cent of the closing value.
EBay charges additional fees for various kinds of listings: when you boldface items
in the category lists for example, when you add an image (Gallery View), and
many more. Take note of ALL the additional costs when you list an item, because
they mount quickly, and you may not make any profit at all, if you choose all the
options which are available.
In your first few months on eBay, just be aware of the fees. Until you’re experienced,
it’s difficult to minimize the fees, because you’re not aware of the options, nor
how buyers respond to various sales tactics, like boldface listings. As you become
more familiar with what attracts buyers and what makes no difference, you can
take steps to trim and minimize your fees.
-15-
The fees YOU charge: packing and shipping
Above: you can buy your packaging needs on eBay, of course. Search for “shipping and packing
supplies”.
Although most of your customers are wonderful people and a pleasure to do
business with, you’ll find that when you get a buyer who’s difficult, it’s usually
because he or she objects to your packing and shipping costs. Therefore, right
from the start, be sure to mention your shipping costs PROMINENTLY in all your
listings.
If you sell small, light items, like CDs, DVDs, jewelry and clothing, set a flat
packing and shipping cost if at all possible. First, look to see how much other
people are charging for packing and shipping in the categories in which you’re
selling, and then set a flat rate, or a comparable sliding scale.
Above: This seller charges a flat rate.
State taxes
Some states charge a sales tax. Luckily, eBay calculates the tax rates for you.
When buyers from states in which tax is payable go through the Checkout, the tax
is calculated by eBay and is added to the cost of the item.
Information on eBay’s tax table:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/tax-table.html
Vital: ensure that you go to a tax professional to be determine whether you need
to charge sales tax on the items you sell.
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Your sales tax obligations depend on your location, the location of your buyers, and
your own business structure. Go to an accountant or other taxation professional
so you know which sales taxes you need to charge, and to get all taxation issues,
including income tax, organized.
Sold and delivered: getting and receiving Feedback
Within a short time, you’ll become very aware of eBay’s Feedback process.
EBay’s Feedback Forum:
http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback.html
A note about Feedback from eBay’s founder: “Most people are honest. And they
mean well. Some people go out of their way to make things right. I’ve heard great
stories about the honesty of people here. But some people are dishonest. Or
deceptive. This is true here, in the newsgroups, in the classifieds, and right next
door. It’s a fact of life. But here, those people can’t hide. We’ll drive them away.
Protect others from them. This grand hope depends on your active participation.”
(From http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback-foundersnote.html)
Buyers and sellers leave feedback for each other. You can leave feedback which
is Positive, Negative, or Neutral. It’s the goal of every eBay seller to maintain their
100 per cent Positive Feedback Rating, but of course with people being as they
are, this is not always possible.
You’ll find that less than half of your buyers will leave feedback for you without a
nudge to do so. Once you’ve been in business on eBay and have several hundred
feedback points, this won’t concern you. However, while you’re building your
business, feedback is important.
Therefore, include a message similar to this on your packing slip for the items you
send to purchasers:
Dear Buyer
Thank you for your purchase. It was a pleasure doing business with you.
If your item has arrived safely, and you’re happy that it is as described in the listing,
please leave positive feedback for me, and I will do the same for you.
I hope you enjoy your item.
All best wishes
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Your name
Your address
Your eBay ID
Courtesy counts: keeping your buyers happy
Most of your experiences as an eBay buyer and seller will be completely wonderful.
Many, many kind and generous people are part of eBay’s communities.
Sooner or later however, you will encounter a difficulty. Perhaps a buyer maintains
that she didn’t receive an item, or that the item was not as it was described in the
listing, or has some other problem and is less than polite in blaming the problem
on you.
First, keep calm. Ignore rudeness, and don’t retaliate at all. EBay has a system in
place to handle disputes, and it will work for you. Remain confident, calm and
polite.
You can try to resolve the issue via email, or by phoning the buyer.
If you want to call, get the buyer’s phone number here:
http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/AdvSearch?sofindtype=8
Or the buyer can open a dispute, via this process, at:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/inr-snad-process.html
If you keep calm and professional, your dispute with the buyer will be resolved
within a short time. In the meantime, you can get eBay community support here:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum.jspa?forumID=120
Explaining your situation on the board lets you vent, and you’ll get helpful advice
from sellers who’ve been through similar disputes and challenges.
You’re a trader now: finding goods to sell on eBay
You can find items to resell on eBay anywhere: your own town, or on the other
side of the world.
Let’s look at a few of your options.
Buy wholesale lots on eBay for resale
Where else would you buy wholesale except eBay?! However, although eBay is
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convenient you need to remember that you must take shipping costs into account.
Will you be able to sell the items that you’ve purchased at three times their value
when that value includes shipping?
Above: eBay’s Wholesale Lots at http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catwholesale.html
Do your calculations carefully before you buy a wholesale lot on eBay, and follow
your usual eBay buying practices – check the seller’s Feedback Rating, and if you
have questions, ask them before you bid.
Buying at yard and garage sales and local auctions
Many small eBay traders have thriving second hand and collectibles businesses,
scouring their local area, and making interstate trips to attend estate auctions, in
order to stock their eBay business.
Here are some tips if you intend to join this band of hunters:
♦
Schedule your yard and garage sales and get to the sales early – before
the time set for each sale. If you have friends or teenage children, you can
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assign sales to them too, this means you can cover more territory: be sure
to explain what you're looking for, and the prices you're willing to pay;
♦
You'll be paying cash, so take plenty of small bills – if you’re the first there,
a seller may not have enough change;
♦
Take a notepad and pen. Always ask sellers whether they have additional
items. For example, perhaps you're a writing collectibles seller, and you
find several pens at a yard sale. When you ask the seller whether she has
more, she says: "No, but my sister has a box of old pens in her garage."
Take down the address, and drive to the sister's home immediately;
♦
Write descriptions of items you're interested in in your notebook if the prices
are too high – you can call the seller later in the day to check whether the
items have sold. If they haven’t, you may be able to haggle the price down;
♦
Regarding haggling – always make an offer, don't just pay the asking price;
♦
Set a limit for how much you will spend.
Buying from wholesalers in your local area
Let your fingers do the walking through your local telephone directories to find
local manufacturers and wholesalers. Many local businesses will be only too
happy to sell to you. This gets take excess stock out of their warehouses at a good
price.
The benefit of dealing with local wholesalers for you is that you can see and handle
the goods, so you know exactly what you’re buying. It’s vital that you remember
that whenever you make a sale on eBay, that sale has the potential to help or hurt
your Feedback Rating – try to avoid selling goods that you haven’t seen.
You should also be watching for local sales, when you’re out shopping, and also
when you read the local paper, or newspapers. You never know when you’ve
happen on a great source of stock for your eBay business.
Selling goods on consignment from local people
Is there a thriving arts and crafts community in your local area? Check your local
newspaper and ask your neighbors whether they know any local crafts people.
You may find potters, artists, fabric designers, and jewelers who’ll be pleased to
let you sell their goods on consignment.
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This means that you don’t lay out money for stock, because you pay the craftsperson
when an item sells. They may even be willing to handle the packing and shipping
for you.
First impressions count: packing and shipping
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a big deal for large companies,
because they realize that each customer is worth more to them than any single
purchase. For example, if you regularly buy a magazine on your way to work,
then you’re worth several hundred dollars to that particular merchant each year,
and if he’s a good business person, he will value you accordingly.
Picture your customer as she waits excitedly for your item to arrive. Finally it does!
She will remember quickly did parcel arrived. Did it arrive before she expected,
or did she become anxious and concerned because two weeks have passed and
she hasn’t received it?
She’ll also remember her first impression of the package. If she receives a carelessly
wrapped item, or worse—a broken item, her impression of your eBay business,
and of eBay itself, will not be a good one.
You want each item to arrive as it left your hands. If you make an effort with the
packing, it shows that you care, and it gives your customers a good impression of
you, so that they’re likely to buy from you again. And when you open your shop,
they will be eager to sign up for your email newsletter to see what additional
items you have.
Here are some packing and shipping tips
♦
If you don't already have a set of scales – kitchen scales are fine – buy an
inexpensive set. The scales will save you listing time, because you will know
exactly what the shipping cost on that standard lamp will be;
♦
Buy stamps at http://stamps.com/ to save time at the post office;
♦
Wrap well. Wrap small items and books and CDs in clean tissue, then wrap
in bubble wrap as well. Include a packing slip, and your business card, as
well as a shop flyer, describing current and upcoming items you have for
sale;
♦
Although insurance is optional, consider making it mandatory for items over
$50. Find out how much the insurance will be, and include it in your packing
and shipping fee;
♦
Ship internationally too Shipping overseas is not complicated, and it gives
you an entire globe of potential customers. EBay offers information for
international shipping it the Help system;
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♦
On higher priced items, always ship with delivery confirmation. Yes, it costs
slightly more, but you'll have peace of mind knowing that the item arrived
and was received.
PROFIT TIPS
TIP: Ship items as soon as you receive your payment
Some eBay sellers ship once or twice a week. However, if you’re on track to be a
PowerSeller, ship daily.
Yes, shipping as soon as you receive payment is a hassle, especially at the
beginning, when you may only have one or two items to send. However your
buyers appreciate a speedy service: most of them will mention fast, efficient
service in the feedback they leave you, so that makes it worthwhile.
TIP: Use Loss Leader auctions to entice bidders to your eBay shop
Once your eBay shop is operational, you can run auctions that have just one
purpose: to get people to visit your shop. You don’t have to make a profit on
everything. In fact you may decide to run loss leader auctions which you know
may lose money.
Supermarkets thrive on loss-leaders. A loss-leader is an item on which the
supermarket not only makes no profit – it loses money on the item, because sells
the item at cost, or below.
The benefit for the supermarket is that the loss-leader drags people into the store:
it makes money on those shoppers, because they will buy additional items. It also
attracts the attention and the loyalty of those shoppers.
We’ll discuss using loss leader auctions later.
TIP: Leave feedback only after your buyer has received his item, and
has left feedback for you
This is because some buyers can attempt to extort concessions from you once
you’ve left feedback, because you can’t change feedback once you’ve given it,
and other problems can arise. For example, imagine this scenario: you make it
a habit to give feedback as soon as you receive payment and post the item, and
for a time all goes well. Then one day, a buyer’s check bounces. You’ve sent the
item, and have left positive feedback – but your experience with this buyer is far
from positive.
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Chapter 3: Building your eBay store
In this chapter, you’ll begin to move into the eBay professional seller ranks, by
opening an eBay store, and by streamlining your listings so that you’ll sell more.
The streamlining process never ends, because you want to sell as much as possible,
and you do this by ensuring that as many people as possible visit your store.
Ready, steady, sell –setting up your eBay store
As soon as you’re comfortable with the eBay sales process, consider opening an
eBay store, because it will build your profits – it’s almost impossible to build an
eBay business without a store, because you will only sell every item that you offer
for auction. And when you relist an item, you pay extra additional fees if your item
doesn’t sell on the second attempt, and the fees kill your profits.
Therefore, the major benefit of a store is the saving in fees. You can list as many
items as you wish, for just two cents per month per item (please note – this was
the fee in late 2005). Although you still pay a Final Value Fee on the sale of your
item, you don’t pay insertion fees, and this can amount to a huge saving, because
unless you’re willing to price all your items very low, it’s unlikely that all items
will sell when you auction them – indeed, you may need to list an item several
times before it finds a winning bidder, and the fees will soon outstrip any chance
of a profit.
The other major benefit is the extra visibility. When you have a store, your store
items will appear in your auction listings, as cross promotions.
Above: cross-promotions – a selection of your store items will appear on all your auction listings,
giving you visibility.
All the people who view your auction will also see that you have a store, and
some will visit. It’s human nature to impulse-shop, so this extra visibility will
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ensure that you sell many items in lots of two or more.
You need to meet a couple of requirements before you can open a store: you must
an eBay Seller’s Account, and you must also have a feedback rating over 20, or be
ID verified, or have a PayPal account.
How soon should you open a store?
Wait to open your store until you’ve been trading on eBay for a few weeks, and
have lined up some inventory. The more experience you have the better, because
you’ll know how eBay works.
Learn more about eBay stores here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/stores-ov.html
Choosing a name for your store
Before you open your store, you need to consider what you’ll be selling. This
sounds obvious, but there’s a reason you should make your mind up about this
– the name of your store. The items that you list on eBay in the Store Inventory
format are only shown in your store don’t show up in most eBay searches, you
want people to visit your store based on its name. If you choose a name which
doesn’t make any mention of the items you’re selling, you’ll lose traffic. You want
everyone who’s interested in what you’re selling to visit your store, and they can
only do that based on the name.
So choose a name which includes the goods you will be selling. If you’re selling
CDs and DVDs for example, call your store James’ CDs and DVD or similar.
Not sure what you’ll be selling? Then choose an umbrella term. For example, if
you’re selling collectibles, use a name like Julie’s Antiques and Collectibles.
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Above: eBay Stores – browse the stores to check out the names other people have
used.
Tip: if you change your mind about your stock after you’ve opened the store
– or if you don’t like the name – you can close your store, and open another one.
EBay gives you a 30-day free trial of your store.
It’s easy to set up a store
When you’ve decided on a name, go to the eBay home page at http://www.ebay.
com/, and click on the eBay Stores icon. You’ll see an Open Store button. Click
the button, and follow the prompts. Your store will be ready in minutes.
Improve your listings: use customized templates
Now you’ve set up your eBay store, you can focus on not only making your store
inviting, but also on selling more. How? By making your listings professional by
using good templates and great photos.
A good template includes all the information a buyer needs to buy from you
– ideally, everything the buyer would ask if she met you in person.
Luckily, you don’t need to be an HTML guru or a graphics wiz to create excellent
templates. Many people offer free eBay templates online. Find the freebies
by searching for “eBay templates free” via Google or one of the other search
engines.
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Above: a free auction template from http://www.alouwebdesign.ca/free-ebay-templates.
htm
As your eBay business grows, you can create your own templates using a Web
design editor, or you have hire a designer to create them for you. If you can spare
the time, learn to use an editor yourself. Most editors are WYSIWYG, so they’re
almost as easy to use as a word processor. If you know how to change your listings
quickly, you’ll be able to react to changes in the eBay marketplace quickly – if, for
example, you can see that someone is selling an item and you know that the item
you’re selling is better quality, you can change your listing’s text and add a couple
of photos within minutes to emphasize the difference.
Photos that sell: how to photograph items for eBay
If you’re already a photographer, you can put your skills to work to make sales on
eBay. If you’ve never taken a photo before, that’s fine. Digital cameras are so easy
to use that anyone can take good photos.
Your photos don’t need to be artistic, they just need to show the item clearly.
Set up a small corner of your office as a studio, with a backdrop, some stands,
and reflectors. Most items, especially those made of glass, look better when
photographed with natural light.
You can buy an inexpensive digital camera on eBay – you don’t need a top-of-
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the-line model: a 1.3 megapixel model is fine, as long as it has a macro setting. A
macro setting lets you take close-ups of very small items, like jewelry.
When you receive your camera, take the time to practice. Taking good photos is
an art.
Here are some photography tips:
♦
The more light the better. If possible, photograph outdoors, for the best
available, and free light. As your business grows, invest in some photography
lights, they make all the difference;
♦
Use a plain-colored, light backdrop for your items: an old sheet is fine;
♦
Hold the camera ultra-steady. Breath in and hold your breath, then press the
shutter. A tripod is an excellent investment, especially if you're photographing
a lot of small items;
♦
Take many more photos than you need – professional photographers take
dozens of photos to achieve one great shot, and so can you. Remember to
take photos from every angle. If you're photographing an item like a bag,
take shots of the interior too. If you're shooting a fountain pen, take shots of
the pen uncapped, capped, and of the nib. The more photos you take, the
better – you can choose the best ones;
♦
When you've downloaded the photos to your computer, select the best
images. Then use an image editor to crop the photos you've chosen: the item
should fill the frame;
♦
Save the final images in jpeg format, and keep the files reasonably small so
that they download quickly to your buyers' computers.
Don't be concerned if your first few photos are less than perfect. As long as they
show the item clearly, they're fine. The more photos you take, the better you will
get.
Photos and copyright
The images and words that you create for your eBay listings are copyright to you.
This means that no one else can use them without your permission. Neither of
course, can you use any images online without the written permission of the
people who own them.
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More than words: make your auction titles count
Auction titles are an art. Make them count! Your auction titles are your most
valuable sales tool, because they attracts buyers, and show up in eBay searches.
You have 55 characters to use in each of your titles, so you must make every word
a winner: don’t use nonsense words like L@@K! in your titles. Not only are they
meaningless, but they’re also a waste of your good money.
Think of each title as an ad, and try to imagine yourself as the buyer. If you were
searching on eBay for this particular item, what would you type into the search
box?
A title like: NEW Green Waterman Phileas Fountain Pen, Fine, NIB is much more
effective than LOOK Fountain Pen.
Buying on eBay as market research – and to stock your
shop
Most eBay sellers are also eBay buyers. You should be a constant buyer on eBay
too, because it teaches you all the tricks of people who’ve been selling on eBay
for a long time – and it helps you to get to you’re your competition. Once you
know how your competitors operate, you can outdo them.
When you start your eBay business, you will spend more time exploring eBay,
and checking out others’ auctions, however you should always make time to keep
browsing, for a couple of reasons. First, you need to know what other people are
charging, and what items similar to yours are selling for. Secondly, if you stay
aware, you can pick up many items which you can resell at a profit.
The eBay bazaar – take advantage of it
EBay is the biggest bargain basement in the world, and you’ll be amazed at how
many times items are sold at much less than they could be sold for.
This frequently happens because the seller is inexperienced. Some eBay sellers
just don’t know how to present their items, and others aren’t aware of the true
value of their items. For example, imagine an eBay seller called Bob, who’s retired.
He goes to yard sales and local estate auctions, and often buys job lots of items.
He posts the items he’s bought on eBay one by one, and he may have no idea of
the value of a first edition book, or Art Deco glassware.
There are many thousands of Bobs online. Keep an eye out for them and their
treasures, and when you find one – bid on it.
To make sure that you win your hidden treasures, use a sniping tool.
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Outwitting the snipers on eBay – and becoming a sniper
yourself
EBay sellers hate snipers – unless they’re using a sniper themselves.
“Sniping” means placing a bid in the last moments before an auction closes. If
you wait until then, you won’t arouse the hunting instincts of other bidders, which
drives up the price. Of course, as a seller, you want bidders to get into wars over
your items, but not when you’re a buyer.
You can make sniping work for you, and you can, if you wish, protect yourself
from nefarious snipers.
Let’s look at how to protect yourself first. The easiest way to protect yourself is
to start an auction at the lowest price you’re willing to accept, or to place a
Reserve on an item. This makes sense for many items, because you don’t want
lucky bidders to win items for less than they cost you. You can also run auctions
in which only people you invite to bid, can bid. If you use the techniques, you’ll
outwit the snipers.
When you’re the one doing the sniping, the easiest way is to use a sniping
application, like PowerSnipe, which is available from www.powersnipe.com or
BidNapper, at http://www.bidnapper.com/
When you use a software tool, you decide what the highest bid is that you’re
willing to place on the item. Then, in the last moments before the auction closes,
the software places the bid. You will win some auctions, and you will lose some.
PROFIT TIPS
TIP: A wealth of good information – Completed Listings
As you build your eBay venture, the Completed Listings on eBay should become
your most valuable resource. You can use Completed Listings to gauge prices
and popularity of items, how many competitors you have in any category, and
whether you should offer an item at auction, or as Store Inventory.
Make it a habit to check Completed Listings often – write a note and stick it on
your computer monitor so that you’ll remember. Completed Listings can help you
to make money on every item you list.
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Part Two: The eBay expert – your business
is your store
Chapter 4: Buying cheap and selling dear
– it’s all about your margins
In this chapter we’ll look at ways you can enhance your profits by buying items for
resale at the very best prices, and by selling as many goods as possible at a high
profit. Profits (or margins, as they’re known in the retail trade) will be our theme
in this book, and you should always know exactly how much money you’ve made
on each item, as well as how your sales are doing – when you stay aware, you will
effortlessly find ways to enhance your profits.
Never buy an item for more than a third of what you intend to sell
it for
Before you buy an item, always ask yourself: What’s the LEAST I can resell this
item for? You should be able to sell each item you buy at triple what you paid. This
means that if you can buy items for $5 and you can only resell them for $8, they’re
not worth your energy unless you can sell hundreds of them – only by volume
selling will you be able to make a good profit.
Let’s get started.
Get it wholesale: buy items just to sell in your eBay store
You can’t sell what you don’t have, so much of your time will be spent on locating
bargains that you can resell.
Using your local paper’s classified Wanted to Buy section
Get a copy of your local paper, and find the Classifieds. There will be a section
called Wanted to Buy, or similar. You will use this section whenever you have an
auction item which creates a bidding war. A bidding war is fun to watch. You’ve
bought an item – let’s say a Swatch watch – at a garage or yard sale, photographed
it, and listed it for sale. Within a day, the item gets big attention. Several bidders
start topping each other’s bids, and before you know it, your item which sold for
$30 retail a few years ago has been bid up to $300.
Your first reaction will be disbelief: you checked the Completed Listings, but no
other watches generated this amount of interest. Perhaps several Swatch collectors
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have discovered eBay. Your second reaction should be: where can I get more of
those? The Wanted to Buy section is the place. Just run an ad for Swatch watches
for several weeks, and see how many you can buy – and resell.
Wholesalers – avoid the middlemen
Real wholesalers don’t advertise. If you see “wholesale” Web sites – and there
are thousands, since eBay became so popular – or newspaper ads advertising
“wholesale”, avoid them. The advertising reveals that these are middlemen.
They’ve bought items, and you will need to pay their profit, before you can start
generating any profits of your own.
Go to the source. Consider: importing, and local manufacturers.
Above: Yes, you can buy wholesale lots on eBay too – however, be aware that you may pay more
on eBay than on sources that you discover yourself.
Importing goods to resell on eBay
The easiest way to import goods to resell on eBay is not to import – get the overseas
manufacturer to agree to drop ship items to your customers. Drop shipping has
pitfalls, and we’ll discuss those later, but in spite of the challenges, drop shipping
cuts out many steps, because you don’t need to handle the goods, so you don’t
pack transport, or to store the items you’ve bought for resale.
-31-
How do you find a source? Often you’ll find them on eBay itself, or on a Web site.
The key is to know your market. When you’ve been operating your eBay business
for a few months, you’ll get a feel for you’re your customers want, and how much
they’re willing to pay. At this stage, look at importing, or buying overseas and
having the items drop shipped to your customers.
End-of-season sales and going-out-of-business sales
Business operates the same way everywhere. Many people start businesses which
fail. When a retail store fails, it needs to liquidate its stock. These stock liquidation
sales go on all the time. Usually they’re announced in the local paper. However,
some cities have auctioneers which specialize in liquidations, and they may hold
auctions as frequently as once a week, or once a month.
Your first step in attending liquidation sales is to be aware that they exist. Then,
watch for sales which are selling off items that you can resell. When you find such
a sale, attend it.
Buying at liquidation auction tips
♦
When you buy at an auction, many of the other buyers will be retailers,
and/ or eBay sellers, so you'll have lots of competition. This means that you
need to avoid becoming caught up in the moment. Never bid more than you
intended to bid for an item before the auction started;
♦� Take only the cash you can afford to spend;
♦� Inspect the items before the auction, especially box lots;
�♦ Know how much you can resell each item for;
�♦ Remember transportation costs;
�♦ Remember that you will need to store items safely and securely while you're
listing them on eBay.
End-of-season sales are also great for stocking your eBay store. It may be the end
of summer in the US, but in the southern hemisphere, it will be the beginning
of summer, so you'll still have millions of potential buyers for your goods. Look
for sales of designer goods: clothing, accessories, makeup, and so on. Designer
labels always sell. Remember to check the Completed Listings before you buy, to
ensure that you're not paying too much.
Buying seconds from manufacturers
“Seconds” are items which don’t meet a manufacturer’s quality control standards.
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For example, if a company makes clothing, seconds are those items in which the
dye lot was the wrong shade, or which have other faults. The faults will not affect
the wear of the items, however do ensure that when you’re listing your items for
sale, you do make note of the faults. Your buyers must be aware of what they’re
bidding on – if you note the faults in your auction listing, they can’t come back to
you and say that you misrepresented an item.
The secrets of eBay pricing
Pricing your goods on eBay, especially on auctions, is an art. In the beginning, you
will often make mistakes, so don’t become discouraged. It takes time to learn how
eBay works, and how you can make the best profits. Pricing is also a technique
that you can only learn by experimentation. No one can give you a formula that
works all the time, because trading conditions on eBay, as in the business world
in general, are constantly changing.
Let’s look at various techniques you can use to price items.
1. The rule of thirds
The easiest pricing rule is the rule which says you buy items for a third of what you
expect to sell them for. This rule is used by all retailers. However, if you’re selling
in volume, you can afford to buy items for half of what you sell them for.
2. Price according to the competition
Whatever category you sell in, you will have competition. Don’t let the competition
frighten you: your competitors are an asset. Don’t believe it? Competition in an
area builds awareness. If there are many eBay sellers in a particular niche, it
means the niche is popular – and that popularity draws even more people to the
niche. It’s human nature to want what other people have.
Competition also gives you an indication as to whether a niche is good to get into,
or whether it’s time to get out. As you continue to sell on eBay, you will see many
sellers pricing items that you know are below cost – and the items won’t sell, even
when they’re offered below cost. When you see this, you will know that it’s time
to get out of this category – there’s no way to make money. Get out, before you go
under, as these other sellers are doing.
Your competitors also give you indications of the pricing range. You will know
what price to set as a starting price on your auctions, and how to price your store
inventory.
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3. Price according to Completed Listings
Pricing according to Completed Listings is the pricing technique that you will
use most often. Check the Completed Listings prices before you buy stock. If you
see that many items are unsold – don’t buy. Always aim to buy stock that people
currently want.
However, there are challenges in Completed Listings too. You may see that
several items sold at high amounts, and feel that this is an area you must enter.
For example, let’s say that you’re looking at buying a lot of 50 designer T shirts.
You see in Completed Listings that three Ts by this designer have sold for ten
times your purchase price. Great buy, right? Not necessarily. Perhaps the buyers
of those three Ts have left eBay, never to return. A couple of high Completed
Listings doesn’t indicate a trend. Look for consistent high prices: fewer than 20
good prices may simply indicate a group of buyers who entered the market and
have since left.
4. Use loss leader auctions
Loss leader auctions are auctions which you start at a very low price – you may
start loss leader items at a dollar, or less. This is so that you will garner lots of
attention for those items. For example, you may start an auction for a digital
camera at just five dollars. The people who visit your page for that item will all see
the other items that you have available in your shop, and some of them will buy.
Loss leaders are less a pricing strategy than a marketing ploy; however, you should
keep them in mind. Yes, you may lose money on some of your loss leader items;
they may sell less than you paid for them. However, you’ve gained, because many
more people will visit your store, and you will more than make up for the loss in
the increased items you sell.
5. Use sales
Your eBay store is just like a real store – you can have sales to attract customers.
Once you’ve got a mailing list of previous customers (see Chapter 6 for more)
contact them regularly with special offers. Some eBay sellers have a “Mad
Monday” or “Silly Saturday” sale, where many of the store items are priced low,
for a quick sale.
6. Use bonuses and freebies
You will always have competitors on eBay. One way to attract bidders and buyers
to your goods and away from your competitors is by offering bonuses.
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Free and bonus are powerful words. The bonuses you give don’t have to be worth
a lot of money. Retailers know this – this is why Amazon.com and other stores
offer free gift wrapping, and your local mall does too, on the major holidays.
So what could you offer free? Here are some ideas:
If you’re selling cosmetics and skin care, offer free samples. You can often do
deals with distributors for samples, and many manufacturers will have them free
for the asking – so ask;
♦
Two for the price of one;
♦
A free catalog (ask distributors and manufacturers);
♦
A free bag/ T shirt/ cap.
Keeping records
EBay keeps your transaction records for 90 days, so you should aim to download
them from the site at least once a month, for your own records.
When you start out your eBay business, you’ll managed fine with a simple
spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. Make a note of everything you spend
that’s connected with your business: don’t forget postage costs, transportation
costs and incidentals. And of course, keep a careful note of all your income too.
You may find it useful to buy a finance program like Quicken but in the first year,
you will do fine with just a spreadsheet.
Be guided by your accountant, but keep your records yourself, so that you know
exactly how much you’re spending, and how much is coming in.
Your store turnover
Many eBay sellers, such as those who sell CDs and DVDs, operate volume
businesses. This means that even though their profit margin on each item is small,
over time their profits mount up, simply because they’re selling so many items.
In the first six months of your business, or even right throughout the first year,
you’ll be building your stock, lining up your suppliers, and getting the hang of
your business, and it’s important to watch what sells, and when, and how much
you make on each item. Spend time each month going over the Sales Reports that
eBay sells you, so you can see which items are big earners for you, and which are
not.
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PROFIT TIPS
TIP: Set a schedule for your work on eBay
There’s a saying: “The harder I work, the luckier I get” and nowhere does this
apply so much as with an online business like eBay. The more effort you put into
your business, the greater the return you will make on it.
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Chapter 5: Buying and storing items for
future sale
In this chapter we’ll look at your eBay information and how you can use it
to grow your business. All your eBay records: of items that you buy and sell,
of your suppliers, of sales categories and of your competitors, is extremely
valuable information, which will tell you how to grow your business until
you too are an eBay success story. If you know what’s selling at a profit, you
can order more of those items, and offer more of them for sale.
Your eBay business generates a lot of information, but information is useless
unless you use it. Let’s look at what you need to do to develop your own eBay
information goldmine – you’re developing the information every day, and all you
need to do is interpret it, then make buying and selling decisions based on it.
Start off with the simplest inventory system possible, and then grow it with your
business.
We’ll also look at storage options for your growing eBay inventory.
Develop an easy inventory system: use a spreadsheet
Do you know where every item is that you’re currently offering for sale? Does
each item have an inventory number? One day you will make a sale, and you’ll
spend an hour looking for the item, without being able to find it.
To avoid that disaster, and to save time, create your own inventory numbering
system.
Give all your items inventory numbers
How you number your items is up to you. When you’re turning over hundreds of
thousands of dollars of stock each year, you’ll want to invest in a barcode system,
which can track items from sale to delivery, but in the beginning a homemade
numbering system is fine.
You can number stock items by: the supplier, the date, and the item. For example,
let’s say you bought 15 small garden statues from Dellfort Gardening on August
5, 2005. You could number the items DG080505/1 through DG080505/15. Each
item would have its own label, and all the items would be stored in a numbered
location – such as “Garage/ Shelf 5”.
Or, you could create a much simpler numbering system.
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The inventory numbering system you use is up to you. Create a system which is
easy for you to remember, and easy to use.
Above: An inventory spreadsheet system with a very simple numbering system.
Don’t forget to give ALL your auction items inventory numbers Keep your
inventory numbering reference system as simple as possible, but no simpler.
For example, you could give each supplier a letter code, based on their
company name (Green Wholesale Suppliers’ code would be GWS), and add a
number for each item you buy from them, starting at 1. This is the absolute
simplest way to go – you can build on this as you discover that you need
more information.
Remember to add the inventory number to your listing. This is useful if a customer
queries you about a specific item she purchased, and you have several of that
particular item. With the inventory number on the listing, you know exactly what
that customer bought.
Consider a Web-based inventory application like Andale Lister when you outgrow
a spreadsheet
When you outgrow your homemade solution, you can opt to for an all-in-one
Web solution from Andale, with Andale Lister at http://corp.andale.com/x-lister.
html
This program includes a real-time inventory management system called the
Inventory Dashboard.
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Above: Andale Lister at http://corp.andale.com/x-lister.html
The Inventory Dashboard is the ideal solution for when you’re ready to make eBay
your fulltime career.
Building a power solution: an inventory management system using
the eBay SDK (Software Development Kit)
As your business expands, you’ll outgrow the spreadsheet and readymade
solutions. This may not happen for several years, but when it does, it’s time to get
someone to program a system for you that integrates with eBay itself, so that you
have a completely automatic inventory and listing system. This article: “Integrate
Your Inventory System with the eBay SDK” at http://www.devx.com/dotnet/
Article/19812 shows you what’s involved.
Above:
how
an
automated
inventory
system
(http://www.devx.com/dotnet/
Article/19812) works.
Inventory storage: grow and track your eBay inventory
You need enough storage so that you can take advantage of items at great prices
which you can store until you’re ready to auction them. If a baby-clothes shop
in your town is closing down, and you buy all the stock, you need to know that
you can store the stock without hassle. If you’ve got the space, you can also take
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advantage of end-of-season sales, and sell the stock on an eBay overseas site. For
example, at the end of winter, you can buy winter clothes and sell them on eBay
Australia, because they’re experiencing autumn and heading into winter.
Many eBay business owners store their entire inventory at home, in spare rooms,
in the garage, and in purpose-built add-ons to the family home. You can also rent
a storage locker, or warehouse space.
Future sales: buying items at the end of a season, so you
can resell them next season
Seasons come and season go, bringing rapid changes in merchandise for all
retailers, and sometimes retailers get caught with too much leftover merchandise
that they have to sell off as quickly as possible.
Enter you, the eBay entrepreneur. You’re not affected by the seasons. You know that
if it’s summer in the northern hemisphere it’s winter in the southern hemisphere
– there are always buyers.
Therefore, as each season starts, make contacts with retailers. Let them know that
you have an eBay store, and that you’ll be happy to buy old stock from them, as
long as it’s at a good price.
The holidays that come around once a year
The big shopping holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day are busy
times of the year for you on eBay, too. Prepare for these holidays well in advance.
In fact, you should start preparing for the next Christmas as soon as one Christmas
ends. This is the time of the year when you join other retail shoppers, buying up
old stock, to keep for the following year.
If you have contacts with craftspeople and small manufacturers, let them know
well in advance that you’ll need Christmas stock, and what kinds of goods you
hope to sell. If possible, ask whether they’ll be able to drop ship items for you: this
saves you money because you don’t have to pay transportation or storage costs.
Capitalizing on trends: dealing with manufacturers and
wholesalers
Trends and fashions come and go. As a canny eBay store owner, aim to capitalize
on trends in your own eBay category. For example, in electronics, accessories for
iPods are hot. This means that you should ask your wholesalers whether they can
get you any of these items – preferably on an exclusive contract – that you can
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sell.
Visit eBay Pulse http://pulse.ebay.com/ at least once a day to see whether any new
trends are arising.
Attending auctions and storing the items you buy
We’ve discussed attending auctions in your local area – estate sales, liquidation
sales, and others – and you know that auctions will become a primary source of
stock for you.
When you start buying, you’ll run out of storage space at home very quickly. The
easiest option is to rent a self-storage locker. As your business grows, either rent
additional lockers, or a larger locker. Make sure that you visit the locker regularly,
and that you pack items well if they’ll be in storage for longer than a day or two.
PROFIT TIPS
TIP: Storing items costs you money – aim for a rapid turnover
When you store items, not only does the storage space cost money, but the items
may also deteriorate while they’re stored.
List your items on eBay the same day that you buy them. You’ll list most as inventory
in your store, but list auctions as well. Auctions publicize your store, and while
you may lose some money on some auctions when items don’t sell, you will more
than make up for it in store traffic.
Chapter 6: Keeping in touch with your
customers
Marketing is a vital part of any business. Marketing has several attributes, known
as the Four Ps – Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. In this chapter we’ll look at
simple and practical ways in which you can promote your eBay business to those
people who already know you – to the customers who have bought from you in
the past, and who will buy from you again, on eBay.
EBay gives you the tools to do this, so you’ll set up email mailing lists, both on
eBay and outside eBay, so you can let your customers know what items you are
selling, and especially when you have loss leader items which you are putting up
at auction.
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If you have the time, you can even create an email newsletter to send to your
customers once a month. The benefit of all your communications with your
customers is increased business. It’s much easier to sell to people who know you,
than it is to keep hunting for new people. It’s a truism that people need to see your
name, or hear of your business at least seven times, before they’re comfortable
doing business with you.
Your customers: it’s all in your contacts list
You’ll often hear marketers say: “It’s all in the list”. This is because expert marketers
know that there’s gold in your contacts list. Your contacts list of previous eBay
buyers is a literal gold mine. If you’ve been selling on eBay for a while, think of
the many hundreds or thousands of people who’ve looked at the items you have
put up for sale – what if you had a way to stay in touch with those people?
EBay offers you a way.
Free eBay list tool: Email Marketing from your eBay shop
In the Manage My Store control centre of your eBay shop, eBay offers you
an email marketing tool, so that you can develop your own contacts list.
To locate the email marketing tool, in your eBay shop, click on the Seller,
Manage Store link on the bottom of the page. On the Store Marketing
navigation bar on the left of the screen, click on the Email Marketing link.
Above: Email Marketing from your eBay shop
When buyers add you to your Favourite Sellers lists, they can opt to receive
mailings from you. When they sign up to receive your mailings, their email
addresses appear in your Subscribers’ lists.
Think of these people as the foundation of your loss-leader goldmine.
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Other email marketing solutions
Useful as eBay’s email marketing tool is, it’s very basic. If you’re keen to use
email marketing, you may want to investigate other tools which allow you
to send more targeted emails, and which also allow you to collect contacts
from your own Web site, and from other Internet marketing ventures,
rather than just from eBay.
Constant Contact available at http://search.constantcontact.com/index.jsp
is popular among marketers, because the program is easy to set up and
use. It also comes with a free 60-day trial, so you can give the program a
good workout so you can see whether it works for you. In that 60 days,
you can send out as many emails as you like, to up to 100 people, to see
whether the list-management service does what you want it to do.
Above: Develop your own mailing lists outside eBay with products like Constant Contact.
Building your contacts list (or lists) is a longterm strategy
When you start sending messages to your list, think of building your list as a
longterm strategy. With each subscriber you have to your list, you have another
hot prospect, people who know you, and who, because they already know you,
are much more likely to buy from you than someone who accesses your eBay
auction or your eBay shop for the first time.
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Email marketing tactics
Here are some tips to help you to make the most of your email marketing lists -1. Send out your messages on a regular schedule
Aim to send out a message to your list at least once a week, or once every two
weeks. Regular communication is vital, because people will forget that they
signed up to receive messages from you. Leave more than a month between your
messages, and you’ll receive complaints that you’re sending out spam.
2. Maintain a single format
Keep the format of your message the same every week. If you change your format,
have a good reason for doing so, and remind people that you’ve changed the
format, otherwise you’ll discover that you’re (again) accused of sending out
spam.
Here’s a straightforward format you can use:
*
The title of your eBay store at the top, with your contact details;
*
A weekly special offer: a bonus, or gift wrapping, or other special for
your subscribers only;
*
A message from you. Including a brief chatty note (no longer than
100 words) in your message personalizes you. People like to feel that
they’re doing business with a real person, and not with a machine;
*
A list of items you’re offering at auction on eBay, and in your eBay
store. Keep this brief. Don’t mention every item. Mention ONE auction,
and up to THREE store items. Your aim is to keep your message brief,
because this increases the likelihood that your message will be read.
3. Create exclusive auctions which are ONLY open to your subscribers
People love to feel that they’re members of a club. When you have over 1000
members, create exclusive, invitation-only for your subscribers in order to
maintain excitement.
5. Cross-promote with other eBay email marketers
Marketers are always interested in promoting to new groups of people. Therefore,
as your list grows, you can do joint marketing ventures with other eBay sellers.
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Build your list and develop joint ventures
The larger your list grows, the more it’s worth to you, not just in a steady, reliable
and constant growth in your eBay sales, but also in itself. Once marketers become
aware that you have a targeted list, they will approach you for joint ventures and
to advertise in your list.
A joint venture between marketers is what it sounds like: you join with another
marketer who also has a list, and promote to both lists.
How many subscribers do you need? List sizes
100 subscribers – a good basic list
500 subscribers – an excellent list, you can sell advertising
1000 subscribers and beyond – the point where the list is truly valuable
Joint ventures
To engage in a joint venture, your partner should have a list which is comparable
in size to yours, because you both need to be getting something from the deal.
Your partner’s list should also be made up of subscribers who will be interested
in your product.
For example, if your eBay store sells craft suppliers, you’ll have an email list of
keen crafters. Good joint venture partners for you would be eBay sellers who sell
sewing or knitting suppliers, or even cooking supplies. These people are not in
direct competition with you.
For the joint venture deal, you would list items that your partner has available,
and your partner would do the same for you. Or, you can simply provide a link to
your partner’s store, with your own personal recommendation.
Selling advertising in your list
Once you have over 500 subscribers, your list becomes appealing to advertisers.
You could sell a couple of advertising spots in each mailing. How much could
you charge? That’s up to you. It depends on the number of subscribers, how
“responsive” your list is, and whatever you feel the ads are worth.
A responsive list
If your subscribers open your messages, and visit your eBay store and auctions,
you know that they’re reading your messages – they’re termed ‘responsive’ in list
jargon, and this makes your list valuable.
-45-
Create a newsletter
In addition to regular email messages, you can also send out a newsletter once a
month, or once every couple of weeks.
Your newsletter has the same goal as your email messages, but it can include
more content. You can include additional images, articles that you or others have
written – any material that you feel would be useful to your customers, and that
they would enjoy.
Post each newsletter onto your Web site too – the increased content will give you
greater visibility in the search engines.
PROFIT TIPS
TIP: Respond to questions and email messages promptly
As your eBay business grows, you’ll spend time answering questions about your
auctions, items in your store, shipping costs, and a myriad other things.
It’s vital that you reply to every question you receive within 24 hours – and sooner,
if possible. When people see that you respond promptly, they develop trust in you
and your eBay business – and trust is something that all the marketing messages
in the world can’t buy.
Answer all enquiries promptly, helpfully, and politely.
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Chapter 7: Standing out from the crowd –
developing a Web site to drive business to
your eBay store
You’ve now been operating your eBay business for several months, and you’re
familiar with eBay and are making money. However, you may also be aware that
on eBay, you’re just one eBay seller. Yes, you have a steady supply of people who
visit your store and auctions and who buy from you, and you’re building your
contacts list, but there are millions of people online you don’t reach, because they
don’t buy on eBay. Your Web site will help you to reach them.
In this chapter you’ll develop a Web site as a vital part of your eBay business. Your
Web site will help you to save money – you won’t need to pay eBay’s fees on the
goods you sell from your site. The site will also act as a marketing tool, funneling
buyers to your eBay shop, as well as a way for you to make contacts online.
Your Web site is your key to search engine marketing
success
The big benefit of a Web site is that it enables you to use Google and the other
search engines to help you boost your business by attracting more people to your
eBay store and your auctions, so it’s important that you build your site with the
search engines in mind.
What does this mean?
This means that you’ll be focusing on content and text for your site, because the
search engines are essentially indexing applications, and the more textual content
you have, the likelier it is that you will be rewarded with a high placement and
ranking. The higher your placement, the more traffic you get, and the more buyers
you attract.
Choose a designer who understands how the search engines
operate
If you opt to have someone build your site for you, choose a Web designer who
understands search engines, and search engine optimization, not someone who is
focused on the look of the site. While flash animations and other visual fireworks
may look superb, they do nothing to help you to sell on your site – so emphasize
that SALES are the primary function of your site.
In fact, you should put your needs for search engine optimization in writing for
your designer, and ask him or her to show you other sites they’ve designed with
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the search engines in mind.
The three steps to opening a Web site
There are three steps to developing a Web site:
•
Decide on the purpose of the site and the name (URL);
•
Create the site;
•
Find a host for the site and uploading it to your host's servers, and making the
site live, so that people can access it online.
Let's look at those steps one by one.
Decide on the site’s purpose and its name
If possible, your site should be related to the name of your eBay store. For example,
if your eBay store is Jenny’s Old Time Gift Shoppe, go to http://www.godaddy.com
and discover whether anyone has registered the name.
Above: A search on GoDaddy.com quickly lets you know whether the name you want is
available.
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In the search we performed for “jennysoldtimegifts” we discovered that yes, the
name was available, and that we could purchase it for a nominal fee. Notice
that in addition, we could purchase variations on the name. If you feel that a
competitor might intend to capitalize on the popularity of your eBay store, it’s a
good idea to register name variations too.
You may not want to use your eBay store’s name. You may feel that you’d rather
call your Web site AntiquePostcards because you’ve built up a steady trade in
postcards, and you want to specialize. When you try to register the name however,
you you find that that name is already taken. However, you are offered variations
of the name, so you choose one of those.
You can create more than one site
You may decide to create more than one Web site, because you have several lines
of goods which you sell on eBay. Trying to combine your childrens’ toys, clothing,
and CDs all on the same site presents two challenges:
•
You confuse your visitors; and
•
You're less likely to achieve a top search engine ranking because your
site doesn’t focus on a single niche.
If you're selling items in many eBay categories, consider creating several
linked sites, one for each category.
Create the site
If you have the time, it’s better to develop your own site – or at least the site’s main
pages and navigation, because this means that you’ll be comfortable enough with
the site to make minor changes yourself – you won’t be waiting for a week to get
someone to develop a new page or new section of the site for you. You can hire
a designer to set up a linked database and shopping cart for the site, because this
kind of work with scripts means learning a new set of skills which you’re not likely
to use often.
Elements of your site
Your site will need:
•
A home page
•
•
A contact (About Us page)
A Frequently Asked Questions Page
•
Content pages (to improve your search engine rankings)
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•
A product catalog
•
A shopping cart
Before you start work on your own site, visit the sites of businesses which regularly
sell items on eBay. And of course, visit the sites of your competitors, to see what
their sites look like.
Linking your site to eBay
You can link your site to eBay in various ways, including using an RSS (Real
Simple Syndication) feed to create a live listing of your eBay auctions on your
own site. If you wish to do this, have a Web designer set it up for you. The easiest
way to do it is via your About Me page on eBay – just create a link to your site or
sites in the Links section of the page
Using site-building templates
If you don’t have time to build a site from scratch, use a template. Sites like
GoDaddy.com have easy to use templates which let you create an entire site
in half an hour, just by making selections, typing or copying and pasting, and
uploading graphics.
Above: Many site hosting companies offer templates to help you build your site – GoDaddy’s
template option is easy to use; check it out at https://www.godaddy.com
Ensure your site is useable
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Research shows that people spend less than 30 seconds on average, on a Web
page. You’ll need to keep your visitors longer than that, if you want them to buy.
The primary way to do that is not to annoy them. Yes, it sounds simple, and it is. If
you make your site straightforward, uncomplicated to navigate, and with a plain
template, your visitors will focus on your site’s contents, and the goods that you
have for sale.
Tips to keep your visitors on your site longer
•
Provide useful information that answers your visitor's questions;
•
Use a plain template. That is, use a white background with black
text. Yes, many sellers swear by gaudy templates with animations and
orange or red text on a black background, but unless you're selling
to teenagers, keep your template conventional – remember that you
want people to stay at your site, you don’t want to drive them away;
•
Differentiate yourself from others in your eBay category. Why should
people buy from you, rather than from your competition? Just by
using eBay's search tool, buyers can find others who are selling what
you're selling. What can you do better than others? Can you offer free
shipping? A guarantee?
PROFIT TIPS
TIP: No Web site is ever finished
Aim to get your Web site up and online quickly, even if you feel that it’s not quite
right, or that you want to add other material, or you need to get someone to install
your shopping cart system.
Your Web site can only be useful to you when it’s online, and visitors can reach
you. So get your site online – you can tinker with it to your heart’s content, and if
you’re wise, you’ll keep adding to your site, making it more useful and informative
to your visitors as the weeks and months pass.
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Part Three: Building your eBay business
Chapter 8: Containing costs
In this chapter we’ll look at ways in which you can contain costs in your eBay
business. Containing costs is vital. Every dollar you save adds to your profit margin.
Yes, you can contain costs in ways which don’t impact on the quality of service
that you give to your customers.
We’ll look at these cost-containing techniques:
•
Containing costs when buying for resale
•
Containing costs on packaging
•
Containing costs on shipping by exploring your drop-shipping options
•
Hiring helpers – what can you outsource?
Containing costs when buying for resale
The more cheaply you buy your stock, the more profit you will make. This is selfevident. So how can you save when you buy stock?
Let’s look at some tactics:
1. Remember to negotiate
The number one technique is to negotiate. Every purchase you make is negotiable,
especially if you buy a lot of a particular item, and if you’re willing to be flexible.
If you can’t get the seller to come down in price, ask whether he can give you
a better price if you buy more. Ask if the seller will pay the shipping costs, or
whether he’ll throw in an extra few items as a bonus.
No seller will walk away from a sale willingly, so there is always room for
negotiation. You just have to remember to ask.
2. Always source from at least two suppliers for those items you sell
regularly
Your suppliers keep you in business. Therefore it makes sense that you need to
constantly be looking for new sources of supply. Once you have two suppliers,
you can buy from the supplier who’s willing to give you the best deal.
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If you source your stock from garage sales and similar venues, you can use this
tactic too if you make it a point to visit several sales every week, and know exactly
what each item you’re buying will sell for.
Never be dependent on one supplier.
3. Watch Completed Listings for your stock
If there’s a compass to guide you in your eBay business, it’s Completed Listings,
and studying Completed Listings is a primary way to contain costs.
Business moves in cycles, and this is true for eBay too. Sometimes you will watch
in amazement when a bidding war breaks out between several buyers, and an item
sells for hundreds of dollars more than you expected it to. At other times, you’ll be
disappointed that an item you thought would sell at a good price doesn’t.
Study the Completed Listings for the items you’re selling. If items are selling well,
then raise the prices on your store inventory. On the other hand, if items are not
selling, don’t buy more goods in that area until prices get back to a reasonable
level.
Containing costs on packaging
Buy your packaging materials in bulk. Buying in bulk ensures that you save money.
If you have a friend in your town who’s also an eBay trader, you can save when
you buy packaging for both of you.
Try to source your packing materials locally if you can. Then you can pick them
up yourself, and avoid the cost of shipping.
Containing costs on shipping by exploring your dropshipping options
We’ll discuss drop-shipping in detail in Chapter 11, because it’s a viable way
to get your costs down in your eBay business. However. Drop-shipping is risky,
because it’s your feedback rating on the line – you’re depending on someone else
to keep their commitments the way that you keep yours.
The major cost-saving benefits of drop-shipping are:
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•
You're selling on consignment, and you only pay the merchant when
you've been paid. This is very appealing for you when you're starting out,
and when funds are low;
•
If an item doesn’t sell, you're not faced with relisting it – you can delete it
from your "inventory";
•
You don’t pay for storage; and
•
You can handle many more items, selling in volume – and volume sales
always contain costs.
Hiring helpers – what can you outsource?
Hiring help for your business is another way to contain costs, although it doesn’t
sound like it. You have to pay your employees. But when you have help, you can
do more of what makes money, and leave the chores like the packing and the
shipping of items to someone else.
Many eBay seller get help from their family, and their friends. Family members are
ideal, because they’re already on the spot, so to speak, if you work from home,
and if you’re willing to pay, your teenagers may be thrilled to help out.
Hiring help to automate your business
In Chapter 11 we discuss ways in which you can automate your business, and
hiring someone who’s experienced in Web applications so you can automate
listings is a good way to contain costs. If you hire a young programmer who’s
still in school, you’ll save money, and the amount of time you save in the listing
process means that you’ll have more time to list more items, and this will increase
your turnover.
PROFIT TIPS
TIP: Create an eBay ID for buying, and an eBay ID for selling
Did you know that when someone knows your eBay ID they can easily discover
not only what you’re selling on eBay, but also what you’re buying? Your complete
buying and selling history is available for anyone to explore.
Do you really want to share your buying patterns with your competitors on eBay?
For example, perhaps you’ve discovered a dandy little niche – you buy old china
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on eBay and make up complete dinners sets, which you then resell on eBay at
a huge profit. Obviously, if others discover this technique, you’ll face increased
competition for your purchases.
You can create multiple user accounts on eBay, so create an account that you use
only for purchases.
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Chapter 9: Building buzz for your eBay
business
In this chapter we’ll discover ways in which you can get publicity for your eBay
business. Publicity is often known as “buzz”, or Word of Mouth (WOM).
Building buzz is an ongoing process. This means that you need to do work on
tasks related to buzz regularly. Work out a schedule. Even if you can only do one
buzz-related activity a day – such as posting on a forum, which takes around ten
minutes – all those activities mount up. They’re cumulative, so ten minutes a day
is 50 minutes a week.
Local buzz – let everyone know you have an eBay business
Start local. We’re so focused on the Internet and online venues, that we often
forget that our business also works in the local economy and environment.
Get active in your local business community. Attend business breakfasts, trade
shows, and Chamber of Commerce meetings, and hand out your business cards.
You’ll make contacts, and in every business, as in life, it’s who you know.
Networking essential: business stationery
Do you have stationery for your eBay business? You need business cards, letterhead,
compliments slips, as well as leaflets of current products that you’re selling in your
eBay store. You can hand these out when you attend networking events, and you
can tuck them into packages of sold items that you’re sending to your customers
as well.
Although you can have business stationery professionally printed, there’s no need
to go to great expense. You can even print your cards and other material on a
printer using templates on your computer. This means that you only need to print
as many as you can use at any one time – print your cards and stationery out in
batches of 50 or 100. Printing small batches ensures that if you need to change
anything – you may have opened a new Web site and want to include the URL, or
you’re selling in a new category, you can put the information onto your template,
and aren’t left with a lot of stationery that’s outdated.
You can get free business stationery online. If you use Microsoft Office, visit the
Templates site below, and download your choices.
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Above: Free Microsoft Office templates from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/
CT063478121033.aspx
If you’re not using Microsoft Office, or you don’t want to spend time
tinkering, many online venues, like this one: http://www.professorprint.com/
will print up your cards and send them to you.
Advertise in your local newspapers
Many eBay sellers report that advertising in their local papers adds to the buzz for
their business. Classified ads, especially if you keep your ads small, with just the
name of your business, a tagline (slogan) or headline, and your URL, work well,
and they’re inexpensive.
For example you could run a three line ad like this:
Lace and Antique dress
Women, children, babies
http://stores.ebay.com/100yearsfashion
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If you opt for a three-month purchase, the paper will give you a break on the
price, and may even do a story on your business – newspapers love local news,
and eBay-related stories are often featured.
Advertising locally also gets you known among other local businesses, and you
could find suppliers for saleable items, as well as sources for packing materials.
Online buzz – the opportunities are endless
You can create dozens of opportunities for online buzz, both formal and informal.
Formal buzz includes posting press releases to sites like PRWeb.com at http://
prweb.com/ and posting news on your own Web site. Informal buzz includes
posting on eBay’s many Communitiy boards and forums.
Above: Get active on eBay’s communities.
However, don’t restrict yourself to eBay’s forums. There are thousands of online
discussion groups and forums.
Here’s a small list of well-run Internet business forums:
Kickstart Daily Forum http://www.kickstartyourlife.com/forum/webbbs_config.pl
Anthony Blake Online http://www.ablake.net/forum/
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CyberMarketing InfoBoard http://www.network54.com/Forum/184615
Willie Crawford’s Board http://www.williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
FIB Friends in Business http://www.friendsinbusiness.com/board1/
How To Forum http://www.howtocorp.com/forum/
Phil Wiley’s Affiliate Talk http://www.ozemedia.com/cgi-bin/webbbs/webbbs_
config.pl
Getting started on Internet forums and discussion groups
Online communities are placed for building friendly relationships, for helping
others, and for asking for help when you need it.
They’re not venues for advertising. You can usually include your name, and your
Web site address when you leave a message on a forum or discussion group, but
don’t openly chat about your business. Before you make your first communication
on a group that’s new to you, read the group’s rules, and of course, abide by
netiguette.
What’s netiquette? It’s online etiquette – treating other people as you would like
to be treated.
Here’s a basic outline of good procedure when you’re part of an online community,
from the Netiquette page at http://www.albury.net.au/new-users/netiquet.htm -•
It is always a good idea to read what others in the list or group are
saying for a while, to get a feel for the nature of the list/group, and
what is or is not acceptable to the list/group.
•
If posting to Newsgroups, be aware that many are archived, and the
archives are available for a very long time. Don't say anything that
might come back and haunt you years down the track. It is generally
not possible to retrieve messages once they have been sent.
•
Be very careful about advertising, some groups welcome it, most
others do not!
•
Watch for and read any FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) before
posting a question to the group.
•
Messages should be concise and relevant to the group. Don't post
messages to inappropriate newsgroups.
•
Spelling mistakes tend to be the rule rather than the exception.
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Questioning someone else's spelling is not good netiquette, and not
necessary unless it occurs in a critical place, like a possibly mis-spelt
URL
•
Don't get involved in or respond to Flame Wars.
•
If you find a newsgroup or topic offensive, avoid it. Sending harassing
messages to the group is not only frowned on, it may be illegal.
•
Keep private messages private, don't post to the group as well.
Blogging – buzzing an online conversation
Blogs (online journals) have become very popular, not only among individuals,
but for businesses as well. Which businesses? Any size business, from major
corporations like General Motors, to micro-businesses with just one or two
employees.
In May 2005 story in Business Week said:
Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes
to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information
world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every
business -- including yours. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shipping paper clips,
pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you
cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon
us, blogs are not a business elective. They’re a prerequisite. (And yes, that goes
for us, too.)
(Read the complete story, “Blogs Will Change Your Business” at http://www.
businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm )
You may be wondering what’s so great about blogs, and the answer is in a new
technology, called RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site
Summery, depending on whom you believe. RSS enables people to subscribe to
blogs – to obtain what some people call newsfeeds and Microsoft is calling web
feeds, because XML, which makes RSS possible, will be a major component of
Vista, the next major release of the Windows operating system.
If all this sounds way too technical for you, and you’re feeling lost, don’t let it
concern you. You’ll be hearing much more about RSS and XML, and you can get
your feet wet now with this new technology by starting a blog.
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A blog builds buzz
A blog builds buzz for your eBay business because it’s a conversation.
Comments are an important feature of blogs. When you write a blog
item, it goes live as soon as you press the Publish button, people can
leave comments on your words. Then, if you wish, you can continue the
conversation – or simply allow your readers to chat among themselves.
Let’s look at some ways in which blogs build buzz –
•
Blogs are indexed rapidly by the search engines, in some cases within a
week. In other cases, the indexing may take longer, but the blog will be
indexed much more rapidly than a Web site, and will continue to be indexed,
because the content if frequently refreshed. This means that your blog makes
you very visible online and you get more publicity and exposure for your
eBay business;
•
Blogs are casual and friendly. You can show your personality. Once they
perceive that you're a person, people are more likely to trust you, and to buy
from you;
•
You can promote your eBay items with photos and direct links – again, getting
exposure and building your visibility; and
•
You can build up a community of readers. Some highly popular blogs (usually
on political topics) have hundreds of thousands of readers.
Check out the Six Apart company's blogging applications at http://www.sixapart.
com/ . You’ll find one which will suit your Internet business.
Comment on other’s people’s blogs – and use trackback too
A way to build your profile quickly in the blogging community is to leave comments
on other people’s blogs. When you comment, you leave your email address, and
your URL. The means that some of the people who visit the more popular blog,
will be drawn to visit your site.
You can also comment on what other bloggers have written, extending the
conversation on their blog to your blog. When you do this, and if they’ve left a
trackback link, you can add the link to your blog posting – and it will appear as a
Trackback on the original blog.
Here’s an explanation of Trackback -- http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/
beginners/
Don’t be flustered with Trackback – just think of it as a way to build links. Once
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you start using it, you’ll find that it’s much easier to do than it is to read about it.
Help your buzz by creating a brand
All your efforts online and offline to generate buzz for your business are a way
to build your brand. A brand is a recognizable business entity. You recognize
companies like American Airlines, Coca Cola and Google because you recognize
their brand, which is made up of the company’s logo, it’s slogan (sometimes), and
essentially, what the company does, and what it stands for.
You can build your own brand by creating a logo, and using the logo on your Web
site, your blog, and on all your communications. You can generate a logo yourself
in a graphics program, or you can get someone to design one for you.
Here’s a link for a logo design company --- http://www.logoworks.com/
The results of your buzzing? You become an eBay expert
The goal of all your buzzing activities is to become an eBay expert, a recognizable
presence online and offline, as a business which operates on eBay, and does so
successfully.
Get started building your buzz today.
EBay weirdness builds buzz
eBay loves weird items. The “Most Watched Items” on the eBay Pulse at http://
pulse.ebay.com/ always contains a couple of strange items. Of course, many of the
strangest are deleted by eBay – but not before they’ve made it onto the Pulse.
Look at this item, below. It’s odd, but “SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO THE ARCTIC
FROZEN IN TIME FOREVER!” is not as odd as “MY WIFE LEFT SO NOW HER
STUFF IS LEAVING TO MYSTERY #2 -- MYSTERY BOX WITH MY WIFES JEWLLERY
BIGGER AND BETTER”, also below, which ranked even higher on the Pulse than
“frozen”.
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http://cgi.ebay.com/SEND-YOUR-MESSAGE-TOTHE-ARCTIC-FROZEN-IN-TIME-FOREVER_W0QQitemZ5611043385QQcatego
ryZ1469QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Above: weirdness attracts attention --
The above item “SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO THE ARCTIC FROZEN IN TIME
FOREVER!” offers:
My Uncle is a scientist and will be making a trip to ANTARCTICA for research
purposes while there he has agreed to take an item with him which he will
FREEZE in a block of ice and then send it sailing in the ARCTIC OCEAN.
I thought I would give all of you the chance to have something incased in ice and
sent sailing this could be found still in the block of ice 1000’s of years from now
maybe even after another ice age WHO KNOWS?
With three days left to run, the item had collected 43 bids, and stood at over
$80.
Above: more eBay weirdness on eBay Pulse.
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Truly odd items make it onto the national and international news
syndicates
If your auction is strange enough, it will make it onto the news syndication services
– generating global buzz for your business.
How do you can you generate this kind of worldwide attention? Watch for
opportunities to post something outrageous. Most of the items which make it to
the “Most Watched” section of the Pulse are probably as true as most tabloid news
stories, so don’t let the facts get into the way of a juicy Pulse-worthy auction.
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Chapter 10: Software to make it easier to
post auctions and track your business
The more items you post and sell, the more turnover you have, and the
more money you make. However, since there are only so many hours in
the day, you need to find ways to save time in your eBay business. In this
chapter we’ll look at both online and offline software which helps you to
run your eBay business.
In the first weeks of your new business, upload all your auctions to eBay
manually. Why? Because learning new software takes time, and inevitably,
all software is buggy. If you’re trying to both learn software and learn the
listing process, you’ll get frustrated. Worse, when there’s a problem, such
as an item refusing to upload to the site, you won’t know whether the
problem is the software, a mistake you’re making, or a temporary fault on
the eBay site itself.
eBay’s free auction listing software: Turbo Lister
When you’re comfortable listing items for auction on the site, go to the eBay
Downloads page at http://pages.ebay.com/download/ and download eBay’s free
auction listing software, Turbo Lister.
Above: eBay’s Turbo Lister program is free to download and use.
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Turbo Lister lets you customize many aspects of listing – and you can create your
listings offline, which is time-saver if you’re on a dialup connection, and then
upload as many items as you want to list at once.
You can set your postage options, and customize your template, so that you’ll be
able to list items in a fraction of the time it takes you to list items manually. You
can also duplicate listings, so that if an item doesn’t sell at auction, you can add
it to your store inventory and vice versa.
Need more? Try eBay’s Seller Assistant products
If you’re listing dozens of items every day, Turbo Lister may start to restrict you.
When you feel as if you need additional features, check out eBay’s chargeable
products, the Sellers Assistants, at http://pages.ebay.com/sellers_assistant/
Above: eBay’s Sellers Assistant software is available in Basic and Pro versions, and is chargeable
The Sellers Assistants and a new service, Blackthorne Basic, and Blackthorne
Pro, are all chargeable services. This means that eBay charges you a monthly
subscription to use them. You can see a handy comparison chart of the features
of the various services here: http://pages.ebay.com/selling_manager/comparison.
html
The major benefit of the chargeable services is that they help you to manage your
inventory – they let you know when it’s time to restock from your suppliers. They
also automate the customer management process, including leaving feedback,
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sending out email to your customers, and providing reports of your Final Value
Fees and other eBay charges.
Other eBay software options
As eBay has grown, so software developers have provided solutions for eBay
sellers: with millions of eBay traders around the globe, eBay software is a big
market.
If you try one or two of the eBay services, and find that you still need more, look
for software which meets your needs. The more time you can shave off the listing,
sales, and customer relationship management aspects of your business, the more
time you have to promote your business and increase your sales volume and your
profits.
Let’s look at a couple of the other options.
Auctiva – for individuals and micro-businesses
http://www.auctiva.com/
Auctiva is nominally a free service for eBay sellers, but it’s only available in the
USA, and is for individuals and small businesses. Its tools are are not as robust as
those provide by Andale and by eBay’s own chargeable services. However, it is a
way for new eBay users to gain some experience of the online auction process,
and to create professional listings.
Although Auctiva is free, its services like templates, image design, and others, are
chargeable at various rates.
Andale Auction Tools – for individuals and small to medium-sized
eBay businesses
http://corp.andale.com/x-auction_tools.html
Andale provides a variety of eBay auction services, including Andale Lister, Andale
Images (an image hosting service), Checkout (an automated way to process your
buyers when your auctions close) and Email manager (a way to manage your
customer relationships).
All Andale’s services are available at a monthly fee. Which one is for you? That
depends on your how your business is growing. If you’re becoming frustrated with
eBay’s Turbo Lister, then look at some of the other options, like Andale.
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Above: Andale Lister Pro, available at http://corp.andale.com/x-listerpro.html
AAA Seller
http://www.aaaseller.com/
AAA Seller offers you a free trial of its services. It’s highly professional, and is ideal
if your business is one in which you need to post many photos of items to gain
the best prices. AAA Seller offers options like zoomable images, which will please
your buyers.
The program also offers you an inventory database, and all the after sales and
customer relationship management tools you could wish for. As your business
grows, your AAA Seller solution grows with you, and when you start to list over
3000 auctions a month, you can opt to have a customized solution created.
If you’re using a Mac – try AuctionGenie
http://www.luxcentral.com/auctiongenie/
If you’re a Mac user, and don’t have access to a PC, then eBay’s Turbo Lister won’t
work for you. Try AuctionGenie for Mac OS X. The program is shareware, which
means that you can download and try it, to see whether it does everything you
want it to, before you buy it.
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Chapter 11: Saving time on your auctions
with automation and drop shipping
Drop-shipping – a process in which you don’t handle the goods you sell on eBay,
is tempting. However, it does present challenges. In this chapter we’ll look at the
benefits and challenges of drop shipping.
Can drop shipping work for you?
If your house is packed with your eBay inventory, and you’re paying for extra
storage as well, consider the benefits of drop shipping. Although there are pitfalls,
if you’re aware of what they are, you should be able to avoid them. Keep your
customers firmly in mind -Let’s look at drop shipping in detail.
The benefits of drop shipping
1. Little cash outlay in inventory
The major benefit of drop shipping is the saving in cash.
Theoretically, you don’t need to outlay any money until the items sell. In practice
however, because you want the merchant to ship your items as quickly as possible,
make it a habit to pay the drop shipper as soon as an item has a buyer – even
before the auction closes, and before you’re paid. This ensures that the buyer gets
his item in a timely manner – and it increases the chances that you will garner
positive feedback.
2. You save on shipping TO yo
You don’t physically handle the inventory, so you don’t have to pay any shipping
costs from the merchant to you – the merchant ships directly to your eBay
customer.
This saves time, and saves storage fees. If listed items don’t sell, all you’ve lost is
the listing fees. You’re not losing money in storage fees as well.
3. You can source items from many countries around the world
Drop shipping lets you become an importer, without the hassle of importing.
You can source goods from Europe, China or India, without importing the goods
yourself – the drop shipper handles all the paperwork and the hassle.
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4. You can list more items
You’re not spending time packing, unpacking, and repacking items, so you have
more time to source more items and list more items.
The challenges of drop shipping
1. You may pay more for items
You’ll often pay more for items which are drop shipped for you. This is
concern: remember that buyers on eBay need to pay shipping, therefore
they expect to be able to buy items at least 30 per cent lower than retail.
2. You could be stung on the packing and shipping
Since you don’t see the items when they’re packed and shipped, you don’t
know what packing is being used, and what the postage is. An unscrupulous
drop shipper will sting you on the handling charges; you can’t prevent this,
because you don’t know that it’s happening.
One way to keep your drop shipper honest is to warn him that you send
courtesy followup messages to your buyers, asking whether the goods
arrived safely, and whether they’re happy with the service. If the drop
shipper knows that you’re alert, it’s less likely that you’ll be stung.
Handling the challenges
Your major weapon against problems with drop shipping is an agreement with
your supplier.
Before you list items from a drop shipper, buy an item and have it shipped to you.
Take note of how long the item took to arrive, what kind of packing it arrived in,
and whether the sale was professionally handled – was it a smooth transaction,
and were you pleased with the item when you received it? Did the item match the
description, or the photo on the brochure?
If the item is a tool, like a digital camera for example, try the item out to see
whether it works as described. If the item is clothing, check the quality of the
cloth, the sewing in general, and wash the item to see whether it shrinks.
Then write up an agreement, covering what you will do – when you will list the
items, how many you will list, when you will send payment and how the payments
will be made. Also cover what the merchant will do: how soon the items will be
shipped after payment (aim for within 24 hours), and how they will be packed.
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Chapter 12: Expanding and growing your
eBay business – borrowing capital and
more
You eBay business is a success! Congratulations. In this chapter we’ll look at
ways in which you can help your eBay business to grow. Chances are that you’re
running out of space for your inventory, so you may wish to lease warehouse
space and/ or office space, hire employees, and invest in technology. If you intend
to borrow money to finance your expansion, you will need a business loan, and
that requires a business plan.
However, a loan may not be the answer for your business – you may be able to
grow your business without borrowing, and if you can, this is the best solution.
Let’s look at what you need to do if you want to borrow money.
Borrowing money to help your business to grow
Unfortunately, when it comes to borrowing money for your eBay business, it won’t
be easy, unless you want to leverage assets, like your home, or other property that
you own, to use as collateral. The banks and other financial institutions are wary
of small business borrowing, and always demand collateral.
Vital: be guided by your business adviser. Get advice from your account, or
whoever is advising you in the financial aspects of your business.
You need a business plan
In order to borrow money, you need a business plan. Palo Alto Software at http://
www.paloalto.com offers downloadable business plan software, which will help
you to create and present a professional plan.
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Above: Business plan software at http://www.paloalto.com/ps/bp/
Although the software will help you with the layout, you need to work out the
scenarios yourself. Look at your eBay finances for the past 12 months. How much
did you earn?
Now it’s time to create some projections for the coming two to five years. You will
need to think carefully about your business. It’s difficult to do this if you haven’t
set clear goals for your eBay business, so that’s your first step.
Essentially, your business plan contains three sections:
*
Your business idea. What your business structure is, and a description of your
industry, which is eBay. How do you plan to take your eBay business on to
further success?
*
The second part of the plan concerns your market – your customers, as well as
you competition. Discuss your customers. How many people have subscribed
to your email marketing letters? How much have you sold? Why do people
buy the products you sell? You should also analyze your competitors – how
will you beat your competition?
*
Finally, you include your financials – income and cash flow statements, and
balance sheets. Allow your accountant to handle this part of the plan.
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Growing your business without borrowing
While it’s easy to grow your business by borrowing, you can also grow your
business without borrowing. Let’s look at some ways in which you can do that.
Boot-strapping – fund your expansion yourself
Boot-strapping means using your own profits to grow your business: reinvesting
the funds that you earn. To do this, look at ways in which you can increase your
volume of sales, and also your cash flow.
Find ways in which you can either sell more, or sell big-ticket items, so that
you make more profit on each item. For example, if you were to sell refurbished
computers, and made $100 profit on each one, this would be ten times the profit
that you make on an item on which you only make $10 profit.
Look at the items that you’re currently selling. How much profit are you making
on each one? If your profits are small, find big-ticket items, on which your profit
is larger.
Look at leasing options
To avoid borrowing, look at your leasing options. You can lease anything,
from a warehouse to a car and a computer. Yes, you will need funds for
the lease payments each month, but you can factor the payments into your
current cash flow.
Do some scenarios, to see how much money you can afford to pay in leases each
month.
Next, look at the leasing options for space and equipment. You will almost certainly
find that you have sufficient funds coming in to lease everything that you need.
Taking on a partner
You could also take on a partner who will bring funds into the business. Perhaps
you have friends who are interested in your business, and would be interested
in investing. If so, talk to your accountant and lawyer about how you would
structure such a partnership.
Your partner wouldn’t need to take an active role in the business, it could be
someone who’s looking for a good return on investment funds.
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Full steam ahead: planning for million-dollar growth
Planning for major growth is important to your business. EBay is constantly
changing, and although eBay’s strength is still in the millions of small sellers who
use the marketplace, it’s also in the hundreds of thousands of businesses across
the world who are making eBay an important part of their operation.
Is it possible to make seven figures on eBay? Yes, it certainly is. You just need to
focus your efforts towards constant growth.
Let’s look at ways in which you can develop your eBay business and keep it
growing.
•
Focus on volume sales;
•
Focus on large ticket items, as well as on smaller items;
•
Generate more volume from each customer – look for eBay categories in
which you can generate loyal customers who buy from you consistently;
•
Constantly review eBay to see what the company is doing, and how you
can use changes on eBay to fuel your own growth;
•
Watch what your competitors are doing, with an aim to surpassing them;
•
Set goals for your own growth. Have sales targets for each month or each
quarter that you aim to reach – don’t make these targets hard to reach, keep
them realistic, however;
•
Develop your own business skills. Keep learning.
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Chapter 13: Top ten eBay secrets
In this chapter, we’ll look at eBay secrets – ways in which you can make the most
of your eBay business.
1. Information! Give as much (and more) information as
your seller is likely to need
When you go into a shop or boutique, you can handle the items that you want
to buy, and although traders lose millions of dollars each year through theft
(“shrinkage”) they know that if they only showed pictures, or described their
items, they’d go out of business.
We buy on emotion. Ask yourself how you can stimulate your buyers to buy. Look
at the images below. They show the pen clearly; the auction leaves no questions
unanswered.
Above: the seller for this item posted SEVEN clear and professional images of the pen, he’s selling.
You can never include too much relevant information.
Always include as much information as you possible can – but make sure that the
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information is relevant and will help the prospective buyer to decide to make a
bid.
2. Customer support – your customer is king
What would you do to avoid a negative feedback rating? Would you give your
customer a refund – including shipping?
Your feedback rating is YOU on eBay. You can’t afford to get negative ratings. Even
if you have 1000 positives, a negative feedback rating although it’s inevitable,
sooner or later, still damages your credibility online.
Decide that your customer support will be excellent, at all times. Respond to
questions as quickly as you can, and send out items as soon as possible after a
purchase has been made.
Do whatever it takes to give more than your purchasers expect.
3. Be honest about an item’s condition
Document any and all faults an item has. For example, if you’re selling antiquarian
books, flick through the book and document any torn pages, highlighting, and
foxing. It’s worth the extra minute or two that it takes to represent an item as well
as you can.
If you’re selling manufacturer’s seconds, be sure to note that the item is a second,
and include every scratch and blemish of the item in your description. Of course
you can include caveats like “will not affect wear”, but DO mention the faults.
4. Select a couple of categories in which to specialize
Many eBay sellers start out by selling across the board – if they can find items
cheaply that they think will sell, they’ll trade in those items.
You’ll discover however that you’re likely to make more money if you specialize.
This is because both buyers, other sellers, and suppliers get to know you and your
goods, and you will pick up more items that sell well.
When you’ve got wide experience in a category, you’ll know what items are
worth to you – what you can sell them for. When you’re starting out in a category,
you will make mistakes, and you will buy items that no one wants to buy.
Become as knowledgeable about your categories as you can. Attend trade
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shows.
5. Use loss-leaders to attract attention to your auctions
Loss-leader items, such as the item below, start off at a dollar or less.
Above: A typical loss-leader auction. Note: although this item started at 99 cents, it will sell for
around the average price for an item like this.
These items typically do bring a good price at auction, but you’re taking a slight
risk that you will lost money on the item.
A loss-leader auction gains you attention. The more visitors and the more bidders
an auction has the more visitors you gain to your eBay shop.
The item above cross-promotes the vendor shop items, below.
Above: the camera vendor’s shop items, promoted on his loss-leader auction.
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6. Become familiar with keywords
With millions of auctions running on eBay, most buyers don’t have the time
to browse the site. Instead, they search for the items that they’re interested in.
This means that your auction titles must contain as many useful keywords as
possible.
Watch how other vendors use keywords – PowerSellers are very aware of the
usefulness of keywords.
7. Keep your customers and sell to them again and again
Your relationship with your customers shouldn’t stop when you post their items.
Remember to stay in touch with your customers via eBay’s email marketing options
– see Chapter Six for more.
8. Research the market before you buy stock
You’re at an auction for liquidated electronic stock. You look a box of new MP3
players. Should you bid on them? MP3 players are hot sellers, right? Can sell 20
new Rio MP3 players on eBay?
Completed Listings will help you to make a decision. However, you should also
keep in mind that the Apple iPod is the leading MP3 player. Has Apple brought
out a new model? If iPod owners are upgrading and selling their used machines
on eBay, that will cut into the market for MP3 players for weeks.
9. Put on stop-loss on items which don’t sell
Every eBay seller has unfortunate experiences with stock that doesn’t sell. Why do
some items lie on your virtual shelves month after month – you had an antique
dinner set which attracted 45 bidders, but a similar set attracts none.
You need a constant turnover of stock in your eBay shop, and in your auctions.
Fast-selling stock attracts more bidders, and more bidders means more profit.
Therefore, decide that you will give every item in your eBay shop three months to
sell. If an item doesn’t sell in three months, put it up for auction, as a loss-leader,
at a minimal starting price.
Conversely, if an item you’re auctioning doesn’t sell, send it to your shop as
inventory.
10. Knowledge is power, so get knowledgeable
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Each day you spend working on your eBay business, you will learn more. As the
months pass, you’re no longer a new seller, you’re a pro. However, to reach the
heights of eBay sales, you need knowledge.
EBay itself offers eBay University – get more information at http://pages.ebay.
com/university/ There are online courses, as well as classes. The big benefit of
attending eBay University is that you will meet other people who trade on eBay
too, so you can share information and make friends.
In addition to getting as much knowledge about eBay as you can, you need business
knowledge too. If your local Community College offers a course on marketing or
running a small business, why not take the course? You will be amazed how every
piece of knowledge you learn pays off in ways that you would never expect.
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Chapter 14: Into the future – trends, building
partnerships and growing your business
In this final chapter, we’ll look at trends, and how they might affect your eBay
business, building relationships and partnerships with other businesses, and also
generating motivation and setting goals.
New hot trends – how do you get in on the ground floor?
Who sets trends? People do. In fact, they’re people who are much like you and
me.
We get a hunch that something might work and we follow the hunch., and then
we set a trend.
In “The Secrets of Power Sellers” a 2003 article in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
writer Catherine Siskos notes:
Most online auctioneers start by selling small, easily shipped items. But in
October 2001, Adam Ginsberg, who sold pool tables in his San Diego store,
decided to list a full-size one on eBay to see what would happen. The table with
a $4,600 list price had no reserve and a starting price of just $1. When the threeday auction closed, the final bid was $2,200--about $700 more than Ginsberg’s
cost.
Undaunted, Ginsberg listed more tables. Within months, he was selling 15 tables
a week on eBay, more than twice as many as in his store. By summer, the number
had jumped to 25 a week, and Ginsberg was ringing up $230,000 a month in
sales. He currently brings in about $800,000 a month.
Ginsberg got a hunch that he could sell pool tables on eBay even though no one
else was doing it, so he took a chance, and tried it, and it paid off.
Be alert for opportunities, and don’t be afraid to grab anything that looks as though
it might be an opportunity with both hands.
How to spot a trend
To spot a trend, read widely, and stay alert. Use eBay Pulse, to see what’s generating
the most traffic and the most interest, but be aware that by the time a trend, or
even a fad, has made the Pulse, it may be too widespread and you may have too
much competition on eBay. You want to get into a trend on the ground floor, so
to speak.
Remember that you can use the online world to monitor what people are talking
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about and buying too. Use the blog search engines, like Blog Pulse at http://www.
blogpulse.com/
Above: Blog Pulse – good for spotting trends.
EBay partnerships: building relationships with other
businesses
Businesses form relationships because they’re stronger together than they are
individually.
On eBay, many smaller sellers find it hard to source wholesale goods that they
would like to be able to offer on eBay because the are small – manufacturers want
them to deal with distributors. However, dealing with middleman means that the
goods are more expensive. What if you could band together with another – or
several eBay sellers, and use your combined buying power to buy directly from
manufacturers?
In addition to forming and joining buying cooperatives, be on the lookout for the
opportunity to join with other sellers to promote your goods. We’ve mentioned
joint ventures in email marketing promotion, but you’re not limited to that.
For example, you’re sure to find that your city has many eBay sellers. Why not ask
them whether they’d like to form a marketing partnership? How the partnership
was structured would be up to you – it could be a loose one-time promotional
venture, or you could make it an ongoing operation. This promotional group could
buy space on radio stations, in newspapers, and online.
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Setting goals to grow your business
Many small businesses fold within the first year. Many others fold within three
years. It’s tempting, because your eBay business is located primarily in the online
world, to think of your eBay business as not being a “real” business. However,
it is a real business, and everything that applies to a bricks-and-mortar business
applies to you too.
Setting goals for your business ensures that you keep growing, and that your
business keeps moving ahead. Here’s a goal sheet which you can save and use to
review and set fresh goals: http://www.state.co.us/oeddc/business/goals.htm
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