Posts Tagged ebay competition
Here is how the drop shipping process works for Ebay sellers
Posted by Bob in Drop Shipping, Ebay, Wholesale, Wholesale Sources on June 25th, 2009
If you’re like many of the successful Ebay entrepreneurs out there, chances are you happened into the business quite by accident. Perhaps you found an item in your attic that sold for more than you thought it was worth, and decided to hit every rummage sale in the state until you found every last one of them and sold them for a profit. At some point, however, if your business is going to grow, you should consider drop shipping. Drop shipping is one of the best ways for you to expand your Ebay business.
Here is how the drop shipping process works for Ebay sellers. First, you place an ad on Ebay for an item that you don’t have, but that you can get from the drop shipper. Your Ebay buyer then buys the item, sending you the money for the item and the shipping costs. You then take a portion of that payment and send it to your dropship wholesale supplier. The supplier charges you wholesale prices, allowing you a profit on the item. Finally, the supplier will ship the product directly to your Ebay buyer.
When this process works correctly, drop shipping can be a dream business. You have no overhead, because you have no inventory, storefront or shipping costs to bother with. You merely accept payments, and then send a portion of those payments off to the supplier, and you get to keep the difference between the two as your profit. As you can see, this is quite a bit easier than scouring every garage sale and flea market within 100 miles to find the perfect Ebay item.
However, in the real world, things are almost never quite that simple. There are pitfalls to avoid, and regular hiccups that can interrupt the flow of your Ebay business. Being ready for these problems before they actually arise will help you to have a distinct advantage when the time comes, however.
You can do this, at least in part, by treating your Ebay drop shipping business like a business. Follow up with your customers, for example, to make sure that they’re satisfied with the products they receive. You should also try to be constantly aware of your dropship wholesaler’s supply of products. There is nothing worse than collecting payment for a product only to find that your supplier is out of stock.
If you implement it right, drop shipping can be a tremendous boon to your Ebay business.
Ebay Drop Shipping Success - Pay Attention to Your Suppliers
Posted by Bob in Bulk Drop Shipping, Drop Shipping, Ebay, Wholesale, Wholesale Sources on June 25th, 2009
If you have a business on Ebay, you may be able to increase your profits and expand your business by using wholesale suppliers. Many wholesale suppliers will dropship products for you, allowing you to focus on what you do best: getting people to bid on your Ebay auctions. Still, there are some important things to keep in mind if you’re going to successfully integrate wholesale suppliers into your Ebay Business:
First of all, you need to keep a close eye on what your fulfillment times look like. Don’t be afraid to send your customers emails asking them for feedback, or even filling out some sort of customer survey regarding the time it took to fulfill their order. If your orders are taking longer than you think they should take to get to your customers, chances are you’ll hear back pretty quickly. Because your feedback score, and the reputation of your Ebay business rely so solidly on shipping issues, this is key. Ebay and online customers often expect better service in terms of shipments, and if your shipments are regularly being delayed you’re going to have payment reversals and negative feedback that are going to severely hurt your business in the long run.
You also want to keep a close eye on stock. It helps, in this regard, to choose a dropship wholesale supplier that allows you access to stock level information. When you’re selling items on Ebay, there is a time delay between the time you advertise the item and the time you receive payment for the item, and when you order it from your wholesale supplier. If your supplier runs out of the particular product you’re looking for in that time, you’re going to find yourself having to issue refunds and risk negative feedback. Remember, too, that Ebay sales are a contract. You’re not allowed to cancel an Ebay sale due to a product being unavailable. In fact, if you can’t provide a product to a customer, the buyer can petition Ebay to give you a seller nonperformance violation. When you get a certain number of these, Ebay will shut down your seller account.
You also need to be prepared to mediate returns. If a customer isn’t satisfied with the exchange or return process, you risk negative feedback that can hurt future sales. In some ways, you may wind up having to mediate the return process.
Make Money Drop Shipping Using Ebay
Posted by Bob in Bulk Drop Shipping, Drop Shipping, Ebay on June 25th, 2009
Drop shipping is one of the best ways to make money on Ebay. Using drop shipping, you can list an item for sale that you don’t already have. Once you’ve sold the item and collected payment, you simply take a portion of that payment and send it to your wholesale dropship supplier. Whatever is left over is yours to keep, and you don’t need to hassle with things like shipping costs or packing.
Still, there are some important things to consider when you’re using dropship wholesale suppliers on Ebay. Keep these three things in mind at all times:
Understand the quality of the product. It’s important that you choose a wholesale supplier who won’t just randomly switch inventory or manufacturers without letting you know. This allows you to be sure that the product you’re selling to your customer is the product that they will actually get. If your product varies from the Ebay listing, you run the risk of negative feedback which will harm your Ebay business over the long haul.
Understand customer expectations. For whatever reason, people that buy products on Ebay and online tend to have much higher expectations that people that buy products in other sorts of direct marketing arrangements. Buyers expect you to offer a photograph of the product, as well as a specific list of features. When they receive the item, they expect it to look exactly like it does in the Ebay auction. If it doesn’t look the same, they probably won’t be satisfied. Here again, you run the risk of getting negative feedback on your Ebay seller account.
Finally, don’t forget that auctions are auctions. The fact of the matter is that, when you auction an item on Ebay, you’re expected to agree to sell the item regardless of the closing price. This means that, if you’re not careful, you can wind up selling an item on Ebay that actually sells below your own costs.
There are a couple of ways to avoid this happening, of course. First of all, you can choose to only list fixed price or “Buy It Now” auctions. This means that your auctions are more like catalog listings, with a set price no matter who buys it. Another option is to set a higher minimum bid, so that the item doesn’t sell for less than what you’ll pay for it.
Ultimately, making sure your feedback stays high and that you follow all Ebay policies is key to your business’ success.
eBay Newbies? Simple Avoidable Mistakes
Posted by Andrea in Ebay, Home Based Business on June 15th, 2009
Selling on eBay is the quickest business prospect out there. Within 15-30 minutes you can have a business up and running, but the ease of setup often leads sellers astray and they make serious mistakes that can zap their profits in an instant.
Scrolling through eBay I often see super elaborate listings for items that are well under $100. The amount of money that is spent on the extra features added to an auction can quickly zap profits. Do you want your auction featured? Sure you can have it but it will cost you. Do you want to include several pictures? Sure you can add 10 pictures but each will cost you. You want a reserve price? Okay, but it will cost you. Do you see a theme here?
Every seller should head into an auction with a game plan. For any item that is not going to fetch over $500 you should keep your auction as simple as possible. One photo and a quick run down of what you are selling will do just fine. When you are placing a big ticket item on the auction block then you can go all out, but for a low price auction keep it simple.
A lot of eBay users still don’t use their own photos. They take stock photos of the item in question and then feel the need to state “this is a stock photo” in their auction. People want to see a picture of the product they will be buying especially if it is a used or refurbished product. A cheap digital camera is all that is needed. The pictures need not be fancy; they just have to be there. People have a hard time trusting a seller if none of their auctions have real pictures attached to them. Honestly a seller who can’t show me a real picture of the product I’m bidding on jumps out as a “scammer” to me.
Most eBay sellers don’t stop to do their research before listing an auction. Before setting out on selling an item it is important to research the selling history of it. Not only can it help to figure out a “buy it now” price but it can also help a seller gauge how long the auction should be. A longer auction will get more hits which are better for an item that is not in demand or not greatly represented on the web site. A shorter auction is better for a hot item as it will give buyers a quick chance to grab what they want
Some, not all, but some eBay sellers are quick to please their clients when they first get on the site. While “pleasing” your customers is the right attitude bending over backwards for people is a bad idea. I’ve seen products listed way under value, I’ve known sellers who all but give away massive amounts of extras or upgrade shipping for every single person. While there is nothing wrong with being nice, nice doesn’t do it in business.
While eBay is an awesome avenue for a business it also has its problems and one of its biggest pros and cons is the ability to quickly open a storefront. It is great because it is easy but it’s bad because it allows people who are not ready for the big league to get off and running; often dooming a business before it starts.
Competitive Strategies for Ebay Sellers
Posted by Andrea in Ebay, Home Based Business, eBusiness on June 11th, 2009
Dealing with competition on eBay is one of those things that you will never avoid, but a small business can flourish on the mega-auction website as long as you are willing to work with the competition rather than against it.
Competitors can actually be a good thing; seriously, they help us know what the price of an item is and how we can work around it to get the customer.
Pricing an item on eBay is fairly simple. Before you even begin your own auction listing go back and use the advanced setting to see what the item has sold for in the past. You can do this by doing an advance search and searching for closed bids only. You will see a list of items that have sold recently that are just like yours. You will want to look at the bidding history of those auctions as well.
Once you have an idea of what the items has sold for you can go back and search for the products that are still open. You will see how many similar products are out there and how they are moving. Research is always an important part of the game.
When you begin your auction listing consider what you can offer that other buyers are not offering. One big issue with eBay, in my opinion, is the insane shipping prices that some sellers offer. I tend to keep shipping low ($3.00-$10.00 depending on the item) or offer free shipping. Free shipping will garner a great deal of attention and more people will bid on your auction as shipping costs are considered “added” expenses to many bidders. When there is no shipping cost to calculate bidders are more likely to place a bid and go higher on their price than they would if they had to calculate shipping into the equation.
I have one wholesale sneaker seller that I constantly buy from on eBay. I buy from that company because there is a free shipping policy. I like to know my money is going directly to the product and not to overzealous shipping and handling fees. I know I am not alone in that either.
I have also found that auctions need to correct amount of exposure time to do well on eBay. I’ve seen many sellers fall victim to setting their auction time too low. If you offer a 3 day auction the odds of many people seeing it are low. Setting an auction at 7 days gives it a much longer exposure time.
The same can be said for an over infiltrated market. Around Christmas time this year a great deal of people were selling Wiis on eBay. A lot of the auctions never made it to the first page. You need to time your auction correctly so it won’t be ending at the same time as other auctions. If 30 other auctions are ending within 10 minutes of your auction the odds of your listing getting to the front page is slim and let us be honest here, most people never click past the first page.
An eBay business is a great way to make money and it can be extremely successful but you know how to use your competition and time your listings accordingly for the business to really take off. Many don’t do well on eBay because they don’t follow some basic logic rules.
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