As e-commerce becomes an everyday way of shopping, it’s important to manage growth, but not to forget the core task of any eBay sellers: customer satisfaction.
“Hire Someone Who Has Already Gone Where You Want to Go”
When your business is off and running and you want to take it to a new level, where do you turn? “For some companies that want to sell on eBay, it is worth hiring an expert consultant who has already gone where you want to go, and who can help you to get there,” says David Yaskulka of Blueberry Boutique. Not surprisingly, Yaskulka acts as a consultant for other eBay sellers himself.
“The beauty of eBay is you can test your concept and put toes in water,” says Yaskulka. “Sophisticated branding is very important in our niche, but we didn’t have a professional design for eight months after we started selling on eBay.”
Not only that, but you can—and should—start out with only a small investment. “In fact, I don’t recommend a lot of investment,” says Yaskulka. “I recommend capping your investment at a couple of hundred bucks and trying it out to see if you have the potential for success. At a certain stage it often makes sense to say, ‘I’ve got something here, I want to grow it in the best possible way.’ Hiring an expert can help you do that.”
“There really aren’t that many secrets to running a business on eBay (other than revealing who our suppliers are); our goal is always 100 percent customer satisfaction,” says Jon Stein. “We have a very liberal return policy. Our main criteria is, we will accept returned items if they are in a new or resellable condition. It can’t be half of a package of dog cookies that has already been opened, for instance. I would also provide not just a phone number but 9 to 5 customer service Monday through Friday, at a minimum.”
While eBay is the biggest marketplace on the Web and the biggest auction seller online, other outlets exist. Jake’s is, in fact, expanding to open storefronts with Overstock.com (http://www.overstock.com) and Amazon.com’s Marketplace. Overstock doesn’t have as many members as eBay, but it charges lower fees than eBay, and a growing number of sellers are attracted to such alternatives. “I think the best is yet to come,” concludes Jon Stein. “We are just starting to see inroads made with sites like Overstock. Quite honestly, our web site is our most mature sales venue, and eBay is second, but other sites are worth looking at as well.”
When your business is off and running and you want to take it to a new level, where do you turn? “For some companies that want to sell on eBay, it is worth hiring an expert consultant who has already gone where you want to go, and who can help you to get there,” says David Yaskulka of Blueberry Boutique. Not surprisingly, Yaskulka acts as a consultant for other eBay sellers himself.
“The beauty of eBay is you can test your concept and put toes in water,” says Yaskulka. “Sophisticated branding is very important in our niche, but we didn’t have a professional design for eight months after we started selling on eBay.”
Not only that, but you can—and should—start out with only a small investment. “In fact, I don’t recommend a lot of investment,” says Yaskulka. “I recommend capping your investment at a couple of hundred bucks and trying it out to see if you have the potential for success. At a certain stage it often makes sense to say, ‘I’ve got something here, I want to grow it in the best possible way.’ Hiring an expert can help you do that.”
“There really aren’t that many secrets to running a business on eBay (other than revealing who our suppliers are); our goal is always 100 percent customer satisfaction,” says Jon Stein. “We have a very liberal return policy. Our main criteria is, we will accept returned items if they are in a new or resellable condition. It can’t be half of a package of dog cookies that has already been opened, for instance. I would also provide not just a phone number but 9 to 5 customer service Monday through Friday, at a minimum.”
While eBay is the biggest marketplace on the Web and the biggest auction seller online, other outlets exist. Jake’s is, in fact, expanding to open storefronts with Overstock.com (http://www.overstock.com) and Amazon.com’s Marketplace. Overstock doesn’t have as many members as eBay, but it charges lower fees than eBay, and a growing number of sellers are attracted to such alternatives. “I think the best is yet to come,” concludes Jon Stein. “We are just starting to see inroads made with sites like Overstock. Quite honestly, our web site is our most mature sales venue, and eBay is second, but other sites are worth looking at as well.”
FIGURE 11-8 Once you are established on eBay, consider expanding to other auction sites.Lessons Learned in This Chapter
- Even if you sell in a popular category like DVDs and VHS movies,
- you can be competitive if you find a supplier who can provide you with items that are unusual and hard to find in retail stores, and that come in wide variety.
- Many sellers use drop-shippers to build up their sales volume: Such companies sell you merchandise but don’t ship it to you. When someone buys the merchandise from you, the drop-shipper sends it out, so you never have to deal with the inventory.
- If you have a programmer on staff or can find one who is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, you can create custom solutions that automatically list your items and manage sales for you.
- Don’t purchase merchandise from a wholesale supplier unless you research it first on eBay to see if there’s a demand for it, and what the market will bear.
- When you sell something you love and that personally interests you, it’s easier to devote the time and effort needed to complete transactions and develop web sites and other sales channels.
- An auction service provider can help you ramp up your sales substantially. But choose your provider carefully: ask for references and try out a demo version to make sure the software does what you want.
- Once you are established on eBay, consider developing your own web site so you can deal directly with customers.
- eBay sales can also be supplemented by other outlets like Overstock.com and Amazon.com.
