ebay site as startup...comments please

It is a good place to see if your product will sell and you will learn a bit about presentation and customer service.

In the end though, there's nothing like having your own shop.

From a personal perspective I do not "trust" a company which is ebay only (in the same way that I have doubts about companies that only use paypal for payment processing) and dont treat them as any differently to someone who is saying they are a private seller selling something "as new".

It may be a good way to test the market but I would think that if you then started up your own site that you would effectively be starting from scratch again.

Mmmm good question, and my business partner and I have aso been wrestling with this one!

We already have an online shop selling martial arts supplies, but are thinking of adding an ebay store as well as another channel for our humble wares!

Has anyone done this before, and if so did sales go up?

Kerry
--
www.TheMartialArtists.co.uk

WE considered doing this but felt the hassle would out weigh the profits and you are competing with people who don't have to pay VAT.

Just to add.

I started on ebay and then had the website made. I still use ebay and I have a steady turnover there. I use both the buy it now and run an auction alongside. As I supply only one product I dont use the shop thing.

It has been great for generating repeat business due to word of mouth. It also sends traffic to my site as my customers visit to read testimonials on the product. Alot of sales then come through the site as they can then purchase the item then and there. This cuts down on my expenses on ebay.

Arial

Ebay is a great way to start selling your products. The downside to ebay is that it is saturated with what I would call 'common products'. I am not sure if this is the correct phrase but by that I mean Electronics, Clothing, etc.

I think the most important thing about selling on ebay is to have a unique product as it is very unlikely that you will be able to undercut competitors in these 'common product' categories.

The thing I like most about ebay is that unlike on Google adwords where you have to pay for people to click onto your site, you do not have to on ebay. The other advantage on ebay is that everyone is on the same level, no ones takes favouritism over anyone else. This is great because it gives anyone a fair chance.

The best advice I can give on ebay is to have a clean, fresh and nice looking ebay page, and to carefully structure the keywords within your item description section as these keywords will determine whether you come up in a search. You can only enter a item description of around 60 characters so think carefully about what you are selling and what your customers are likely to search for when looking for a product like yours. For example if you are selling Goldfish, it may be worthwhile to use the keywords Goldfish and Gold Fish within your item description, as different people will spell it different ways and if you only enter Goldfish, and someone types in Gold Fish, guess what, they won't see your auction page. This is very important so spend some time seeing how others structure their item descriptions.

I hope this has helped!

I would definitely recommend having an ebay shop. I have my own website and an ebay shop and most of my sales are through ebay.

With your own website you have to spend a lot of time/money promoting it, but with ebay the marketing is already done for you and there are millions of existing customers to tempt with your product.

I started off using ebay and have produced my own website to give my business added credibility and this has definitely been the right thing to do for the products I sell.

I would agree that ebay is probably better for those selling slightly more unusual products as there are 101 people selling mainstream products e.g. dvds, cds for next to nothing.

Hi,

I agree with the person 'downinalbion'. If you are planning to sell common products then the market is pretty much covered, dominated by big players.

There is a big difference from having an ebay shop and a separate ecommerce website. On Ebay if your prices aren't dirt cheap then you probably won't stand a lot of chance of making money as Ebay is for peopl who are after dirt cheap prices unless you are selling rare / sought after items.

Where as if you had your own ecommerce store you could charge 'normal' prices giving you more of a profit and a better image too of your business - more of a real business.

Bye

Paresh