eBay Seller Profit

[Tigris]

Hi guys,

are there any ebay sellers here making £5-£10 profit per sale on replenishable/wholesale stock?

I am struggling to source and when I have searched wholesalers and looked at ebay fees etc i'de be lucky to make 50p profit.

I know in the US a lot of sellers use thrift stores but here in the UK we usually get very small charity shops but nothing like the US. My other option is import stock from overseas.

Thanks

 

[AlanJ1]

You need to find a market that is different to what is already out there.

eBay is flooded with hundreds of sellers looking at wholesalers etc looking to make anything they can.

I have 6 brands on eBay we distribute all making £10+ per item.

 

[Tigris]

You need to find a market that is different to what is already out there.

eBay is flooded with hundreds of sellers looking at wholesalers etc looking to make anything they can.

I have 6 brands on eBay we distribute all making £10+ per item.

I did think about going straight to the manufacturer

 

[AlanJ1]

I did think about going straight to the manufacturer

You need to think why a manufacturer would supply you than going through there distribution/wholesale channels and making you buy from them?

We are a distributor ourselves and eBay is <1% of the business in terms of new items sold.

I don't mean to sound rude at all, more advice. But you need to think about what you can offer that is different, what it looks like you are trying to do, thousands of others are doing it. (I am not saying don't go ahead and try it, however it is a very competitive space). Find a USP/niche you can offer and use that to your advantage.

 

[Tigris]

You need to think why a manufacturer would supply you than going through there distribution/wholesale channels and making you buy from them?

We are a distributor ourselves and eBay is <1% of the business in terms of new items sold.

I don't mean to sound rude at all, more advice. But you need to think about what you can offer that is different, what it looks like you are trying to do, thousands of others are doing it. (I am not saying don't go ahead and try it, however it is a very competitive space). Find a USP/niche you can offer and use that to your advantage.

Gets very frustrating but I guess that's business. Comparing costs from various companies/suppliers overseas and sold prices on ebay it appears they are already selling on ebay as theres no room for profit (on the products i've checked anyway).

 

[AlanJ1]

Gets very frustrating but I guess that's business. Comparing costs from various companies/suppliers overseas and sold prices on ebay it appears they are already selling on ebay as theres no room for profit (on the products i've checked anyway).

That's because what you are doing literally thousands upon thousands of others are doing it. They will also have access to better pricing in terms of item costs as well as postage costs than you have. My postage costs versus the price some people get quoted from the same courier is sometimes more than half of what they are being quoted, just because of the volume.

We get asked all day every day for online sellers to drop ship or sell our product on the usual eBay/Amazon channels. But there is very little added value for us to add these sellers and flood the market. Now if they came to me and said, I will also be doing X, X and X then I am more open to a conversation.

 

[Mr D]

Yes, its uncommon for me but yes am making between £5 and £10 profit per sale on wholesale stock.
£10 profit would be on a £30 ish item - wholesale price probably about £8 to £12.

You need to move away from the £5 - £10 range if wanting bigger profits per sale.

Or else embrace the 50p profit and make it part of very large number of sales.

Tons of UK suppliers you can buy from. Plenty of wholesalers with warehouses you can look round too - many towns and cities appear to have specialist wholesalers.

First figure out what you want to sell. Then figure out who are the major suppliers out there for that type of product.

There's stuff out there that some people buy at £10 and sell for £15. It works for them but as a method of making a decent profit it stinks unless doing massive sales.
So figure out what price you can set for an item.

You say 50p is too little. So price accordingly and work out what you need, figure out the price to get that and set it.
Don't bother about someone else's price. They are not paying your bills.

 

[madeads]

What you need to keep in mind with eBay is that it's a race to the bottom price-wise due to heavy competition, especially if you're selling something that anyone can also source via wholesalers.

Even if you were to import your stock from overseas, for example Alibaba, then it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have any kind of advantage, because obviously there will be other sellers doing the same thing.

As a long-term goal, selling something that can be easily sourced by others is not ideal, because all you are doing is just competing on price. However, if you could take that stock product and somehow make it better by adding certain alterations to it, then you'll have a competitive advantage and could sell it for MORE.

 

[Mr D]

What you need to keep in mind with eBay is that it's a race to the bottom price-wise due to heavy competition, especially if you're selling something that anyone can also source via wholesalers.

Even if you were to import your stock from overseas, for example Alibaba, then it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have any kind of advantage, because obviously there will be other sellers doing the same thing.

As a long-term goal, selling something that can be easily sourced by others is not ideal, because all you are doing is just competing on price. However, if you could take that stock product and somehow make it better by adding certain alterations to it, then you'll have a competitive advantage and could sell it for MORE.

Its only a race to the bottom price wise for those who chase the demographic who want lower prices.
They aren't the only demographic out there.

Can compete on stuff other than price. Purchased some stuff this week, ordered Thursday and delivered yesterday. Higher price than the 30 to 45 days delivery from some sellers that were cheaper.
Useful now rather than saving a couple of quid and being useful late August.

 

[MBE2017]

While I agree with a lot of what madeads has said above, the one point I disagree with him is regarding price. Due to competition ebay can be a race to the bottom, IF YOU join in. The trick is working out your costs, the profit you want, and then asking for it.

I have sold goods on eBay, rarely less than a 75% mark up, normally at least doubling, and services, such as courier work. Whilst most got £60 per day for deliveries, I asked and got £60hr.

Better adverts, more testimonials, better calls to action etc all play a part, but the most important factor is YOUR asking for a sensible margin, expecting it and demanding it. You might not sell 100 items a day, but the 5/10 you do sell will make you money.

I’ve lost count of the people telling me I cannot sell at a decent mark up on eBay, I just ignore them and carry on. It is the same on markets, other traders used to laugh at my daily weekly targets, they took the view you get what walks past your stall. In reality, you get what you work for. Same exact item can sell for cost or double, I know which mark up I prefer.

 

[Mr D]

While I agree with a lot of what madeads has said above, the one point I disagree with him is regarding price. Due to competition ebay can be a race to the bottom, IF YOU join in. The trick is working out your costs, the profit you want, and then asking for it.

I have sold goods on eBay, rarely less than a 75% mark up, normally at least doubling, and services, such as courier work. Whilst most got £60 per day for deliveries, I asked and got £60hr.

Better adverts, more testimonials, better calls to action etc all play a part, but the most important factor is YOUR asking for a sensible margin, expecting it and demanding it. You might not sell 100 items a day, but the 5/10 you do sell will make you money.

I’ve lost count of the people telling me I cannot sell at a decent mark up on eBay, I just ignore them and carry on. It is the same on markets, other traders used to laugh at my daily weekly targets, they took the view you get what walks past your stall. In reality, you get what you work for. Same exact item can sell for cost or double, I know which mark up I prefer.

And you work a lot less for the money!

 

[madeads]

While I agree with a lot of what madeads has said above, the one point I disagree with him is regarding price. Due to competition ebay can be a race to the bottom, IF YOU join in. The trick is working out your costs, the profit you want, and then asking for it.

I have sold goods on eBay, rarely less than a 75% mark up, normally at least doubling, and services, such as courier work. Whilst most got £60 per day for deliveries, I asked and got £60hr.

Better adverts, more testimonials, better calls to action etc all play a part, but the most important factor is YOUR asking for a sensible margin, expecting it and demanding it. You might not sell 100 items a day, but the 5/10 you do sell will make you money.

I’ve lost count of the people telling me I cannot sell at a decent mark up on eBay, I just ignore them and carry on. It is the same on markets, other traders used to laugh at my daily weekly targets, they took the view you get what walks past your stall. In reality, you get what you work for. Same exact item can sell for cost or double, I know which mark up I prefer.

It's all well and good sticking to your prices and charging a decent margin, so you're not making pennies, but unless you're selling something which is not widely available, then you have to take into account the prices that your competition is charging.

If your overall product package is unique in some way, then yes, you have an advantage, but if you are selling the same thing as everyone else, then you won't survive for long by charging more for exactly the same thing.

You might have better product images, more reviews, be a top-rated seller, but all those things fall apart, when someone starts cutting you on price.

The extent to which your selling performance will be affected due to the above will heavily depend on the demand of the product you're selling and the number of competitors.

So in cases where there's good demand and not many sellers, then you may get away by charging more while selling the same thing. However, if the product has lowish demand and quite a few sellers with the same stock, then your high pricing will kill your sales.

 

[Mr D]

It's all well and good sticking to your prices and charging a decent margin, so you're not making pennies, but unless you're selling something which is not widely available, then you have to take into account the prices that your competition is charging.

If your overall product package is unique in some way, then yes, you have an advantage, but if you are selling the same thing as everyone else, then you won't survive for long by charging more for exactly the same thing.

You might have better product images, more reviews, be a top-rated seller, but all those things fall apart, when someone starts cutting you on price.

The extent to which your selling performance will be affected due to the above will heavily depend on the demand of the product you're selling and the number of competitors.

So in cases where there's good demand and not many sellers, then you may get away by charging more while selling the same thing. However, if the product has lowish demand and quite a few sellers with the same stock, then your high pricing will kill your sales.

Why take account of what competition are charging?

Is outsourcing the pricing of your products to your competitors a good business strategy? They may be happy with 50p an item for a certain item while you may make a loss at that price.

I'll take your comment about "but if you are selling the same thing as everyone else, then you won't survive for long by charging more for exactly the same thing." with a pinch of salt.

Been charging more than some people for over 20 years. Multiple different businesses, hundreds of thousands of items sold. While as you say I won't survive long. And for my best selling items on ebay, the ones producing 80% of my sales, I'm usually the most expensive seller.



Which would you rather have for sale? An Apple item that is in demand worldwide or a niche item so new that no one else stocks it?

Look on ebay, amazon, indeed any of the major selling sites. See what is selling.
Mass produced stuff you can buy in hundreds or thousands of places?

Look in the supermarkets at their non food stuff. Lots of stuff available at many other places?

Look in the high street shops. Lots of stuff available at many other places?

There's a niche for the 'no one else sells the item' businesses. Lot of time and effort compared to providing what people want!

 

[madeads]

Why take account of what competition are charging?

Is outsourcing the pricing of your products to your competitors a good business strategy? They may be happy with 50p an item for a certain item while you may make a loss at that price.

I'll take your comment about "but if you are selling the same thing as everyone else, then you won't survive for long by charging more for exactly the same thing." with a pinch of salt.

Been charging more than some people for over 20 years. Multiple different businesses, hundreds of thousands of items sold. While as you say I won't survive long. And for my best selling items on ebay, the ones producing 80% of my sales, I'm usually the most expensive seller.

Which would you rather have for sale? An Apple item that is in demand worldwide or a niche item so new that no one else stocks it?

Look on ebay, amazon, indeed any of the major selling sites. See what is selling.
Mass produced stuff you can buy in hundreds or thousands of places?

Look in the supermarkets at their non food stuff. Lots of stuff available at many other places?

Look in the high street shops. Lots of stuff available at many other places?

There's a niche for the 'no one else sells the item' businesses. Lot of time and effort compared to providing what people want!

This is exactly the reason why I mentioned product demand vs competition in my last paragraph of the previous reply.

You're not outsourcing your prices to your competition, but you're making sure that you're positioned as a viable seller, at least price-wise (which is a huge indicator on its own), because otherwise why would someone pay £10-£20 or £30 more for an X product, if there are cheaper sellers offering the same thing? We are talking about professional sellers, not private guys.

As I previously mentioned, if the product you're selling has 2-3 other guys competing with you, then your pricing is not really a big deal, but you won't get away with charging whatever you want, ignoring the competition, for items that have a lot more sellers with the same product.

 

[Mr D]

This is exactly the reason why I mentioned product demand vs competition in my last paragraph of the previous reply.

You're not outsourcing your prices to your competition, but you're making sure that you're positioned as a viable seller, at least price-wise (which is a huge indicator on its own), because otherwise why would someone pay £10-£20 or £30 more for an X product, if there are cheaper sellers offering the same thing? We are talking about professional sellers, not private guys.

As I previously mentioned, if the product you're selling has 2-3 other guys competing with you, then your pricing is not really a big deal, but you won't get away with charging whatever you want, ignoring the competition, for items that have a lot more sellers with the same product.

Yet what you are doing is pricing based on what your competition is charging, which is effectively outsourcing your pricing to them.
They get to decide what price you will use. Rather than you basing it on your costs plus an amount for profit.

A viable seller is one who is able to sell. Chasing the customers who want the lowest price is a fools game, you are tied to customers who will have no loyalty to you and you cannot put your prices up even when your costs go up unless your competitors also put their prices up.

I can increase my prices by 20p and still sell. I know that because its what I did earlier this year. And indeed a price increase gets done every year. My costs tend to rise - you know, insurance, item price, packaging etc.
My cheapest competitor increasing his prices by 20p? He'll be immediately the 11th cheapest on one item and won't get people who want the cheapest buying from him. He's trapped by the customer demographic he chooses to chase.

Oh and my items? Usually a few hundred to a few thousand competitors with exact same item. Stuff from the big suppliers in the particular trade, places with thousands of customers. And stuff that may have a dozen or more wholesalers selling exact same item to hundreds of shops and internet sellers in their area / online.

There's quite a lot of us sellers who sell what customers want. Stuff that we have hundreds or thousands of competitors selling the same.
And setting our own prices, not outsourcing to competitors. Some of these sellers have been selling for decades. What do they know about selling? They are 'but if you are selling the same thing as everyone else, then you won't survive for long by charging more for exactly the same thing.'

 

[MBE2017]

if the product you're selling has 2-3 other guys competing with you, then your pricing is not really a big deal, but you won't get away with charging whatever you want, ignoring the competition, for items that have a lot more sellers with the same product.

Well, I’ve done it in mobile phones, transport, courier work, removals, electrical wholesale etc, for over forty years. Where your theory falls down is simple, if you try to compete on price rather than other things, if you look at what the opposition charges rather than what you need to make to be profitable, how well does it work if they are selling at a loss? Plenty of companies sell at a loss, or have access to prices and deals that other companies can never dream of obtaining.

Every business needs to decide their own rate and take responsibility for it. I always try to be the most expensive in what I do and go for the quality end of the market. Almost every major brand does the same in their industries, BA, Virgin, Sky etc. They sell the sizzle, not the sausage, hence price is not as important as people always think.

 

[RobinBHM]

The problem I find as a buyer on eBay is that a search often returns pages of results, most of sellers have the exact same product that obviously originated in China. And the price is mostly within a few pence.

I mostly choose to buy from the seller with the most detailed description and the postage / price break etc that suits me best.

Often I find many sellers don't have detailed measurements or spec, so you can't be very confident the product is what you want.

 

[Mr D]

That's due to the fact what you're doing actuallylots upon lots of others are doing it. They may also have get admission to to higher pricing in phrases of objectexpensesin addition to postage expenses than you have. My postage expensesas opposed to the chargea fewhuman beings get quoted from the equal courier is every now and thenextra than 1/2 of of what they're being quoted, simplydue to the volume.

Admission to higher pricing?
Phrases of object expenses?

The charge a few human beings get quoted?

Not making a lot of sense.

You set your pricing. Hopefully only humans get quoted stuff.

 

[Karimbo]

Very good thread.

I can't tell other people what to do and what not to do. Here is my plan, I'm green at retail, my main business was b2b events and because of lockdown I'm looking at other things.

My ultimate goal is to sell on my website. On your websites you can have better copy, better pictures and sell for much more.

I have seen a product that sells for $1 on alibaba. That is sold for £4 on ebay, £7 on the cheapest websites. On the #1 ranking site on google, they're selling it for £18. The #1 site has 3 employees dedicated the photography and video (I checked on their about us page, they have all their staff on there).

Good photos are KING. Good photos can make products look much more expensive than they really are. Amazing photos can make a $1 item look like a good deal at £18!

In order to invest the time and money on excellent photos and stock you need to get products that you can re-order and restock. Preferably evergreen items that aren't fads and can be sold year round. I would not get into catalogue returns or other overstock sales - you'll be taking all these photos as one offs.

The problem with ebay is you have to compete on price. You can't stand out as a premium seller with more expensive prices with amazing photography because for any search there are 10,000 listings and the ones who can sell the fastest get top search results.

I used to sell items on ebay. I used to sell LED strip profiles. Was a good item that people would often order to 20x or 30x units at a time. But the problem was I would sell in waves. Weeks would go by with no sales and then ebay will bump my listing to the top and I'd have a flood of orders. Then the orders would dry up for a few weeks. It was annoying.

 

[Karimbo]

This is why it's so crucial to have your own platform where you can sell consistently. Ebay will mess around with the algorithm to maximise their revenue. They will swap around who gets top spot so they can maximise their revenue. They like fast selling items, and fast selling items tend to be the one selling for the cheapest.

 

[Mr D]

Very good thread.

I can't tell other people what to do and what not to do. Here is my plan, I'm green at retail, my main business was b2b events and because of lockdown I'm looking at other things.

My ultimate goal is to sell on my website. On your websites you can have better copy, better pictures and sell for much more.

I have seen a product that sells for $1 on alibaba. That is sold for £4 on ebay, £7 on the cheapest websites. On the #1 ranking site on google, they're selling it for £18. The #1 site has 3 employees dedicated the photography and video (I checked on their about us page, they have all their staff on there).

Good photos are KING. Good photos can make products look much more expensive than they really are. Amazing photos can make a $1 item look like a good deal at £18!

In order to invest the time and money on excellent photos and stock you need to get products that you can re-order and restock. Preferably evergreen items that aren't fads and can be sold year round. I would not get into catalogue returns or other overstock sales - you'll be taking all these photos as one offs.

The problem with ebay is you have to compete on price. You can't stand out as a premium seller with more expensive prices with amazing photography because for any search there are 10,000 listings and the ones who can sell the fastest get top search results.

I used to sell items on ebay. I used to sell LED strip profiles. Was a good item that people would often order to 20x or 30x units at a time. But the problem was I would sell in waves. Weeks would go by with no sales and then ebay will bump my listing to the top and I'd have a flood of orders. Then the orders would dry up for a few weeks. It was annoying.

Indeed.
You have a couple of seconds to capture interest online. The shop makes use of product placement, advertising etc.
The online seller has perhaps spent 20 minutes writing great copy about the item. And has a poor photo.
No one reads the copy, sees the photo and interest not captured. Moves on, no sale.

The title may draw someone in - the pictures are a far better draw.

Poor photo or bad presentation - no reason for the buyer to purchase.