Can you make money on ebay?

[VSpy1]

Was just curious really, as I know a few people that say ebay doesnt return the profits it once did.. in fact I know people who used to ebay full time but now have to supplement their activities with other paid work...

Why is this?

Is this because the money men have took over and bought in massive bulk and pushed the prices down, so your average trader can't compete?

Is it because there's so much and choice so its hard to stand out?

What products do you sell - and if starting now, would you sell the same - or would you do something different?

Was just turning it over in my head!

 

[ITsoldUK]

I know one guy very well and he makes a very good living selling ephemera et al.

He has been on there since 2000 and is still going strong.

So yes, in this marketplace it can be done.

New, white goods....that is another matter entirely.

Regards
Daren

 

[Chris34]

I earn a living from Ebay now but for the first few years I made losses while I learned the ropes of business, costing, pricing etc. I have to say that I think it's easier now to make money than it has ever been over the last 4 years. The quality of customer has improved so you can actually price a realistic price that gives you a profit and still get the sale.

I think the ones that you hear that say 'it's not like it used to be' had a strategy where they just aimed to be cheapest on price. This strategy was bound to fail as years ago they might have had say 20 serious competitors, now they might have 100 serious competitors in the same market. Only 1 out of them 100 can be cheapest. Unless you own the brand name for the product then it's highly unlikely you will be the cheapest and still make a profit.

So yes you can make money but, and this is a big BUT, if you don't have any sense of other strategies to make money other than trying to be the cheapest then IMO Ebay is not for you.



Chris.

 

[VSpy1]

I hear you, and it makes sense - but what about:

you sell an item for years - for example - a digital photoframe (made up!) for £20...you do this by buying 100 at a time at cost of £10 - all for example!

Then along comes someone with deep pockets and buys 1000 of them at a cost of £5 - they can then sell them for £17 - so undercutting your price by £5 BUT still making MORE profit then you...

 

[Chris34]

Well clearly if your strategy was to compete on price then you would be worried and would be forced to reduce your price which is why I say this strategy won't work. If you are not using this strategy then you would not be bothered by your new competitor.

To give you an idea, I sell products up to 3 times the price of some of my competitors. I rarely check what my competitors are doing, what prices they charge, I just look at my own figures and adjust my own prices going off customer demand. The more sales I get the more I put up the price, the less sales I get the more I reduce the price. I never over react though, sometimes I can sell nothing of one product for 3 months, then suddenly I can get 3 sales in a week. I just work off long term averages.

I think if you watch your competitors all the time then you lose sight of what your own business is about.


Chris.



Chris.

 

[VSpy1]

Interesting comments - thanks. I agree with most of your comments but I also think you should always keep an eye your competitors... Can I ask what sector you are in out of curiosity?

 

[Alan]

Interesting comments about not being price sensitive, and I too would like to know what sector you are in.

Now I'm only on e-bay to get rid of stock from a business that didn't work for me.

The market I was in had a dozen (so not many) established names, and despite offerring better service than the dozen, the customer feed back was that what they really liked was my free postage when the others didn't offer it (which is a price sensitivity thing). Unfortunately the average order margin was not really enough to make free postage viable (thats why the others didn't offer it), so when I introduced low cost postage (still cheaper) the USP died and so did the orders.

So net result was the only (working) USP was unaffordable, hence e-bay the stock and get out of the business. My experience on e-bay is that if I try and sell at just below RRP I get no sales, if I sell at 50% off, despite this being a very niche product set, I get more orders than I can handle (and of course a variation proportionate with other discount)

The conclusion I have come to, without keeping an eye on the competitors, is that retail customers are very very price sensitive, even in niche specialist sectors.

 

[Chris34]

Please don't take offence but I'm not willing to say what sector I am in as although it's unlikely that anyone reading this information would set up in competition in my sector, I cannot guarantee that no one would set up in competition and more importantly I have nothing to gain and everything to lose by providing that information no matter how small the risk might be.

I do think though that I can apply the same pricing strategy to most sectors. I must make it clear though that the sales strategy is not based on price. Over the last year I have had about 3,500 sales and even though there are other sellers selling the same product cheaper than me (sometimes they are selling at a third of my price) I have not had anyone complain about my prices. I have not even had anyone ask why my price is higher than somebody elses.

Another thing to point out is that I don't go off and buy a new line and then start selling it. I first analyse the market and then decide whether the product will fit in with my strategy.

I also don't do free postage. I charge £5 for all products that cost £2 to £2.50 to deliver.

To put simply there are lots of different strategies that you can use but the cheapest price strategy is the most popular strategy used and as such is the most likely to fail as there can only be one winner.

I often see lots of Ebayers sending out lots of parcels, sometimes van loads of them, when I see them I always remind myself that they might be making next to nothing and competing on price. Looks can be deceiving but I've seen and heard enough to know the most likely reality.



Chris.

 

[bigt41gopeay]

It all depends on what market you in...but you could make good money on ebay a lot of people i know do it for years already and still profiting today

 

[importexportcoach]

Hi!

Making money with Ebay is entirely possible, but one has to be realistic. As with any other business, to be successful requires real work. There are many sellers who join Ebay, and think that all they have to do is post a few items for sale and boom... they make money. It just doesn't work that way for most. Footwork, research, processing, photography, education, listing, accounting, and shipping. You will not make money by doing nothing. You can, however make money if you are willing to work at it.

Hope this helps!

 

Chris talks a lot of Sense,
Ebay has so many sellers you will either compete on price, which is bad and short term
or
Quality of listing ,presentation and service (All stuff that in the customers mind add value)
Find something niche if possible, even a drop ship, I would personally approach a company that had no previous plan to drop ship so you are not competing with many others.
High value, say electronic something or other, decent margin, use the professional shop applications and you can probably make it work, do not plan to make lots early as it will not happen and you should be fine. I have sold in the past on ebay over 100k of stuff, but I should have chosen something else, in future I will have a strategy from day 1.

Its on my list of to dos, just a case of having a look around at some stage there WILL be products out there that this is ideal for, presentation is a huge part.

Actually I have just had an idea...

 

[prjbicell]

Can anyone make money on E-Bay? Well I dont use the site but I can tell you that a woman that goes to my wifes church sells personalised sweets on there. You know, like for weddings and b'days etc. Well she did not tell my wife exactly how much she makes on there but she did let slip her last years postage costs were in excess of £70K
If her profits are anywhere near her postage costs then I would say too right you can make money

 

[2trueservices]

For me Ebay use to be a gold mine but the paypal charges and ebay fee's just kept going up and up ( i must say this is when i use to sell goods) so for me it became very hard to make a good profit. Saying that i am sure there are lot's of people\business that make a killing still.

 

[VSpy1]

Is it true that its harder to sell one or two items compared to having hundreds listed - due to exposure, searches and sales? The more you have / do, the higher up the search results you are?

 

[Janusol]

Im currently 2 months into starting up an ebay trading company. It's a lot of time to read and educate yourself. Then you shouldn't underestimate the time and cost of setting the business up - at the moment Im in the process of selling large quantities of items at break-even, but until you establish a rolling 30 day feedback profile that is in the high 90% mark, plus get at least a couple of hundred feedbacks in total, then you won't be able to get anywhere near the top of search results - unless you are selling extremely rare/unusual items.
i agree with Chris, the selling price is fairly immaterial as long as its reasonable - especially for low end products. People will happily pay extra for a feeling of safety/reassurance in the seller, a quality/professional looking advert, and other reassuring things.

The main difficulty is spending a few months building up to Top-Seller, and this could even take a year or so given the selling volume limits ebay places on newer accounts or ones without close to 100% feedback.

The other comment is that every website I read says that free postage is ranked higher in search results - most probably because ebay makes a margin on postage then, but won't if you price postage separately.

If you're serious about selling on ebay, then set aside 6 to 12 months of earning no profit, a small working capital fund of maybe £500 to £1,000 as a minimum, and educate yourself daily on what is and isn't working.

Its much harder than selling on the high st, but then there are little or few fixed costs, so of course the market is HIGHLY competitive.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[thelegalstop]

Ebay is generally a good marketplace, however the competition is now quite big and also the fees are not so low. But I guess if one has good products, it is possible to succeed. I`d go for an e-commerce website probably, though.

 

[Daxo]

With the greatest of respect it does sound like you may not be employing the most efficient strategy if you consider it could take 6-12 months before earning any profit on ebay.

Further, your assertion that it could take in excess of a year to achieve TRS status is a little naive. This (amongst other comments you made) again leads me to believe your ebay strategy is somewhat flawed.

With the right products, strategy and techniques it is very possible to record profits on ebay almost immediately and certainly well inside 6 months.

Im currently 2 months into starting up an ebay trading company. It's a lot of time to read and educate yourself. Then you shouldn't underestimate the time and cost of setting the business up - at the moment Im in the process of selling large quantities of items at break-even, but until you establish a rolling 30 day feedback profile that is in the high 90% mark, plus get at least a couple of hundred feedbacks in total, then you won't be able to get anywhere near the top of search results - unless you are selling extremely rare/unusual items.
i agree with Chris, the selling price is fairly immaterial as long as its reasonable - especially for low end products. People will happily pay extra for a feeling of safety/reassurance in the seller, a quality/professional looking advert, and other reassuring things.

The main difficulty is spending a few months building up to Top-Seller, and this could even take a year or so given the selling volume limits ebay places on newer accounts or ones without close to 100% feedback.

The other comment is that every website I read says that free postage is ranked higher in search results - most probably because ebay makes a margin on postage then, but won't if you price postage separately.

If you're serious about selling on ebay, then set aside 6 to 12 months of earning no profit, a small working capital fund of maybe £500 to £1,000 as a minimum, and educate yourself daily on what is and isn't working.

Its much harder than selling on the high st, but then there are little or few fixed costs, so of course the market is HIGHLY competitive.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Janusol]

Daxo

My strategy may be flawed and certainly no expert as yet. But I thought it might be useful to share my experience to date. I've had plenty of success selling on a personal scale, but set this new account up solely as a trading entity.

 

[VSpy1]

So....if you had to start again, and you have an interest in several categories - would you:

A. just pick one category for now

B. open a generic store and sell all the different things

C. Open several stores or ids to sell in different categories? Do buyers respond better to someone selling in one category believing them to be more of an expert?

 

[nzt48]

It is absolutely possible to make money on Ebay. I have made a profit from day one, the most important thing i have come to learn is that it is all about finding the niche products with low competition. If you can do that, and find a reliable supplier for them, you will do well. The hard part is finding them though

 

[VSpy1]

Tis like the golden ticket!

 

[nerijus]

Yes you can. Just need to find a niche. The best way would be turning you hobby into business. I have done some selling on ebay using my photography experience. wasn't bad, but just took too much time. But if you can make enough profit then I would say ebay business can be successful.

 

[VSpy1]

I have several areas of interest, but without a fairly hefty buying power I dont think I would be able to compete initially - until I generated some sales and demonstrated my service etc... as I wouldn't be able to get low prices..... An alternative is to source individual items that I think I can turn a profit on, the competition will be less.. hope that makes sense?

 

[Daxo]

I have several areas of interest, but without a fairly hefty buying power I dont think I would be able to compete initially - until I generated some sales and demonstrated my service etc... as I wouldn't be able to get low prices..... An alternative is to source individual items that I think I can turn a profit on, the competition will be less.. hope that makes sense?

Yes there are some areas where you need to have great buying power, but a lot of the time this is not the case. It's just a question of finding the supplier who is closest to the start of the distribution chain so you can get more competitive prices and avoiding those who are getting the products 3rd or 4th down the chain. Better yet if you can find the manufacturer.

 

[VSpy1]

Hmmmmm........food for thought!

 

[vvaannmmaann]

Can you make money on ebay?

Pierre Omidyar does.

 

[VSpy1]

This is true although he did lose $5b from 2010 to 2011 - my heart bleeds!

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

There are a few niche markets on eBay but the vast majority of them are volume based at low prices with very thin margins.

Established 'eBayers' may have an infrastructure set up to chug along nicely, but new members joining eBay these days and going on to make a primary source of income from it will be few and far between - especially in the UK.

 

[VSpy1]

There are a few niche markets on eBay but the vast majority of them are volume based at low prices with very thin margins.

Established 'eBayers' may have an infrastructure set up to chug along nicely, but new members joining eBay these days and going on to make a primary source of income from it will be few and far between - especially in the UK.

Now I tend to agree with you here unless you can produce or combine and package something useful...

I know a few people still making money from buying at auctions and charity shops and selling online...but you have to know your onions etc..

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Now I tend to agree with you here unless you can produce or combine and package something useful...

I know a few people still making money from buying at auctions and charity shops and selling online...but you have to know your onions etc..

"making money" is the key term here. Plenty of people can supplement their income by selling on eBay, but using it as a full-time job to make a respectable salary is a whole different kettle of fish.

 

[Esk247]

imo its very very hard to establish yourself on any of the big selling platforms at the moment. They're looking saturated to me, we've seen our earnings drop because of the competition, lots of it, in every department. Where we had 3/4 competitors we now have up to 20 competitors all vying for position based on price alone.

Trying to set yourself apart on eBay or any other market place is difficult because they take any personality away. All the product listings look the same, people won't know anything about you until they click on your listing.

 

[Jpro]

Has Ebay much functionality for advertising within the platform itself. If for instance your competitors are ranking higher than you within the search of your product, for example, phone cases, it may be because they have invested in paid search advertising etc. It would be interesting to see a comparison of somebody who does advertise their Ebay shop against somebody who doesn't, the ROI would no doubt be worthwhile. Search optimization will play a huge part as well I would imagine, what is the keyword density people are working at?

Regards,
James

Regards,
James

 

[VSpy1]

It seems ebay have removed their Pulse section - I asked why, they said there was no demand for it!

Hmmm......I smell something fishy!

 

[Talay]

From a consumer's perspective, I may be able to offer my thoughts.

I was looking for a radiator for a bathroom and ended up on ebay. In fact, a lot of B&M retailers actually sell through ebay as well for these products.

What struct me was how badly designed the ebay stores were, even compared to the same company's website. Granted, some websites were disastrous as well.

My feeling was that I was reluctant to spend a couple of hundred quid with someone whose presentation looked as though it had been cobbled together by a 10 year old.

Now were I in the business of selling these products, I wouldn't necessarily try to have the best price but I would invest in my presentation and have a top notch ebay shop mirroring a top notch website.

Thus, even if I didn't have much spare cash, I could probably get a website sorted out via some form of ongoing cost, perhaps with a commission based incentive (?) and that fellow should also be adapt at the ebay side of things as well. Then all I'd have to do would be to source a good supplier who could drop ship under my name and I'd have no need for inventory costs. A bit of printing for new names for the products and my guess is that we'd be in business or thereabouts.

Profitability should be from first sale near enough and like the sofa centres, having your own brand name would mean that your products were never sold elsewhere, giving you that massive "never undersold" advertising tag.

I know there'd be some hiccups along the way but it isn't far off a viable plan.