Ebay Shop

[voyage]

I am looking into launching a Ebay Shop at the end of January early Feburary and I am trying to look into everything as much as I can. I wondered if any of you have a ebay shop or are a big ebay seller.
If you are, is there a website you can recommmend, any tools that will be of use or just some helpful tips and words of advice, would be really appreciated.

Many Thanks:redface:

 

[viperek]

all i can advise You look at the ebay and paypal fees its like 9,4% on ebay and 3% on paypal ? i dont remmember but worth checking out because You wont calculate your profit without them.

 

[paulears]

You can't really produce a proper figure for ebay charges that is reliable because of relisting fees - and sometimes they change for business sellers, and there are odd specials that I always seem to miss. The biggest drawback is the amount of time it takes to keep one going, so you don't advertise things you've sold out of - and I've personally never quite got the hang of copying and pasting html between listings - I always wreck the formatting.

 

[Gary Hornby]

Hi,

You are on the right track by looking into everything. Do your research on the products you want to sell and look at what similar products are selling for. eBay buyers are generally price sensitive so you will need to source your stock at basement prices to earn much of a return.

As the previous respondent says you need to be aware of fees. After listing/shop fees, final value fees, paypal fees, etc, you may lose 20%-25% of your sales price so you need to factor this in.

You also need good informative listings and, most importantly of all, good quality photographs.

Best of luck in your new venture!

Regards,
Gary

 

[TeaPea]

It's a great place to start with minimal cost,
I started on ebay & found we had a market, we then built a full e commerce site and we're currently in a the process of moving away from ebay as I believe with the money we'd save (paypal / ebay fees) we could spend on advertising the website and bringing in extra revenue this way.

 

[ssasani15]

With Ebay the key is to have front line products which will create a wealth of potential customers for your back-end products.

Just my 2cents

 

[Fitness Bug]

Read my post in a previos thread, and stay away, the fees are crippling, the customer service is nil, and Ebay is all for the buyer....be carefull and good luck

 

[zookx]

Ebay fees and restrictions on postage have really hit two of our clients this year. Both only have low volume sales and are in a niche market and now use their own websites to make sales.

It is possible to use paypal still, cut out the ebay side of tihngs and still have a shop on a low budget.

It really depends on what you are selling and how you think people will find your products.

 

[nathan@innovateconsulting]

eBay is an ok place to start - as mentioned previously, the fees can be crippling. However, eBay does get a lot of traffic so you are more likely to sell your products, even if your margins are low.

Try and use it to build an on-line presence, then make the move to running your own site once you have a following.