Tracking eBay Profits

[NoUserName]

Hello All,


I have traded on eBay as a hobby pretty much for years now but I feel its becoming more off a business, only problem is I don't have any business plans just a product and lots off it my main problem is I have over 100 listing and each items costs a different price and each makes a different profit anything from 10p to £10.


I want to find a way I can say I have made x amount today or month ect, Has anyone found a solution for this or had this problem their selves? My items also have the shipping feeds included and offer "free shipping " to boost sales.


At the moment I just log in a spreadsheet my spend and my eBay take and get the profit as long as I am in the green its fine but i ant to know in more detail how im doing and if I can expand more!


Thanks in advance!

 

[Scalloway]

1. Add up all your sales for the month
2. Add all your expenses for the month
3. Deduct expenses from sales

If you carry a stock of goods for sale you should add unsold stock at the beginning of the month to your expenses and deduct unsold stock at the end of the month.

 

[TPH1]

Why would you sell something for 10p profit?

 

[IanG]

For each of your 100 listings, you need to know what the item comes in at, what it costs to pack and ship, the fees and what it brings in.

That's a lot of work but it will give you a clear idea what each product is contributing to your business and whether they each stand alone in terms of the money invested and time taken to process.

Obviously the 10p items will compare less favourably assuming they take up equal amounts of your time and you've spent a comparable amount of money on buying the stock. Although if you've got free time, that's a judgement call. Personally I'd look to phase all those out as you aim to scale up the operation.

Unfortunately there's no other way of doing it - unless you know each product individually then you'll never break down that aggregate total. Its a worthwhile exercise though - it'll certainly give you some food for thought on whether stocking such a range of products is actually in your best interests.

 

[NoUserName]

1. Add up all your sales for the month
2. Add all your expenses for the month
3. Deduct expenses from sales

If you carry a stock of goods for sale you should add unsold stock at the beginning of the month to your expenses and deduct unsold stock at the end of the month.

This is practically what i do at the moment but it is not detailed enough for to to actually see whats making money.

Why would you sell something for 10p profit?

Why wouldn't you? im not after fame and fortune just a small income!

For each of your 100 listings, you need to know what the item comes in at, what it costs to pack and ship, the fees and what it brings in.

That's a lot of work but it will give you a clear idea what each product is contributing to your business and whether they each stand alone in terms of the money invested and time taken to process.

Obviously the 10p items will compare less favourably assuming they take up equal amounts of your time and you've spent a comparable amount of money on buying the stock. Although if you've got free time, that's a judgement call. Personally I'd look to phase all those out as you aim to scale up the operation.

Unfortunately there's no other way of doing it - unless you know each product individually then you'll never break down that aggregate total. Its a worthwhile exercise though - it'll certainly give you some food for thought on whether stocking such a range of products is actually in your best interests.

I know the cost off all items i sell but the cost if different for each item so i have over 100 items with a take home profit that will vary on multiple factors (if the buyer bought more than one, best offers,)

The plan if simply to bulk up this operation by at least 100% leading to more products and fingers crossed more sales, the profits will get bigger the bigger i scale up i am already seeing this from the last time i scaled up.

I get a feeling their is no easy way to do this its just simply got to be done manually? surely eBay should add a feature for this kind off simple task that every one needs to do, i guess if i want to know ive got to put the hours in and find out.

Thanks for the reply's

NoUserName

 

[IanG]

If they're coming in at different prices then those themselves are additional rows in your spreadsheet of what is going on.

That's more difficult for Ebay to because if you're paying different prices for things and selling them as a single item, you can't add one single price that it comes in at to work out the difference.

You might choose to keep it at one row but instead list the worst case markup, ie. when you paid the most for it, that way you know you're on the right side of it.

If you need more detail than that then you need to know each individual item.

And to go back to the question about the 10p ones, you might find that faffing about with spreadsheets vs your time brings that 10p listing down to zero anyway. In which case you don't need to track the 10p ones. There are loads of reasons why 10p profit per item is bad. Knowing what is going on being one, tying up money in stock that only returns 10p when it goes out being another (how much are you paying for the 10p items?). By the time you've amortised all your fixed costs you're probably negative.

That money could be spent on things which make a few quid, which is a better use of your capital. And you time. And your car. And your computer. etc.

 

[TPH1]

Why wouldn't you? im not after fame and fortune just a small income!



NoUserName

10p per item = a loss. You've taken the time so seek out a business forum, you must have some interest in business. Just think about how 10p could lead to any sort of income... The only way it would be possible is if:

1. You were shifting at least 300-400 units per day.
2. You had managed to find someone to work for you for free who was responsible for all administration, all picking and packing orders, all buying research, and all listing. In addition to this, you also require an insane amount of luck in order for none of these items to go lost in the post, get damaged, or lose popularity leading to overstock.

Just interested in the mentality of these kind of sellers that seemingly intentionally sell at a loss... I guess it's not intentional.

 

[SamStones]

It's eBay we're talking about here... Why on earth would anyone want to track their profit? It's all about sales sales sales, turnover and how many sacks you had to cram into your Saxo to go down the post office!

If eBay were to create such tracking ability they would probably lose half their sellers and associated turnover overnight. They would lose the 'bargain' hunter crowd altogether!

Seriously though, everyone's costs and needs are different. It wouldn't be hard to create a basic feature per item but the postage cost bit could get quite tricky. We wrote our own reports in php so it's worked out for us. It's certainly worth seeing a profit figure per order so you know what products to re purchase.

 

[14Steve14]

I may be a bit thick, but looking at your accounts at the end of the month would be a rough guide. That is of course if you do accounts. You know your stock costs, your selling costs, your packaging costs, total sold and stock value remaining. Its only rough, but it is a guide.

 

[NoUserName]

10p per item = a loss. You've taken the time so seek out a business forum, you must have some interest in business. Just think about how 10p could lead to any sort of income... The only way it would be possible is if:

1. You were shifting at least 300-400 units per day.
2. You had managed to find someone to work for you for free who was responsible for all administration, all picking and packing orders, all buying research, and all listing. In addition to this, you also require an insane amount of luck in order for none of these items to go lost in the post, get damaged, or lose popularity leading to overstock.

Just interested in the mentality of these kind of sellers that seemingly intentionally sell at a loss... I guess it's not intentional.

Yes i am interested in business, my 10p items are not amazing sellers but they are what attract the larger buyers im pretty sure about this even if i make a loss on some 10p sales i gain larger amounts on the other sales, i never intend to sell at a loss but i simply figure any profit is better than none but i do understand you couldn't base a business around this.

It's eBay we're talking about here... Why on earth would anyone want to track their profit? It's all about sales sales sales, turnover and how many sacks you had to cram into your Saxo to go down the post office!

If eBay were to create such tracking ability they would probably lose half their sellers and associated turnover overnight. They would lose the 'bargain' hunter crowd altogether!

Seriously though, everyone's costs and needs are different. It wouldn't be hard to create a basic feature per item but the postage cost bit could get quite tricky. We wrote our own reports in php so it's worked out for us. It's certainly worth seeing a profit figure per order so you know what products to re purchase.

I feel it would attract more start up sellers i started with nothing and im just building on up tracking would help so much with tax returns and what not the bargain hunter crowd will be settled by massive power sellers and bob in his shed =]

I may be a bit thick, but looking at your accounts at the end of the month would be a rough guide. That is of course if you do accounts. You know your stock costs, your selling costs, your packaging costs, total sold and stock value remaining. Its only rough, but it is a guide.

This is similar to what i was doing sales - spend = profit/loss, but this is rubbish if you actually want to support a family from a livable wage in times to come.

 

[antropy]

At the moment I just log in a spreadsheet my spend and my eBay take and get the profit as long as I am in the green its fine but i ant to know in more detail how im doing and if I can expand more!

Sounds like you just need to also split it by the type of product sold?