Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Setting up a Successful & Profitable eBay Business

How to startup an eBay BusinessMany people use eBay, as it is a great way to buy and sell things quickly. Offering a quick and simplistic solution with an auction spin, eBay offers fair prices for both buyer and seller. Whether you usually use it for selling clothes, odd bits and pieces or you intend on selling items in a high volume, you should really consider setting up an eBay business if you?re looking to turn the Internet into your full time job.

So you want to set up a small business on eBay? You?ve come to the right place for all you need to know to start up a successful store online. Firstly, before you do anything, you should crystallise your knowledge of the site and how it works for basic buy/sell listings so you fully understand the terms and policies that eBay uses.

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Your online image

Have a look around eBay and search for items, and then click through to visit the various shops that come up that people sell items through. Have a look at their imaging and the way they have set up their listings. Make notes on a notepad of what you like and dislike about all the different ways other people have their online stores set up. This will be a big help in deciding on what steps you will take in terms of the branding on your listings, including colours, fonts and logos. Reading eBays guide on getting started will help you greatly.

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Suppliers & Stocking

Whatever you?re selling, if you?re sourcing your goods from a supplier, make sure you get to know them and test how reliable they are with orders. You don?t want your reputation and feedback being affected if you are let down by a supplier as there will be nothing you can do to speed up a delivery that has been posted late and you may lose repeat customers or let down new ones.

The same applies to getting your stock orders right. You will be losing out on money if you order large volumes of certain items and just sit on them, as they may not sell. Order manageable and sensible trial amounts of all products. You can then work out from buyer interest and trends which items are most popular and therefore which should be ordered in higher volumes in the future.

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Fees

Fees will impact your bottom line in a big way so get clued up on what money eBay will require you to pay for using their site. Make sure you?re aware of all seller fees and the percentages they take from your final selling price and take them into account when listing your item prices but don?t forget the PayPal fee?s if that?s a payment method that you?re planning to use.? You need to keep on top of your money just like any other business would with an accountant. Keep a log of your in/out cash flows and you may even want to use a mobile application to help keep on top of your money.

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Build up trust

You should try and focus on giving outstanding service all the time, but especially towards your first 100 or so customers. Any negative feedback off small volumes of customers will greatly affect the percentage ratio of the negative score the less individual sales you have had. Building up a good feedback score and having a list of positive comments off people who have bought from your store will attract more and more customers, and show you are reliable seller, and can be trusted.

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Research

List down the products you will be selling, and look who else will become your competitor on eBay. Can you realistically make money from sales if they are small at the start, what can you offer that others cannot? Find unique selling points and emphasise them. Budget what money you have to invest in products and make sure you take the first steps towards the financial side of your eBay business sensibly and don?t over extend yourself.

Packaging

You will need to invest in a good packaging supplier the more your business grows. You don?t want to be stumped getting a large order through and not have enough packaging to send the products. Always make sure your packaging you have to hand outweighs the products you have in stock so you?ll never be caught short. Find one that has proven to be reliable and cost effective.

Minimise potential customer issues by avoiding subpar packaging and ensuring everything is well packaged. The alternative is that you will be put out of pocket by a damaged delivery and will most likely receive some negative feedback.

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Communication

Making sure you reply to questions, keep in touch with buyers and are generally available to be contacted is crucial in being a great eBay seller. This doesn?t mean you need to be a slave to your store, though. Make sure you check your emails and eBay messaging 3 times throughout the working day to ensure you?ll always be able to offer a reply within 2-3 hours.

Ultimately, you need to make sure you enjoy what you do, and make eBay work for you, not the other way round. Take advice from this article and read up on eBay?s policies on their
Community pages and you?ll get off to a flying start. Good luck!

Source: http://protelp.co.uk/business/setting-up-a-successful-and-profitable-ebay-business/

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