Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, link building, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
Hi. There are numerous 'guides' around that will tell you how to become a millionaire overnight on EBay. But back in the REAL world, just how viable is EBay for selling products?
Well EBay is undeniably a vast and thriving market place, with millions of visitors. For sellers, there is also an immense amount of competition on there. Whether you item sells or not, EBay will always make a charge for listing your item. Whether you thrive or flounder, EBay will always profit from you.
So having got past the practicalities, is EBay worth considering as a potential sales outlet? Well that all depends on just what you are selling. Basic marketing concepts very much come into play here. Firstly, you firstly need to have a product that somebody actually wants to buy.!! Second you need to have a unique selling proposition. In simple terms that means differentiating your product from the competition. Thirdly, your pricing needs to reflect the perceived quality of the item that you are selling. On that latter point, never be tempted to underprice just to get business. You still have your outgoings and if you sell on price alone, someone can always come along undercut you. Working for peanuts will only ever make you a 'busy fool'. Profit is the lifeblood of any business and needs to be maintained.
So how do you know if your item will sell on EBay? First off, do some simple research, see what others are selling on EBay. Don't just look at the feedback to work out sales though, also see how many items they are currently listing. Sit down with a pen, paper and calculator and work out their total sales value for a month, then DEDUCT all of their listing fees, the final sales fees and the likely PayPal costs. That will give you a TRUE idea of the profitability. Share that figure by the number of items sold in a month, to give a typical profit per item. You may possibly be in for a shock.!!
So what's the conclusion? Well EBay is a great tool for test marketing your products, before you release them onto a wider market. If you cater to a niche market, you can also make good money on EBay. For general items though, you could typically end up with only one in ten listed items actually selling. Worse still if your product has litle appeal. Feedback is also a big issue with EBay. Someone can very publicly leave you negative feedback on your business there. Someone who has fell out with a partner, or had a bad day at work, can leave negative feedback for no justifiable reason. Having said that, some traders have hundreds of negative feedbacks and still sell in volume on there.
There are alternatives to EBay, that are a lot more cost effective. Your own web site, shows, personal contact, mailshots, promotions, party plan, word of mouth and networking. Try them all out and see what works best for your own enterprise.
Hope all this is of use to someone? Have a good day.
Nice post I would add that if you are new to E-bay....your feed back rating is ALL IMPORTANT !!
So heres the catch 22......if your new...maybe just opened a store front.....inventory, fixed price, and several auctions to be seen.....your "0" rating will scare away 90% of all potential buyers because most have heard negative things about e-bay transactions......your rating is a trust factor!!
However.....you cant build a trust factor without selling!! Ugly little circle you can get into....like a squirrel in a cage! You can get out....it takes a little time to build, and there are stratagies that will do so.....but patience and a little money ( of course in e-bays pocket) will be sacraficed!!
Marketing your products on e-bay are essential to success...and this costs $$ as well....
Ebay is a viable way to go....but beware that it will not make millions over night! It takes alot of investment of time, money, and patience..
We started selling our products at a loss... Knowing that they were a loss (nearly half of what they were worth)... so that we could get our feedback up. Some People will look past the 0 rating if the price is great! and all we really needed was for 10 or so people to do that. after we had a feed back of 10 or 11 we raised our price to only a 25% loss until we hit about 20 feedbacks, then adjusted again for actual market value. of our first 20 customers, we have 5 or 6 that come back to us faithfully, even though the prices literally doubled, but they love us, so we will take it, right? Also, another good thing is to pay eBay for a store and keep is stocked. offer 1 or 2 items a day at crazy low prices via the auction, adding your store html to the listing to drive people to the store. you'll lose money on the first item, but if they buy 2 or 3 things from the store it will make up for it! Also, you may just keep that person coming back time after time!
That being said... eBay is more like a hobby to my partner and I. We have been doing it for about 6 months and have not been able to turn a sizable profit as of yet. but it is fun, we meet new people, and we feel the product we sell there is important to those that buy them (specialty niche, prayer candles).
Who knows, maybe the prayer candles will be our, ahem, saving grace during those inevitable business slumps when the t-shirt biz takes a bit of a break. --Amber
great info amber......your detailed strategy off getting thru the LOw RATING PERIOD IS GOOD INFO! That too me is the first big hurdle.....I think once you get thru that....the doors start....mind you...start to open a little.....marketing is required to bust it open however.
We're dabbling on ebay as well......I say dabbling because we havent gotten dead serious about this marketing avenue yet. Basically at the learning and testing water stage.....I see potential....but I see alot of time and attention to make it profitable.
My daughter is going to take over this part of our business....with Daddies watchful eye over her shoulder...lol
Hi. Think a lot of folks the world over, think to themselves "Yeah stuff work, we'll put a few items on EBay and we'll have a full time business this time next week". Whilst I would not disagree that a few people with a unique product have done this, for most people building up a business, is something that is achieved over a much longer period of time and EBay is no exception.
I trade on EBay under more than one account. I sell a wide of range of products including garments, household products, personalised items, jewellery, plus many more. Whilst I do quite well, the real 'sting in the tail', is when I get my Ebay invoice at the end of the month. It sometimes seems that EBay is taking an awful lot of my profits, for very little work on their part.
Unless you have a truly unique product, or you cater to niche markets, you will always find yourself paying a large bill at the end of every month, for all the listed items that didn't sell. It is these 'hidden' costs, that can make EBay such an expensive market, in which to sell your products. Many of the people that sell in volume have now started to drift off there and develop their businesses away from EBay. Many recent changes have unfortunately left a 'sour taste in the mouths', of many EBay traders.
Ebay can sell products for you, but it should only be considered as one small part of your entire business structure. We have an old saying here in the UK 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket'.
One useful tip for those planning to sell on Ebay, is to have a separate account for your buying. That way you won't have any idiots wanting to know why you bought the shirt off an EBay seller for this price and you want to sell it at this price when 'you've only put a picture on it'.!!! Some things are best kept private. You will also encounter endless folks, that think the shipping cost should only be the actual postal cost. It would appear the packaging, time and transport to the postal office should be done at your own expense (yeah right). Think not? Check any sellers feedback on EBay and you will see the ratings for postal/shipping charges ,are always lower than for the other feedback categories.
The biggest piece of advice I would give to anyone regarding selling on EBay, is to try a few products and see how they go. Doubling the number of your listings, doesn't mean you'll sell twice as much. If ONLY it were that simple.
For us....this is but only a test market. Defiately not putting alot of stock into our ebay campaign. I'll let my daughter run this for me, because frankly I dont have the time to work it....too many other directions, markets we are working. We will see what happens.....with a limited and controlled budget for it. If after a reasonable effort and time....it proves to be too costly....or just plain ole ineffective....I'll pull the plug...cut my modest loss and call it day for e-bay!
Heard alot of bad word on changes recently ....sellers are not to entirely happy these days. Havent researched this enough to understand exactly what the issues are.....but sellers that have been on e-bay for some time are now leaving...or threatening too. Not encouraging.
Hi. Apart from recent rises in EBay fees, especially for shop inventories, plus the changes to search which floods the buyer with unconnected choices, I think the biggest cause for upset have been changes to the feedback system.
You can now have a situation, where you can chase a buyer for payment, deliver the correct goods promptly, the get left negative feedback for no reason other than you asked for payment. I don't know about other EBay sites, but you can no longer leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers in the UK. If your feedback falls below 98 percent, you can find your listings at the END of the search results. Neutral feedback also now seems to count as part of this feedback score - WHY? EBay still takes the same listing fee off you though. It's hardly surprising that so many people are moving away from there now. From my own perspective, EBay really are 'losing the plot'. Think they are forgetting who actually gives them their income.
i was thinking about ebay.... but would have to figure out a way to link it to my store and not really deal with the b.s. of ebay................ theres alot of "issues".......
i'd rather try to build my name based on my product and whom i'm working with than try to make a quick sale for barely any money.........
i'm still 50/50 with this..........hmmmmmmmmmmm
__________________ www.237am.com blog link on homepage also
I am not sure if it still works with the new feedback system from eBay, but there are people looking to boost their feedback (and reach powerseller status) by selling eBooks and wallpapers for $.01, so you could start by buying a couple of these digital items to boost your feedback quickly.
Just my two cents on how I boosted my feedback buying and selling on eBay (not t-shirts though...)
I have been selling using eBay for the past 7 years, and have found that unless your product is really unique, or has special high demand, there's just too much competition. Some claim to be making a living selling on eBay, but that's only about 1% of the total sellers able to claim that.
Bottom line sell on eBay to test market your product; if it appears there is a market for what you have to sell, setup your own website & save all those listing, selling & PayPal fees, and use eBay lsitings to drive people to your website (read the rules first; certain restrictions are in place on how your word your auctions to do this).
Think Brian raises a valid point, about only a small percentage of people actually make a living out of EBay. I doubt if even EBay themselves know the true figure, but I myself would presume that it's less than 3%.
True the competition is immense on there, but with the rise of the Internet, we are all competing in a much larger global market place now. Catering for a niche market can reap rewards, but once you move away from the mainstream, you are then aiming your product at a much smaller target group, with a proportionally lower number of potential customers.
Think a lot more sellers are finding alternative sales sites to EBay now. I think that before very long, Ebay will have far more competition from similar sites, that will offer their sellers a much better deal.
I agree with Will, I think Ebay will eventually lose out to other auction site. I've traded on ebay for many years selling many different things and really never have made much money on there. But, it's good to test the market and to get a few sales. But I don't think I'd ever make a living off of it.
EBAY! The ugly giant we can't seem to avoid!
I have a 5000 power seller rating on Ebay. Most of which is garments I printed and designed. The key to getting a rating from 0 to 10 or so is not selling cheap and then raising the price. People will look right through this and move on. Stand by your product and it's value! Get verified and expalin in the description on your first items you are new to selling on ebay and you are a professional business. Add your name and contact info. Use the about me page and make it personal and let them know who you are. You can also buy a few needed items for you and get feedback that way.
The ebay store is also a great tool to use to get started on ebay. It will take some time to get this going and find your nich on ebay so do yourself a favor and keep the day job for awhile.
I also place a flyer in the box with my items that has my website and a discount code on it if you visit within 72 hours. It works and then they start buying from your site and you save the fees ebay charges. Use ebay as a marketing tool to sell and cross sell people. Once you have the sale move them to your own site and market them direct with news letters and specials.
2 million people visit ebay everyday! Its yours to go get! Good luck on the monster!
For me Ebay is good for getting business supplies. While I've sold other non-related items in the past I haven't really tried selling my own products yet(vinyl decals or t-shirts).
But I have to agree with others here...The fees can be ridiculous. They should change their name to FEEbay.
Just expect to make less per sale on ebay than thru a website or direct sale. With their fees and paypal fees if your item isn't very expense with a small markup it just got alot smaller!
But, I sell unique items that are hard to find for a very niche market and at least make enough to pay the monthly fees. Most of all, it's getting my name out to the world and isn't costing me an arm and a leg and half a foot.....
How to be successful on EBay. 
Have a good day. 
