Discussion
Just wandering about Ebay, I noticed that I haven't used it for a couple of years now. I understand they made changes not so long ago to sellers accounts that people weren't happy about.
Is anyone else the same, not using Ebay for buying or selling anymore? and why has it happened. Or am I wrong and is Ebay booming due to the economic situation the last couple of years.
Is anyone else the same, not using Ebay for buying or selling anymore? and why has it happened. Or am I wrong and is Ebay booming due to the economic situation the last couple of years.
Ebay is still great place to make money. 70% of our business is generated from there. Our FYE is end of this month and ebay alone is generating 1.9mil.
The right product with the right price, you can make a mint due to the traffic generated by ebay
The right product with the right price, you can make a mint due to the traffic generated by ebay
Edited by A1 on Friday 16th April 21:22
thisislife said:
Our year end will be 30th April and turnover will be around the £1.6mill mark. We only trade on eBay but are looking to branch into other channels later in the year. There is deffinatly life in the old dog yet but its not easy i can assure you.
hi this is life. what do you sell on ebay? singlecoil said:
It's always encouraging to see good turnover figures, but as ebay is so price sensisitve I assume the actual profit is very much less than for your average retail business?
Definetly true, prices and margins need to be lower on ebay then retail or on our website. However the number of customers that ebay brings means its an even thing.New top seller thing for those are top sellers is absoloutely great. You get more exposure, more hits, therefore more sales. If you pay £40 you can be featured and this is the main thing.For example with our products, out of 50,000 listings all our that we feature end up 1 and 2 position, rotating with other sellers.
As thisislife said, its VERY HARD work to make sure you remain top rated and you do have to bend over backwards for the buyers.
A1 said:
However the number of customers that ebay brings means its an even thing.
I don't think that that statement is necessarily true. It might be true, it could well be true, but it doesn't have to be true. It all depends on the numbers. As the price is cut the sales probably go up, but there comes a point where the margin is getting so thin that the turnover needs to increase hugely to maintain profit levels.singlecoil said:
A1 said:
However the number of customers that ebay brings means its an even thing.
I don't think that that statement is necessarily true. It might be true, it could well be true, but it doesn't have to be true. It all depends on the numbers. As the price is cut the sales probably go up, but there comes a point where the margin is getting so thin that the turnover needs to increase hugely to maintain profit levels.Trusted seller means if you do a good job and cave into PITA customers you get a 25% discount on some fees and better search visibility.
We dont need to use featured at £40 a week as we are top (ish) anyway as the other sellers in our field are crap and not at trusted level
In our case we get loads of (free) phone orders off ebay listings - its how you sell them !!
We dont need to use featured at £40 a week as we are top (ish) anyway as the other sellers in our field are crap and not at trusted level
In our case we get loads of (free) phone orders off ebay listings - its how you sell them !!
singlecoil said:
It's always encouraging to see good turnover figures, but as ebay is so price sensisitve I assume the actual profit is very much less than for your average retail business?
You assume correctly but we would not get 300k turnover on any high street with our products, our overheads would be much higher to, our bottom line is probably well above 300k's worth of high street retail when you take into account overheads, staff etc........ ? As others have said the phone rings several times a day, card number please, thank you. Our staff consists of moi full time and Mrs part time.TRS since it started, merchant rate on paypal, fee's are not as bad as people make out at times, yes they have to accounted for and paid but compared to high street rent/rates etc there favorable.
There's no denying that ebay is a major head/heart ache but it's hard to say how difficult life would be trying to achieve the same figures with a bricks and mortar shop.
ebay is now about micro margins. Back in the day (let's say 3 years ago) you could buy and list an item, make a tenner profit on it and sell it/them all day long. Roll on a few years and you have to buy in a warehouse full of the item, be lucky to make any margin on it and bend over backwards for ever little issue the customer might have, real or imaginary!
Amazing service, amazing products and amazing everything else just isn't enough anymore, it's all about PRICE, price and price, followed by Amazing service, amazing products and amazing everything else!
ebay is now about micro margins. Back in the day (let's say 3 years ago) you could buy and list an item, make a tenner profit on it and sell it/them all day long. Roll on a few years and you have to buy in a warehouse full of the item, be lucky to make any margin on it and bend over backwards for ever little issue the customer might have, real or imaginary!
Amazing service, amazing products and amazing everything else just isn't enough anymore, it's all about PRICE, price and price, followed by Amazing service, amazing products and amazing everything else!
It really does all come down to price. If someone is undercutting you then you wont sell much. Aceparts is right. The margains are tiny. Our 1.6mill t/o comes from about 20,000 sales per month so its volume.
A1 you are into furniture arn't you? Ive touched on furniture, the margains are obviously higher but the cost price of everything is too so its all relative.
A1 you are into furniture arn't you? Ive touched on furniture, the margains are obviously higher but the cost price of everything is too so its all relative.
thisislife said:
It really does all come down to price. If someone is undercutting you then you wont sell much. Aceparts is right. The margains are tiny. Our 1.6mill t/o comes from about 20,000 sales per month so its volume.
A1 you are into furniture arn't you? Ive touched on furniture, the margains are obviously higher but the cost price of everything is too so its all relative.
With volume like that you should look at an offshore partner to possibly reduce your tax liability A1 you are into furniture arn't you? Ive touched on furniture, the margains are obviously higher but the cost price of everything is too so its all relative.
(depending on the 'value' of your average order)
ebays great, really got our company on its feet, opened many doors. Now we trade with amazon and other shopping channels, but now we are really pushing our own site (Saves all those fees!)
In 5 years we built up a company which turnsover £3m (And at christmas (Toy seller) we are turning down £100k's, currently addressing this issue), we got big so quickly because of the power of ebay, the pure volume of traffic it can generate is insane, at peak times we can be looking at 60,000 hits to our shop homepage per day. If you can convert even 1% of that into orders you are looking at a good day!
russy01 said:
ebays great, really got our company on its feet, opened many doors. Now we trade with amazon and other shopping channels, but now we are really pushing our own site (Saves all those fees!)
In 5 years we built up a company which turnsover £3m (And at christmas (Toy seller) we are turning down £100k's, currently addressing this issue), we got big so quickly because of the power of ebay, the pure volume of traffic it can generate is insane, at peak times we can be looking at 60,000 hits to our shop homepage per day. If you can convert even 1% of that into orders you are looking at a good day!
What sort of stuff do you do? We might be able to do some business....In 5 years we built up a company which turnsover £3m (And at christmas (Toy seller) we are turning down £100k's, currently addressing this issue), we got big so quickly because of the power of ebay, the pure volume of traffic it can generate is insane, at peak times we can be looking at 60,000 hits to our shop homepage per day. If you can convert even 1% of that into orders you are looking at a good day!
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