This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for August, 2009
How to start a successful eBay Business….
1004 days
OK, well I am starting a NEW eBay business anyway so my husband can give up his no so ideal job and earn the same on eBay/Online. But as with everything, eBay is a great way to test a theory.
So, in Blue Peter fashion what do I need.
1. A eBay account with good feedback – got it, my old ‘rubbergirls’ business account can be converted.
2. Payment method – I have an alternative Paypal account to use which can be re-branded with the new business name.
3. Saleable stock and a decent price – the items I will sell are around the £40 mark on eBay and selling well so there is lots of leeway on profit margin for fees.
4. No delusions of grandeur. – This is very important, start small and build up – I am going to start with 12 pieces. Speaking to another seller in this field, it took his 4 years to carve the business he has now, he takes home £4k a month and loving it. His advice is to stay small enough to operate out of your garage and not employ staff, other than your other half! You can always pay your mates to come round if you land a ‘deal of the day’ spot and do £10K before lunchtime one day……
So, when your starting an eBay business, done think it will take off over night, my hair business too 6 years before it started making real money and my consultancy business around 3 years. Start with a small investment then only spend the money you bring in on new stock. It might mean you are not making profit for a while but your building up the most important things in business:
– Customer relationships and trust
– Supplier relationships
Seen as though eBay and I might fall out in 2010 thought is to be made about the ‘website’ for this business. It should be built alongside building up the eBay business and will be my first design spend. I will create the eBay design myself, nice and simple.
Well lets see if we can make this work.
Ebays new seller requirements – will kill eBay
eBay Says….
Setting new minimum standards to improve quality
* From 1st October 2009 all eBay sellers (including PowerSellers) will need to keep their number of transactions with DSRs of 1 and 2 for item description below 3%. For communication, dispatch time, and P&P charges we’ll be looking for no more than 4% of transactions with DSRs of 1 and 2.
* If a seller’s rate of 1s and 2s goes over these maximums they’ll get lowered placements in searches and may even face limits on selling activity until their ratings improve.
We want to continue encouraging all our sellers to improve their ratings – so throughout 2010 we’ll be raising the bar on the minimum standards of service and quality that sellers are expected to reach.
Our Survey says….
OK, as Hairfreax I don’t sell a lot, so one disgruntled customer will prevent me from selling – in a nutshell.
eBay is only a play thing for me luckily and the bulk of my sales are done through my website, in fact looking at my ‘description DSR’s I am at 3.57% for ’12 month lows’ so in 2010 I won’t sell on eBay, I have 100% feedback so the person could not have been THAT mad.
But lets look at one of my main clients who does around £600K per year though eBay, and pays them roughly £24K in fees. Currently a Platinum Powerseller that will NOT be able to be a Top Rated Seller, I might add.
Well his highest ‘low’ percentage is 0.68% so even though he will loose 15% of his discount by not being a Top Seller and loose the use of ‘Featured first’ – eBay might still let him trade. That’s nice of them. They want their money.
Tough luck eBay, this client is going full steam ahead on the website front and well, you have given this client no choice but to move away.
I imagine lots of other sellers will face these conditions and with website traffic getting easier (and cheaper) to generate, eBay is not so attractive. They STILL don’t crack down on the dodgy sellers – just punish the easy targets – much like the law really.
So eBay, my dear old friend we have been together now for 10 years but I think it is high time we fell out.
My FIRST counterfiet purchase on eBay…
It was quite obvious when I removed the NC20 Mineralize Satinfinish SPF 15 Foundation from the packaging. It was Orange, and when I opened to smell it, well ‘Tarts Boudoir’ sprung to mind. But as it is a make-up item it is ‘ineligible’ for a return and refund so I have contacted the seller and eBay for a refund as counterfeits should be destroyed.
Worst this is it is not like it was a bargain. £15 instead of £21 which is a typical ‘brought the wrong colour’ private sale.
Who know what hideous things it would do to my face/eyes if I had not KNOWN specifically what the colour should look like and what the foundation should smell like.
Comparing boxes (I keep mine still in the box so I had my old one to compare) the font is ‘less’ white and very very slightly thinner and a small black code is missing from the back. Its a damn good copy, if the contents where not so cheap and nasty I would not have noticed.
Well, I won’t be able to get a new one before next weekend now so I am just going to turn mine upside down and see if I can get one last face out of it.
But how DO they get the email addresses?
1012 days
A lot of my clients use similar services, and they have ALL received an email ‘whistle-blowing’ be it true or false about the accounting practises of a particular firm. Fortunately for the time period the email warned about my clients were on the kind of contract that it didn’t matter, more of an all in for one price kinda deal.
But my main concern is HOW the whistle-blower got all of my clients (who happen to use said software) email addresses?
Is this information widely available? Or is this a breach of data protection by an employee of said company? I know this company has made several redundancies recently and probably upset a few employees but still the contents of the email has rattled my clients. One is now thinking of moving away as the words ‘financially viable’ were suggested with respects to the companies future.
It is worrying times for small businesses that use eBay/e-commerce service companies. Personally I lost £50 due to a supplier (GotLingerie.com) going into administration before they could complete my order. In fact they KNEW they would not be able too and still took my money. Unless you pay by credit card you are kinda stuffed. Luckily you can recover from a small amount, but other companies have not been so lucky and it will cost THEIR business.
So with the recession getting worse who can you trust? *insert Morcheeba song here*.
A point about trust, a new review site keeps popping up:
Review:
Frooition : http://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.frooition.com
eBay: http://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.ebay.co.uk
or add other companies, couldn’t find anyone else.
Really should have bothered to find my affiliate links for that one.
Well my clients can trust that I won’t go bust in the recession, I am even having to turn my hand to eBay design due to failing companies.
Recession proof yourself:
- Host your own images/design and keep a local back up
- Back up inventory/sales/analytic’s and any data you have locally on a CD/Tape drive
- Check your suppliers and services providers and don’t let anything go on too long
- Don’t invest massively up front, pay through out the ‘project’ or when it is complete
- Have a plan B and C, possibly D if you have the time and inclination
eBay Germany…darn it I did French at School
1021 days
Selling in Europe has always been one of my clients biggest assets, but recently international visibility has declined. So what to do? Well using Channeladvisor you can request up to 3 posting accounts at least on a standard contract and have these in different currencies and localised for different eBay sites.
So we set up UKSportswarehouse Germany….
There are companies out there to help you with this like ICE but I wanted to prove the model first.
Things to note about listing in a country that you do not speak the language:
- Google Translator/BableFish makes you speak like a robot.
- eBay categories are gobbledegook, do your research first in case you list in the totally wrong category.
- You will get questions in said language that translation tools will not be able to cope with.
- Your not really funny in the language you CAN speak. Avoid comedy or satire.
- Keep the language to specifications, don’t try to use fancy sales speak.
- Make your pictures cover what your description lacks.
- Mention that you do not speak the language in hope that your buyers will not think your illiterate.
Don’t go guns blazing in a language you can’t speak, communication is everything but once you have explored the marketplace and found it to have potential, get in the experts. It WILL be worth it.
I will report on the success of this trial in the MotorSport category for UKSportswarehouse. Both the UK and DE listings show in the shop.
Ooh, check the snazzy new shop design by CYT.
