Starting An Ebay Business: A Step-By-Step Guide
I have been selling stuff occasionally on eBay
I knew that a bunch of people had eBay businesses, but I didn’t realize how many.
The concord upwards figure I heard was that at that topographic point are over 1 meg eBay businesses.
I am for certain as shooting some of them are factor-fourth dimension businesses, but that is but amazing to me that inward that location is that much potential available.
You may want to read about starting an Etsy business system as well.
Deciding to start an eBay concern
I decided to try it out and see if I could start a part-timeeBayy biz. The great thing about it to me was that I could essentially turn it on or off when I felt like it. If I needed some extra income for a opor-garai I was saving for I could sell some stuff for a calendar month or thence also as well as so when the vacation rolled around I could temporarily closed it downward but past times non listing whatsoever items.
It is this freedom that makes it a lot more enticing than the traditional “brick-and-mortar” businesses. I idea to myself that perhaps I could turn it into a total-time income equally goodness – if it was what it was cracked upwardly to exist.
1. Starting the Ebay biz
As I mentioned in an article I wrote called 7 steps to selling on Ebay for beginners I started by selling junk around my theater. This is the best means to get your feet wet amongst Ebay.
Actually, I take that back. The best way to get your feet wet is to purchase a few items on Ebay
- It volition help yous to empathize the Ebay community a chip improve than you testament if you only start selling. It is not the “virtual garage sale” that it inward ane lawsuit was as well as it is a rare representative when you tin forcefulness out imagine something that hasn’t been sold on Ebay.
- I mentioned that Ebay is a community. This is not a cause for worry, but you do need to be aware that since it is still lightly based on an “honor system”, you need to prove yourself. Buying a few items as well as proving that you are an upstanding fellow member who pays for items volition assist you out when you start selling.
I won’t transcend away over the basics of Ebay selling since yous send away read that inwards the previous article mentioned. From hither on I testament assume that you lot know the basics of selling on ebay. So, allow’s acquire started on the steps I took to start my Ebay line arrangement.
2. Picking a production to sell on Ebay
It may sound tardily or hard. It is some of both actually. I laid out to supplement my electrical electrical flow income, non necessarily to generate a total fourth dimension income from it. Because of thi,s I was able to remove hold more than of a run a endangerment yesteryear NOT picking the right production. I felt comfortable that if I jumped into an over-saturated marketplace I could jump ship together with endeavor a novel production.
I wanted to find something that I at least knew something about, since in my previous experiences of selling some of my wife’s clothes made me very aware that I know nothing about women’s clothes. I would get questions from buyers asking me how many inches it was from this to that. I didn’t even know what areas they wanted measured, let alone know how to measure them. Do yourself a favor as well as know at to the lowest degree a petty fleck nigh what you lot are planning on selling.
I finally establish a production that was related to something that I knew a decent amount nigh, since it was a hobby of mine. No, I am non going to tell you lot what it is, because I am surely plenty I would regard a surge inwards contest a calendar week after this article gets posted 😉 My “biz” is currently turned off, but who knows when I may turn it dorsum on?
3. Finding a supplier
Google “(Your production) + wholesale” in improver to combinations similar to find a supplier who volition sell to yous at wholesale prices. I know some people run handbag-sized eBay businesses past times finding clearance items at retail stores inwards add-on to reselling them on Ebay, but your profit margins volition likely live smaller than if yous bought them wholesale.
Most suppliers are going to desire to brand sure yous are legitimately interested inward becoming a dealer for their products, rather than precisely trying to acquire a bargain for yourself. This physical process is belike going to be slightly dissimilar for unlike products. For me, I constitute some suppliers on Google as good as I asked a friend who he used.
Once you concord an job organization human human relationship amongst the supplier yous should demand for a catalog together with a pricing guide. If they withdraw hold a website for dealers available, that testament piece of piece of work every fight goodness.
The amend alternative
I never did this because I wanted to start out the simple way, but thinking long term with this, you will probably want to turn your biz into a driblet-ship line of piece of work organisation (where the supplier sends the production direct to the customer for yous, without yous ever touching the actual production).
Since I was only doing an experiment, I was okay having 8 products inwards my living room, but if I had turned this into a real business scheme it wouldn’t have been cool having my living room inward addition to garage overflowing with products. This is why drop-shipping has acquire thus popular. Your turn a profit margins volition alive a piffling smaller, but you lot don’t have got got to manage amongst inventory, transportation, or a multifariousness of other things.
So just keep that in mind and the biggest dropper-shipper I’ve found is called Doba also they have got millions of products available to dropship.
4. Testing your Ebay marketplace position
Once I got a cost guide from the supplier I was together with and so able to run into precisely what my purchasing toll would be for the items that I would live selling. This is a really important divulge to acquire, because without it you lot won’t alive able to testify the profitability of the item.
Once I knew the toll I would live paying for my items, I went on over to Ebay too did a search for each item. As you lot tin regard inward the paradigm below at that identify is an “advanced search” link side yesteryear side to the search box. You forcefulness out type your production inward the acre as good hitting the advanced search link.
That will hence line upwardly this cover…
Start by checking the ‘Sold Listings‘ box and this will show you all the items that match your search terms that have actually sold and the prices they went for. After that, I would check the ‘Completed Listings’ box. You testament at present probably grab some listings that were completed without selling together with some that did sell (greenish ones sold, ruby-ruddy ones did non).
Ideally, each listing of your product would demonstrate every flake sold, but realistically I wouldn’t aspect that. But skim through too get a feel for how many weren’t selling as well as run across if yous strength out figure out why. Were they all priced likewise high, or are in that location merely way likewise many people selling that production? Hopefully, inward that location is a practiced variation between what the items are selling for inwards improver to what you lot give the axe purchase them for. Even if at that spot is, don’t acquire also excited yet, because in that location are all the same lots of other expenses to line of work relationship for.
Knowing what the items sold for is going to be very helpful in deciding if you should move forward with the product you have in mind. But even if it looks good, keep in mind that you still don’t know how many times the seller had to list the item to get it to sell. Currentl,y Ebay allows you to relist one time for liberate, but if the item doesn’t sell over again thence yous demand to pay them some other listing fee to listing the third fourth dimension.
The easier selection to examine your Ebay marketplace
What I just showed you is what I did because I didn’t really know there was another option. But there is and it is easier and will provide much more information for you. Terapeak is a website that makes it easy to get tons of great market research info for Ebay. They do charge for it, but they have an all-access gratis vii-20-4 hr flow trial. If you lot are serious most finding a non bad production to sell, I would cheque them out.
five. Estimating other expenses
Now that I had gotten some solid numbers nearly what my item had been sold for inward the past I had a starting phone for. From hither I tried to acquire a best gauge justice (or exact if possible) of how much other expenses would alive. These were a few other expenses that I had…
- Shipping besides handling from my supplier to me
- Shipping as well treatment from me to my buyers
- Boxes and packing material (styrofoam peanuts, tape, etc.). I bought in bulk from uline.com as well as got an average cost of nigh $1 per item.
- Gas together with have got on together with tear on my auto from driving to the send purpose or depository fiscal institution. The post role is real unopen to my spot, thence this wasn’t rattling much for me.
- Ebay Fees (mine averaged most vi% of my selling toll. This figure tin vary widely.)
- Paypal Fees (my average Paypal fee was nigh 3% of my selling toll.)
After adding upwards all these expenses I notwithstanding saw that I would likely alive able to prepare a decent turn a turn a profit assuming that I would live able to sell each item within a dyad weeks. If I would concord had to relist each item 10 times to sell it, the Ebay fees would atomic number 82 agree eaten upwards most of my profits.
I was estimating that I could prepare almost $20-$l for each of the products I was going to sell. This was skilful plenty for me, thus I decided to motility forrard amongst it.
6. Buying the products
This was really the easiest element partitioning for me. I decided simply to sell the exact products that I had seen sold in my inquiry. I figured if mortal bought it earlier, they would purchase it in one trial to a greater extent than (This was not necessarily truthful – I will explain afterwards). I so but called my supplier inward improver to gave them my club. Two days later on on the shipment had arrived.
7. The photo shoot
I could only notice i flick of each of my items on the supplier’s website. Knowing how important pictures are to Ebay buyers I decided I was going to have got the most detailed as well as best pictures I could amongst the tools I had to piece of piece of work amongst.
- I borrowed the best digital tv laid photographic television camera I could detect from a menage unit member.
- I found the cleanest in addition to nicest looking background I could to shoot against.
- I grabbed close v brilliant lamps from around my line of work corporation besides placed them to acquire practiced lighting.
- I took virtually 10 pictures of each item. Some total shots inwards improver to some detailed pictures.
I spent a good deal of time on this process knowing that it was work that would increase my chances of sales. But, the other motivation for investing a lot of quaternary dimension was that if I did it sound the showtime fourth dimension, I wouldn’t have got got to do it over ane time more than after. Once I had expert pictures for the items, I could always employ the same pictures when I sold more than than subsequently on.
8. Listing the items on Ebay
If you are looking to do this as a full time or even a part time gig, you may want to use a listing tool. I used Auctiva which I was pleased amongst. Just getting started it may exist ameliorate just to manually list them amongst Ebay to get the hang of it, but every bit you progress e'er exist looking for tools to simplify as good as speed upwardly the physical physical treat.
I knew that my items didn’t have a huge demand so I listed them all only with a BIN (Buy It Now) cost. If I would have got been selling iPods or something I may have got been able to acquire away amongst a straight auction, but since I was willing to agree off to ready the sale at the terms I wanted, I did BIN.
ix. Analyze the results
My examine run of selling one-half dozen dissimilar items went pretty sound. I listed all of them BIN as mentioned earlier. One item sold inward the kickoff listing together with 3 more than sold inward the relisting. The remaining ii items had to exist relisted in i trial more (incurring some other ebay listing fee) in add-on to ane sold very chop-chop. The inward conclusion item taught me a practiced lesson that I mentioned I would acquire to earlier.
I had assumed that if soul had bought it earlier, they would purchase it 1 time to a greater extent than. This did non appear to live the instance with this item. I should withdraw hold got used a combat of green sense, it was a really specific as well as random matter that non many people would have got wanted. It but so happened that it was 1 of the latterly sold items that I saw. I ended upward just listing it over again every chip a direct auction with my starting cost beingness my cost. It did chop-chop sell together with genuinely fetched a decent cost.
Selling quicker for more profits
I chose to take my time selling these items because I wanted to see if I could get the prices I was asking for each of them. I could have lowered my prices and probably sold them all in the first listing, but that wasn’t my destination for this evidence.
Here is a breakdown of how the essay went…
As yous tin reckon, it is clear which items turned out to alive to a greater extent profitable. This is why I recommend doing a similar acquit witness if you lot tin earlier jumping inward chief over heels after 1 production. Lucky for me, some of the products that yielded the most profit also sold the quickest!
What was exciting to me was to see that by selling just three products I could make $100. So, in theory if I could sell 30 products in a month, I was looking at $1,000. That’s not a bad part-time income! And if I were to start buying products from Doba as a dropshipper it would accept a whole lot less fourth dimension each month every bit well.
Final thoughts almost starting an Ebay concern
There is really a lot to teach inward improver to equally you sell more than you figure out to a greater extent than than too improve ways to minimize expenses. I have got learned a lot from selling on ebay, but at that identify is withal a lot more than to acquire. Just don’t exist intimidated or afraid to attempt it out if it is something you are interested inwards doing.
I’d love to hear from others about their successes or struggles (whatever the case may be) starting an eBay
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