ebay evaluation

wondering whether to offer goods via ebay

[gibbon]

We currently straight ecom sell via our websites.

However we have seen a competitor recently set up an ebay store and seem do very well with it (you can get an idea of the approx sales by the number of feedbacks they get each day)

We are toying with the idea of setting a ebay store up to.

Are there any pointers that we ought to know before we embark on this?

Can we use ebay to drive traffic to our ecom site too through a link (or is that against ebay TOS)?

What sort of listings should we go for?

How long should we have the auctions for? 5 days, 10 days?

Are there any online resources about ebay optimisation?

Basically is it worth doing, and if we do it how do we optimise? ... help :)

Thanks in advance

[pbreit]

Since there's little risk (small listinng fee), the best thing to do is likely to go ahead and try some eBay sales. You can research closed auctions in your product space to see what kind of pricing you can expect and how other sellers promote their items.

[moose606]

While I don't use Ebay to sell new goods, in competition with my web site, I do use Ebay to sell customer returns. This way, I at least get my cost covered, and don't get stuck with returns.

[chicagohh]

We used to sell on eBay, but the competition is tremendous. Our average sale is $260. On eBay, we have to sell around $190. A lot of people hide their identities from manufacturers on eBay so they can sell dirt cheap. One of our products is selling for $15 above cost! The lady selling admits to having a secret supplier and that she makes money on volume.

Some people are just thrilled to work their a$$ off for $100 per day as long as they can do it from home.

Now we only buy things on eBay. Recent purchases: Bicycle for $279 that sells for over $700 at any bike shop in town. Digital camera for $170 - retail: $300. Cold Steel knife: $56 - retail: ~ $130.

...if you can't beat'em - buy from them.

[jsinger]

Heck, some people are thrilled to work on ZERO dollars a day...even negative dollars a day.

Don't believe what you learned in Econ 101 about rational economics. People go to casinos even though they know it's financially stupid. Day traders sit at their terminals all day churning stocks, while my boring index funds beat their performance by miles...year after year. I have known people who owned their own businesses that were utterly unprofitable... some people just like to stay busy and like to say they have a business.

Then there are people who are simply dumb or crazy. We do government bidding and I often see bids the are ridiculously low. Those bidders don't stay in business long. But they muck things up for the others.

--
Years ago I was talking with a company that had outbid us by a huge margin and asked them about it. Their answer: they made a math mistake!

[mansterfred]

We have started to put a few "sale items" on e-bay. They sell for about 15-20% when auctioned.

For cost savings we just re-list the same products. E-bay TOS says no links except informational ones. So we link to our site for:

Installation Instructions
Cleaning Instructions
Return Policies
Colors Available
etc etc

We get about 800 visits per week from Ebay. We know from emails that for every dollar we sell on Ebay we are getting at least one more from someone buying something else direct.

Currently it beats the hell out of Adwords or Overture on CPC and ROI... by a long shot...:)

**Please note we have a proprietary line so no one else sells our products. We have been around for 22 years and our products rarely go on sale. So even at auction prices our markup is 100-200%. Generic brands and products below $20 are probably losing propositions.

[Compworld]

You should also consider selling on some other shopping and auction sites. Take a look over at bidfind.com. Some auction and shopping sites that provide a decent return are listed there. I have done the eBay route. It seems that if you sell at a fair price, you can do pretty well. I have also sold on some other shopping and auctions sites, and had mixed results for different items.

CompWorld