Are you ready to sell on eBay? Hopefully you’ve read the other articles in this series. If so, you are well prepared to start building your business. For anyone looking to build a successful long-term business, there are a few things to do right from the start. Here are the 10 keys to long-term success as an eBay seller.
Know who you are selling to. Where they live. When and how much do they buy. What is your main reason for buying your product? Why are you the best person to get it? You must identify a common problem and offer you the best solution. This is your unique selling point.
Who is your competition
Do your market research and learn all you can about your competition. What is your unique selling point and how can you overcome it? How much are they selling your product for? What is your initial offer? When do your auctions end? See how energy sellers conduct their auctions and learn from them. Most energy vendors are selling a multitude of items. Start with a product and be the authority on that product. Beat the competition one product at a time.
Find the best source for your product
You need a reliable source for your products. While it is possible to make money using drop shipping, it can be quite risky. What happens when your dropship runs out of product during the auction? Now you are going to have dissatisfied customers. They will have to wait or you will have to refund their money. Neither option will make them happy and they might leave negative feedback. It is always better to have the products on hand and send them yourself. Buy in bulk to get a better price. If you can, find multiple vendors for your product. Buy the one with the best price and use the others as a backup. Do your homework before buying a single product. Make sure you can sell the item for a profit. Search for completed auctions and you can get a history of the same or similar products.
Easy does it at first
Don’t buy a truckload of produce until you are sure you can sell it at a good profit. Start by buying no more than 5 of any product that you are ready to sell. This is only after doing the proper market research and seeing the potential. You’ll have to pay more for these first few items, but now you can test the waters without spending a fortune. This is the only real way to know for sure how much you can get for this item.
Success test
Run your initial auctions one at a time and test out the little details. You can only test one thing at a time. Multiple changes won’t tell you which change made the difference. Try different starting offers, end times, durations, titles, descriptions, images, and more. Adjust your listings for the best possible results, then repeat the winning format over and over again.
Plan your work, your work plan
Write down the results of your market research. Write down the results of your test auctions. Now make a business plan. Write down your goals and how you plan to achieve them. Set a budget and stick to it. Always know what you need to do today and what you plan to do in the future. Learn from your mistakes and repeat your successes.
Invest your earnings and expand
Don’t spend your earnings, reinvest them in your business. Now that you’ve had some success and know what to do, buy more inventory and make more money. Keep reinvesting your earnings until you earn at least double the amount of your daily work. Set a goal of how much profit you want to make each month and calculate how many sales you need to make each month.
Register your business
Now that you have made real profits, you should register your business. It is not that difficult and it does not cost much. It is best to hire an attorney to make sure everything is in order.
Get some tools to help you
At this point in your career as an eBay seller, you will notice that you are doing the same things over and over again. You will be ready to get some software to automate your emails and listings. There are several different available, search eBay and Google and you will find one that suits your needs.
Do not give up
All new businesses struggle to get started. Even well established companies have their ups and downs. Even when you seem desperate and everything goes wrong, don’t give up. You will discover that your greatest triumphs will come when you think that all is lost.
Once you really get things going, you will be a powerful salesperson before you know it. You will quit your day job and be in business full time. Look out for future articles in my “Selling on eBay” series.