eBay

A lot of people want to put all their eggs in one basket and it’s easy to fall into the rut of selling online in just one place but be careful that you don’t go this direction.

eBay is a great place to start selling and get your feet wet so to speak if you’re a new seller. The reason eBay is such a good place to start is the fact that more than likely if you have a good product you already have customers waiting on you. We have seen many times after setting up a new eBay store for a client that they will start making sales within a few days.

eBay is also a great place to test your products if you are unsure if they will sell and what your profit margin will be.

When you first set up your eBay store you want to go ahead and register a domain name and point it to your store so you can get some age on your domain name. Once you have established your eBay business and things are rolling along at a good pace it’s time to start thinking of expanding and having your own eCommerce website. If you’ve hired someone like us to create a custom eBay store for you them more than likely your logo and part of your design can be carried over to your eBay store.

You take the domain name you have pointing to your eBay store and use it for your website, this will capture any traffic from people that are used to typing in your dot com to go to your eBay store. At this point you want to start looking at eBay as a marketing tool more than a selling tool. Some people will also use eBay as a wholesale outlet to clear out merchandise as well as a marketing tool.

I know I’ve said it many times but only having an eBay store puts you in business with eBay, they are your partner plus you have all those fees. When you have your own eCommerce website you own your customer database, you don’t have the listing and final value fees and you are building an asset that you can sell later on.

I have clients that have created websites just for the sole purpose of selling them a couple of years later and they have pulled five figures from the website when they sold it.

As I said earlier in this article, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, if you currently have an eBay store you should really consider having a website, if you are new to selling online start with this plan in mind.

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Is your eBay store in a black hole?

I’ll keep this short and sweet, sometimes being in this business I forget to get back to the basic things.

If you are selling on eBay using an eBay store and you are using the standard eBay templates they give you then you are wasting your time and money. Yes, I just went there.

You may be asking why so much fuss over this, I’m going to explain why and make it as simple as possible. There are thousands of eBay stores on eBay, most of them look the same and most of them are not running at the full potential that they could be because they have no “eye appeal”, there is nothing to set them apart and they are forgettable.

If you had sales people that you had out going toe to toe with new customers would you want to dress them in rags and have them look like they just fell down 3 flights of stairs or would you want them dressed nice, hair nice, teeth sparkling and breath all minty fresh? I know, stupid question but if you are only using what eBay is giving you then you have a sales person in rags.

When you customize your eBay store and really dress it up then you are sending the message to your customers that you care about your business but more importantly you care about them! You will build confidence with your customers and you will create a lasting impression on them that will result in sales and referrals.

The custom design of an eBay store is only part of the plan, you also have to have the proper text and custom pages so your eBay store will not only show up better in eBay searches but in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Once you have these things in place provided you have a good product (When I say good product, I’m not talking about $.99 CDs or something like that) you want to start thinking about setting up your stand alone eCommerce website, this will allow you to turn your eBay store into a marketing tool.

I’ll break down more of these things soon but for now I wanted to stay with some basic things. Where does your eBay store stand today?

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With eBay making so many changes and so many eBay sellers becoming unhappy now may be the best time to start an eCommerce website. A while back eBay was a great place to get your feet wet so to speak with selling online, you could open up an eBay store, customize it and get sales almost instantly and actually make some profit. Starting an eCommerce website took a little longer, almost like a steam locomotive, it had to build up steam and there was some time before you could really see sales from it.

We are not seeing that now, we are seeing a lot of people doing a lot of work on eBay only to make a small profit, things do change. In my opinion if it’s not broke don’t fix it but who am I? The bottom line is even back in eBay’s prime when life was better on eBay you were still in business with eBay. You did most of the work, the listing, the advertising, the packing, the shipping and the good folks at eBay sat back and collected a profit plus they were partners in your customer base.

Several years ago there were some top power sellers that left eBay, they took the money they spent in eBay fees per month and put it toward internet marketing, pay per click and different things. They were able to double in one year what they did on eBay. Personally I think more people should have followed their example then.

With the rise in popularity of social media marketing there has never been a better time to make the transition from eBay to your own eCommerce website. You will not only save in eBay fees but you will also own 100% of your client base. You will also be building an asset that later on you can sell or pass down to someone else unlike an eBay business that you don’t really have ownership to.

If you have not started selling on eBay yet and you’re just thinking about it you may want to think long and hard, there are other options out there. If you do currently have an eBay store you do want to take advantage of what you have if you are making sales. Spend a little time and money to make it professional but keep in mind not to put all your eggs in one basket. Focus on the long term goal of your own website and build something that will belong to you and only you.

You may have considered using eBay stores for your business but before you set up an eBay store there are some key things you need to keep in mine in order to get the most success.

Store Name – Naming your eBay store is very important, you might be tempted to put your business name in your store but fight this urge. You only get a few characters so choose wisely and remember this is not traditional brick and mortar. People search eBay for products not business or personal names so “Anthony’s Cool Store” would not be a good name but “Website Design Success” because I have used key words in my name. What ever you sell is what you want to use in your name, in key words.

Appearance – eBay provides pre-made store design templates to choose from but the problem is everyone else uses them too; there is nothing to set the look of your store apart from others. There is a design template in eBay stores that is easily customizable, take this template and add your own custom design or have a professional store designer create a custom design for you. Potential customers will notice the difference, they will also get the feeling that you really care because you have taken time to set yourself apart from other eBay sellers.

Custom Pages – This is something a lot of eBay store owners waste but one of the most important things for SEO purposes. Each level of eBay store subscription provides you with custom pages, don’t waste them. Set up your custom pages to talk about your products and use text containing your key words to describe your products. Remember to write for your readers first and search engines second.

About Me Page – This is your spot, it’s a place where you can really connect with your potential buyer and let them get to know you. Take full advantage of this section and add information about you, how long you have been in your market, how you got started, why you are selling on eBay, how you feel about customer service, etc. People love to deal with people on a personal level so let them get to know the real you!

I just read a great article on logo design; Niki Brown could not have said it better! Seriously people wake up and smell the reality; you really do get what you pay for. Niki talked about the cheap logo mills but its not just logos, this happens with website design and eBay store design as well.

I have done several web and eBay searches to look for companies (or individuals) that offer really cheap website design or eBay store design. I came across some real winners! I’m not going to link any of those folks here because frankly I don’t want to advertise for them and I think they are doing more harm than good.

First of all, if anyone can design a website for you for less than two or 3 thousand dollars and do it in just a few days you are getting a cookie cutter thrown together mess of code that will do nothing for you. You will probably end up with a template that looks like hundreds of other websites or eBay stores.

How much time goes into designing a good website or eBay store? At least a couple to several weeks and that is taking into consideration that the client is available to answer questions, approve changes and communicate during the project on a timely manner.

Rome was not built in a day and either should a professional website or eBay store!

As buyers please do your research, get the facts and compare apples to apples or go ahead and fall for the low end cheap stuff but have fun when you need support or you need updates or if you need marketing. If your cheap-o designer didn’t charge you much they sure didn’t do any research on your project before they started and they sure won’t be able to do any research to help you do any marketing. Then again, if they sold you a cheap design you may not be able to get back in touch with them again after your project is done anyway.