THE BIRTH OF eBAY- ebay secrets
eBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localised websites in thirty other countries.
If you look at eBay today, you could never imagine that it had a very modest and in fact comical beginning. One may have noticed that the internet world involves a lot of glamour of big entrepreneurial firms and huge capital investments. eBay does not however has any such history. Instead, eBay can be traced back to only a home page and a broken laser point.
Somewhere around September 1995, Pierre Omidyar, a 28 year old software developer, who had previously worked for Apple computers, started writing a code that eventually evolved into what we know as eBay today.
eBay was originally called AuctionWeb. It was hosted on the same server as Pierre’s page about the Ebola virus. The site began with listing of a single broken laser pointer. Pierre had intended the listing to be a test more than a serious offer to sell at auction. Pierre knew that he had initiated something big as soon as he contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the pointer was broken. The bidder replied that he was a collector of broken laser points.
AuctionWeb soon took over the entire domain of Pierre, www.ebay.com. eBay is the short form of echo Bay, which was the name of the consulting firm at that time. In a year’s time, Jeffrey Skoll, a Stanford MBA, came aboard an already profitable ship. Meg Whitman soon followed as President and CEO, along with a strong business team under whose leadership eBay grew rapidly. eBay’s vision for success transitioned from one of commerce to one of connecting people all over the world together.
With the speedy growth and strong branding, eBay thrived, eclipsing many of the other auction sites.
SELLING SUCCESSFULLY ON eBay
eBay.com is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods worldwide. eBay is managed by an American internet company eBay.Inc. Apart from the original US website, eBay has established localised websites in thirty other countries.
Today a lot of entrepreneurs are using eBay as a sole storefront. They carry out their electronic transactions through eBay. The beauty of eBay is that the entrepreneurs can get into ecommerce without taking the trouble of creating an ecommerce site. To sell successfully on eBay one must keep the following tips in mind.
Ø While listing products on eBay the seller must accompany the products with high quality professional photographs. “Seeing is believing” as the adage goes.
Ø Before listing the product on eBay the seller must do some research on similar products and their bidding process on the site. This will help him gauge the interest for his product and also to estimate its worth.
Ø Shipping is controlled by the eBay seller. However when dealing on eBay, there are different methods by which the seller can ship his products. The seller should go through these methods and select the best one on the basis of cost and reliability. The seller should also mention the shipping cost on the listing to the potential customers.
Ø The eBay listing should be well crafted. Due attention should be paid to the writing. It should be such that it is able to entice the customers to bid on his product. Using search engine friendly phrases along with concrete details of the product, the seller can build a powerful eBay listing.
Ø The seller should offer a variety of payment options, including payment through credit cards. This will attract more customers to bid for the product and thereby increasing the sales.
Ø Getting a positive feedback, on the products listed, by the potential customers is very important on eBay. Prospective buyers will bid more often and will be willing to pay higher prices also if the seller has a consistent record of positive feedback.
Ø Professionalism is the key to success. The seller must provide high quality customer service which will build his reputation. Also the seller should follow all the business rules that apply, such as registering the business, properly charging and remitting taxes.
Selling on eBay is like any other form of business. The customer satisfaction that the seller provides will translate into sales.
POWERSELLER TIPS TO INCREASE YOUR eBAY SALES
eBay has today become a flourishing online business for many entrepreneurs. It is a form of ecommerce in which people buy and sell goods electronically. Once you are established as an eBay seller it is important to take the business to the next level. The seller should now try to optimize his resources, try to increase his sales and thus operate more efficiently. Following are a few tips which, if implemented, can lead to a manifold increase in your eBay sales.
- Increase your shipping fees. Both shipping postage and handling fees should be included in your price quote. This may include packing materials such as labels, envelopes and bubble wrap, as well as the seller’s time to prepare and send the package at the post office.
- The seller is advised not to waste any money embellishments. They should not pay extra for any featured, bold, or flaired embellishments. Most people find the seller’s listings by keyword searches and the embellishments do not tend to increase traffic. “Add ons” are where most companies make their profit. This strategy must be used while selling to the customers, and not while buying listings.
- The seller should set a minimum selling price. The products listed on eBay have a certain amount of overheads, thus would not be worthwhile for the seller to sell the products below a certain price. The minimum selling price should take into consideration the seller’s time, utility costs, office equipment, software, work space rent and more.
- An effective strategy to pass savings on to a customer, and yet maintaining a minimum selling price, is to use low priced items bundled together. Selling these low priced items would not be worth it. However, allows the seller to sell for a higher price while giving the customer a feeling of saving through the bulk purchase.
- Lure people to your eBay store. Listing fees in the store is a fraction of the cost as a regular listing. So, if the seller places links or banners in his regular listings that encourage viewing his store items, it could help increase the store sales.
- Using automated feedback prevents sellers from spending hours keeping track of feedback.
- People like getting discounts. Thus offer bulk purchase incentives. It may encourage people to buy more and “save more”, thus increasing the sales.
The list seems to be endless. But if the seller uses his creativity, as well as his professionalism in dealing with his customers, he can increase his sales by a large margin.
