Wanting to start my own ebay shop, Advice please

blue_monkey_2

paulwf wrote: »

I think this is an excellent post that anyone that uses internet forums when starting up their business should bear in mind. When you hear stories of businesses selling thousands of items it looks like they are a huge success, but when you get the actual figures of a net profit of £800 for 10 hours a day over 8 months it paints a different picture.

Blue Monkey, as you say Ebay is a great place for learning how to run a business with very minimal risk (as long as you don't bulk buy). Sounds like 8 months well spent, you can't buy experience like that.

I had traded for a few years before those 8 months, as I say I was the first selling what I did and made enough money to cover me the next few years, but by the time it came to closing up I had time to sit out and work out what I had been doing for that year to date. And I am so pleased I did. It was a blessing in disguise as I realised it was going no-where.

Do your research.

When I started there was just me, by the time I closed there were probably 100 other sellers selling what I did and I was constantly trying to undercut or make sure postage prices were competitive and so once doing the book keeping I realised I was working all those hours for nothing. The day I stopped selling on eBay was like a HUGE weight lifted from my shoulders as there was so much work involved but I could not afford to employ someone to help out.

I guess circumstances change but I like where I am now and I certainly sope without it. I would suggest that people try having a website and running on eBay for 6-12 months, keep your books for both sides and see where you make the money. The worst thing is finding a good e-commerce site that is picked up by Google, I use bluepark now but have also had success with ekmpowershops. Good luck.

And yes, sometimes it is better to ask. Leea I have recently started accepting Paypal on my site and shot up so bear this in mind too, they are more or less the same costs as I pay for my Barclays Merchant Account.

goldndelicious

so have made any test sales yet then? any good responses?

ILUVIGGYS

Leea_Cadie wrote: »

Hi Im Hoping to Make and sell Childrens Alternative clothing Via Ebay (to start with), Im A little worried about the Ebay and Paypal fees,

I tried to test what the paypal would take once, When Sending £1 to my dads paypal account paypal took 22p, so would that be 22p for every £1

When you say Turnover, is that meaning Annual turnover? Sorry to sound thick!!

Regards
Leea

hi..if youre sending money to someone as a PERSONAL money item then use the PERSONAL section to do so....that way paypal just see it as a transfer of money & not a PAYMENT made [ hope that makes sence [.just use the tabs thats preset to send money to a seller for payment...

ILUVIGGYS

leea.im sure someone will correct me BUT i think if your selling on ebay then you have no option but to offer paypal as a way for people to pay for their goods.....i know i sell a few odds & sods & someone who bought from me asked why she couldnt start to sell as she hasnt a paypal account & they [ meaning ebay ..read paypal as they are now one & the same Co im led to believe ] she uses cheques to pay with.....hope ive helped & not dampened your great idea.
someone has already said ebay is a great way to test your market & gives you a little breathing space too.

blue_monkey_2

Yes, if selling on eBay you HAVE to accept Paypal.

As an example, this week I received £800 in Paypal over 15 transactions and the Fees were around £40.

Dirrtland

ILUVIGGYS wrote: »

leea.im sure someone will correct me BUT i think if your selling on ebay then you have no option but to offer paypal as a way for people to pay for their goods.....i know i sell a few odds & sods & someone who bought from me asked why she couldnt start to sell as she hasnt a paypal account & they [ meaning ebay ..read paypal as they are now one & the same Co im led to believe ] she uses cheques to pay with.....hope ive helped & not dampened your great idea.
someone has already said ebay is a great way to test your market & gives you a little breathing space too.

Hehe of course hunnie, I will be accepting paypal i use it all the time, But Before when I have accepted a payment, it Just sat in my Paypal account an did not go to my Bank account, to have the money go into my account i have to have a separate bank card! I was just wondering if this is the case for everyone else??

ukbill69

ebay used to be a great place to sell, but now they have so many rules and always trying to protect the buyer and not keep the seller happy. I for one do not use them anymore. I was selling over £3000 per month (200-300 items) on there and there was always something wrong. Once I ahd enough of that I setup my own store, using prestashop (costs nothing), hosting with 1and1 £80 per year, SSL cert £3.99 per month and £20 per month to merchant services. All seems like a lot of setup and yes it it, but its the right way to go.

Paypal Note: If you send items to buyers via unregistered mail, then you will find that the buyer can get the money back right away without question. Even if the buyer has got the item, they can get there money back with saying it hasnt come.

pitkin2020

Ebay shop/selling ideally needs to be used in conjuction with your own website, ebay has millions of hits per day so it can be the best exposure your likely to get when starting out, but once you make the sale through ebay you need to push your own website to the customer so the next purchase they make from you will not be via ebay but your own site.
The oly problem with ebay is that it is saturated with hundrends of people selling the same stuff so it is difficult to find your own USP (unique selling point) and the problem as mentioned that ebayer are more about protecting the buyers than the genuine sellers and their fees are getting higher and higher all the time. But as i said as a starting point and low risk you cant go far wrong

sarahmurphymoo

Hi,

I'm thinking of doing the same sort of thing with a few "drop shipping" companies.

Did this work out for you, did the fees turn out to be too much for your profit margin?