Selling on ebay as a business - any general tips and advice please?

krazycatlady_2

I will shortly be selling on ebay as a business seller, the ebay account has been changed to a business account and I'm aware of the tax side of things. I've previously sold my own unwanted items but have never sold new items in bulk so was hoping for some hints & tips from any business sellers out there.

I have a product that is only sold by one other ebay seller and I aim to beat their prices. I will also be donating a percentage of profits to a charity which will be mentioned in each listing.

I know that final value fees are calculated on the sale price only (excluding p&p) so intend to charge p&p separately rather than offer free postage. P&P will be at cost, I don't intend to make any profit on postage so hopefully not offering free postage won't put people off.

I read that you are not allowed to put links in ebay listings but can I put 'see my other items' and name the items ie X, Y & Z within the listing or is that classed as keyword spamming?

Is there anything else that I should be aware of, any major differences between selling privately and as a business? Any hints and tips or do's and don'ts would be much appreciated.

Thanks

terra_ferma

Good luck!
I did the same a few months ago. It's hard work!

Bear in mind that if you start a price war with a bigger competitor it may end in tears, as sometimes they will sell at a loss to get rid of a competitor. It's much better to try and win business using a different system, like 100% fb if the are lower, good listings, pics, a good return policy etc.
If they are really strong in terms of fb, customer service, reputation etc a lower price may not be enough for buyers to come to you.
Do you know why only one other seller is selling that item? Is it because it's hard to find, or that there aren't enough sales to make it worthwhile?

Are you giving to charity because if would attract more buyers? If not I would use that money to keep higher margins. It's just that a new business may not be strong enough to allow charity donations as well unless you want to subsidise this charity from your income regardless.

With P&P sometimes charging postage cost if not enough to get good stars, they are also used to score packaging, which has to be secure and depending on the product and market even pretty/recycled/whatever....
When I started I was having problems with postage stars even with low P&P costs, but improving on packaging has solved the problem.

I believe that using words that are not relevant to the item is not allowed, as your listings are searchable and the keywords would come up on a search.
You could say 'more sizes/colours/brands available in my store/other listings", and give a link to your store/listings.

I would say one of the main differences is that you need to comply with distance selling regulations, and allow returns. No silly terms and conditions like 'if the item is lost in the post it's your problem mate'.
Buyers expectations may be different, they may expect you to post sooner, respond more quickly, have better designed listings. They may also behave in a less personal fashion, seeing you as a faceless company rather than an individual.

If your account is new, or your items branded, you are very likely to encounter limitations, in terms of the number of items you can sell (from 10 to 100 to start with), to having to wait 28 days before PayPal releases your money.

HTH and good luck!

Myyrrddyn

Hi there, as Terra_ferma has said you could loose out to a bidding war. When I started with my products I was the only selling them. Now every tom !!!!!! and harry are selling them. This also could happen to you. Free postage brings the sales in, but I can see where you are coming from with the postage charge. I say on my listings that postage is at cost and we only charge 5p for packaging as we find that this covers what we use.
I find that in these days you will probably find that more people are actually selling what you intend to do. They may have it listed different etc.
Best of British

krazycatlady_2

Thank you terra_ferma, that's really helpful

terra_ferma wrote: »

Do you know why only one other seller is selling that item? Is it because it's hard to find, or that there aren't enough sales to make it worthwhile?

The item is not available in the UK so it has to be imported. It's quite a specialised item but with a good sized customer base for people who might buy it if they came across it on ebay - trying not to give too much away on an open forum!

terra_ferma wrote: »

Are you giving to charity because if would attract more buyers? If not I would use that money to keep higher margins. It's just that a new business may not be strong enough to allow charity donations as well unless you want to subsidise this charity from your income regardless.

The charity aspect isn't so much to attract buyers although hopefully it may help - the type of charity that a % of the profits will be donated to is linked to the items, so people buying the items will more than likely support that type of charity. The plan is to donate a set percentage and still make a reasonable profit. The margins on the items should allow this even taking into account ebay and paypal fees.

terra_ferma wrote: »

With P&P sometimes charging postage cost if not enough to get good stars, they are also used to score packaging, which has to be secure and depending on the product and market even pretty/recycled/whatever....
When I started I was having problems with postage stars even with low P&P costs, but improving on packaging has solved the problem.

The item currently sells on a specialised website so the packaging aspect is all sorted, do you think it's worth mentioning in the listing that p&p is at cost and no rpofit is made from p&p? I'm wary of droning on too much as I always click away from 3 mile long listings myself!

terra_ferma wrote: »

I believe that using words that are not relevant to the item is not allowed, as your listings are searchable and the keywords would come up on a search.
You could say 'more sizes/colours/brands available in my store/other listings", and give a link to your store/listings.

That's what I meant although I diddn't word it very well. The other items are all from the same range so I was planning on putting something like you have above.

terra_ferma wrote: »

I would say one of the main differences is that you need to comply with distance selling regulations, and allow returns. No silly terms and conditions like 'if the item is lost in the post it's your problem mate'.
Buyers expectations may be different, they may expect you to post sooner, respond more quickly, have better designed listings. They may also behave in a less personal fashion, seeing you as a faceless company rather than an individual.

That's one of my things on the to do list - create a 'statement' about returns etc. I hate sellers that have ridiculous T&C's like 'I won't refund until Royal Mail do' or 'I will provide proof of posting for you the buyer to chase up any losses' etc - it actually puts me off from buying from them!

terra_ferma wrote: »

If your account is new, or your items branded, you are very likely to encounter limitations, in terms of the number of items you can sell (from 10 to 100 to start with), to having to wait 28 days before PayPal releases your money.

The account is the old personal one with the name changed so it already has 100+ feedback so hopefully it won't be limited although I know ebay and paypal can sometimes be a law unto themselves and block accounts willy nilly!

Thanks again for taking the time to reply

krazycatlady_2

Myyrrddyn wrote: »

Hi there, as Terra_ferma has said you could loose out to a bidding war. When I started with my products I was the only selling them. Now every tom !!!!!! and harry are selling them. This also could happen to you. Free postage brings the sales in, but I can see where you are coming from with the postage charge. I say on my listings that postage is at cost and we only charge 5p for packaging as we find that this covers what we use.
I find that in these days you will probably find that more people are actually selling what you intend to do. They may have it listed different etc.
Best of British

Thanks Myyrrddyn - I'm confident that there is only one UK seller of this item so I guess it may turn into a dog fight between them and us!

I think I will put in the listing about p&p being at cost, just didn't want to put people off with too much info. The items are very light in the main so p&p will be less than a pound for most things.

Hammyman

krazycatlady wrote: »

I think I will put in the listing about p&p being at cost, just didn't want to put people off with too much info. The items are very light in the main so p&p will be less than a pound for most things.

I wouldn't. The actual cost for me to post a keyboard key by First Class Recorded is:

Envelope: 3p
Cost of printing invoice (paper and ink): 1p
First Class Stamp: 41p
Recorded Delivery: 74p
LABOUR - takes me 1/2hr to do the post office run, my labour rates are £30/hr - £15.
Travel - 2 miles @ HMRC rates of 40p per mile: 80p

So the actual cost of me sending something first class recorded is actually £16.99....

krazycatlady_2

Hammyman wrote: »

I wouldn't. The actual cost for me to post a keyboard key by First Class Recorded is:

Envelope: 3p
Cost of printing invoice (paper and ink): 1p
First Class Stamp: 41p
Recorded Delivery: 74p
LABOUR - takes me 1/2hr to do the post office run, my labour rates are £30/hr - £15.
Travel - 2 miles @ HMRC rates of 40p per mile: 80p

So the actual cost of me sending something first class recorded is actually £16.99....

Good point What I meant was putting a short note explaining that p&p was the actual cost of the postage and a jiffy bag and that no profit was made. Is that too much info for the average buyer?

floart

when you have a business account, you get a terms & conditions box at the bottom of the listing. you can change these at any time via the seller dashboard.
the t&cs section is displayed below the listing when the buyer views it, and is something that the buyer can either ignore, or they can scroll down through it independently of the main page it's in if they wish to read it fully, so if you are worried about putting in lots of blurb that might put people off, but still want to include something you see as importatant, then you can put it in there.
i think that this addition is really good, i alway used to avoid buying from people with pages of small print tagged onto the end of their listings... this way it is much more concise and not offputting, but you can still include everything you want to without detracting from the main listing. (why can i not be more concise?)

Auntie-Dolly

Just a thought - are you sure the other seller doesn't have sole distribution rights for these products?

krazycatlady_2

Oooh, thanks floart - I hadn't realised that as haven't created any listings yet. That's a much better idea as I'd rather focus on the product in the listings rather than prattling on about other stuff, like you say pages of small print can detract from the actual item.

krazycatlady_2

Auntie-Dolly wrote: »

Just a thought - are you sure the other seller doesn't have sole distribution rights for these products?

Good point but in this case I'm certain that the other seller doesn't have sole distribution rights. There are other places in the UK to buy this item (imported) but there is only one ebay seller selling the range. Thanks for the thought though