Diary of an eBay Store, Part 1

I'm the type of person that has to do things RIGHT. And I don't just mean, "okay, it's good now" type of RIGHT, I mean, nitpicking analistic (is that even a word?) nearly obsessive perfectionist type of RIGHT. As a result, it takes me long to do things than it should - but when I do it, it's RIGHT. You can imagine that that has its advantages and disadvantages.

This eBay store challenge has turned into one of those RIGHT things. I've done so much research into this that I think I've earned a degree. Matter of fact, there does exist eBay University, for whatever its worth.

I wanted, first of all, to read about what real eBay store owners were thinking, doing, complaining about, so I could bring those experiences into my own process. That's important, you don't go into anything with just your own dreams and visions - you need to tap into the pulse of the current consumers and the people behind the wheel. I hung out in the eBay forums, where you can find Discussion boards on every topic from Buyer/Seller complaints to Technical issues to locating collectibles worldwide. I'd venture to say that pretty much ANY question you might have about eBay is answered in these forums, and if you don't find an answer - ask the question and you're guaranteed to get a response within minutes. In addition to the discussion boards, there's now eBay blogs, which operate somewhat similar to other blogs except you can direct link them to your auctions. So in effect, you can blog about your store and your auctions, drop articles and reviews on your own inventory, and then send them quickly to your store to make the purchase. Love. It. Very nice upgrade.

Having already been an eBay member for some seven years now, I'd used the boards in the past, but there's always something new to learn there, especially if you're running active auctions because you can be alerted about potential scammers or buyers to watch out for. It's also good to read about the most common complaints regarding eBay services such as the eBay stores, and see what the other store owners are experiencing. I noticed that people often close their stores and reopen them at later dates - and this is important, because you don't want to feel that you've gotten into something that you can't get out of. Which, if you sign up with some other ecommerce solutions, you're signing up and paying for a year in advance and you may have to haggle over refunds or discontinuing billing. The eBay store is a monthly fee, and as long as you cancel before your new billing cycle, there seems to be very few issues with closing the account. If you decide to reopen later, just return to the link, reactivate, and reopen as usual. Sellers seem to do this if sales are low and they don't want to pay the associated fees if there's no revenue, makes perfect sense, and its great that you can easily back in and out of this without feeling like you bought a car.

What I really should have done, ideally, was spend 3-6 months collecting the Hot items files and analyzing them for obvious trends, so I would really be able to target my best potential for sales. You can't come to any conclusions off of one report, or two, and three will only get you close to the truth. Just because something is selling big in July, doesn't mean it will still be hot in August. And if you look at the reports during the Christmas season, you will see totally different products at the top of the list, as well as if you look during the summer months as opposed to the winter. So if you want to do this RIGHT, I suggest you take your time, pull the Hot Items reports for at least 2-3 months and take a look at how the top sellers fluctuate. You will notice some things may always be in the Hot list, such as children's clothing, designer clothing in particular, and certain electronics will always be steady sellers, such as computer peripherals and portable audio players. Collectibles climb higher on the list as you near the holiday season, as well as jewelry, and arts and craft supplies. This is only what I've discerned from past experience, the discussions in the forum, and old reports. My idea of, 'let's just open an eBay store' would have been fine if all you wanted was an eBay store, but if you want an eBay store that actually makes a profit, then you'll want to do the research first.

I see so many stores selling the SAME products, at nearly the SAME prices, and some of the items they have for sale, you have to wonder - what gave them the idea that this would sell? Of course, there's always a buyer for something that most other people wouldn't look twice at, but when you're putting your time and energy into a storefront, you want to turn a regular profit, not just move one or two items a month. If you spend some time looking at what other sellers are having success with, and what they're losing money and time on, you can avoid those problems with your own store.

I should note that there are a few requirements that you need to meet in order to qualify for an eBay store, but they are rather simple. You need to be an eBay Seller, with a feedback score of at least 20. This requires that you verify your identity by providing your home address and phone number, as well as credit card and banking information. This goes a long way to protect your buyers and help establish your credibility as a seller, but, as you know, on the internet, there's always people who find a way around the system. You also need to open a Paypal account, if you haven't already, and that account must be verified and in good standing, meaning, Paypal has ran the necessary checks to ensure your account is legitimate and you are qualified to accept payments.

In Part 2, I will wrap up the process of opening the store, but also cover inventory, deciding whether to dropship or resale wholesale products, and how to determine true wholesale suppliers.

Coming up, I have a personal profile of a real live Broke Entrepreneur! This is my first of several profiles of people who successfully built their businesses using their own resources and funding, while living paycheck to paycheck! First up is a woman who turned her passion for unique handbags into a small creative business of handmade fashionable bags and accessories, and sells them both through her website and other offline methods.

Diary of an eBay store

As a fellow broke entrepreneur, when I write entries for this blog, I’m also researching the information for myself as well as trying to help others. I wouldn’t suggest anything for another person to do, if I wouldn’t do it myself, however, I might offer resources that are valuable to someone else, but they may be out my own price range. As long as they fall within what I consider affordable for those in my target audience, then I’ll write about it.

Thus, my previous entry about the eBay stores really stayed on my mind long after I posted it. As I said, I have bought and sold on eBay since around 2000, but I never opened an actual store, and during my research to bring the information here, I started considering if it was something I could actually do. I also wondered if there were other means of getting products for the store besides the one or two I’d mentioned? In the process of delving deeper into it for a follow up entry, I found an array of options for opening online stores for little or no cost, including stores complete with drop shipping and click and drag interfaces, and other wholesale resources with which you can stock your eBay store at prices low enough to still provide you with a wide profit margin. I picked up quite an education on the whole niche industry, from how to spot a middle man who is draining your profits, to questions you should ask to ensure that you are dealing with a legitimate supplier source.

So in addition to everything else I’ve got going on, I’m so intrigued by the whole eBay shop thing that I’m going to open one. I’ll document all of my steps so if you’re hesitant at all about jumping in, you can follow along and see how it goes for me. I’m putting together a series of entries that will show you all of the alternatives for getting started with an ecommerce store for very little money or even free. I’ll also show you various options for both purchasing wholesale products and dropshipping, as well as the pros and cons of each method.

I’m really excited about doing this and I hope we all learn from it – if anyone wants to take the journey with me and open their stores at the same time, I invite you to discuss it here and we’ll compare notes and help each other along the way.

I’m still compiling the notes for the introduction of the series, and then I plan to get started with the shop within the next week or so. Stay tuned!