Starting an eBay business - 5 essentials

The internet is the ultimate platform for any person to find anything they’re looking for. And when it comes to consumer goods, the internet’s favourite is eBay.

But can you make a living selling things on eBay? Well, kind of. The biggest advantage of eBay is the biggest disadvantage for you: everyone sells on a level playing field, no matter where they live or what they do.

Unlike anywhere else in business, reputation and quality of service mean nothing as long as you’ve got a feedback score in double figures. On eBay it’s down to the lowest common denominator: price.

If you want to make a living selling every day consumer goods, you will be competing against hundreds, maybe thousands of other sellers not just in the UK but across the world. Really, the only way to make a proper business out of eBay is to find a niche with a limited supply and make the most of the sales platform.

Here are Bytestart’s five essentials you need to start your eBay business.

Decide what to sell and source stock

Niche is the key here. Basic economics tells you that a limited supply and healthy demand drives prices higher. Why make 50p profit selling an iPod (and have the hassles of VAT laws that affect some consumer electronics), when you can scour car boot sales for hard to find 1950s teddy bears and make £100 per sale?

Could you turn a hobby or unusual interest into an eBay business? It’s easy to research what people are currently selling, and a normal internet search will tell you if there’s a business in your hobby (or if you just have a unusual obsession!). You could also source goods from wholesalers, using supplier catalogues easily bought from newsagents, or even consider selling trade stock to businesses.

If you operate an existing retail business then it makes sense to list your stock on eBay too. The 24 hour nature of the site means you will sell while you sleep. That removes a cost layer, meaning you should be able to sell for slightly less than retail.

While reputation isn’t a key driver of eBay sales, in a niche market with high value sales, a business with expertise will perform better, especially if that business has a good offline reputation.

Differentiate to attract more visitors

By specialising in a specific niche you can spend time learning what factors drive buyers to your sales. Experiment with different ways of listing similar items, or for example seeing if multiple photos create higher bids. You can even build a separate website outside of eBay to allow you to use powerful tools such as email newsletters to keep in touch with potential future buyers.

In general, detail sells on eBay. People visit the site when they are ready to buy, and if you can give them more detail than anyone else, you stand a better chance of increasing their desire to purchase now.

Give great customer service

A big fat positive feedback score is easy to achieve on eBay with a little work. And it will give buyers extra confidence to buy from you.

Respond to every question quickly. Learn to anticipate frequently asked questions and address them in listings (saving yourself time in the future). Send items the same day they sell, and give positive feedback quickly. Send reminders to your buyers asking for feedback.

If there are problems with goods, act how you would expect a big name retailer to act, even if it means you lose some profit. Think of it as an investment in your future feedback score.

Learn the rules and stick to them

eBay is essentially driven on trust. You can work that system to your advantage by learning all of the rules and ensuring that everything you do meets them. The rules change from time to time so keep an eye on them.

You really would not want to break the rules anyway, as you could find eBay temporarily suspending your lucrative account.

In general it’s worth putting your trust in the system. It might only have been around for 13 years, but it’s a pretty slick operation and most things go pretty well on the site. When they don’t the procedures to fix them are clear.

Use tools to turn volume into profit

You’ll never make a good profit on eBay doing everything manually. Well, you might, but you’ll be an extremely busy person. If you rely on volume sales in any way you will need to use automated tools to help you.

eBay offers its own Turbo Lister tool to get items in bulk. But there are also plenty of third party tools you can buy at a pretty low cost, from those to see how much similar items have sold for in the past, to sales managers to track your performance. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different tools to find the most powerful ones for your business.