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princessmirandajo · 04-20-2007, 11:58 PM,

I just realized I have a lot of items in my eBay store that show up on the first page of Google. But, I only get a little traffic from google and I am not seeing that they are resulting in sales via 0 feedback or anything, so I'm wondering..

Gently used and new brand name clothing, even at lower prices. Am I trying to accomplish the impossible by thinking I could sell outside of eBay? I think the reality here is building a customer base who may look to me first versus somebody randomly searching for a certain pair of jean shorts, ya know?

And, still, something in me says "no keep going, you can do this." I don't know anything else, and I absolutely adore everything about used and new clothing. I love the rare factor, the "wow, I lost that item and here it is" factor, and of course I love shopping for it. But am I setting myself up to fail?

princessmirandajo · 04-20-2007, 11:59 PM,

And the prices... My inventory cost is so low I could sell each item for $5 off eBay and make plenty, but I have raised the prices on my website than they are on eBay, but maybe it should be reversed. ugh.. I just don't know.

**amy** · 04-21-2007, 12:53 AM,

Quote: Am I trying to accomplish the impossible by thinking I could sell outside of eBay?

I checked Froogle and there are a lot of individual websites selling used clothing so there must be a market for it off ebay. Many people don't like shopping on auction sites (and think "auction" when they see an eBay Stores listing in Froogle/Google)

Quote:I think the reality here is building a customer base who may look to me first versus somebody randomly searching

That's the goal no matter what or where you're selling.

Quote:I have raised the prices on my website than they are on eBay, but maybe it should be reversed.

Froogle and Yahoo Shopping are my primary tools for setting pricing. Web buyers aren't as cheap as eBay buyers. Laughing7

princessmirandajo · 04-21-2007, 01:26 AM,

UGH I can't make up my mind. What the heck is the matter with me? I deleted all my categories and products to start over.

princessmirandajo · (This post was last modified: 04-21-2007, 01:48 AM by princessmirandajo.)

One of my real struggles is my pictures. Between going back and forth with these products and stores, I realize so many of my pictures need to be redone. No problem, I am planning on that. I don't want my website looking like crap. And we're in the process of moving. I raised my sales in the past 3 months but consistently am paying eBay/PP 50% of my profits. Almost exactly. I made $238 last month, eBay and PP fees added up to $114. I'm still making money and we've come to need my money in a way but I keep debating on closing my eBay store and moving the product slowly and wisely, retaking pictures, almost starting all over really. But I've worked so hard on my ebay store and feedback and I am making a profit so that would be silly to just close it right? ugh I don't know.

edited to add: and categories, I can't figure out what is the best way to set up my dang categories!

eclectica · 04-21-2007, 02:07 AM,

[quote author=princessmirandajo link=topic=9305.msg50105#msg50105 date=1177119946]
One of my real struggles is my pictures. Between going back and forth with these products and stores, I realize so many of my pictures need to be redone. No problem, I am planning on that. I don't want my website looking like crap. And we're in the process of moving. I raised my sales in the past 3 months but consistently am paying eBay/PP 50% of my profits. Almost exactly. I made $238 last month, eBay and PP fees added up to $114. I'm still making money and we've come to need my money in a way but I keep debating on closing my eBay store and moving the product slowly and wisely, retaking pictures, almost starting all over really. But I've worked so hard on my ebay store and feedback and I am making a profit so that would be silly to just close it right? ugh I don't know.

edited to add: and categories, I can't figure out what is the best way to set up my dang categories!
[/quote]

I wouldn't necessarily close your eBay store but 50% in fees is WAY high. I average 8-10% in fees. Where are generating the fees? Are you adding extras to your auctions, running non-sellers too many times? There's got to be a way we can help you cut those fees.

princessmirandajo · 04-21-2007, 02:08 AM,

the only extras I add are gallery. I have gallery on every auction and listing except for my books. no gallery on books. how long do you run an item in store before declaring it dead?

FiberGuy · 04-21-2007, 04:18 PM,

Chiming in...

Hi princessmirandajo,

Don't take this personal please, but ebay does not want low-cost, slow-moving items on their site. They've made that clear with every price-hike the past 5 years. Unless you're selling 1000's of 99 cent trinkets with $6.00 first class shipping, it's very hard to make a consistent profit on ebay with lower-dollar items. The fees simply are too much to bear if you're in this to make money.

Clothing is highly competitive on ebay, with a huge number of sellers selling "just to get rid of" their stash, which cheapens EVERYONE's product. Not to mention, it's not the easiest to list. We deal a bit in vintage apparel, and displaying, taking photos and inspecting the product is very time consuming, I know.

There's no easy solution, however... BUT... I would really start looking into your own space on the 'net and let ebay be your billboard. You can do this with minimal start-up revenue, but plan on some longer hours... for a while, at least.

In 2004 we had three ebay stores (vintage paper, textiles & pottery), and we were paying upwards of $700/month in ebay fees (BEFORE paypal). Now, we may run a few ebay auctions from time to time, but essentially, they've lost our business entirely. We don't regularly sell as much as we did on ebay, but our profit margin is higher, not to mention the customers are better! (We don't do "best offer" on our site!) When we do run auctions, we do see a traffic and sales spike at the web site.

So, to put it succinctly, I won't give you a sugar-coated outlook of what you can do or expect from selling on ebay, but if your heart's in it, you can start making ebay work for you, and not the other way around.

One other quick thing to point out: Google searchers don't generally search google to buy on ebay, so where your store or items are appearing in G's SERPs aren't anything to get excited (or bummed) about.

Cheers

eclectica · 04-21-2007, 05:26 PM,

[quote author=FiberGuy link=topic=9305.msg50194#msg50194 date=1177172305]

Chiming in...

Hi princessmirandajo,

Don't take this personal please, but ebay does not want low-cost, slow-moving items on their site. They've made that clear with every price-hike the past 5 years. Unless you're selling 1000's of 99 cent trinkets with $6.00 first class shipping, it's very hard to make a consistent profit on ebay with lower-dollar items. The fees simply are too much to bear if you're in this to make money.

[/quote]

That is, unfortunately, true. I guess I should have looked at your pricing, because it explains the high fees to profit ratio somewhat. I dumped most of my lower priced items in favor of stocking them on my site after the last store increase. Now, my average price is somewhere between $25 - $75. I found that I was paying much more to carry the lower price stuff with much less of a profit. I still carry some lower prices things but I use them as loss leaders for auction to draw people to my store.

I, too, am trying to move away from eBay and concentrate more on my sites. The frustrating thing is traffic. I'm definitely no marketing genius, lol, and I'm reading all I can on generating (legitimate) traffic.

Edited because I can't spell and/or type today!

sneakymagenta · 04-22-2007, 08:52 PM,

Quote:Unless you're selling 1000's of 99 cent trinkets with $6.00 first class shipping, it's very hard to make a consistent profit on ebay with lower-dollar items. The fees simply are too much to bear if you're in this to make money.

That's double ditto true for core listings. The relisting fees guarantee the average seller of low priced items will lose money.

Smileyfleabay