After obtaining a degree in architecture, Sarah Embry went to
work designing commercial buildings for an architectural firm in
Nashville, Tennessee. There was one storefront she never imagined
she'd design, however, let alone quit her job over. But
that's exactly what happened in 2001 after her hobby of selling
equine accessories on eBay grew so quickly it led her to open an
eBay Store that has buyers ponying up nearly $50,000 a month for
her products--more than her first year's salary as an
architect.
"Opening the eBay Store was a big boost for sales,"
says Embry, who, for the fun of it, started selling the horse tack
she used with her own stallions on eBay. Her business, Green River
Discount Tack LLC (eBay User ID: greenrivertack), expanded into
selling new items she purchased wholesale until it grew to the
point that "we were literally moving saddles to get out of our
front door," she says.
Soon, Embry, 30, realized, "My day job was hurting my eBay
sales. There was a lot more happening on eBay, and I saw more
promise in that." So in 2003, she moved the business out of
her home and barn into a Morgantown, Kentucky, warehouse. She now
employs five others, not including her husband, Derrick, 34, who
quit his construction business to oversee the shipping process for
the nearly 1,500 items they sell per week at an average price of
about $25 per item.
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An eBay Store is just one of the many marketing strategies and
tools Embry and other PowerSellers use to help increase their
profit margins, whether it's selling $75 horseshoes, $7,000
6-carat diamond tennis necklaces or $6.99 Teen Titans action
figures. Here are some tools that will help you increase traffic,
lower overhead and drive profitability. Pretty soon, you just may
make that jump from Gold PowerSeller to Platinum or Titanium.
Set Up Shop
This online marketplace, which sells more than $1,359 worth of
goods worldwide every second, is about more than selling items to
the highest bidder. Think of it as a shopping mall. There are niche
boutiques and anchor stores. Shoppers who salivate over one of your
items in a listing--perhaps even bid on it--will more than likely
want to seek you out to see what else might catch their eye. It
would be a lot easier for them to find you and be tempted by other
merchandise you offer if you have a store for them to saunter
into--complete with signs directing the way--than it would be if
you were a street peddler, folding up your table at the end of the
day and setting up shop somewhere else tomorrow. Thus the creation
of eBay Stores, which provides just such an online experience. An
eBay Store is one of the best routes to improving your
profitability as an eBay seller. To learn more about setting up an
eBay Store, go to www.ebay.com/stores.
Take It to the Max
Many sellers have found that a completely customizable eBay Store
instantly maximizes their online presence for as little as the cost
of one tall mocha latte per week. Weiser Jewelry, a medium- to
high-end diamond dealer with a brick-and-mortar store in
Manhattan's jewelry district, saw a big increase in sales once
it opened an eBay Store.
David Nativ is owner of KaNa Global, a Kew Gardens, New York,
business management consulting firm that runs Weiser Jewelry on
eBay (eBay User ID: weiserjewelry). Although Nativ occasionally
puts some of the jewelry up for sale in auction-style listings, he
does so primarily to drive traffic back to the eBay Store, since
most eBay purchasers first access the regular eBay search and
browse results instead of conducting a targeted search of eBay
Store Inventory items. Visitors who find Weiser through
auction-style listings can link to the eBay Store items by clicking
on "Visit This Seller's eBay Store!" in the
"Seller Information" box in the listing.
Store sellers get cross-promotion placements on all their
"Item," "Bid Confirm" and "Purchase
Confirmation" pages. Such cross-promotion is advantageous to
Store sellers, who can use this as a tool to draw repeat business.
For example, if Weiser is selling a diamond-and-sapphire bubble
pendant, it could also display other pendants that might interest
the potential buyer. Or after a bid is placed on that pendant, it
might display complementary items, such as matching earrings, on
the "Bid Confirm" and "Purchase Confirmation"
pages.
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