New eBay Sales Opportunities with Your Existing Resources

In this week I would like to share some regular strategies which keep my product sources growing all the time in a reliable and trustable manner.

You may remember that few weeks ago we talked about approaching some local shop owners and suggesting a solution to sell their items as an additional revenue stream. Also, we mentioned that you could offer the same solution to some online sellers who didn't know how to get into the eBay marketplace.

However, some of you may be a bit skeptical to work with people you don't know at all, right? How can you ensure that they are 100% trustable?

Have you ever thought about that there are actually a lot of people you can trust? They are your friends, people you may have known for years. You can always start a business partnership with your friends without the need to build up a trust from zero.

But this is something you may have not thought of, isn't it? You probably meet with your good friends once a week, having dinners or drinks, chatting for fun or nothing. How can you possibly think of business opportunities good for both sides?

This is kind of my habit now. You may see if it applies to you, too. I am not talking about that you have to talk about business and money as the only discussion topic with your friends. But you can always think of benefits that you may bring to your friends if you can do some sales for them with the existing resources they have.

Some time ago I talked to Stephy who liked to do some handmade jewelries for herself and for freinds as gifts of different occasions. Then an idea came up to my mind: why not selling these special things in eBay? As these are all her own handmade items, she doesn't need to keep a big stock. What I need to do is to make pictures of all styles she can do, then I can start selling any time. She doesn't need to create new stock until I get sales for her. The mode of business is actually build to order. She does not have much cost to spend. But it could be a new stream of revenue to her. Both of us are happy.

Another day when I chat with another friend, Paula, who moved to Japan some time ago, we noticed that there were a lot of funny or innovative items which the trends always started from Japan, e.g. Hello Kitty gifts with can be found in local Japanese stores only. Hello Kitty fans from around the world always love to collect them even it may cost a lot. Then Paula may simply get some pictures of those items and I can then start selling in eBay. She only gets down to the store and buy the items back and send to the customer for me when I get her an order. This is also a simple and low-cost opportunity to both of us.

Opportunities are around your life all the time. Can you think of something else?

Cross Promotion Between eBay and Your Own Shopping Site

Last time we came across a concept that you should never limit your sales in eBay only. Building up your own shopping site is one of the strategies to expand your revenue. It can also diversify your income streams, making your business much more sustainable.

But many of you may have encountered the same difficulty: how to bring in decent traffic to an individual shopping site? Even if you can bring in traffic, how to persuade customers to buy from your site while they have never heard of it? Obviously, site traffic and site credibility are the two most challenging topics for a new shopping site.

For a new shopping site, do not expect that you can get a top position in search engines. Even you are good in SEO, it may take you 6 to 12 months before the results are satisfactory. You may consider to use PPC advertising to get some immediate traffic, but it costs money. Then what can you do without spending extra cost? No doubt that you should think about how to make use of the existing resources you have, i.e. your eBay store.

In our last article, we have talked about how to drive traffic from your eBay About Me Page. Another approach is to make use of your email communication to customers.

During the whole sales process, you should be sending different notices to your customers at different stages. For example, notice for payment received, shipment arranged, feedback left, etc.. eBay is very strict to limit promotion of off-eBay sales in the site, but they will not be able to control what you do with your messages to customers. Take a look at a sample shipment notice from an eBay seller recently:

(Quote)
Dear Customer,

**Special Note**

We have too many designs which we cannot put them all in eBay. To find out more, come visit our site (Wow Gift Mart) at:

http://www.wowgiftmart.com

All purchases in our site are protected by Paypal Buyer Protection and you are assured the highest quality level of service will be delivered as we do in eBay.


**Shipment Detail**

Your item(s) have been packed for delivery in our stock retrieval today. And the package will be departing port of Hong Kong in about 2 business days. Normally it takes 7-14 days for the physical transportation.

If you have any further questions about your purchase, don't hesitate to let us know.

Once your item arrives in satisfactory condition, please leave feedback for us. We will do the same for you.

Thank you again!
(Unquote)

Of course, not all customers will click on the link when they get your notice, or some of them may even not read the message at all. However, it is a free of charge promotion anyway. Why not taking the advantage out of it?

Another challenge for a new shopping site is: how to persuade your visitors to buy with confidence when they don't know who you are?

Take a look at this shopping site: Wow Gift Mart

Can you see that it has made good use of their credibility from their eBay history? When people buy in eBay, the feedback profile is definitely one of the key determining factors whether they will buy from a seller or not. Therefore, letting visitors know how you did in eBay would absolutely help raising their confidence level to buy in your site.

You can do it, too, can't you?

How to Get Extra Sales on Top of Your eBay Business?

Many of you may have been thinking: how to get more sales on top of the current eBay business?

Probably you're tired of the unfair and complicated rules in eBay. Probably you find too many price wars under the severe competition in eBay. Probably you find your profit has been eaten up too much by the eBay fees. Or probably you just want to diversify your sales strategies without relying on one single channel too much.

No matter what you think, getting more sales channels can never be wrong even you may have done very well in eBay.

Other Online Marketplaces

There are many other online marketplaces doing what eBay is doing. Only they can never beat eBay. However, it doesn't mean that you can't make some extra income from them? One example is iOffer. Of course, they are not that popular as eBay for both sellers and buyers. But you can still do some sales there. And one advantage for eBay sellers is that they have a feature called "Mr. Grabber". With this feature, they can duplicate your items from eBay, so you don't have to go thru the painful process, posting your items one by one. Also, it can grab your feedback number from eBay, so you don't have to start from zero, building up your credibility again.

One last thing: it's free to post in iOffer. They only charge you transaction fee when you get sales. So what's the harm to sell in one more place if it's totally risk free? For myself, the sales performance is around 1 to 10, i.e. the sales I'm making in eBay is about 10 times of that I do in iOffer. Not bad to get an extra 10% income with no risk, right?

Own Shopping Site

Every one knows it's always good to make sales in your own site: no posting fee, no final value fee, no worries about the frustrating rules and limitations in eBay, etc.

But the problem is: how to bring in traffic? This is always one of the most difficult challenges for online sales. This is why eBay can get eat up so much of your profit while they're one of the most busiest sites in the world.

Yet setting up your own shopping site is still something you should consider. By just making 1 or 2 sales per month, you may have the enough funds to maintain your site. Therefore, it's still an almost-free-risk strategy that you don't have to worry trying.

Then how to bring in traffic to your site? Internet Marketing or SEO is not the topics to discuss here. But you may think about how to make use of the eBay traffic and encourange your eBay visitors to buy in your site. Take a look at this eBay seller:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=etimehunter

Do you see how he drives traffic to his own site (About Me page is the only place you can advertise your own site in eBay)? By clicking on the link on this About Me page, visitors are brought to the shopping site:

http://www.wowgiftmart.com/

Although not all customers will be encouraged to buy finally, it's still a chance to make extra sales, isn't it?