What do you need to know before starting your eBay store?

3 Points of Research and What You Can Learn from Them

Do you think of becoming an eBay seller? Are you already a seller and want to increase your sales?Few steps will help you to increase your sales and become a professional seller. We are talking about research. Proper research is key to understanding what your strong and weak points are are in comparison to your competitors. Every business can benefit from thorough research, in fact very few businesses open without conducting market analysis first. Focus on the following 3 points:

PriceIt is very easy to see how much different sellers sell their items.

1. Decide on how much you plan to sell your price, that price should reflect all costs including the items, their shipping costs, returns, freebies, etc. Since all sellers wish to make a profit, don’t forget to leave enough margin for you to earn some money!
2. See how much other sellers sell the same item. If you plan to sell a product for $200 and see that most sellers are selling the same product for $100-150, you should reconsider your price. Alternately, think about how to grant buyers extra value that will be worth the higher rate.

CompetitionHow many sellers offer your product?With more than 25 million sellers and 800 million items offered on eBay on a daily basis, you are probably not the only one to sell that specific item. Search for the product you intend to sell and find your competitors. See the competitors’ prices and get a closer look at the successful and unsuccessful ones. You will visit the pages of hundreds of sellers.Make a list of stores or sellers you found impressive vs. sellers who were not. Try to learn from it, what successful or remarkable sellers have or do that other seller don’t.

LocationWhere are most sellers located? Many eBay buyers ask for free shipping, and most sellers offer this option in specific regions. If you live in a region that is relatively low on sellers who sell the same item, it might be a point of advantage for you.

The Research is Done, Now What?You conducted this research and collected this data to answer two critical questions:

1. Can you offer the item for a reasonable price?
2. What is your competitive advantage?

1. Can you offer the item for a reasonable price?

Answering the first question is crucial.Calculate the costs including the price of the item, shipping, and eBay fees and see if you can sell your item for a competitive price. If this is the case that’s great. However, if you discover that the costs are killing your profits, it’s time to think about other products. Or maybe about ways to reduce costs.

1. What is your competitive advantage?

Take some time and find your strong points, what can you offer to buyers that other sellers can’t?Don’t focus on price only: Many eBay sellers focus all of their efforts on offering the best price. Pricing is important, but it is not the most important thing. Buy It Now, and Free Shipping - Most eBay shoppers are looking for Buy It Now and Free Shipping items. Define regions that you can afford to offer free shipping to and unless you are selling a 1-of-a-kind product, sell it for a fixed price.Free international shipping, for obvious reasons, most sellers who offer free shipping do so locally, in their region, state or country. International shipping can be very costly, and it’s quite a headache as the costs vary according to the destination. However, it can be just the advantage you are looking for. If 90% of sellers don’t ship to a specific location, then sellers who do have a big advantage.Pay Attention to Details - if you conduct your research as you should, you will probably visit hundreds if not thousands of eBay pages before you offer your very first item. Make a list of the stores that you liked and disliked the most. Try to figure out what made the best stores special and the less appealing stores, well, ordinary or awful.Among the features of unappealing eBay stores, we can name low-quality product photos, not enough pics, messy categories and unclear descriptions. To this list, I’ll add dated information. When potential buyers see a Christmas Special in August or New! New! New! title on an item that’s been available worldwide for years, it damages the credibility of the seller. And this is an important point to make; Since most buyers will not buy from sellers they don’t trust, you don’t want to become such a seller.As can be expected, good eBay stores or listings feature hi-res images, engaging descriptions, clear technical specifications, and many filtering options. As stated most eBay buyers are looking

for Buy It Now items and many select the Free Shipping option, most successful stores comply with their clients' needs.Make sure to do what successful sellers do and avoid the mistakes of others.Take some time to conduct thorough research. It might save you a lot of money in the future.