Here is a simple, ten-step plan to successful selling on eBay.
Step 1: Identify your market. Take the time to watch what sells and what doesn’t. Market research is crucial to your success. You’ll probably notice the ‘sweet spots’ in a specific category pretty fast. You can always check What’s Hot on eBay.
Step 2: Watch the competition. Before you invest any money, see what other sellers in your category are doing and discover their strategies. Pay close attention to any weaknesses in their auctions. This is how you compete to win.
Step 3: Find a product. Contact suppliers for the products you want to sell and research the prices you can get. If the eBay prices you’ve seen are higher than the supplier’s, then you’ve found a winner.
Step 4: Start small. Don’t spend all of your money right away. Start slow, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn as you go. It’s very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay. And some of them might just work.
Step 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different marketing and auction strategies until you find something that works. Then do it again and again.
Step 6: Build a business plan. A business plan doesn’t need to be complicated. The point is to list the opportunities you’ve spotted, outline your strategies, and set your business goals.
Step 7: Invest and expand. This is the building phase. Buy more inventory, set sales goals, and increase your targets frequently.
Step 8: Make it official. Once you’ve made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you’ll want to structure your business for profits and security. A lawyer and an account are the best people to help you through this process.
Step 9: Automate. You’ll probably find that you’re doing the same things again and again. Do what you can to automate listing your auctions, responding to completed auctions, email and customer support, and anything that’s repetitive.
Step 10: Don’t stop. Keep working until you meet and surpass your outcomes. The real breakthroughs occur just on the other side of frustration.
Once you get the hang of eBay, you might think about quitting your day job and doing this full time. Give it some time. Go for sustainability. We’ll talk about becoming an eBay PowerSeller next time.