I've been a long time fan of BHW and I'd always wanted to run a big time eBay store. So I thought I'd share my story.
About two months ago I went through craigslist and found an ad for a $15/hr summer internship with a furniture manufacturer. I applied and was interviewed. The company was looking for someone to take care of changes on their Joomla based web site, set up and establish an eBay store to liquidate overstock, and create advertisements in InDesign. I have a certificate in web design from a local JC, an eBay account that was over 8 years old with over 100 seller rating(100%) and about ten years of html experience. I showed them proof of all three and got the job.
I'm not going to lie to you, this job sucked at first. They asked for huge structural changes on the web site and didn't understand why I wanted FTP access to complete the change. I literally had to teach the company management how their web site was built to explain what I needed and what I could or couldn't do without FTP access. Everyday they gave me 20 hours of work to complete in an eight hour day - I was overwhelmed. With the semi-nightmare situation dealing with their web site, I focused my energy on the eBay store - almost an afterthought in the initial interview.
I set up the eBay store as if it was a miniature company. I created templates in Auctiva for every product type (over 200) and set up various shipping scenarios. This was somewhat entertaining because we've all set up our own eBay account but I was doing it with someone else's money and mountains of expensive inventory. They provided an ebay pricing list that put everything 80% below retail. I wrote processes for the accounting department, the warehouse, and even for the person filling my job. I was setting this store up for volume.
About this time eBay's regulations started to hinder my progress. I had to do everything in my power to prove to eBay that I was sitting at a multimillion dollar manufacturer and not a scam. Little by little they raised my selling limits. From 500 to 5000 after a week, then I called about 20 days in and had it raised to $25K ("Based on my item prices being in the hundreds"). Since other suppliers of the furniture were already established on eBay and we were liquidating below wholesale - people started to take the risk and my first couple buyers bought from me even though I had a 0 seller rating.
To make a long story short, I hit 10K in sales yesterday. My seller rating hit 3 four days ago and I've seen a 50% increase in sales since then. I am sure I would not have persevered through the hundreds of hours of work necessary to establish this store had I not been paid for every hour. There seems to be a lot of hurdles to finding success on eBay. I've encountered Paypal 21 day holds that might have killed an individual seller. Selling limits that I mentioned before. Coordinating shipping processes - which will make you paranoid unless you check, recheck and check things again.
My store currently looks like the leftovers of a black friday sale so I'm off to list more. Just thought I'd share my story and see if anyone has advice for promotion.
Thanks
About two months ago I went through craigslist and found an ad for a $15/hr summer internship with a furniture manufacturer. I applied and was interviewed. The company was looking for someone to take care of changes on their Joomla based web site, set up and establish an eBay store to liquidate overstock, and create advertisements in InDesign. I have a certificate in web design from a local JC, an eBay account that was over 8 years old with over 100 seller rating(100%) and about ten years of html experience. I showed them proof of all three and got the job.
I'm not going to lie to you, this job sucked at first. They asked for huge structural changes on the web site and didn't understand why I wanted FTP access to complete the change. I literally had to teach the company management how their web site was built to explain what I needed and what I could or couldn't do without FTP access. Everyday they gave me 20 hours of work to complete in an eight hour day - I was overwhelmed. With the semi-nightmare situation dealing with their web site, I focused my energy on the eBay store - almost an afterthought in the initial interview.
I set up the eBay store as if it was a miniature company. I created templates in Auctiva for every product type (over 200) and set up various shipping scenarios. This was somewhat entertaining because we've all set up our own eBay account but I was doing it with someone else's money and mountains of expensive inventory. They provided an ebay pricing list that put everything 80% below retail. I wrote processes for the accounting department, the warehouse, and even for the person filling my job. I was setting this store up for volume.
About this time eBay's regulations started to hinder my progress. I had to do everything in my power to prove to eBay that I was sitting at a multimillion dollar manufacturer and not a scam. Little by little they raised my selling limits. From 500 to 5000 after a week, then I called about 20 days in and had it raised to $25K ("Based on my item prices being in the hundreds"). Since other suppliers of the furniture were already established on eBay and we were liquidating below wholesale - people started to take the risk and my first couple buyers bought from me even though I had a 0 seller rating.
To make a long story short, I hit 10K in sales yesterday. My seller rating hit 3 four days ago and I've seen a 50% increase in sales since then. I am sure I would not have persevered through the hundreds of hours of work necessary to establish this store had I not been paid for every hour. There seems to be a lot of hurdles to finding success on eBay. I've encountered Paypal 21 day holds that might have killed an individual seller. Selling limits that I mentioned before. Coordinating shipping processes - which will make you paranoid unless you check, recheck and check things again.
My store currently looks like the leftovers of a black friday sale so I'm off to list more. Just thought I'd share my story and see if anyone has advice for promotion.
Thanks
