of $0–$25); 2% (FSP of$25–$1,000); 1%(FSP of $1,000
$.20 ($.01–$.99); $.23($1–$9.99);$.40 ($10–$24.99); $.79 and above)($25–$49.99)
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PenBid.com(http://www.penbid.com)
Yes
Yes
Free
5% (FSP of $0–$500); 4% ofamount between$500 and $1,000for FSP of $500–$1,000; 2% ofamount over $500for FSP over$1,000
uBid (http://www.ubid.com)
Yes
Yes
Free for Certi- 12.5% for finalfied Mer-chants
sale price of $1 to$25; 10% for $26to $250; 7.5% for$251 to $500
Yahoo! Auctions(http://auctions.yahoo.com)
Yes
Free
Free
•
•
• BizRate (http://www.bizrate.com). A free comparison-shopping site like Froogle,but BizRate gives you more information. Consider using both sites to pricehigh-value merchandise.Andale (http://www.andale.com). Andale is a company that sells online busi-ness software, and you can purchase image enhancers, site counters, andother handy research aids at the site.Infopia (http://www.infopia.com). A service provider that helps business setup storefronts and do advanced selling on auction sites, including eBay.• Marketworks (http://www.marketworks.com). One of the oldest and most re-spected auction service providers, with several hosting plans and many toolsto streamline the selling process.Zoovy (http://www.zoovy.com). An increasingly popular auction service pro-vider, with tools to automate e-mail, feedback, relisting, and other commonand repetitive tasks.
•
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A P P E N D I X (cid:3)B
Online Storefront Solutions
The one strategy that nearly all successful eBay PowerSellers pursue is to move fromhaving eBay being the intermediary to dealing with the public directly. These sellersmove to direct sales by starting up their own e-commerce websites. However, startingup your own website, marketing it, and receiving credit card payments from the pub-lic is not without costs. You have to find a host for your electronic storefront, andyou are likely to incur other fees for posting photos, processing credit card transac-tions, and so forth.
Your choice of storefront host is important, because if you don’t have experiencecreating Web pages and need support, a host can be much more than a company thatgives you space on a Web server. Your host can help you gain attention for your site,assist with marketing, provide you with software for formatting Web pages, space foruploading photos, and transaction processing services as well. The Web is repletewith businesses that seek to perform this sort of role—for a fee, of course. Your goalis to find a host that will make your business proceed more smoothly and not breakyour budget in the process. Here are some suggestions for storefront solutions andthe packages they offer:
Amazon.com zShops
Amazon.com’s own online mall isn’t as popular as its marketplace, but it gives sellersanother option that enables them to sell on one of the Internet’s most popular sites.
Setup Fee: None.
•• Monthly Fee: To open a zShop, you must take out a Pro Merchant Subscrip-
tion of $39.99 per month.
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•
Sales Commission: 5 percent of sales from $.01 to $25; for sales of $25.01 to$1,000, 1.25 percent plus 2.5 percent of amount greater than $25; for salesover $1,001, 1.25 percent of any amount greater than $1,000.
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• URL for More Info: http://zshops.amazon.com.
Bidville
Bidville (http://www.bidville.com) is an online auction site that also lets sellers putmerchandise up for sale through their own storefronts. Prospective buyers can searchthrough storefronts at http://stores.bidville.com/storefront.
Setup Fee: Free
•• Monthly Fee: $5 for Basic Store; $10 for Featured Store•
Sales Commission: 5 percent of final sale price up to $25; see URL for moredetails
• URL for More Info: http://stores.bidville.com/storefront/fees.html
BuyItSellIt
This service (http://www.buyitsellit.com) specializes in providing Web hosting fore-commerce sites. A hosting package includes credit card processing through PayPaland counters to track the number of visits to your site.
Setup Fee: Free thirty-day trial offered with space for ten products
•• Monthly Fee: $9.95 for Small Business Online Store; $19.95 for Platinum
Online StoreSales Commission: None
•• URL for More Info: http://store.buyitsellit.com
ChannelAdvisor
ChannelAdvisor is a popular solution for auction sellers who need sales software toboost their productivity. ChannelAdvisor Stores allow customers to feature items forsale, combine auction and store sales, and keep all of their products in one place.
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Setup Fee: Free for ChannelAdvisor merchant users
•• Monthly Fee: N/A•• URL for More Info: http://www.channeladvisor.com/solutions/merch_soft_
Sales Commission: Call 1-866-264-8594
stores.asp
eBay Stores
The easiest and most obvious storefront option for eBay auction sellers. Listing in astore is far more economical than listing an auction sale. However, store items gener-ally don’t get as much attention and marketing is essential.
Setup Fee: Free thirty-day trial offered
•• Monthly Fee: $15.95 for Basic Store; $49.95 for Featured Store; $499.95 for
•
AnchorStoreSales Commission: Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees apply, Final ValueFees are the same as for eBay auction transactions; however, if you list usingthe Store Inventory Format, listing fees are only $.02 per item
• URL for More Info: http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/Subscriptions.html
eBay ProStores
If you don’t already have an e-commerce website, consider this hosting option fromeBay. You get a shopping cart, credit card payment processing, and your own domainname.
Setup Fee: Free thirty-day trial offered
•• Monthly Fee: $6.95 for Express Store; $29.95 for Business Solution; $74.95
•
for Advanced Solution; $249.95 for Enterprise SolutionSales Commission: 1.5 percent for Express Store; .50 percent for other storeoptions
• URL for More Info: http://www.prostores.com
ePier Advanced Stores
If you use ePier for auctions, consider using its hosting option, which gives you freephone support and an unlimited amount of image hosting.
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Setup Fee: N/A
•• Monthly Fee: $12.95 per month; $65 for six months; $99 per year•• URL for More Info: http://www.epier.com/AdvancedStores/default.asp
Sales Commission: N/A
GoAntiques
If you are an antiques dealer, you may want to sign up with this company, whichspecializes in online auctions of antiques and collectibles.
Setup Fee: None.
•• Monthly Fee and Sales Commission: If you pay $39 per month, you also paya 10 percent commission on each sale. If you pay $79 per month, you pay asliding sales commission of 6 percent on sales up to $1,000, 4 percent of thenext $4,000 (up to $5,000) and 2 percent for anything over $5,000.
• URL for More Info: http://www.goantiques.com/join.
iOffer Stores
iOffer (http://www.ioffer.com) is a good alternative for sellers moving beyond eBay.If you start to sell on iOffer in quantity, you may want to consider setting up to aniOffer Store.
•Setup Fee: None• Monthly Fee: None•
Sales Commission: $.50 on sales up to $4.99; $.75 for sales from $5 to $9.99;$1.25 on sales from $10–$24.99; 5 percent on sales from $25–$99; for salesover $1500, $40 plus 1.5 percent of amount over $1500• URL for More Info: http://www.ioffer.com/stores/index.jsp
Just Glass Mall
If you specialize in selling glass items, you can rent space in this online mall. Youritems are also shown on the partner site Trocadero.com.
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Setup Fee: None
•• Monthly Fee: $35 for a Business store, $55 for an E-Commerce store, $80 for
an Enterprise storeSales Commission: None
•• URL for More Info: http://www.trocadero.com/join/justglassregistration.html
Loudfrog
Loudfrog (http://www.loudfrog.com) charges no listing fees, and charges a flat 1percent sales fee for items that sell, which makes the site particularly easy to use.
Setup Fee: None
•• Monthly Fee: $5 for Basic Plan (up to 20 items); $10 for Bronze Plan (up to50 items); $20 for Silver Plan (up to 150 items); $30 for Gold Plan (up to500 items); $50 for Platinum Plan (up to 2,500 items)Sales Commission: 1 percent of final sales price
•• URL for More Info: http://www.loudfrong.com/help_service_plans.aspx
Marketworks
A popular auction service provider designed primarily for full-time businesses ratherthan casual sellers.
Setup Fee: None
•• Monthly Fee: You pay a minimum $29.95 or total monthly transaction fees—
•
whichever is higher.Sales Commission: Transaction fees for e-commerce storefronts are 3 percentof sales price with a $6 maximum and a $.20 minimum.
• URL for More Info: http://www.marketworks.com/mwsite/whatwedo_faqs
.asp
TIAS.com
One of the oldest online antique malls around, this site is a proven resource foranyone who wants to sell antiques and collectibles on the Web.
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Setup Fee: Two-month trial period offered
•• Monthly Fee: Packages start at $34.95 per month; fixed-price sites cost $99
•
per monthSales Commission: 2 percent Final Value Fee on auction sales; 10 percent FinalValue Fee on fixed-price sales
• URL for More Info: http://www.tias.com/makeashop/
Vendio
This popular auction service provider is used by many top eBay sellers.
Setup Fee: Two-month trial period offered
•• Monthly Fee and Sales Commission: Bronze Plan: $4.95 per month plus 1percent Final Value Fee up to $4.95; Silver Plan: $9.95 per month plus $.20per item fee; Gold Plan: $14.95 per month plus $.10 fee• URL for More Info: shop.vendio.com/my/shop/overview.html
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions
Formerly known as Yahoo! Stores,e-commerce merchants.
this popular website is well-known among
Setup Fee: $50
•• Monthly Fee: Packages $39.95 for Merchant Starter; $99.95 for Merchant
•
Standard; $299.95 for Merchant ProfessionalSales Commission: 21.5 percent for Starter; 1 percent for Standard; .75 per-cent for Professional
• URL for More Info: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant
Zoovy
Like other auction providers, Zoovy specializes in helping eBay sellers but can pro-vide e-commerce solutions for all online businesses.
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Setup Fee: Two-month trial period offered
•• Monthly Fee: $74.95 per month or 2 percent of your sales, whichever is
•
greaterSales Commission: The 2 percent fee mentioned is capped at $5 per transac-tion
• URL for More Info: http://www.zoovy.com/pkg-store/
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A P P E N D I X (cid:3)C
Top Ten Tips for MovingBeyond eBay
You probably remember what it was like to sell your first item on eBay. Selling yourfirst pieces of merchandise outside of the world’s largest online auction site will bringback that memory. A leap of faith is involved. In order to provide a smooth landingfor your leap (instead of a big thud), you need to follow some tried-and-true principlesthat other sellers have explored before you. They have been explored throughout thisbook, and are summarized in this appendix.
Develop the Right Attitude
Before you make any dramatic change in the way you do business, you need to makea change in your attitude. When it comes to expanding your activities beyond eBay,you need confidence. You need confidence in the merchandise you sell. You need thekind of confidence that says, ‘‘I’m going to double my sales volume and start sellingon my website and two other auction venues this year. By the end of the year, I wantto boost my gross income by 40 percent.’’ Keeping your goal in sight at all times andhaving the confidence that you’ll get there will help you take the steps necessary todo it, whether you need to work even longer hours, hire assistants, find a brick-and-mortar space, or overcome other challenges.
Build on What You Know Already
Whether you decide to stop selling on eBay altogether and move to other venues isup to you. Personally, I recommend throughout this book that you don’t cut your ties
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to an auction marketplace that has more than 40 million members around the world.Maintain a presence on eBay, and branch out when you have achieved success onthe site. Don’t move away from eBay out of desperation or exasperation. Rather,expand your sales gradually when you are in a position of strength. Build on whatyou do well currently. Take your most successful products, and put more of them upfor sale on other sites. Use Mr. Grabber (see Chapter 5) to take products that didn’tsell immediately and list them on iOffer. Use your existing shipping, listing, andpacking methods and expand them. In other words, don’t reinvent the wheel.
Be Flexible and Try New Approaches
The off-off-eBay marketplaces you’ve read about in preceding chapters follow eBay’sexample only up to a point. Some of them operate quite differently than eBay’s sys-tem of auctions, fixed-price sales, stores, best offers, and so on. Amazon.com, forinstance, gives you an easy way to add your used books, CDs, DVDs, and otherhousehold goods. Live auctions let you sell items in a matter of minutes and watchthe bids come in at the same time. Selling on your website puts the burden of ship-ping, payment, and other aspects of completing a transaction completely up to you.The point is to be flexible and try out new ways of selling so that you can find morecustomers and boost your bottom line.
Match Your Merchandise to the Venue
The fact that you have so many choices when it comes to selling online means thatyou can actually tailor your marketplace of choice to the inventory you have to sell.In many cases, items sell better on the Web when you target them to a dedicatedgroup of knowledgeable users or collectors. If you sell fountain pens, you might havebetter results on a small niche auction site like PenBid.com than on a large catch-allmarketplace. If you have medical equipment to sell, look to one of the venues thatallows individuals to offer expensive and highly technical equipment for sale. Findingthe right place to put your items before the eyes of just the right customers oftenmeans shopping around for niche or specialty auction sites of the sort described inChapter 8 and Chapter 9.
Find the Right Operational Partner
Going it alone and trying to do everything by yourself only gets you so far. I knowfrom personal experience that when you are the only one shopping for merchandise,
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creating listings, and packing and shipping, you have ultimate control. You also havelimitations in the amount of merchandise you can put up for sale. Many PowerSellersI know have signed up with auction service providers like ChannelAdvisor, Market-Works, Zoovy, or Vendio to help automate repetitious and time-consuming processessuch as e-mails, feedback, and relistings. An operational partner adds to your monthlyexpenses, but many sellers find that they are worth the expense because they boostproductivity and streamline processes that are often tedious and time consuming.
Sell on Your Own Website
For many PowerSellers, expanding sales from eBay to their own website is the firstand most effective type of business expansion to make. For these sellers, eBay is anunmatched way to gain new customers. Once they sell to those customers, thesesellers do everything they can to direct the customers to their website for subsequentsales. By selling directly through a website, they aren’t subject to any service outageseBay might experience, and they don’t have to pay fees for listing or completing asale. They can make links to other websites in their auction descriptions and sellmerchandise that isn’t subject to eBay’s list of prohibited goods. They make moremoney per sale, plus they gain even more control over their business activities.
Expand Your Sourcing Efforts
Finding enough good merchandise to sell is perhaps the biggest challenge facinganyone who wants to expand an eBay business to other marketplaces. Before youstart signing up for accounts with Web-hosting services or other auction venues, makesure you have the inventory to support it. Perhaps the best solution for finding moreinventory is to have consignment sellers come to you on a steady basis with items tosell on eBay. You can do this by opening your own drop-off store or brick-and-mortarstore, or by advertising your services as a trading assistant. But be prepared to spendmore time looking for suppliers, either at trade shows or through wholesale supplysites like Alibaba.com.
Move from B2C to B2B E-Commerce
Although eBay is primarily oriented toward person-to-person sales, many successfulsellers use eBay to sell in quantity to other businesspeople as well. They group their
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merchandise into large groups called lots, which they sell for a reduced price. Al-though the profit margin per item goes down, they still make money because thequantity sold is so much larger than usual. Start thinking about ways in which youcan reach other businesses—even other eBay and auction sellers. You are sure to findmembers by listing on B2B websites like Alibaba.com, or by traveling to display yourwares at trade shows, where you can take orders.
Ask for Help/Consult with Your Colleagues
Don’t go it alone. Remember that you are part of a larger group of sellers. Work thediscussion boards on eBay and on your marketplace of choice and ask for advice onhow to proceed with any of the strategies listed in this appendix. You’ll be surprisedat how open some sellers are with their time and experience. Often, the most success-ful sellers are also the ones who are most open with the media and with other busi-nesspeople. Also look for partners who can help you with marketing and advertising.For example, by signing up with an antiques mall like TIAS or Ruby Lane, you cangain more attention for your business and even gain a certain amount of prestige,because these are popular and highly regarded online venues.
Buy Globally, Sell Locally
Many of the options for moving beyond eBay that are described in this book are onesthat focus narrowly on buyers in your local area. These include flea markets, a brick-and-mortar store, and classified ads. When you take the approach of limiting youraudience to people in your own part of the country, you actually increase the rangeof items you can sell. You can think about heavy appliances, motor vehicles, andfurniture that are difficult if not impossible to sell on eBay. Classified ads are simpleand inexpensive, and they can include photos, too. Sites like Yahoo! Classifieds andthe many versions of Gumtree and Kijiji found around the world give sellers newways to reach customers in their own geographic vicinity.
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Index
AAA Seller, 162Abebooks, 68, 98About Me page, 23–25, 206Abovethemall, 265Adam Hersh Auctions, 187adventurousness, 8advertising
for brick-and-mortar stores, 223–225on Craigslist, 102, 103keyword, 210online networks for, 106planning campaign for, 35–37of professional services, 106–107sponsored, 212–213via e-mail, 65of your website, 209–213
Advertising Network of Florida, 106AdWords (Google), 8, 117, 211–212airplane auction site, 86Aleegold’s Wholesale Shoppe, 265Alexander, David T., 23Alibaba, 4, 112, 252–254, 263Alibaba China, 252Alibaba International, 252Alibris, 68AliPay, 252AMan, 164, 166Amazon.com, 123–143
Amazon Merchant program, 126Associates program of, 124, 143Auctions area of, 31, 53, 125, 126, 272book sales on, 68, 134–135Exel-i’s sales on, 35limitations of, 98Marketplace listings on, 31, 124–126Member Profile on, 139–140Payments on, 131payment system of, 169profits on, 244Pro Merchant program of, 135–138sales options with, 124–126selling at auctions of, 138–142selling individual items on, 126–131
selling tools on, 164, 166–167shipping requirements of, 127–129, 131–133tracking inventory on, 137–138types of items to sell on, 123, 133–134upselling on, 19volume listing tool of, 136–137zShops on, 125, 126, 143, 277–278
American Express Business Resources, 232–233American Express Merchants, 173America Online (AOL), 206Andale, 12, 57–58, 162, 275antique malls, 218AOL (America Online), 206API (application programming interface), 12Apple Computer, 63application programming interface (API), 12AssetLine.com, 87AssureBuy, 175As Was, 187–188AuctionBytes, 13, 271
discussion area of, 35, 36discussion board of, 159on flea market selling, 235on uBid, 65
Auction Drop chain, 220auctionguide.com, 236–237AuctionHawk, 162AuctionHelper, 165auctions
adding video to, 78backlists of, 12–13, 159charity, 73eBay’s variety of, 76live, 76–77real-world, 235–237reverse, 78service providers for, 157–163
Auctions by David, 220auction sites, 3, 4, 76–78, 195, 271–275, see also niche auc-
tion sites
Auction Tamer, 96, 162Auction Wizard 2000, 162AutoTrader.com, 56
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BabelFish, 256banner ads, 213Bid4Assets, 74–76, 85–86, 272bidorbuy, 258–259, 267BidPay, 256Bidville, 4, 26, 48, 272, 278Bidz.com, 76–77, 272BizRate, 56–57, 275Blueberry Boutique, 71–73, 126, 265Bluebook, see Kelley Blue BookBolinger Antiques, 26Book Loader (Amazon), 134–135Booksalefinder.com, 234book sales, 67, 126–127, 134–135Bookworks, 67–69Bootywear, 265branding, 164Breitmeyer, Troy, 248brick-and-mortar stores, 217–229
advertising for, 223–225challenges in opening, 221–223dealing with employees in, 227dealing with public in, 226–227dealing with technical requirements of, 227–228eBay drop-off stores as, 219–221locations for, 224in malls, 217–219record keeping for, 225–226storage facilities for, 228–229
B2B e-commerce, 34business plan, 6–7business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, 34buyers
bargaining with, 58–61local, 99–107overseas, 251–260researching, 60retail, 34types of, 34BuyItSellIt, 278buySAFE, 152, 153Byrne, Patrick, 144
Cabela’s Inc., 65CAGR (compound annual growth rate), 32CARFAX, 56Carpani, Mark
on advice for new sellers, 43on eBay About Me page, 43on inspiring trust, 45–46and move from eBay, 42–43
Cars.com, 56CarsDirect, 56Cash, Angie, 263cashier’s checks, 176cash payments, 177catalogs, creating, 206–208
I ND EX
certificates of resale, 245–246ChannelAdvisor, 35, 164, 165, 278–279charity auctions, 73China, 250–254closeout alerts, e-mail, 65coin auctions, 7collectible(s), 3, 7, 55, see also niche auction sitescompetition, communicating with, 261–262Composer, 197–199compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 32consultants, 186–191control panel, 185Cool Text, 189Craigslist, 34, 99, 101–103, 225credit card merchants, 171–173credit card transactions, 173–175cross-selling, 18–19Crown Point antique mall, 219customers, target, 7Customer Service area, 195
Dallas Golf, 265David T. Alexander Collectibles, 23Delta Pecan Orchard, 115, 116DeRemate.com, 259digitalEPC.com, 87discussion groups, 262diversification of product line, 31,