According
to spokesmen James Griffith, in August of 1996 eBay had 5,400
registered users, listed on the site alphabetically by their email
addresses. Today, email addresses are no longer user ID's, and listing
all eBayers would be problematic — being as how eBay has grown to over
147 million registered users world wide, making it perhaps the seventh
or eighth largest 'nation' on the planet.
On top of this, according to
A.C. Neilson research, there are over 700,000 American sellers who
claim to make a part or full-time living on eBay. Is it possible to
expand on this fantastic growth?
eBay thinks so. To grow its sellers and increase
sales and revenue, eBay launched the latest version of its traveling
road show known as eBay University in June 2005, teaching three courses
on how to successfully sell on the site. Since then and through the
remainder of 2005, eBay University will have visited 34 cities, and
plans to continue the program in 2006.
eBay University is touted to registered eBay
users through emails and a link on the eBay site. The three, day-long
courses are "eBay Basics," "Beyond The Basics" and "eBay For Business,"
all taught by a group of eBay and general business specialists, many of
whom have written how-to books on successful selling strategies for the
site or their areas of expertise. The fees are moderate — $59 for each
course, with a 'package' price of $89 for the 'Basics' and "Beyond the
Basics' classes.
The moderate fees cannot begin to cover eBay's
costs for running a program such as this, but then eBay's agenda here
is to promote the site, and the eBay University program does just that.
Besides the "eBay Basics" course — which is intended to segue eBay
buyers and non-users into the seller mode — the two advanced courses
heavily promote PayPal, optional features, encourage International
selling, and offer strategies designed to propel small volume and
occasional eBay sellers into Power Seller status.
This reporter caught up with eBay U. at
the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City in late October and
sat in on the "eBay For Business" and "Beyond The Basics" courses.
Though selling on the site since 1999, I expected to find cues and tips
that were useful in future selling. These I found, along with much
general business and mail order information and insights that would be
useful for anyone selling online.
Each course is accompanied by a 100-plus page
book covering in detail what the presenters discuss. Some course
instructors can be exuberant, with presentations sprinkled with such
adjectives as "awesome" and "very awesome" (whatever that might be),
but they are all skilled speakers, and the presentation issues are
accompanied by a 20 foot projection screen, emphasizing and summarizing
each point.
eBay for Business
Unlike the other two courses, eBay for Business is offered once rather
than twice over the three-day program, possibly due to the schedule of
its tax/legal issue instructor, attorney Cliff Ennico, a nationally
syndicated columnist and author on the subject.
Issues include selecting from the various forms
of business entities, that which suit's the individual situation — such
as sole proprietorship, partnerships, "C" and "S" corporations, and
limited liability companies — each presented with the pros and cons in
a clear, concise manner.
The presentation moves on to legal
liabilities for selling on eBay — warranties, express and implied,
legal disclaimers, refund and return policies, etc. Under dealing with
deadbeat bidders, you can call and threaten to sue, but it is advised
that you cannot imply that the debtor has committed a crime, call in
the middle of the night, or threaten to attach a debtor's wages or
property — unless you actually intend to do it!
The final suggestion is to consult an attorney before calling a deadbeat bidder.
Tax issues are complex and covered in detail,
beginning with the basics of tax compliance such as Federal and local
tax ID's, filing on time, tax payment schedules, requirements for sales
tax collection, and the like. Deducting home office space used to
automatically trigger an audit, but this is no longer the case, though
home office space must be precisely measured, and a baby's stroller or
any other non-business item in the space kills the deduction.
Accounting and bookkeeping issues are also covered at length, including
what to look for in an accountant or bookkeeper. Also covered are the
legal aspects and responsibilities of hiring and firing employees.
Under the delicate topic of firing a worker, it is advised to lock the
employee out of the computer before the meeting, fire on a Monday, not
a Friday, have a witness present, keep emotions out of it, and,
strongly emphasized — the less said, the better.
In all, Ennico's presentation should provide valuable information to all but the most experienced and savvy entrepreneurs.
The Business course then segues into operating an
eBay business, starting with setting goals, and the first of several
pitches touting Power Seller status and why and how to achieve it.
(Power Seller status begins at 'Bronze' with sales of at least $1,000 a
month, and extends into the stratosphere to 'Titanium,' at $150,000 a
month.)
There are common sense suggestions, such as
avoiding the use of music in listings and keeping image sizes
reasonable (since 50 percent of the U.S. still uses slow dial-up
connections,) knowing your competition, avoiding spelling mistakes and
combative seller terms, and, in general, making an attractive
presentation in your sales.
The section on Research Tools should be useful to
many eBay sellers. Selling something without researching the item's
past performance is a recipe for wasting time and, often, losing or
leaving money on the table. eBay offers several services that provide
insight into what moves on the site with a link in it's Marketplace
Research page, accessed via web browser at http://solutions.ebay.com
The first of these is the "What's Hot" page
linked through Seller Central. By clicking on "Sell By Category," then
"In Demand," a seller can determine currently popular items in most
categories.
Relatively new to the site is the "Want It Now"
page linked through the eBay home page. There, buyers post items they
want but cannot find on the site.
For those who wish to tie their sales to eBay's
promotions, there is the "Merchandising Calendar" linked through Seller
Central that gives advance notice of promotions — a tool particularly
useful to Store sellers.
The course segues into common sense solutions for
finding merchandise to sell on eBay, suggesting the usual suspects —
garage and estate sales, flea markets, thrift shops, auctions and the
like, as well as cueing sellers into the "Whole Sale Lots" category on
the site, then using search words such as 'bulk,' 'pallet,' 'case,'
'lot.' The problem with this strategy is that many sellers are
wholesaling goods for a reason and it is often because the item cannot
be sold individually on the site. In the "Beyond The Basics" course,
finding independent eBay certified wholesalers is dealt with in detail.
The afternoon sessions offers micro detail cues
on how to start, maintain and grow an eBay business in the auction and
Stores formats — from pricing, listing, keyword strategies to shipping
advice and virtually every issue in between. Interspersed throughout
are touts for eBay products such as PayPal, payments that are offered
by a large majority of eBay sellers. eBay claims that sellers who offer
PayPal average 6-7 percent higher sell-through prices than those who
don't.
eBay — Beyond the Basics
There is a certain amount of redundancy between the 'Business' and
'Beyond the Basics' courses, but deeper detail and additional
presentations, such as International Selling, add to the value of this
course.
International Selling covers an untapped source
of revenue for many eBay sellers. In fact, eBay claims that 46 percent
of their sales are now international, and that cross-border sales
average 6.3 percent more than domestic sell-through prices. The
presentation whets the appetite of the audience with the fact that
someone in Germany was willing to pay $77 for a $3.99 five-pack of Oreo
cookies. Whether anyone else will ever again pay $77 for the same
cookies on eBay is another matter, but the point that many American
products can do well overseas, is fact.
The presentation covers the basics of how to fill
out a customs form, legal issues including accurate and honest
declarations, the most cost efficient shipping (generally USPS),
language and money conversions, and foreign buyer-friendly ways to
list. And, again, pushing sellers to use PayPal. eBay claims that
foreign sellers who accept PayPal payments average 16.7 higher
sell-through prices. This makes sense because transferring funds from
overseas can be costly and difficult for international buyers who do
not have an expedient such as PayPal, Bidpay or Western Union checks
payable on U.S. banks. For anyone who sells mainly or exclusively to
overseas buyers, PayPal is a requisite.
In the "Beyond the Basics" course, eBay screams the following: Give the buyers what they want!
To that end, a number of sophisticated search and marketing report
tools that aid in nailing down what's hot and when, are covered. One
such pay-for, eBay certified site is Terapeak, which offers
sophisticated data on category results, key ratios, listing features
and successful duration times, among other features. Free and optional
eBay features such as "Sales Report Plus," are also covered in
considerable detail.
Under the topic of search engine marketing, there
is also an interesting presentation on the necessity of getting a
'top-30' search result placing on Google and Yahoo!, as well as methods
of getting into the top five results, or "before the fold," which
yields the best results in search engine queries. This is accomplished
by bidding on a pay per click (PPC) basis for top placement on the
search engines. Bids or prices paid per click-through range from a few
pennies to $100. Also covered in detail are important keyword cues for
linking with buyers and many other aspects of search engine marketing.
This should be a fascinating presentation for all those, who like
myself, are semi- to totally clueless on the process and its value.
While many aspects of the "Beyond The
Basics" course are covered elsewhere, here they are covered in greater
detail. Under finding merchandise to sell, for instance, eBay certified
but independent wholesalers who do not sell on the site (and thus do
not, theoretically, compete against you) are offered, as are others.
(The rub here is that often you have to buy BIG: one speaker contacted
a wholesaler on the minimum order for an item and was told it was five
shipping containers — for $160,000.)
eBay claims that it takes 20 minutes to manually
list a sale, and if you list one-of-a-kind-items as I do, this can
certainly be the case. eBay offers a variety of free and optional
charge automation tools such as Turbo Lister, which can be useful for
any seller who deals in bulk listings. File Exchange, a new eBay tool
that is platform independent, allows medium to high volume sellers to
list o eBay auctions, fixed-price or Stores with a single application
from an MS Excel spreadsheet, MS Access or other software.
Cross-merchandising and promotions are covered,
as well as linking to stores and external web pages with free and
optional eBay tools.
The remainder of the course offers advanced
suggestions and solutions for virtually every other aspect of eBay
selling — from photography, headers and descriptions through packing
and shipping to feedbacks and sales and inventory management. It's
noted that the dreaded task of packaging is not thankless: well-packed
goods give a sense of professionalism, and do lead to more positive feedback — not to mention that the item does not spin back because it broke in transit.
The presentations are lively and upbeat,
interspersed with anecdotes and eBay success stories with examples that
could incite greed in a hermit, such as the free box at a garage sale
which contained a fish lure that sold for $32,000. (On the screen we
see a rather silly looking lure, in our hearts we feel money lust.)
eBay University is also offered online, but the
live presentations are recommended. For most people, the impact of the
live presentations accompanied by a 20-foot square projection screen
and frequent question and answer periods should enhance and ease the
learning experience over merely reading a downloaded book or PC screen.
Overall, eBay University with its moderate fees
constitutes a bargain in today's ecommerce solutions marketplace, and
should prove itself valuable for many, if not most, eBay sellers.
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