If you’re in the business of making things, you may have considered selling on eBay.  eBay is the grand-daddy when it comes to online auction sites, and has become a household name in since its launch in 1995.  According to web information company – Alexa, eBay.co.uk is the 23rd most visited site - at the time of writing - globally, and the 6th most visited site in the UK, so it does get a lot of UK visitors. 

Researching your market

There are market research tools available on the eBay sellers pages, so that you can search a year’s worth of closed auction data, and find out the average sale price for the type of product, and evaluate your competition.  Usually this is a paid for service, but at the time of writing there is a 7 day free trial available for this service with Terapeak. You can use this to determine your expected profits before you invest too much in stock, and also identify potential companion products to sell.

Photographs for Selling on eBay

Having several great photographs of various aspects of your product will really make a difference to your chances.  According to statistics from eBay, more people bid on items with photographs, than ones without, which is not really surprising.  People like to see what they are buying, so spend time getting some really good shots of your product from different angles, detail shots and whole product shots.  If you are selling the same product repeatedly, this is time invested up front that will benefit all your future listings.

Product Description

It is really worth taking some care over constructing your product title and description.  You want it to be appealing and engaging, and also to assist people searching for your product.  Think about what your potential customers would be searching for, and try to ensure you have the major search terms covered in your title as most searches cover the title only, and try to make your description appealing, detailed and helpful to your potential buyers.

Length of Auction

If you decide to sell via auction, you can choose from 3 day, 7 day and 10 day auctions.  A longer auction time gives people more time to find your product and add it to their watch list, and with luck they will join in the bidding.  The more serious watchers you have the better your chances of making a good price for your product. I would recommend 7 or 10 day auctions, and try to ensure the period covers a Sunday, which is when the highest volume of people are searching on eBay for products to buy.

Timing the End of your Auction

One of the most important considerations for listing an Auction is the auction end time.  Often a lot of the bidding activity will occur within the last few minutes of an auction, so you want your auction to end at a time when most people are going to be available to bid.  Statistics from eBay show that Sunday and Monday evenings are the best for this.  You can get good results most evenings except Friday and Saturdays, depending on your product and target market.  For the UK market, the best times generally to end an auction seems to be between 6pm and 9pm.

There is a Scheduled Listing feature that is worth using if you are not available to list your item at the right time for your desired end time.  There is a small fee payable for this, at the time of writing 6p, but it is worth it to ensure your auction ends at a good time. 

Understanding Fees for Selling on eBay

There is a fairly complex fee structure for selling on eBay, which falls loosely into 3 categories:

• Insertion fees, payable whether your item sells or not.
  
• Final Value fees, payable only when your item sells
  
• Paypal fees, payable on the payment to you, if the Buyer chooses to pay via Paypal.
  

I should mention that eBay owns Paypal, and if you are selling on eBay you must accept this payment method as an option for your buyers, so I am including Paypal as an eBay fee for the purposes of this article.  If you are considering selling on eBay then it is worth understanding these fees so that you can factor them into your business plan.

Insertion fees depend on your Auction type.  A ‘Buy It Now’ auction currently costs £0.40, and Auction listings range from £0 to £3 per £100 for an ordinary listing depending on the starting price.  Additional fees are then added if you add extra listing features to make your eBay listing more attractive or easier to find, such as additional listing categories, subheadings, and better photo listing features.

Final Value fees are charged as a percentage on the final sale value.  This excludes the shipping costs currently.  The percentage starts at 10%, but can reduce depending on your sales volume. 

Paypal Fees are charged on the Paypal transaction if your buyer chooses this payment method.  This is a percentage of the total payment so it does include any shipping fees you include in your listing.  Currently this works out at 3.4% + £0.20.

To give you a general idea of the costs of selling on eBay, here is a fictional worked example.  Consider a product listing sold as an Auction, with subtitle, picture pack and scheduled listing options, with a Reserve price of £60 and a final selling price of £100 and a £10 shipping cost included in the sale, where the buyer chooses to pay via Paypal:

Example eBay Listing

Auction Starting Price - £0.99
Reserve Price - £60.00
Selling Price - £100.00
Shipping Costs - £10.00

Fees Incurred:

Insertion Fee: - £3.31
Final Value Fee - £10.00
Paypal Fee - £3.94

So, in this example you could expect to pay around £17.25 in fees for Selling on eBay for a £100 product.

N.B. This is a worked example based on current fees published on the eBay website at the time of writing, and is just a general example to give you an idea.  If you are considering selling on eBay for your small business then you'll obviously need to look into it in more depth for your specific circumstances.

I have recently been asked about using Facebook for business marketing, so I thought I’d share a few ideas on this in a blog post for all of you.  Most people are familiar with using Facebook for social networking, but it isn’t all that obvious at first glance how Facebook would help with marketing your small business.

First of all, set up a Facebook Page for your business, not a Personal Profile.  Facebook has rules regarding the use of Personal profiles, and may delete a Personal Profile if they find it is a business, not a genuine person.  Secondly there is a limit of 5000 friends on a Facebook Personal Profile, however there are no limits to the number of people who can ‘Like’ a Facebook Page.  This is important, as it is the people who ‘Like’ your page who will see your posts on their wall, allowing you to engage directly with them.  Thirdly, you want to be authentic about what you’re doing on Facebook.  A Facebook page clearly states that it is a business, so people who Like it, will expect posts relating to your business.  By clicking the ‘Like’ button on your business Page, they have expressed an interest and effectively invited you to engage with them regarding your business.

Avoid blatant sales promotion on Facebook however.   Facebook is a social networking site, and people who use it are primarily there to catch up with their friends,  and will get annoyed if frequently spammed with ‘adverts’.  Instead, use Facebook to engage with your prospective customers and as a bulletin board for letting people know what your business is up to.   People will feel more engaged if you post useful information that you think will interest, help or entertain them, rather than something that feels like an advert.  By all means upload photographs of your products, most business Pages don’t include many photos, and it definitely makes your Page more engaging.  In your posts, focus on sharing your enthusiasm for your products and services, and avoid hard-sell style ‘Buy This Now!!!’ type posts.

All of this works well, once you have a group of followers who ‘Like’ your page, but how do you get people to like your page in the first place?  There are various ways to grow your following.  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• The first and most obvious is to invite people you already know.  The Page administration panel allows you to invite your personal Facebook Friends to like your page.  You can select the individuals who you feel will be interested.
• If you have built an email list of existing customers for your business, you could email them and let them know you have a new Page on Facebook, and crucially, invite them to click the ‘Like’ button.  Put a link to your Page in the email.
• Add Facebook buttons to your Website, and invite people to click ‘Like’ if they like what they see.
  
• Start engaging with other Pages on Facebook that you feel your prospective customers would also like, and which have a lot of ‘Likes’ already.  Leave entertaining, interesting or useful comments using the identity of your ‘Page’, so that the comments link back to your Page.    The best Facebook Pages to engage with are one’s which already have a lot of ‘Likes’, as this will help you reach more people. If you can make people feel curious with your comments they are more likely to follow the link back to your Page to find out more about you.
  
•  If you want to accelerate your ‘Like’ building, you can consider using Facebook paid advertising.  This is a subject for another Blog Post on another day, but it does enable you to very tightly focus on your target market, including filtering by location, age ranges and gender, and stated interests.  The downside is, unlike the other ideas here, you have to pay for it.      
  

When you are creating a website for a small business the temptation is to get bogged down in concerns about technology or graphic design, and; feeling overwhelmed; offload the whole project to a web designer.  However it is important to remember that the real expert on your business is you.  You are the one who understands your business. You know what you do well, and why your customers come to you rather than your competition. 

1. Structure your website around you customers’ activities, not your company structure!
   Rather than thinking about the way you structure your own work, try to think about what your different customers want to achieve, and think about creating your small business website to help them do this as simply as possible. 
   
   
2. Share your company purpose and values!
   Why does your business exist? What do you love about what you do?  Share that message on your site with all your passion and enthusiasm!  Your customers want to feel that they know you and share your values, and this is a major advantage you have as a small business, so allow your personality to show through on your website. 
   
   
3. Be clear about the purpose of your website.  Your small business website should have a clear purpose aligned with your business goals.  Decide what you want your customers to do when they visit your site.  Make it easy for them to find the information they need to do it, and then give them a specific call to action!  People like to be invited to engage with you, so invite them specifically.  If you want them to telephone you, ask them to telephone you!  If you want them to register for a course or a newsletter, ask them to register, give them a clear button to click or a form to fill in, that is easy to find.   If you want them to buy a product, give them an easy way to find out about it, and then a way to order and pay for it.  

You understand who your customers are, and what they like and dislike far better than any web designer.  If you want to create a great website for your small business that really engages your customers, you need to be involved!  Not necessarily in the actual creation, although you can be, but definitely in the content, the structure and the message you are putting out.