SELLING ONLINE: Retail Sales Through eBay, Amazon or Private Websites

If you have no experience selling online, it can seem like a daunting task to undertake. But it really isn't nearly as challenging as some may think. Selling online has become a booming business, especially with the downturn in the economy making it necessary for people to find additional sources of income. With this increase in demand for sales outlets came a concurrent increase in the supply of places to turn for help. There are many venues already in place that are looking for sellers as much as you may be looking for someplace to sell. These include sites like eBay and Amazon.com. But there is also the personal website option that can just as lucrative. Both selling techniques have their pros and cons, and I'll try to highlight the most significant ones here. One of the easiest ways to get your introduction to online sales is by selling on one of the existing marketplaces-eBay and Amazon being two of the largest. These are also ideal outlets if you just have a few things around the house that you'd like to trade for some extra spending money, but you really aren't interested in setting up a long term business. Pros to selling on an existing marketplace: No advertising expense Ease of use Enormous customer base Tracking tools With eBay and Amazon, you as a seller have no need to advertise, saving you a tidy sum in advertising costs. Everyone already knows these players in the market, and most people who go shopping online often start on one of these sites. These marketplaces are so large and diversified that it can easily be a one-stop shop for multiple items. With existing marketplace sites, once you've set up your account, you have access to their easy-to-use listing templates. These are specifically designed for average people who don't have a PhD in computer science. It's simply a matter of filling in a few blanks pertaining to the item you're listing and using their upload tool to upload some pictures of it from your computer (you'll need a digital camera and know how to upload pictures to your hard drive). Part of the signup process is walking a new user through this whole process step by step. eBay and Amazon have enormous customer followings. As mentioned before, many people looking to purchase something online often start their search on one of these sites. That makes it possible for you to put your listings right in front of all the people who may be looking for just such an item. eBay also offers the added feature of allowing you to list your items as either an auction or fixed price listing. For very popular items, it may be beneficial to list as an auction and let potential buyers bid against each other to get you as high a price as possible. You can further enhance this option by establishing what is known as a reserve, which is a minimum price you're willing to accept (so if the bidders don't meet your minimum, you're under no obligation to consummate the sale). Many of these established shopping sites also offer their sellers some type of tracking tool. This allows a seller to monitor market interest in their listings, such as how high the current bid is on an active auction or how many people are "watching" their listings. They also have handy reporting templates that provide concise and easy to read reports on outstanding listings and past sales. Cons to selling on an existing marketplace: Listing fees Final value fees Preference toward buyers Competition No matter which marketplace you use, they're going to charge fees. eBay charges a fee to list your item; the amount is based on the price you're listing it at. If you subscribe to their online store, this listing fee is fixed and usually a substantially smaller amount than those for individual listings. This listing fee is charged for every new listing as well as each time you relist an item that didn't sell. Amazon does not charge any fees to list. Both eBay and Amazon charge much more substantial fees when an item sells. These are known as final value fees, and are usually a percentage of the sale price plus a percentage of the shipping charge. Amazon has a fixed and variable component to their final value fee, but it boils down to the same thing: the more you sell it for, the more they get. This is a cost of doing business with the large marketplace site and taking advantage of the services and features they offer. When you sell on an existing marketplace to access their huge customer base of shoppers, you also encounter their huge pool of sellers, any of whom may be selling the same thing as you. Herein lies the competition factor. When you're preparing to list an item, do a little quick research to see what other sellers are listing that same item for. This will help you to establish a competitive price for your listing. One thing to keep in mind is that a newcomer to eBay or Amazon has no track record to speak for them. A more seasoned seller has a cumulative feedback score from past buyers to give a new buyer a confidence level with them. As a newcomer with no feedback score, it may be wise to take a little cut on the profit to give yourself a competitive edge over the seasoned seller with a good feedback score in his/her corner. If you're interests lie with setting up an ongoing business concern online, you may want to consider your own website. The internet is overflowing with web hosting sites-some free, some charge a modest fee for their services-and they all offer easy to use templates to setup a professional looking website where you can list your inventory. You'll link your site to your payment processing service (PayPal is the most trusted of such service providers), and sell your items directly to the public without any fees or charges by a third party such as eBay or Amazon. One obstacle is that you will be responsible for getting the traffic (potential shoppers) to your site without the good name of eBay or Amazon to piggyback on. The first step in getting your website seen is to make sure it's indexed in the major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. If your site isn't indexed, their webcrawlers won't find it. If their webcrawlers don't find it, no one else will either because it won't show up in any search results. Once it's indexed, you'll want to get your site as far up on the search results as possible. Shoppers typically start at the top of the list and work down, but they'll most likely find what they want at the price they're willing to pay before they get to-say-the third page of results. If your site shows up on the fourth page, they'll never get to you, even if you offer the same item at a better price. This is where the concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. This is the art of maximizing exposure to a website as economically as possible. Two methods usually employed to accomplish this is article writing and pay per click advertising. Writing articles that conspicuously include a link to your website and a detailed description of what it offers is an excellent place to start. These articles should be loaded with keywords matching the content of your website. Every website has a theme, and every theme has certain keywords that are descriptive of it. For example, if you're selling bed sheet sets on your website, keywords (or phrases) would include: bedding, sheet sets, king size sheets, queen size sheets and bed sheets. You could have a very lengthy list of keywords, and you should be sure to use any that may be applicable. It's these keywords that the search engines use to identify possible matches to a shopper's search inquiry. The more keywords you use, the better your chances of the search engines returning your site among those they display. You'll want to get these keyword articles published in online magazines or general article sites that are well known and have a lot of exposure. Just like selling on a well known site like eBay gets your inventory in front of shoppers by virtue of eBay's reputation, getting an article published on a well known publishing site is a good way to get your website address in front of people searching for what your website offers. Use the publisher's notoriety to get people to see your article, let your article get them to your website. Be sure your address is a link directly to your website, and you're only one short step away from directing that traffic directly to your site. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is another more direct, and costly, method of driving traffic to your site. Here you establish an account with an online advertising service like Google AdWords. You design the ad you want to display. The ad will include a link to your site and a list of all the keywords pertinent to your site. The keywords will determine which sites are the best matches in the search results. When your ad appears somewhere in the search results, it's called an impression. Each time a browser (potential customer) clicks on that impression, they go right to your site. While that click may or may not result in a sale, it will definitely result in a fee you'll have to pay the advertising service. How much you're willing to pay them for each of those clicks determines how far up on the search results your ad appears. It's basically a bribe to the search engines to get your ad posted in a more visible place to attract more potential customers. Care should be taken in using PPC advertising. If you don't choose your keywords carefully when you set up the advertisement, you could be getting a lot of traffic that isn't really interested in what you are selling. Clicks cost money, and all those wasted clicks can add up to some serious expense with no revenue to offset it. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8114475