There is a common misconception that eBay is an electronic car boot sale where individuals sell their second-hand consumables. Upon closer inspection eBay is used by many bricks and mortar businesses and if utilised properly, can become a powerful business tool.eBay has 168 million registered users worldwide with 10 million registered within the UK. 33% of the UK’s internet traffic flows to eBay making it the most popular site amongst UK internet users. One of the more appealing aspects of eBay is that business size is not a factor, anyone can start trading from a small sole trader to a large multinational, and both do use the site extensively.

eBay already has an established audience and automatically optimises pages to obtain the best rankings in search engines such as Google at no extra cost to the seller. eBay can also be used to drive traffic towards a company Web site, and many businesses use both eBay and a company Web site together in a combined strategy.

eBay shops and selling tools

For businesses who require a cost effective way of establishing themselves on-line, they can setup an eBay Shop. The shop can be easily built with little technical knowledge and personalised to some extent by editing HTML and adding a company logo. Each shop has an inbuilt search engine, a Web address (URL) and produces free reports concerning traffic and sales. There are 3 levels of store, ranging from a basic shop to a more advanced shop.

A Basic Store costs £6 a month and is ideal for new businesses or low volume sellers who require an affordable on-line selling solution. A Featured Store costs £30 a month and is aimed at small to medium businesses offering a more extensive selling solution. An Anchor Store costs £300 a month and is aimed at high volume sellers who want to maximise their position in eBay. eBay also provides software for those who need help managing a large number of items.

All eBay members can use free Content Management System (CMS) software such as Turbo Lister which provides bulk item listings, template editors and automatic scheduling. The eBay shops offer more advanced software which helps manage eBay more effectively. Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro are a combination of CMS and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. They both offer more automated processes such as eMailing customers notifications when payments are received and items shipped. Other features include inventory tracking, customer payment tracking, sales and after sales information. As useful as this software is, many businesses tend to have a problem with integrating it into their existing systems and may find themselves in a position where they are running two separate systems side by side.

Successful selling

The key to becoming a successful eBay seller is to build a trustworthy reputation and this is achieved via the feedback feature and by registering as a business user.The feedback facility works by leaving positive, neutral or negative comments for a customer and vice versa, which contributes to a score which is listed next to the company name. The positive feedback score is shown as a percentage and for those companies who have a score of 98%, 100+ feedback responses and a monthly turnover of £750 over a 3 month period, can achieve PowerSeller status.

PowerSeller status shows that a company is trustworthy to do business with and has achieved and maintained good levels of sales and service therefore making a company more attractive to potential customers.

Registering as a Business Seller will also enhance a company’s reputation as a business address and VAT details (if applicable) must be registered with eBay.

Business Sellers must also adhere to legal obligations such as the Sale of Goods Act, the Trade Descriptions Act, the Consumer Protection Regulations (Distance Selling) and the Electronic Commerce Regulations (EC Directive). Customers are aware of that they are dealing with a business seller as the term “Registered as a business seller” will be shown in the seller information box which is prominently displayed on all item listings.

Customers dealing with business sellers feel more secure as they know that the business sellers are registered and that any purchases made are protected under the laws of distance selling. It’s the business sellers who help give eBay its respectability and despite recent negative publicity, customers still converge on the site, more than any other UK site. Many businesses with a desire to trade on-line should consider eBay as a starting point and any businesses already trading on-line cannot afford to ignore eBay as a possible tool to expand their market and their sales as part of their overall strategy.

Article from the Opportunity Wales Web site - www.opportunitywales.co.uk