If you really want to become a successful eBay seller, meaning that you want eBay to be a real business for you instead of just a hobby or a way for you to clean the clutter out of your house, you’re going to need to make a shift in the way you sell on eBay.
Most people will sell anything on eBay that they can find as long it can make them money (and sometimes even if it won’t).
If you try to run a business on eBay using this model of selling anything and everything, you’re going to find yourself playing the low price game where you’re always dealing with razor thin margins just so that you can get your products sold.
However, there is a way for you to have better than average margins on your products. And that’s simply by specializing in a certain line of products.
Once you take the time to specialize in a particular area, such as beef jerky makers, video editing equipment, or violins, you can make yourself the expert in that area. You’ll want to take an area that you are already knowledgeable in, or one where you that you don’t mind learning about so you can be the expert.
Once you’re an expert on the products that you’re selling on eBay, you now have a competitive advantage over the other people that are trying to sell the same products that you are. You’ll want to make sure that you make it clear to your potential customers what extras they’re going to get from you that they simply can’t get from your competition. For example, it could be as simple as offering email support on setting up your products (if they’re the type of products that require it).
Another way to give yourself a big competitive advantage is to include a free bonus that you’ve created, such as an eBook, video, or podcast that you’ve done on the topic. For example, if you were in the beef jerky maker business, you could include an exclusive cookbook that you’ve written with your favorite recipes and tips on making great tasting jerky.
Once you’ve established your competitive advantage in the marketplace, you can demand higher prices than your competition and people will happily pay them. In some cases it might mean that you only get 5 or 10% more on a typical transaction, but that extra few percentage points can mean the difference between a product that you were only breaking even on to a profitable product. And in some cases, you can charge prices 3 to 4 times higher than your competition by showing your potential customers that they’re much better off buying from you because you specialize in those products and can offer better support than those who sell everything under the sun.
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