I wanted to share something I have been working on personally in my eBay store. Maybe this will help some of you trying to get your numbers up.
For the last 3 months, I have really been focusing on selling higher priced items, as well as purchasing them as cheaply as possible to increase profit margin. Most things I buy now don't cost more than $2, and you can see from this sales chart that my average sale price per item has doubled in 90 days. (*Note: Free shipping is included on items shipped First Class or that can go in a padded flat rate envelope, so that skews the numbers a little.)
For those of you who want to increase your profit on eBay, please remember it is not about the number of things you sell, but the profit you make each month. The most frequently asked question I receive from sellers is, "How can I make more money on eBay?" Well, here is your answer.
I am on several Facebook eBay groups, and often see sellers posting pics of
their giant piles of outgoing packages. Please do not be misled by
quantity. A seller may be shipping 25 one day, but profit might only
be $2 per item - which of course is still good money, but quantity
isn't the end game here.
Maximum dollars in the bank account is what we all want. It doesn't matter if you sell 1,000 items a month if you are only making $3 an hour doing it. Look at your profit vs hours worked to see how much you are making. Put the pencil to paper and many of you will be shocked to see you are working for a fraction of minimum wage.
Also, consider the time and work involved in selling lower priced items as well as additional supply cost. (Mailers, labels, ink, tape, etc.) After doing this for 11 years, I have decided I would rather spend the bulk of my time looking for items that will yield a higher sales price rather than doing this business like a mouse on a wheel. Just because you are busy and money is going into your Paypal account does not mean you are running a profitable business. Remember, it takes the same amount of time to list a $50 item as it does to list a $5 item.
Bottom line: It is never a question of IF you can sell something on eBay, but the question we need to focus on is "How MUCH can I sell this for?"
Just thought I would share my little experiment with you. I hope to increase average sale price to $40 per item by the end of the year.
You can find your average sales by going to Summary > Sales Reports and look in the middle of the page. You can visit my eBay store, Atlanta Golf Shop here to see the kinds of things I am selling.
What are your goals for increasing sales by the end of 2014?
Related articles:
Are you wasting time micromanaging your eBay store?
83% of eBay sellers do this, do you?
21 Ways to boost eBay sales
Maximum dollars in the bank account is what we all want. It doesn't matter if you sell 1,000 items a month if you are only making $3 an hour doing it. Look at your profit vs hours worked to see how much you are making. Put the pencil to paper and many of you will be shocked to see you are working for a fraction of minimum wage.
Also, consider the time and work involved in selling lower priced items as well as additional supply cost. (Mailers, labels, ink, tape, etc.) After doing this for 11 years, I have decided I would rather spend the bulk of my time looking for items that will yield a higher sales price rather than doing this business like a mouse on a wheel. Just because you are busy and money is going into your Paypal account does not mean you are running a profitable business. Remember, it takes the same amount of time to list a $50 item as it does to list a $5 item.
Bottom line: It is never a question of IF you can sell something on eBay, but the question we need to focus on is "How MUCH can I sell this for?"
Just thought I would share my little experiment with you. I hope to increase average sale price to $40 per item by the end of the year.
You can find your average sales by going to Summary > Sales Reports and look in the middle of the page. You can visit my eBay store, Atlanta Golf Shop here to see the kinds of things I am selling.
What are your goals for increasing sales by the end of 2014?
Related articles:
Are you wasting time micromanaging your eBay store?
83% of eBay sellers do this, do you?
21 Ways to boost eBay sales
4 comments:
100% agree! It takes just as much time to list a $10 item as a $200 item.
I totally agree. I've been aiming to raise my profit per item this year too, even more than increasing my inventory. It only makes sense to get more out of each hour worked. I see so many Ebay blogs where women are selling items for less than ten dollars--a total waste of time.
Yes, yes! You can only list so many items and even with help you can only manage so many helpers. I agree- it was a huge shift for me when I realized it takes the same amount of time to photo, list, and pack an item that sells for $25 as it does for an item selling for $12.
Great post! I hit a similar place with my eBaying a while back and decided to focus less on quantity and more on profits. I was mainly concerned with the amount of time I was spending to pick, list, and ship items that only netted me a few bucks in the end.
Once I started to value my time a bit more, not only was I making more profit per item, but also more money overall.
Cheers!
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