Inside the mind of an eBay trader
I have a friend who is making a side income selling things on ebay that are freely available elsewhere. I asked him how this was possible…
A number of things to understand ( and pass on to your new unintended entrepreneurs)
· Big national retailers have very large supply chains which need a lot of stock to feed.
· Top Branded goods are made in limited numbers because to stay on top you need to launch new products regularly.
· Big national retailers employ fresh graduates in their marketing departments . These kids generally can’t do the maths.
· Once supplies of popular products start to run out and cannot fill the supply chain they are discounted because Big national retailers hate ‘end of lines’
· Big national chains need cash. They get the graduates to run lots of promotions during quiet times to get people to buy.
· Promotions have to be very generous to make the great British Public buy early (unless they are MBTI type ‘J’)
· The Great British Public may have Broadband but they don’t do their research. They need brokers and comparison sites.
· The Great British Public believe that Ebay is the cheapest place to buy because it’s an open competitive market place. It’s good but not that good.
.....so there are moments when top selling products are available at 40% off. In these moments the opportunists swoop.
An example.
Boots have a product which actually makes your skin look younger according to a bunch of PHD researchers from Manchester. It’s so popular that it sells in volumes at a 20% discount on ebay.
This week in a store near you Boots ran a promotion day. They sold the ‘age serum’ on a three for two offer as well as running a store wide promotion, spend £50 and get £17 back in points. The serum costs £30 so you pay £60 for 3 and get £17 back in points ( to a player points are deferred cash). So each bottle has cost £14.33. They sell on Ebay at £24.00. After fees you could make £6 a bottle or 20%.
You spent 10 minutes in the shop, 30 minutes wrapping and 10 minutes doing the ebay listing. That’s £21.60/hour for working from home.
