Anyone willing to take in SLOW detail on how I can make a profit on Ebay?

[laidlawgifts]

Please check out my store

laidlawgifts

These items are the same that I sell in a retail store in downtown Toronto. 

So changing the items or "widgets' is not an option for me.

After calculating fees for the item .. I get wholesale at 50 percent

Ebay fees for having a store

Ebay fees for listing an item

Ebay fees for commision for the sale on the item

Ebay fees for commission for the sale on the shipping costs

Fees for packing material .. bought from Uline.ca

I am just going over my past sales and realize my profit margin is very low

and I cant find any cheaper way to list the items nor cheaper shipping costs

which give me a low DSR rating 😞  

Is there a way to do it I am unaware of or are my items the wrong type of 'widget' to sell on Ebay?

Thanks so much for any help

Nancy

laidlawgifts

[pierrelebel]

Good evening Nancy.

You have a brick and mortar store in Toronto.  What is your overhead (rent, utilities, staff, insurance, shoplifting and pilferage, advertising, credit/debit card fees, packaging, office supplies, etc...) as a percentage of sale?

Let me guess 20% to 30%

Now, add up all your eBay and PayPal fees.  What percentage of sales do they represent?

Let me guess 17% to 20%

Assuming you sell your items at the same price on eBay as you do in your Toronto store, your eBay sales are more profitable than your store sales! 🙂

"shipping costs which give me a low DSR rating... or are my items the wrong type of 'widget' to sell on Ebay?"

You have your finger on the problem.  Many items are simply not worth selling by mail (on eBay or elsewhere) because the shipping charge associated with the item represents too high a percentage of the value of the item.

What you may want to do for such items is to set up a website offering these items to all your customers, in addition to their eBay purchases.  If they are willing to buy them and pay the high shipping - good for you and those high shipping costs will not affect your DSRs! 🙂

I faced the same problem years ago.  I sell postage stamps: low shipping cost in relation to value. Ideal for mail order.  However, once a year I sold heavy and bulky stamp catalogues, hundreds of them.  Shipping within Canada and to the USA averaged $15/$20 each.  Not worth selling on eBay.  However, I still managed to sell hundreds of them every year - off eBay - by offering lower postage paid in large part by the eBay fee savings! 🙂

If you look hard enough, there is always more than one way to skin a cat!

Good Luck.

[pierrelebel]

PS - May I suggest you set up your eBay store front page to show highest priced items instead of Best Match (which is totally irrelevant within your store).

Attract people by showing your best stuff in your display window (your eBay store front page)!

However, pay attention to details, just as you would for your item in your brick and mortar store.  I noticed " 

Jack in the Box

A Great Xmas Gift Idea
Make sure you order early! Beat the postal rush!

It may be time to change the description! 🙂

[pocomocomputing]

When you list with Expedited parcel in a listing and ship with PayPal labels using Expedited Parcel, the eBay shipping calculator shows the buyer the full expedited price and not the discounted price. So you made an extra 20% on shipping costs. That covered some of the eBay shipping FVF and packaging costs.

In your listings, you explain too much about Canada Post shipping, Small Packet, Expedited, etc. Buyers do not care about this and is just gibberish to them.

Also you have the PowerSeller logo in your listing and I do believe that is not allowed by eBay.

[laidlawgifts]

Powerseller logo not allowed?  I will have to check that again.

It was in the information a year or two ago, that they said to USE the logo to help

with sales .. so I started to use it.. lol.  I didnt think of using it until told that.

I will check into that, thank you 🙂

[laidlawgifts]

Nodding...

I may have to do the math on each and every item to decide if its worth selling on ebay.

God, lots of math... lol

Having over 2000 unique items... most are not listed yet... is alot of calculations.

Its the commission on shipping that ends up making the item not worth selling on Ebay.

I am still at a loss on why they charge this.  I do not make money on the shipping so why

are they charging me a fee on it?  This is something new that they didnt do years ago 😞

I had an item that was only 650 grams and it cost me over 15 dollars to ship.

That is a big bite with the ebay commission added as well. 

Like you said, the item was only 9.99 so I ended up making virtually nothing on the sale

after all things considered.  *sigh*

On average, for the first few calculations, I make about 7 percent more in my retail store

than I do selling on ebay.  That is considering overhead on both.

[laidlawgifts]

Ok two items

Seamonkeys I just sold

Retail 23.99

Fee on item 2.64

Fee on shipping 2.43

Paypal 1.34

Box .42

Total 6.83

Percent Ebay costs 28.8 percent

I did a few other similar items I sell and on average it is around 28 percent for a GOOD percent

A bad sale ;(

Mug

Retail 9.99

Fee on item 1.10

Fee on shipping 1.71

Paypal .75

Box .42

Total 3.98

Percent Ebay costs 39.8 percent

Sigh...

[laidlawgifts]

Ok two items

Seamonkeys I just sold

Retail 23.99

Fee on item 2.64

Fee on shipping 2.43

Paypal 1.34

Box .42

Total 6.83

Percent Ebay costs 28.8 percent

I did a few other similar items I sell and on average it is around 28 percent for a GOOD percent

A bad sale ;(

Mug

Retail 9.99

Fee on item 1.10

Fee on shipping 1.71

Paypal .75

Box .42

Total 3.98

Percent Ebay costs 39.8 percent

Sigh...

[laidlawgifts]

It is those numbers that cause me to rethink online sales.

Are these percentages similar to yours?

So far none of my item fees for Ebay are 17 to 20 percent 😞

As mentioned earlier by a poster.

[pocomocomputing]

Powerseller logo not allowed?  I will have to check that again.

It was in the information a year or two ago, that they said to USE the logo to help

with sales .. so I started to use it.. lol.  I didn't think of using it until told that.

I will check into that, thank you 🙂

I am not sure about PowerSeller logo.  I cannot find anything in the eBay.ca help files. Most info looks old in there.

Having any PS or TRS logo in the listing does not make sense since the status can be lost from one month to the next. That would require editing all of the listings to remove or add them.

I found in the eBay help page that TRS logo is not allowed in the description.

Pierre might know.

[laidlawgifts]

Editing is easy... do bulk find and replace.

I took it out before and put it back in 🙂

[beautiful_times]

I looked through some of your items, and most of these things are cheaper in stores. I just saw a set of the Can Keeps Drink tops for $5.99 at Xcess Cargo, your price $9.99 for the same set of 10.

Uline while cheaper than most, is not the least expensive option for boxes, bubble mailers and bubble wrap.

Chit Chat Express has the lowest rates for these items. They can be purchased from the Markham office and the Mississauga office.

Case of size 0 bubble envelopes from Uline $45, same case from Chit Chats $32. I make the trip out to the Markham office a few times a year to bulk purchase all my mailing supplies and all my USPS mailing supplies (flat rate envelopes, boxes etc)

I know you said in your other post about shipping costs, that using Chit Chat for shipping would not be worth your gas to drive to their location to drop off. 

They do have "drop points" through out the city, were you can meet the truck and hand off your packages. There is one in Concord (Keele & Hwy 7), one in Scarborough etc. There are more, these are the 2 I know about because I use them.

Ask them for the closest drop point to you and if they will allow you to use a drop point (You may need to establish yourself with them first)

[bb_cool_stuff]

I looked through some of your items, and most of these things are cheaper in stores. Ijust saw a set of the Can Keeps Drink tops for $5.99 at Xcess Cargo, your price $9.99 for the same set of ten.

While some items may be less expensive in stores, not all items like the aforementioned are available to everyone for the Xcess Cargo price.

My experience with Xcess Cargo has been a great flyer with numerous items at great prices. I went first thing in the morning for the sale & over half of the items were not even available.

In my experience Xcess Cargo is what Consumers Distributing was in the 70s. Great items, great prices, no stock.

[i*m-still-here]

Just a thought......... 

Since you have a store and buy in bulk, it follows that the more you buy of one item or from the same supplier,  the lower your price.

Is that the way it is for you?

Also, assuming that you have an unlimited supply with no restrictions from your suppliers........

If I were you I'd be tempted to keep the higher end items listed on ebay as is if they are selling,  and list the lower end items in bulk hoping to hit the re-sellers.

That is, for you it's the same amount of work to sell one at a time as it is to sell 25 at time and since you have an unlimited supply you could offer great deals and make the cost of shipping a non-issue.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Depunds on the supplier i*m.

Some you have to buy a minimum of a thousand items, did that once years back, some in lots of a hundred, some as low as ten.

Usually depends on the amount of deadstock they have left in inventory but one has to source out other suppliers to see if one is really getting a deal.

[i*m-still-here]

Yes, and some might not be to eager to see their items sold in bulk on ebay and have restrictions.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Have you had an experience like that ? Have never heard of that previously.

If my case suppliers usually just want to dump inventory to make room for new inventory. 

I guess there could be some supplier & / or eBay restrictions with some products.

Haven't come across any but there probably are some restrictions.

Depends on the product, i guess.

[i*m-still-here]

Yes.

Many name brands have restrictions.

Since laidlawgifts is already selling on ebay there are probably none, but it's also possible that selling one item at a time is OK while re-selling in bulk or wholesale is another story.

[laidlawgifts]

Most of my prices have to remain as is, since I get them from a regular supplier and markup of 50 percent is required for me to make any kind of profit.   The quantities I would have to buy to make a substantial difference in price is too great for me... and for my available storage in my small warehouse.  Its full already... lol.   

I was hoping for any advice on how to make my EXISTING stock/store profitable.

To be honest, after doing more and more math and evaluations, it isnt looking good.

Was hoping there was something I didnt think of.

The good news is the chitchat express.  I will be contacting them tomorrow and see what to work out with them.  Being so far in the east end sucks, but doing a drop off a couple times a week may be worth the investment.  At my present quantity of sales, its not worth it.. but if I invest in the dropoff for awhile, and have lower shipping costs... I am hoping my sales increase and make it worth it 🙂

So that information is a great help 🙂

I will be price comparing for shipping supplies through them as well.

Selling my items that are just TOO much shipping online at another store and not on Ebay, and only selling the items that have a reasonable shipping cost on Ebay.. is something suggested and I think is a great idea as well.  Now, to figure out how to set up a webstore.. rofl

I am fascinated how many stores on Ebay are making a profit... I did a few calculations of fees and with such low retail cost and free or really cheap shipping... I cant figure out how they are doing it.  I was hoping someone knew that secret and would share it.  A private email is acceptable if you dont want to answer on the forum... rofl

[laidlawgifts]

Yeah, I do have restrictions on quite a few of my items. 

Not allowed to sell lower than their suggested retail.

Or as mentioned, the quantities I have to buy... are too large for my space or bank account 😉