eBay

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-15-2017

Hi everyone, i'm new to selling on ebay, i've been selling clothes now for 4 days and have about 22 items listed, a few views on most items but no sales 😛 I know it's only been a couple days but i was wondering how long it took other people to make their first sale? do you charge the buyer the shipping fees? Also any tips to get the ball rolling for me?

I keep hearing people say just keep listing but i'm afraid to keep buying clothes to list when there isn't any income coming in.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-15-2017

Clothing, especially the used clothing category is quite saturated on eBay. I've never sold in that category but have read that it can be tough unless you have something that is hard to find or out of the ordinary. For example,if I search for Banana republic blouse, there are 16,000 on eBay.com and 12,000+ are previously owned. It can take a while for the right person to find and buy yours. I'm sure that there are people who do well at selling clothing so if you haven't already, you might want to research to see what does sell well on eBay whether it be plus sizes or high end or.....?

Im curious how you plan on shipping your items to the US? Your average listings are charging about $12 in Canada and $4 to the US.

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-15-2017

I'm hoping to be able to sell used clothes full time and just like you i have heard of people doing well by selling used clothes but most of the people doing well that i hear from are all in the US.

I'm trying to find a way to get the shipping for canada to be lower but $12 seems to be the best that i can find however for the US shipping i've found a way to ship anywhere in the US for $4 CAN so i'm really hoping to get listing visible to the US market cause that shipping rate is way better than $12 from canada post.

If you don't mind me asking how did you get your shipping so low! That's amazing!

hlmacdon · ‎07-15-2017

@theonlineentrepreneur wrote:
I'm hoping to be able to sell used clothes full time and just like you i have heard of people doing well by selling used clothes but most of the people doing well that i hear from are all in the US.

I'm trying to find a way to get the shipping for canada to be lower but $12 seems to be the best that i can find however for the US shipping i've found a way to ship anywhere in the US for $4 CAN so i'm really hoping to get listing visible to the US market cause that shipping rate is way better than $12 from canada post.

If you don't mind me asking how did you get your shipping so low! That's amazing!

Some of the tshirt guys will play the stuff the oversized lettermail and pray it fits game. Canpar is an option many Canadian clothing vendors seem to use, but you'll have to pay attention to surcharges to see what your costs actually work out to with them.

If you can ship USPS, my recommendation would be to focus on the US market and list in USD on .com. I'm sure we have some sellers here with experience selling clothing within Canada that may be able to give some context.

As PJ notes, you've probably chosen one of the most oversaturated categories on ebay. Selling full time to generate an income can be a tough game in such a category unless you focus in on some sort of specialty within that category.

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-15-2017

I would prefer to focus on the US market and sell on .com rather than .ca but i'm having a hard time finding information on how to do so. I'm 100% new to ebay and any help to point my into that direction would be great!

All the articles i find about that topic all seem to be 7+ years on and not relevant anymore.

hlmacdon · ‎07-15-2017

@theonlineentrepreneur wrote:
I would prefer to focus on the US market and sell on .com rather than .ca but i'm having a hard time finding information on how to do so. I'm 100% new to ebay and any help to point my into that direction would be great!

All the articles i find about that topic all seem to be 7+ years on and not relevant anymore.

You can choose to list on .com as you would .ca. The caveats are your listings would be in USD and any Canadian shipping options have to be set as flat rate shipping options (usually the biggest stumbling block for most) as calculated shipping via Canada Post won't be available. I'm not sure if you are using a third party forwarder or shipping yourself through USPS (I'm guessing forwarder?). The forwarders may offer a return shipping address, which you can use as your sending/return address, or alternatively, if you cross the border yourself you can rent a USPS PO box and use that. The rest is just analyzing the market to see where you can fit in.

Since you are in a congested category you may want to do some research on eBay's best match algorithm and see what factors you need to concentrate on in your listings so you don't get buried way down the list. The single biggest piece of advice I can give you is that if you are planning on doing this fulltime, have a day job that pays the bills until your business ramps up. As a new seller on ebay it can be difficult to get traction in some categories unless your merchandise is unique or you have some significant advantage in pricing, availability, etc.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-15-2017

Keep listing the stuff you have on hand, but avoid buying for the time being.

You can list 50 items free, but there are fees for selling including a 10% fee on your shipping charges.

I don't sell clothing, but I do sell sewing patterns on another ID, and I find that plus sizes and party clothes are in the most demand.

(There's a solid market for maternity wedding dresses too.)

If you have children's clothing it seems those do best as lots with several garments in the same size.

If you are in Toronto Vancouver Montreal or Calgary areas , there are freight forwarding businesses which for a small fee will carry your sold items over the border for shipping via USPS. Search chitchatexpress and stallionexpress. I haven't used either because I am on Vancouver Island. I can see the US from the bottom of my street but....

You can get another 50 free listings by uploading to dotCOM, but as noted, you will be using US dollars and Flat Rate shipping.

You use round amounts as prices. Have you thought about using $7.99 instead of $8.00? Why not mix it up and see which gets the views and the sales?

In my opinion the most saleable items you have are the Hawaiian shirts followed by the Harley Davidson shirt. Those are the ones that are not necessarily available at the nearest mall.

How does your total price compare with the total price on sold items similar to yours?

And I'd drop all that stuff about feedback. After all, nothing would ever go wrong with your sales because you are a Super Excellent Seller and all your customers are delighted with their purchases, right?

Seriously, though, don't put anything in your listings that will make your customer think you might mess up. Ever.

Best wishes.

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-15-2017

Actually i left my job a couple months ago and took a couple month vacation and now am trying this out full time! I do have some money saved to carry me forward for a bit of time so now i'm 100% focused on getting this business to grow!

I'm curious cause it's not the first time i hear a person saying it's hard to get some transactions in some categories, is it cause i don't have the credibility for buyers to trust me and buy my products?

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-15-2017

My harley davidson shirt and hawiian shirts are priced about the same as sold comps that i have found, of course i could price them less and maybe thats' a good idea for me since i'm starting off and need to get some sales coming in.

I'm actually from montreal and i am using or going to be using chit chat express once i get a sale! i mean i compared the prices and by shipping with chit chat i'm saving over $10! Canada post really needs to step up their game.

Right now this is my most viewed item by far! it has a little over 200 views and my second highest for views has only 24. i'm new but i was pretty excited to see 200 views in just a couple days however nobody is buying it!Would you be able to see what i did wrong in your opinion?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Costa-Blanca-Womens-S-Leopard-Print-Light-Sheer-Evening-Work-Career-Shirt-/19...

silverpinups · ‎07-15-2017

I'm hoping to be able to sell used clothes full time and just like you i have heard of people doing well by selling used clothes but most of the people doing well that i hear from are all in the US.

I don't want to burst your bubble but if you want to make a fulltime job out of selling on-line then you'll need to have thousands of items to list.

22 items is more of a hobbyist level of selling. Since you have only three feedback I'm sure you have selling limits to adhere too and payment restrictions through PayPal (21 day hold on funds).

Start off by selling in Canada and the USA only, until you get a feel for selling.

The key is having a large inventory of items to sell on a consistent basis if you want to successfully sell on-line in a full time capacity. .

Good Luck....

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-15-2017

That's the goal i plan to be adding new items every day and hopefully soon items sell so that i can have more funds to make more purchase. I know 22 isn't a lot but i only started 4 days ago but eventually i hope to get into the thousands of items.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-16-2017

i mean i compared the prices and by shipping with chit chat i'm saving over $10! Canada post really needs to step up their game.

OTOH, Canada Post makes a profit most years and pays that money into the Government coffers, while USPS is run at a deficit. (Both have pension problems, mostly according to right wing think tanks, though.)

In the short run, as a business, chitchat is definitely the way to go.

200 views in just a couple days however nobody is buying it!

There are a lot of lookie lous.

Don't panic and reduce your prices. If others are selling at those prices, then you are in the sweet spot.

You get little bump in Search as a new seller, but having low feedback is always a drawback.

If you do a little buying on eBay (shipping supplies perhaps -- I recommend the poly envelopes from emailers_ca cheap fast and leave FB on shipment) most sellers leave FB fairly quickly.

Also take look at your listings on a mobile device.

Particularly the title and the description.

Mobile views are shorter and harder to read.

That CK men's sweater title might work better as :

Merino blue sweater Calvin Klein Men's Sz L pullover wool Vneck

(some women would wear it too) and btw, those pictures show as grey on my monitor.

Ghu knows what eBay did with the description. Keep it short. (Still hate the part about FB and problems).

hlmacdon · ‎07-16-2017

@theonlineentrepreneur wrote:

I'm curious cause it's not the first time i hear a person saying it's hard to get some transactions in some categories, is it cause i don't have the credibility for buyers to trust me and buy my products?

It's always tough as a new seller as buyers have limited information to gauge you as a seller and there is definitely a trust factor that influences buyer behavior. In a crowded category click through rates on products are generally pretty abysmal, and conversion rates even more abysmal. Newer sellers tend to have less inventory, which means less chances of being discovered. Newer sellers also tend to have a small customer base which means little in the way of repeat customers. Ebay is not really like a shopping mall where people wander around from store to store browsing, it tends to be more directed, ie the customer already knows what they are looking for, or deal driven. The way I view ebay as a marketplace (in terms of sellers that are successful) is that it generally divided into two parts, a deal driven segment and another segment that is full of niches (more often niches within niches) that serve markets that otherwise underserved by traditional retailers. As a new seller figuring out a niche within your category to focus on is generally better than going wide and generic.

dutchman48 · ‎07-16-2017

My biggest question is, Why do you have a store which is costing you for no benefit dollar wise.

You will have selling restrictions and limited listings which make a store at this time useless and an expense that only Ebay benefits from.

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-16-2017

Well i did research and i knew about the limitations of a new seller so i called up ebay and asked them if i got the basic store would it remove the limitations? I was told yes, i could list 250 items per month with no issues. Clearly that was wrong.

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-16-2017

Those are some good tips i will be giving those and a try and i will lower my prices to get some sales hopefully so that i can start to build some feedback!

theonlineentrepreneur · ‎07-16-2017

I like the way you explain it and it makes sense! I'll be honest i knew from the start that clothes was a hard thing to do just because there are so many people out there doing that but it's cheap to source and it wouldn't hurt my bank account too much if i sit on those items for a little bit.

I agree with the whole niche thing and i have access to auto parts and i can niche it all the way down to 1 part in particular, brake calipers! I don't see too much competition compare to clothing but being new to ebay i wasn't sure if auto parts would good to sell on ebay. Getting info on selling clothes was easy but i can't find much info out there on selling auto parts on ebay. Does anyone know of a way that i can do the research on that?

momcqueen · ‎07-16-2017

If you want to become a successful seller on ebay, you need to become intimately familiar with how the site works. You need to buy here. Otherwise, it's like stating you want to win the marathon without ever having gone for a jog.

dutchman48 · ‎07-16-2017

@theonlineentrepreneur wrote:
Well i did research and i knew about the limitations of a new seller so i called up ebay and asked them if i got the basic store would it remove the limitations? I was told yes, i could list 250 items per month with no issues. Clearly that was wrong.

What are your limits and did you take a monthly or annual store?

momcqueen · ‎07-16-2017

Also, if you want to succeed at selling used clothes, I'd suggest you invest in a few basic tools to make your items appear more appealing:

1. a dressmaker's dummy or mannequin

2. a sweater shaver to remove pilling

3. a steamer for remove wrinkles

You really want to present your clothing in the most attractive way possible. There is some stiff competition in this category, and when I bought used clothes on ebay, I got them from the sellers who put real effort into showcasing their wares.