posted on December 29, 2002 01:45:45 PM new
Libra63, artdec is trolling the boards. She was hwahwahwa but she was never able to stopwhining and once when she was ignored she created another ID askdurama so she could talk to herself back and forth on the PayPal board. And then when that didn't work she became dodobird so she could interact with her previous and present four selves.
So whenever you talk to any of the above five ID's, you are only talking to one and the same.
posted on December 29, 2002 02:17:31 PM new
Hello
I find this tread interesting. For me is a review which we ALL could use and to some, I am sure,is new information. As to links, in my world thier are MANY big sellers (Auction houses etc) who come to ebay for new customer base. They do it after the sale by offering the buyer to either buy more ebay (Unusual) or to go look at thier web site. They do this through e-mails, by placing an ad in thier contact e-mails. They of course do not use eBays contact system. Once you are on thier list they send occasional other e-mails and links to thier web site. They also near always have a link that if you don’t want more mail from them you can say so. This is really not Spam. When thier customer base is "refreshed" they drop out of ebay only to return to the well (Ebay) as needed.
In my humble option we as sellers spend to much time selling and not enough time managing our customer base for repeat business via ebay or web site.
One last note, make sure you customer base list is virus proof or if you get a "Bug" likly they all will too! Happy New Year to all.
posted on December 29, 2002 03:05:27 PM new
i am not aware that we must have a do good attitude to participate on aw board,if we all say the same thing and have the same attitude,would that be very boring??
it would be like maoist china -everyone wears mao jacket and have the same hair style.
i would say anyone who wants to start a business,stay away from ebay,look at ebay as the last resort,dump damaged good,returns and losers on ebay.let them have what they deserve,give them craps.
posted on December 29, 2002 04:24:59 PM new
someone said buy high and sell low and lie about everything.
a lot of ebay sellers just dont know what they are peddling,or pretend they dont-bone versus ivory versus resin versus celluloid.
jade versus serpertine versus bowenite.
just because it is signed does not mean it is signed by the artist,i can sign it too.so can you.
posted on December 30, 2002 09:16:07 AM new
Thanks again for all the input. There has been a lot of good advice given. Success stories are important in business literature because everyone wants to learn what works and why, and one person out in the real world making a go of it is worth 10 business profs in academic ivory towers (although they do have good theoretical knowledge to pass on--see Eliju Goldratt's books for instance).
I think we all benefit from sharing marketing tips. After all, internet marketing is different in some ways from B&M marketing, and I suspect ebay marketing is a whole 'nuther animal altogether. And I appreciate all the advice about customer service--it's what the dot.bombs forgot.
I appreciate especially the information on cross-linking. I knew about the ban on website links from an auction page. So I can link to website from my About Me page, as long as the page I'm linking to doesn't directly offer product and as long as the products on my site are priced higher than on ebay, right? And I can send a link in a WBN and maintain an opt-in list. That sounds reasonable to me. Pretegra, thanks for the tips on how to view fees. Makes sense to me.
Is anyone using ebay stores? I'm wondering if stores might be a good place to test market higher end products.
posted on January 2, 2003 02:13:42 PM new
The thing that helped me the most was simply reading my own categories to see what was selling, for what price, and where I could do a little better than the other guys. Fortunately, my pet categories have not yet been infiltrated by the megasellers!
posted on January 2, 2003 05:38:21 PM new
I have never kept a copy of my buyers email addresses. How many of you do? Is it beneficial as I am trying a new selling strategy this year and wondered if it is feisible to keep a list. I don't store anyting on my computer, why, I don't know, but I would keep a copy of the USPS delivery confirmation receipt and file that. Since most of my items are by Priority I would have a list and then I could copy their email address on that. Any suggestions?
posted on January 2, 2003 08:55:11 PM new
Until you build a captive audience, your eBay title is very critical. I can only speak to the computer category, but I find most buyers find my listings by search instead of browsing the category. Perhaps your category is different? But I would experiment with different but relevant words to see which on works best for you.
For example, Chanel No. 9 could have alternatives like #9, Number 9, No 9. Or even playing on mispelling by using Channel instead of Chanel. You get the idea.
Titles with LQQK ~WOW~ !AMAZING! are a waste of valuable type.
posted on January 3, 2003 02:37:33 AM new
I agree that it is valuable to share and trade business tips. Too bad there aren't more threads like this one.
posted on January 3, 2003 09:29:15 AM newn my humble option we as sellers spend to much time selling and not enough time managing our customer base for repeat business via ebay or web site.
posted on January 3, 2003 12:48:56 PM newstopwhining, you don't seem to get it or maybe you're still trolling. If a seller consistently runs 1000's of auctions at a time for many years on end they may eventually meet 1000 people that they do not wish to deal with because these buyers were complete dodobirds and time wasted on them is money wasted for the seller.
The seller may not be doing anything wrong, certain product lines just draw more whackos than others.
Most of my items on auction are unique so I don't get many return buyers. I don't e-mail them if I get in something similar because I think the buyer may consider it spam unless they particularly ask me to do so.
Building a customer base depends on what you sell. For instance, if your buyers are resellers and get good deals from you it is important that you keep in contact with them when new products arrive.
As for the question about cross marketing, I don’t mind sending customers to my website from ebay sales but I would never send my website customers to ebay because they may find the item for much less if they shopped there instead.
posted on January 3, 2003 12:58:12 PM new
As far as customer service via the internet and B&M? There is the advantage in a B&M store because you can look directly at the customer and size them up and if you have a problem you can deal face to face. Body language, sincerity, etc. are there for both to judge.
On the internet, the advantage is that you can curse them out, make faces, etc. behind your screen. You also have time to think very carefully before responding.
Many times in B&M you have to act right at the moment and it's not always easy to do, especially if you have to keep smiling and pretending that all is okay.
posted on January 3, 2003 02:40:01 PM new
how about the difference in markup between a brick and mortar store and ebay??
how many ebay sellers can meet the rent of a brick and mortar store ??
unless you call your garage or your living room the brick and mortar retail store??
posted on January 3, 2003 02:57:11 PM new
I'm not reading endlesswhining's posts, but I gather the fact that one person out of what, hundreds? thousands? reading AW thinks she's completely full of cattle by-product seems to bother her a great deal.
Don't expect her to understand that it is possible to have a big customer base and still have 1000 eBay ids blocked or that 1000 eBay ids != 1000 real people. We passed the 5000-name minimum criteria for list selling (to cataloguers) a couple of years ago. Haven't sold our list yet but it is definitely one possibility for revenue enhancement.
We did try package inserts: one sheet with some special not-offered-on-eBay jewelry that could be bought from us directly. That failed. People often ask if they can buy from us directly, but when push comes to shove, it usually falls through. People don't always mean what they say, a lesson learned back in the days when I was selling antiques and a would-be customer would wax lyrical over an object...and then never come back for it.
