Before I started my internet marketing career I used to sell a lot on eBay. I quickly wanted to touch base on that since I know a lot of people are trying to make money online and some are struggling. This is an eBay marketing strategy that I personally tested and use myself. eBay is great since it gives you free traffic. The problem with eBay is that it’s usually packed with fierce competition and everyone tries to under cut each other, which leads to minimal profit. I have a few items that have a great ROI and I wanted to share my simple eBay marketing strategy that I use to sell them, and a case study to go along with it.
I basically combined my marketing skills that I learned over the years with eBay.
What if I could find something, and instead of selling it’s intended purpose, I could market it to a BRAND NEW audience that would have never thought of looking for this item? Well, that is exactly what I did. Now of course I can’t share the actual item that I personally sell, but I will break down my eBay marketing strategy and explain how anyone can do this.
I have an item that I purchase wholesale for $5.60. Other people sell this exact item on eBay for about $14.00 shipped. At that price, the profit after fees and shipping is about $2.75-$3.25, depending on what you use to ship and fees. So you can see, the profit is minimal and your ROI is not that great when selling this item for its intended purpose. To make things worst, I just checked today and out of about 3 sellers, they only sold 1-5 units each since August 2014.
Now what about my personal selling numbers for this item? When I incorporate my eBay marketing strategy, not only do I make a ton more sales than everyone else, but my ROI is much higher.
I sell my item for $31 shipped, so my profit after fees and shipping is $17.70 per sale. Also, since putting this item up in late September, I have already sold 35 units (not to mention, I sold 12 in the past 3 days, image on right).
So a quick case study breakdown:
Item cost: $5.60
Profit per sale for other sellers: about $3.00
Amount sold since August: 1-5 each seller
Total profit during that time period: Between $3-$15.00
Profit per sale for me: $17.70
Amount sold since mid September: 35 (that gives the other sellers a month and a half head start by the way)
Total profit during that time period: Between $619.50
As you can see my eBay marketing strategy actually works.
Most people focus too much on finding an item that already sells, and then jumping on the bandwagon and trying to compete with other sellers. Instead, find a solution for people. This might sound confusing so let me explain.
I found a niche that people spend a decent amount of money in. I noticed that niche was missing something that could be very beneficial to them. Like I said, I can not share the exact item since I still currently sell this item. I will give you another example that uses the exact same eBay marketing strategy. This should really help you understand what I am doing. Understand that I am just using this as an example, so this example might not actually make money, but it will let you see exactly what I am doing.
Let’s say you find a waterproof container for fisherman that is extremely cheap. You could take this item and instead of targeting fisherman, you can use the keyword “waterproof sunglasses case”. Now you’re marketing a fishing item to a whole new audience. That is the main component to my eBay marketing strategy. The point is, people who are looking for waterproof sunglasses cases are not going to search for a “waterproof fishing container”. And if waterproof sunglass cases sell for more than your waterproof fisherman case, then boom! Profit to be made.
The example above is for demonstrative purposes. However, it is EXACTLY what I am implementing in my own eBay business, just in a different niche with a different item.
The point here is to think outside the box. When you start thinking like a marketer, and you build a marketing mindset, then you will find ways to sell anything. Hopefully you enjoy my eBay marketing strategy and if you have any questions or comments you can leave them below.
-Pat Imperiale