Auction Power Guide

I was looking into selling my own printed clothing online, I know that ebay is a good idea (opening a shop for my own designs)- how sucessful will this endevour be or should I just stick with shop sales and cut out the hastle?
In other words do many people shop online really?

Oh yes, more and more people are buying online.

Here’s the Bureau of Census statistics on ecommerce http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/2009/2009reportfinal.pdf — in 2009, ecommerce accounted for $145 billion in sales

One way is to use eBay as a test market whether your products will sell. Also do etsy.com if your item qualifies. This way you can see:

– whether there’s a demand for your products
– what kind of sales copy or product description you need to write (note the kind of questions ebay users ask you)
– use ebay to practice taking good pictures of your products, in multiple angles

Once you see there seems to be a demand you can then open your own website. But it should not be an either/or situation — even if you have a website, explore as many opportunities to sell your products. Sell it on ebay, Amazon, etsy, shop sales, etc — the more venues you sell, the better

What Am i doing wrong i sell costume jewellery on ebay which i think is a nice mix and im thinking of doing it full time and opening an ebay shop but im put of by slow sales i dont make a big profit as i beleive being greedy puts people off do you think i have the right mix and what do you think of my prices and postage please let me know as i am left scratching my head as there are shops on ebay selling the same items over £5.00 dearer in some cases. Have a look and see what you think im called shellynrichy. Thanks Shelly 27 year old stress headed female.

I had a very similar problem. I opened a shop selling lovely costume jewellery, girly accessories etc and made it look professional, but sales were so slow and the costs were so high I gave up and I’ve got loads of stuff stored in my bedroom now! (will probably try again soon but it’s a lot of hassle as you’ll agree). I’m not saying you should give up but ebay is such a huge marketplace now and there is so much competition I just think that is the main problem. I personally don’t see anything wrong with what you are selling but it depends on who’s looking for what and is a matter of luck. If you go to a shopping centre you have Claires and Accessorize or whatever but ebay has lots of shops selling costume jewellery. You say other people have sold the same jewellery for £5 dearer – maybe they were one-offs who knows but have you thought about changing your name (if you can) to something catchier relating to what you are selling? I wouldn’t recommend opening a shop yet until you see how things go for a bit longer as I ended up worse off. What about carboot sales? Good luck!