Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

Hi eBay Sellers,

 

My name is Adam and I'm from Perth, WA. Since I can remember I have been plagued with pretty average shipping times when buying goods online (mostly 5 business days). It's a constant battle deciding to pay more for something locally, or pay less for it online, waiting a week for it to arrive from the east coast. I rarely purchase items on eBay located in Perth as there doesn't seem to be many local sellers. Recently I had a lousy shipping experience where the courier company (not going to name them) took well over 10 business days to deliver from Sydney to Perth. After reading their reviews on Google and finding out they have a 1.3 star rating (I wasn't alone it seemed!), I started thinking about how things could be better for Perth-based buyers.

 

I would like to know if many eBay sellers out there deal with many Perth based sales? I am trying to gauge if interested eBay sellers would be keen on keeping a small stock level based in Perth to provide a quicker delivery time to Perth-based buyers.

 

My idea could be explained in the following scenario. An eBay seller sells widgets that cost $10 postage. The seller ships for example 10 widgets in advance to myself at my own cost (for say $30, saving by bulk sending and using a slower shipping method). After the goods arrive, the seller then still sells their goods with the postage at the same normal rate (so no extra cost to the seller). The seller then gives me the shipping cost when a Perth-based item is sold and notifies me. It wouldn't cost the seller any more than normal, but it would allow the Perth-based buyer to potentially obtain the goods on the same day/if not the next day by either locally picking it up, or choosing the option of it being delivered the next day for an extra fee. I feel that Perth buyers would jump at this chance and consider a wider range of goods to purchase knowing that the time taken for postage will be significantly reduced, even if they had the choice to pick it up or pay slightly more for postage.

 

Keen to hear people's opinions.

 

Cheers,

Adam

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

I am not in WA, but when I read that you are unhappy with 5 day postage times from the east to west coast I thought you must have made a typo. I am happy if I get my post in a week from the same state, and I won't even begin to worry until at least a week or ten days have gone by.

You have been very lucky with your post it seems. 

 

Anyway, not trying to take away from your idea, it just raised my eyebrows.

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

I'll second that.    Impatient much?  Image result for smiley waiting animated

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

i'm a perth-based seller and haven't had any problems with postage exclusively through australia post over the 14 years or so i've been selling.

 

the timeframes are made pretty clear on the aus post website and they usually fall within it, if not 1 day or so after; any problems can be negated by increasing handling time.

 

that being said, for the past 5 or so years i've exclusively sent via Express Post, simply because it is quicker and i do realise people want things quickly in this day and age and the cost difference is only a couple of dollars in price. of course, if you're selling low-cost items, this would become a bigger issue. 

 

as others have said, they experience the same sort of timeframes on the east coast anyway. 

 

the only time i've ever had issues have been with items being miss-sorted which has been AP's fault and would have happened regardless - but this is few-and-far-between. also sending to FNQ and the outlying islands can take longer, but that's to be expected and most people who live in those areas are well aware of that. 

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

imastawka
Honored Contributor

What you're suggesting is a form of drop-shipping.

 

A seller would be putting their reputation on the line.

 

What if something happened and you didn't send the order?

 

There would be an awful lot of trust on the seller's part.

 

Nope.  Won't work IMO

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

Parcel post goes by road and Express by air generally.  One in twenty of our sales goes to W.A. I have no idea where they shop online, but my guess is, if you are going to wait 7 days from east coast you might as well buy from the Chinese drop-ship sellers who would use a consolidater into Perth with a 7-14 day shipping time.

 

There are many fulfillment businesses across the country and even Australia Post offers the service... at a cost.  Your idea is 20 years too late...

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

Your suggestion is the same as a storage/dispatch firm which there are plenty of in Aus.

And some in Perth.

 

We have used them in the past.

They usually charge per pallet storage and charge per dispatch.

 

The problem is eBay sellers prefer to retain control and don't see Perth postage as a major problem.

A few days longer than the rest, something Perth has always lived with.

 

If you are looking for something to do then I would suggest being an eBay agent and list/sell items on eBay for others in your area.

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

What you're proposing isn't inherently a bad idea, but it is something that already exists (i.e. what you're talking about is called a fulfilment service, and there are a number of these in WA already). 

 

The kinds of sellers who will either establish distribution centres, or use third party fulfilment services, in WA are typically those that can almost guarantee it will be cost-effective to do so. This means their product is likely to be in high enough demand (possibly in relation to somewhat time-sensitive items) to warrant the extra expense, or they are larger, bulkier items where it's cheaper to transport in bulk and store them there, plus ship out from that location, rather than ship out from any of their other interstate locations. For you, that would mean either offering something the more established fulfilment centres don't already, and / or a lot of storage space. T

 

Many businesses like I describe don't seem to find it a cost effective venture (if just going by the number of sellers I've bough from who have multiple distribution points), mostly because while it caters to buyers in WA, it is unlikely to cater to buyers in other states, meaning the stock that is held in WA is almost exclusively reserved for WA buyers, who are also likely to be lower volume buyers (this is generally why most stick to fulfilment centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane). I also suspect larger sellers are less inclined to have a portion of stock they can only move to buyers in one state, and likewise smaller sellers can't afford to split their stock in order to get some purchases to WA buyers a bit faster. 

 

For a seller, if it adds a couple of dollars overall to the cost of getting a package to a WA resident, they could well reason (if they get a decent amount of WA buyers indicating they want things faster) that they are better off adding a small amount (like 50c) extra to their pricing and shipping everything to WA via express (I know of some sellers who in fact do this, and also some Perth-based sellers who chose to ship everything express as well). 

 

I'd suggest taking a look at what some of the larger fulfilment centres over there offer, and seeing if there may still be a niche in the market you'd be able to fill (they certainly aren't "cheap" - at least not to me - but they tend to cater to a range of business sizes already, and offer a lot of guarantees with regards to dispatch time, and order / inventory accuracy). 

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

Sorry but the idea does not appeal to me.  How much warehouse space do you have access to, and what experience do you have in cataloging  and processing stock.   I am flat out keeping track of my own stock, let alone trying to cross reference and process stock/sales for anyone else.   If you think a five day wait is the end of the world,  perhaps you can start to purchase your own stock and sell to WA/Perth locals only.

I once had an express shipment from  QLD  to  VIC  take 7 business days.  The buyer was not happy and neither was I, especially as

I had processed the order and delivered to  AP  within an hour of purchase.

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Ideas for Perth based eBay buyers

Cheers for your feedback and opinion.

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