topic Re: Hiring an assistant in Selling

Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:10:14 GMT

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask your views on this. On Ebay USA, there are a few resellers who posts youtube videos and they mention about having an assistant, but I know over there the minimum wage is $10 an hour. How much would you consider paying someone to assist you to list on ebay and how many listings would they need to do to make it worth your time to hire them.

Kind regards

Re: Hiring an assistant

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:24:12 GMT

It would depend more on your sell through rate and profit marginthan the number of listings. To have enough listings with enough sales and high enough margins would run into the thousands I would imagine. If you have a store once you get your full quota of includd listings up as GTC BINs listing is not the most time consuming part of selling.

If I was looking at ebay as a working wage then I would be needing to sell several dozen items a week and would possibly need to pay someone to help me process, pack and post the items.

Re: Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:37:04 GMT

Packing, posting and process isnt a problem, I can do that + family members. The problem is the listing and photographing. I do take the photos with a canon 550 D and then photoshop it for size, which takes time. Plus the listing and the organization of the items, at the moment the items are all over the places. I usually buy clothing items under $5 or about $10 for a special item.

The other resellers on ebay US do about 50 listings per day and if they sell it for $20 gross they still can cover the cost of hiring someone, but our minimal wage is $18 here in Australia so that kinda cuts deep in the profit if usually items sold are like $20 on average.

Re: Hiring an assistant

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 16:25:52 GMT

Are they all individual listings? If you are listing multiples then you can use one listing for all colours and sizes and would only ever have to update the quantities when you were adding more stock plus if they are GTC no relisting required.

I also use sell similar so very little of the listing is 'new' most of it is in a template. I have a very basic photo editing program and it takes me no time at all to resize and edit the picks plus I have all stored externally as well as on my computer so can add them very quickly using the url option.

I also give measurements for clothing items but there is a chart in the template so only the actual measurement needs to be added.

Using payment and postage business policies also decreases the time it takes.

As I said I think you would need to have a large profit margin and consistent high sales volume to pay $18 an hour and what happens on a slow month when you could have coped easily on your own but have to pay somebody else.

As with all business decisions you need to create a business plan for the new way of working and an estimated profit and loss statement.

Re: Hiring an assistant

lyndal1838 — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:50:14 GMT

If this is the ony ID you have and are selling on then I think you are trying to run before you can walk.

You have 100 listings up but a photo on only two of them....and your titles do not even say what you are selling

And your descriptions and terms leave a lot to be desired.

Trading assistants on ebay are generally paid on a % basis but with your listings I suspect anyone who was going to help you would want a guaranteed fee for work....you are certainly not going to sell anything from those listings.

Re: Hiring an assistant

daydreams_12 — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 19:57:43 GMT

As stated by Lyndal your listings leave a lot to be desired. I have no idea what you are selling. There has been considerable time wasted in the "Description"area that has no real description. It shows that you are offering to sell on consignment and also that payment within 2 days. I really doubt that your sales will be very high without a lot more effort on your part. Am a bit confused with you wanting a trading assistant when you are offering to sell others items. Have a look around other sellers listings and see how they do things and study up a bit on selling on line.

Re: Hiring an assistant

thecatspjs — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 21:39:56 GMT

@iamalabel wrote:
Hi all,

Just wanted to ask your views on this. On Ebay USA, there are a few resellers who posts youtube videos and they mention about having an assistant, but I know over there the minimum wage is $10 an hour. How much would you consider paying someone to assist you to list on ebay and how many listings would they need to do to make it worth your time to hire them.

Kind regards

If you are a sole trader I don't think paying on a wage based hourly rate model is viable for multiple reasons, including that have to ensure you meet all your legal obligations as an employer - and thats quite a lot of obligations. IMO the type of listing work you need done may work better offered as a service contract

I think you need to think through and determine a service price for a realistic volume of listings ie $100 for 20 listings. This may in turn help you decide if its "worth it" as low price price goods and/or the low profit margins may mean that this type of service is one you cannot affortd.

I would encourage you to improve the format of your listings to include more details of the goods you are selling including key measurements of garments.

I would also encourage you to not send listings draft listings live and to fully complete your listings before you list.

You may also like to have a look at third party platforms like Auctiva and Inkfrog where you can prepare and store listings- they are user pays, but IMO worth every penny of time and effort saved, as well as being able to bulk upload photos and manage your listings with more ease, as well as having access to your listings for the life of your subscription to the service.

Wishing you well in your endeavours.

Re: Hiring an assistant

chameleon54 — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 02:22:47 GMT

@iamalabel wrote:
Packing, posting and process isnt a problem, I can do that + family members. The problem is the listing and photographing. I do take the photos with a canon 550 D and then photoshop it for size, which takes time. Plus the listing and the organization of the items, at the moment the items are all over the places. I usually buy clothing items under $5 or about $10 for a special item.

The other resellers on ebay US do about 50 listings per day and if they sell it for $20 gross they still can cover the cost of hiring someone, but our minimal wage is $18 here in Australia so that kinda cuts deep in the profit if usually items sold are like $20 on average.

Fifty listings a day is pretty easily achieved and with simple, similar listings you could get well over 100 in a good day. .

I have used an assistant to handle the whole selling process aroud five years ago. I supplied the items with a brief description and the assistant did the rest. She was a stay at home mum with a small baby and was looking to make a few extra $$$$. We split the sales price 50 / 50 but she paid all of the ebay and paypal fees. She also printed off statements showing all items sold, price etc. It worked really well for both of us. Average mark up was 400% so even giving half of the selling price away, I still doubled my money on each item sold. These where popular items that sold well, so the mum still made quite good money, with no capital outlay.

A couple of years ago when I was selling full time on ebay our store sales peaked at a reasonable level. We had reached the maximum number of sales I could realistically handle, but the business was still expanding. I trialed an assistant to handle listings for a few weeks. I paid them $1.50 for a simple listing that would take a few minutes and a higher agreed price for more complex listings. This also worked OK. but sales then started to decline as reported by many sellers and we didnt take it any further.

The only problem is no-one knows your product like you and if you are employing some-one and they make mistakes, it reflects on your business and bottom line.

The other issue is if the employee can see that you are buying clothes from an op shop for $5 and selling them for $20, it is not going to be long before they decide to do this themselves and become your competition in your local area for stock.

This was a major concern for my business as it was a highly specialised field and we had developed a couple of unique business practices which gave us an edge against oposition ebay businesses. These where "loopholes" in ebays system that we had discovered. ( still using them today ) If someone else figured out our secrets, we would have lost this competative advantage and would just be competing with every other seller in a race to the bottom on price and profit..

Re: Hiring an assistant

phorum_junkie* — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:34:14 GMT

Oh dear, I didn't look at the listings before I posted.

You definitely need to either employ somebody who knows how to list or to revise your own listing style completely if you want somebody to list your way.

There are some no nos when listing.

Heavy use of capital letters

Red writing

More space taken up by 'extras' than the description.

Posting statements that breach ebay policy, HANDLING FEES INCLUDES PACKAGING, PETROL FEES & ALL OTHER FEES. Read up, handling is only allowed to cover the cost of selecting and preparing the item for delivery, not for the cost of going to the PO.

Not giving at least basic measurements for clothes.

Asking for payment in 2 days when ebay give buyers up to 8, what are you going to do if they don't pay in 2 days? Annoy the carp out of them so they leave payment until the 8th day and then neg you?

I could go on but if you think you are going to have enough sales to pay an assistant you will have to do some serious homework including your postage costs. $9 would be the absolute max I would charge for a pair of shorts, I would send for $7.99 which covers the cost of the satchel & packaging plus I put 50c extra on the item price to cover my handling time and fees on postage which means my postage looks cheaper than many others..

Re: Hiring an assistant

davewil1964 — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:41:30 GMT

Item Location: FASHIONLAND Australia.

I can't find that suburb listed anywhere.

Re: Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:11:04 GMT

These listings were sort of like an admiration (copied off) of a popular seller listing who had 16000+ transaction and all she had was just the bare minimum but somewhat colourful writing, but she had 1300 items in her store but I guess its all about the consistency of listing items. She didnt have any measurements at all as well but I do have people asking for measurements so I will add that in.

Regarding postage, I dont have any complaints with postage, I use to sell more and they were all at $12.50 express post and they all paid the postage.

This is one of a few accounts I have but I have been spending more time on the other one and neglecting this one, and I work full time in the hospitality industry so I was thinking of getting an assistant to help me out and all I do is just list it up, as at the moment I am a one person band and unfortunately, it takes me more than 29 minutes to list one item.

Re: Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:11:38 GMT

Its a wonderful suburb!

Re: Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:14:23 GMT

Thank you for your advice! I will try out with an assistant and see how it goes.

Btw I love your comments you leave in the discussion room as well as some other authors. Some funny but all informative and very helpful, I appreciate the time you take to comment.

Re: Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:19:35 GMT

Hi,

Its not a trading assistant Im seeking but like an employee who comes over and write things for me and then I will list them later. Actually, the listing is from an ebay seller that had over 16000+ transaction and she stated the same thing and Im amazed how she was able to get alot of sales with two or three clear photographs, mostly no measurements in her listings and stating she wants payment within two days. Im working on my other shop thats why this one is somewhat neglected but I will include measurements and fill in the other listings. But thank you for taking the time to write and give constructive comments. Much appreciated!

Re: Hiring an assistant

iamalabel — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:22:30 GMT

I have a couple of other IDs but Ive been concentrating on my other one that Ive neglected this one, thats why i need an assistant to help out, probably not a trading assistant as they are more expensive. Again thank you for the comment you made, I appreciate the time you took to comment and hopefully when I get an assistant my listings will be more "filled" up.

Re: Hiring an assistant

*tippy*toes* — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 14:25:14 GMT

I work full time, shift work, 7 day roster, and have 3 eBay accounts which I have no problems keeping up with (unless sales go through the roof, then I can get a bit snowed under. I also don't have a store, so am not trying to keep up with thousands of listings). When I get new stock in, as I'm unpacking each item I measure it, weigh it, label it and photograph it, then leave feedback for it. Once I'm finished doing that I'll edit the photos. That generally consists of cropping to make the photo square, making white backgrounds white and black backgrounds black. Sometimes I need to adjust the colour a bit, but usually it's just the backgrounds.

When the time comes to list, I use the sell similar option. That way all the basics are there and I just have to alter titles, photos and descriptions. Photos can sometimes be slow uploading, so the first thing I do is delete the photos that are present and upload the new photos. While they are uploading, I alter the title and description for the new item. Generally by the time the photos are loaded, I'm done with the adjusting. As all the basics, like the boring bits, postage, duration, all that stuff are already in, a listing takes me as long as it takes to upload the photos.

I haven't looked at your listings, but as an example for a listing you could have:

Title: Sportsgirl Size 12 preloved black evening dress gown (use up all characters if you can using as many keywords as you can).

<description of item you're selling> e.g Beautiful preloved evening dress with pencil pleat skirt, shoe string straps and lacy bodice (I don't sell clothes so just making stuff up). There is a thread pulled in the hem and a small scratch on the zip on the back. There is also 1 thread in the lace that is broken but it doesn't affect the look of the dress at all.

Then you could have:

Colour - black

Brand - Sportsgirl

Size - 12

Measurements (laying flat) Xcm across the bust, Ycm across the waist, Zcm across the hips, Acm from neckline to hem.

Faults - pulled thread in hem, scratch on zip, 1 broken thread in the lace.

Then you could go into the boring stuff, like your terms and conditions.

Add your postage details, payment details, duration and submit the listing.

Then to list a new item, use the sell similar option. Then your basic template is there and you only need to change the key things to suit the new item. After you've got quite a few things listed, if you've already got a black dress listed and you want to list another, use the sell similar on that listing as there are less things you need to change, like you would if you used sell similar on a pink t-shirt.

Working shift work, I often get home at 3, 4, 5am and can't go straight to bed. I'll do a few listings then and schedule them to start at a more appropriate time (I run auctions so like to have them end in the evening rather than 3am, but if you're doing all BIN's, it wouldn't be an issue sending them live at 3am). I'll also edit a few photos that may not have been done previously.

There are quite a few clothing sellers on this forum, but I'd strongly suggest having a look at Cats listings. She is very successful at selling clothes and has been doing it for quite awhile. I am not suggesting to copy her listings, please, don't do that, but you should be able to get some ideas on what you need in a listing to successfully sell clothes, especially as it's a saturated category on eBay. You want your listings to stand out. Hers stand out and her buyers are happy, as is evident by her good feedback. Plus she sells a fair bit so is clearly doing something right.

Once you get into a bit of a routine with listings, it's not really that hard to handle a few accounts and have a full time other job. If you find you are struggling and do need help, why not offer a job to a teenage computer nerd, who cost less to pay and would be grateful for a few tax free dollars (shhhh, I didn't say that!)? They seem to like graphic design and all that kind of stuff, so they could show off their artistic flare on your eBay and really help your listings to stand out. Plus a teenager is less likely to try and go into competition with you, as someone like a stay at home mum might.

Re: Hiring an assistant

collect247 — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 22:13:52 GMT

Payment must be made in 2 days yeh right,ebay allows 4 days for payment.

Hiring an assistant well I can do that for you for $60ph I'm cheap.

Re: Hiring an assistant

sustainablestyling — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:03:58 GMT

I am certain that there would be a Senior High School Student in your area who would be more than happy to work a couple of afternoons a week or Saturdays taking and uploading items, sorting inventory and packing parcels. Pay them $10 per hour which is more than McDonalds and easier than mowing lawns and washing cars. ( If I ever intend to on turning my hobby into a business and my 15 year old daughter decides she no longer wishes to help me out, that is definately an idea I would be giving serious thought too for hiring assistance)

Re: Hiring an assistant

cmcoins2000 — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:17:16 GMT

@*tippy*toes* wrote:

I haven't looked at your listings, but as an example for a listing you could have:

Just a suggestion - take a look.

Of 100 listings - 98 - are reportable.

There is nothing for sale - on 98 listings.

Sheesh.

Re: Hiring an assistant

digital*ghost — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:18:23 GMT

@*tippy*toes* wrote:

I haven't looked at your listings, but as an example for a listing you could have:

Title: Sportsgirl Size 12 preloved black evening dress gown (use up all characters if you can using as many keywords as you can).

<description of item you're selling> e.g Beautiful preloved evening dress with pencil pleat skirt, shoe string straps and lacy bodice (I don't sell clothes so just making stuff up). There is a thread pulled in the hem and a small scratch on the zip on the back. There is also 1 thread in the lace that is broken but it doesn't affect the look of the dress at all.

Then you could have:

Colour - black
Brand - Sportsgirl
Size - 12
Measurements (laying flat) Xcm across the bust, Ycm across the waist, Zcm across the hips, Acm from neckline to hem.
Faults - pulled thread in hem, scratch on zip, 1 broken thread in the lace.

Then you could go into the boring stuff, like your terms and conditions.

This is pretty much how I did it when I sold clothes. I did every task in batches, so I'd have a photo session, a measuring session, then a listing session.

I had a single template with the top area for a brief description (for this meant overall condition, imperfections, if any, and whether the fabric was sheer or stretchy).

Then there was another section with measurement headings and weight, but almost all of this can be simplified in a column-style list, with either the details put in for each item or a symbol to show if an attribute applies (i.e. you can have sheer listed and if it's not sheer, you put ✗ there, and if it is sheer, you put ✓ instead). Then you'd just need to make the template, and adjust the individual details per item listing.