hi all the ebay shopmasters...
I have been running an eBay store for 6 months now. daily transactions around 60 (the other id). currently a silver powerseller with 100% positve feedback score.
before I started the store, I had been a freelance graphics designer for years. my hourly rate was $55/hr and earned around 90k a year. not too bad but my problem was the rate had not increased at all for 5 years and I have to compete with younger fresh minds. Many senior designers with 15+ years experience earn just a little more that me. 90k was ok but I want more.
So I started selling online and try to beat my old life. at the beginning I just wanted to use my spare time but very soon it turns into full-time because there has been no time left after processing orders, customer support, packaging, product researching and marketing. at the beginning I was doing low value items such as phone cases and soon figured out how little margin the other sellers are operating on ebay.
with any order, besides the efforts put into listing the product, a seller has to answer potential buyer's questions, take orders (with colour option etc) , transfer the address to a printed lable, and then pack with bubble wraps etc. for doing all these I reckon the seller should deserve at least $5 labour fees on each order . no matter how large volume they sell, as long as it's retail they have to go thru this process everytime. but most of my competitors sell the same product for as low as 50c profit per item. I have contacts with the factories I know the bottom cost for the items. So I always wonder.. these sellers (most of them are large seller on ebay, AU based) must got themselves working on really low labour cost.
my daily transaction is around 60+around 20 on my own web store. i am already working over 8 hours a day. so I figure I must profit at least $5 on each item sold in order to bearly make it to an equivalent a full-time job ($400 a day). to be honest I haven't succeeded to profit $300+ a day. with regular refunds to keep my 100% positive I have to make a few losses every now and then.
I have been researching on products that can generate higher margin. got a few good items but once they reach dominant listing position for a while other sellers will discover and start selling them to beat my price down, soon my listing position is replaced by other seller because I am simply not willing to process orders for peanuts.
i am 6 months into ebay I am not sure how the other full-time seller cope with it. with every package I sent I am stressed that this buyer will leave low DSR or even negative feedback. when that happens too often, top-seller status will be lost, as a result listing positions drop then sales decline... I can't go to holidays until the business generates enough profit to cover the cost for hiring other people. with my own store I can stop all google ad campaigns and put up a holiday banner. but on eBay no sales means your top selling products will drop position quickly.
I know i am still new to online business. am I expecting too much?
