Small Business Owner Insights

NOTE: This is article 2 of 3.
6 Reasons Your Business Should Sell on eBay (part 1)

In a previous post, I mentioned six reasons you should have a strategy for using eBay to build your business. Today, I take the first three reasons and expand on them. After my next post, where I expand on the last three, I will post a list of resources for eBay sellers. I also highly recommend you check out Meagan’s new eBay blog put out by the folks at emomsathome.

To recap, the six reasons for having an eBay strategy are:

1. Cash Flow
2. Velocity of Inventory
3. Search Domination
4. Credibility Transfer
5. Expanded Reach
6. Virtually Free Sales Leads

Cash Flow

When you first think about using eBay in your business, one of the first thoughts is generating cash flow. I mean, really, there are few places in the world where you can put an item up for sale on Sunday and have money in your account on the following Monday. Done properly, eBay can allow you to offer your goods and services to a wide audience and generate near immediate cash.

There are several ways to use eBay to increase your immediate cash flow. For example, instead of selling your end of life models or customer returns to a liquidator, you could sell them on eBay. Sears does this, as does Olympus Camera and many other companies. In fact, many of the liquidators out there that are currently buying your overstock and returns are turning around and selling them on eBay themselves.

Another way you could use eBay to generate cash is if you are in a crunch. I think all of us have had the experience of overbuying, getting overextended or just plain having too much month at the end of the money. Many a small business has been kept afloat by the cash flow that eBay can add to your business.

Velocity of Inventory

Similar to the idea of Velocity of Money, Velocity of Inventory is the idea that the faster you move your inventory, the better off you are. All things being equal, it is often better to turn your inventory more often, even if it is at a lower profit margin. Let’s face it, cash is king and the less cash you have tied up in long term inventory, the better. Sometimes, it is better to have that fast nickel rather than a slow dime.

Search Domination

If you are in business these days, the internet plays a part in your business whether you like it or not. More and more people are ignoring the yellow pages and going straight to Google to find everything from plumbers, bakers and landscape companies. One problem these small businesses have is lack of page rank, lack of incoming links and lack of Google attention. Luckily, Google just loves eBay. I have had auctions on eBay be indexed within 48 hours and they stay up for weeks, sometimes months.

One way a small business could use this effectively would be to run a continuous auction for a gift certificate for their products, goods or services and chalk up the auction fees to marketing. When you create the auction, use strong keywords and a strong linking strategy to direct traffic to your *real* website (more about a linking strategy next time). When people search Google for those keywords, they will come across your auction and can be drawn to your site.

You can also create an “about Me” page that is in essence a one page website. These also get indexed very quickly.

****

Next time, we will cover the remaining three reasons and talk about ways to use eBay to generate more traffic (and business!).