How can ebay sell so cheap

One of the most popular questions we ever get is "why are the supplier prices more expensive than eBay? Competitivness - Of course one of the big draw cards that attract sellers to a platform like these is huge traffic and that makes total sense. On the face of it, the more traffic you have, the more chances you have of converting sales. Unfortunatly, it's not just you thinking that, it's thousands of people from all over the world thinking the exact same thing and that of course equals mega competition for sales.

So straight away you are now in an environment where cutting as much fat out of your price is important to stay competitive. So of course this leads to people selling on extremely tight margins to secure their sales. Supply Model - Prices are not always what they seem at first glance.

For example, someone choosing a dropship model will have dropship prices they are working from, but then they can come up against sellers using wholesale models or even worse, selling factory direct. This is like comparing apples to voltswagons, it's not possible.

If you're working on a dropship price and then comparing that to a seller who is spending big dollars to buy in large volume to ensure the best possible item price and then cutting their sales margin right back to secure marketshare and relying on a high turnover profit model to drive cashflow, then your dropship price is never going to be even close. You never want to be in a position where you are listing out-of-stock items on your site. With feed management platforms, orders are updated and synced to your online store.

A client needed help with managing orders for two marketplaces: eBay and Amazon. This client had multiple products that were low in stock, and they wanted to avoid running into an oversold situation — which can get sellers suspended from eBay. Feedonomics was able to solve this problem by intelligently controlling inventory on multiple channels. The best practices listed here are much the same as best practices you should follow on any marketplace, as well as on your ecommerce site.

Here are some general tips, with more information to follow:. Take high-resolution photos against a plain white background to make the products stand out. Make sure the lighting is sufficient to feature the item and its relevant details. Try taking shots of the product from different angles, and get some close-up shots as well to highlight details. Cost and speed are top of mind for eBay buyers. Offer competitive shipping prices low-cost or free shipping is best to appeal to more buyers and increase your chances of a sale.

It goes without saying that the most attractive return policy for the eBay buyer is free returns. The reviews are in — literally and figuratively! The best way to avoid bad eBay reviews is to maintain good standing with your customers by having customer service. Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter to get the latest thought leadership content delivered right to your inbox — from blogs and resource articles, to podcast episodes, webinars and more.

Brian Roizen is the co-founder and chief architect of Feedonomics , a full-service feed optimization platform that optimizes product data for hundreds of channels. He has been featured on numerous podcasts and webinars, and regularly contributes to Search Engine Land and other industry-leading blogs. Get The Print Version Tired of scrolling? Table of Contents. Why Sell on eBay? Who is Selling on eBay? Three categories that sell particularly well on eBay are: Auto parts, Used goods, and Closeouts.

Price your products. Auction-style selling. Fixed-price listings. Additional information to mention: What are the item dimensions? Does it require batteries and are they included? What accessories are included? Product identifiers. Product identifiers are made up of three elements: Brand. Product attribute guidelines and best practices. Product dimensions. Multi-packs and bundled products. They may also want to build up positive feedback. Sounds like a loss leader attempt or trying to get rid of inventory like mentioned.

Does the loss leader strategy work very well on ebay? I have wondered the same thing. No way any money was made on that. I would buy a Geroge Forman grill for one dollar too? I wonder if any are still around? Does anybody have some suggestions on where to get some reeally good deals like the George Forman one? I think the main reason for anyone to do this is volume selling, even if it's a 99 cents item they're hoping to sell lots of it.

I don't get it either. Tonight, both items I wanted to buy were easily found as. The only thing can think of is that they are compiling a mailing list they plan to sell for big bucks. They bought it with a stolen credit card so it is percent profit for them.

Congrats, you just helf thieves fence their goods. It is rampant on ebay. They will ship the merchandise directly to you from the reputable retailer that they stole it from. Congrats, you are helping crooks fence their goods. Happened to me one time, I bought two things from one seller. They came from different addresses and one had the packing slip directly from Clinique. But the ebay seller was from Florida.