How to earn a living by selling on EBay? A Beginner’s Guide

If you are looking to make money by simply posting some copied data on your website and looking for some cheap unrealistic and imaginary get rich quick tips and tricks, then I am sorry to disappoint you. There is no such thing being written about here right now. However if you are hardworking, willing to take a bit risk and don’t mind running around a bit, there is a huge opportunity out there to make good money but the good old way ie by buying cheap and selling high.

Since www.amazon.com has only indicated their intention to enter Indian market but hasn’t formally launched, I am going to write about www.EBay.com or www.Ebay.in as its Indian arm is called. Ebay is basically an online marketplace which facilitates trade between the buyers and the sellers. While there are no charges for the buyers, sellers have to shell out in the form of Virtual Shop rent, virtual item display charges and transaction charges which is a certain % of the transaction value. While the charges add up to substantial amount and might seem unreasonable to some, the pan India platform that the website gives to your items on display for sale, the ease of transaction and the related services and the fact that you would save tonnes of money in administrative and infrastructure costs would more than make up for the charges that are to be paid. In fact one can start a business for as low as Rs 20,000 (Ok, I am not exaggerating, write to me for a detailed business plan) and make a decent living. The most difficult part though is the initial phase when you are new; buyers don’t trust you enough, the intense competition that is existing all the times are breathing down your neck and the general uncertainty while you wait for your first and the subsequent sales. Though let me tell you, the pleasure of seeing your first sales fructifying appears as if you have just won the first prize in a lottery. You might have made may be 50 rupees in that transaction! But it could the beginning of amazing things if you stick on.

 So how does it Work Really?

 It is very difficult to explain in a nutshell but to begin with you can look at the following steps:

 1)           First check out the website www.ebay.in and see what all sells there and at what prices.

2)           Go through the Selling tutorial and try to understand all the terms and conditions of the sales and more about how ebay works.

3)           Make a list of the items that you can source cheap in your city or town and then go out to the markets, preferably wholesale markets and get the rates.

4)           Compare them with the ongoing rates on ebay. Factor in the costs which will include ebay listing charges, Final Value Fee, Paisapay charges and the shipping costs.

5)           Check if you are making a reasonable return should you put up an item for sale at a certain price.

6)           For selecting an item for sales, you should consider the general demand and sales rate on the website, the ease in packing and shipping, the shipping costs as well as Manufacturer Warranty wherever applicable. The Manufacturer warranty is a great help since you will not have to bother about the after sales service, though it comes at a cost of much thinner margins and stiffer competition.

7)           Think of a good name for your account and the online shop that you are going to open.

            Well these are some of the basic steps that one can take before opening an ebay shop. It is a great opportunity and with the right mix of aggressive pricing, good sourcing, and hard work and of course a bit of luck, one can a decent living online.

 Disclaimer: I run an ebay shop by the name gizmobhai on ebay India and do a turnover of about one million Indian Rupees per month with net profit margins nearing 10% ( now the income may be equal to or more than some of the IITs & IIMs as well J ). The only employee and the business partner that I have happens to be my bro-in-law and one of the rooms in our house has been reconfigured to look after the business requirements

Check out my other articles on how to set up business on ebay at www.gizmobhai.com

Also check out my other articles written for therodinhooders. Here I have written two other articles especially about Selling on Ebay and my experiences. You can read them here.

This article was first published at www.gizmobhai.com

Hi All, I am Sanchita. I love entrepreneurship and love to read and hear about the successes and failures in the field. I love writing about it out of my own experiences and learnings. Read more about my other write-ups on the subject here