Selling through Auction Marketplaces
by Nowshade Kabir
Published on this site: June 15th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Consumers are increasingly feeling more comfortable in buying products
through the Internet. According to a report released recently by
the Department of Commerce first-quarter retail sales rose 23.8
percent to US$ 19.8 billion in the United States from US$ 16 billion
a year ago. E-commerce sales during the first quarter of 2005 rose
6.4 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Forrester Research
estimated that 2005 online retail sales will increase at a pace
of 22 percent. Today, a third of all households in US make at least
one purchase online within a year, a figure which will grow to almost
40 percent by 2009, predicts Forrester. As a seller, this strong
growth of online sales means that you have to put considerable stress
on your Internet sales endeavor if you are not doing this as yet.
According to statistics compiled for the Internet Retailer Top
400 Guide, the top retailers in 2004 garnered combined online sales
of more than US$ 51 billion, which accounts for 58.3 percent of
all US Internet sales. The growth in online sales is quite impressive
for large retailers. J.C. Penny Co. Inc., for example, reported
a 35 percent year-over-year rise of online sales in May, 2005. Can
new online ventures boast same type of significant growth? Unfortunately,
not!
Each day, there are thousands of new companies are setting up shops
on the Internet trying to sell every conceivable type of products
and services. Most of these websites do not attract enough visitors
to make them profitable. Competition on the Internet is fierce!
Internet marketing campaigns are becoming increasing expensive.
Many small companies can't afford to spend money required to promote
their sites. So, what are the options available for a small company
with modest product range to thrive on the Internet? One of the
best sales channels, in my opinion, on the Internet by far is auction
marketplaces. Of course, no matter what, you will still need to
promote your website with all the methods you can master. However,
selling your products and services through established auction marketplaces
has its own advantage.
eBay
With 63.8 million unique visitors hitting the auction site only
in April of this year, eBay has established itself as the largest
marketplace on earth. In 2004 alone US$ 34.2 billion worth of merchandize
exchange hands on eBay. Presently, the site has around 135 million
registered users in 32 markets worldwide.
With such a vast community of buyers and sellers, eBay should be
your number one choice for selling your products or services online.
On the eBay you can sell any kind of item. The varieties of stuffs
people are selling through eBay are mind boggling! At any given
time there are over 29 million items displayed on eBay.The number
of new items added each day exceeds 3.5 million. However, still
many offline sellers perceive eBay as an auction site for mainly
collectible items. They can't be more wrong! The largest selling
category on the eBay is, believe it or not, automobile and accessories,
which comprises of almost 22 percent of all sales. I have, personally,
bought three luxury cars over the course of last two years through
eBay and I have nothing to complain about.
As a seller on the eBay, the biggest advantage that you gain is
the possibility of becoming from a local merchant to an international
player over night. If you are already selling merchandize to consumers
online or offline, eBay gives you an additional sales channel without
any extra cost. If you are planning to begin selling goods or services
through the Internet,eBay allows you to start your business online
quickly and with minimum expenses.
Yahoo
You may have difficulty in imagining the biggest portal on our
planet as a marketplace, in some countries, like Japan and Canada,
Yahoo auction is, actually, doing better than eBay. In the US market
Yahoo has just announced its intention to eliminate fees charged
for using its auction site. This is a good news for even many eBay
power sellers. Some of them will definitely move to Yahoo in a bid
to save on high fees charged by eBay. The good thing about Yahoo
is slowly it is becoming a major hub for many small business web
stores. As a matter of fact, according to Yahoo, every eighth online
store is now hosted by Yahoo.
Amazon
Amazon, may be is not as popular as eBay or Yahoo as far as auction
marketplace is concerned, however, many auctioneers claim that some
of the products sell better on Amazon than any other auction marketplace.
Why should you consider selling through auction marketplaces?
Here are some reasons, why auction marketplaces are viable sales
channel for businesses:
- The auction marketplaces are very popular and each of
them has huge community of buyers and sellers.
- There is virtually no start-up cost involved.
- No extra overhead is required.
- You really don't have to set up a website to start selling.
- Easy to learn.
While determining what to sell through auction marketplaces, choose
your products very carefully. Don't try to sell products like DVD,
cellular phones and similar common items. There are way too many
people are trying to sell those products. Do your research before
jumping into online auctions. Go through the categories of your
choice. See how your competitors are doing. Check out the listings
of sold items. For how much the products you intend to list are
getting sold for? What keywords your prospective competitors are
using to market these products? On which auction site these products
are selling better?
Go with the trend! Travel, cosmetics and jewelry sales are expected
to do better than other categories of e-commerce in coming years.
In every category of goods and services you will find a niche, which
is doing fairly well. All you have to do is find that niche by making
extensive and thorough research!
Selling through auction marketplaces like any other business process
requires sound judgment and careful planning. Be sure to use them
before starting your online sales.
Nowshade Kabir, is the founder, primary developer
and present CEO of Rusbiz.com – a Global B2B Exchange
with solutions to create e-catalog, Web store, business process
management and other features to run a business online. You
can read various articles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com
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