Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Why eBay Shops Are a Better Alternative to Selling on the High Street

eBay Shops have much in common with retail outlets operating on high streets in villages, towns and cities all over the country, all over the world, the most obvious difference being that high street sellers typically work face-to-face with customers, while on eBay all the buying and selling is done online.

But in reality there's a world of difference between how eBay's virtual shops operate compared to their high street counterparts.  And for most retailers, the difference is significant and eBay is almost always the best option.

For example:

* On eBay you’ll be paying a tiny fraction of most offline sellers’ running costs, allowing you to undercut their prices considerably.  And no one will ever guess you are a one man or one woman operation or that you work entirely from home.

* eBay's heavy insistence on fair play for customers and sellers and urgency to remove rogue traders and troublesome buyers, represents credibility that's rarely found elsewhere, even in the biggest of high street companies.  That allows you to generate customer confidence much faster than most high street sellers.

* On the high street, customers expect to pay for and pick up goods the same day and most would leave a shop empty handed than wait for replacement stock or choose an alternative product.  And that’s why most offline retailers have to stock multiple units of numerous different products which is not only expensive but requires a major investment in storage space.  Not forgetting that stock may not sell and will have to be disposed of at a loss.   On eBay, although you must only list items you already possess or can quickly obtain, you can order stock after orders arrive or have dropshippers fulfil direct to your buyers.  So you never have to stock items until an order is placed.

* Because you don't have to stock duplicate products of all shapes and sizes, you'll rarely have valuable space eaten up by outdated, old-fashioned and damaged goods.


On eBay you can sell worldwide from a corner of your living room, take time off when you want to, you can even ban undesirable people from bidding or buying in your eBay Shop and you can earn money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Compare that to being always available in a high street shop and working 9 to 5 even when it's pouring down and the high street's empty, as well as having to tackle difficult customers, and you’ll see why so many first time and veteran retailers are choosing that best of all trading models ... eBay!

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