Why Bettye Had Record Sales Last Month on eBay

My friend, Bettye, from Dragonfly Vintage Clothing, just reported on her fabulous eBay sales from last month. January was her highest sales month ever after opening her eBay store 18 months ago. Here are Bettye's top three reasons, in her words, of why her sales have continued to grow and why she believes she had the big jump in January.

1. I'm buying better - more selectively...which I'm able to do only because I'm shopping MORE - I get to at LEAST one thrift store 6 days a week, and, many days, two. On average, I'm in 10 stores a week. This is on top of my full-time M-F, 8:30-4:30 day job. You have to get to a LOT of stores, and see a LOT of items, to allow yourself the luxury of only buying the BEST items. When I used to try and do all my shopping in one day, I had to lower the bar for what I would buy, as I knew there would be no other buying opportunities that week.

2. When ebay works right, it's using a system of exponential growth - which I think only REALLY works when you have a niche. I've done both. I've studied both. I know people who do both, and ON AVERAGE, there seems to be MORE GROWTH in stores that specialize in a certain type of product. Niche sellers have more repeat customers, there is probably more word-of-mouth referrals...and over time, a specialty store gets more and more and MORE regular watchers...as you have more people watching, you have more people likely to bid...and all it takes is two or more people who want the same item, and prices get driven up. When every one of your items is totally different - not even in the same style or genre - repeat customers are not as likely, repeat watchers the same. This exponential growth takes TIME. To Really Succeed on Ebay, I think you need to have/offer one of several things (you don't need all, but you need ONE): HIGHLY rare or desirable and well-recognized things (Coach bags, Apple ipods, etc); or EXTREME savings - if you're The Cheapest in any category, you will get the attention and the sales; or TIME. Time listing above average, well-priced items, in an attractive format, with good pictures, clear descriptions, reasonable shipping, in a specialty - and in TIME, you WILL build up a customer base. I think I'm finally hitting My Time :-)

3. To reiterate #2, I have really taken care to have clean, unfussy auction formats; clear, large pictures (I'm a firm believer in the PICTURE tells the story - the text is just an aside); low starting prices and reasonable shipping with no handling fee. I've held firm to my gut feeling that MY clothes are best shown on a live model, even though it would be easier and cheaper to use a mannequin.

Many thanks to Bettye for allowing me to publish her tips and observations. Bettye's goal for 2008 is to double her eBay sales from 2007. Looks like she's off to a fabulous start. (You go, girl!)

Bettye's store
Bettye's other store