Problems of a new ebay seller : Buyer not acknowledging delivery of item.

[raghavhegde2013]

I opened a book shop on ebay only 2-3 weeks back...it is a very small entity.....I have sold 4 books so far. Initially I was happy. But...

... Two of the customers are just not acknowledging the receipt of the books, although they received them days back. I called one of them twice on his mobile phone, messaged him as well, literally begging him to go to ebay site and acknowledge receipt of delivery or else I wont get paid..... he is very polite, says the book is perfect and that there is no problem and that he will do what is required..... but still, after 5-6 days of delivery, nothing from his side. I know I will eventually get the money for unacknowledged delivery - but I have to wait for 17-21 days.

I am new to ebay. I calculated the mathematics of ebay business only after plunging into it. I pay 500 Rupees for my Basic shop, 550 more for listing my books....so 1000-1100 is the basic monthly amount I have to pay. I have sold 4 books so far for Rs.1450 over the last 10 days. Out of that I have received money for only one book. 6% of that amount or more goes to ebay, 4.5% additional goes to PaisaPay transaction......and in spite of charging extra for delivery, I end up paying Rs 10 - 30 more for delivery as well per book depending on where the item is being shipped to. Remember - I only sell books, which is a very low margin business.

.........frankly speaking, I will be lucky if I make a profit of Rs.500-1000 per month selling books on ebay. I dont know if I can last more than 3 months at ebay. If I want to keep taking losses, perhaps I will.

[raghavhegde2013]

I dont want to sound cynical so soon.... but it seems to me that (with the exception of a few), the only people who make money out of ebay are ebay manahement, shareholders and employees.

Sorry... I may be wrong...but thats what I feel.

[akshay19gupta]

all the sellers make profit on ebay
why will someone sell to make a loss.
in the beginning you might incur losses but afterwards it will be profit.

[smartphoneforever]

Dear raghavhegde2013

Do not loose your cool. Every startup needs patience and commitment.

You should plan like in the beginning you can have less profits by providing competitive prices even.

As u gradually rise you can increase your product inventory.

But please make sure customer satisfaction is most important thing in Online eCommerce business, otherwise business do not sustain much longer.

Regarding unacknowledged delivery, you have to wait for around 10-12 after shipment of item if buyer do not confirms delivery.

Be sure that you send items with TRACKING INFORMATION ONLINE ONLY as u are newbie in selling to avoid any money locked by eBay for verification.

Do not get over excited for sale and remittances. Just be patient and keep going gradually to meet your desired goal.

Hope this would help you.

[raghavhegde2013]

Thanks for the kind advise guys. I was just a little upset in the morning. Thanks for the support. 🙂

[immensechaisma]

raghavhegde2013

Hi, even i felt the same when started. In fact for couple of months it NO LOSS NO GAIN for me. But after getting a grip and knowing more about ebay in these past 6 months, I started earning money(profit) although not big margin but 8-10 thousand per month with very few items listed is great for me.

I am still learning from other senior sellers and Smartphonefover said , giving 100% customer satisfaction is important, because through my experience also i have seen it.

With less than 98% feedback your listing not visible on front pages and buyers do think twice purchase from any seller less feedback.

So, i worked hard on this and lost few thousands in this regard, where customer calls me and say the item got damaged or the color and variation is different. I simply refund their amount with out asking any questions.

So, this all helped me to maintain feedback and to be very careful while writing the descriptions.

To sum up, I am happy selling on ebay but if you want to see more profit, you need to wait atleaset 3 months as per my experience and maintain healthy feedback.

I do send THANK YOU note or a small gift like key chain to make my customers happy. this allows me to have a repeated customers.

hope this will help with my short 6 months experience on ebay selling.

[raghavhegde2013]

immensechaisma

Great to know your experience. Thanks for sharing. 🙂