Hi guys,
I sell books on ebay. It is currently a very small business and nothing more than a part-time business for me. I have listed 214 books currently, and sold 5. I opened my ebay shop 3 weeks ago. 40-50% of my books are brand new and rest are used. I operate on a very low margin for my brand new books and higher margin for used books.
My question to experienced ebay sellers is : Is it absolutely necessary to have a basic shop on ebay for a seller ?
It costs me 500 Rupees to have a basic shop... this is in addition to the 214 * 3 = 642 Rupees I pay for listing my books. So I pay around 1050-1100 Rupees per month, basic rent to ebay. Forget all other expenditure such as 6% on sales, 4.5% on paypal - what hurts me is this Rs.1100 I have to pay. Because of that my profits will be no more than 500 - 1000 rupees, which is quite low.
So to cut costs, I am thinking of
1. Closing my ebay shop, and
2. Cancelling Selling Manager
That will save me 500 Rupees per month.
As you can understand, I am new to ebay and I have nobody to advise me.... do you think it is the right decision ? Does it help to have a basic shop on ebay ? Will it affect my sales ? How do people buy books on ebay ? Do they search for it in basic ebay listngs, or do they search in shop listings ? Is it absolutely necessary to have Selling Manager ? It adds 200 Rupees to my monthly expenditure.
Should I cut down on my number of listings or should I cut down on basic shop + selling manager ?
Please advise.
