Do You Have A Niche? To Succeed On Ebay You Need Repeat Customers

Hey, I know with storage auctions you kinda get a little bit of everything, toys, clothes, electronics, etc. This is great and you can make great money as you generally get your merchandise at very low prices. Problem being it doesn't get you repeat customers. The guy who buys your Thomas The Train Toy Set is probably not going to be interested in  your Coach Purse.

Basically everything in ebay revolves around volume, lower paypal fees, lower shipping fees, this allows you to offer more competitive prices and rise above the competition. Also, the more volume you do, the more people look at your listings the higher you rank in searches and both these things raise your ebay score which inspires buyer confidence and also helps in searches.

The only way to truly rise to the top on ebay is to have repeat buyers. Why are repeat buyers good, because once someone has dealt with you they trust you, you build a relationship, they wont harrass you when the post office runs a few days slow, they wont open cases against you, not only will they not leave you negative feedback but they will go out of their way to leave positive feedback to help you.

An example I give as one of the best product categories is silver. It's got a huge market and its something people want and consistantly will buy. Some people will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars each paycheck or each month and will keep comming back to you. Obviously this is a tough market, changing prices, hard to find sources not saying you should get into silver but just an example of a category you will get repat buyers on.

If you do storage auctions yes your going to get random merch, however try to have a niche if its electronics buy auctions with electronics try to get merchandise elsewhere as well to add to your store whether its returned palates from best buy or something else.

Just some advice.

While I do agree that a niche will help succeed in any realm of sales. I also think there is something to be said to market yourself as "you never know what we'll have". It works for the thrift stores, why can't it work for ebay?

I guess the real question is.. do people like browsing online like they do in thrift stores?

While I do agree that a niche will help succeed in any realm of sales. I also think there is something to be said to market yourself as "you never know what we'll have". It works for the thrift stores, why can't it work for ebay?

I guess the real question is.. do people like browsing online like they do in thrift stores?

I'm sure you do get some buyers who like variety and like browsing random stuff. I love browsing stuff, that's why I love flea markets you never know what your going to find and have a bit of everything. I think its entirely different walking around with my coffee looking at physical merchandise outdoors in the sun though versus sitting on my computer and randomly browsing.

If I have to look thrugh stickers and old nintendo games and tools just to see if you have bose in wall speakers I'll probably just go to the search function and bypass the store.

I'll give an example why I think a niche is great. The other day I'mshopping ebay and amazon for holsters for my beretta. That's all I needed and all I wanted was a holster. Well I find one and its from a seller who sells all types of gun and tactical type equipment. He had laserlights, flashlights, gun cleaning kits, speed loaders, ccw bags, etc. I wound up buying several items I hadn't planned on getting. Its like okay I need a holster, oh this dudes got hogue grips for $6 I'll take one of those, oh a bag would be cool ill grab a tactical messenger bag its only $18, oh this guys got speedloaders I hate hand loading hurts my fingers ther's a feww more bucks. the guy got me to buy like 4 items when all i wanted was a holster just because he had a niche and related merchandise.