Ebay Competitors

[selboy]

You Can find out how well your competitors are doing - on EBay!

In fairness, it's most useful to people that sell stuff online - because
you can literally see how well your competitors are selling.

But...as a business, you BUY stuff don't you?

Well, if you can see that people selling the stuff you either want to
buy or invest in are struggling then you can expect better prices and service.

After all - it's simple research.

How do you do it?
Simple - you checkout the lifetime feedback ratings. Even if you don't
have a specific competitor you wish to check out, you can simply search for
the products that you are looking for and see who the key players are.

The trick is to make sure that you can see the amount of feedback being given
about specific product types over a long period.

If you can see that the rate of feedback has dropped then - all things being equal,
the ebay seller is simply selling LESS of that item over time.

You can of course measure this against other sellers and see if there is a pattern.

It's a bit like looking at the growth-rings in a sawn off log - you can see the tree's
rapid growth years and years of slow growth.

Naturally, there are some items that are seasonal and need to be factored in (common sense)
but if you are selling widgets and feel as though you have been struggling recently - or
indeed booming then this is a quick and dirty way to see how everyone else is getting on.

The one good thing about Ebay of course is that it's great for makret research, price testing,
consumer feedback etc - simply because it has the sheer volume of traffic.

Far too many people I speak with feel Ebay is for selling junk or that it's 'beneath' them
somehow. It's a big mistake I feel as you can use Ebay a lot to develop your business
- without ever buying or selling anything necessarily

[www.madbug.co.uk]

A great bit of advice for those selling on Ebay good post.

[b-fly]

I don't know which web sites for online shopping are good so I use ebay. I trust them

[www.madbug.co.uk]

(09-03-2010 02:45 PM)b-fly Wrote:  I don't know which web sites for online shopping are good so I use ebay. I trust them

You may trust Ebay but what about the users after all Ebay are only a portal for people to use as a front to sell and buy things you are not actually dealing with Ebay in your transaction.

Mostly sellers on Ebay are ok, but how would oyu check out a seller on Ebay as you usually only have their rating to go by, bad sellers get banned and open a new account, TBH if you wanted to scam on Ebay it is very easy.

I generally use online retailers and do my research if I am going to buy anything of substance, for small low risk items I would check out Ebay also as with low risk the chance of getting scammed is lower as certain items are in the target zone.

If you have a good general knowledge of the internet and things that go on I would think you would be safer checking out proper stores than just using Ebay. Proper shops are easier to check out and usually have a far greater historic path to check upon.

[fruity and fun]

I agree with madbug, Ebay is full of scammers, Everybody knows someone who has been ripped off on ebay, I prefer Amazon for online shopping.