To eBay Or Not To eBay - That is the Question!

Ebay is a relatively new phenomenon, but the company feels like it has been around for decades and has taken the web world by storm. Here are some brief stats:

eBay was founded in 1995

eBay has a global customer base of 181 million

eBay has a global presence in 33 markets including the UK and USA

eBay UK was Launched in 1999

eBay in the UK's number one ecommerce website

eBay UK has 3 million items listed at any given time

eBay UK accounts for 10% of all the time UK users spend on the internet

We could go on and on discussing the merits and stats of eBay, but the one that sticks out for me is number 5: eBay in the UK's number one ecommerce website!

All ecommerce websites endeavour to get customers through online marketing activity like search engine optimisation and paid for marketing without ever considering a mechanism that is already in place to help them - eBay!

There is a misconception within many businesses eBay is not for businesses (The term beggars has been used often). However, they should consider these startling statistics:

Profitable since its launch, eBay net revenues totalled $1.329 billion in Q4-05 and $4.552 billion in 2005.

eBay International achieved net revenues of $604.1 million in Q4-05 and $2.081 billion in 2005.

In Q4-05, gross merchandise volume (GMV), the total value of all successfully closed items on eBay's trading platforms, was $12.0 billion. In 2005, eBay's GMV totalled $44.3 billion.

eBay users worldwide trade more than $1,511 worth of goods on the site every second.

There were 546.4 million new listings added to eBay worldwide in Q4-05. At any given time, there are approximately 78 million listings worldwide, and approximately 6 million listings are added per day. eBay users trade in more than 50,000 categories

Based on Q4-05 GMV, the following categories delivered $1 billion or more in worldwide annualized GMV: eBay Motors at 13.0 billion; Consumer Electronics at $4.4 billion; Clothing & Accessories at $3.9 billion; Computers at $3.4 billion; Books / Music / Movies at $2.8 billion; Home & Garden at $2.7 billion; Collectibles at $2.6 billion; Sports at $2.2 billion; Toys at $2.1 billion; Jewellery & Watches at $1.9 billion; Business & Industrial at $1.6 billion; Cameras & Photo at $1.5 billion; and Antiques & Art at $1.2 billion.

While eBay is well-known for its auction format, users can also buy and sell in fixed-price formats, which accounted for 34% of total GMV during Q4-05.

At the end of Q4-05, eBay hosted approximately 383,000 stores worldwide, with approximately 212,000 stores hosted on the U.S. site and 171,000 stores hosted on eBay's international sites.

More than 724,000 professional sellers in the U.S. use eBay as a primary or secondary source of income. In addition, 1.5 million individuals sell on eBay to supplement their incomes. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, July 2005)

As of December 2005, eBay members worldwide have left more than four billion feedback comments for one another regarding their eBay transactions.

The most expensive item sold on eBay to date is a private business jet for $4.9 million.

Makes interesting reading doesn't it and begs the question are online product based businesses missing a trick? In our opinion the answer is yes and it about time businesses cottoned on to this fact and started embracing the eBay concept with open arms.

How do you take advantage of eBay?

Millions of listings on eBay more or less look the same and say the same thing. However, by delving a little deeper, you start to unearth some gems that are excellent benchmarks for you or any business to follow. Listed below are 2 eBay considerations:

1. Selling Manager Pro

Selling Manager Pro is an online selling tool to help you create listings, manage post-sale activities and manage your inventory. If you are a volume seller who wants a robust, web-based eBay tool then this is the one for you. It's cost - £4.99 per month. It will.

Automatically list and re-list items for you

Inform buyers by auto notification

Let you know when payment has been received

Tell you what items you have shipped

Provide Auto feedback upon buyer payment

Allow the scheduling of items

Offer Reporting

Allows you to Design Professional Listings

Restock alerts

This is a fantastic eBay tool that automates much of the information for you and helps you engage and interact with your eBay clients. Everything is controlled from one area and is generally easy to use once you get the hang of it.

The best things about this facility is that it allows you to create professional and business like listings that when displayed on eBay provide a look and feel that can be similar to your company's website. For example, our client the Funky Group is currently using this facility to list all products with a branded and professional look and feel that mimics the company's actual website. This has resulted in the first month of going live in well over 4 figure sales with over 300 products sold!

Our tip for this facility is to brand it as your business and to produce something that uniquely reflects you and allows you to stand out from the crowd and at the same time maintain very professional image. Granted there are eBay fees and costs but these are reduced once you start to receive higher volumes of sales. The more you sell the less you pay!

2. EBay Shops

Creating a successful eBay Shop involves four basic steps: building and customising your shop; managing your listings and sales; promoting your Shop; and tracking your shop traffic and sales.

An eBay shop allows you to

Set up, brand, and customise your shop to maximise success.

Save time with powerful tools to manage your listings and sales.

Drive traffic to your shop and trigger repeat purchases from your customers.

Optimise your sales strategy with advanced reporting tools.

An excellent benchmark for a company that does this well and takes eBay shopping to a new level is online shoe retailer Schuh. This eBay shop is an excellent example of how to do it right and well and is worth a visit at Schuh eBay.

Why is Schuh such a good example? Well for starters, the eBay shop is branded with the Schuh logo and includes professional graphically designed images. Additionally, the eBay shop is very similar to the official Schuh retail website! EBay acts as a tool to promote the Schuh brand, even increasing sales activity on their own official website.

Each individual pair of shoes has 6 images of it from varying angles that help highlight and sell the shoes to potential consumers. The Schuh eBay shop works just like a well designed ecommerce website should- with simple navigation to the product of your choice with the main difference being you can bid on the product first before you buy it.

Consider

eBay hosts approximately 380,000 stores worldwide (2005), with approximately 212,000 stores hosted on the U.S. site and 171,000 stores hosted on eBay's international sites.

More than 724,000 professional sellers in the U.S. use eBay as a primary or secondary source of income. In addition, 1.5 million individuals sell on eBay to supplement their incomes. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, July 2005)

Still not convinced? I do agree that eBay has certain pitfalls for business and individuals to consider together with some expensive fees that can be off putting. However, in our opinion it does make sense to consider eBay. Put it this way, your target market may be already using eBay and you could use it to reach these customers that you have never engaged with before - increasing sales and turnover.

Additionally, having an eBay presence can lend itself to search engine optimisation because - eBay listings appear in Google and Yahoo for consumer searches! Consider Schuh - try a Google search for some of their products!

So to summarise - is eBay an opportunity or is it something to be dismissed? We think that it is something that every business that is selling online should consider as part of a range of online marketing activities.

Com.Motion would like to thank EBay, Nielsen/NetRatings and Econsultancy for the statistics in this article.

Com.Motion Consulting is in the business of internet marketing - ensuring that your website appears on the top search engines including Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

We provide effective internet marketing solutions to ensure that customers find you and the products you sell on the web, and work with you to increase your profit through your online sales.

Com.Motion Team
tel: 0131 202 6345

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Vancouver Real Estate - To Buy Or Not to Buy, That Is the Question

To Buy or not to Buy?

Is now a good time to get into Vancouver's real estate market? This is the perennial question. People who watch regional trends see conflicting messages. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) suggests that Vancouver is in a buyer's market, while the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) argues we are in a housing bubble. With property sales slowing, lending rates increasing and housing prices historically high, the question of whether or when to purchase a home burns even stronger. The dilemma on many potential buyers minds: buy now and risk a significant drop in home values paired with an increase in interest rates, or wait and risk watching prices climb out of reach.

Anatomy of a Bubble

The CCPA recently published a report entitled Canada's Housing Bubble: An Accident Waiting to Happen, which warns the current situation is unsustainable. The report warns that a return to historic norms in lending rates would put buyers into an untenable situation. Bubbles emerge when housing prices outpace inflation, household income and economic growth. According to the CCPA, factors that typically contribute to a bubble are low mortgage rates, low availability of housing stock, easy access to credit (low rates) and immigration. If we are able to examine these factors, we can start to make informed predictions.

Suggesting a milder scenario, Benjamin Tal, CIBC's senior economist has posited that a 5-10% price correction could be in the works for the Canadian market over the next 8 months, while TD Canada predicts a 2.7% drop in home prices in 2011. Tal said that a violent market correction requires a trigger, such as the U.S. sub-prime crisis or exceptionally high interest rates.

Factors Suggest Slowed Inflation

Current mortgage rates are unprecedentedly low. Bank of Montreal recently decreased its popular special five-year fixed rate to 3.59%. Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada (BOC) has incrementally ramped up its trendsetting overnight lending rate, taking advantage of GDP growth in order to slow borrowing. It was raised from 0.75% to 1 % on September 8th, the third time in four months. This has caused the Big 6 banks to increase their variable rates a point to 3%. The increased rate, along with the activation of the HST is slowing purchasing activity. The increases are small enough that they will not cause unbearable stress on most borrowers, but they will create more caution amongst buyers, which will slow inflation. This is good.

Interest rates have actually decreased slightly to 1.8% since February's one year high of 2%. While Canada's GDP growth of 0.5% quarterly was not as high as last quarter's remarkable performance of 1.5%, it is still comfortably within the upper range of the 4 year mean of 0.24% quarterly growth. So while prices are high and lending rates are low, gradually increasing rates, healthy GDP, lowering inflation, prices indicate that we are not in a bubble.

Signs of a Buyer's Market

The real estate market has gradually softened since the April 2010 climax, and though prices have declined slightly since that month's record-setting benchmark of $593,419, at $539,600 they are still relatively high when seen from a long-term historical perspective. In fact, the period from March 2009 to April 2010 was one of the highest selling periods in Vancouver Real estate, so within that context, a decline in prices is a normal fluctuation, and a trend toward the baseline.

Stabilizing Factors

A dramatic price correction in the Greater Vancouver real estate market is unlikely to occur. It is one of the world's most desirable places to live and geographical factors limit massive development, typically causing properties to grow or keep their value. Other factors currently keeping home values stable are continued foreign interest and a slowing new housing stock into the market.

Considerations for Buying

So where does that leave you if you want to buy a home in the Vancouver market? There is no predicting how the market will fluctuate on a day-to-day basis, but the signs indicate a modest and short-lived slow down. You can always choose to wait, and the reasons for doing so are both many and well-founded. Ultimately, the sooner you get in, the sooner you will own more of your home. If that is the path you choose to take, be conscientious of these important considerations:

Aim for what you can afford. Be realistic about what monthly payments you can afford to determine your price range. Visit your bank or qualified mortgage broker to get an accurate assessment of your finances. If projected payments are close to what you currently pay for rent or existing payments, then you can probably afford the mortgage. Consider what you may be paying if rates go up and be conservative about projecting your income.
Think carefully about the kind of mortgage you will take out. Will it be a floating rate, or some species of fixed-term mortgage? There is enough to consider on this topic for another entire article.

Nick Boudin is a real estate writer for eCo Realty, a residential and commercial brokerage in Vancouver, BC. To get in touch with a Vancouver real estate professional, browse residential properties or read more articles, visit http://ecorealtyinc.ca.

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