Pros and cons of an ebay shop

[ColinFirthsGirth]

Hi,
I have a fairly new website with an online shop that sells products such as relaxation cd's, bath bombs, aromatherapy products, essential oil candles etc. I purchase them from a few different wholesalers. In he future I would like to make my own aromatherapy products (I am an aromatherapist). My sales so far have been from people that know me through facebook.

Would it be worth having an ebay shop as well? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of this?

There are plenty of other retailers that sell similar products to me and people are not finding the online store at the moment.

I will be putting together gift baskets etc for things like valentines day and mothers day etc. I also aim to go to some fairs to sell things.

I am a complementary therapist as well - I am hoping that by having the online sotre as well as my therapies I maybe able to bring in abit more money as a self employed therapist.

I would really appreciate any comments or advice.

Thanks

We are also just starting out with a small business selling portable kitchens aimed at campers family days out etc, the problem with Ebay is the fees and competition, we used to sell tools, one Item cost £1.50 we sold it to garages for £2.50-3.00, bloke on Ebay buys a full pallet and sells them for £1.80 and kills it for every one else.
Just do your home work and consider the total cost Paypal fees etc packaging is expensive too, then see if you think it would work and make a worth while profit, then just stick a few on Ebay and see what happens, we tried some high end fasion jewellery and didnt sell a thing.
Better still find identical products on Ebay and watch them and see what they sell for and how often
Have you considered craft fairs? Or getting a shop / salon to sell your products?
I assume you have public liability insurance? as they need to know if you are selling via different outlets as we are looking at attending a few Camping equipment shows and had to tell ours.
Feel free to PM me a link to your site and I will give you our opinion, the big website issue is getting it found

Just one other top tip, I am well known locally in the 4x4 world, so I asked some of the forums I post on and a couple let me post a link and this brought some good traffic and some posative comments and a few website issues we had missed so was well worth it

What are you doing to drive traffic from your site and what value do you deliver which your competition doesn't?

Dolomites - I am using google adwords (for my therapies specifically not the shop side of things), facebook and twitter to drive people to the site. I am also listed on numerous therapy directories for my complementary therapies. I am on a local "Best of" site but again this is for my therapies. I am not sure what value I deliver really which may be the issue. The products are manufactured by other companies but I am using my knowledge as a complementary therapist to make sure that the products are ones that I would recommend. For example the aromatherapy products, the soap, bath boms etc are ones that I would be happy to use - I am very fussy about the chemicals in them etc. I only sell relaxation cd's that I have listened to and believe are good quality and are actually going to be relaxing etc. The books are all ones that I have read before or again can recommend. I would like to bring out my own range of aromatherapy products that have very few chemicals in them but I want to do this when I have a bit more money for the cosmetic safety assessments etc. The gift baskets/boxes etc would be my own choice of items and I think they are ait different to others I have seen.

Other than that I am not sure that I am not sure of a specific value that I offer.

Thanks for reading

You can also sell them through Amazon as well.

Why not bring out your own range but use someone elses product with your label on then the manufacturer has all the certs etc covered. Often they will do this with a subtle change so its your own unique blend, it may be better still to bulk by and fill your own containers depending if you have the time and space.

eBay have myriad rules, limits, policies and god only knows what that will stifle your ability to sail your own ship.

I would only use eBay to shift job lots and end of range stuff, plus postage on low value items is an absolute killer.

Competing on eBay is a nightmare as there is so much fake tat on there.

In my personal experience I didn't enjoy owning a shop but its great if you sell loads as buy it now is 10p not 40p but you need a lot of stock to make it worth while as they charge you £14.99 month for basic shop and add vat to seller fees. Plus I'm not sure how easy it is for shoppers to see your shop with all the competition, I was please Shen I closed the account

Do you hold special events?
Stand ina shopping center and give out money off stuff, offer free demos to target groups, pick a local employer and offer staff discount, like your own Group on etc

hello again, well I think for "value" I mean what are you offering that your competitors perhaps aren't?

And I guess for you (what I see), is a woman who really knows which products she recommends - so make sure you make it personal as to why you recommend x over y and what you use it for, how you use it etc., etc. Make yourself an "industry expert".

As far as the website goes and driving traffic, who have you aimed the ads at? What's your SEO like for the site? i.e., are you going in hard on the paraben-free for example line?