How to reduce costs in your eBay business

It is very important to cut as many costs as you can in your eBay business. The goal of running a successful eBay business is to make money. Any money you save is money you earn. Here are several ways you can save money while running your eBay business.

Transportation

Shipping is probably the place where you can save the most money in your eBay business. There are different carriers, different shipping methods, and different ways to pay for postage, all with different effects on your bottom line.

Both the United States Post Office and UPS offer different rates for different package sizes and weights. It’s worth checking both carriers to see which offers the better rate. Especially for larger packages, UPS can save you a considerable amount of money.

USPS offers a variety of ways to ship your packages. Knowing which method to use for each of your packages is essential to saving your eBay business money. Here are some examples:

o Media Mail: If your package falls into this category, you can save a considerable amount of money on shipping costs. Eligible items for Media Mail include books, movies, music, and other media-type items. A 2-pound book shipped from New York to California costs $2.77 for Media Mail and $8.70 for Priority Mail.

o First Class Mail – This shipping method works great for smaller items weighing less than 14 oz. Shipping time with First Class Mail is very similar to Priority Mail with a significant price difference. If you’re selling individual CDs or DVDs, this method is even cheaper than Media Mail. The average CD with slipcase weighs about 5 oz. Shipping a single CD from New York to California costs $1.90 for First Class Mail, $2.38 for Media Mail, and $4.95 for Priority Mail.

o Parcel Post – This shipping method should be used for larger packages shipped by USPS to distant destinations. If you’re shipping within your own state or neighboring states, this method won’t save much compared to priority mail. However, if you ship long distance, your savings can be significant. A 10-pound package shipped from New York to California costs $16.77 by Parcel Post or $29.95 by Priority Mail. The same package shipped from New York within the same state costs $9.18 by Parcel Post or $9.90 by Priority Mail.

o Priority Flat Rate Boxes – This method can save you money on small, heavy items that are shipped to a distant location. A 7-pound package shipped from New York to California costs $13.95 for a Large Flat Rate Priority box or $22.05 for a regular box. Be careful not to use this shipping method exclusively. Most of the time it will be more expensive than regular priority mail. Make sure you use the cheapest method.

Another way to save on postage is to print your own postage from your computer. The USPS offers a discount for doing so, plus they’ll come to your house and pick up your packages, saving you money on gas and time not having to go to the post office. You can print postage directly from your PayPal account or from the USPS website. You can save up to $1.00 per package on postage plus you can get a free delivery confirmation saving an additional $0.70.

Photos

If you use a lot of images in your listings and have the images hosted on eBay, you could be losing a considerable amount of money. Images hosted on eBay are $0.15 for each additional image after the first. If you list 100 items per month with an average of 4 images each, you are paying eBay $45.00 per month just to host your images. There is a way to host unlimited images for around $5 a month. All you need to do is go to a web hosting provider like Host Gator (http://www.hostgator.com) and sign up for a web hosting plan. For $5 per month, you can host unlimited images and have your eBay listings pull the images from your web host to display on eBay.

starting price

By lowering the starting price of your auctions, you can save money. If you start an article between $0.01 and $0.99, the insertion fee is only $0.15. If it is between $1.00 and $9.99, the insertion fee is $0.35. Right there is a savings of $0.20 per listing. This is especially a good way to save money if you’re thinking of starting an item right on the limit amount. If you’re thinking of starting an item at $50.00, go ahead and start at $49.99. The difference from reducing your initial price by one penny will save you $1.00 in this example.

Features list

Stay away from expensive listing features that probably won’t help your final price all that much. eBay says that bold and highlighted listings are 30% more likely to sell. I have never found this to be true.

Never use the subtitle option. eBay Basic Search will NOT search for the subtitle. Most of the time, you can include all the relevant keywords in the title if you try hard enough.

Most people use the search function on eBay rather than the browse function when searching for items. Therefore, it is almost never a good idea to list your item in two categories. Choose the one that most closely resembles your article and continue from there.

packing supplies

If you find that you are using the same type of padded envelope or box over and over again, you may want to consider getting that particular item in bulk. The cost of each item you ship will go down, which means you’ll add more money to your bottom line. Also, don’t buy your packing supplies at your local office supply store or post office. This cost can be more than double that of getting your packing supplies online. If you really want to save some money, talk to your local supermarket about getting some of their boxes for free.