When Mary Kaye Weekley opened Lads & Lassies in 1983 in Pensacola, Florida, her vision was an upscale boutique-style consignment store. She started with 200 sq ft. Now she has over 4000 sq. ft. for her sales floor and an additional 2000 sq. ft. in warehouse space, thanks in part to her sales on eBay.

When Mary Kaye started out, she specialized in boutique and name-brand baby and children's clothing, but she has since expanded to include juniors and ladies clothing as well as furniture and other household items.

Mary Kaye discovered eBay in 2004. She had decided that a web-presence was a good way to expand her business, and her web-designer (already an active eBay seller) recommended she looked into eBay. "I was truly excited about this," said Mary Kay, "With the first sale I have never looked back; just looking for more growth." She is now a Silver PowerSeller with 35 percent of her total sales generated from eBay.

"This business has grown so large that I have outsourced (the eBay part of the business) to a young couple who work in my storefront and sell for me on a commission basis. I gather the clients and their merchandise and they do the rest," explained Weekley. Currently 500 sq. ft. of her storefront is designated for eBay, but since this part of her business is growing rapidly, she plans to increase this to 1000 sq. ft. by the end of 2007. This will mean that 25 percent of her storefront will be used for eBay sales.

One reason for Lads & Lassies' success may be that she has been in this business for many years. She started with the brick-and-mortar store, and then expanded onto eBay. Finding the local customer base to off-set the additional costs of a bricks and mortar store is very difficult for a Trading Assistant, but Mary Kaye already had a customer base, plenty of inventory and in-store sales to off-set any initial start up hiccups.

In general, her commission fee for in-store items is 60 percent (and she has plenty of inventory!) but she reduced the commission for eBay listings to 40 percent, and the seller pays the listing fees. This ensures that she always has a supply of inventory for eBay listings too.

Mary Kaye is a very savvy businesswoman, knowing what she can do herself, and knowing when to out-source so her own time can be better utilized. She is not knowledgeable about computers so had to rely on other people to handle that side. This just goes to show that even someone who is not familiar with computers can be successful on eBay with the right business know-how. Having the people working the eBay side on commission only doesn't hurt either!

I asked Mary Kaye what she would say to someone else in her position before she became a Trading Assistant. She said, "I would recommend that anyone with a brick and mortar store to find a way to market their items on eBay. It is very easy to do and very rewarding. I still get excited when something sells on eBay that I was unable to sell in my store."

If you are in the Pensacola area, you can find Lads & Lassies at 1339 E. Creighton Road, on the web at http://www.LandLresale.com on in her eBay Store LandLresale.
---
Lissa McGrath is a full-time freelance writer and the author of 20 Questions To Ask Before Selling On eBay (Career Press, 2006). She is also the copy editor of 6 other eBay related books. Lissa can be reached at lissa@lissamcgrath.com or through her website http://www.lissamcgrath.com.