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eBay PowerSeller Nick Sevino (a pseudonym) answers questions about buying and selling on eBay.
Hi Nick,
How do you price items on your web site versus eBay?
I noticed that people tend to price the same item HIGHER on their Web site, which makes no sense to me...not only are they selling it cheaper on eBay, but they're eating the fees. And what's the incentive for a person to buy from a web site if it's more expensive?
I've noticed this a couple of times - and I'd be curious about Nick's pricing strategy...
Dave
Dear Dave,
Many sellers have an eBay business as an adjunct to their regular business. They have a clientele of former customers and customers that come from advertising or the search engines. Return customers from previous eBay transactions, Web searches, links or printed advertising, etc. These customers value and trust the reliability of the seller, and they may not be in touch with eBay prices.
eBay is supply and demand economics in its purest form: Lots of supply and little demand equal low price; little supply and high demand equal high price. eBay sellers often work on margins that make regular retailers puke.
If the majority of your business is coming from sources of customers who will pay higher, then it makes sense to price for profit maximization. In other words price higher on Web site. On the other hand, if the majority of your business comes from eBay, why not price a little lower on your Web site? Pass the commission savings along and give the buyer a reason to come back directly to you. If they have to find you through eBay again, you are more likely to lose the customer.
A third option is to create a separate Web site just for eBay business and separate it from the other division of your company.
Finally, we can't discount human error/laziness in accounting for price discrepancies. The average eBay seller is overwhelmed with the details of managing his business. Coordinating prices is quite time consuming. So if Web site business is minimal, it will rate at the bottom of the priorities.
Human nature is such that we tend to delay the things we dislike doing. How many of you like to lower prices? Personally I hate doing it, and in order to match competition, I do it often on eBay. But I find myself procrastinating about synchronizing my Web site.
Nick
To comment on this letter, post a message in the forums at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5661
If you have a question you'd like Nick to consider for a future issue of "Dear Nick," send it to nick@auctionbytes.com.
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