Ask Nick: How do you price items on your web site vs eBay?

Ina · Joined: 02 Aug 2001 Posts: 452 Location: Massachusetts, USA

Tomorrow's Ask Nick column addresses the question, "How do you price items on your web site versus eBay?"

Should your Web site price be higher or lower than when you sell an item on eBay?

(Posted by Ina)

DianesVintageStore · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2003 10:14 pm Post subject: No Question is a ...

Stupid Question: Who is "Ask Nick"?
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Diane
Diane's Vintage Store Website
http://www.dianesvintagestore.com

Diane's Vintage Store at Ruby Lane
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/dianesvintagestore

Ina · Joined: 02 Aug 2001 Posts: 452 Location: Massachusetts, USA

Ask Nick is a regular column in AuctionBytes-Update newsletter.

"eBay PowerSeller Nick Sevino (a pseudonym) answers questions about buying and selling on eBay."

I like to include a link to the forum thread in the newsletter, so if someone reads the article and wants to comment, they can just click on the link.

David and I were just discussing the fact that some people in the forums don't know about the newsletter and vice-versa (and some don't know about the features we have on the Web site). So, for those who may not know, AuctionBytes-Update is a twice-monthly newsletter we publish via email for free. You can sign up on the AuctionBytes.com main Web site at http://www.auctionbytes.com

And FYI, tomorrow we are publishing the 100th issue of the newsletter!!

Thanks for asking,
Ina

Tradguy · Joined: 15 Sep 2002 Posts: 519 Location: Florida

IMHO...

In general, I think the website should be less than (or not more than) the auction - especially for commodity type items that you keep a quantity inventory of (ie, you got 20 in stock to sell).

You website or ebay store costs you far less to list the item, so why charge more for it? It's to your advantage to sell as much as possible from your store - not from your auction, where there are listing and final value fees. The auction is merely an advertising mechanism to drive people to your store when ever possible.

Buyers also like the convenience of instant purchases - so long as they think they are getting a good deal. The idea is to always close the sale. If you put out a "carrot" that they "might" get the item much cheaper at auction, then you're encouraging them to not only wait around for the auction to close, but you are discouraging them buying from the store. Any delays when you have a buyer ready to buy will lose sales.

If they can get the same deal (or better) in the store, and get it immediately, then you've closed the deal. Make it a no-brainer purchase.

Rich

goodworks1 · Joined: 06 May 2002 Posts: 22

It was my understanding that ebay would not allow a seller to link to any item on a website that was sold for the same or less-than the ebay listing price.

Has that changed along the line sometime in the past 3 years????

WitchyWomyn · Joined: 10 Aug 2003 Posts: 1

The sellers listing prices are, in a manner of speaking, regulated by eBay if the seller has a website or ecommerce site. Savy sellers are well aware of the linking and pricing policy. If they aren't, eBay jerks them back in line very fast.

See their policy:

Links from your About Me Page
You may link to your own Web store or Web site. However, you may not directly offer any non-eBay merchandise on the About Me page itself.

eBay does not permit its users to place the following types of links on your About Me pages:

Links that directly offer any non-eBay listing or merchandise on the About Me page itself.
Links to other online trading sites or pages, including auctions and fixed-price formats. Learn more
Links to sites offering the same merchandise for the same or lower price (including the Buy It Now price).

Address of this page: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

DianesVintageStore

From the Ask Nick column:

goodworks1 · Joined: 06 May 2002 Posts: 22

Nick said:

Tradguy · Joined: 15 Sep 2002 Posts: 519 Location: Florida

Everyone is correct - you can't link to your website - but you can link to your Ebay store directly, and promote your Ebay store fully within your auctions. In your store you can list an unlimited quantity of any single item for a listing fee of only .05/month - so its a great way to average down your auction listing fees.

I promote my website in other ways - the about me page, email signatures, and discount cards with every purchase.

Back to the original question...my only point was that if you want to encourage people to buy from your store/website, then don't charge more than your auction price.

I've actually seen websites that link back to their ebay auctions - where they are selling the same stuff at a discount to the store price. That seems rather counter-productive to me.

Rich

DianesVintageStore · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2003 7:41 pm Post subject: What was the Question, again?

This is the original question to Nick:

DianesVintageStore

OK Rich, I see what you are getting at. The original question doesn't specify eBay stores. Perhaps an item is priced higher in the store in anticipation a buyer would be willing to pay a premium for getting it now, particularly if the seller doesn't use the BIN feature on their auctions. Also, a buyer may be 'fearful' the winning bid will exceed the price at the eBay store.

Other than that, I think sellers should have an OFF-SITE store front for a real Retail environment if they want higher prices on their fixed price merchandise.
_________________
Diane
Diane's Vintage Store Website
http://www.dianesvintagestore.com

Diane's Vintage Store at Ruby Lane
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/dianesvintagestore

DianesVintageStore · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2003 7:52 pm Post subject: Is the other one better?

mbright1 · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2003 8:24 pm Post subject:

"I've actually seen websites that link back to their ebay auctions - where they are selling the same stuff at a discount to the store price.
That seems rather counter-productive to me."

It is counter-productive... and presents an obvious conflict.

I have never promoted or cross-linked my auction activities and direct selling activites just for that reason.

A lot of people out there don't shop at Kmart, or Walmart, or ever stepped foot inside an auction house, flea-market or a Goodwill store either...

What kind of personna do you want to present to the visitors to YOUR site? Mr. Haney or Fred Sanford, or something a little more upscale?

High bracket luxury items are suffering in our poor economy, but that doesn't mean we have to revert to the other extreme - low prices above all else.

Quality versus the cheap stuff, you tell me? Primary markets (retail) versus secondary markets (auctions, etc.)
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Friends use the Back Door - eDale-Trading.com

lovepotions · Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 5 Location: Pasadena, CA

Most of my prices are the same in all 3 venues

Many of my website prices are a bit higher.

They are lower on Ebay for simple math.

Initial listing prices.....

I have a fixed inventory that I launch in bulk twice a week (except the summer slower period).

An item on my site that is properly priced at $10.49-$12 would cost 55 cents to list on Ebay twice each week

Items listed at $9.99 have 30 cent listing fees

So an Item that should sell for $10.49-$12 listed 100 times a year would cost me $55

Reducing the price to $9.99 has an annual listing fee total of $30

I list between 420-980 items a week PLUS a fully stocked Ebay store. That 25 cent difference per piece makes a HUGE difference.

You can do the math.....

As a "Product Line" seller of course I do not have a buy (most items are at fixed price) every week on every item so these fees collectively add up.

People on Ebay don't want to spend more than $10 on ANYTHING except rare collectibles etc etc. I sell mostly lotions, oils and other "Romantic" body products and gift sets

People who buy from my website are NOT Ebay mentality cheapskates. They like what I sell and agree to the shown prices. It also has quite a few former bidders. Those who notice any higher prices are more than welcome to go back to my auctions and/or Ebay store. Even the higher prices on my website are lower than industry standard prices for this industry.
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http://www.lovepotions.com

Ina · Joined: 02 Aug 2001 Posts: 452 Location: Massachusetts, USA

Interesting stuff. To go back to the linking issue, eBay's policy is confusing and can be interpreted in two ways:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/index_popup.html?policies=listing-links.html

1) That you can link to your site (from your About Me page) period; and that you can't link to third-party sites that offer the goods cheaper

Or you could read it as

2) You can link to your site, but not if you are offering things cheaper.

As someone pointed out, since eBay is an auction format, how do you compare a fixed price on a Web site versus the starting bid on an auction, which if eBay is doing its job of bringing in bidders, should increase the final sale price?

Anyhow, I asked Nick how he interprets the policy, and he goes with #1. In my experience, it doesn't matter if I get the "official" word from eBay, what counts is if the customer service rep at eBay who is making the judgement call believes it or not. There is not always a lot of consistency with reps.

(I just got a letter from a reader who was selling 100 wedding invitations, your choice of color ink. Their auctions were pulled and they were told to do a dutch auction if they wanted to list choice of color. Doh! And of course, other sellers are selling "100 wedding invitations.")
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Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com