Selling Through Auction Marketplaces
By Nowshade Kabir, Sat Dec 10th

Consumers are increasingly feeling more comfortable in buyingproducts through the Internet. According to a report releasedrecently by the Department of Commerce first-quarter retailsales rose 23.8 percent to US$ 19.8 billion in the United Statesfrom US$ 16 billion a year ago. E-commerce sales during thefirst quarter of 2005 rose 6.4 percent from the fourth quarterof last year. Forrester Research estimated that 2005 onlineretail sales will increase at a pace of 22 percent. Today, athird of all households in US make at least one purchase onlinewithin a year, a figure which will grow to almost 40 percent by2009, predicts Forrester. As a seller, this strong growth ofonline sales means that you have to put considerable stress onyour Internet sales endeavor if you are not doing this as yet.

According to statistics compiled for the Internet Retailer Top400 Guide, the top retailers in 2004 garnered combined onlinesales of more than US$ 51 billion, which accounts for 58.3percent of all US Internet sales. The growth in online sales isquite impressive for large retailers. J.C. Penny Co. Inc., forexample, reported a 35 percent year-over-year rise of onlinesales in May, 2005. Can new online ventures boast same type ofsignificant growth? Unfortunately, not!

Each day, there are thousands of new companies are setting upshops on the Internet trying to sell every conceivable type ofproducts and services. Most of these websites do not attractenough visitors to make them profitable. Competition on theInternet is fierce! Internet marketing campaigns are becomingincreasing expensive. Many small companies can’t afford to spendmoney required to promote their sites. So, what are the optionsavailable for a small company with modest product range tothrive on the Internet? One of the best sales channels, in myopinion, on the Internet by far is auction marketplaces. Ofcourse, no matter what, you will still need to promote yourwebsite with all the methods you can master. However, sellingyour products and services through established auctionmarketplaces has its own advantage.

eBay

With 63.8 million unique visitors hitting the auction site onlyin April of this year, eBay has established itself as thelargest marketplace on earth. In 2004 alone US$ 34.2 billionworth of merchandize exchange hands on eBay. Presently, the sitehas around 135 million registered users in 32 markets worldwide.

With such a vast community of buyers and sellers, eBay should beyour number one choice for selling your products or servicesonline. On the eBay you can sell any kind of item. The varietiesof stuffs people are selling through eBay are mind boggling! Atany given time there are over 29 million items displayed oneBay. The number of new items added each day exceeds 3.5million. However, still many offline sellers perceive eBay as anauction site for mainly collectible items. They can’t be morewrong! The largest selling category on the eBay is, believe itor not, automobile and accessories, which comprises of almost 22percent of all sales. I have, personally, bought three luxurycars over the course of last two years through eBay and I havenothing to complain about.

As a seller on the eBay, the biggest advantage that you gain isthe possibility of becoming from a local merchant to aninternational player over night. If you are already sellingmerchandize to consumers online or offline, eBay gives you anadditional sales channel without any extra cost. If you areplanning to begin selling goods or services through theInternet, eBay allows you to start your business online quicklyand with minimum expenses.

Yahoo

You may have difficulty in imagining the biggest portal on ourplanet as a marketplace, in some countries, like Japan andCanada, Yahoo auction is, actually, doing better than eBay. Inthe US market Yahoo has just announced its intention toeliminate fees charged for using its auction site. This is agood news for even many eBay power sellers. Some of them willdefinitely move to Yahoo in a bid to save on high fees chargedby eBay. The good thing about Yahoo is slowly it is becoming amajor hub for many small business web stores. As a matter offact, according to Yahoo, every eighth online store is nowhosted by Yahoo.

Amazon

Amazon, may be is not as popular as eBay or Yahoo as far asauction marketplace is concerned, however, many auctioneersclaim that some of the products sell better on Amazon than anyother auction marketplace.

Why should you consider selling through auction marketplaces?

Here are some reasons, why auction marketplaces are viable saleschannel for businesses:

•The auction marketplaces are very popular and each of them hashuge community of buyers and sellers. •There is virtually nostart-up cost involved. •No extra overhead is required. •Youreally don’t have to set up a website to start selling. •Easy tolearn.

While determining what to sell through auction marketplaces,choose your products very carefully. Don’t try to sell productslike DVD, cellular phones and similar common items. There areway too many people are trying to sell those products. Do yourresearch before jumping into online auctions. Go through thecategories of your choice. See how your competitors are doing.Check out the listings of sold items. For how much the productsyou intend to list are getting sold for? What keywords yourprospective competitors are using to market these products? Onwhich auction site these products are selling better?

Go with the trend! Travel, cosmetics and jewelry sales areexpected to do better than other categories of e-commerce incoming years. In every category of goods and services you willfind a niche, which is doing fairly well. All you have to do isfind that niche by making extensive and thorough research!

Selling through auction marketplaces like any other businessprocess requires sound judgment and careful planning. Be sure touse them before starting your online sales.

About the author:Nowshade Kabir, is the founder, primary developer and presentCEO of Rusbiz.com – a Global B2B Exchange with solutions tocreate e-catalog, Web store, business process management andother features to run a business online. You can read variousarticles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com .