Selling on eBay Using Best Offers to Increase Your Revenue by Craig Stark 22 June 2009

It's no secret that most booksellers aren't making a killing this summer. I hear or read something about it every day. Blame it on the economy, the season, ever-increasing competition - whatever. Apart from applying the serious, long-term strategy we so often recommend in our premium newsletters, is there anything that you can do now to increase your revenue?

With this question in mind, I conducted an experiment with one of my eBay Stores last month. Using Comsulting's Bulk Reviser - see a review of this software here - I added the Best Offer feature to every one of that Store's books (about 1500 strong). I'm sure most of us have heard all of the arguments against doing this more than once, perhaps the most persistent being that you'll all but guarantee not getting your listed prices. And I can tell you, one month later, that this is exactly right. You won't.

But think about this: How many challenged businesses are sitting on their prices right now, let alone raising them? And how many consumers are expecting lower prices? Or refusing to pay full price? For that matter, when was the last time you re-priced your inventory? If it's been six months, a year or longer, you might be in for a rude awakening if you check your prices against your competition's. Let's face it; there are good times and bad times, and if you make no adjustments during the bad times, you might not come out of them with your business intact.

Prior to launching this experiment, my sales out of this Store comprised approximately 25% to 35% of my total fixed-price venue sales, with Amazon Marketplace typically being my best performer. The month previous they comprised 38%.