A question I am always asked is Why eBay ? And I will always reply why not eBay. And before we go any further yes I do sell on other platforms and markets. But eBay is and will always be my first place to sell items, and while the other ecommerce platforms will bring in some traffic and sales eBay in most cases will out sell the others.

Why eBay ?

Let’s look at the why eBay from a different angle. You set up a web-site but before the site can go active you need to have it designed and planned and this can cost serious money. Then you need to have it hosted on a secure server, and credit card processing, and then after you have spent a lot of money you need to drive the traffic to your store, and out of this traffic will come buyers. But you will be having to drive the site traffic on a daily basis.

But you then have the eBay model – free to join, free to sign-up for the credit card processing with Paypal. (yes there are the fees with the above two items, but any business has fees. And if you have a shop the basic one is cheap and can test the waters for you.

But eBay has a brand name that is recognized all over the world, and it is not only the name, but the colours eBay use are recognized. You are allowed to sell your items in one of the worlds best known and loved market-places.

Once you have added your listing and added a good title, and some clear pictures and press the launch button, your item will be available to a world wide market, and all this can be done from the comfort of your own home. A fairy story – yes back in the mid ‘90’s but today no. Many thousands of people are making a good full time income by adding items on a regular basis to the eBay market-place and then letting the power of a well known brand name make it’s magic happen in your business.

**A side note……… You will still need to promote your eBay store, in blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc, but this can be low key. You cannot expect eBay to do all the marketing, and we should do some work**

At times you can list items in your eBay store, and within a few days you can have had hundreds of people viewing your items. And the cost pennies to list and the small fee for a store. You cannot match those small costs. If you have a brink and mortar store or a standard web site your ongoing costs will be well higher.

So in closing “Why eBay” – you have a world-wide brand name in both eBay, and PayPal. You have millions of people visiting the eBay platform on a daily basis, $62 billion a year in sales, 60% of that total at Buy it Now, every 5 seconds a mobile phone is sold, every 9 seconds a pair of shoes is sold and every 2 minutes a car is sold, add this with 97 million active buyers and sellers, 200 million listings and 25 million people who make a full time living from selling on the eBay platform. Is that a reason Why eBay ?

Just go and list and make money.