Is selling on eBay the way to go or should you sell your items using your own website? Which route is better? Should you try selling on your own website to avoid eBay fees?
We got asked this question on Instagram recently, so we thought we’d talk about why we prefer to sell on eBay. We agree nobody wants to pay eBay fees, but for us, it’s worth it.
eBay Has Built-In Advertising
We use eBay because it gets eyes on your items and traffic to your listing. If someone goes to Google and types in an item, eBay’s listings for that item typically pop up on the page. eBay has search engine optimization that can help you rank on the first page of Google if you have a unique item. You’re not paying to get that traffic on the front page of Google because eBay does that for you. They’re getting that in front of your buyers immediately.
If you were running advertising on your own website, you would have to pay to get on Google’s front page, which can be expensive. It’s not usually feasible and it cuts into your profits.
eBay charges you a small price via their fees to get your item out there and seen by more people. If you have items that are high competition on eBay, you’re not necessarily going to get onto Google. We sell unique items that typically don’t have a ton of competition. And for what we do, it’s way easier to pay eBay for the fees and still make a ton of money on the high profit items that we’re buying and selling.
Creating Your Own Store
To sell on your own website or Shopify store, you have to know how to build the website or spend time learning it. You spend money on the website, the hosting, and the advertising.
You could create your own branding and have a Shopify store for $39 a month, and you could cross post your listings there. We’ve tried it, but it was a headache to get things listed and it just didn’t work out.
I’ve even tried Facebook ads to see if I could pay Facebook less than we’d pay in eBay fees for some of our larger items and it never panned out. You do have to pay for traffic to a personal website though. Paying for traffic can be a lot and it is almost like reinventing the wheel.
Evaluate If A Store Is Worth It
It could be worth it if you have a specific niche and build a brand through SEO because you’d be constantly talking about the same kind of item. You’re trying to show Google search that you know what you’re talking about on this topic, so you could build it out to where you’re known for that.
For people who sell different items, it’s probably not worth it.
It’s just a matter of how much you want to spend on it and how much work you want to put into it. Would it be more costly than actually just paying eBay their fees? For us, it would be. We know this.
It definitely boils down to what you’re selling. It is way more economical, way easier for us just to pay eBay the fees for bringing us those buyers.
Show Notes
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