Doing my eBay sums......

Good evening!!

I decided after 3 months trading to do the sums on my eBay sales - in the first 3 months, as you can imagine, for someone starting from scratch, my eBay shop was generating most of my sales.  The website obviously is more of a slow burner, which I knew.

So I sat down in the quiet one afternoon, and downloaded all my eBay statements (all three of them!!) and got to work on Excel - as a "Lady Geek", I am never more at home than when messing about in a spreadsheet. (www.ladygeek.com)

Well, here are the horrible facts.  I had sold £400 of toys.  eBay had pocketed £80, and I walked away with a princely sum of £8 gross profit (after postage and all eBay fees, but before packaging).  Ouch.  That's alot of hassle for 8 quid.

Now this isn't eBay's fault - they even helpfully showed this worrying data on a graph (not my costs obviously), if I had bothered to read the statements before.  Thank goodness I did the sums before I got too far in.

So I cancelled my shop for the time being and then worked out, product by product, whether it was worth selling it on eBay.  I got down to 20 items from about 50.  I realised that some of my brands were pointless on there, because the competition is too fierce, and of course no sale is better than a sale at a loss (where there is little customer loyalty to be had by discounting).

I sort of understand why some brands won't let their retailers sell on eBay and Amazon, because I do think it can destroy the value, and perhaps ultimately make people stop stocking them.  I find it highly hypocritical though when they then sell direct themselves at cut prices on those sites, which makes it harder for both the online seller and traditional bricks-and-mortar toy seller.

Its a cut-throat internet retailing world out there, so you need to have your target market clearly in mind, and I have definitely paid more attention to the bottom line after taking everything into account, which I didn't always do in the first flush of excitement.

I don't usually plug my stuff on here, as I think that's a bit boring, but its near Christmas so what the heck.

New Stock Alert!!!

You may have noticed but I have an online shop :)
I have some new stock arriving this week, from a Dutch rival to the You-Know-Who construction toy, and is largely compatible with their toddler range, but 40% cheaper.  Here are some sneaky peeks at the new stuff:

www.rachelstoyshop.co.uk

Sluban Big Blocks Farm Animals Set - £9.99

Sluban Big Blocks Merry-Go-Round - £13.99