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Turning a niche eBay store into something more?

by helpinghand182
3 replies
Hi all

For the last year my father has been running an eBay store from home part time and its being going very well. Its based on selling camera lenses primarily but he has over 300 positive feedback and is making 2 -3 sales a week with a high profit margin. He has a very good reputation.
What I am wondering is there any further possibilities to monetize this niche market or basically untapped potential to be exploited with a bit of hard work !
#ebay #niche #store #turning
  • Profile picture of the author RyanGillam
    I am pretty sure camera lenses isn't that niche! In fact, it is a pretty huge business! The problem you are going to face is that lenses are expensive. People tend to have something specific in mind an they won't buy one again for a while (most of the time!) in addition to this, they buy a lens once and it is unlikely they will need to purchase the lens again. However, here are a couple of suggestions of mine:

    1. Set up an online store. Since you are in Ireland you can also set up a feed for Google Base (shopping) for free. Fantastic way to generate traffic and I have sold loads of physical goods via this method, even if normal SEO wasn't good

    2. Print out tiny little slips to put into the products you send out. Direct them towards your website with a discount of 10% on their first purchase. Now, you may think you are losing money, but you are not since you won't be paying the eBay fees. The benefit here is the customer knows about your website AND you can get them on your mailing list.

    3. Sell more than camera lenses. You want lens cleaning accessories, lens bags, anything related to lenses. You DO NOT need to expand to cameras at this point, perhaps something to consider in the future however?

    4. Use the mailing list you build. Market offers etc. You may even be able to get a couple of affiliate programs which offer prints of photographs. Not sure who is out there though! Obviously Jessops don't do it anymore (they had a program!)

    and that is everything I can think of right now! Apart from the obvious such as SEO on your site etc. Just market like crazy! Sell on both eBay and your site!
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    • Profile picture of the author helpinghand182
      Originally Posted by RyanGillam View Post

      I am pretty sure camera lenses isn't that niche! In fact, it is a pretty huge business! The problem you are going to face is that lenses are expensive. People tend to have something specific in mind an they won't buy one again for a while (most of the time!) in addition to this, they buy a lens once and it is unlikely they will need to purchase the lens again. However, here are a couple of suggestions of mine:

      1. Set up an online store. Since you are in Ireland you can also set up a feed for Google Base (shopping) for free. Fantastic way to generate traffic and I have sold loads of physical goods via this method, even if normal SEO wasn't good

      2. Print out tiny little slips to put into the products you send out. Direct them towards your website with a discount of 10% on their first purchase. Now, you may think you are losing money, but you are not since you won't be paying the eBay fees. The benefit here is the customer knows about your website AND you can get them on your mailing list.

      3. Sell more than camera lenses. You want lens cleaning accessories, lens bags, anything related to lenses. You DO NOT need to expand to cameras at this point, perhaps something to consider in the future however?

      4. Use the mailing list you build. Market offers etc. You may even be able to get a couple of affiliate programs which offer prints of photographs. Not sure who is out there though! Obviously Jessops don't do it anymore (they had a program!)

      and that is everything I can think of right now! Apart from the obvious such as SEO on your site etc. Just market like crazy! Sell on both eBay and your site!
      Great reply thanks!Ya he sells a specific lens that people want to buy so thats where the niche side comes into play! For now I am simply going to set up a site seo the hell of it and see if I can drive traffic to his store!
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      You can't manage what you can't measure..
      Business founder(thegrowth.school) & growth consultant.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dave Espino
        Hey helpinghand182,

        I've been building email lists of my eBay customers for years. (in fact, my very first eBook "Beyond eBay" was all about this strategy)

        This is what you want to do - build a list from all those one-time sales so that you can sell them new or related items over and over again.

        The idea of sending along a little flyer in your shipments is good so you can send them to an opt-in form and get them on your list that way, but right along with that, there is a more automated way of getting these valuable customers onto your email list.

        I'd like to give your father and you access to my new Beyond eBay video course. Just send me a PM and I will send you access. It's very powerful stuff that I know will help!

        Dave

        PS: Oops. just noticed that you can't PM me, so I am PMing you with the details.
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        I make several $1000s a month (passive income) on Udemy and here's how YOU can, too...

        Get your FREE UDEMY MINI-COURSE here:

        http://daveespino.com/FreeMiniCourse-Sig
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