by RoxH

Created on: October 27, 2009

eBay has long been touted as an excellent route to starting your own business and it's easy to see why people would be lured by the chance to start a business from the comfort of their own home. The eBay site is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, meaning that almost anyone can indulge their entrepreneurial longings, regardless of their previous retail experience. However, with more established, national retail brands making the move to eBay is there really any room left for home based businesses and can ordinary people really still find a spot in the marketplace and make money on eBay?

Over the past ten years eBay has no doubt helped many would-be entrepreneurs start a business on a shoe-string. Those who spotted the potential early on have undeniably cashed in and created genuinely successful and massively profitable businesses selling via eBay and with people across the world still joining eBay in their thousands, day after day it would seem there is an almost limitless market available to those who are interested in starting their own business on eBay. Making money should be a piece of cake, right?

However, as with most things that seem too god to be true the answer just isn't that black and white. Yes, the eBay marketplace is vast and offers fantastic potential to reach a huge number of customers with minimal financial commitment. But, equally for every buyer, for every in demand item there seem to be hundreds of sellers already trading. What's more if you look at the business sellers they all seem to be experienced and long-standing traders. So, you have to ask yourself; is there room for anyone else?

The newcomer to eBay faces two main obstacles. The first is history; buyers rely heavily on feedback ratings when deciding where to purchase and are simply more likely to purchase from someone with hundreds or even thousands of happy customers than a seller with only a few prior sales under their belt. One of the features so critical to the success of eBay can present a real barrier to your own business success. However, there are ways around this if you are willing to take a longer term view. One idea is to sell as a private eBay member first, build your rating by selling your own household junk - people are far more accepting of eBay newbies in the second-hand market. You can also build up your rating by buying some inexpensive items for yourself, but bear in mind you will need some ratings as a seller also.

The second difficulty faced by those

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>