eCommerce for one absolute begginer

Hi,

I don't want to mess around with fancy intro texts...so I'll keep it basic with questions only...in paragraphs - for easy reading

• Selling - I have some ideas abotu selling my merchandise on the internet...and also I have some things in my garage that I would like to sell...so what's the best move for me? Is it making my own web shop, or making one on eBay? I would like to make my shop a bit more flexibile than "my own only", in terms that I would like other people to sell and buy on it...basically something like small eBay, if that statement's not too ridiculous.

• If I start with that littleBay project, what system should I use to make my profits? I would like to say that I'm not totally familiar with eBay's profiting scheme, and I'm not shure if I can use it on my shop, i.e. do I need to pay to PayPal or similar service in order to make cash transfers.

That's about all for now, I think...

Basically, I would like to set up my own shop but instead a real physical one, I would like to go with on line version, because I don't have time or money to buy and adapt my own business space...

So, any good advices are appreciated...thanks in advance

 

Depending on your location, Paypal might be one option. Usually for United States merchants doing more than $1,000 a month, a merchant account can be a bit easier to maintain and you would usually be at your break even point.

Advertising on eBay might be better for you in the long run - you get the "ebayers". And the consider having your own store - especially for those who will not use eBay or Paypal for whatever reason.

Yes you might have heard of problems with Paypal but keep in mind, they are a large company and have a lot of customers. And the larger you get, the more chances you have of not pleasing everyone. And since you will hear more about complaints than compliments, it might be good to keep that in mind as well.

 

Hi,

I will give you some harsh advice. If you are not fully aware of how this works yet and don't have thousands and thousands of dollars to spend on building a system which interacts and manages other peoples items like on Ebay then I would think seriously about this project again. You will need to take into account marketing (which for small stores can be very expensive and long term to gain the visitors it sounds like you need) and build costs (it's not cheap to make an interactive system like Ebay, why do you think no one has managed to compete with them, even though there system is not perfect? I would think about simply setting up a one way store rather than a custom job like Littlebay