"Selling items on an online auction site is a low-cost way to test your skills as an entrepreneur," Tony Lee, editor-in-chief of StartUpJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal's site for small businesses, said. "Selling online through eBay, Amazon.com and others can fill an income gap."
Enthused consumers take to the streets, singing a schmaltzy tribute to an online retailer to the tune of a famous Frank Sinatra song. The cable TV spot ends with the consumers proudly proclaiming they went shopping "eBay," with the same intense emotion old Blue Eyes sang that he lived life "My Way."
The technology that powers the online auctions at eBay.com -- and other online sites -- actually is creating a new way of life for many. Online entrepreneurs are springing up once again, as if it were the boom era of the 1990s, this time selling goods nationally with the same relaxed air of an old fashioned flea market.
Though Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, the former Democratic Party nominee for vice president, portrayed eBay during the just completed presidential campaign as a "lemonade stand," experts told United Press International many formerly unemployed individuals became hard-charging online entrepreneurs via the Web during the past few years.
Entrepreneurial Skills
"Selling items on an online auction site is a low-cost way to test your skills as an entrepreneur," Tony Lee, editor-in-chief of StartUpJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal's site for small businesses, told UPI's The Web in a statement. "Selling online through eBay, Amazon.com and others can fill an income gap. Online marketplaces have made it easy for new entrepreneurs to get started with minimal investments."
Authors even are writing books about how to do business on eBay, giving would-be technology entrepreneurs tips and techniques to succeed in today's increasingly competitive online environment.
"There are a lot of breakthroughs," Joseph T. Sinclair, author of "eBay Business: The Smart Way" (American Management Association Books), told UPI's The Web.
Sinclair, who lives in the San Francisco bay area, said there are more than 50 million registered users on eBay alone but they are making moves to "double" their presence online by redeploying the raw data they use to set up their digital ads on eBay.
"To create an eBay ad, you submit data, via a computer server," Sinclair said. "But people are now keeping copies of the data within their own business. They're keeping it in their own databases. Then they extend it -- and use the data on Froogle (an e-commerce site set up by search engine Google.com)."
Doubling the Exposure
Sinclair said it is possible the Froogle marketplace is as big as eBay in terms of users for e-commerce.
"I have no data to back this up -- no one else does either," he said. "But it is an observation. I think people are taking their data feeds and doubling their exposure online. That has the possibility of doubling their marketplace."
There is qualitative, if not quantitative data, to back-up this provocative thesis. Other technology entrepreneurs are developing software specially designed to link would-be online entrepreneurs to eBay, with a minimal amount of hassle. "We offer a product for small businesses called eBay Connector," Brian Chernicky, a spokesman for Aplus.net, a host of small business sites online, at ebayconnector.com. "That ties in our customers' online store inventories with eBay."
Many entrepreneurs are using the online marketplaces to debut new products they also plan to sell in the regular retail marketplace, experts said.
The firm Play Angry Golf Gear has had "much success selling a new line of golf clothing with eBay," spokeswoman Amy Levy told UPI.
Some, though, simply are starting businesses around the electronic infrastructure of eBay, treating it as if it were a giant, electronic Mall of America.
Startup Business
"My fiancee and I run a small watch business, both on and off eBay," Iya Davidson, a small business owner, told The Web. "We've had some interesting experiences."
Another such entrepreneur is Stella Kleiman, creator of foundvalue.com. She left a job at an Internet company back in 2001 to create her company because she wanted a more flexible work schedule, and wanted to take advantage of emerging Internet technology.
She started selling the nick-knacks that cluttered her home.
Once online, she formed a network of other salespeople and now they serve as agents for people who want to sell their goods online but don't want to take the time setting up their own online presence.
"We've pioneered an exciting new service that will forever change the way people think of their possessions," Kleiman said.
Other entrepreneurs are providing certification for those who don't have online sales skills, but wish to sell on the Web. Last month, a Colorado Springs, Colorado, firm, Internet Business Skills, worked with eBay and launched the eBay Certified Provider Program. The program certifies organizations by providing listing services and seller solutions so entrepreneurs can find "new market channels for existing products," said Randy Ching, vice president of the company's eBay platform solutions group.
Varying Prices
So far, 17 companies have signed up for the service. Another firm, Vendio, works with 10,000 small businesses that sell on eBay, a spokesman told The Web.
Products available online can be quite expensive -- not just one-off items one might find at a lemonade stand. One company, RubyLane.com, sells unique products like a wooden Egyptian sarcophagus from 500 B.C. for US$80,000.
These new entrepreneurs, however, don't just put out an online shingle and do business, Sinclair said. They have to learn some HTML and Web design to make their site look good, they need to pick the best type of auction for each set of goods they sell, and they need to experiment with ad copy to see what sells, he added. They also have to guard against credit card fraud.
As in any business, however, there are problems online. Earlier this week, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that eight eBay sellers were ordered to pay about $90,000 in restitution to 120 customers, stemming from three cases in state court in New York. The sellers were accused of making false bids and driving up the auction price of their goods, including a 1999 Jeep Cherokee sports utility vehicle that was sold online.
Source: ECommerce Times
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