Ebay Offshoots - Second Generation Ecommerce Solutions

A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill

Ecommerce Solutions Spawned by Ebay

While we all think of eBay as the number one online auction service, its ecommerce capabilities have proven to be the ideal, low-cost, low-risk solution for those who want to try their hand at a retail start-up business but don't have a ton of ready cash for brick and mortar expenses and marketing costs. There are now more than 50 million registered eBay users, more than half of whom consider themselves burgeoning small business owners.

Entrepreneurs all over the globe have started their firms with a few easily marketable products - perhaps even items they owned personally - learning lessons about economics, bookkeeping and marketability at the same time.

Ebay Spin-off Ecommerce Solution Vendors

One firm, APlus.net, offers an ecommerce solution called eBay Connector, which, for $99 each month will take your businesses' products and load them to the eBay site, posting product, description, company name, and photos. You can choose from the standard auction process, where folks bid on your products, or fixed price where you post a set asking price.

You then choose the category and sub-category where your item will appear, indicate the selling price and the quantity of each item you have available for sale, and the length of time you will make your items available on eBay (if you're using the ecommerce standard auction solution you can post for as few as one day. Otherwise, the options are 3, 5, 7 or 10 days.) You then indicate your location, and add any photos.

Testing the Ecommerce Solution Waters with Ebay

If you're a start-up or established business with a new product or products that you're not sure will take off, eBay may well be the way to introduce it with a minimal volume and minimal cost. Many firms are doing so successfully.

One ecommerce solution business is actually making a profit teaching people to profit from eBay. (Many books are being written about it as well.) The new firm Internet Business Skills focuses on eBay, Yahoo and Amazon as the solution for start-up ecommerce business success. Their Entrepreneur Package, for instance, is one solution to your lack of ecommerce marketing skills. The $1210 package offers help with sales and marketing, driving traffic to your products, templates, pricing, as well as 30 days of management and advice.

For those who have more advanced knowledge of ecommerce, the solution to the problems that might come up from time to time is their Hourly Package. It allows you to pay as you go, for as much or as little ecommerce advice as you need. All that is required to start this service is a $50 deposit.

One of the unique advantages to using online auction sites is that it's the ideal place to sell one-of-a-kind high ticket items. These are the types of things that you can't afford to order in bulk - even if you could even find them in bulk - can't afford the advertising and marketing to find the selective market for the product, and need a ready audience to market effectively.