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How to start

Select an auction site that has a large number of registered users. The front-runner obviously is E-bay, and a good place to start your online auctions business. All that you need to do is to register yourself as a seller, and the site will provide you a place to sell your products. Obviously, you need products to sell. If you are a manufacturer then you have no problems. Otherwise, you need to cut deals with manufacturers or wholesalers to give you products at rates that are less than the market rates.

Simultaneously, you must set up your own site. For this, you need to register a domain name and buy hosting space. An ideal place to do so is a domain name registrar which provides both the services. This site you should hyperlink to E-bay. This means that you direct all customers who come to your site to the E-bay store when they click on the Bid button. The advantage of doing this is that you will be making use of E-bay tools to sell your products and also build your own e-commerce site.

Description of items

This is the most critical part of any online auctions business. The description must be eye-grabbing, and motivate the customer to place an order. Suppose you are a seller of rare Persian rugs. Now, how do you describe the products? The best way is to search for rugs of the same kind. This will give you a list of keywords that you used to locate the Persian rug. Make sure these keywords are included in your description.

Also remember that the buyer is only seeing an image. To take a decision he needs to know the condition of the rug, size of the rug, the year of manufacture, the place of manufacture, shipping cost etc. Your objective should be to provide all relevant details, even facts that may appear minor to you.

Pricing

The best thing about online auctions business is that you can get a better price than you anticipate. There is therefore no harm in starting with a low price and letting the bidders raise the bar. You must remember that a low starting price will encourage more buyers to enter the bidding fray. Having tasted blood, they are unlikely to move out until the price reaches a stage where a bidder feels that the purchase is no longer worth it. In contrast, a high reserve price will drive away several bidders and defeat the purpose of selling your product on an online auction business site.

Payments

You should give the buyers an option to pay through check, credit card, banker's check, electronic bank transfer, or Pay Pal. However, for check payments make it clear that the product will be shipped only after the payment has been realized. Please remember that the buyer is making a payment before receiving the product. He would therefore like an electronic trail in case the seller does a vanishing act. The payment should include the shipping and handling costs too. Don't surprise the customer by asking him to pay the courier at delivery time. It is a bad business practice and may rebound.

Feedback

Most online auctions business sites encourage buyers and sellers to describe their experience. You, too, should encourage your customer to leave feedback once the transaction is over and the product has been received by the customer. Online feedback is a great positive testimonial. It gives confidence to new buyers.

Investment

Your investment is getting a domain name, which at a low-priced registrar is available for $10 a year. Hosting services can be obtained for 100 to 300 dollars a year. Registration cost on an online auction site is very small to none. The online site charges a listing fee, which depends upon the cost of the product, and a final value fee which is a percentage of the sale value. In other words, you can start an online auctions business for less than $300. You are assured of regular traffic, your store is open 24 hours, seven days a week. Simultaneously, your own site is getting popular. What more do you want? Start your online auctions business today.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:11 AM