eBay is the living embodiment of a peer-to-peer online marketplace. Unlike Amazon, eBay presents a more unique and untapped eCommerce atmosphere and generated over $10 billion in revenue last year. With more than 180 million active buyers and nearly 2 billion transactions per day, eBay continues to provide enormous business opportunities in 2021.
As an eCommerce seller, there are inherent advantages that stem from using eBay as your preferred (or complimentary) marketplace. These include integrated platform features like:
- Auctions
- Variable Fees
- Established Marketplace
- Flexible Shipping & Returns
- Enhanced Seller Controls
- Broader Market Exposure
Overall, the eBay marketplace is more niche-specific. Built initially upon a collector and used-goods persona, eBay has expanded into different retail avenues to integrate new and trending products into their competitive marketplace.
The most sought-after goods on eBay include baby products, disposable face masks, camera & photography goods, smartphones, and used apparel. Two product categories that offer high revenue potential include selling collector cards, such as sport and Pokemon cards, and used jewelry.
If selling isn’t your cup of tea, another lucrative business opportunity with eBay includes joining their Partner Network, where you can earn up to 4% commission on the item sale price. With more than 1.4 billion listings and 183 million buyers across 190 markets, the versatility of being an eBay affiliate is boundless.
Circling back to being a seller, one of the most widely leveraged opportunities with eBay includes retail arbitrage. Involving the act of buying products at a lower price and later selling them at a higher price (don’t forget about shipping costs) for a profit.
Before committing to eBay arbitrage, however, it is essential to ask yourself how much time you are willing to commit and which products are most worth your time. Ideally, these goods should be products that you are interested in and can afford to flip from the start.
For example, when starting, it is easier to flip disposable face masks than Rolex watches because the equity requirement is far less. Over time, the margin of profitability may lean towards arbitraging Rolex watches because the margin of profitability can be far more significant. Therefore, you have to ask yourself how much skin you plan to have in the game while also accessing the competition to see which avenues are best for you.