Once you’ve gained some valuable experience on eBay and become well-versed in sourcing products, writing product descriptions, managing auctions, selling different products in different categories, and dealing with customers, you can start thinking BIG!

“Thinking big” means that instead of selling a few products in various categories, you aim to target one particular category, launch your products onto that market, and blow the competition away!

There are two main scenarios when this strategy becomes particularly useful:

1. You’ve just been offered a great deal on a LOT of stock of one particular item such as, for example, 2,000 pairs of shoes. In this case, the stock will take up a lot of valuable warehouse space, so you’ll want to sell them fairly quickly to make room for more stock. And you’ll also want to get a good return on what you paid for the shoes as soon as possible to keep your cash flow going.

2. You’ve spotted a gap in the market and want to get in fast, exploit it, then get out before other sellers catch on and the market becomes flooded.

You can make good money in both of these scenarios — but you need to work through the following four keys steps to have a chance of dominating your chosen eBay category.

Four steps to dominating an eBay category

Step #1. Research your market…and your competition

The first step involves using all of the research techniques outlined in Lesson 3 and digging deep into the category you’re thinking of entering. A research tool like Terapeak or Hammertap’s DeepAnalysis is very useful here.

You need to use your research to find answers to the following questions:

* What products are selling?
* What products are not selling?
* Who are the top sellers?
* How are they selling their products?
* What are the conversion rates for key products in the category?
* What’s the average selling price in the category?

Using this information, you can work out which products would be the best to sell on this category; what the optimum way to list them is — in terms of the best listing strategy (e.g., starting price, title, auction duration, and auction type); the best listing features to use (e.g., gallery and subtitle); and how to write and design the most effective product descriptions.

Researching the competition in detail is an important aspect of this fact-finding mission. Once you have identified the movers and shakers of a particular category, you need to get to know them. Read their feedback to see what their customers are complaining about, examine their product descriptions, and buy from them so you can analyze their sales process and check out their products.

By improving on what the other sellers in the category are doing well, and making sure that you don’t make the same mistakes they’re making, you will be able to compete with them from the get-go.

Step #2: Find good sources of products — not just one source, but lots of sources!

In order to dominate, you need to be able to find enough products to sell, and buy them at a price that allows you to make a good profit. The sellers who succeed in entering a new category and dominating it are the ones who find a variety of sources for products to sell.

For example, you may find that there is a demand for a certain style of T-shirt. To dominate the market for it and take advantage of this high demand, you might find a great source who is willing to sell you 50 of these T-shirts at a good price. However, once you buy his stock, that’s it! There’s no more. So you need to find multiple sources and buy from each of them to give yourself enough stock to really dominate the category.

Step #3: Set a competitive price (but not necessarily the lowest!)

Price is crucial on eBay, and setting a price involves making sure that it’s low enough to compete with other sellers, but high enough to generate a decent profit margin for you. You have to be particularly careful with pricing if you’re looking to list a lot of the same or similar items and dominate a category.

If you manage to buy your stock at a low price, then you can afford to set very competitive “Buy It Now” prices or take the risk of listing at low starting prices with no reserves. If your profit margins depend on achieving a certain minimum selling price, then you should set starting prices that are closer to those figures.

Generally, however, setting a competitive price doesn’t mean setting the lowest price. That’s because buyers are often willing to pay a little bit more to buy from a seller with a great reputation. And that’s where Step #4 comes in!

Step #4: Build the best reputation in the category

Many buyers are willing to pay a little bit more if they see that the seller meets several criteria that together add up to a solid eBay reputation. Make sure your customer service is top-notch, your feedback is spotless, and your buyers know everything they need to know about your product and sales process. Always under-promise and over-deliver!

Use these four steps and you will dominate each and every product category in which you choose to list auctions.

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