posted on May 30, 2001 11:26:42 PM new
Well the summer selling slump is coming on for many of us.
A traditional approach is lowering prices to attract buyers.
I'm trying something different starting this week with the preowned items I offer where the BIN price is at or near the opening bid.
Maybe it won't last long and I'll be slashing prices by mid June but for now I'm listing/relisting at a 50% increase in prices. In the cases where I offered a Lot of 6 items I'm reducing it to 4 items and keeping the old price which is the same as a 50% price increase.
At first it sounds crazy but take a look at the math.
Lets say I've been selling a hundred preowned items a month at $10.00 each with a $5.00 net profit for a total of $500. in my pocket for 100 transactions.
With the summer slump my sales fall to fifty units a month and I cut my price to $7.00 to attract business. So I make $2.00 each on 50 sales and end up with $100. profit.
Plan B is to raise my price to $15.00 per unit. I might only sell 15 unit a month but I make $10.00 on each unit for a total of $150.00 and only have to process a few orders.
Now this won't work for every product and you will have to do your own math but it is worth trying.
Preowned items always have a price range and although you might have to have a mid- range price to attract the largest number of sales a few buyers will pay top price if it's what they want and is available NOW.
Making the best of weak demand may take thinking outside of the box.
What's your best idea for surviving the summer slump.
posted on May 31, 2001 04:32:54 AM new
Last year August was my #1 month of the year.
My strategy was to sell the best items I could that I had the LEAST investment in. So I picked a good mix, some collectibles, some antiques, quite a number of books that collectors in specialty categories might want (i.e. a hunting or trapping book in the hunting category), and sales were great, not only that, but it was the most profitable month I had by far.
What I didn't do was sacrifice the top-quality antiques & books I had in inventory, or sell things I had a larger investment in too close to their cost.
Worked out really well.
This year I have an even different strategy, tell you about it if it succeeds!
