Strapped for cash? Many make extra money through online sales
Consumer focus: Online sales If you need extra money, e-commerce can fill your wallet and provide your family with some added income
Published: June 15, 2009, 12:30 am
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Dana Truesdale first supplemented her part-time income when she was a teenager in North Tonawanda Senior High School, selling beaded necklaces at the cafeteria lunch tables.
“The underclassmen bought them up like ice cream in July,” she said.
Last year, just as the economy began to falter and put families on high alert, she returned to her entrepreneurial roots, selling handcrafted artwork online at www.Etsy.com . “The income really depends on how many pieces I sell and the pricing on each, so it varies month to month,” she said. “But it is an extra we are glad to have.”
More than 200 of her clay Wee Creatures, tiny Intimacies sculptures and beaded Goddess anklets—ranging in price from about $7 to $24— have sold in the past year. With additional exposure and word of mouth via her personal Facebook page, sales are really heating up.
The money is a welcome addition to the full-time salaries of Truesdale and her husband, Derek, especially as they raise their two young daughters. She is a representative for a local mortgage firm, he delivers mail for the U. S. Postal Service.
Frugal spenders with little debt, the Truesdales use the additional money to afford things such as vacations and other luxuries they might not otherwise be able to buy.
“It allows us to do the leisure things we want and not feel the pinch,” she said. “It’s great to…have something on the side.”
As Western New Yorkers look to tighten up their finances in this new day of economic anxiety, many are discovering there are no other items to cut from the budget. So they are turning to a second option —earning more.
Thanks to the abundance of user-friendly e-commerce Web sites, earning money through sales is now easier than ever. Such heavily trafficked sites give sellers access to a ready-made audience of shoppers for a relatively low price. Here are a couple of handy selling/shopping sites:
• www.eBay.com is the obvious Internet marketplace giant. You’ve probably heard of friends and neighbors bringing in hundreds of extra dollars listing things they find in their attic. The site is so well-known and popular — it has had more than 55 million unique users — that it makes sense to set up shop there.
Using eBay, you can sell merchandise either of two ways.
Auction-style listings are put up for a limited time, with customers trying to one-up each other with a higher price in order to “win” the lot. This works great for you, because your customers are competing and driving your prices higher. You can designate a reserve bid to assure you won’t have to part with anything for less than it’s worth.
Fixed-price listings act as a virtual price tag, so customers can buy your merchandise for a stated “Buy it Now” fee rather than enter bids.
While you won’t pay a fee to register on eBay or create an account, you will pay to post and sell items. Prices will vary depending on the sale prices of the items, but can be calculated and tracked according to a detailed, fixed scale listed on the site under “Seller Fees” on the “Help” menu.
Insertion fees (what it costs to list an item) generally run between 10 cents and $4. Final Value fees, or seller fees, can cost up to 8.75 percent of the sale price for auction-style listings. Seller fees on fixed-price items vary by category and price according to a complex scale starting at 6 percent. The inclusion of extra photos or upgrading your listing can also cost extra.
Bookstore shelves are filled with how-to guides on the ins and outs of selling on eBay. And the site itself has several helpful tutorials with everything you need to get started and hone your selling skills.
• www.Etsy.com is kind of like an eBay for artisans. It’s an online venue for the exclusive sale of handmade goods, vintage items (in existence for at least 20 years, please) and crafting supplies. It’s also where all the cool kids go to shop right now.
Etsy has a devoted base of loyal shoppers, and is one of the only ready-made e-commerce sites that offers instant street cred. It also happens to be attractively laid out and ridiculously simple to use.
Sign up for free and begin listing items for 20 cents apiece per four months. You’ll get your own customizable virtual store and, through Alchemy, get the opportunity to bid on custom orders submitted by shoppers. When a piece sells, you pay Etsy 3.5 percent of the total sale price.
• www.Craigslist.org What this classified site lacks in support and visual pizzazz, it makes up for in price. You can’t beat free.
It’s a great place to unload stuff you’re too lazy to take to the Salvation Army. It’s not an e-Commerce site, per se, just a free classified network that can be used to sell things.
You can upload photos and include descriptions and item prices, but not much else. Another minus is that there is no automated payment system, such as PayPal, so you’re really on your own when it comes to accepting risky payments such as cash, checks or money orders and setting up contact and delivery.
• www.CafePress.com is a bit different in that it allows you to customize merchandise from its stock, such as T-shirts and bumper stickers, rather than offering a venue to sell things you already make or have. It’s referred to as “user-generated commerce.”
What’s nice is that merchandise is printed as it is purchased, while everything — orders, customer service, shipping and returns—is handled for you. It means you won’t pay for bulk orders of iffy merchandise that may or may not sell. The print on demand format is an easy way to design your own merchandise without paying startup or mass production costs.
You set up a “shop” for free, create as many designs as you want, and if someone buys it, you get money. You can also set up a more complex “premium” shop with enhanced site features and access to a wider range of customizable products for fees starting at $4.99 per month.
schristmann@buffnews.com
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