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Week of 4/01-4/07
Total Items in Store: 1,947 (Up 31% YOY)
Number of Items Listed: 57
Number of Items Sold: 75 (Down 18% YOY)
(Includes 0 Etsy, 0 Bonanza, 0 TrueGether)
Weekly STR: 17% (Down 10% YOY)Total Product Sales: $1,864 (Down 12% YOY)
Cost of Items Sold: $364
Highest Item Sold: $80 – NWT Woolyback Shooter Sweater
Competition: Highest Priced Sale: Troy wins the week and Troy leads the year at 9-5.eBay Clothing
# Listed: 1,184
# Sold: 51
STR: 18%
ASP: $23.16eBay Shoes
# Listed: 125
# Sold: 7
STR: 24%
ASP: $35.97eBay Hard Goods
# Listed: 638
# Sold: 17
STR: 11%
ASP: $25.34Etsy Hard Goods
# Listed: 164
# Sold: 0
STR: 0%
ASP: $0Our photographer is working out great, and really helping our process. Considering all the time we spent travelling last week, and that I was working the consulting gig for 2 days, I was happy with the 57 items we listed. We already have 55 done for this week now. I can hit 40 per day now provided that I have the stock (I’m actually getting low).
Veronica sold an item to the FDR Presidential Library this week. Now that is pretty cool…
antarestar, I agree with Mike and Jay on the time spent. Our photographer is working out great to speed up our process, so keep with that process first would be my advice.
I also agree that by the time you write out the information for a person to create the listing, you could just create the listing. I initially went that route when I created listing sheets, but then realized it was easier to have the item in front of me and create a draft listing right there.
On our side, when we get a lister, it will be that they have the item in front on them and they are creating listings on the spot. That is the most efficient method.
I agree with both Mike and Jay. Having access to a financial adviser is what can make a HUGE difference in the business. We are lucky that we have that in house with my background as a CPA and 20+ years in accounting.
If you don’t have access to someone for financial matters, find one.
One process item on our side that may help an employee, would be templates. I have about 20 templates now just for clothing. If you can create as many as possible for what you source, then when you have items ready to list, you can put a tag on the item for what template to use. That would at least get most of the information correct, and you are controlling that piece of the process.
Then a photographer takes the photos, and your lister uses the correct template and adds color, measurements, etc. to the listing. This speeds up my listing tremendously. When I’m working on listing, I get a listing up in about 5 minutes since the template is getting me most of the way there.
Just doing my process thinking…that is what I do…
I am assuming your bottleneck on time is for listing. Based on the volume that you are doing, I don’t think you have any issues on sourcing.
For us, we break the listing down between photo/photo editing and listing. If you can get a photographer, you could cut YOUR time down to just the listing. Even better if they will work on a per item basis ($1.50 – $2.00 per item) and have their own studio.
Hiring the lister is a bit more tricky, as you will have to train them to know all the different styles, patterns, colors, etc. that are keywords that you need in your listing (and Women’s is exponentially more than Men’s! :-))
That is the best advice I can give, is to analyze your process and see where you can effectively insert a person to do more work for you, but still make the work profitable. We want to ensure on our side that the work we are outsourcing is no more than $4-$5 per item (if we had two people). Then we can focus our efforts on sourcing higher value items so that the labor becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of the revenue.
You can contact me directly at tsatterf@yahoo.com if you want to talk in detail. I love your store, your products, and your numbers. Very impressive.
If it is pricey, we will look it up (I usually act like one of the boys texted me and go away and look it up). If it is cheap, we take the chance.
For us, we are looking to start listing 150-200 items per week. Most of our goals stem from that, so we are focusing on getting a process that will achieve that level of listing, while keeping the quality of our sourcing at the level it is at.
After that, then we look at other rungs of the ladder…
calljac: Very impressive store. Your STR is amazing, and only 5%-10% is going for $9.99 + Free Shipping. After that, you are in at LEAST the $19.99-$34.99 + Free Shipping, which has to be a solid return on capital.
What would you say your biggest constraint is? Time or Capital?
calljac: To see your return rate:
Seller Hub \ Selling Tools \ Seller Dashboard \ Scroll down to Return Rate
Completely agree. At that point, you need a manager to handle the daily headaches.
You are owner and supplier of capital only.
Amen Jay. We are still in the growth phase, so we still need to grow the $. But we are looking to move out of the grind at the same time.
And you CAN get to grind zero… just takes processes and quality hiring. You make a lot less money % wise…but you are working less too. I’ve run some numbers and know how to hire it out, but it takes consistent flow of higher margin items.
THAT is the Crystal Key…
“Right now, the get rid of things bug has really hit me”
That time of year…spring cleaning. We are doing a quarterly review of our listings now to see what is worth still having out there, and if we should slash the price or donate.
