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Using
Internet Auctions To Promote Your Local Business
by
Sharon Fling
Here
is a little-used but highly effective way of reaching potential
customers, even in your local market: online auctions. A
growing
 number
of businesses are using auctions to attract a steady stream
of customers. By listing on eBay, your business will be
exposed to an audience of 22 million people in over 100
countries. But more importantly, it can reach the people
next door.
The
small listing fees are a small price to pay for the kind
of exposure you get, especially on the granddaddy of all
auction sites, eBay. There are small businesses out
there that get 80% or more of their sales from eBay.
And
not all of the sales happen on eBay - you can use your "About
Me" page to drive traffic back to your web site.
Then you can your prospect'ss email address and sell to
them directly, saving yourself some listings fees and commissions.
And with eBay's feedback system, potential customers can
get bona-fide firsthand testimonials from your previous
customers.
If
you want to sell multiple items, you can set up a Dutch
auction. To make sure you earn a profit, you can set a minimum
price, known as a reserve price. You can also set
a "Buy It Now"
 price, which
allows someone to buy the item immediately without waiting
for the auction to end. And finally, you can set up your
own eBay store for as little as $9.95/month.
There
are many tips and tricks to eBay auctions -- so many that
 there
are a slew of books and services and software programs just
for helping people to manage their bidding and selling activities.
Check www.geolocal.com for auction resources.
As
far as reaching your local market, major cities are
set up as regions on eBay. Consumers can easily search by
region and category at http://pages.ebay.com/regional/hub.html -- "eBay Local Trading."
This is where people will go if they want to buy something
locally, such as furniture or something expensive.
A
recent development has made it even easier for your local
customers to find you. AltaVista -- one of the major search
engines -- announced a deal to feature listings from its
shopping-comparison guide on eBay. According to AltaVista's
senior director of global product marketing Gannon Giguiere,
"We can now allow consumers to compare Web, localized
brick and mortar stores and auction listings
with a single glance."
I
buy lots of stuff on eBay. A few weeks ago I went looking
for sheepskin slippers and saw a lovely pair up for auction.
I could tell that this was a business, so I contacted
the seller directly. I knew from past experience that
we might be able to work out something and sure enough,
we made a deal for 2 pairs of sheepskin slippers.
 Let's
review this seller's transaction:
- She
got a sale and a proven customer for her 30
cent listing fee on the original pair of slippers
(which she sold later on, gaining another customer)
- She paid no
listing fees or commissions on the 2 pair of slippers
she sold to me
- She
can add me to her mailing list; if I'm happy with
the slippers, maybe I'll buy another pair in the future
as a gift or whatever. (p.s. I bought 2 more pairs later)
- I
would never have found that business if those
slippers hadn't been listed on eBay. Her sheepskin business
doesn't
show up in the first few pages of search engine results,
which is as far as most people will look.
Do
you see the power of eBay? I also bought my Palm Pilot and
a new computer from local vendors that I found
on eBay. Plus I've bought lots of computer programs
and educational toys from auctions by business owners. As
a frequent eBay buyer and seller, I can tell you
now, if you're not on eBay, you're leaving money on the
table.
There
are other auction sites out there - Yahoo, BidBay, uBid.com
- but none of them comes close to eBay in terms of volume.
About 1.4 million items are up for sale every
day, in every imaginable category, including services,
cars, houses. Somebody even tried to auction off a kidney
once, but eBay caught them and put an end to it.
Keep
in mind that people who go to auction sites are looking
for deals, so don't expect to get full retail.
You may even have a sell a few items at cost. But when you
think about all the money you can spend on ads in the local
paper and get NO results, it's a small price to pay
to get the email addresses of proven customers. The
eBay feedback system works both ways you can check and see
what kind of customer they've been in the past.
 All
in all, online auctions are goldmines. If you're
selling anything at all, especially consumer
products, you should definitely check out eBay.
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