Quick Fire Duo Taking On Ebay! - 5 FREE LISTINGS

Anyone who uses a computer to buy or sell items must have come across Ebay. It is the largest and most comprehensive online auction site on the web after all. Many entrepreneurs have used it to boost sales and encourage business growth. But some people who initially had a love affair with the site have started to feel more than a little bogged down by all the different options, formats and, most of all, the seller’s fees.

This topic came up in a conversation when Hannah *and Matt*, from Norwich in the UK, were discussing business with some friends.

“We were round a friend’s house one evening and our friends were telling us that they’d stopped selling via Ebay, because they thought the site had become too complicated and costly – especially when you have to pay a listing fee and also then give away a percentage of your final sale amount”
“We live in Norwich, which was considered to be the Ebay hub of the UK at one time, so we knew lots of people who used the site and wondered how many more were also being put off? We began to discuss this and asked why you couldn’t just sell any item for a flat fee of one pound? Poundland seem to manage quite well with a fixed unit price, after all. After talking more, we realised that there was a real big potential market for a new online auction site, where a flat listing fee was all that you had to pay – and so the concept of ‘Poundseller’ was born”

Not being people who waste any time, Hannah and Matt went straight on to 123 reg and registered the .co.uk and .com domains for their new concept Poundseller site. They also began to work out exactly what they intended to offer for this flat one pound fee. They wanted to make their offer attractive enough to potential sellers to make Poundseller a credible alternative to other sites. They also decided that they wouldn’t charge commission, monthly subscriptions or joining fees – the concept of selling for just a flat rate of one pound was what had inspired the idea after all, so they wanted to stick to this principle.
“We started talking to people to found out what their issues with other auction sites were, so that we could develop a website which would cater for what people really wanted. The key areas we found to be problematic were; product image fees, complicated listing processes, having to pay for setting a reserve price, sales commission going to the auction site (who you’ve already paid for listing in the first place!) and having adverts popping up everywhere you seem to look”

Having identified these key issues, Hannah and Matt started to work out how Poundseller should look and function; once they had their ideas firmly in place, they approached a local web developer and the site began to take shape and was launched in April 2012. The site is designed to appeal to people who want to sell their items with the minimum of fuss or hassle. Poundseller is keen to keep the customer experience a very positive one.

“We wanted the site to look clean and crisp, with no adverts or distracting pop ups anywhere. We created a really user friendly interface which appeals to anyone wishing to sell online – even those people who have written the concept off in the past as ‘too complicated”

So what do you get for your pound?
· A fully customisable 1 – 30 day listing
· 5 free pictures per item (up to 5mb in size)
· The full amount of money from the winning bid
Poundseller will never charge commission or fees of any sort and as the price will never change, the cost of using Poundseller is actually pretty inflation busting when you think about it.
But how can Poundseller compete with the big names and their marketing budgets?
“Since launch we’ve made wide use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, plus we also have joined online forums and posted comments and information about Poundseller on relevant sites. Although this takes time, it’s free of charge and has led to some impressive results already. We’ve found Twitter to be an absolutely superb platform for reaching our target audience – something which we simply wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do at this early juncture”

This internet based marketing has been accompanied by some leafleting and also by getting Poundseller listed on appropriate business directories. Hannah has also seen some absolutely amazing support from one business sector;

“We’ve found the support of other small business owners to be humbling. It seems like a lot of people like us are tired of the market being dominated by one entity and are looking for a viable, sustainable and cheaper alternative”

Registering with Poundseller is free, there’s no commission to pay, no hidden costs or premium listings and your first listing is free – unless you read Inventor’s Showcase Magazine…
Poundseller are offering our readers 5 free listings – simply register on the site at www.poundseller.co.uk and enter the promotional code Inventorsshowcase (case sensitive) to claim your extra free listings. This is an excellent opportunity for those of you who want to try an alternative to Ebay to sell items, without any outlay or risk.

Hannah and Matt have shown how a chance conversation can lead to an exciting new business challenge – like we always say, if you have a great idea, do something with it! What have you got to lose?