Possibilities when muse is cheap on eBay?

[frankwlf]

At the moment I am setting up my homepage and I try to define my muse with dropshipment possibilities. However, this product is way cheaper on eBay (when you select the worldwide search) compared to the price I try to ask for it. So I was wondering, do I have a chance to sell this product or will people always find the cheaper alternatives? My product is like 2 to 3 times more expensive compared to the same internationally shipped products on eBay. Does anyone have an opinion about this?

[Gerto]

I don't think this makes it impossible to succeed with your Muse, but it can make it quite a lot harder off course.

Is this just the case for ebay or are there also other sites similar to the one you are creating that sell so cheaply? If it's just ebay it may not be that bad because a lot of people dislike buying from sites like ebay.

When you are that much more expensive, it's best to try to think of a way to make your product a bit different. For example, combining it with a very cheap other product that makes the original one more usefull (difficult to say without knowing what you're selling off course), but since you're dropshipping that may be a bit hard.

Another way is for example throwing in some kind of extra email report if that's possible for your product ("10 original ways to use your .... ") and use that to add value when people buy from your site.

Either way, the only way to know for sure is to test it! Good luck ;)

[frankwlf]

I don't think this makes it impossible to succeed with your Muse, but it can make it quite a lot harder off course.

Is this just the case for ebay or are there also other sites similar to the one you are creating that sell so cheaply? If it's just ebay it may not be that bad because a lot of people dislike buying from sites like ebay.

When you are that much more expensive, it's best to try to think of a way to make your product a bit different. For example, combining it with a very cheap other product that makes the original one more usefull (difficult to say without knowing what you're selling off course), but since you're dropshipping that may be a bit hard.

Another way is for example throwing in some kind of extra email report if that's possible for your product ("10 original ways to use your .... ") and use that to add value when people buy from your site.

Either way, the only way to know for sure is to test it! Good luck ;)Making a combination with another cheap product might be a possibility. However, my product can be purchased from other international websites for a much lower price, but these websites offer a lot more other stuff. So these websites are mixed-up like a warehouse, my website just focusses on 1 product in particular.

But when I try to sell my product and people find out about the cheaper alternatives, is it possible that I get bad comments on social media etc?

[Erwan]

Hi,

Maybe the first question to ask is why your product is that expensive? Is it exactly the same product as those on other website? If yes you'll have no chance to sell one single piece. If your product is different, it's maybe because it is better, no? so you need to put this advantage in front of your website.

Hope this help.

[americanoracle]

a few things come to mind. Is it something I would buy 1 of from you for $6 instead of $3 on ebay or is it something I will need 10 of and you want $300 and ebay wants $100? If it is high ticket, yeah you will probably get press.

Some things are not price dependent. Staples sells computer cables for 20-30 bucks that I have found new on ebay for 60 cents. And I've paid the staples price because I needed it that day.

Also there's ebayers and websites that I would not send money to because they look sketchy or are sketchy. I tried to buy a camera from a site offering a $500 sony for about $300. They called after I placed the order with classic bait/switch. I went to the next lowest priced site and discovered it was the same guys. Turned out they had 10 different sites all pricing the same stuff differently and driving to the same order center. I ended up buying it straight from sony for full retail because of the hassles.

Speed & cost of delivery, credibility, good marketing can beat price in some areas, at least with me. But I do wonder why you need to triple the going price rather than buy it and mark-up something competitively?

good luck...

[kamakiri]

The question that begs asking is why can others sell it for much cheaper, and why can't you do the same?

A close second is looking at the way MacDonald's does business. Did they put every other hamburger seller out of business because they are the cheapest?

You need to add some freebies that have a high perceived value to increase what your prospective customers will spend with you.

[frankwlf]

Yes I think I can add some sort of freebie, I will try to combine something. Furthermore, my prices are in US dollars as I think it is still the most international currency in use, on the other side as an European I am still considering to use Euro's as the main currency. What do you guys think?

[seth121]

The problem there is that you may have a few competitors who will dominate about 80% of the sales of the item you are talking about if the item is sold cheaper online and then the remaining customers left becomes a struggle because it's overly competitive with such a small potential left.

When you are getting into pricing wars then it gets messy. If you can't beat your competition in search engine ranking that you are going to have to get traffic from PPC campaigns. But if your competitors are doing adwords as well and state the prices in their ads and your ads are showing a pricier item then you may outmarket yourself in a sense. But just run some PPC ads first and get some feedback to see how you can tap into that market.

[kamakiri]

...my prices are in US dollars as I think it is still the most international currency in use, on the other side as an European I am still considering to use Euro's as the main currency. What do you guys think?

Come on dude. A script to analyze the IP address and automatically change the price is one of the easiest things to do on the web.

Stop wasting your time on these details.

[frankwlf]

Come on dude. A script to analyze the IP address and automatically change the price is one of the easiest things to do on the web.

Stop wasting your time on these details.
Actually this is not what I mean and therefore no detail. As many dollar prices are literally the same in Europe but than in Euro's. Just like the iPad, the cheapest iPad costs in the US 499 dollar and here 499 euro, looks like there is a margin to take into consideration...

[kamakiri]

http://connors.homeip.net/%7Ebconnors/pics/PicardRikerFacePalm.jpg

[frankwlf]

Okay it is some sort of a detail. But why such a childish reaction? Psychological do prices look like the same or maybe different to consumers (just like the trick to price your product 499 instead of 500, and if I price something 39,95 in euro's the price will look psychologically more expensive in dollars as it passes the 40 dollar boundary), but it can make a huge different in the end. You also could give me a short normal feedback why you think it does not matter at all. After that we could discuss about things that actually do matter according to you, instead of bashing. I am sorry but I am not the veteran on this side. Thats why I am discussing stuff over here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing

[AlexMoen]

The point he's trying to make is that it doesn't matter right now. You're worrying about insanely small details and you don't even know if you can make a single sale yet.

[frankwlf]

The point he's trying to make is that it doesn't matter right now. You're worrying about insanely small details and you don't even know if you can make a single sale yet.

Ok fair enough, but this aspect can also be enlighten without simple facepalm pictures. Because I thought little detail could make a difference, even without any sale yet. This is the reason I discuss here to gain information about what is important and what not, not to get answers without content. Some facts look simple to people who are long in business, however people should keep in mind that not everybody is on the same level.

[frankwlf]

Nevertheless, I would like to thank everybody for some useful tips!