What it takes to sell online!

I've been selling online for years and also worked in many retail situations, From Furniture sales, Flooring Contractor both sales and Installation, Been a showroom manager. If I learned anything through out the many years selling is to look at what has worked in the past. Although I have strayed from some of my known staples. I realize that I need to return to many of them to be successful.

Here goes, Price points, I has always been well known that when a potential buyer see's any item ending in .99 they will only remember the dollar amount, So 19.99 will stick in there minds as $19 only. I've had many argue that this is not true, But it is true, It can be any combination .88-.77-.99 or even .01. So I will be fine tuning my items back to the .99 in my listings.

Now on to my next thought, Price to low or to high? Many newbie sellers believe that bargain pricing will generate sales, If that were true then there would not be so many Sellers championing lack of sales, It's not about Price 90% of the time, It is more about quality and quantity of goods available. Case in Point, I have listed many time in auction with low start prices and the auction went full circle and no bids, Re listed the item at a much higher start price and the item sold with bids. Most of the time sales are very dependent on the right item and the right price in the right place to the right buyer.

One of my pet peeves is when I hear things like "I charge only what it cost to ship" How dumb this is, Unless you can get a really good mark up on your items, You will be surprised at the end of your accounting year, How much money you lost by not adding a Handling Charge to off set Supplies and Time and Travel to ship your items. I never ever list shipping at exact cost. My prices are fair and shipping is part of that equation.

Another thing about S/H, I you follow the pros when it comes to  infomercials, They have it down pretty pat, They charge roughly $6.95 S/H on just about every item and they will give you added item for just a processing fee, Which most likely is another $6.95. One thing they have going for them is most $14.95 or $19.95 items cost only pennies to produce, So they make money no matter the items.

I love selling online, But it needs to be a more level playing field, meaning that I am all for checks and Balances, meaning that sellers who regularly sell for profit, Should be licensed to sell, Should be required to process sales tax and so forth. There are  ways to be a Hobby seller, But to qualify as a hobby seller you can not profit from the sale of your items.Normally as a hobby seller, You make a product and sell it for less that the actual time and material it takes to create the item, That's a hobby seller.

If you sell the stuff you have in your home, You don't have to report it as income since you normally won't charge more than you paid for these items, Once you begin add inventory now you become a seller for profit, unless you are dumb and buy high and sell low, That's what happens when begin to go  broke.

Hoping this slant on selling will be helpful, It is not my intent to bash anyone, Just to give my take on Professional selling.