Do you use Computer Software and Financial Formulas to Sell and Make More Profit?

Hello ebay community!

I am currently a full-time student and part time reseller working on my last accounting major university course and am running an investigation regarding full time online resellers. There are four questions that I have for full time resellers.

Do you use any computer software or applications to help run your business? i.e Excel, Quickbooks, Inventory management software, Google trends or any tools the platform enables such as eBay terrapeak?
Which ones do you use?
Do you use any financial formulas such as sell through rate, cost of goods sold or any others to help with sourcing products or with managing any aspect of your business? If so, which one/s do you use?
Lastly, what is your yearly profit range (after expenses) within your reselling business? Here is the tier list to use for answering this question. Within which bracket did you fall under?

Please Note: Profit or Net Income is specifically needed for the purposes of proving or disproving the hypothesis within the investigation. This is not a measurement of success.

As an example. In my case, I currently use Excel for inventory management, keep tracking for Cost of Goods Sold and as a return on investment calculator to know how much an item will profit me after deductions such as seller fees, before purchasing the item.

This year I started to use Quickbooks to keep track of my accounting. I also started to use MileIQ to record the miles I travel when doing business trips.

For financial formulas, I have now started using Sell Through Rate, Return on Investment, Return on Asset, Cost of Goods Sold and Asset Turnover Ratio.

I netted / made profits within the $10,000.01 - $30,000.00 range last year while working as a reseller full-time.

I would greatly appreciate you taking some time to answer this! It helps me with both my university project and my own personal selling knowledge!

Here is a Google Form Survey if you'd prefer to answer there for anonymity:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAQNHEVADspMzQkNw5v6rGe_V-DRAV-rrOY0BLkgYGYymQiA/viewform?usp=sf_link

theolchapscandy

1884 View listings

Posted 2 years ago · Edited 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

18 comments

mustang707

·2 years ago

0 View listings

I am a small seller in the first bracket. I only use Excel to track my sales and direct related expenses such postage, ebay fees and the item's original cost. I do not use any software to monitor my inventory.

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thanks, mustang707. This is certainly helpful. Best wishes!

wilsonharborsales

·2 years ago

6540 View listings

1. Yes.

2. Excel, Google Trends, Terapeak, Worthpoint.

3. Yes. COGS, STR, ASP, CTR, watchers and views.

4. 4th bracket

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thank you for being so concise with your infomation, wilsonharborsales. This helps out a great deal. Have a great day!

dnasilver

·2 years ago

611 View listings

1) We started when companies had bookkeepers. Everything was done by hand on paper. Today we use very limited resources (software). We operated in multiple countries and today we only operate in two countries. We use MS Excel and Access. We have a CPA and Tax attorney.

2) as stated above

3) Financial formulas are built into our Access database. We have always been driven by ROI.

4) Our finances are complex with property holdings, inventory, and investments outside of our base business. Throughout our 40 plus years we have fallen into each bracket as listed and beyond your highest bracket.

We would say hard work has paid off more than any tools we have used. it would depend on what type of business one has and what they want from that business. There is no magical wand to success or failure. Sometimes risk pays off and other times it does not. One would expect an accountant to know yearly profit range is of minimal value, whereas ROI greatly outweighs net profit in determining long term success or failure.

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thank you so much for your reply dnasilver. I appreciate your time.

The reason for asking for the net income is just in regards to proving or disproving the hypothesis for this investigation which is "most full-time resellers that use computerized software and financial formulas tend to reach the average salary made in Puerto Rico. "

I agree and recognize that ROI is certainly much more important than net income in determining success over the long run, but for the purpose of this specific investigation, net income is needed more than ROI.

Thanks for mentioning the brackets btw. It helps out to know you've been withing all brackets and can certainly use this data for the study.

Best regards!

strugglinlikeyou

·2 years ago

225 View listings

I am under that $10K bracket and don't bother with all that software.

I agree with replies by toysaver. Keeping track of every penny would be time-consuming and unnecessary. Pen and paper works for me. I buy good stuff at bargain prices and sell at the going rate and that's good enough.

PS I am not a full time seller. If I was I probably wouldn't have time to respond to your request!

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thank you so much for your reply. This definitely helps.

dbfolks166mt

·2 years ago

1086 View listings

Do you use any computer software or applications to help run your business? i.e Excel, Quickbooks, Inventory management software, Google trends or any tools the platform enables such as eBay terrapeak? I am a small seller so I don't use a lot of software other than Excel for cost modeling and expense recording. I used to use MS Access at one time but MS is on/off about continued support for that product.
Which ones do you use? Primarily MS Excel
Do you use any financial formulas such as sell through rate, cost of goods sold or any others to help with sourcing products or with managing any aspect of your business? If so, which one/s do you use? Mostly my brain and experience when it comes to sourcing items. I pay little attention to sell through rate as it is ambiguous from a big picture perspective and more applicable to manufacturing.
Lastly, what is your yearly profit range (after expenses)? Here is the tier list to use for answering this question. Within which bracket did you fall under? This seems like an odd question from an accounting major. From my optic after tax profit means little to me if I cannot achieve an acceptable return on investment (ROI) from my business. That ROI has to make sense from a financial perspective and is suitable for the time and effort I put forth. I can invest in a number of markets such as stocks, bonds, T-Bills..... with little effort required. I know the historical return rate for these markets and if I cannot achieve a greater ROI through my selling activities I am better off investing in those markets. If my after tax profit/hours of effort is less than $xx.xx then I am better off putting my time and effort elsewhere.

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thanks for replying @dbfolks166mt,

Most responses have been similar in the sense that mainly Excel has been used if any software to run certain aspects of the business which is interesting. This certainly helps with the data. In regards to the ROI comment, the reason why I ask for profit or net income is because not everyone is familiarized with the term ROI, and ROI is a percentage ratio (formula) more than a number and can vary wildly since it is essentially -> (value of investment - cost of investment) divided by (cost of investment) . However you did answer the question number 3 with this by mentioning that you use ROI as a formula!

The hypothesis to disprove or prove in this investigation is that most full-time resellers that use computerized software and financial formulas tend to reach the average salary made in my local area of Puerto Rico.

For this I just need the net income and is why it is so important to get the net income made off of ebay with the tier list.

Hope this clears things up.

toysaver

·2 years ago

7833 View listings

I just use my brain. It's not perfect but neither is software.

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thanks. I appreciate the response. That's one of the things that I'm trying to see, if sheer effort and hard work beats out using software and the rest.

toysaver

·2 years ago

7833 View listings

My neighbor removes the snow on his driveway with a snow blower. I'm usually done when I use a shovel before his machine is even warmed up.

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thanks for your response. I recognize that good profit can be made without using software. Is it possible you can mention where you fall within the profit tier list?

12345jamesstamps

·2 years ago

8830 View listings

I use nothing.

Too much information is too much unless you sell hundreds of items every week.

I use my free time listing and shipping...

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

Thanks for your response, 12345jamesstamps. Much appreciated! I'm looking forward to seeing if hard work and time dedicated to the business tends to result in bigger profit margins then the reliance on Software, or if its the other way around. Is it possible you can provide where you fall within the profit tier list?

12345jamesstamps

·2 years ago

8830 View listings

As a playing around when I feel like it...listing items...which I have so much to list.

Not a steady income for me...money for wine and going out I suppose...1st Bracket(1 year)...I'd like to see who falls in a second bracket (and so would Uncle Sam)...staying under the $20,000. due to that nasty 1099K.

Hopefully, it doesn't change this year like previous years. LOL.

theolchapscandy

OP2 years ago

1884 View listings

"And so would Uncle Sam" this made me laugh out loud lol. Yeah, I was not expecting the 1099k when I got it. I was scrambling to find receipts to lower my taxes since it was the first time I had gotten it, and I was not ready. Fell down to the 10,000 - 30,000 bracket range. Needless to say, I was not a happy seller at the start of the year.

I appreciate your response, it helps out a great deal.

Wish you the best!