Episode 140 || Up and Running Grant Recipient Yinka Ogunsunlade and a Motors P and A Update

[podcast_team]

This week we get an update on the Parts & Accessories category with eBay’s Jesse Kieffer and Griff talks with Up and Running Grant recipient, Yinka Ogunsunlade about how passion and energy drive his eBay business. Rebecca and Griff answer three seller questions about eBay Payments, how much a seller should list in order to make profitable business, and which Seller Hub reports show which data.

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Show Links:
eBay Motors Parts & Accessories Seller Resource Center
eBay Motors My Garage
Yinka Ogunsunlade’s eBay Store
Yinka Ogunsunlade eBay Blog Post

Rebecca: This week on the eBay For Business Podcast:

Jesse: ”Much like in other verticals over the years, customer expectations have evolved. And part of that has been driven by an expansion of some competitors that have really upped the game in Parts & Accessories and eBay while still the best marketplace in terms of selection is in a position where we need to make investments to make sure that the selling and the buying experience is differentiated and is best in class. Now is a great time for eBay to be making these investments".

Yinka: " Once you get into the selling aspect of eBay, I think critical point is finding what you're passionate about, because if you're passionate about what you're selling, you won't get tired of looking at those items. You won't get tired of sourcing them, trying to find them at better deals to increase your profit margin. I would say, find what you're passionate about, whether it be neckties sneakers, it could be trinkets, whatever it is. I would start there with finding what you're passionate about."

Rebecca: I'm Rebecca.

Griff: And I'm Griff and this is the eBay For Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and inspiration to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace.

Rebecca: And here we are at episode number 140.

Griff: 140. It's hard to believe we made it this far. Hello, Rebecca.

Rebecca: Hello, Griff. How are you?

Griff: Not bad. Uh, I've heard a little news about you though.

Rebecca: Oh, what's that?

Griff: That you're moonlighting doing other podcasts, so I hear.

Rebecca: Busted. No, it's totally true. I actually did have a chance to stop by another podcast. It's called The Small Business Show Podcast with Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean. And Griff, I think you know Shannon, he's a long time seller here on eBay.

Griff: The name is familiar. Yes.

Rebecca: We had a great chance to talk about a little bit about this podcast, but mostly we were talking about selling on eBay, talked a little bit about small business week, which was last week. And we talked about what it's like to sell on eBay and how proud we are of the Up & Running Grantees this year. Just catching up.

Griff: Well, how nice for you to get invited to a podcast. Here I sit in San Jose, no invitations. (laughter)

Rebecca: I did actually call you out by name. They had questions about this podcast and I talked about my fabulous co-host Griff.

Griff: I shouldn't actually be digging for these kinds of compliments, but I have to admit it makes me feel good. And now I'm ready to complete episode 140.

Rebecca: And thanks for listening.

Griff: No, I'm actually, I love other podcasts that have to do with entrepreneurship and business. I think they're all great.

Rebecca: Do you know, we should ask our sellers, do they have another favorite podcast that might be interesting to hear and tell about other podcasts? Of course everyone's first love will be ours, but it might be fun to share some other great podcasts that sellers could listen to.

Griff: Oh, I'm all for that. I would be happy to promote other podcasts.

Rebecca: Fabulous. So sellers, listen for the number at the end and write in and let us know what other podcasts do you think your fellow sellers should be listening to and aware of.

Griff: Great idea. Thank you.

Rebecca: Well with that Griff, who is waiting in the green room this week?

Griff: Well, first we're going to get an update on the parts and accessories. That's otherwise known as P & A in the parlance that's eBay Motors Parts & Accessories, and it's its own category. We're going to talk with Jesse Kieffer and he's going to give us an update about what's going on in that category. And then we'll meet the next Up & Running Grant recipient. And his name is Yinka Ogunsunlade. He's an eBay seller and he's also, he does other things. I'm not going to tease it, but first what's in the news this week, Rebecca?

Rebecca: Announced in the 2021 Spring Seller Update, we are gradually introducing improvements to how you handle unpaid items. Starting in May, 2021, which is right about now you no longer have to file unpaid item claims or send payment reminders. Instead when buyers haven't paid, you'll be able to manually or automatically cancel orders through Seller Hub or through My eBay Sold. Buyers will have four calendar days to pay for an item after they've committed to buy. We'll proactively remind them to pay. And if they haven't paid within that timeframe, you can cancel the unpaid order starting on the fifth calendar day. After you cancel the order, you can choose to have eBay automatically relist the item. And you may also see applicable fees credited back to your account in accordance with our fee credit policy.

Griff: And again, we'll put the link to that announcement so you can read all of the details, the deets. And check out this new feature, this new change to unpaid item. It's a great stop gap change until we finally do the ideal thing.

Rebecca: The ideal thing, what's that?

Griff: Wouldn't it be nice if someday we were able to remove the ability for unpaid items to even happen?

Rebecca: I heard that being asked for, but I do remember, as you said for this current change, when we announced it at Spring Seller Update, I believe it got really positive reaction. This is something that sellers have been asking for for a long time.

Griff: Yeah. And especially those sellers who sell in the auction format a lot, because that's where most of these happen. Most sellers who use fixed price, now they still have the option, even with eBay Payments to require or not require immediate payment. But the majority of these are either because of auction or the other one Best Offers where the Best Offer is accepted. And then the buyer ghosts, the seller and never follows through. Be great if we can get rid of that. And I think it might happen someday. Rebecca.

Rebecca: Fingers crossed on that one, but you know what, in the meantime, what I like best about this update, where you don't have to file unpaid item claims, you don't have to send payment reminders. I love the automated pieces of it.

Griff: Yeah. It's one thing off your mind as a seller, you don't have to do.

Rebecca: And the automatically relisting. I think that's the best part.

Griff: It's still a bit of a hassle because it means, you know, you think it's sold and it's not sold, but you don't have to do all of that management of the unpaid transaction having to collect the money, having to wait and then relist it manually. It's all automated at this point. Or it will be once this is fully rolled out.

Rebecca: With that. It's all the news that we have for this week. And I will come back Griff after the guests to help you answer seller questions.

Griff: I can't wait. But first we're going to get that update on eBay motors, parts and accessories category with Jesse Kieffer.

Griff: Starting a year ago, eBay kind of switched directions in a major way when it comes to how we market specific categories on eBay and so far to great success with buyers, but also to great success with sellers as well. Jesse Kieffer is eBay Senior Director of eBay Motors. He joins us now to talk about a new category strategy, welcome to the show, Jesse.

Jesse: Great to be here Griff.

Griff: Remind everyone, Jesse, what your role is at eBay and how long you've been here.

Jesse: I'm really lucky to have been a longtime eBay employee. I've been working with eBay for almost 12 years. Recently I've been managing a company that eBay bought back in 2012 called WHI Solutions, which serves as a B2B business to business, car parts business, and also supports eBay's P & A business. And so I've now expanded my focus and I'm co-leading eBay's Parts & Accessories business, which is part of eBay Motors.

Griff: Jesse, could you expand a little bit on what I was talking about in the introduction of eBay's current marketing strategy with regards to specific individual categories?

Jesse: What's happened in the last few years is a number of vertical competitors have emerged that are changing customer expectations in specific verticals. So for example, Stock X comes to mind as a company that has been involved in the sneakers category or Kronos 24 and the watches category. And so as a result, eBay has had to really step up its game to build out experiences that light buyers and delight sellers in those specific verticals. For example, eBay's rolled out a post-sale authentication program in sneakers to both protect buyers and protect sellers and make the customer experience fantastic. This is working, the company has been doing quite well. And those categories where eBay has been able to build a differentiated experience are really, really growing. Now eBay's looking to expand and build out more of those experiences.

Griff: So this vertical plan seems to be working. What's the next vertical in eBay's marketing plan?

Jesse: eBay Motors is a new focus for eBay. eBay Motors of course includes both vehicles and parts and accessories. And about a year ago, eBay launched an eBay Motors app that's focused on vehicles. And so that was really the first major new investment that eBay made in motors. And now eBay is expanding that to also include eBay Parts & Accessories, which of course has all the parts to go with those vehicles. And it's mostly car parts, but also includes boat parts and plane parts and truck parts and the rest. That is the investment that eBay is now making. Historically parts and accessories has been one of eBay's largest verticals. And it's done very well over the years. You know, eBay really excels when we can bring together a large group of sellers of all sizes and present a great assortment to a national buyer base. And that's really what eBay's been able to do in Parts & Accessories, but much like in other verticals over the years, customer expectations have evolved. And part of that has been driven by an expansion of some competitors that have really upped the game in Parts & Accessories and eBay, while still the best marketplace in terms of selection is in a position where we need to make investments to make sure that the selling and the buying experience is differentiated and is best in class. Now is a great time for eBay to be making these investments.

Griff: I remember when we talked about Parts & Accessories years ago, and the challenge is for example, compatibility has to be the biggest issue because so many parts fit so many cars. And in the old days, I remember as sellers trying to put as many cars a part would fit in the title or the description. And that just became unwieldy. And over time, I know we built out a P & A engine that allows for compatibility to be built in depending on a part number. I want to be able to call that out as something that is really good about the eBay Parts & Accessories category that's existed and still exist today.

Jesse: Yeah. We call that Fitment.

Griff: Fitment. Yes. That's the word.

Jesse: And a little factoid. So if you're searching for a brake pad for your, I don't know Ford F-150 pickup truck or whatever it is, you drive Griff. I know you're into the big trucks.

Griff: No I'm not. I have a Smart Car.

Jesse: I know I'm just teasing. But only about 0.2% of the brake pads in our P & A category are going to fit your Smart Car. And that's why it's so important on the sell side to have that information clearly taxonomize. And then on the buy side, we have something called a finder where you can basically just select your year, make ,model, engine trim, and then only the parts that fit your Smart Car are the ones that are going to be shown to you.

Griff: What types of buyers do we actually target when we're marketing the P & A category?

Jesse: One thing we found is that over the years, we have lost a little bit of the mojo on the marketing side, around buyers, thinking of eBay Motors, specifically and eBay specifically as a place to buy car parts. So what we've done is we've identified three main buying segments that make up the market for car parts in the U S. If you're buying brake pads or hubs for your Smart Car, we might call you a maintainer.

Griff: That is me. Yeah.

Jesse: What a maintainer is, is they basically just want to keep their car on the road and running well. The next type of buyer we're targeting is an enhancer and what an enhancer wants to do is maybe they want to put really fancy hubcaps and wheels on that Smart Car. They want to put a big rack on it, maybe a spoiler, can you turbocharge a Smart Car Griff? That would be an enhancer.

Griff: I have no idea.

Jesse: Well, if you wanted to turbocharge it and put a big spoiler on it, you'd be an enhancer.

Griff: Yeah. It's not like it draws enough attention to itself already, but go on.

Jesse: And then the third group, we call them aficionado . We have a gentleman that is on our team here. He has a blue, 1950s pickup that it was his first car out of high school. And he loves the thing. He's put only original parts on it. And he's an aficionado. He lives and breathes this car, and really identifies with it. The other way we thought about buyers, which is around buying occasions. So you might be in an aficionado much of the time, but you could be working to restore your car. And so that would be a buying occasion. You could be working to improve your car. So putting the big spoiler on your Smart Car, or you could just be fixing your car, you know, even a car that has a souped up engine, might also need a new set of tires. So maybe you'd just be fixing it. We've looked at these three buying groups and these three buying occasions, and we are trying to build out an experience and a set of inventory that works for all of them.

Griff: Part of this, when it comes to a new marketing strategy or a campaign is awareness. That's what marketing's all about. What are we doing to increase that awareness?

Jesse: Most of our buyers want to do some research before they actually commit to a purchase. What a lot of buyers do is they'll go online and they'll go to a search engine, or they'll go to a video sharing platform and they'll try to figure out what part they need and how to install it. The first area of awareness, where we're focused on is partnering with those content providers, be it influencers or online forums, to make sure that we're putting eBay Motors and we're putting our sellers inventory front and center to buyers while they're going through that research process.

Griff: That's what I did when I needed to find what part I needed. I actually found a YouTube video that explained the part and how to put it in.

Jesse: Right, so we're actually partnering with some YouTube content providers so that when a buyer comes to do that research, what do you know? You know, they, they're learning about how to install that part, but they're also learning that eBay Motors is a good place to go buy that part. And then what we're also doing is then we're working, we call this lower in the funnel. The research we would call upper funnel or high in that purchase journey early in that purchase journey. And then as the buyer gets farther down their purchase journey closer to actually making the purchase, what they might be doing is they might sometimes be going to Google say and keying in a specific part. And so we want to make sure that it's our eBay seller part that shows up where they can buy it in that instance off Google or off another platform where they might be searching.

Griff: And that's why it's so important for sellers to make sure they're following the listing best practices so that their item shows up in Google Shopping.

Jesse: Indeed, it is.

Griff: So for example, if using text overlays in your image, which is a violation of eBay policy, but you know, it gets through your item, isn't going to show up on Google Shopping. That alone should be the incentive you need to make sure at least your first image is a clean image on a white background.

Jesse: That's absolutely right Griff.

Griff: What about a recommendation for those sellers who are actually considering that the Parts & Accessories business might be something that they want to explore? They can actually make a business in it?

Jesse: I think a couple of points there. One is, you know, I mentioned earlier that eBay Motors strategy is to have the most abundant supply in the market for parts and accessories. And buyers, they know that, and they're learning that. And even that used side mirror, maybe, maybe you're doing a restoration project on your own car and you're replacing your mirror. And as long as it's not broken that used mirror or that body panel or that tire actually is potentially quite valuable. And so I would encourage a seller even if they haven't normally sold in the parts and accessories category to consider that. Another thing that I would encourage folks to do is to check out our eBay Motors homepage, just go to ebay.com and click Motors at the top of the page or on mobile, just click the Motors button. And check out what we have going on. Check out the inventory. You can add your car to My Garage, which is a great feature we have linked to on the Motors homepage where eBay will be able to basically capture the type of car you have, which will make finding parts for that car much easier. And then lastly, we have a seller resource page for parts and accessories and maybe Griff you could link to that in the show notes.

Griff: Oh, we always do in the transcript and I'll put a link to the My Garage link as well as the seller resource for Parts & Accessories and how to sell an eBay Motors. Those are three pages that we'll put in the transcript.

Jesse: Fantastic. Thank you,

Griff: Jesse. This has been great. I'm glad you've been back on the podcast. We missed you and hopefully you'll come back. Your role changes so much at eBay.

Jesse: I've been very fortunate, Griff. I love the company. I love eBay, and it's been great to work on some different parts of eBay's business. And I'm super excited about our new focus here with Parts & Accessories.

Griff: We've been speaking with Jesse Kieffer. Jesse is eBay's Senior Director of eBay Motors. He's been with eBay for 12 years and we will stop in and check out how it's going in the months ahead.

Griff: My next guest turned his lifelong love of fashion into a thriving eBay sneakers and clothing business. And he did it all while working as a full-time attorney. Yinka Ogunsunlade believes his obsession with what he sells along with a dedication to providing great customer service are the main ingredients to the secret sauce of his business. Success. His eBay store name is fashionably Legal, and he joins me now as part of our ongoing series of conversations with the most recent Up & Running Grant winners. Welcome Yinka.

Yinka: Great to be here. Thanks for having me here Griff.

Griff: So you sell on eBay. Full-time.

Yinka: Correct, Yes. At this point, I believe it is a full-time business.

Griff: And you're also an active practicing attorney.

Yinka: I am, yes.

Griff: Okay. So you're a full-time attorney. You practice, you are a full-time eBay seller with your own fashion business. My next question is how many hours a night do you sleep?

Yinka: Man, I would say on average, probably about five, five to six. I try and get in there when I can.

Griff: You do this alone, correct?

Yinka: Yes. Yes. It's just myself primarily and then my wife, she helps a lot with packing and the shipping and inventory as well. So kind of a two person team.

Griff: Oh, that's good. Okay. Do you have your own practice? Are you part of a firm part of a firm?

Yinka: Right now I work at a firm.

Griff: And do these two businesses ever interact?

Yinka: I would say the interaction comes with sourcing the law office where I work in downtown Washington, DC and one of my go-to sourcing spots is right up the street. Colleagues and coworkers, when they see me going out the door on a lunch break or just on a walk, they know, Yinka is going to source some new items. Let's see what good things he comes back with. I would say that's where they come together. As far as the practice of law and my eBay business.

Griff: So your colleagues are wise to what you're doing.

Yinka: Oh yes.

Griff: When did you start selling on eBay?

Yinka: My love affair with eBay goes way back into when I was a Junior in high school. That's when I opened my first eBay account. So this is early two thousands. At that time, I was just primarily a buyer, just buying items. I loved jerseys. I love sneakers and I just loved the concept of receiving a package in the mail. It was like Christmas all the time for me. That's where I believe I started with just having a love for eBay. Soon thereafter, I would say a couple years later, I just had a lot of excess clothing from the items that I bought. My mother also had excess gifts that she would receive during the holidays. I decided to sell a couple of those. And so that's essentially when I got started.

Griff: So you were a Junior in high school. Yes. This means that when you were in law school, you were still buying or did you start selling then?

Yinka: I was just really getting, going with the selling while I was in law school, always buying., Buying never ceases with me. I would say law school is when I started buying different types of clothing. Really into sneakers as a youth and going through high school and things of that nature, even college, huge into sneakers and athletic wear. But once I got to law school that kind of changed. You are more into business attire, business, clothing, shoes, and suits of that nature. That's where I shifted. And that's where my focus went to. It went to suits and ties and more formal wear. And so I would say that's what really started the selling portion on eBay. I would sell ties. I would sell suits, dress shirts, things of that nature that really started for me in law school. And then fast forward to after law school. That's when kind of made that shift back to sneakers and have seen an explosion in the business.

Griff: Now your inventory makeup, is it preowned and some of it new or is it both or either, or, I mean?

Yinka: I would say about 95% brand new clothing. If there's any pre-owned items. It's things out of my personal collection, kind of like the jerseys behind me, I used to wear back in the college days. Now a lot of these jerseys are considered throwbacks and have quite a lot of value. So I've started the process of selling some of those on eBay as well.

Griff: It is fun watching your possessions, if you live long enough, they start to become collectible.

Yinka: Yes, absolutely. Um, I know recently I sold a Michael Jordan Laney high school, Nike Swingman Jersey. And I remember exactly where I bought it from. I remember the price I bought it for and then to see what it went for now, we're talking almost 15 years later. It's like, it's awesome. Just to see what people cherish as time goes on.

Griff: I trust you made a profit?

Yinka: Oh, absolutely.

Griff: Speaking of profits, you work in these two categories , fashion and especially sneakers as a sub category. Both of these are very competitive categories right now. Both from making sales and being priced competitive as well as for sourcing, sourcing is really competitive as well. Do these competitive challenges in fashion and sneakers make it difficult for your business to maintain profitability. And if not, how do you manage those sorts of challenges? The competitive ones?

Yinka: I don't really think there's a problem maintaining profitability because I have a passion for this stuff. Always reading, always researching, finding out what's new, what's popular as far as sneakers and athletic wear, but just trying to stay with the times. I know that certain trends come and go, just being knowledgeable of that, always trying to acquire knowledge. Just like in being a lawyer, you never stop reading, never stop trying to learn. I take that same approach to my eBay business and just learning about inventory, learning about what people like and the seasons in which they like them. And so that has helped me to maintain that competitive edge, as you said, because the sneakers category is definitely a very competitive and growing category,

Griff: And subject to trends. And I'm not really familiar with the sneaker category personally, as a seller, I do sell sneakers, but they tend to be one type of thing which I've talked about on the podcast. And I won't do it again, but you're more seriously into this. What are trends like? And you said you read any research to keep on top of them. How quickly do you have to be able to move?

Yinka: I would say fairly quickly certain trends. They last for a while. I know a couple years ago, Kanye West Adidas Collaboration, Yeezy Sneakers were all the rage and every one of those shoes would make a good amount of profit. Now you have to be a little bit more selective with the kind of Yeezy that you buy because it's not guaranteed great profit on all of them. And so now in the past couple years, you've seen a trend with the Nike SB Dunks, which are skateboarding shoes essentially. And then also with the Nike Air Jordan One, kind of a Renaissance with Michael Jordan shoes. And so those have maintained their popularity over the last couple of years and just seeing different colorways come out and the profits still there. That's currently, I would say where the sneaker market is,

Griff: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that you've established a lot of connections in the sourcing business when it comes to high-end sneakers.

Yinka: Yes, absolutely. I would say, um, just, uh, reaching out to people, trying to acquire knowledge about different shoes and where to get them, how to get them. I know several other eBay sellers who have been very forthcoming with the knowledge that they have and just passing it on to people like me who wanted to get really back into that sneaker market. I can't thank them enough. People like Hustler Hacks and just other sellers out there who I really rely on for getting information. And they're willing to give it. Big shout out to them.

Griff: Yeah, they are great guys. They've been on the podcast. It is about time to get them back. Thank you for reminding me. Are there mistakes that you've made in the sneaker business, for example, which were education lessons?

Yinka: Absolutely. There was this one shoe that was very popular, an Adidas shoe. I bought it and I made a lot of profit on that shoe, but I thought it was because of the shoe, but it was because of the colorway. I bought the shoe in black, made tons of profit. And then I was like, Oh, there's lots of profit in this shoe. So I ended up buying tons of pairs in white in the same exact shoe, same construction, same name and everything, and just, haven't seen the same amount of profit. And so now I'm stuck with a lot of those shoes and you always go through growing pains and learning experiences like that. Just always trying to learn the market, learn what people are into and just trying to grow from there.

Griff: What do you do with your mistakes? I hate to say mistakes, but let's say errors. When it comes to like those white Adidas?

Yinka: They're still in the inventory. And that's where all of the tools that eBay has on their platform comes into play on the Seller Hub where I can run promotions. I can run sales, just doing things like that. Reducing the price, taking less profit on those items. They'll eventually move. Just not for the projected numbers that I had when I purchased them.

Griff: Yeah. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, can you color them with a magic marker. I'm sure that wouldn't work. You had a premonition about my next question. Cause I was going to ask you about promotional tools, which ones you use and if so, how do you use them? It sounds like you've used them to help you liquidate stock that isn't moving. For example, those white Adidas. Are there other ways that you rely on eBay promotional tools to help keep your business going?

Yinka: Absolutely. I would say about 2017, I think that was the first time I ever traveled to eBay Open. I was a little wary about going cause I was like, I'm not a big time seller. This is for like people who are very serious about it, but I, I just bit the bullet and decided to go and took in all of the knowledge from all of the sessions that were there. And that's when I first found out about Promoted Listings and Promotions. So I use both of those tools on almost all of my items. There'll be Promoted Listings to some degree. Whether it's 2% or higher sometimes with the suggested rate, just to get my items in front of more people, I think that will greatly benefit my business and greatly benefit anybody's business out there. Promoted Listings has been great for me. And then also Promotions. I try and run monthly promotions and even set them to the holidays or something big going on. So I'm a huge basketball fan, college basketball fan. I'll run like a March madness sale where I'll mark down all the shoes for a certain period of time. I believe those selling tools definitely help sellers in bringing more eyes to your item and hopefully enticing them to make that purchase

Griff: Yinka, how has the pandemic impact of your business, if at all?

Yinka: The pandemic when it started, there was a lot of uncertainty as there were with many sellers as to, would people still be purchasing items? Where would the inventory come from? Initially with physical stores closing, that was kind of a negative for my business in that I wasn't able to get out to source in the stores, but that really helped me pivot back to kind of where my strength was, which was online sourcing. That's where I started with eBay. I would purchase items online on sale websites or liquidation sites, things of that nature. I found myself pivoting back to that more, just relying on that, to get the inventory in. And then also just changing the type of items that you purchase. I know during the pandemic, people were looking for a lot of fitness gear, weights, things of that nature. These are items I never really thought of selling pre pandemic. I just was able to shift there and see some growth in the business. Just being at the ready, being ready to shift with the times I think with any business in order to be successful, you need to have that flexibility to shift with the trends and the times. I think I've been able to do that and adapt and sure enough, I had my best year ever this past year on eBay.

Griff: Congratulations.

Yinka: Thank you.

Griff: Looks like we're opening up now. I do not want to jinx anything and say it is over. Let's go back to "normal". I don't know if that's possible, but now that things seem to be winding down and people are starting to venture out at least for the summer. Have you noticed any changes in what's selling in your business?

Yinka: I would say just an increase in athletic wear, increase in athletic gear. I know people were purchasing that right when things were starting to turn around with the pandemic, people wanted to get that outdoor gear as far as outdoor equipment, things of that nature. And I've kind of seen that trend continue to grow. People are still buying shoes and sneakers and athletic clothing. I haven't seen the trend go back to the business and formal wear just yet. But I think and hope that that will come soon as things start to clear up and more people are back in the office, as far as work is concerned.

Griff: It is a question of how many people are going back to the office? There's a lot of talk in the news about people staying and working at home forever now.

Yinka: Yes, yes.

Griff: That should have an impact too. But I can foresee that a lot of managers might say, well, you can work from home, but you got to dress up. You can't be on a zoom call in your underwear. So can make a big difference. I wanted to ask you a question that I've asked a lot of our guests before and I set this up by saying we're in an elevator. And I introduce myself as someone who's considering starting a business, maybe on eBay. And I hear you are talking to someone before and it's obvious you have a business. So I'm going to grab your ear before we get to floor 100. And I'm going to tell you, this is not an express elevator. It's a local. So it's going to stop at a lot of stores. So we have a little time. So Yinka what would be your top bit of advice to me, someone who's interested in selling on eBay before we make it to my floor. Number 100,

Yinka: I would say the first thing to do is figure out what you're passionate about. Find the vehicle that's right for you as far as selling on eBay. As we know with eBay, there's an endless amount of things you can buy. You can buy car parts, you can buy anything you can think of. You can purchase on eBay. Once you get into the selling aspect of eBay. I think the critical point is finding what you're passionate about, because if you're passionate about what you're selling, you won't get tired of looking at those items. You won't get tired of sourcing them, trying to find them at better deals to increase your profit margin. I would say, find what you're passionate about, whether it be neckties, sneakers, it could be trinkets, whatever it is. I would start there with finding what you're passionate about and going forward.

Griff: Really wise advice. It's worth reiterating, that it really does help if you're going to sell things that there's something that you care about. That you either collected yourself or that you buy for yourself or that you really appreciate. I think you're right about that. That's really a key to success. All of the Up & Running Grant recipients received a little cash. Do you have plans for your winnings and if so, what are you going to do with them?

Yinka: Oh, absolutely. I'm very thankful and honored to be chosen as one of the Up & Running Grant recipients. Those funds went to immediate use as far as increasing my inventory. There were certain things I wanted to purchase that I was holding off on. So increasing the inventory. One of the critical components with me is I was running out of space. I converted a second bedroom in the condo I'm in here into my sourcing center. So this is where all of my shoes and everything is located just to look out there and be able to see some storage unit spaces that I can take some of this inventory to, which will allow me to purchase more inventory and acquire that space. And so that's something that this Grant money will definitely go towards.

Griff: When you say a storage unit, is it going to be nearby?

Yinka: Yes. Yeah. Within walking distance. There's one, probably a block or two away. It's very convenient. So that's one that I'm looking at right now.

Griff: My wish for you is that you get so successful that you have to move and buy your own house and your own warehouse all in one.

Yinka: Oh, absolutely. That would, that would be great. I've seen similar stories from other eBay sellers and sure. I'd love to follow in that path where the business just keeps growing and growing and you never know how big you can get.

Griff: That's right. You have to aim high. There's lovely estates in Maryland and across the river in Virginia. And still, you'd be able to commute to work. Absolutely. Well, Yinka thank you so much. It's been a pleasure speaking to you and continued success. Thank you. Thank you very much Griff.

Yinka: Yinka sells on eBay under the eBay store named Fashionably Legal and as always, we're going to put a link to his eBay store, as well as the link to his story on the eBay Inc blog, there was a post featuring him. We'll put this all in the transcript for episode 140.

Rebecca: You've got questions.

Griff: Well we've got answers. Yes we do.

Rebecca: Yes we do. And our first question was emailed to podcast at ebay.com by eBay seller, Drew, who says, hello, Griff, Rebecca and Brian. Oh, I love it when they remember all three of us, I've been listening to your great podcast for several months. And I have a question about eBay managing my payment. I would like to know why I can only link a checking account to receive funds and not a savings or other kind of account. My family has several accounts that we use for different purposes, saving for big trips, et cetera. And I'd like to put my eBay proceeds for the next several months into one of those accounts rather than general checking. Sure. I could move on my bank side, but I'd have to remember to do so as my bank doesn't have auto move by deposit or rule options. Is there any way to link a savings rather than a checking account to my eBay payments? Thank you for all that you do for the eBay seller community. Thanks from drew. Well, Griff, can he do this?

Griff: Well first off. Thanks Drew for the question. And the answer is unfortunately, no. Savings accounts are not an option for eBay Payments because well, unlike checking accounts, savings accounts usually have restrictions on withdrawals. For example, the number of withdrawals and the amount of withdrawals for a period of time like monthly and because your account needs to be tied to your, your eBay Payments account, money goes in, but money can also come out for things like if you need to pay for a shipping label and you're using that, or if you're funding a refund and some savings accounts, not all they don't allow for third-party withdrawals. So for that reason, we only have checking accounts as the allowed option for eBay Payments. But I would suggest as we've done on the show in the past, that if you're going to do business on eBay, you might want to consider just opening a single account and a single debit or credit card for your eBay proceeds. It's easier to track your business. Keeping all of those proceeds in one place is probably a smart idea. And then yes, you will have to manually transfer them to a savings account or another account if you want to use those for different purposes. I wish I had a better answer for you, but yeah, no, there's no way to do that with a savings account on eBay Payments.

Rebecca: Alright, what's our second question Griff?

Griff: Well, our second question, and I'll read this one, was emailed to podcast@ebay.com by seller Sandra and Sandra writes. Good afternoon. I started selling on eBay in March of 2021. I listed five items and sold two items in March, a pajama and a hat. Oh, congratulations, Sandra. Then I sold a calculator in April. So I sold one item each week, but now I have nine listings and I want to put like 400 listings. My question is how do I get constant sales to make some kind of income as the sales have stopped? And I have great pictures. Everything looks great. Great title, great description. All the specifics name it. I think I got it right. I'm selling used designer shoes, kitchen gadgets, cell phone holders, and kitchen electronics. We changed the price I have Best Offer on and free shipping on them. I hear on a YouTube video that you have to have at least a hundred listings to see some sales. Is this true? What about if I put 400 listings from things I already have around my home? What happens if it doesn't sell? Is the key to selling really having lots of listings? That's my main question. Thank you, Sandra. Well, Sandra, your first instinct is correct. One of the keys to selling a certain amount every week is to have a supporting amount of inventory in live listings at all times. What that amount is, we'll talk about that in a minute. Another key is knowing what constitutes a reasonable expectation for a level of sales for the merchandise type that you offer. Some types of inventory sell quicker than others. For example, designer sneakers that may be really hot, are going to sell a lot faster than used kitchen items.

Rebecca: Yeah. And all of this involves research, right? Which Sandra could accomplish through Terapeak by the way, which just recently became free for everyone. Um, but we're getting ahead of ourselvesGriff. Sandra's first task is to determine how much she needs to generate a profit every week, every month, every quarter, whatever her measure is, this means setting a goal.

Griff: Yes, setting a goal that's important. And part of setting that goal Sandra is estimating the amount of net profit you can expect to get from the inventory types that you have to list. That's the difference per item for what you might've paid for the item and what it sells for. The cool thing about using your own inventory, your own personal possessions is you shouldn't be worrying what you paid for them. You just want to get them sold.

Rebecca: Sandra, you should research the current market demand for that inventory using Terapeak. This will give you a reasonable estimate of how much inventory you need to have listed at all times. And at what price point, for example, you find an interesting coffee mug and you suspect there's a market for it on eBay. What do you do? First, You have to research past sold items for that same mug. And that will give you an indication of what you can reasonably expect for a sold price. And Terapeak will provide this data to you for your research.

Griff: Yeah. And if you're selling a varied line of miscellaneous household goods, like it sounds like you want to, you will need to research each one of those items, which can be time consuming. Unless you set a goal for listing, say something reasonable, something you can manage five or 10 items a day.

Rebecca: Yeah. So starting off with 400 listings right out of the gate could be overwhelming, but also might be a good long term goal.

Griff: It could be. And you're right, Rebecca, if you start out, if you jump in that quickly and you list 400 items, you could get in over your head really quickly, it's much better to ramp up slowly. A new seller should always start out small and slow and build up their inventory over a reasonable period of time.

Rebecca: And that gives a seller a chance to test and learn a little bit about selling and what sells and how to get that research done and how long it takes to research each item. So if all of this is too much to take at this point in your nascent, your early selling career, the rule of thumb truly is the more inventory listed, the more sales you will make. And that just sounds like a numbers game, Griff.

Griff: It is, and there's no cut and dried, solution. Although I've not verified this many sellers of the merchandise like Sandra's wants to sell tell me that the minimum number of live listings to make even a reasonable, workable profit is to have at least a thousand live listings at all times. And you have to be continually listing fresh merchandise as well. So if you sell a hundred of them, you have to have a hundred things ready to put up there. I currently have about a hundred live listings. That's really dipped for me. And I haven't been refreshing that stock as much as I used to a year ago before the pandemic. And I'm lucky if I get a sale a week, but I'm not depending on it right now for my income. I know the minute I start adding new items as new listings, my sales rate always increases. And it isn't always the new stuff that sells. Sometimes it's the oldest stuff that's been up there.

Rebecca: Interesting. So Sandra, all of this probably sounds somewhat overwhelming, but take heart because as we said, many new sellers test their way towards reaching that needed sales goal. That would be my main suggestion, set a reasonable number for how many items you can realistically list per day with that research and stick to it, track how long it takes individual items to sell and if necessary lower prices, you know, do offers to help incentivize sales. And if price reductions don't work, then consider ending the listing and listing new, different merchandise in its place.

Griff: Yeah. Sometimes things just don't sell and it'll be better for your mindset and your peace of mind if you just get rid of that merchandise and replace it with something else. So Sandra, although we don't have a cut and dried tried and true answer for how do you increase sales, because there are no guarantees in business. The basic rule of thumb that sellers usually say is the basic rule is to list as much inventory as you reasonably can, as often as you can. Rinse and repeat and increase. And Oh, before I forget, there are eBay marketing tools that may actually help you increase your sales, like Promoted Listings and Shipping Discounts. And you can find all those in Seller Hub under the Marketing tab.

Rebecca: Our third and final question was also sent to podcasts@ebay.com. Seller Stephanie writes, Hi Griff and company. Thanks for your great programming. Oh, you're welcome Stephanie. My question is related to sales totals and their relation to tax reporting. Are returns and cancellations automatically subtracted from my sales totals on the total sales reports under the Performance Tab in Seller Hub or do I have to manually subtract them for tax purposes? This is important for tax purposes to show actual sales totals, especially for those who might have a lot of returns and cancellations to accurately reflect the sales totals for the year or for the month. I know they are subtracted from the payout. Thanks from Stephanie and her store is everythingvintagesteph. That's S T E PH.com

Griff: Well, Stephanie, thanks. I got your question last week and I did a little research just to make sure that what I'm about to tell you is accurate. You're right. The sales report only shows sales and all the fees paid by the seller. It's not post-transaction. Things like refunds or cancellations don't show up on the sales report. Sales reports show the gross sales amount in the first column, and then it shows anything that was taken out for fees or shipping. And the last column shows your net sales. You'll need this information so you want to download a sales report on a regular basis. And then you can view the column headers to see each type of fee or expense that was deducted from your sales proceeds that you received then in a payout.

Rebecca: Stephanie, what you're looking for when it comes to refunds, for any reason, including cancellations is the Payments Report. You can find it on the Payments page. There is a reports link on the left-hand column, and that report is based on the actual funds going through your eBay payments account for both funds paid to you and funds paid back to the seller for a refund or eBay for fees, et cetera. You can also see that same information in the tax invoice, which is accessible by via the Payments page in Seller Hub.

Griff: I know Stephanie's in eBay Payments. She made that reference to getting payouts, but if you're a seller and you're not yet in eBay Payments or if you were in eBay Payments for only a part of 2020, you may find that you're not going to be covered in those reports for all the months. And you can find the missing information in a PayPal transaction report. It's basically the same thing. Go to PayPal login, look for their reports features, and then download a transaction report for the period of time you need.

Rebecca: So the upshot here is download the right report from your existing reports in Seller Hub. In order to see the numbers you need, for example, a Payment Report to see payment reversals for refunds and cancellations. I hope that helps.

Griff: Yeah, that's pretty good information, Rebecca thanks. And thanks to all three sellers who sent in their questions. Remember to send us your shipping address. If we've read your question on the air and we'll send you an official eBay For Business Podcast mug, I think I've sent out 10 so far. And speaking of mugs, I do have a special request if I may, Rebecca.

Rebecca: Absolutely. What is it Griff?

Griff: Well, we need more questions and more to the point, we need more questions for the month of June. I haven't told anyone this, so it's news, but I'm taking the month off for sabbatical during June. And we want to get as many segments as possible in the can, so to speak. So send in as many questions as you might have, and we'll send you an official eBay For Business Podcast mug for every question of yours that we use from now through the end of June and for as long as the supply in my garage lasts. And there's quite a few of them so. (laughing)

Rebecca: All right out there, you heard the guy. Send us your questions, but how? Well you can always call us on (888)723-4630.

Griff: And I wish more people would call (888) 723-4630. And a phone call does count for a mug. Just leave a question or comment, and if it's appropriate and we put it on the air, we'll send you a mug.

Rebecca: You're not a call on the phone person, but we hope you are, let us hear your voices. You can always email us at podcast@ebay.com, that's podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: So here's the promo. So send in your questions today! And now it's time for your weekly podcast checklist.

Rebecca: Number one. Check the Announcement Board for Up-To-Date Seller News.

Griff: Number two. Start downloading all of the available reports in Seller Hub and do it on a regular schedule basis like once a month or a quarter so that you have all that necessary data for tracking and managing your business.

Rebecca: Number three. Check out the transcript for this and all episodes. Follow up on what you've heard and to see the links that we referenced during the episode.

Griff: And special number four, go out and buy that thermal printer. On our next episode, we'll meet another seller from our recent Up & Running Grant series. And we'll take a deep dive into the recently launched Image Scan Tool.

Rebecca: We'd like to thank again, our guests this week, Jesse Kieffer from the eBay Motors Team and eBay Seller and Up & Running Grant recipient, Yinka Ogunsunlade.

Griff: The eBay For Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

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