eBay Lesson #1: Personal Service

eBay Canada has a neat awards program they run every year to recognize some of their most successful sellers. This year, the Entrepreneur of the Year awards were expanded to include two other categories, including the Service-preneur of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.

Click here to read 'ebay Lesson #2' by Kate McCaffery.

Their stories are impressive (in just three short years the entrepreneur award winner, Myriam Barreiro of Toronto grew her business from scratch, into a business with projected revenue of nearly $1-million this year.)

The kudos are great for the winners – home-based business owners generally don't get many opportunities to revel in accolades from their peers – and we benefit by talking to the winners, who generously share what they've done to grow their businesses into the success stories that they are today.

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First up, we talked to the eBay Service-preneurs of the Year, Josh Roter and Chantal Varela (eBay ID: invtgwetrust). The pair met nine years ago and took their vintage clothing business online. Before moving to eBay about five years ago, Roter used to rent out retail space at different locations on a short-term basis to set up limited time 'pop-up' shops. Varela lived and worked in Montreal at the Le Chateau head office. Today, roughly 90 per cent of their merchandise is now sold on eBay.

The business, In Vintage We Trust, is no hobby shop either. The couple maintains a workspace in Toronto's downtown fashion district. They go on buying trips once a month to find merchandise and the items they sell are not your typical second hand or consignment shop fare – some items in the couple's store range from $4,000 to $12,000 a piece. (When we talked, they had a Mickey Mantle game jacket in store.)

Interestingly, where some shop owners would prefer to appeal to the masses, Roter admits "sometimes there are only 10, 15 or 20 people in the world who are going to buy some of the products we're selling."

At the same time, though, he says virtually every guy in the world, or in North America anyway, has one jersey or collectible rock t-shirt that he would own if he had his way and the budget to spend.

"In North America, with four major sports, every guy is looking for one jersey," he says. "It's a small market, but at the same time, it's really, really vast."

In addition to rock t-shirts and sports jerseys, the pair also trade in high-end military clothing and other collectibles as well.


How they do it

Their secret? Personal service. Roter knows his repeat buyers and their preferences so well that he can often guess who will bid on specific items. Although some clients believe Roter and Varela have a staff (they don't, it's just the two of them and their bookkeeper), each package is shipped with a hand-written thank you card. Shipping and attention to the packaging quality is also important, as are the online visuals and the communication they have with buyers. "We both have customer service backgrounds. That's a lot of what we do online – communicate with buyers successfully," he says.

On the business side of things, the pair have complimentary skill sets. Roter does the shopping and Varela keeps things running. "She's able to multi-task at an unbelievable level. She's very meticulous with details; she's very detail oriented. Everything I'm not, basically," he laughs.

There are a few challenges that come with the territory when running an online shop in Canada. In this case, it appears that most can be dealt with by talking with buyers.

Shipping from Canada is one hurdle – compared to online sellers in the U.S., Canadian rates can be notably higher.

"Canada post is more expensive because they ship less. There are sales that get lost because Canada Post is expensive. That's just the way the world works," he says. "Most of the time, you tell someone that and they say, 'Ok, great.' They just want an explanation. People just want to know that you're not gouging them."

The second hurdle is timing. If a potential customer e-mails during off hours, particularly if they're calling from a time zone that is 12 or 13 hours away, it can sometimes take a few days to complete the business at hand. Again, he says simply explaining the situation is usually enough to keep buyers happy (and to keep the shop's satisfaction ratings high). "Even if they need a measurement at 11:00 at night, we'll email them and let them know that we'll handle things as soon as possible for them – once we're back in the office," he says. "A lot of people think it's a hobby and that we do this in our spare time. We don't. We have business hours but we do our best to handle whatever they need in a timely manner."


Related:
Profile: Meet eBay's Top Entrepreneu
How eBay Canada's Innovator of the Year Made His Online Business a Success
Banned: Stuff You Can't Sell on eBay


Kate McCaffery is a freelance writer in Toronto, Ontario. Visit mccaffery.ca/kate2.0/ for more information.