Becoming a Powerseller - it's what so many eBay sellers aspire to, but is it what we all should be aiming for ?

The benefits of being a powerseller can be excellent, with at least 20% reduced from your selling fees, extra resources from eBay, and that logo next to your seller ID which inspires trust in buyers. In truth though, what does it actually mean ? Is being a powerseller an indication that you have fantastic online business skills ? Have you ever used the extra benefits eBay give you, and is the Powerseller logo nothing more profound than getting the fifth star on a McDonalds name badge?

Before everyone rushes to give me the benefit of their opinion, let me point out - I am a powerseller - a couple of times over in fact. This is why I can clearly state that being a powerseller does not mean you are an online business maestro, because of one simple reason, which is:

Powerseller status is based on turnover, not profit.

And businesses ultimately survive on profit, not turnover, so eBay could easily be rewarding you for being the world's worst businessman or woman.....

As an extreme example you could buy stock for £6K, sell it all in a month for £4k and still get a little man on a star next to your name, (though you probably couldn't do it for very long).

In a more practical example, I have one store that has a good profit margin on it's goods, gets me powerseller status, but actually I earn more profit from my eBay eBook store that does less than half the turnover. The eBook store is the better business model, but which do I get the most credit for - you guessed it.

And yes I know, it's also an indication of customer service, but the standards set by eBay could be easily met by your average car boot/yard sale trader let alone anyone trying to sell stuff online. For me at least, they would need to be higher to indicate a true commitment to offering customer service, with perhaps a feedback level of 99.5% or higher the minimum standard for powerseller status.

The practised cynic might venture the opinion that eBay are simply rewarding the sellers they get the most fees from, but I don't agree. eBay could increase their fees and selling on eBay would still be a great deal. What it simply means is that when we are looking for someone to model our eBay business on we must try to see past how much they're selling and try and see how much they're making.

If you're a busy Mum or Dad, with limited time to list or pack order would it be better to sell a few high ticket items to a small niche market than a load of lower priced items to a 'hot' market at 5% profit a time and become a powerseller?.

The main thing has got to be to get the basics right if you want to make a personal success of your eBay business. If you like what you do, it comes through in the way you do it. For instance, you can tell when someone's selling a fishing rod whether or not they enjoy fishing. The text in the listing will be written in a way that conveys emotion, and if that emotion conects with the reader, the item often gets a bid or makes a sale.

With that in mind, I think a extra icon should be made available by eBay, it should be a big smiley face. It could be voted for by buyers in the feedback process and be called the 'I love what I do' badge, especially for those sellers who really gave the buyer the belief they had enthusiasm for what they sold. Now that's the type of seller I would buy from every single time......

Thanks for reading.

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