Backend Sales!



Let me give you an example of a strategy I employed. I noted there were several eBay marketers who were selling large lots of greeting cards. Remarkably, when I first looked into it, there was a lot of 1,000 cards being sold, with just two days remaining in the auction. Can you guess what the highest bid was?

One Dollar!

Can you believe it? The winning bid went a bit higher, but not very much. When the auction closed, the winning bidder got 1,000 greeting cards for less than a penny each.

There are a number of eBay marketers that routinely sell lots of 25 greeting cards at five dollars and up. How much profit could you generate if you purchased 1,000 cards for one dollar and then went back and sold them for five dollars per batch of 25 cards? Two hundred dollars, which is a twenty thousand percent return on your money! Pretty darn good.

By the way, there are deals comparable to that all the time on eBay. You can find a lot of them by doing some basic eBay market research.

However, this article is not about finding low priced products on eBay and reselling them at a good return. That will be a topic for a future article. So now, back to backend sales (no pun intended).

These large lots of greeting cards become available for auction on eBay regularly. So, I resolved to use them as a backend sale product. Here's my strategy.

I purchased a huge lot of greeting cards at about two cents each. I then developed an order form to market the cards for $0.20 a piece (you can always jack up the price later). Each time I sent an item I sold on eBay, I simply tucked in a sample greeting card & envelope along with an order form.

When my buyer (high bidder) received item, they were surprised and happy to discover that I had enclosed a complimentary greeting card that they might be able to use (nice little bonus). In addition, they saw that they could order more excellent cards, at just $0.20 a piece, in lots of 25. Since most cards normally go for two to three dollars each, that represented a discount of more than 90%. That's a pretty cool offer.

The cool thing about this method is that anybody that ever purchases anything from me can become a lifetime customer. They may purchase cards from me for a long time. My first "one-time" sale to my buyer can turn into a lifetime revenue stream, as they reorder cards again and again.

You can use the same method. The only thing you have to do is identify a consumable product that people purchase, use up and purchase again. Purchase the product on eBay for at a bargain price, or from a reliable wholesale source. Make up an order form that you can include with your eBay sales. Then, sit back and let the cash roll in. Cool!

Remember, your backend items do not have to be greeting cards. That is just an example of something I happened to notice. You may find other terrific consumable items that are a better match for the type of products you usually auction on eBay. What you really want is to uncover items that people will buy from you over and over again.

To summarize, backend sales is just the process of selling more items to buyers who recently purchased an item from you. The best time to follow up with a prospective lifetime customer is when they are already happy with a recent purchase and they are in the "buying mood."

Remember, the ideal backend item must be consumable. When you get a new customer, you want to offer him another product that he will need to reorder from you each time he uses up his supply. This will create lifetime buyers that can be the beginning of a perpetual revenue stream for you.