Online sales boom on Teesside
Jan 31 2008 By Sue Scott
E-COMMERCE businesses on Teesside are booming, according to the world’s leading auction site.
About 178,000 entrepreneurs running virtual shops on eBay generate £2bn of wealth for the UK economy - and £7m of that comes from auctions run in Middlesbrough.
With millions of people selling on eBay.co.uk the site estimates there are 660 eBay entrepreneurs in the town who use the site as their primary or secondary source of income.
Dean Benson of Stockton web designers Visualsoft Uk said e-tailers should expect to generate around 15-20% of their overall internet sales from eBay hosting.
But he said misplaced fears about discounting and cost put many off.
"It costs less to sell on eBay than it does to sell in a shop," he said. And he added that concerns that being listed among a jumble of unwanted items from private sellers could discredit their product were overcome by strong branding.
With 15p in every pound now spent online, those doing business via eBay generate a larger turnover than WH Smith and match the combined wealth of entrepreneurs Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and Sir James Dyson.
eBay said great customer service was the biggest contributor to the success of an online entrepreneur.
It is now introducing fundamental changes to its site to champion those sellers who provide the best.
Mark Lewis, of eBay UK said, "More and more individuals are establishing themselves as internet retailers.
"The start-up costs are almost non-existent and the opportunities to create and grow a business from nothing are enormous.
"Whilst trends in the internet economy are often thought of as distinct or different than the offline economy the opposite is now true. As more and more people shop online and customers’ expectations grow, increasingly the key to successful online trading lies in providing good, old-fashioned customer service."
Changes about to be introduced to the eBay site include reduced up-front fees for listing an item and better visibility for sellers with the best reputation, with those who provide poor service dropping to the bottom of search results.
