Who Exactly is an eBay Seller’s Target Customer?

Ask any seasoned eBay seller if knowing your target customer is important, and you’ll (hopefully) get the same answer:

If you are selling to everyone, then you are selling to no one.

This sage advice, of course, is applicable to any small business: whether it be online stores through eBay, Shopify, BigCommerce, or Etsy; or offline businesses such as small accounting, law, or other professional firms.

Identifying a niche market is crucial right from the very start because it is the basis of your brand (a topic for another post).

So if you want to understand who and how your products help, some research is in order; or, at the very least, a little hard-thinking analysis. See if you can you come up with clear answers to these questions.

What is your product/service?

No, this isn’t a trick question. You obviously know what you sell.

What it really means is that you should have a good understanding of the relationship between your product and those who would buy it. Including why they would buy it; in other words, the emotional connection.

How will the product be used?

An eBay seller is like any other retailer in the sense that they represent their products to their customers. So you need to be knowledgeable about what you sell.

Is your product special? What is its intrinsic value? How does it help? What problem does it solve?

Who will the product connect with and appeal to?

This is your demographic who you will focus your marketing on. For example, esa Product Manager connects with eBay sellers who are looking for an innovative e-commerce inventory management tool to simplify management. This is the product benefit that appeals to their customer’s needs.

Remember that your product solves a particular problem for your targeted customer. This “solution” is what serves as the basis of your advertising. So, the key to being a successful eBay seller is to position yourself as “a big fish in a small pond,” so that you become your target customer’s go to store.

And you do this by taking the time to get to know who they are.