Overview
On Episode 43, Liz and Doug talk about the mentality of multi-platform selling and running a business across all platforms, including how your community plays a role in this mindset.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the #1 resource for the seller community across all platforms and hub for information on growing your business with List Perfectly. Find out more at listperfectly.com/podcast, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
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Episode 43 Links
eBay purchases sneaker authentication service Sneaker Con
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Transcript
Intro
Liz:
I’m Liz.
Doug:
And I’m Doug.
Liz:
Welcome to episode 43 of The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. Doug, how have you been this week?
Doug:
Alright Liz. Busy, busy week. How about you?
Liz:
The same, busy, busy.
Doug:
Yeah, your sales are going well, your Q4ish. Your holiday sales.
Liz:
Holiday sales are doing pretty well. Got to spend some time with family and babysit some babies. Got together at a meetup with some of my seller friends all this past week, too.
Doug:
Well, before we get into that let me just say, I know I said last week you looked tired. You look better this week. You look rested. You look Liz-ish. It’s good.
Liz:
Thank you. Yeah, it was…
Doug:
You almost came through the screen, you almost killed me last week, so…
Liz:
I appreciate it. No, it was a rough week. I did, I got some sleep this weekend.
Doug:
All right. So you did a meetup. You did your meetup, your Colorado Springs, Denver combo, your whirlwind holiday thing. How was that?
Liz:
That was awesome. We got together at the Colorado Springs meetup and of course, the Denver coordinators, Dave and Laurie, came down and joined us. We had some in person sellers meet us and we set up Zoom to where a couple of people could join us from Zoom. And we talked about coded coupons, promotions and whatnot.
Doug:
Nice. Yeah, no, that’s always good. And it’s, it’s interesting now with the meetups because they’re segueing to get back to face to face, but I think it’s still good to have, you know, that component, that electronic Zoom component for people that still might want to intend. I guess I could have logged in.
Liz:
Yeah. So, uh, Robin, the co-host of the Colorado Springs meetup, she’s really good at setting all of that up. We meet at our library and they have an amazing setup. We actually have, I don’t know what it’s called a mono something, but it’s this huge TV that’s just a big computer and we can Zoom in from that and I can log in…
Doug:
Is it mononucleosis? That’s…
Liz:
Sure. Yeah, that’s it. I heard about that. No, I can’t remember what they’re called. I don’t know, but we’re able to use that and we’re able to kind of put our Zoom at the end of the table and then log in from my laptop, do a screenshare. And we all at this meetup, ended up busting out our laptops and creating coupons and just kind of going back and forth of what’s worked for us. A couple of sellers, we talked about eBay a lot because all of us are eBay sellers and there were a couple of Poshmark questions, a couple of Etsy questions and Amazon.
Doug:
Yeah. And I think that’s great that you guys actually cracked open the laptops and actually did it. So, you know, people learn from doing. So many sellers sell across so many platforms.
Liz:
I think one of our biggest takeaways–yeah, we had our subjects, but for me, and I have to be reminded of this all the time too, is to look at it from a buyer’s perspective before you look at it from a seller’s perspective. So that’s why we were breaking this out. It’s like, “Hey, if I do this type of coupon, search my item and show me what you see. Yeah.” So that way it’s, it’s a totally different user. That’s using their login to see what it would look like and that person could show their screen. And then we could discuss what’s nice about that and I think that goes for all platforms. We had a discussion in the Facebook group about Posh and I learned something about Posh from a buyer’s perspective this past week also. So I went through and I liked some things. So the deal with Poshmark was I asked a question about a, if somebody likes an item and somebody else makes an offer on an item, does that person that likes the item get notified that there is now an offer on the item? And the answer is yes. So I went through and thought like a buyer and liked some things that I was interested in. And I got a push notification from Poshmark. Someone has made an offer on the item. You like go make an offer and claim it as yours. So I learned that this week about Poshmark and through our community, I was able to learn something new about a platform that I sell on.
Doug:
Everybody knows this, but Liz has been selling forever and she’s always learning and always willing to learn, but always learning. And I guess Liz, that ties into the topic of this week’s episode.
Liz:
I think that that may have driven the topic of this week’s episode, because I always think that it’s really important. I mean, you and I had a conversation about, you know, the podcast and this topic is important for people to hear. It was very interesting to everybody that I talked to about this.
Doug:
So we’ve talked about doing this episode a couple times, but I was thinking too, is like maybe this’ll spur, maybe we do some more platform specific episodes and just really go deep in the platforms, maybe have a seller from each on and then go from there.
Liz:
I think that is a great idea. So this week we do have a lot to talk about, and the topic of this week is going to be talking about the mentality of being a multi-platform seller and running a business across all platforms and really how the community plays a role in this mindset.
Doug:
How many platforms do you sell on Liz?
Liz:
I sell consistently on three platforms, but I do have a presence on five.
Doug:
Good to know. Yeah. So like you said, we’ve got a lot to cover, but we’re gonna squeeze in a couple seller shoutouts and maybe a little bit of news. We don’t want to go too crazy, but let’s get into the show. Don’t forget that The Seller Community Podcast is brought to you by List Perfectly every week for your enjoyment and show notes are found at listperfectly.com/podcast. So I guess let’s get into it with our guest Liz O’Kane. Who will be talking to us–I don’t know if she knew, now she knows, who will be talking to us about multi-platform selling and having that mentality.
Liz:
Yeah. I know. We just had a Q and a session over text and we figured why not bring it to voice.
Doug:
See how it goes. We’re gonna turn the tables a bit.
Think Like a Multi-Platform Reseller
Doug:
Alright, welcome to the show, Liz. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for taking the time. So how long have you been selling? Give us the little high-level Liz elevator intro pitch.
Liz:
My quick pitch. Yes. I started selling on eBay in 2002 with some of my son’s outfits, on maternity leave. I had outgrown some maternity clothes and some of my son’s baby clothes decided to throw it on a little site called eBay and sold my items faster and for more money than I thought and that got me hooked. So over the years, you know, I was working full time. I was in the Air Force. So I used eBay as a way to kind of supplement some income here and there to pay for family vacations. Fast forward to 2016. I retired from the Air Force. I had always sold on eBay, a little more serious the last couple years before retirement and knew that last year that I was going to be an eBayer full-time. So I walked straight from retirement into a full-time reseller or a main income reseller. And I did that until 2019. And in 2019, that changed when I was introduced to List Perfectly.
Doug:
I thought you were gonna say introduced to me. <laugh>
Liz:
Yeah. That just changed my entire…yes. OK. Everything well that that’s the long version. You can’t just fit that into a short version.
Doug:
Let me fill in some gaps for you, Liz. So Liz here…
Liz:
I was trying to go fast.
Doug:
That’s true. She was trying to go fast, but, a couple gaps to fill in. So over the years, Liz was mostly eBay and then in 2019, she branched out to the different platforms, but also over the years, she developed local relationships and sourcing relationships and stuff that she has to this day and built up her brand and built up her marketing. And over the past couple years too, has really grown more into being an influencer, not telling you what to do, but just putting it out there and saying, “this works for me. It might not work for you, but this is how I do it.” And just, you know, helping sellers out, giving tips, being available. And then, you know, like she said, using List Perfectly to help grow her business. We always say that sellers should think of themselves as a business in all aspects. So high level, what did this, what does this mean to you?
Liz:
You know, I did, it was so much on eBay to where I always thought of myself as an eBay seller who happens to sell other stuff on the side on other platforms because eBay is my native platform. As I’ve grown over the last two years, really it’s about consistency on all platforms, consistent customer service, consistent marketing, consistent sourcing, consistent listing. All of that goes into play and not just, I’m gonna focus on one marketplace and then treat the restless. So really I’m able to think of myself as a brand, my coloradoreworn brand. And then that branches down to the different platforms versus eBay and then other platforms. If that makes sense.
Doug:
Yeah. It’s all like inclusive under the umbrella of coloradoreworn, the brand. So here’s what we’re gonna do, cuz we could go hours on all this. But we’re gonna touch base on some of those aspects and I want you to give like one tip each. So let’s start with sourcing. What’s your sourcing tip?
Liz:
Know that you’re gonna get better if you’re just starting out, you’re gonna get better over time. Know your niche. Know your niche. If you have a niche, know it and hit those areas. First, my main sourcing tip, and this is what I do is I go to my most reliable places first and I used to be caught up in a single ROI. So say I’m never gonna spend more than a dollar or I only wanna sell things that are over $50. I used to be in that mindset. One of the two. Now I am not going to turn my nose up. If I can get a quantity of 40 and my ROI will be 12. Think about your sourcing time. If you are so niche that it takes you all day to get 15 items, you may want to try another way of sourcing or items to sell.
Liz:
So I used to be extremely niche and I would spend all day going from thrift store to thrift store, to thrift store, to thrift store, to where now I have spent time and I have experience in my local area to where I can go to one or two stores and I can just make huge bulk purchases. I’m not somebody that goes and shops for two days, comes home and lists it and then goes out the next day and gets just enough. I may go out and get enough to last me a month and just take that entire month and go. For me it saves me time. Now I understand not everybody has that available to them, or you’re not quite built up to that yet. But if you can get into the mindset of that, “Hey, I need to source faster. I can bring in more things than just a week’s worth of sourcing.” See if you can get into that mindset of getting there.
Doug:
Okay. That’s a great answer.
Liz:
That was not a fast answer, but that’s all right. I’ll make up for it in the lightning round.
Doug:
That’s right. She’ll catch up. Like there’s still time to catch up Liz and win bonus points! Marketing, what’s your marketing tip?
Liz:
You know what? I’m not a huge marketer, but I will tell you it doesn’t have to be big. It can be something as simple as a thank you card or a thank you sticker on your package. If you wanna go big, you can do the campaigns and have a website and Instagram, Facebook Market, doesn’t have to be big. It can be something as simple as a thank you card.
Doug:
But I think, you know, that concept applies to a lot of these things too. There’s a lot of simple things you can do to accomplish all this. And I like with sourcing, you talked about considering your time, you always gotta think about your time. That stood out to me. This is one, I think a lot of sellers don’t think about how many aspects it touches. So customer service, what’s your customer service tip?
Liz:
You can go back and listen to yesterday’s eBay for Business podcast, cuz they did a whole segment on customer service. I popped in really quick and gave mine and kind of gave my scenario and a customer service experience, but really don’t let problem customers get to you. Okay? Sometimes we’re gonna have a problem buyer or really just a problem situation dealing with a bad experience or customer service, make it hassle free. So for example, respond to every customer, even the difficult ones, you don’t have to get into an hour long debate with a customer. You don’t have to get mad over their requests or demands or you know, I see things in our community sometimes and I’m not saying it’s right, wrong and different. If you’ve known me for a while, you’re gonna know “Liz, this used to be you five years ago, you used to do this.”
Liz:
If somebody’s like, “well I think that I can get this here” and then I would respond back “Well, you don’t know who and you don’t know the time that it takes to do this,” you know? And I’ve come to learn that that is such a waste of my time. “I didn’t like the color of this. And you said it was purple and it’s more eggplant and you are just trying to screw people out of money by lying on your listings. I’m gonna send this back.” My response is, “I’m sorry you’re not happy with your product. I accept returns.” I’m not even gonna address it. Yeah, it’s done. It’s gone. The customer’s taken care of in a polite way. They got what they wanted. They get to return it. I’m not gonna engage and be like, well there’s a fi…I don’t know what that argument would sound like for a lot of different things that we run across. You know, “what’s a bust measurement?” It takes me longer to tell that customer, “well, if you would’ve read the description, you would’ve seen that. I already provided it.” All I have to do is copy and paste it and say, “let me know if you have any more questions.” To me, that’s providing customer service just on the lowest scale possible.
Doug:
Great answer. But I think there’s a spectrum there too with difficult customers. Like some of them will have legitimate gripes. Some of them are difficult just to be difficult. And then some of ’em it’s the whole hug your customers concept about helping, not necessarily the difficult people out, but the people that are coming to you for help. So more of the ones with the legitimate issues. So helping them out, you know, they’re gonna turn from a detractor to a proponent.
Liz:
Don’t get me wrong. Doug, I’m human. I’m not saying that it doesn’t get to me sometimes because it does. And I have my friends that I text and we will, you know, have laughing sessions about it. Like, “oh my gosh, who had the worst, not the worst customer, but who had the worst experience selling this week?” Whether it be, “I sent a $200 item and it got busted in the mail and my customer emailed me 700 times last night” or whatever it may be. Or if somebody is unreasonable, you know, you just kind of get mad about it for a minute. But at the end of the day we’re sellers, this is a business customer service. It doesn’t have to come off what I’m really thinking in my responses. So don’t think that I don’t have any type of feelings or frustrations when that happens as a seller because I do. I’m human, but it’s getting past that, giving the customer service and taking that time. I said it in the eBay for Business podcast, I won’t let these bad experiences live rent free in my head. I wanna take care of it and get it out of my thought process so that I can move on to other things.
Doug:
Can’t make everybody happy, but you can, you can try.
Liz:
All you can do is try. You can try.
Doug:
But it’s funny though, because it’s the, those are the ones we remember. You know, it’s like yes, a hundred positive reviews and one bad one is like, that’s the one that sticks out in your head. All right, Liz, I’m gonna tell a story. Okay, stop the show. <laugh>
Liz:
Stop the show.
Doug:
This is one of my favorites. I have a bunch of Liz stories, but as you all know, a couple years ago, a couple times I went and hung out with Liz and you know, documented what she did in her business and learned from that when I was at eBay. And I remember, there were a couple other sellers we were working with too at the time. And they all got together. They brought their stuff over to Liz’s and then we all went to the post office. And so we took a funny picture of me carrying all their bags. I remember we’re walking into the post office and I turned to Liz and I said, “So how many times a week, do you do this?” And she looked at me like I was crazy. She’s like, “I do this every day.” And so this brings us into shipping. So tell us, give us your shipping tip.
Liz:
Yeah. So first I’ll just clarify or I won’t clarify, but since then I have moved on to porch pickup. So I do not have to go to the post office every day. That was the change I implemented. Once things started shutting down and people were staying at home. Yeah. Because I had had bad experiences in the past with packages, not getting scanned and just not very good postal carriers, but I need to sing my postal carrier praises. He is amazing. He comes every day to my porch, scans all my packages, puts my shipping containers and bags away. And, he does a great job. So I do not go to the post office every day anymore, but really something that Doug told me and I didn’t realize I was doing and a phrase that he said that has stuck in my head was economy of space and economy of movement. So I work in a bedroom in my basement. I don’t have a fancy shipping station. I don’t have a dedicated shipping area. What I do have is a bigger desk that I ship on. You know, when it’s time to ship, I just kinda move things off to the side. But everything is within arms reach. I have supplies on hand for almost any instance. So different sizes, shipping boxes for priority mail. I do keep a couple of express packaging in case I get any express orders that come in. I’ve got my cute, poly mailers. I’ve got my masculine poly mailers. I’ve got holiday poly mailers, clear bags, thank you stickers, notes, all within an arm’s reach. So I’m not having to move as much. And that saves me time.
Doug:
But the funny thing is, when I was there, Liz didn’t have a tape gun and I would tease her about it. So she had everything. Now she has a tape gun, but she had everything but a tape gun. And I was watching her and she pulled out and she taped and she does a good job taping. She taped up this package and then bit it off with her teeth. And it was like, “Liz, you have all this economy of movement. You need a tape gun.”
Liz:
I know, it was just one of those things. You know, I used one in the past and I think it broke or I lost it. And I just never got around to getting a new one because that’s how us resellers are. We just gotta do everything fast and now, and whatever works <laugh> and I have good dental insurance <laugh>.
Doug:
And obviously you developed something that worked for you there, a little system where you would bite off the tape. This is something where you really shine. So tell us about your inventory system. Give us that inventory system tip.
Liz:
Oh, I could probably talk about this almost as long as Theresa Cox, but I won’t <laugh>. So here’s my thing on inventory systems is get one, just flat out just get one. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to look like mine. It doesn’t have to look like his or hers. Just know where your items are. So, and I have given the story in the past of, you know, I used to be a two tote seller, an outgoing tote and an incoming tote. So things are listed and things that are not listed, but I had them labeled one and two listed and not listed to me. That is an inventory system. Yeah. As I grew, it used to be totes on the ground. I would put all of my jeans in one tote, all of my dresses in one tote. As I grew, I outgrew that system.
Liz:
So then I had a lot of hanging racks on the walls and I had an alphabetical by brand system. And that worked until once again, I outgrew it. The whole key is find a system that works for you and your business and where you’re at and be able to identify when you outgrow it. The best tip I can give, if you’re thinking like a multi-platform seller, is get the bigger inventory system in place now, so you’re not like me and have to change it every year. So if you start big, you don’t have to keep changing it. The system that I use currently is just a number system, 1, 2, 3, 4, and I can just keep going. A lot of people will individually bag things and have a SKU on each item. I think that works great for people. I’m just not quite there. I have clear totes. I put items that don’t match each other in the same tote so I don’t do all the jeans anymore. I’ll only put one pair of jeans in a tote. So I know I’m pulling the correct item. It’s a system that works for me.
Doug:
And how many bins do you have? Do you know?
Liz:
It’s like 110 and then I have 20 baskets and 20 boxes that hold different types of inventory.
Doug:
I have five bins, A, B, C, D, E.
Liz:
Doug has an inventory system. That? That is an inventory system. Like I said, it doesn’t have to be complicated. You could, if you’re a seller that sells that has four totes, you could do red, blue, yellow, green.
Doug:
You know, it’s a really good tip though, too. And I think this came from there, mix up, mix your stuff up. Like you had said, don’t have all jeans in a bin, cuz if you sell a pair of medium jeans and it’s in with all jeans, you gotta go through all the jeans. But if you sell jeans and it’s in with some other stuff…
Liz:
With the shoes, the coffee mug and a DVD and a sweater, well, you probably will be able to just pull that right out. That is something that I learned from Theresa. Yeah. So that kind of goes on, I know we’re gonna get into it, but we talked about community and that is where the community has been so important to me, is learning from other resellers that are willing to share their experiences and what works for them may not work for me. She does things that don’t work for me. And that’s okay. But I take something that I really like about her system and something that I really like about another seller system. And I just made that work for me.
Doug:
We’re gonna definitely circle back around into community, but real quick…so what are the literal and then like the online tools you recommend, like what do you, what are the essential tools on your desk and then what are your essential online tools?
Liz:
In no particular order. I’m looking at my desk and <laugh>, let’s see, I’ll just go from left to right. Packing materials. Oh, that’s not a tool. Right? So a scale. I know some platforms like Poshmark, you know, Poshmark has a set fee. You don’t have to weigh anything. It just has to be under five pounds and very few people weigh it. When you go on to other platforms, you’re gonna need to know the weight of your item packaged. So I have a scale, one of my things that I waited on so long because I just thought it was too expensive and it probably wasn’t worth money was I have a Rolo printer or Rolo however you say it. But a thermal printer, I waited so long and when I got it, I’m like, “why did I wait?” <laugh> it has saved me so much time and money in ink.
Liz:
I sell clothing. So a lint brush, a tape measure, a black permanent marker. Sometimes tags don’t come off sometimes marker doesn’t come off the bottom of shoes but I do use one now and I do use an app called Pro cam. You know what? I’ve had it for a couple of years. I still use it. It has an auto white balance. So I don’t have to play around with my pictures afterwards. It was a one time like $6 purchase, even though I have the iPhone it’s just that it just saves me time. Cause I don’t have to, it’s got an auto adjuster, well worth the money. And then I have for the last couple of years, I’ve been a PhotoRoom pro subscriber because I could just bulk take the backgrounds out. And I also use List Perfectly, but since they’ve incorporated the PhotoRoom background remover, I’ve kind of skipped using PhotoRoom for my product images that I’m gonna list. It’s just uniform across the board across all platforms. So those are kind of the tools that help me speed up my processes every day.
Doug:
All right, Liz, let’s talk about community. So to me, obviously, the community is very ingrained in what we do. And I really always talk about how there’s an online community aspect and an offline community aspect. And you’re very experienced in both. So give us your perspective on how the seller community ties into what we do.
Liz:
So I can tell you what it’s done for me as a seller that I have been part of, started off as the eBay community a long time ago and as different communities have come on board, Facebook, different message boards, I’ve kind of hopped around and grown with that. What I’ve learned over the years is that community does help in every aspect. I’ve learned from amazing sellers, you know, shipping tips, things about USPS, keeping up on the news, learning about different platforms, policies, efficiencies, the community has taught me all this. I don’t know all this stuff. And I have learned from other sellers and that aspect has kept me in the community. And now that I’ve been a part of the community for a while, any new sellers that are coming in or new sellers that haven’t been on eBay, I kind of just try and pay it forward where I can.
Liz:
One thing that I have learned is I perform so much better as a seller, I am a better seller when I surround myself with a more positive community. No, that doesn’t mean that you have to be a cheerleader all the time. If you have other people around you that can celebrate your successes. When you share them or simply be able to walk your way through a situation or a problem without bringing you down and being constantly negative. And just hearing about all the bad things, I have actually removed myself from communities that were like that, and it’s been able to help me focus. And really, it gives me back my time instead of constantly feeling this negativity like, “oh my gosh, the sky is falling. eBay’s gonna break. I’m gonna sell anything again. Oh my gosh, I’ve gotta do this.” And I’ve gotta do that instead of “that stinks, but we can still get through this. And this is how I’m dealing with X, Y, Z situations.” That’s where the community has really helped me with something else that I’ve done over the last couple of years, Doug is I’ve found more communities. So like I just said, I just noticed eBay, right? Because that’s my native platform. That’s where I sold on for so long. And I have branched out and I have now found Poshmark communities that I’ve learned from Poshmark sellers that have been doing this for 7, 8, 9, 10 years that I can now go to and say, “Hey, I’m newer to Poshmark what’s with this and this and that.” And there’s a community there to let me know I’ve learned from Mercari, I’ve learned Facebook marketplace, Kidizen. All of these platforms are a little unique and different in their own ways and a problem that I may be facing, not really a problem, but say, I don’t know how to use something and I’m getting frustrated. I know that they have their own community of sellers that have probably faced the same problem. And it’s probably a little fix like, “oh no, you just have to do this, and this’ll work.”
Doug:
A lot of ’em have their own mini communities too, that are built in and a lot of stuff they do towards the community. And then, you know, there’s that big offline aspect as well. The face to face aspect where people get together, we talked about it a little bit earlier with your Colorado Springs and your Denver meetups that get together and just, you know, that contact’s important. I mean, we’re very, it can be a very isolating thing to do to be selling, you know, a lot of times you’re in your basement. Then, you know, you don’t see too many people, but it’s nice to get out and talk to sellers and see what challenges they have. We started off talking about mindset. How did you get into a seller mindset?
Liz:
So like I said, I started off on eBay. That’s my native platform. Everything that I have always done and known about reselling was about eBay. So when I discovered other platforms and I started crossposting and learning, I was still in an eBay mindset, everything I did, my brain, my reselling brain thought about eBay. First I have to do everything the eBay way. And then my other platforms are just gonna have to adjust to the way I sell. And that worked a little bit. Okay, it works. That’s fine. And there was a question that somebody had asked me about a process and I didn’t realize I had adjusted, but I had started my listings at some point in time, I had evolved and all of my listings were written to be cohesive across different platforms. So I made that change because I want all of my customers to be able to understand my listings. I want my entire process to not revolve around one platform. My example is I start all of my listings in my List Perfectly catalog. Why? Because it’s optimized for all platforms in one form. When I do my title, when I do my description, the way it’s laid out is it has areas to fill out that is platform specific. It may not be eBay. It may not be Poshmark. eBay doesn’t have tags, but I can still fill out the tags because there are platforms that I list that do utilize tags and hashtags. Filling out the MSRP doesn’t matter on eBay, but you have to have it on Poshmark. So when I go through a listing, I’m not having my brain. I don’t have to go from eBay and then pull up a Poshmark form and then fill out the empty blanks and then go to Mercari, fill out those empty blanks. I’m doing it in one spot. And when I was doing that, that kind of clicked in my head as I’m optimizing my listings for all platforms. So in a sense, I’m thinking about all of the platforms as I’m listing. So I’m now able to somehow wrap my head around. I’m not an eBayer who happens to sell on other platforms. I’m a multi-platform seller who happens to sell more on eBay. If any of that makes sense. I don’t know. It makes sense in my brain. <laugh>
Doug:
It makes sense. Your native platform was eBay. So when you grew beyond eBay, how did you decide where to expand? Or how would you recommend somebody when they’re looking to expand? How do they decide?
Liz:
So for me, it was a fairly easy decision. I sell mostly in fashion and Poshmark is geared towards fashion. So it was easy for me to go ahead and say, “I’m just gonna get on Poshmark and sell there.” I actually gave up on Poshmark twice because I didn’t get it. I didn’t reach out to people who did Poshmark. I didn’t understand sharing. I didn’t understand price drops. I didn’t understand parties. I still don’t have a 100% handle on it. I am still learning every single day. New features are rolling out. And that’s where I go to the community. Like, “Hey, what have you guys found that works best for you? What are you doing in this situation?” When I was able to just stop and go to the community and learn a little bit, I was able to excel a little bit there. I was able to get back on Poshmark and say, “okay, I think I understand this a little bit.” I looked at my inventory again and said, what other marketplaces could I sell on? Facebook Marketplace, Mercari, Kidizen. Those were all viable options for my business. I think Etsy is a phenomenal marketplace. I don’t, I have like three things in my entire store that would even qualify to be posted to Etsy. So I have two choices: leave Etsy alone, or maybe make that shift. If I have access to inventory that could go on Etsy. Maybe I will start sourcing items for Etsy. I haven’t done it, but go and see what items can be listed on each platform. Depop allows kitchenware. I sold a coffee mug on Depop. I would’ve never guessed. I was like, “oh, you, they actually have a category for this” playing around and trying to figure out Depop I put it on there and I sold a coffee mug of all things. I think it’s, I’ve sold like two things on Depop, but I wanted to learn, it was another marketplace that I was like, “Hey, I’m gonna go all in on.” I shouldn’t say all in. I spent a lot of time learning it because everybody was doing so well. After a couple of months, I used the analytics from List Perfectly and I realized, “Hmm, that platform was not performing well for me.” So I was able to make a decision and say, well, maybe this isn’t right for my product. So I de-listed everything off that platform. And now I’m able to focus on the platforms that do, you’ll notice that some sellers do a lot better on some platforms than others. So I see it all the time in our community, like, “Hey, I’m on Poshmark. Where should I sell next?” And the answers are gonna vary. It really depends. And sometimes they just don’t give enough information. Like I sell nothing, but men’s vintage wear. Where should I sell next is gonna be a different answer than somebody that says, “Hey, I sell women’s luxury handbags.” Those are gonna be two different answers, but you will always see different answers, um, even for the same items. So give it a try and see what works.
Doug:
Not everything’s gonna work. Like I tried Poshmark and it was kind of like, eh, and maybe I’ll try again, but I like eBay and I like Mercari. I tried Facebook and it didn’t work out. What’s one thing you wish you knew then that you know now?
Liz:
A billion things. <laugh> just one. How are you going to make me pick just one? Wait, am I still like half co-host of this show still? Can I go overtime? Do I get like an extra five minutes?
Doug:
No, you can do whatever you want. You can pick a couple.
Liz:
I’m just kidding. Top three. No, it’s fine. There’s a lot of things. However times have changed. One of the terms that I hear a lot and that I used to buy into is perfectionism, but I’m a perfectionist. It has to be perfect. I’m a perfectionist. My perfectionism keeps me from doing X, Y, Z. I can’t buy into perfectionism. It’s not gonna be perfect. What, who is it? Trish Glen. And we talked about it before. If you can at least get an 80% <laugh> that’s good enough, right. So, but I mean, like, even for my pictures, I used to, it has to be on a mannequin. I have to have 25 pictures. I have to write a 500 character description. No, I don’t. If my pictures, if they can just see it and it’s clear enough on a hanger, that’s great. As long as the details are there, the description doesn’t have to be fluffy. I don’t have to tell you where the places that it would look great wearing or what other items you can wear with it just here’s the item. Right. So I’ve really gone from the fluffy to here’s the basics. So it doesn’t have to be this spectacular listing. It has to be accurate and it has to be clear and yeah. Good photos. I mean, I think that that’s the one answer that even people that we interview really comes out like, wow, I really wish somebody would’ve told me that clear pictures were the answer nowadays is a little different than when I started because our cell phones take pretty good pictures nowadays. But really the main thing, and I hit on it earlier, is don’t waste your time around the negativity. Like it, it’s just such a time and brain suck. I don’t have time for the negativity anymore. Like, let’s find something positive just because something doesn’t work or you don’t like something that doesn’t make it negative hearing this isn’t gonna work. Or if you find yourself in that negative space, try and not visit it again.
Doug:
Well, drama and negativity can come around and bite you on the back.
Liz:
But I, I could just tell that I did not, I was not selling my best when I was constantly around people saying “this platform’s broken. They don’t know what they’re doing. They didn’t care about me five years ago. They said 10 years ago,” they’ve been saying, “okay, if that’s fine, but what can I do today to make myself better? What can I do today to provide all my business?” All of that other stuff is great for friend talk in the evenings when you’re like yeah, you remember that? But in my day to day operations, I cannot be in that space. I cannot be in that community.
Doug:
Yeah, that’s good. And none of the platforms are perfect. They all do things that irritate us, but we gotta do our best with what we have. All right. Thank you, guest Liz O’Kane.
Liz:
Thank you, Doug Smith.
Doug:
Anything to add?
Liz:
Nope. That’s everything I can I’ll add next week. If I forgot. I’ll take notes.
Doug:
Yeah, you’ll do that All right. Well thank you, Liz.
Liz:
I’ll mute. I’ll just mute you next week. So you can’t tell me it’s time.
Doug:
<laugh> I can’t chime in. Well, thanks Liz for helping us get a little insight into the seller mindset and talking about the different aspects and talking about community and how you have to think of yourself as a business. It’s very helpful from an experienced seller, such as yourself, a big mentor to me, everybody knows this. I learned a lot from Liz and I continue to learn from Liz. You almost got a call over the weekend with a crazy Etsy question.
Liz:
<laugh> that’s one platform that I’m just not experienced. And for that, I can find you a seller. That is, but I’m gonna add this. Actually. There is one more thing and I’m allowed to go back on that. So if anything, if you need any clarification on anything that I just said, or if you wanna know more, Doug and I will be live tonight, live on YouTube and you can pop in and ask for any clarification, ask for any additional questions, ask Doug about his inventory system. <laugh> I’m sure he’ll feel free to share that. So yeah. So if you’re listening to this the day the podcast drops Wednesday, December 8th, join us live on the List Perfectly YouTube channel.
Doug:
All right. We hope to see you there.
Liz:
We’ll remind them again later, Doug.
Doug:
Thanks Liz.
Liz:
Thanks Doug.
Seller Shoutouts and News
Doug:
All right. Liz you’ve carefully selected a couple of seller shoutouts this week and I like them both, if that matters.
Liz:
Woohoo. Yes.
Doug:
So who do you have up first?
Liz:
So first I have questions for you, Doug.
Doug:
Oh, okay.
Liz:
Okay. Right. So <laugh> shout out to Rhonda pinkdivastudio who hosted a Posh 10 year anniversary party. Online. And this was also your first Poshmark event. Doug. I heard you attended.
Doug:
I did. I attended with a Santa hat and jacket as it’s the holidays. And it was my first Posh N Sip and it was very cool. We talked a lot about just tips and stuff, some SEO tips.
Liz:
What did you learn?
Doug:
I talked about List Perfectly, actually. It was interesting just to hear, it was interesting just to hear the SEO tips, you know, the presenter talked about titles and, you know, maximizing the characters, a couple brief tips, but super high level stuff. And then I talked about List Perfectly just, you know, high level overall and, we gave away some stuff, so it was cool. It was a very nice event. Thank you, Rhonda, for having me.
Liz:
That’s awesome. I missed it. I’m okay. I missed it that night and I am full of regret for it.
Doug:
Well, you’re gonna have to wait another 10 years for the Poshmark 20.
Liz:
<laugh> or just sign up for another Poshmark event.
Doug:
Or another Posh N Sip.
Liz:
Yeah. So, and that was kind of something that I was gonna throw out. If you haven’t been to a Posh N Sip event, they’re both virtual and in person now. I think there’s a couple and there is a link on Poshmark to where you can find where all of the events are happening.
Doug:
Yeah. Connect with those events and yes, I had a glass of wine, so that’s what I was sipping. Actually, I was sipping wine, water and coffee. Not at the same time, in concurrent fashion.
Liz:
Okay. How long was this Posh N Sip Doug?
Doug:
<laugh> it was an hour or so.
Liz:
Oh, okay. Oh my goodness. And you drank all of that. That sounds like something I would do. It’s true.
Doug:
All right, Liz. Well, but thanks again Rhonda pinkdivastudio. It was very nice to meet you in person. We had some correspondence back and forth, and we are gonna talk some more.
Liz:
Oh, that’s awesome.
Doug:
All right. Who else do we have? I like this one too Liz.
Liz:
Oh my gosh. Anybody listening, if you’re on Instagram, please go follow @teenthrifts. Her name’s Julia. So I’ve been following her for a little bit. She is, okay, so I’ll just read you her little bio. She was a high school Posher turned multi-platform university seller. So I started following her when she was in high school and she would Posh her way through high school, earning money to go to college. Now she’s in college. She made a post on Instagram, I mean, all of her posts on Instagram are neat, but a picture of her screen and she’s sitting through a lecture cross posting her items.
Doug:
Yeah, that was great. Well, she’s following your advice, Liz. She’s maximizing her time and effort and using the economy of movement all in that one little space, her little desk in the lecture hall.
Liz:
I think Julia has the economy of time down. There you go. <laugh> so keep going strong, Julia. You’re doing great.
Doug:
I had been following Julia as well, but I did see that, uh, that lecture post this morning with List Perfectly cross listing for her at the same time. Yeah. Should we get into the news Liz?
Liz:
Yes, but Doug, I refuse to bring any bad news this week. I’m not doing it.
Doug:
I don’t think there’s any bad news this week. I think it’s all interesting. Interesting, good stuff. Happy birthday Poshmark. You’ve turned 10 and your party’s going on for days. So hopefully you’re enjoying it.
Liz:
Happy birthday, Poshmark.
Doug:
And many more. Liz will make it to your 20th, she already said.
Liz:
Yeah, exactly. Maybe by then the community will have taught me a thing or two about Poshmark.
Doug:
I don’t wanna touch too much on this, but I saw some stuff on the news saying that Cyber Monday sales were down and Black Friday sales online were down a bit. That’s kind of not what I’ve seen from seller friends. I mean, I don’t know, I know you had good sales. I’ve seen a lot of people that had good sales. Here and there people were down. Amazon did well, so no surprise there, but I don’t know. I was at the mall on black Friday and it was actually a little desolate.
Liz:
You know, my Black Friday sales that weekend were strong. Cyber Monday was just normal, but here’s the thing. I didn’t run any big sales. I didn’t do anything special, I did not do anything that I normally would’ve done. Everything was just business as usual. It’s just that the traffic was driven by simply people being online.
Doug:
Yeah. And I think at this point it is like the concept drives more traffic and people think they need to be shopping. They need to be looking for deals. It’s like, yeah, you can get some deals, but not all the deals are the doorbusters that are gonna, you’re gonna break into a fight in a Walmart parking lot over a TV. You know, you can get some deals, but a lot of it to me has always been hype.
Liz:
Well, yeah. As a matter of fact, I was listening to Rick Watson’s podcast, the one that we like to listen to. And he kind of touched on that, how, you know, this year people are wanting to go in person. And just depending on the item, you know, retailers have spread their sales out over months because they don’t want the craze. Like they just want consistent sales, but he talks about that on his Watson Weekly Podcast. He kind of went into that and it, and it kind of made sense. He’s like, it’s not that e-commerce died, because people are going back. It’s just that people, those deals from brick and mortar stores had already been out. You know, there was nothing, really hype. So people were looking for deals and like, well, where else could I go? Oh, I sold a lot of new with tags items, like coats, jackets, kids, wool shirts. A lot of men’s stuff, but that’s because I listed a lot of men’s stuff. Clearly Christmas gift items. But I think that my prices were just, I was just right at the price point. I sent out my daily offers on eBay. I used the My Shoppers tab to bundle and send offers on Posh. I did a little bit of promoted stuff in Mercari, just the typical things.
Doug:
Well, and it seemed too in retail, they started pushing the holidays super early this year, like earlier than usual. And it’s tough cuz you know, everything was locked down last year. People couldn’t get out, people are venturing back out. So yeah, into the stores. But you know, it is Q4, it is the holidays. People are gonna shop.
Liz:
Right. So I mean I did, I did my shopping. I did most of it online and I did most of it beforehand. There was, you know, another big box retailer, they’re like, “we guarantee our best. This is gonna be the best price you find even for Black Friday. And if it goes lower than we’ll refund the difference,” like it, wasn’t a big deal.
Doug:
Yeah. There you go. Now this one I know is near and dear to your heart besides the fact that it’s eBay, and I think this is a great program, but I’ll have you take it. So eBay’s launched a new apprenticeship program for veterans. I don’t know how it was for you. But I remember for my dad, when he got out on a lot of levels, it was a big adjustment for him to go into a whole different kind of different mindset. He workedin bomb disposal in the Army and got out and worked in aerospace and doing similar stuff. But the corporate world is much different than the, a lot of times in the military you’ll learn something that doesn’t apply in the civilian world. So it’s often a tough transition. I do know that. So how was the transition for you and then what, what are your thoughts on eBay’s apprenticeship program for veterans?
Liz:
So my transition was great because I knew what I was going to do when I retired and I knew I was going to work for myself. Yeah. So I spent that entire last year of active duty building up my eBay store. I hustled that last year. And when I say I hustled, I hustled that last year and I built my store up to a sustainable level before I even retired. But I had that year of planning and I knew this was what I was going to do. Even with the tools that the military gave me to transition, I didn’t really utilize them because I was going to work for myself. Not everybody retires from the military, not everybody has their retirement cushion, not everybody has the experience. Some people do 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 years, and then separate from the military and they don’t have the retirement benefits to fall back on.
Liz:
And like you said, the transition, we do things differently in the military. And there are hundreds of different jobs that we do differently than our civilian counterparts. And sometimes the adjustment can be, I’ve had friends that have had trouble adjusting, not even from the work aspect, but from the camaraderie and the morale aspect. Because in the military, you’re basically with your brothers and sisters, you can walk into a new duty station, into a new desk, into a new role, but you feel like you know the person next to you because you’ve lived the same lifestyle. To where, when you go into a civilian job, you don’t know anything about the people around you. They could have totally different lifestyles than you. Anyways, that’s my little spiel on military transition. Everybody has a different experience. Mine was phenomenal.
Liz:
But something that the military has started to do and I should say that the Air Force, every branch, has something a little bit different is they’ve beefed up the transition for veterans because they know it’s tough and they’re working with a lot of different civilian companies. And one of them is eBay. One of the many is eBay and eBay has what’s called the honor roll veteran apprenticeship program. I’ll just read this really quick. It says “through the initiative six apprentices joined eBay throughout this year, all from varied backgrounds, branches and ranks of the military. The veterans will spend the final six months or 180 days of their service at eBay on assignment training and learning alongside eBay employees in the tech, marketing and operations department.” So these are still active duty service members that are allowed to go for six, the final six months of their career in the military to apprentice under some of the top companies in the world.
Doug:
Yeah, that’s cool.
Liz:
So yeah. And, even though these veterans may not end up working at eBay, it’s exposure and it builds confidence in, “I can do this” instead of “I’m so afraid of what in the world is really out here.”
Doug:
eBay’s got a great college intern program as well.
Liz:
They do. So I think that they do a lot of great things with the different apprenticeship programs that they have. And I think that the military opening up these types of opportunities for veterans is amazing. So thank you eBay, on behalf of this veteran for having the honorable veteran apprenticeship program.
Doug:
Well, I knew you would like this, so I put it in here for you.
Liz:
Well, thank you. I put it on my LinkedIn too.
Doug:
<laugh> but Liz, there was a night when I was out and about…
Liz:
You were out about, what!?
Doug:
Out and about in a bar in San Jose with another eBay fellow. And we bumped into a huge group of eBay interns and we spent like two or three hours talking to ’em. It was pretty awesome. They were so, and they were, they were stoked to meet us, but it was cool for us to meet them too. And it’s like, “where you from?” And they come in, they do like a, I think these were the summer interns and it was just cool to get their perspective. But, it’s good that eBay’s doing this apprenticeship program for veterans too. eBay is also super leaning into sneakers so I think, so I have a theory here, you know, one of my crazy theories. StockX has done insane over the past few years and they’ve really grown into like a multi-billion dollar valued company. So the big thing they sell is sneakers, and they’ve actually pulled a few eBayers away. Some people that I know work over there now. So yeah, that’s a huge market and it was huge even before StockX came around and the sneakerheads are huge and there’s a lot of sneakerheads that sell on eBay. And so eBay continues to really lean into the sneaker market and they, I think they do this every year, Sneakers for Charity where they give out a bunch of sneakers. But the other thing is they’ve acquired a sneaker con authentication business. So they’re also really gonna lean into the authentication on sneakers. And this also helps them kind of grow their authentication program. And I think they do the little tag thing like StockX does. And you’re supposed to leave that on your sneaker, by the way, Liz, don’t take it off.
Liz:
If I order sneakers, I am not gonna walk around with an eBay tag on it.
Doug:
<laugh> and your, your Mom Keds or something.
Liz:
I don’t know. But I remember reading about this and one of the things that stuck out is buyers will want to come to eBay now. And here’s why. This is what this article said. I can’t remember what article it was, but one of the points that they made is that StockX uses nothing but stock photos. So they could be all used shoes, say the same, it’ll be one picture stock photo, and they’ll have six pairs of used shoes, but it’s all the same photo. Buyer confidence comes from seller photos. Unused items. So they’re seeing exactly what they’re getting and it’s going to be authenticated, but that was kind of a good point that this article was making, it was one of the many points that they had made. I’ll see if I can find it. I’ll send it to you, Doug. We can put it in the show notes.
Doug:
Well, you know what happened last week Liz is we recorded. Then I remember that afternoon. You sent me this article.
Liz:
Oh, okay. We talk about a lot of news off the air
Doug:
And we can only go so far with the breaking news. There has to be a cutoff point. Folks. I know eBay, there has to be a cutoff point. <laugh>
Liz:
Should we just have a news episode and talk about it one day? Maybe we should do a livestream live and let’s just talk about stuff and let’s see what our audience has questions on and let’s see what they think.
Doug:
So you wanna do a weekly live now?
Liz:
No, maybe for January. <laugh> I, I love our audience. I love talking to you, Doug. I love our banter, but I cannot do a live show every week. <laugh> not every week. As much time as I think I have, I don’t.
Doug:
But we’re live tonight so we can talk about sneakers tonight, if you like.
Liz:
So we’ll talk about whatever the audience wants to talk about tonight.
Doug:
What else Liz? Is that all the news that fits?
Liz:
Well I was just gonna ask you if you had anything because I’m out. I have nothing else.
Doug:
I think we’ve covered it all. I mean, of course I did see some Meta stuff this week, but I thought I’d spare you a little bit. There’s some TikTok stuff. TikTok’s even like, “you know what you’re talking about us too much.”
Liz:
They emailed me and said, “Hey Liz, can you have Doug back off of the TIkTok?”
Doug:
Yeah. Back off the TikTok a little bit. Distract him with Meta.
Liz:
Oh my goodness. I read some meta stuff too. And I almost sent it to you. And I was like, “no, then he’ll talk about it.” So <laugh>, you’re welcome. It’s just a fun thing to tease you about now.
Doug:
There you go. Wait until it’s here, Liz.
Liz:
Oh my gosh. I know. I know
Doug:
Little emoji Liz walking around.
Liz:
Oh my goodness. I should probably go create my Meta Liz or something before somebody else takes her. I don’t know how that works. Whatever. Maybe I’ll get my metaverse and build a shipping station into it.
Doug:
With everything you need right there.
Liz:
There with everything you need right there. And Liz will have five tape guns.
Doug:
<laugh>.
Outro
Liz:
But Doug, I think that that about wraps it up this week.
Doug:
It does.
Liz:
So bye.
Doug:
<Laugh>. That’s it? No, thanks for joining us this week on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. This week was a very special CBS Afterschool Special episode with the fabulous Liz O’Kane. We talked about selling on multiple platforms. We learned Liz’s journey and we learned from it, Liz. We also had seller shoutouts.
Liz:
And we had the news.
Doug:
Oh, that’s right. We had some news as well.
Liz:
And remember, you can find us at lisperfectly.com/podcast. You can leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast. You can email us at podcast@listperfectly.com and you can also post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/listperfectly.
Doug:
You can listen to us anywhere you listen to podcasts. You’re listening here. So continue to listen here, but be sure you subscribed and tell your friends and leave review if you’re on Apple Podcasts. What was that? Liz? =
Liz:
I can’t remember. I’m sorry. I interrupted you. I ruined the whole entire show. Can we start from the top?
Doug:
Yes, we’ve got plenty of time.
Doug:
No, we have to get ready for the monthly live.
Liz:
Yeah, I gotta go get ready for our live show. Now remember you can follow us on Instagram and TikTok. I am @coloradoreworn. Doug is @snoop.dougie and follow @listperfectly. I can’t remember the last time I made a TikTok. So what about you, Doug?
Doug:
I made one last week. I tried to do it as loud and crazy as possible.
Liz:
How did I miss it? TikTok?
Doug:
I did. That’s right. Gotta go. You’ve been, Liz is like, how do I miss it? Oh, that’s right. I’ve been selling, selling and shipping and marketing and sourcing and customer servicing.
Liz:
Yes. And community. Is that a word? My meet up. Seller friends.
Doug:
Friends, meetups. You’ve been very busy.
Liz:
I stay busy. We all stay busy. If you’re, if you are a reseller, you are busy. So we know that.
Doug:
And you know what? If you are a listener and you’re new to List Perfectly, and you want to try it out, you can use our promo code podcast for 30% off your first month. Or if you’re looking to upgrade, we recommend you upgrade to the pro plan or at least try it out for a bit cuz you get everything. You can use that promo code podcast. P O D C A S T, Liz.
Liz:
Yes. And if you have questions, if you are a user or looking into List Perfectly Theresa Cox sponsors office hours on Zoom. It is every Thursday at 10:00 AM PST. And you can find the link on the List Perfectly Instagram page or in the List Perfectly Facebook, and Facebook group. And with that, Doug…
Doug:
We will…see you…
Liz:
You tonight.
Doug:
<laugh> we’ll do that. <laugh> we will…
Liz:
See you tonight.
Doug:
Great. And we will…
Both:
See you next week. Next week.
Doug:
We gotta decide if we’re gonna take Christmas off…
Liz:
Hmmm…I dunno.
Doug:
Or we could…
Liz:
Do you ever take Christmas off?
Doug:
One of those crazy best of episodes?
Liz:
Oh my goodness…
Doug:
Wait. We’ve got a celebrity appearance.
Liz:
Wait, this whole episode was the…no I’m just kidding.
Doug:
Vincent Price!
Liz:
I hope they, me Doug. I hope they like me. This was nerve wracking.
Doug:
What? This episode?
Liz:
Yes.
Doug:
Everybody likes you. Liz. Everybody likes you.
Liz:
I like interviewing other people.
Doug:
All right. Well you can interview somebody next week.
Liz:
Gonna interview snoop.dougie. Just kidding. We are prepared for a special guest. I cannot wait until next week. I can’t wait until every week. I love our guests. Our guests are amazing.
Doug:
Yes. We’re very lucky we are. And we, oh yeah, we have so many ideas, so many people, so much interest, but stay tuned for another fabulous episode.
Liz:
The more, you know,
Doug:
The more, you know, okay.