Smart Moves for Merchants

Ebay fascinates me. It’s an easy way to get online and establish an Internet presence, it’s a free sociology course (seeing what the world spends money on), it’s a versatile tool for merchants, and it’s a democratic sales tool because the market can set the price. But my favorite part of Ebay—besides profiting from sales of my husband’s childhood toys—is surfing the site to see the merchandise retail jewelers are selling.

You know they’re retail jewelers because their user IDs state as much: Mednikow Jewelry Closeouts, Provident Jewelry, Schafer Jewelers … there’s a bunch. And I’m always looking for new stores or ones I’ve missed to see how various jewels fare in online sales and to find new ways other merchants can prosper. For a good example of how a jeweler can profit from Ebay look to user “Mednikow Jewelry Closeouts”—an AGS store with locations in Memphis, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga. It sometimes sells items for customers that are “traded in against other merchandise in our store,” according to a recent example, an auction of a pair of Lagos earrings the jeweler listed. The bidding started at $1 no reserve. Much of the final bid, $305, was presumably credited (according to Mednikow’s stated policy) to the customer on whatever new merchandise he or she was purchasing, after Ebay fees and any Mednikow service charges were paid. [A current auction features a Carrera y Carrera pendant, $1 NR, that ends on November 10. Will be interesting to see what it goes for, considering the brand name.]

The move is a clever one by the store because it helps the customer unload an item he or she no longer enjoys, and it garners a new sale for the store. Nice.