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EZ Breeze Shopping
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Paying attention to details
pays off in sales
After losing her job as a recruiter, Antoinette Morse found success as an eBay entrepreneur selling brand-name clothing through her Store home page, EZ Breeze Shopping. Now she turns impeccable customer service into a 99.9% positive feedback rating.
About eight years ago, Antoinette Morse moved from Maryland to Florida to enjoy the warmer weather of the Sunshine State. Within three weeks of arriving, she landed a job at an employment agency as a recruiter for truck drivers. But after the economic downturn led to a layoff in June of 2011, Morse found herself looking for new ways to make money.
"I was scrambling. The economy was really bad here in Florida," she explains. "In between looking for jobs, I thought, 'This is a good time to go through the house and get stuff cleaned out.' So I got some stuff together to start selling, and I thought, 'Well, let me try eBay.'"
As her first items began selling, she was inspired to look around at local yard sales for more items to list. For a while, she tried power tools, but quickly discovered that clothes were easier to list, and a lot easier to ship. "We went to a Harley Davidson swap and I shipped a couple of exhaust pipes. I told my husband, 'That's it—I am too small to be trying to lug those things and ship them. I think I'll stick to the clothes.'"
Not just any clothes, though. Morse's eBay store, EZ Breeze Shopping, specializes in fashionable brands normally found on the racks of major retailers—from Ralph Lauren to Tommy Hilfiger to Nike. Morse handles all the shopping, listing, shipping, and customer service, while her husband helps out with the accounting. Her keen eye for popular items and professional presentation are key factors in her success.
"We're really particular about what we buy," Morse says. "I check it out from head to toe, make sure there's no fading, no holes, no buttons missing... I try to make (the item look) as if it's in almost new condition. I always wash and dry everything, too. Sometimes, with the men's dress shirts—or even a women's dress shirt—I press them, too. I like to see that crease."
Now there's enough business to stay busy seven days a week
With sales coming in at a steady pace, Morse says she likes her new life as an entrepreneur, and she especially appreciates being able to work from home, setting her own hours. "I've gotten into this now, where I've got enough listings that I think I can maintain it. It's paying my bills—and I really enjoy it."
Her sales picked up even more after becoming an eBay Top Rated Seller. According to Morse, achieving that status had been her goal from the beginning. "I wanted that symbol beside my listings so that people felt comfortable buying from me," she explains. "Once I knew I had that, then I thought, 'It's okay to open up a store.' I really strive to keep my Top Rated status every day."
One of the ways she works to keep her Top Rated Seller status is by responding to her customers' questions and concerns right way. "They might ask me, 'What's the measurement across the cuff?' I don't care if it's midnight. If I'm up, I'll go back there and measure it and answer them back."
Her commitment to customer service extends to the little extras she offers, including free shipping on many items as well as a flexible return policy. "If they want to return it, that's fine. We give them their money back. If for some reason it doesn't fit them, or for some reason they don't like it. We try to make everybody happy."
Attention to details builds customer trust
"If people are going to pay you for something, then it needs to be what you say it is," Morse explains. "We expect our products to be near perfect. If there (are) any tiny little flaws in it, we let the customer know and put that in the listing. 99% of the things that we're selling are near perfect. I just believe in giving people their money's worth. We try to be very honest."
Morse finds that providing multiple photographs helps assure customers they're truly getting what they pay for. "I try to take pictures of my items from head to toe, from the top to middle to the bottom—the tags, too. I can tell them whatever brand it is, but I know they'd like to see it's actually a Ralph Lauren or Banana Republic. I show them the size. A lot of times, too, I'll find a shirt... and it says on the tag it's a size small or size medium. If it says it's a medium, but I take the measurements across the chest and I see that it's really a size small, I'll make sure to put that in the listing."
She's also meticulous about providing as much information as possible in her listings, including details about how the item has been cleaned. "I let them know that it's been laundered, that we don't smoke, and that we don't have any pets in the house... because some people are allergic to animals. If they see that, they might feel more relaxed buying from me."
Opening an eBay Store brings benefits
With the momentum of sales increasing, Morse was inspired to expand her business by building her own eBay Store. "It helped us financially," she says. "The cost of our listings for 30 days went from 20 cents to 5 cents per listing." In addition, she's been using the Store's tools to her advantage and attracting customers with limited-time discounts. "I like using the Markdown Manager. I've been using that for the past couple of months. A couple times a week, I'll mark everything down for either 10% or 12% off, and run that for a couple of days each time. That seems to increase the sales, too."
Morse says what she appreciates most about having an eBay Store is the help she gets in terms of marketing, advertising, accounting, and administrative support. "Every time I need to call, everyone has been helpful and understanding. I never would have been able to do this by myself."
"I have no complaints about the fees," Morse explains. "I don't have to pay for any advertising. They do all this accounting work for me. It's a lot that goes into it. I couldn't afford all that. All I do is put my listings on there and ship it, and that's it. I don't have to pay for anybody to do any marketing. I have access literally to the whole world if I want it. I don't have to manage a website and all that. I'm fine with the fees."
Morse finds that having an eBay Store makes it easy to keep her listings fresh. "If I have them for 30 days and they haven't sold, I'll look at it to see if there's any information that I missed to put in the header to attract more people. That's almost a daily thing. Every day I'm scrolling through, looking at the titles to make sure everything is in there. And the next time if it doesn't sell if I relist it, I'll look to see what I should've put in or taken out. I'm constantly tweaking them."
To stay on top of competitive pricing, Morse and her husband have been using the eBay mobile app to score great deals when they're looking for new items to sell. "My husband does that all the time. He loves that," she says. "If we're at a yard sale, he'll see something. If we're not sure what it's selling for, he looks it right up on eBay."
Working toward 1,000 listings
In the years ahead, Morse plans to keep growing her business and hopes to have 1,000 listings someday. "I like what I'm doing. We would love to be able to find something where we have a bulk of it—electronics, clothes. If we could buy 100 or 500 of them and do a 'Buy It Now,' where we've got that many. We're always looking, and thinking of new things to get into."