Small businesses in eBay‘s Wolverhampton Retail Revival programme, a partnership with the City of Wolverhampton to help small retailers online, have reached £1 million in sales in just three months.
The Wolverhampton retailers have reported an average sales increase of 41% in the three-month period – bucking many of the woes faced by retailers across the country in the face of reduced consumer confidence and increased economic uncertainty. The new figures cap off a huge year for eBay’s scheme, which has seen 182 sellers take part globally, generating 76,000 sales.
The partnership between eBay and the City of Wolverhampton is running until September 2019 and sees experts from eBay provide exclusive support to small retailers who want to start up or expand their online presence, seeking to grow the local economy and demonstrate that online and high street retail can survive and thrive together.
Participants in the programme benefit from one-on-one support to create a personalised eBay shop, a comprehensive training program that covers eBay selling basics as well as digital skills such as Search Engine Optimisation and promotional support.
“One business that has benefited in Wolverhampton is Toolsave, which sells products for home and garden improvements. Founder Fred Evans, whose brother David is also enrolled on the programme, said: “Since enrolling on the Retail Revival programme, there has been a noticeable buzz around Wolverhampton. I’ve known about eBay for years, and the Retail Revival programme came at exactly the right time for my business. We have a great team at eBay who give us all the support we need and with their help, we think it’s realistic that we could double – or even triple – our turnover next year.”
– eBay
Toolsave registered on eBay in December 2003 and have 135,168 feedback as of this morning. Over the past year they’ve received 4,470, 546 of which was left in the last month. We’re sure they’re benefiting from all of the expert help and advice that comes with eBay Retail Revival, but they’re not exactly a new seller to eBay.
We do have one tip for Toolsave… they have a subtitle on all of their listings costing £2 a pop reading “Brand New — Top Rated — UK Truster Seller”. Rather than correct the spelling to ‘Trusted Seller’ if they delete the subtitles they could be saving themselves £314 a month in listing fees for their 157 listings.
“Last year was tough for retailers, but our partnership with entrepreneurs in Wolverhampton shows that British brands have a bright future. Small businesses have the creativity and entrepreneurial skill to create products needed and wanted all over the world – and eBay is helping them to sell in the way they want to online.
I’m really proud to see the progress these businesses have made in reaching the £1 million milestone so quickly. Now is the time to empower them more – and over the course of 2019 we will work with Wolverhampton to do just that. I want the success of the West Midlands to act as a beacon to the retail sector up and down the country.”
– Rob Hattrell, Vice President of eBay in the UK
One Response
I think it is a great idea and should benefit both the retailer and eBay with more exposure, if shops advertise they can be found on eBay.
But I think the 546 feedback, up on their average throughout the year would be expected, who did not sell far more in the 4 weeks from Black Friday – Christmas week? Sales up = feedback up.