iSoldIt Ireland - Ebay Easy Way to Sell Online?
June 11th, 2006 by Jason Roe. Post is filed under Business, Technology.
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Brick and mortar e-commerce has stumbled over from the USA and landed in Ireland. “iSoldit� seems to be a fairly unique idea, its essentially an eBay power seller who sell item on your behalf. iSoldIt offers a walk in centre or shop where you can bring in items that you would like to sell on ebay. They provide a professional photographer to take pictures of your items. All of the shipping, handling, support and payment is managed by iSold it.
For the privilege of this service they change you a 30% fee based on the overall selling price, they also seems to skim money off the shipping and handling fees. To quote the website:
In addition to receiving a commission from the seller (your customer), you will also collect a handling charge that is paid by the buyer. You also get to keep the difference between postage and shipping “rack rates” charged to the buyer and your actual reduced iSold It reduced postage and shipping corporate rate.
According to an article on ENN “Galway eBay store opens its doors�. I went over to the corporate website for iSold It to find that they have no Galway stores listed on the “store locator�. This could just be a sloppy mistake made late on a Friday evening after banging out as many press releases as possible, or maybe its an indication of lack of planning and coordination by the company as a whole.
The one aspect that ISold It didnt describe in they franchise pitch is how they manage dispute resolutions, shipping delays and lost goods. What if the item is damaged before shipping, who picks up the costs then? What about fraudulent or stolen goods? The list of questions goes on. Maybe I’m just nitpicking but it seems like a very unstable investment over all.
I like the idea, to think that someone would pay €25,000 for a franchise with no brand in the Irish market is just insane.
It is believed the typical cost of operating a franchise in Ireland ranges between EUR90,000 and EUR150,000, depending on factors such as rent, labour, size of the store etc.
In my opinion anyone could go out tomorrow and duplicate this business model in a matter of hours. This seems to be a service that you would expect from your local Internet café, its not rocket science.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:45 am
I have been looking at purchasing a franchise from iSoldit. Some of the issues you brought up in your article I thought I might address. First the easy issue is damaged, lost or stolen item. Each franchise is required to carry insurance coverage for these events. The yearly cost is approxiately $2,200. In my research I have found the majority of negative comments relating to iSoldit franchises is clearly a lack of professionalism and management skills by the individual franchise owner. And lastly, I have a pretty good understanding of the unique computer programs they have in place and it does everything by lock the door of the store upon closing.
I sure would appreciate any other insight or thoughts you have concerning iSoldit. My e-mail address is rcrippen@cox.net. Thanks
September 5th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good idea. However, I also think it’s not the best kind of investment for the Irish market. In my opinion the franchise could be side stepped by Independent retailers or another company offering a more viable franchise. The software isn’t rocket science to develop and the theory behind the franchise could easily be replicated.
Why have dedicated stores to sell? This seems like a service that would be more profitable as a value added service in a post office, Internet café or local convince store (or shop). In my opinion you would have a more profitable ROI if you added it on to an existing established business.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hi Jason,
Are these franchises still running in the South?
cheers,
Michael.