Meet Jason Smith of JaysAwesomeDeals
It takes hard work, a discerning eye and business smarts to successfully sell online in the midst of a sea of competition. That’s why it’s so impressive to hear about blossoming small businesses like JaysAwesomeDeals. The owner, Jason Smith, was a chemistry major who most recently worked as an overnight manager at CVS/Pharmacy—but his shrewd business decisions and work ethic paid off. He recently left his job to helm JaysAwesomeDeals full-time, and because of his sales success, was able to go from one-bedroom apartment to purchasing his first home. We wanted to hear a little about how he’s positioned himself and the ways in which he uses MoreCommerce’s services to grow—here’s some inspiration and practical advice for other budding entrepreneurs.
BUSINESS SNAPSHOT:
Owner: Jason Smith
Location: Manchester, NH
Years in business: almost 20 years selling on eBay, three years with JaysAwesomeDeals
Years with MoreCommerce: 12 years using the Auctiva platform
Status: Full-time
Employees: Himself, plus one employee who helps pack during holidays
Find them on: eBay
What’s the most impactful change you’ve made in terms of your web presence?
Before 2018, I sold almost exclusively on eBay. In the fall of 2018, I started selling as a professional seller on Amazon. Suddenly, my sales skyrocketed and now Amazon represents over half of my sales even though only 5% of my inventory is listed there. Some items are only for eBay, some are only for Amazon and others sell equally well on both platforms. I get an average of 70 sales per day on eBay and 30 on Amazon in the current season. I want to take advantage of the new MoreCommerce solutions for Amazon selling.
How do you decide which products to stock?
I am constantly scouting for killer sales on my favorite brands at my favorite online merchants. I shop almost every single hour of every day. It's a dream job for many, but a combination of art and science for me. When I spot an item or a set of items to break up to sell, I investigate the sales history on eBay and Amazon to see if I can generate enough interest at the highest possible profit margins. Over time, I’ve developed a list of best-selling brands and through trial and error, I’ve discovered the items from certain brands that really sell for a healthy price.
What tips would you offer to other marketplace sellers looking for your level of success?
Your customer service needs to be phenomenal! Generally speaking, if a customer complains about a product that is relatively low value, give them the benefit of the doubt. Never hassle the customer or nickel and dime them. It's really not worth the stress or the small amount of money you might save. Think about the long term of your business. One single sale is really a drop in the bucket compared to the number of sales you can make. Phenomenal customer service leads to awesome feedback, which leads to increased sales down the road. Five percent of my customers on eBay are repeat buyers. This is actually an incredible percentage given that I sell fairly common beauty products that many other sellers offer. And I'm not always the lowest price. People come back to me who see how great my service is. And I throw in freebies with my regular customer orders to keep them coming back.
Which of MoreCommerce’s services do you take advantage of?
I’ve been using Auctiva for well over 12 years and have had several versions of my store selling a variety of items over time, from men's designer underwear in the beginning (2007-ish) to Tide Pods (in 2017) to all beauty products these days. Beauty includes cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and hair products. JaysAwesomeDeals is far and away the most successful of my online retail enterprises. Using Auctiva for my listings makes everything very professional looking and as such, inspires buyer confidence. I celebrate a conversion rate that is double that of my fellow eBayers. This means that twice as many potential buyers that click on my ad will buy from my listing when compared to competitor’s listings. I attribute this to the professional listings that can be made from Auctiva templates. I have a massive database of listings and images stored at Auctiva, so when I get a new product, it’s so easy to list because many times I have a version of that product or a similar one stored at Auctiva. A couple minutes of editing leads to a brand new listing for the new product.
How do you see MoreCommerce helping your business in the future?
I want to synchronize my inventory and listings between Amazon and eBay. Currently I do this manually which leads to overselling items too often. I have thousands of items in my inventory which is nearly impossible to synchronize manually. I want to add my own storefront where my regular customers and web surfers can come for even better prices without having to pay the high selling commissions of eBay and Amazon.
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*This interview may have been edited for length or clarity.