Years ago, I sold used printers on Ebay and printing supplies on my own website. At the time, the used printer market was very competitive. One way I set my listings apart from everyone else was I added value without increasing my costs. Here’s what I did:
Since I was selling related products — ink cartridges, toner cartridges, photo paper, etc., I had a vested interest in turning one-time used printer sales into repeat supply customers.
I created a “Frequent Buyer Program.” On my website, I sold a membership for a one-time fee of $9.95. From that point forward, members would receive a discount on their ink and toner orders. The discount got bigger as the orders got bigger. My members wanted to get on the positive side of that deal as soon as they could to reap the benefits of saving in the future.
I offered this membership for free on all used printer purchases on Ebay. I automatically added $10 of value to the printer without adding any cost to me. Many of the printers I sold went for $30 to $50 dollars. On a $30 printer, that extra $10 of value was essentially a 33% bonus.
What can you do to increase your value to your buyers?
What an awesome idea, did you get any stats on how much more someone purchased from you when they joined the club?
I don’t think I have any documentation anymore, but this is how I recall it going… The used printers typically sold for 10 to 15 percent more than similar listings. Only about 1 in 10 people ended up using the membership for a discount. Still, I thought it was pretty successful because of the upfront increase in selling price.