Secrets of the eBay

his situation now: “I could either go back to where I started when I was
young and during the summer and fall we would pick cotton, or sell shoes.
It was a no-brainer,” he says. The challenge he faced in 1999 was to find
a new way to sell shoes.
Business name Shoetime/Fashion Outlet Mall/eSAVz
Seller name David Hardin
Web site http://stores.ebay.com/shoetime
Sells Men’s and women’s shoes
CHAPTER 7: Diversify Your Business Presence 135
“All of a Sudden a Light Went On”: Shoetime
One day a young man named Steve Hicks visited Hardin’s shoe warehouse
and mentioned the word “eBay.” “I asked, ‘What’s an eBay?’” Hardin
recalls. “He proceeded to tell me about eBay. All of a sudden a light went
on. I thought, if I can’t sell to a brick-and-mortar store, I can sell in an eBay
Store.”
Hardin started out slowly on eBay. “I took five pairs of shoes and gave
them to one of my employees who knew about eBay. Right away, he got
some bids on them.” Next, they listed 50 pairs of shoes, and were pleased
with the results. As Hardin and his coworkers gained confidence and
experience with the Internet, they moved up to a hundred sales listings, then
more and more.
Today, Hardin’s wholesale shoe business is thriving. He works out
of a 200,000 sq. ft. warehouse, and also has five different eBay apparel
businesses. He sells 1,000 to 2,000 pairs of shoes each week through his
main eBay Store, Shoetime. He and his daughter Shelly Hudson, who is
marketing director for Shoetime, are happily awash in a flood of shoes (see
Figure 7-1). The picture was taken by Lamar Hardin, who plays a large role
in all of their enterprises.
From Shoes to Fashion: Fashion Outlet Mall
“eBay is like a car,” David Hardin says. “It’s a great vehicle for e-commerce,
and it gets you going without having to pay high startup costs. But it’s up
to you to apply the gas pedal yourself. With some energy and imagination,
you’ll be surprised how far you can go.”