Onto the stage: eBay sellers in the spotlight
We’ve launched a new eBay campaign: “The big stage for small sellers”. This campaign shows how smaller local businesses have successfully made the leap into e-commerce. Two sellers featured in the campaign visited us in the studio to share their inspiring success stories with our listeners: Ariane Dykiert from “La fraise rouge” and Meike Fehr from “STILRAUMBERLIN”.
They also talk about how we helped them grow their businesses and reach new customers beyond Berlin’s city limits with tailored tools and personalized advice.
Listen in and find out how they take advantage of the opportunities of digital commerce while staying rooted locally!
**Important links**
- More information about the Große Bühne campaign
- Ariane Dykiert - la fraise rouge on eBay
- Meike Fehr - stilraumberlin on eBay
- eBay starter program
- eBay Community
- eBay for Business on Facebook
- More info on the eBay podcast “Alles top. Gerne wieder!” and our podcast hosts
** Chapter markers **
- 00:00:00 to 00:01:28: Intro
- 00:01:28 to 00:03:39: The big stage for small sellers
- 00:03:39 to 00:08:02: Introduction to Ariane Dykiert / la fraise rouge
- 00:08:02 to 00:11:48: Introduction to Meike Fehr / stilraumberlin
- 00:11:48 to 00:17:40: How eBay helps you get started
- 00:17:40 to 00:26:12: Online selling and brick-and-mortar store
- 00:26:12 to 00:30:19: eBay creates experiences
- 00:30:19 to 00:32:05: Tips for getting started on eBay
Lisa: eBay, sellers in a big way, namely in our new campaign. It’s called "The big stage for small sellers" and shows how many of you have successfully made the leap into e-commerce. In this episode, two impressive entrepreneurs and their success story share their stories. They reveal how eBay helped them turn their vision into reality and grow. Through eBay they reached customers for their business and, with support and tailored tools, expanded their business, locally too.
Meike: Of course eBay is incredibly important, because I close up the shop at some point. But I can also work on eBay in the evenings, or list things there; I’m fairly independent of opening hours, and it also feels good to be on holiday while the eBay listings keep running.
Lisa: Hello, dear listeners, and welcome to another episode of "Alles top, Gerne wieder!", the eBay podcast all about retail and e-commerce for those who don’t know me yet. I’m Lisa, and today, as you heard in the intro, we’re talking about two sellers who stand for eBay and the diversity on our marketplace. Ariane and Meike took the leap onto our marketplace, and they did it successfully. Welcome, Ariane and Meike!
Ariane: Hi, I’m Ariane, and I’m really happy to be here.
Meike: Hi, I’m Meike, and I’m happy to be here.
Lisa: Yes, great to have you here. We’re really, really happy too. The new campaign "The big stage for small sellers" puts exactly you in the spotlight, because you’re part of our campaign. My team at eBay was heavily involved in the campaign, and so I’ll just give a bit of background before we dive into the conversation with Meike and Ariane in a moment. I’m sure this has happened to all of you at some point: someone asked, hey, where did you actually buy this item or product? And your answer was probably: Yeah, on eBay! But that’s not quite right, because yes, the platform behind it was eBay, but the product was bought from one of our thousands of sellers. And that’s exactly what we want to convey with the campaign, because behind all the countless shops on eBay there are faces, names, and really, really great stories. And why is all of this so important? Quite simply. Small sellers are the heart of the eBay Community. And by supporting sellers well, we at eBay ensure they stay competitive and can expand their presence, even worldwide. And if you want to see the videos for our campaign and find out what Ariane’s and Meike’s shops look like, just visit the URL “www.eBay.de/erfolgreich-handeln” and take a closer look at the videos and the stories of Ariane and Meike. But now enough about the campaign and back to Ariane and Meike, as I said. Great to have you here. It wasn’t that long ago that we came barging into your shop with all our gear and turned the place, or rather your shops, a little upside down. Once again, thank you so, so much for letting us do that and for letting us take a little behind-the-scenes look. Maybe as a first question: how was it for you when we got in touch and asked whether we could shoot this campaign with you? Meike, how was that for you?
Meike: Yes, first of all it was a huge honor. I felt very flattered that you chose our shop for this, and of course the excitement grew with each day as the shoot got closer, and it was such a special, great day, and it was so much fun, and the result is fantastic.
Lisa: Ariane, how was it for you?
Ariane: Pretty much the same, actually. I was really happy too and took it as a chance to move things around and tidy up a bit again, and it was really lovely once more!
Lisa: We were already wondering why we came into two such excellent, tidy shops. Very nice. Ariane, you won the eBay Award in the social enterprise category in 2022 and are also part of our local marketplace "Berlin bei eBay". That already brings us to the keyword brick-and-mortar store, la fraise rouge, your shop is in Kreuzberg, and you sell personalized and handmade gifts for little and big people. Tell us a bit about how you got into founding the business, and what’s behind la fraise rouge?
Ariane: After school I first did an apprenticeship and then went to university. After that I worked for a long time in international film productions, and then I started making little rattles on the side, and one day I was in a very cute shop in Windscheidstraße, and as I was leaving I said to the owner, I, I also make a few things, and then she was immediately interested and said, what do you make then? Ah, yes, some rattles! She said, bring them by, let me see! And she was so enthusiastic and wanted to take them in on consignment, and of course I was happy about that too. And then I got a lot of support from my friends, and they said, you have to sell this, you have to sell this, and that’s how it started with consignment in shops, and then a big online shop discovered me too, and I sort of became friends with the owner online. I never saw her for two years; we only ever chatted, and then she said, you need your own online shop, you can’t do it without one. That was obviously very exciting, because it was 2006, and then, as I said, yes, I guess I do need an online shop, and then it was super exciting when the first order came in out of nowhere, and you’re left wondering how people find you, how does all of this even work? And that’s how I got into it.
Lisa: Crazy, and all of that somehow self-initiated and self-taught.
Ariane: Exactly, it just grew very slowly. I didn’t even have that intention. I have lots of friends who say their dream is to have their own shop, but I never had that dream. I wanted to make beautiful things, and I wanted to sell them too, and I think if I could choose and money didn’t matter, I’d just make things and give them away. So yes, I just really love doing it, but if you have tons of items, it also becomes a bit much.
Lisa: I find it really fascinating that your path was completely different from what we often have here on the podcast. You came into online retail through the product itself, had your own shop, then added eBay, and only later did a physical store in Kreuzberg come along.
Ariane: Right, and that came about because, as I said, I never actually wanted a shop, and we were in premises in Charlottenburg, and then the lease ran out, and then we thought, well, let’s take a look around near where we live, because if you don’t look, you don’t find anything, and then we looked around for free commercial spaces. Then we came home and saw, oh, something’s free right across the street! We hadn’t noticed that at all before, and the premises are basically like a shop. Even though there had been a dentist in there before, there’s just this big shop window and retail area out front, and then my dilemma came back. I said, I don’t want a shop at all. What if people come in there, I don’t even know them. So I have to smile a little, because I heard the podcast with Held der Steine, for whom it’s so important that people come and he has a shop, and for me it was actually exactly the opposite. But then we thought, well, if maybe one person buys something a day for twenty euros, that’s already part of the rent, so that wouldn’t be so bad, and then we set it up as a showroom, and yes, people do keep coming in, but it’s just not a high-traffic area.
Lisa: And I think it’s important to say that you mainly needed the premises so you could move into production, your very, very unique items super exciting Meike! I already know your story, but maybe you’d like to tell your story too, because there are some parallels. How did stilraumberlin come about?
Meike: Yes, there are surprisingly many parallels, as I’ve just noticed too, especially the passion for old things, for things from times gone by. That was always there for me. So for me it was also a celebration to move to Berlin and be able to discover all these flea markets here, and I also never thought about having a shop or a vintage secondhand store. I studied, worked for a long time as a social educator, and it was always a hobby for me to buy and sell things at flea markets on the side, and then in 2002 there was a period when I had to part with a lot of things because I felt like I needed to declutter my life and explore new paths. And then I started clearing out my room, my clothes, and that’s how I came to eBay. So it was purely private at first, and whenever I had something I wanted to sell, something that no longer suited me, I sold it on eBay, and at some point I also started buying on eBay, and it became the platform for selling and buying online. And when my son was born, that was in 2008, like so many people at the time I didn’t get a daycare spot, and I couldn’t just go back to my profession. I had worked full-time, and full-time back then meant at least 50 hours with overtime, and I just couldn’t imagine that. How was it supposed to work without family in Berlin? And then I thought, well, maybe you can turn the hobby into a profession, and then I tried it, and it worked.
Lisa: Yes, when I come to your shop, stilraumberlin in Friedrichshain, which isn’t far from where I live, I have to leave my credit card at home, because it’s full of Danish design classics and really genuine treasures that have been restored with so, so much love. By now you also sell lighting, home accessories, and nearly new items, and you’re very far removed from the hobby you described. Meike, you also told us in the campaign that there was a point when you thought: okay, eBay could be something for us too. Can you describe that once?
Meike: Yes, exactly, I think it was shortly before my child was born. I won a 1950s pendant lamp on eBay for one euro, and it was beautiful, and it stood in our bedroom, and we loved that lamp dearly. And around that time we went to a flea market, had sorted out a few things again, clothes, and had to make space for the baby that was coming, and then we took the pendant lamp with us. We thought it would be a great eye-catcher. That’s how people came to our stall, and these people stood in front of the stall and outbid each other, and there were even arguments in front of our stall about who got there first.
Lisa: It was a live eBay auction.
Meike: It was a live auction, so to speak, and at first I was really firm and said no, no, this lamp isn’t for sale, I love this lamp dearly - but at some point the bids got so absurd that I thought, okay, I can’t say no anymore, take this lamp now! And that was our first moment of realizing: aha, there could be something there, this could turn into a business, even though at that time we were still a long way from setting it up as an actual business.
Lisa: Very nice, by now neither of you are too far from being able to call what you do every day a business. Let’s talk about your early days on eBay. What helped you understand eBay? As business sellers on eBay, you used tools. How did you get your head around eBay?
Meike: Well, at the beginning we actually used auctions. I can hardly imagine it today, but we really let everything run entirely through auctions, for seven days, always from Sunday to Sunday, and of course that has changed completely by now, with fixed costs that have been added, with employees, where you simply need to generate a certain amount of revenue. What was really important for us, though, is the make-an-offer tool, because we’re in the used-goods sector, and just like at flea markets: people like to haggle, and customers want to feel that they can haggle too, and this works incredibly well through the make-an-offer tool, and that’s very, very important to us, and we understood relatively quickly that this is a tool we always need to use and always will use.
Lisa: That’s funny; Ariane just told me over coffee that, when was it, over the weekend, she realized there’s a make-an-offer option.
Ariane: I have to, I have to laugh right now too, because of course I discovered that as well. So, I took a closer look at the app, and the suggested offer I got was for a different product, and I thought, okay, I need to check that again carefully.
Lisa: Ariane, what tools were you using in the early days?
Ariane: So, the tool I used a lot was your employee. I grilled him, and he said, you have to look here, you have to look there. So we did another little comeback with the starter program, but we’re still in it because we’re changing things right now, and right at the beginning my husband handled that. So I can’t really say. But since the starter program I’ve been involved too, and it was important to know how eBay sorts things, how the title should be structured, and what I like is the multi-buy discount, because we sell a lot of music boxes, and your employee assured me that all eBay customers love it when something is free postage, and I actually don’t like that, because it distorts the prices so much, because you shouldn’t pretend otherwise. The postage cost is still included in the item, and if someone then buys two or three items, then it’s way too expensive, because postage gets added every time. So you have to calculate it down a bit, and once I was very generous and just estimated it roughly and thought, it’ll probably be about right. Then someone ordered it straight away, and then I thought, oh, that’s a bit too much of a discount, I may need to check that again, recalculate that again.
Lisa: But that’s perhaps a nice example of simply trying things out and experimenting with the tools. And, before I met Ariane, I didn’t know what music boxes were, maybe for the listeners out there who don’t know either. It’s basically the inner workings of the music boxes we know from childhood. I had one myself; I think it played "LaLeLu," and today they really have every song imaginable, from Harry Potter to Schlager to whatever else, and you can find them all in Ariane’s shop.
Ariane: Almost all, but very good quality, and that’s what matters.
Lisa: Very good, but you were in the starter program, which means the advantage for you was also getting information directly from eBay, having eBay explained to you.
Ariane: Definitely, even now with the app I looked things up and really wished someone was sitting next to me saying, look here, you can use this, maybe you don’t need that, and here you may need to keep an eye on this and set it up, because there are just so many functions, and I already told you once, I wanted to change one price, then that wouldn’t have worked, I think. Why isn’t this working? It isn’t saving everything here, and then it turned out it didn’t work because it has to be changed in our own shop software, and you don’t know that at first.
Lisa: Yes, the shop software then overwrites it, and then you get annoyed and start doubting yourself a bit until it’s explained to you. Yes, I know that frustration. Meike, did you ever take part in one of our programs too?
Meike: Hmm, yes, also in the starter program, that was in 2021, and we had regular appointments with your colleague, an eBay employee, and he gave us a lot of background knowledge about the algorithm, about the items, how they’re found, what we need to pay attention to in the descriptions. For example, I didn’t know that if you have capital letters or all caps in some words, you’re found less well than if you write the word normally, the way you would spell it correctly. And that was also really great and really important for us at the time, because we had to get our eBay shop moving again. In 2019 we’d gone through a phase where the store generated more sales than the eBay shop or online in general. That was certainly also because we changed our range, as you said earlier. We then added new items, new lamps, new accessories, and some new small furniture, which means everything shifted a bit toward the store. That means people perceived us differently. Before, we were always the furniture shop, and suddenly we were the shop where you could also buy gifts or candles, or a new living room lamp.
Lisa: I’m telling you: it’s dangerous to just come by you for a quick look.
Meike: Exactly, and then the pandemic came, the shop was closed, and we were faced with the problem that we said, okay, we somehow need to get this online business going again, and of course that worked really well with eBay, and we were able to understand eBay even better.
Lisa: So for both of you it’s super important to have eBay, or online retail in general, as a solid, secure pillar alongside the brick-and-mortar shop. What you both have.
Meike: Yes, totally, because with eBay we reach customers we would never reach with the store. Right from the start we had an incredible number of customers from Asia. How would they have found us? Because in Asia there’s just a huge love for Danish design, and we couldn’t reach them through our store, and eBay is and remains an important part of our business.
Ariane: For me too, of course. La fraise rouge is mainly an online shop, and I’m happy when people also find their way into the store, but it’s a purely online business.
Lisa: Meike, you mentioned it briefly already, and I think it’s okay to say you’re both moms, you both have children alongside your full-time job, store, and online shop, and you go on vacation sometimes and the shops close for a bit. Is eBay important for making all of that work somehow?
Meike: Yes, of course eBay is incredibly important, because I close the shop at some point, and at some point in the evening there are no more customers. But I can also work on eBay in the evenings, or list items. I’m relatively independent of opening hours, and therefore also independent of school hours or afternoon care hours, and that’s really important, and it also feels good to be on holiday while the eBay listings keep running.
Lisa: I think we can say, Meike, you can even have a baby and sell on eBay!
Meike: I knew you were going to bring it up. Yes, that’s true, I experienced that myself. With my second child we were in the delivery room, and my husband had just gotten a smartphone and downloaded the eBay app. That was 2013, and it was Saturday morning, and all the time this "ka-ching!" keeps going off, the sound that always comes when you sell something on eBay, and I was deep in labor and almost impossible to talk to. But I still caught bits of it: "ka-ching!" Ah, sold something again! "ka-ching!" And at some point the midwife asks, what is that noise that keeps happening? And my husband grins and says, yes, we’re having a baby right now, but we’re also selling furniture, and that was very funny.
Lisa: That’s still my my favorite story when it comes to how, I’ll call it, balancing private life and retail on eBay. That was very funny, Ariane, how is it for you?
Ariane: Well, when we go on vacation, the shop still has to be looked after. We used to have employees who took care of it, but mainly my husband still checked in and answered customer inquiries, and now I’ve taken that over, and I do it too. And basically, if you have an online business, you can’t really pause, you can extend the delivery times, and as the vacation goes on you can shorten them again. But you can’t really switch off, because you notice right away that sales otherwise just drop. Yes.
Lisa: But it’s definitely an advantage that you don’t switch off and can still make sales, at least in theory, even while you’re on holiday.
Ariane: Yes, definitely, but of course it’s also nice when you’re on vacation and don’t have to worry about anything at all, but if you’re self-employed, that’s just how it is.
Lisa: Self-employed and always working.
Ariane: Exactly.
Meike: Same for us, exactly the same.
Lisa: You both have something very iconic in your shops. Maybe let’s start with you, Ariane: la fraise rouge, my French isn’t very good, but it’s the red strawberry.
Ariane: Correct.
Lisa: Would you like to tell us how the red strawberry came about and how it runs through the shop, the online shop, and eBay too?
Ariane: Do you also want to know how I came up with the name?
Ariane: Yes, I’d love to!
Ariane: So, it was like this. When my friend told me I needed an online shop. Then of course I had to look at what domain was available, and because both I and my husband, we’re both real Berliners, yes, we thought we’d naturally choose something German, maybe even something Berlin-ish, and so we went looking. But a lot of domains were already taken. And then I remembered that I had once been an au pair in France for six months, and "children’s accessories" and "France" somehow go together, it has a certain refined style, and I had a classmate from America who once told me a story about strawberries and how great they are. I still remembered that and linked it together and thought: Ah, the red strawberry! la fraise rouge, that sounds quite nice somehow, and I said, yes, let’s take that. And then, once we already had the label, I sadly realized, oh, not everyone speaks French, when my sister asked what it was supposed to mean, I thought, oh damn! But by then it was already done, and I still think it was a lovely decision, because the strawberry is on the label, and now we also sell these fabric strawberries, and that came about because I have a friend who has supported a project in Bangladesh for years, and she asked me: hey, we have a sewing project there, couldn’t you, don’t you have anything the women there could sew? And I said, I don’t really make mass-produced stuff, I don’t know what they could make, and I thought about it a lot and then thought: hey, maybe they could make strawberry charms, and they were really excited about that. We then gave the NGOs the materials and instructions on how to make them, and they did it, and what’s also kind of funny is that there are no strawberries in Bangladesh, which means they didn’t even know what it actually was, and as part of this project someone once brought strawberry seeds, and they actually planted strawberries there too. They taste awful because the ground there is way too wet. But they were thrilled because it was obviously a great thing. Yes, and then I thought that I’d also like to donate, and the project is supported by 75 percent from the German state. That means if you donate €10, the organization gets €17.50, and that’s how we do it now. We provide the materials, we buy the strawberry, I mean the strawberry item, we pay for the work, and when we sell the strawberries, for example on our bags, a donation is already included. So then we also make a donation that gets matched.
Lisa: That’s a very lovely story. When you come into your shop or look at the items in the eBay shop, you always get the feeling you’re in the same room. Would you like to talk a bit about how you manage that?
Meike: Yes, in our shop we have a wall that looks very, very old, and it is also very, very old. Our shop was a Berlin corner pub for 100 years, and on that wall there was a very large, heavy, solid back buffet from the bar, and we couldn’t move it ourselves when we took over the shop and renovated it. We had to hire a company, and everything took a very long time, and we wanted to finally be done and said we want to paint this last wall once more so we can finally move toward opening. Yes, and then this back buffet was removed, and this wall came into view, and then it was clear, okay, we’re done renovating. We don’t have to paint anything else at all, because it looks so great, and it’s so beautifully shaped by time. We can’t destroy that by slapping a bucket of paint over it. And yes, that wall is very distinctive, and it’s our recognition feature, and we always try to photograph all the items we list online in front of that wall. It doesn’t always work, it also depends a bit on the item, because the wall is very dark, there’s a lot going on in the wall, and not every piece of furniture looks good in front of it. But it still runs through our online shop and the eBay shop like a red thread.
Lisa: Yes, people can really recognize your items on eBay very well and connect them with stilraumberlin, I think. Before we hear about the challenges and successes Ariane and Meike associate with eBay, we want to hear from you out there: how did you get started? Did you begin with local retail? Did you have an online shop first? Tell us about your experiences, and if you have the Spotify app, you can interact with us directly via the Questions and Answers feature in the app, just drag the slider from the bottom of the app upward, and off we go. Alternatively, you can also write to us in the eBay Community or on our Facebook page "eBay for Business Deutschland". We’re really looking forward to your stories and your feedback on the podcast, and of course also a like or a subscription. Meike, were there challenges in selling on eBay that you experienced, and if so, how did you deal with them?
Meike: Well, I think one challenge is that you don’t see the customers personally, but instead communicate with them only via messages. That means that for me, it was a learning experience to communicate very clearly, very quickly, very directly so customers can build trust, so that they don’t fall for any scammers or that the furniture really gets delivered, that it’s good, that real people are behind it. And that’s something I’ve intensified a lot recently. That means I really try to get in touch with customers right after a sale so that no awkward situation even arises.
Ariane: So I’d say the biggest challenge is actually time, because especially when, like me, you also produce things, you’re already very busy with that, and everything that comes on top of it is actually more of a nuisance, and you don’t want to do it at all. You don’t want to get held up by it, and that’s why I found it, or still find it, an incredible relief that you can ask someone if you don’t know something. There are people who want to figure everything out themselves; I’m not one of them. I want to message someone and ask, how do I do this, what’s the best way, what’s the fastest way? And specifically, for example, there’s the great feature that lets you duplicate items, but of course you have to be really careful, because the duplicated product may have a different color or different features, and I also don’t just have one platform I’m managing, and each one is a bit different, and you don’t necessarily do that all the time, and you always have to get back into it, and I think juggling all of that and then also having kids, family, shopping, this, that, it’s already a big challenge!
Lisa: Time management. In any case, Ariane, did you have a success story or something you look back on from your time on eBay? Something that was really great for you?
Ariane: A lot of things, I’d say, but the best was really when we won the award for social enterprise, and simply that this project we support was so appreciated, and eBay also contributed with a donation. That was truly outstanding.
Lisa: Meike, what was your most special eBay experience?
Meike: Well, my most special experience was when I got to fly to Lithuania with eBay for a commercial shoot and got to look behind the scenes at how an ad film is made and who all is involved, how many people are walking around there, and then I was taken to makeup and got made up for an hour and was allowed to choose clothes in the wardrobe, and all of that was super exciting and also pushed me a little out of my comfort zone. I’ve had that a few times with eBay, actually, including several panel appearances I got to do with eBay, and also this here, the podcast. That’s again something very special and something you don’t do every day.
Lisa: Those are both lovely experiences, and you both speak so, so passionately about the items sold on eBay and how you got started. If there are sellers out there listening now who say, I have a similar passion, or people just listening to the podcast, what would you advise people who are just starting out or who maybe aren’t selling on eBay at all yet?
Ariane: I think that’s a good but also difficult question, because it certainly depends on what you want to sell. Depending on that, I’d first survey the market, also see where it fits best, and then of course the question is whether you already have your own website? Is it already properly polished, or do you want to only have eBay? Depending on that, I’d advise: focus on one thing first, dive into it properly, look at everything, and become an expert at it. Because I think for us it got diluted a bit. Then we had our own site, that platform there, and then it feels like you’re sort of involved, but not fully anywhere. I think that’s my advice, yes, but everyone has to figure it out for themselves again.
Lisa: Meike, what advice would you give the listeners?
Meike: I’d say just do it. If you already have your own shop and your own products, then in my opinion, first of all, you have nothing to lose. Sure, it takes time, you have to find that time, but you don’t have to do everything at once. You can build it up step by step, and eBay is very intuitive, which means you can get started without much outside help, in my opinion, and see whether the product fits well there, and of course you have to calculate carefully.
Lisa: And otherwise you can always get started with our eBay starter program, just like you both did. We can simply put the information in the show notes again. For the fans of our podcast, now comes the part we always close with. Here’s the exciting question for you: what was the last thing you bought or sold on eBay? Meike, would you like to start?
Meike: So the last thing that went away on eBay was, I think, a dresser that we later repainted, and I most unspectacularly bought packing tape on eBay last.
Lisa: You need that when you sell online.
Meike: Exactly!
Ariane: This morning I definitely sold one music box, or even two, and I bought a llama village.
Ariane: A llama village!
Ariane: Yes, from LEGO! I even won that at auction.
Lisa: I’m very glad that the LEGO came after that. Great! Thank you both so, so much for filming the campaign with us, and also for coming to our podcast studio today and giving everyone out there such exciting insights into your everyday lives, into your offline and online selling too. And I’m very sure that today we were able to inspire many aspiring sellers, because your stories are just so inspiring. Thank you very much.
Ariane: Thanks, Lisa,
Lisa: You’re very welcome!
Meike: Thanks.
Meike: Of course eBay is incredibly important, because I close up the shop at some point. But I can also work on eBay in the evenings, or list things there; I’m fairly independent of opening hours, and it also feels good to be on holiday while the eBay listings keep running.
Lisa: Hello, dear listeners, and welcome to another episode of "Alles top, Gerne wieder!", the eBay podcast all about retail and e-commerce for those who don’t know me yet. I’m Lisa, and today, as you heard in the intro, we’re talking about two sellers who stand for eBay and the diversity on our marketplace. Ariane and Meike took the leap onto our marketplace, and they did it successfully. Welcome, Ariane and Meike!
Ariane: Hi, I’m Ariane, and I’m really happy to be here.
Meike: Hi, I’m Meike, and I’m happy to be here.
Lisa: Yes, great to have you here. We’re really, really happy too. The new campaign "The big stage for small sellers" puts exactly you in the spotlight, because you’re part of our campaign. My team at eBay was heavily involved in the campaign, and so I’ll just give a bit of background before we dive into the conversation with Meike and Ariane in a moment. I’m sure this has happened to all of you at some point: someone asked, hey, where did you actually buy this item or product? And your answer was probably: Yeah, on eBay! But that’s not quite right, because yes, the platform behind it was eBay, but the product was bought from one of our thousands of sellers. And that’s exactly what we want to convey with the campaign, because behind all the countless shops on eBay there are faces, names, and really, really great stories. And why is all of this so important? Quite simply. Small sellers are the heart of the eBay Community. And by supporting sellers well, we at eBay ensure they stay competitive and can expand their presence, even worldwide. And if you want to see the videos for our campaign and find out what Ariane’s and Meike’s shops look like, just visit the URL “www.eBay.de/erfolgreich-handeln” and take a closer look at the videos and the stories of Ariane and Meike. But now enough about the campaign and back to Ariane and Meike, as I said. Great to have you here. It wasn’t that long ago that we came barging into your shop with all our gear and turned the place, or rather your shops, a little upside down. Once again, thank you so, so much for letting us do that and for letting us take a little behind-the-scenes look. Maybe as a first question: how was it for you when we got in touch and asked whether we could shoot this campaign with you? Meike, how was that for you?
Meike: Yes, first of all it was a huge honor. I felt very flattered that you chose our shop for this, and of course the excitement grew with each day as the shoot got closer, and it was such a special, great day, and it was so much fun, and the result is fantastic.
Lisa: Ariane, how was it for you?
Ariane: Pretty much the same, actually. I was really happy too and took it as a chance to move things around and tidy up a bit again, and it was really lovely once more!
Lisa: We were already wondering why we came into two such excellent, tidy shops. Very nice. Ariane, you won the eBay Award in the social enterprise category in 2022 and are also part of our local marketplace "Berlin bei eBay". That already brings us to the keyword brick-and-mortar store, la fraise rouge, your shop is in Kreuzberg, and you sell personalized and handmade gifts for little and big people. Tell us a bit about how you got into founding the business, and what’s behind la fraise rouge?
Ariane: After school I first did an apprenticeship and then went to university. After that I worked for a long time in international film productions, and then I started making little rattles on the side, and one day I was in a very cute shop in Windscheidstraße, and as I was leaving I said to the owner, I, I also make a few things, and then she was immediately interested and said, what do you make then? Ah, yes, some rattles! She said, bring them by, let me see! And she was so enthusiastic and wanted to take them in on consignment, and of course I was happy about that too. And then I got a lot of support from my friends, and they said, you have to sell this, you have to sell this, and that’s how it started with consignment in shops, and then a big online shop discovered me too, and I sort of became friends with the owner online. I never saw her for two years; we only ever chatted, and then she said, you need your own online shop, you can’t do it without one. That was obviously very exciting, because it was 2006, and then, as I said, yes, I guess I do need an online shop, and then it was super exciting when the first order came in out of nowhere, and you’re left wondering how people find you, how does all of this even work? And that’s how I got into it.
Lisa: Crazy, and all of that somehow self-initiated and self-taught.
Ariane: Exactly, it just grew very slowly. I didn’t even have that intention. I have lots of friends who say their dream is to have their own shop, but I never had that dream. I wanted to make beautiful things, and I wanted to sell them too, and I think if I could choose and money didn’t matter, I’d just make things and give them away. So yes, I just really love doing it, but if you have tons of items, it also becomes a bit much.
Lisa: I find it really fascinating that your path was completely different from what we often have here on the podcast. You came into online retail through the product itself, had your own shop, then added eBay, and only later did a physical store in Kreuzberg come along.
Ariane: Right, and that came about because, as I said, I never actually wanted a shop, and we were in premises in Charlottenburg, and then the lease ran out, and then we thought, well, let’s take a look around near where we live, because if you don’t look, you don’t find anything, and then we looked around for free commercial spaces. Then we came home and saw, oh, something’s free right across the street! We hadn’t noticed that at all before, and the premises are basically like a shop. Even though there had been a dentist in there before, there’s just this big shop window and retail area out front, and then my dilemma came back. I said, I don’t want a shop at all. What if people come in there, I don’t even know them. So I have to smile a little, because I heard the podcast with Held der Steine, for whom it’s so important that people come and he has a shop, and for me it was actually exactly the opposite. But then we thought, well, if maybe one person buys something a day for twenty euros, that’s already part of the rent, so that wouldn’t be so bad, and then we set it up as a showroom, and yes, people do keep coming in, but it’s just not a high-traffic area.
Lisa: And I think it’s important to say that you mainly needed the premises so you could move into production, your very, very unique items super exciting Meike! I already know your story, but maybe you’d like to tell your story too, because there are some parallels. How did stilraumberlin come about?
Meike: Yes, there are surprisingly many parallels, as I’ve just noticed too, especially the passion for old things, for things from times gone by. That was always there for me. So for me it was also a celebration to move to Berlin and be able to discover all these flea markets here, and I also never thought about having a shop or a vintage secondhand store. I studied, worked for a long time as a social educator, and it was always a hobby for me to buy and sell things at flea markets on the side, and then in 2002 there was a period when I had to part with a lot of things because I felt like I needed to declutter my life and explore new paths. And then I started clearing out my room, my clothes, and that’s how I came to eBay. So it was purely private at first, and whenever I had something I wanted to sell, something that no longer suited me, I sold it on eBay, and at some point I also started buying on eBay, and it became the platform for selling and buying online. And when my son was born, that was in 2008, like so many people at the time I didn’t get a daycare spot, and I couldn’t just go back to my profession. I had worked full-time, and full-time back then meant at least 50 hours with overtime, and I just couldn’t imagine that. How was it supposed to work without family in Berlin? And then I thought, well, maybe you can turn the hobby into a profession, and then I tried it, and it worked.
Lisa: Yes, when I come to your shop, stilraumberlin in Friedrichshain, which isn’t far from where I live, I have to leave my credit card at home, because it’s full of Danish design classics and really genuine treasures that have been restored with so, so much love. By now you also sell lighting, home accessories, and nearly new items, and you’re very far removed from the hobby you described. Meike, you also told us in the campaign that there was a point when you thought: okay, eBay could be something for us too. Can you describe that once?
Meike: Yes, exactly, I think it was shortly before my child was born. I won a 1950s pendant lamp on eBay for one euro, and it was beautiful, and it stood in our bedroom, and we loved that lamp dearly. And around that time we went to a flea market, had sorted out a few things again, clothes, and had to make space for the baby that was coming, and then we took the pendant lamp with us. We thought it would be a great eye-catcher. That’s how people came to our stall, and these people stood in front of the stall and outbid each other, and there were even arguments in front of our stall about who got there first.
Lisa: It was a live eBay auction.
Meike: It was a live auction, so to speak, and at first I was really firm and said no, no, this lamp isn’t for sale, I love this lamp dearly - but at some point the bids got so absurd that I thought, okay, I can’t say no anymore, take this lamp now! And that was our first moment of realizing: aha, there could be something there, this could turn into a business, even though at that time we were still a long way from setting it up as an actual business.
Lisa: Very nice, by now neither of you are too far from being able to call what you do every day a business. Let’s talk about your early days on eBay. What helped you understand eBay? As business sellers on eBay, you used tools. How did you get your head around eBay?
Meike: Well, at the beginning we actually used auctions. I can hardly imagine it today, but we really let everything run entirely through auctions, for seven days, always from Sunday to Sunday, and of course that has changed completely by now, with fixed costs that have been added, with employees, where you simply need to generate a certain amount of revenue. What was really important for us, though, is the make-an-offer tool, because we’re in the used-goods sector, and just like at flea markets: people like to haggle, and customers want to feel that they can haggle too, and this works incredibly well through the make-an-offer tool, and that’s very, very important to us, and we understood relatively quickly that this is a tool we always need to use and always will use.
Lisa: That’s funny; Ariane just told me over coffee that, when was it, over the weekend, she realized there’s a make-an-offer option.
Ariane: I have to, I have to laugh right now too, because of course I discovered that as well. So, I took a closer look at the app, and the suggested offer I got was for a different product, and I thought, okay, I need to check that again carefully.
Lisa: Ariane, what tools were you using in the early days?
Ariane: So, the tool I used a lot was your employee. I grilled him, and he said, you have to look here, you have to look there. So we did another little comeback with the starter program, but we’re still in it because we’re changing things right now, and right at the beginning my husband handled that. So I can’t really say. But since the starter program I’ve been involved too, and it was important to know how eBay sorts things, how the title should be structured, and what I like is the multi-buy discount, because we sell a lot of music boxes, and your employee assured me that all eBay customers love it when something is free postage, and I actually don’t like that, because it distorts the prices so much, because you shouldn’t pretend otherwise. The postage cost is still included in the item, and if someone then buys two or three items, then it’s way too expensive, because postage gets added every time. So you have to calculate it down a bit, and once I was very generous and just estimated it roughly and thought, it’ll probably be about right. Then someone ordered it straight away, and then I thought, oh, that’s a bit too much of a discount, I may need to check that again, recalculate that again.
Lisa: But that’s perhaps a nice example of simply trying things out and experimenting with the tools. And, before I met Ariane, I didn’t know what music boxes were, maybe for the listeners out there who don’t know either. It’s basically the inner workings of the music boxes we know from childhood. I had one myself; I think it played "LaLeLu," and today they really have every song imaginable, from Harry Potter to Schlager to whatever else, and you can find them all in Ariane’s shop.
Ariane: Almost all, but very good quality, and that’s what matters.
Lisa: Very good, but you were in the starter program, which means the advantage for you was also getting information directly from eBay, having eBay explained to you.
Ariane: Definitely, even now with the app I looked things up and really wished someone was sitting next to me saying, look here, you can use this, maybe you don’t need that, and here you may need to keep an eye on this and set it up, because there are just so many functions, and I already told you once, I wanted to change one price, then that wouldn’t have worked, I think. Why isn’t this working? It isn’t saving everything here, and then it turned out it didn’t work because it has to be changed in our own shop software, and you don’t know that at first.
Lisa: Yes, the shop software then overwrites it, and then you get annoyed and start doubting yourself a bit until it’s explained to you. Yes, I know that frustration. Meike, did you ever take part in one of our programs too?
Meike: Hmm, yes, also in the starter program, that was in 2021, and we had regular appointments with your colleague, an eBay employee, and he gave us a lot of background knowledge about the algorithm, about the items, how they’re found, what we need to pay attention to in the descriptions. For example, I didn’t know that if you have capital letters or all caps in some words, you’re found less well than if you write the word normally, the way you would spell it correctly. And that was also really great and really important for us at the time, because we had to get our eBay shop moving again. In 2019 we’d gone through a phase where the store generated more sales than the eBay shop or online in general. That was certainly also because we changed our range, as you said earlier. We then added new items, new lamps, new accessories, and some new small furniture, which means everything shifted a bit toward the store. That means people perceived us differently. Before, we were always the furniture shop, and suddenly we were the shop where you could also buy gifts or candles, or a new living room lamp.
Lisa: I’m telling you: it’s dangerous to just come by you for a quick look.
Meike: Exactly, and then the pandemic came, the shop was closed, and we were faced with the problem that we said, okay, we somehow need to get this online business going again, and of course that worked really well with eBay, and we were able to understand eBay even better.
Lisa: So for both of you it’s super important to have eBay, or online retail in general, as a solid, secure pillar alongside the brick-and-mortar shop. What you both have.
Meike: Yes, totally, because with eBay we reach customers we would never reach with the store. Right from the start we had an incredible number of customers from Asia. How would they have found us? Because in Asia there’s just a huge love for Danish design, and we couldn’t reach them through our store, and eBay is and remains an important part of our business.
Ariane: For me too, of course. La fraise rouge is mainly an online shop, and I’m happy when people also find their way into the store, but it’s a purely online business.
Lisa: Meike, you mentioned it briefly already, and I think it’s okay to say you’re both moms, you both have children alongside your full-time job, store, and online shop, and you go on vacation sometimes and the shops close for a bit. Is eBay important for making all of that work somehow?
Meike: Yes, of course eBay is incredibly important, because I close the shop at some point, and at some point in the evening there are no more customers. But I can also work on eBay in the evenings, or list items. I’m relatively independent of opening hours, and therefore also independent of school hours or afternoon care hours, and that’s really important, and it also feels good to be on holiday while the eBay listings keep running.
Lisa: I think we can say, Meike, you can even have a baby and sell on eBay!
Meike: I knew you were going to bring it up. Yes, that’s true, I experienced that myself. With my second child we were in the delivery room, and my husband had just gotten a smartphone and downloaded the eBay app. That was 2013, and it was Saturday morning, and all the time this "ka-ching!" keeps going off, the sound that always comes when you sell something on eBay, and I was deep in labor and almost impossible to talk to. But I still caught bits of it: "ka-ching!" Ah, sold something again! "ka-ching!" And at some point the midwife asks, what is that noise that keeps happening? And my husband grins and says, yes, we’re having a baby right now, but we’re also selling furniture, and that was very funny.
Lisa: That’s still my my favorite story when it comes to how, I’ll call it, balancing private life and retail on eBay. That was very funny, Ariane, how is it for you?
Ariane: Well, when we go on vacation, the shop still has to be looked after. We used to have employees who took care of it, but mainly my husband still checked in and answered customer inquiries, and now I’ve taken that over, and I do it too. And basically, if you have an online business, you can’t really pause, you can extend the delivery times, and as the vacation goes on you can shorten them again. But you can’t really switch off, because you notice right away that sales otherwise just drop. Yes.
Lisa: But it’s definitely an advantage that you don’t switch off and can still make sales, at least in theory, even while you’re on holiday.
Ariane: Yes, definitely, but of course it’s also nice when you’re on vacation and don’t have to worry about anything at all, but if you’re self-employed, that’s just how it is.
Lisa: Self-employed and always working.
Ariane: Exactly.
Meike: Same for us, exactly the same.
Lisa: You both have something very iconic in your shops. Maybe let’s start with you, Ariane: la fraise rouge, my French isn’t very good, but it’s the red strawberry.
Ariane: Correct.
Lisa: Would you like to tell us how the red strawberry came about and how it runs through the shop, the online shop, and eBay too?
Ariane: Do you also want to know how I came up with the name?
Ariane: Yes, I’d love to!
Ariane: So, it was like this. When my friend told me I needed an online shop. Then of course I had to look at what domain was available, and because both I and my husband, we’re both real Berliners, yes, we thought we’d naturally choose something German, maybe even something Berlin-ish, and so we went looking. But a lot of domains were already taken. And then I remembered that I had once been an au pair in France for six months, and "children’s accessories" and "France" somehow go together, it has a certain refined style, and I had a classmate from America who once told me a story about strawberries and how great they are. I still remembered that and linked it together and thought: Ah, the red strawberry! la fraise rouge, that sounds quite nice somehow, and I said, yes, let’s take that. And then, once we already had the label, I sadly realized, oh, not everyone speaks French, when my sister asked what it was supposed to mean, I thought, oh damn! But by then it was already done, and I still think it was a lovely decision, because the strawberry is on the label, and now we also sell these fabric strawberries, and that came about because I have a friend who has supported a project in Bangladesh for years, and she asked me: hey, we have a sewing project there, couldn’t you, don’t you have anything the women there could sew? And I said, I don’t really make mass-produced stuff, I don’t know what they could make, and I thought about it a lot and then thought: hey, maybe they could make strawberry charms, and they were really excited about that. We then gave the NGOs the materials and instructions on how to make them, and they did it, and what’s also kind of funny is that there are no strawberries in Bangladesh, which means they didn’t even know what it actually was, and as part of this project someone once brought strawberry seeds, and they actually planted strawberries there too. They taste awful because the ground there is way too wet. But they were thrilled because it was obviously a great thing. Yes, and then I thought that I’d also like to donate, and the project is supported by 75 percent from the German state. That means if you donate €10, the organization gets €17.50, and that’s how we do it now. We provide the materials, we buy the strawberry, I mean the strawberry item, we pay for the work, and when we sell the strawberries, for example on our bags, a donation is already included. So then we also make a donation that gets matched.
Lisa: That’s a very lovely story. When you come into your shop or look at the items in the eBay shop, you always get the feeling you’re in the same room. Would you like to talk a bit about how you manage that?
Meike: Yes, in our shop we have a wall that looks very, very old, and it is also very, very old. Our shop was a Berlin corner pub for 100 years, and on that wall there was a very large, heavy, solid back buffet from the bar, and we couldn’t move it ourselves when we took over the shop and renovated it. We had to hire a company, and everything took a very long time, and we wanted to finally be done and said we want to paint this last wall once more so we can finally move toward opening. Yes, and then this back buffet was removed, and this wall came into view, and then it was clear, okay, we’re done renovating. We don’t have to paint anything else at all, because it looks so great, and it’s so beautifully shaped by time. We can’t destroy that by slapping a bucket of paint over it. And yes, that wall is very distinctive, and it’s our recognition feature, and we always try to photograph all the items we list online in front of that wall. It doesn’t always work, it also depends a bit on the item, because the wall is very dark, there’s a lot going on in the wall, and not every piece of furniture looks good in front of it. But it still runs through our online shop and the eBay shop like a red thread.
Lisa: Yes, people can really recognize your items on eBay very well and connect them with stilraumberlin, I think. Before we hear about the challenges and successes Ariane and Meike associate with eBay, we want to hear from you out there: how did you get started? Did you begin with local retail? Did you have an online shop first? Tell us about your experiences, and if you have the Spotify app, you can interact with us directly via the Questions and Answers feature in the app, just drag the slider from the bottom of the app upward, and off we go. Alternatively, you can also write to us in the eBay Community or on our Facebook page "eBay for Business Deutschland". We’re really looking forward to your stories and your feedback on the podcast, and of course also a like or a subscription. Meike, were there challenges in selling on eBay that you experienced, and if so, how did you deal with them?
Meike: Well, I think one challenge is that you don’t see the customers personally, but instead communicate with them only via messages. That means that for me, it was a learning experience to communicate very clearly, very quickly, very directly so customers can build trust, so that they don’t fall for any scammers or that the furniture really gets delivered, that it’s good, that real people are behind it. And that’s something I’ve intensified a lot recently. That means I really try to get in touch with customers right after a sale so that no awkward situation even arises.
Ariane: So I’d say the biggest challenge is actually time, because especially when, like me, you also produce things, you’re already very busy with that, and everything that comes on top of it is actually more of a nuisance, and you don’t want to do it at all. You don’t want to get held up by it, and that’s why I found it, or still find it, an incredible relief that you can ask someone if you don’t know something. There are people who want to figure everything out themselves; I’m not one of them. I want to message someone and ask, how do I do this, what’s the best way, what’s the fastest way? And specifically, for example, there’s the great feature that lets you duplicate items, but of course you have to be really careful, because the duplicated product may have a different color or different features, and I also don’t just have one platform I’m managing, and each one is a bit different, and you don’t necessarily do that all the time, and you always have to get back into it, and I think juggling all of that and then also having kids, family, shopping, this, that, it’s already a big challenge!
Lisa: Time management. In any case, Ariane, did you have a success story or something you look back on from your time on eBay? Something that was really great for you?
Ariane: A lot of things, I’d say, but the best was really when we won the award for social enterprise, and simply that this project we support was so appreciated, and eBay also contributed with a donation. That was truly outstanding.
Lisa: Meike, what was your most special eBay experience?
Meike: Well, my most special experience was when I got to fly to Lithuania with eBay for a commercial shoot and got to look behind the scenes at how an ad film is made and who all is involved, how many people are walking around there, and then I was taken to makeup and got made up for an hour and was allowed to choose clothes in the wardrobe, and all of that was super exciting and also pushed me a little out of my comfort zone. I’ve had that a few times with eBay, actually, including several panel appearances I got to do with eBay, and also this here, the podcast. That’s again something very special and something you don’t do every day.
Lisa: Those are both lovely experiences, and you both speak so, so passionately about the items sold on eBay and how you got started. If there are sellers out there listening now who say, I have a similar passion, or people just listening to the podcast, what would you advise people who are just starting out or who maybe aren’t selling on eBay at all yet?
Ariane: I think that’s a good but also difficult question, because it certainly depends on what you want to sell. Depending on that, I’d first survey the market, also see where it fits best, and then of course the question is whether you already have your own website? Is it already properly polished, or do you want to only have eBay? Depending on that, I’d advise: focus on one thing first, dive into it properly, look at everything, and become an expert at it. Because I think for us it got diluted a bit. Then we had our own site, that platform there, and then it feels like you’re sort of involved, but not fully anywhere. I think that’s my advice, yes, but everyone has to figure it out for themselves again.
Lisa: Meike, what advice would you give the listeners?
Meike: I’d say just do it. If you already have your own shop and your own products, then in my opinion, first of all, you have nothing to lose. Sure, it takes time, you have to find that time, but you don’t have to do everything at once. You can build it up step by step, and eBay is very intuitive, which means you can get started without much outside help, in my opinion, and see whether the product fits well there, and of course you have to calculate carefully.
Lisa: And otherwise you can always get started with our eBay starter program, just like you both did. We can simply put the information in the show notes again. For the fans of our podcast, now comes the part we always close with. Here’s the exciting question for you: what was the last thing you bought or sold on eBay? Meike, would you like to start?
Meike: So the last thing that went away on eBay was, I think, a dresser that we later repainted, and I most unspectacularly bought packing tape on eBay last.
Lisa: You need that when you sell online.
Meike: Exactly!
Ariane: This morning I definitely sold one music box, or even two, and I bought a llama village.
Ariane: A llama village!
Ariane: Yes, from LEGO! I even won that at auction.
Lisa: I’m very glad that the LEGO came after that. Great! Thank you both so, so much for filming the campaign with us, and also for coming to our podcast studio today and giving everyone out there such exciting insights into your everyday lives, into your offline and online selling too. And I’m very sure that today we were able to inspire many aspiring sellers, because your stories are just so inspiring. Thank you very much.
Ariane: Thanks, Lisa,
Lisa: You’re very welcome!
Meike: Thanks.
2 comments
podcast@ebay
AdminOP1 year agoHello @aperturallee , thanks a lot for the suggestion. The Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) will indeed be our next topic. The corresponding episode will be published on 6/11.
aperturallee
·1 year agoCould you please also do something about the Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), which is coming at us all like a massive wall?