Billau Motorcycles is a family run business operating since 1982 which specialises in selling motorcycles. The business has a large showroom which is full of Motorcycle accessories ranging from nuts and bolts to supreme helmets. They stock lots of different brands starting from cheap and cheerful to premium brands.

Nicole Billau, the proprietor of the business was kind enough to answer a few questions about how they incorporate selling on eBay with their bricks and mortar business.

About Billau Motorcycles

• Website: www.100bikes.co.uk
• eBay username: billaumotorcycles
• In business: 34 years
• On eBay: 10 years

What kind of items do you primarily sell on eBay?

We sell on eBay mainly our stock of bikes and we do list a few other items such as motorcycle jackets and trousers, helmets, boots, and gloves.

What portion of your business does eBay sales account for?

I would suggest that in the Biker Boutique 20% of sales is counted for through eBay. Then in the motorcycle side we sell 65-70% through our eBay page.

What brought you to sell on eBay?

We thought that using eBay would be a good source of advertising and promoting the business and the type of items that we sell.

Could you take us through the steps you go through to sell an item on eBay?

We photograph the item and list it. Either the customer comes into the shop and buys it there and then or they click buy now and they follow that stage up with a phone call and discuss further information over the phone. We then arrange delivery which is either part of the deal or the customer has to pay the postage cost to have the item delivered. This is not the case on the biker boutique page we include the postage in the cost of the item and when they click buy it now, we post it the next working day.

Are there any common issues you have to deal with, or things you are wary of?

The only thing that we are aware of is dealing with oversea customers or certain countries.

What advice would you give to new sellers?

Be clear about returns.

How do you promote your listings outside of eBay?

We use eBay to list our items and then we have our website of course, along with our Facebook page which we do put all of our eBay listings onto too so that if people follow us on Facebook then they can see what we have recently uploaded onto eBay.

Many thanks to Nicole for sharing these eBay experiences, you can find their website at www.100bikes.co.uk.