| Another issue you have to deal with is how to price items that sell in both online and traditional retail channels. We'll look at pricing strategies for both commodity and unique merchandise. Pricing Commodity Products In the case of commodity items ”those items that you sell in quantity, day in and day out ”you probably want to consider equivalent pricing. That is, you set the same price for both channels. In the case of your eBay auctions, that means setting either the minimum bid or the reserve price equal to the price you charge for that item in your retail store. That way your online customers won't be paying less for an item than your walk-in customers do ”and you won't be accused of discriminating against your brick-and-mortar clientele. Alternately, you set a lower minimum bid price but then set the item's Buy It Now price at your traditional retail price. This enables your online customers to perhaps pay a little less, if they want to wait for the entire auction process to unfold (and if they don't get outbid). But if they want the item immediately, they use the Buy It Now feature and pay the same price as your traditional retail customers. Pricing Unique Products Pricing is perhaps a little easier when it comes to unique products, since you don't have the issue of selling the exact same item to two different types of customers. With unique products, you only have one distinct product to sell. In this scenario, you're free to use the eBay auction process to generate as high a price as possible. Where you start the bidding is up to you. You may want to set the minimum bid lower than your retail asking price, or at the same level; that's your prerogative. In any case, you don't have to worry about potential channel conflict, as you do with commodity products. | 