Summary: Phil Leahy is an online entrepreneur with a long history of success. In 2002 Phil started selling products on eBay and within 5 years had become the largest seller on the eBay.com.au platform measured across all categories with over 350,000 transactions. In 2007 and 2008 Phil was awarded Australia's #1 eBay Seller award for the most sales in all categories. During 2003 he established his own website offering products to Australian and international consumers. In 2008, Phil sold the business to dealsdirect.com.au and shifted his attention towards his marketing agency, Online Marketing Experts and also the PeSA Internet Conference. Phil is the president of the eBay Sellers' Alliance in Australasia. Greg: That was quite a good track record of success you've got there. Have you always been entrepreneurial? Phil: I guess you could call me a serial entrepreneur. I started off in the rag trade when I was a kid and by the age of 21 I had a few shops and was manufacturing for another 300. I’ve moved into a lot of different industries - from the rag trade, to the fitness business, to night clubs, to radio, record companies, and then into selling online. Greg: With eBay obviously that's one area that you are really strong. You started your eBay business back in 2002. How did that first come about? Phil: Bankruptcy actually. I had a radio station and we were trying to get a full time license in Melbourne with Kiss FM and we owned a bunch of Narrowcast stations in Sydney and Brisbane and we fought for a number of years to try to make those successful. We had over 200 DJ's on there a week doing electronic dance music. Unfortunately we weren't successful. My partner and I lost a bit of money. I ended up on eBay because a friend told me about it and said to me “You should be selling some of your old Sony music signed collectibles on there”. My first sale on eBay was a signed copy of a Silverchair album which I sold for $100. Someone actually sent me $100 US in the mail. When the exchange rate was at 60 cents and I thought 'Well there might be something in this.' Greg: So then you started selling more and more stuff and then just ramped it up until you were doing it professionally? Phil: Yes I had some DVD stock so I started putting DVDs up on eBay and they started flying out the door, and then I started scaling it up from there. By the time we sold the business we were doing around 50,000 auctions a week on eBay across eBay Australia, eBay UK and eBay America. Greg: You were able to ramp it a lot bigger than most. What competitive advantages did you bring to the market? Phil: I guess we were pretty good across the board. We presented ourselves well against our competitors online. Our templates were looking really good. Our descriptions were great. Then it was about process. Finding tools in the marketplace which could help me automate the business was critical. Buying right from the suppliers is very important to try to get the best price. There is a number of different moving parts in the business. You have to be good at marketing; you have to be good at communicating with your customer. But ultimately you have to be great at delivering a fantastic experience. If they buy it off you that day you make sure you get that order out the door that day. Having a firm commitment to deliver the best service to the customer makes all the difference with online. Greg: Yes, especially with eBay. The reputation that you build is so visible, which I think is a great thing. It keeps people honest. Phil: It really is the cornerstone of the success of eBay. Some years back we were looking for changes to the feedback system. We were lobbying with eBay in America and this helped produce the detailed seller rating system which we enjoy today. It helps eBay distinguish their best partners with performance. Before that it was just negative or neutral or positive feedback.
