Feeling Snappy

topics: Human and Organizational Development, Alumni News

Fall 2006, Lew Harris, Peabody Reflector

How long would it to take to sell $4,000 worth of women’s designer shoes on the Internet? That’s the question Debbie Gordon, BS '94, asked herself a few years ago.

“I got on eBay for the first time and I thought there’s got to be an opportunity here,” she says. “I wanted to try selling something. I bought designer shoes from Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet because I had a coupon for 15 percent off. I sold them at the regular outlet price.

“Everybody thought I was crazy that I bought all these shoes and there was no guarantee of selling them, but all the shoes were returnable within 30 days,” says Gordon. “I figured that if I didn’t sell them I would take them back. They all ended up selling within a week.”

Gordon continued selling shoes on the Internet for three years as a profitable hobby while operating her own Internet consulting firm. Friends and acquaintances would ask Gordon to help them sell their own things on eBay.

“That’s what gave me the idea to start Snappy Auctions for people who didn’t want to spend the time to learn how to use eBay and do it themselves,” she says. The concept is simple. Customers bring in items they would like to sell on eBay, and Snappy Auctions takes it from there. Customers pay between 15 and 35 percent of auction price, depending on what the item brings—the higher the price, the lower the fee.

About a year after starting the business, Gordon decided to franchise Snappy Auctions. She has 54 up and running and 118 under contract in the U.S. She is currently moving the business into the United Kingdom and Japan.

In January Gordon launched a new business-to-business division of her company, Snappy Sales Solutions. It enables companies to use the Internet to liquidate unproductive or depreciating assets, put money from sold assets into their bottom line, increase cash flow and free up space. Businesses can sell almost anything: capital equipment and machinery, general equipment and technology, overstocks, returns or outdated items, and more.

“We haven’t even scratched the surface geographically in penetrating the markets we’re in,” says Gordon.

—Lew Harris
(This profile originally appeared in the Fall 2006 Peabody Reflector.)