eBay startups: the businesses created from 15 years of ecommerce

Rachael and Colin White

From starting at their kitchen table with an initial £200 investment, the Whites have seen their fancy dress, children's accessories and gifts business grow so much through eBay that they are opening a bigger warehouse next month and made a turnover of £1.4m last year.

The inspiration for thingimijigs.com 10 years ago came from shopping for their three children. "We said: 'If they are asking for it, surely other children want it,'" said Rachael, 42. Both have a background in retail, she in supermarkets and he in telesales, and both continued with their jobs at first. "We had a computer, we put £200 in, and went to Manchester to the wholesalers to get a few little bits. That sold that week. We thought: 'OK, let's go and get a few little more bits.'"

The Burnley-based business, which sells goods based on popular characters, – Disney's Frozen's Anna and Elsa are big at the moment, with Spider-Man an all-time favourite – now employs eight permanent staff, with more temporary workers hired for the busy Christmas period, and also runs an apprenticeship scheme.

"It did start very small, because it is a frightening step going from employment to self-employment," said Rachael. "When we got up to 100 post sacks in the living room, and we had gone through the garage, and had stuff stored in the bedrooms, wegot a unit." Then a bigger unit, then bigger still.

Eventually, their global business was so successful they both gave up their other jobs. Without eBay, she says, they probably would not have taken the plunge. "With eBay, you can start with £50 of stuff; whereas if you have a shop, you have got the investment of stock. I think it is a great way to start, and you can test the market.

"It is easy access, relatively simple to list on, and there is no barrier to entry.

"It's a destination shop. You go on eBay to buy something." A real plus is that it is visible all over the world. "We list on the eBay UK site, we also list on eBay Australia and eBay America," she says. eBay has transformed their lives, and those of their staff – all previously unemployed. Another bonus: being able to pick the children up from school.

John and Gill Hewitt

When the Hewitts decided to give up their corporate management jobs in the early 2000s and downsize two houses into one, they discovered eBay. "There were a lot of things to sell, and eBay was a very convenient way to do that," said John.

Then they sat down with a whiteboard to work out how to make a living. John, 58, was interested in hardware and tools, while his wife was into gardening. Both thought ecommerce, then in its early days, had great potential. So Bamford Trading – a one-stop shop for trade and DIY – was born. That was 10 years ago, and the business has since had sales in excess of £5m, with a £1.4m turnover last year. It employs nine staff at the Ross-on-Wye base.

"We used our experience on eBay to build it up," said John. Initially they sold all sorts: tools, gardening equipment, pet products, general hardware. "In the early days of the recession we decided that people would have to buy things rather than want to buy things. So we then focused on hardware and tools, because if you are going to improve your house, you are going to need the wherewithal to do that. Not luxury products, but things you have to buy".About 80% of their sales are through eBay, with the rest via Amazon and their own website. "With eBay, there is a very low barrier and cost to entry. You can start very small and eBay makes it very easy," he said. EBay works for them, he adds, because their good reputation as a seller pushes them further up the listings. Reputation and feedback are everything when profit margins are tiny on individual items.

"You couldn't possibly compete unless you did get good feedback and have got a good reputation. We get a huge number of repeat buyers, which is a great thing because it tells us that we are doing a good job."

"It's very different to what we used to do. We were both flying around the world doing things that were 'incredibly important' and really weren't very important," he said. Their office and warehouse is now 100 metres away from their Herefordshire home. "And now, looking out on to the back garden ... this is so different."