Role Overview
Clients bring on a Strategist-level Arbitrage Store Manager to steer the growth of their eBay business with clarity, control, and commercial discipline. This is not a “doer” role—it’s a decision-maker role. Your purpose isn’t just to list products, monitor prices, or process orders. It’s to own the strategy: what sells, why it sells, and how to scale the store in a profitable, sustainable way. The client expects you to take initiative, think in terms of margins, velocity, and risk—and move the business from hustle to structure.
This is not a “find the hottest item” game. Random wins aren’t strategy. A true Arbitrage Store Manager builds steady volume by balancing sourcing with seasonality, pricing, and seller metrics. The role carries real stakes: poor sourcing decisions, misaligned pricing, or missed market shifts don’t just slow sales—they can tank seller ratings and risk account suspension. Clients rely on you not just for execution, but for sound judgment and forward-thinking direction. Strategic missteps cost; strategic clarity pays.
Standards You Must Meet
• You’re expected to drive profitable growth—clients want to see a clear product sourcing strategy that increases cashflow without spiking return rates or customer complaints.
• Your judgment on what to list, at what price, and when must be data-backed—random product testing without strategy will be viewed as waste, not learning.
• Velocity matters: clients expect consistent daily sales, not occasional big wins that can’t be repeated.
• Margins must be known, tracked, and protected—if you scale unprofitable SKUs, the client will see it as mismanagement, not effort.
• You should flag dead inventory early and pivot fast—sitting on stale stock hurts cash cycles and client trust.
• Your pricing decisions must keep seller metrics safe—underpricing that leads to stockouts, or overpricing that kills sales, erodes client confidence.
• Clients rely on you to pre-empt risks—if account health drops due to policy violations, they’ll hold your strategy accountable.
• Reporting needs to be sharp and decision-ready—clients judge you not on how busy you are, but how clearly you communicate what’s working and what needs to change.
What You’ll Be Doing
• Source products weekly with targeted profit margins, factoring in seasonality, competition, and supplier reliability.
• Set up and adjust pricing strategies that balance daily velocity, margin protection, and account metric safety.
• Track inventory turnover closely and clear underperforming SKUs before they become cashflow risks.
• Monitor SKU-level returns, cancellations, and feedback rates to flag and remove problem listings early.
• Use Terapeak, Keepa, and Google Sheets to guide sourcing choices with price history, market demand, and ROI logic.
• Spot shifts in eBay rules or platform behavior and proactively revise sourcing and pricing to stay compliant.
• Run structured weekly reports that highlight wins, expose losses, and lay out clear updates for client decisions.
• Build sourcing and listing routines that are repeatable, time-efficient, and ready for tool-based automation.
What You’ll Hand Over
• A validated sourcing tracker showing target SKUs, estimated margins, supplier links, and pricing rationale.
• A weekly performance summary reporting sales, ROI by SKU, dead stock flags, and next-step actions.
• A live profitability dashboard in Google Sheets with updated velocity, return rate, and margin data.
• A pricing strategy breakdown showing adjustments by season, competitor movement, and seller metrics impact.
• A compliance-ready SOP doc covering order processing, item relisting, and policy-aligned sourcing rules.
Tools You’ll Need to Use
• eBay Seller Hub – Central platform for managing listings, tracking performance, and handling orders effectively.
• Google Sheets – Core organizing tool for product tracking, profit calculations, and data sharing with clients.
• Keepa – Essential for analyzing market trends, price history, and demand stability on associated marketplaces.
• Amazon.com & Walmart.com – Primary supplier sites for sourcing products; proficiency supports price checking and stock validation.
• eBay Terapeak – Critical for product research and competitive pricing decisions directly within eBay.
• Title Builder (e.g., Fire Title or similar) – Used to optimize keywords and maximize traffic to listings.
• Manual Order Portals (Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot) – Necessary for accurately placing and managing customer orders through various suppliers.
Why Work Smarter
At this level, if you can’t automate the basics — syncing supplier data, relisting out-of-stock products, flagging duplicate items — the client is wasting money. It’s that simple. You don’t need to be a developer, but you do need to know what can be automated, where, and how. Knowing which parts of the work no longer need human input is becoming part of the job.
We don’t require full automation skills today — but let’s be clear: it’s becoming the unspoken baseline. OES sets this as a standard because it’s what the market already expects.
Why Your Work Matters
In arbitrage, profits are not found—they’re managed. Right now, clients are betting real capital on the decisions you make: what gets sourced, how it gets priced, and whether it actually sells. A single bad SKU choice doesn’t just burn margin—it can trigger a returns spike, damage seller metrics, and grind the store’s cashflow to a halt. This isn’t theory or training ground—the money is on the table from day one. There’s no margin for improvisation.
This role is business-critical because strategy gaps cost more than time—they erode trust, stunt growth, and put the entire seller account at risk. When you think in terms of systems, cycles, and margins, you protect the client’s business. When you treat this like daily hustle work, you lose their confidence. That’s why OES does not treat this store strategist role as optional—because in today’s market, predictable profit is built by structure, not guesswork.
What We Expect From You
As a Strategist-level Arbitrage Store Manager in eBay + Arbitrage (Online/Retail), you are expected to operate with full strategic autonomy and financial accountability. You don’t just know the rules of the platform—you know how to build around them, mitigate risk, and optimize for long-term profitability. You’re responsible for designing and executing the store’s direction, and that means owning margin strategy, order lifecycle efficiency, and compliance outcomes. You lead decisively, think ahead, and know when to take calculated risks—and when not to. Success at this level means stability and performance at scale, not just activity.
You need to bring sharp commercial judgment, disciplined oversight of profitability, and the ability to translate volatility into opportunity. You are responsible for KPI integrity, tier-appropriate SOPs, and confident decision-making under shifting eBay dynamics. The Strategist tier is not about reacting—it’s about setting the tempo for your store, your team, and your results. Compliance and sustainability are not checkboxes—they are part of your operating DNA. This is a high-accountability role for thinkers who act, not guessers who wait.
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$530 – $1,500
OES salary standards reflect real market benchmarks, tier and experience level, ensuring fair pay for VAs and realistic expectations for clients.
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