Music retailer is star seller
AN online entertainment retailer has become the most popular business in the world to be using eBay.
MusicMagpie, which has an office in Macclesfield, recently surpassed a positive feedback score of five million – the first eBay business in the world to do so.
It is a service for buying and selling collectible music, DVDs, books and consumer technology such as iPhones, and employs 1,000 people, mostly in the local area, to help run its 24/7 ‘modern stock exchange’ operation.
Today, the business boasts an annual turnover of £100m and exports to buyers in 140 countries around the world.
Co-founders Steve Oliver and Walter Gleeson launched musicMagpie in 2007 and initially ran the company from Steve’s garage in Stockport.
They identified the market opportunity to offer an online bulk tradein model for CDs, DVDs and games.
They launched the new business when the recession left many consumers seeking a fast and easy way to raise cash for their old discs.
The first item ever sold by musicMagpie was a refurbished copy of Abba’s Gold. The pair noticed the potential to buy and sell modern collectibles, with items like vintage trainers and Lego attracting high prices online, alongside a huge demand for hard to find novels and music.
They decided that the model of a “modern stock exchange” could be applied to CDs, DVDs, books and phones – with millions of people in the UK alone sitting on this untapped wealth. The company grew rapidly, and the launch of its eBay store in 2011 allowed musicMagpie to tap into an international market of 164 million consumers.
Co-founder and CEO, Steve Oliver said: “MusicMagpie enjoyed rapid growth in its first few years, but our launch on eBay really sent sales soaring – it’s a huge marketplace for collectibles that has given us access to customers around the world who want to be part of the ‘modern stock exchange’.
“We have customers as far afield as Japan who have chosen to give us positive feedback – a vote of confidence in our store.
“We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the support of our eBay selling team and are immensely proud that having started a business in the middle of the worst recession in a century we now employ 1,000 people.”