Posts Tagged ‘ebay’
Buying Surplus and Closeout Merchandise
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Some of eBay’s most successful sellers specialize in surplus, overstocked or closeout merchandise. You can earn large profits if you buy carefully, but, it is important to buy only desirable merchandise.
Surplus, or closeout merchandise, is merchandise sold at a large discount because it did not sell at full retail for some reason.
Usually retail merchandise shows up at closeout dealers because it wouldn’t sell in a store. This could be for many reasons:
- Seasonal goods
- Store closing or bankruptcy
- Obsolete goods replaced by newer products
- Customer returns after the holidays
(not warranty or defect returns)
Another category of merchandise sold by many closeout and surplus dealers are "returns." This is a category of merchandise you should be very careful with. It may be nothing more than a sweater that was returned because it was the wrong color or size, but this category also includes defective merchandise and warranty returns.
In general, unless you are buying direct from a dealer or a wholesale auction where you can physically inspect the merchandise, you should avoid "return" category merchandise. You may also occasionally see the term "seconds." This is merchandise that did not pass the quality tests. On clothing it could be something where the color is a little off or a seam that didn’t match. On hard goods it could be a little dent or paint chip. These can sometimes be great bargains, but here again, you want to be really sure you know what you are getting.
One of the best places to find great deals on merchandise is through what are called "closeout" dealers. Closeout dealers go by many names: liquidators, Surplus dealers, Overstock Distributors and so on. Basically they are all the same. They work with large retail firms to take their excess inventory off of their hands. There are dozens of closeout dealers and liquidators listed on goWholesale.
Here is how the process works. A store such as Sears brings in the Fall collection of Ralph Lauren shirts and sweaters in mid-August. By mid-October anything that is left is put on the sale table at 30%-50% off. By late October, Sears needs the shelf space for the Christmas season arrivals. They call in a liquidation company (closeout dealer) who buys the goods at five or ten cents on the retail dollar. These companies turn around and sell you the goods anywhere from fifteen to twenty cents on the dollar. If you can get fifty cents on eBay or at a flea market, then you can easily double your money.
Closeout Merchandise: Advantages and Disadvantages
There are two primary advantages to buying closeout merchandise. First, closeout merchandise is inexpensive. Closeout merchandise has the advantage that you can generally obtain product for cheaper than if you went through a traditional wholesaler. Generally, the merchandise tends to be first quality, but the price is cut or marked way down for clearance.
The second advantage is that you can often find brand names that people are searching for. You can easily sell these items on eBay or at flea-markets. A lot of dollar stores also carry this type of merchandise.
There can be two basic drawbacks in buying closeout merchandise:
The first is the limited stock. The very nature of closeout merchandise means that once it is sold it is gone. I was able to buy Ralph Lauren Polo tennis shoes for several months from a local closeout dealer. I was getting a 200% markup on eBay and still giving my customers a great deal. My customers kept coming back for more, but pretty soon there weren’t any more and I had to shop for new types of merchandise.
The second problem can be the uncertain quality of closeout merchandise and/or how the merchandise is treated by the closeout dealer. As long as you deal with the larger respected companies, although they will not guarantee the quality, they will usually give you an honest description. Also, the better companies will package and treat the merchandise properly so it arrives in good order.
Most importantly, a buyer of closeout wares needs to be on guard about the possibility of buying merchandise that is irregular, damaged or somehow has low resale value. This can occur especially, but not necessarily, with goods that have been returned.
As we stated above, you can circumvent these problems by dealing only with reputable closeout dealers. How to find them will be discussed in the next section.
Geographical Location
When buying from online sources, look for sources that are near you. If you buy a pallet load of goods from an East Coast company for $400 and you live in L.A., it might cost another $400 to ship them. Also it may be worth your time to drive to inspect the merchandise; and thus geographical locale may be an important deciding factor when you are looking to buy closeout merchandise.
What To Buy
You want your first experience buying closeout merchandise to be positive. How do you know what to buy and from whom?
First is to do some research. If you see some merchandise you are thinking of buying, go to eBay and use the advanced search feature to see what it is selling for. When you type in the item, be sure to check the box that searches completed auctions only. Another great resource is the Research service at Andale. Once at the site, choose the "research" tab. Put your item in the search box, and you will generate a listing, which tells you what others have gotten for comparable merchandise in the recent past. The Andale research tool is FREE for your first month and costs $2.95 each month thereafter.
After you research what sells, you want to find out where to buy the merchandise. It is fairly easy to locate closeout and distribution companies. One of the largest and more reputable firms is Liquidation.com, and there are many others listed on goWholesale.
Once you find a company that has merchandise you want, stop and take a deep breath before bidding on it or placing an order. First read the description of the merchandise very carefully. Next read the terms of sale and shipping information. If there is anything that is unclear in the description, call or send them an email with your questions. If this will be a large quantity purchase, ask them to send you some photographs of the merchandise. The bottom line is that you are responsible for what you buy. Take the necessary steps to make sure you pay for what you get and get what you paid for.
Skip McGrath, has been an eBay power seller since 1998. He has written several books about selling on eBay and writes a monthly newsletter for professional eBay sellers. You can subscribe to Skip’s newsletter and read about his best selling manuals at auction-sellers-resource.com .
Tags: auction-sellers-resource.com, buying surplus, closeout merchandise, ebay, ebay power seller, Product Sourcing, Skip McGrath, source, sourcing closeouts, surplus
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
How Well does eBay’s Best Match Feature Stack Up?
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
On March 3rd Ebay launched a few new features. One of these was Best Match. Has this addition helped or hurt their business? Let’s take a look and find out.
Now when you log onto eBay and search for an item, instead of getting several thousand items that only match the words you type in, you get millions of items that all have the keywords you typed in - some not having anything to do with the item you are searching for.
Best Match - Changes Made
Along with the best match feature, they also made changes to their feedback system. For the past ten years, you could be honest about your experience on eBay.
You could give a positive, neutral, or negative feedback to a person or business, depending on how well you felt you were treated after a purchase or sale. Now, you can only give positive feedback to anyone you make a purchase from.
That means even if you were to get ripped off, or never get your item, you still have to leave positive feedback.
Search Results Changes
eBay also changed the way search results are displayed. Now, the higher your feedback score, the higher your auction will be displayed when someone searches for products, instead of the way it used to be.
In the past, this feature would display search results from the auction ending the soonest to auctions with more time. Now, if you have a 99% feedback rating, your auctions will be listed higher than someone who has a 95% feedback score.
This has many of eBay’s top sellers thinking of finding a new place to sell their items. The longer a person or business has been a member on eBay the more they have dealt with people and developed a feedback score. Sometimes, no matter how much you try, you just cannot satisfy everyone - so the ones that are not satisfied may leave a negative feedback.
This can impact your score, and put your auctions at the end of the search results.
The Bottom Line - Better or Worse?
With your items at the bottom of the search list, you have to find ways of getting your auctions noticed. You can sell your products for a lower price, but you still have to make a profit.
You would have to get your merchandise way below wholesale to sell below wholesale and make a profit. Also, don’t forget that eBay will get 10-20% just for you selling on their site. Since the changes were made in early March, many eBay sellers have been losing more money than they are making.
With some of their top sellers looking for other places to sell their items, eBay has to be asking themselves if these changes were a wise move, or if they took something that was working well and made unnecessary changes that will cause them to lose business.
Tags: E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, eBay Edge, ebay seller, Leeia Ladipoh
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
Five Useful Online Tools for eBay Sellers
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
If you have started your own online eBay business, you may have noticed that the constant circle of listing items, selling them, sending out invoices, receiving payments and relisting items for sale can take quite a bit of time out of your schedule.
If you are listing items one at a time, going page by page through the eBay program, this slowdown in your business life is even worse. While you may love the profitability of eBay, you may also wish for an easier, and less time consuming, way to take care of your online inventory.
Thankfully, there are many online tools to help eBay sellers through every step in the process. For many of these, you do not even have to waste time looking - they are available on eBay itself, in the Seller Tools section.
Here’s a look at five of the more popular online tools for eBay sellers:
* Turbo Lister - When you need to list a large number of items - and fast! - Turbo Lister may be the program you want to try. Turbo Lister allows the bulk upload of multiple items on eBay. Once you download the program, you will be able to put in all the information about your products from your offline computer.
Once they are ready to go, you can go online and have the system automatically upload the whole lot. In addition to bulk uploading, Turbo Lister also aids in customizing of your eBay sales pages to be more attractive to prospective buyers.
Turbo Lister is a free program offered by eBay.
* Selling Manager - Taking things to the next level is Selling Manger. This program comes into play when your listings are running and helps you keep an eye on them. From monitoring your listings to printing bulk invoices and shipping labels, Selling Manager can speed up the process.
It can also help you generate bulk feedback to keep your shoppers happy. Additionally, the program will help you get your items back on the market with bulk relisting of sold and unsold items.
If you have an eBay store, Selling Manager is free. If not, it costs $4.99 per month to use.
* Selling Manager Pro - In addition to all the offerings of the Selling Manager program, Selling Manager Pro offers bulk and automatic listing capabilities, as well as the ability to send automatic e-mails to your buyers when they purchase an item.
The system will also let you know when your inventory is getting low on the bulk items that you have listed. When it comes to paperwork, this program will print out profit and loss reports and offer sales data spreadsheets.
This program costs $15.99 per month - unless you have a featured or anchored eBay store, in which case it is included.
* Blackthorne Basic - For middle-level sellers that list at least 2-3 dozen items a month, Blackthorne Basic is a good option for all-inclusive eBay product management. Once the software is on your system it will become an all-in-one program where you can create bulk listings, watch those listings and sales and respond to your buyers.
Instead of having to sort through the pages on the eBay website for all these functions, Blackthorne Basic allows you to complete these tasks from an interface on your computer.
This system will also keep track of your customers’ information and allow you to customize sales reports at a price of $9.99 per month.
* Blackthorne Pro [link to http://pages.ebay.com/blackthorne/pro.html] - In addition to the offerings of Blackthorne Basic, Blackthorne Pro adds the feature of inventory management, so you will always know what is in stock. It allows multiple users to work on the system at a time. This program is primarily for businesses that have designated more than one employee to the task of listing items to sell.
Blackthorne Pro also offers upgraded design features to create listings that will stand out and grab the attention of prospective buyers. This program costs $24.99 per month.
Tags: E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, Generating More Sales, Leeia Ladipoh, online auctions, sellers, Small Business Resources, tools
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
5 More Ways to be a Successful eBay PowerSeller
Friday, March 7th, 2008
In the last article, 5 Ways to be a Successful eBay PowerSeller , I talked about the huge benefits that achieving PowerSeller status can bring to your business, as well as 5 ways you can make your eBay listings stand out and bring in more buyers.
In this article, I’m going to tell you about 5 more ways to achieve that all important PowerSeller status - this time by focusing on customer service. Your customers are how you make sales, and no matter how pretty your pictures are, or how well written your titles and descriptions are - if your customer service skills aren’t up to par, you’ll still lose sales.
1. Customer Service
This cannot be stressed enough. Nothing irritates a buyer more than sending a query about an item to a seller and not getting a response for several days. This delay could even result in the buyer deciding not to buy your item at all. Customer Service is absolutely key to obtaining and keeping a perfect, or near perfect, feedback rating. On eBay, feedback is a Seller’s only way of assuring a buyer that they are trustworthy and respected. Second only to quality Photos - your Feedback rating is also critical to becoming a successful PowerSeller - so make sure to dedicate enough time and focus every day to your quality of Customer Service.
2. Personalized Service
A buyer is a person too, with emotions and feelings. They need to feel as though they are more than just a number. Most buyers expect to be treated as just another number, so when you go the extra mile to focus especially on them, it makes them walk away with a smile on their face. Not only do you end up getting another positive feedback rating, they will end up coming back for more!
The key to effective personalized service is to create an email template that can be personalized for each buyer without taking up a great deal of time. An email template should be ready to use for when an item sells, to thank the winning bidder for bidding on your auction and provide them with the final costs and options to pay. This is typically done through eBay’s Invoice service, so your template would simply be pasted into the comments. Most of the time the only edit you need to make is to address the specific buyer by their User ID.
The next phase of personalized service comes when the buyer has paid, and once you’ve shipped the item. Always issue an email to the buyer informing them that the item has been shipped. Take this opportunity to thank them for providing you with their business, and telling them that you hope they will return in the future. You do not need to retype the entire email for every buyer - just initially write up a creative and well-written template letter, and then insert the appropriate User ID or Name, and the correct email address.
If you take a small amount of time to provide the appearance that you’ve gone that extra mile, your buyers will greatly appreciate it. Far too few sellers do it - and when they learn that you do, you will be guaranteed return customers, and your profits will soar.
3. Make a Personal Seller Profile Website or Blog
Another important way to let your buyers get to know you and your expertise is to create a personal website or blog. This doesn’t have to be anything complicated, but you should at least offer a single webpage with a short bio and outlining the sort of items you sell and why. Also include photos of yourself, your family, or pets using the same MyPhotosHub.com account as you used for the photos in your listings. This way there is no additional cost, and you can use and reuse these same photo links anywhere on the internet, including any forums or blogs that you visit.
When a buyer can see that you are a real person, and not just another faceless eBay user ID, they will feel much more comfortable giving you their hard-earned money in exchange for your product. Remember, it’s all about building relationships and trust - and ultimately helping the customer feel comfortable buying from you, not only this time, but over and over again.
4. Communication is Critical!
This can’t be stated often enough. When a buyer emails a question while the auction is listed and running, answer it as soon as you can. When a buyer asks about costs for shipping, even though you posted shipping costs on your listing, take the time to reply to them with the shipping costs to their zip code. They may be an older person who doesn’t understand how the shipping calculator works, or they simply may not have seen it. So always take the time to help people understand your listing, and you’re that much more likely to get not only one bid, but also multiple bids - and a high final price at the end of the auction.
While items are en-route to buyers, they may become nervous if there is a delay, or a storm, and will write to you with concern. Always take the time to reassure them that the item was shipped, and it is safely on its way. Add that you are certain they will love the product when they receive it. The power of suggestion is a reality, and when they receive it - they will love it!
Also, communication becomes most critical is when there are problems. An item might have broken or become damaged during shipment. You need to work with the buyer to resolve submitting insurance claims - or if you happened to have packaged the item poorly because you were in a hurry, accept the responsibility and simply issue a refund. It isn’t the end of the world - you will have made plenty of profit by this point. It will also prove to them, and to other buyers, that you are a trustworthy seller, and that you stand by your word and your products.
5. Essential Investments to Succeed as a PowerSeller
While you don’t want to be blowing too much of your profit on services that support your eBay business, there are a few services that are not only a must, but they also will save you a great deal of costs in the long-run.
You need to sign up for a full-service Paypal account (not the free version). This will cost about a 3-4% fee on every payment that is sent to you - but the increase you see to both your volume and your final sales price by offering Paypal makes up the difference and then some. Remember - for any serious eBay PowerSeller, Paypal is an absolute must.
You will need to make some purchases that will reduce your time and energy during shipping - this includes a decent digital shipping scale that will weigh packages up to 10 pounds. You will also want to pick up a bulk supply of inexpensive clear packing tape, a high-quality packing tape dispenser (this is a lifesaver), and rolls or sheets of bubble wrap as cheaply as you can find it. Furniture or department stores often throw away reams of the stuff…just go in and ask if you can take it off their hands.
And finally you need to sign up with an image-hosting service that is flexible, fast, and provides quality and personal customer service. It is difficult to find image hosting services that are reliable - and the last thing you need are all of the beautiful photos that you’ve taken to turn into a big red "X" just before your auctions are about to close. While you could spend $150 to $200 a year on web hosting with moderate bandwidth - a much more cost effective and efficient approach is to sign up with a service like MyPhotosHub.com. For only $6.95/mo you can host 80 MB of photos (at 80k per photo - about 1000 photos!). The service is reliable and fast - and I haven’t been able to find any other service out there that can serve up auction photos as quickly and reliably.
Turn your Free Time Into Profit
The fastest way to quickly become an eBay Powerseller, or to ramp up a slow eBay business into a powerhouse of volume and sales, is to carefully follow the steps that I’ve provided above. There is no more enjoyable way to spend spare time that most folks waste watching television…and it is wonderfully rewarding the moment you receive that first notice from eBay that due to your remarkable sales over the previous three months, you have qualified for PowerSeller status!
Good luck - and may good fortune shine upon your auctions!
Tags: boosting sales, E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, ebay powerseller, Generating More Sales, powerseller, Ryan Dube, Sales
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
5 Ways to Be a Successful eBay PowerSeller
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
There are a number of ways to successfully advance as an eBay PowerSeller. As an 8 year Seller on eBay, with a 100% feedback rating of over 1000, I’ve come to recognize several things that work, and several others that don’t, when trying to build a successful business as a PowerSeller on eBay.
What is an eBay PowerSeller?
eBay is constantly monitoring the volume of sales of its members. Any seller that can achieve a consistent Sales volume (at least $1000 in gross sales, or 100 items sold per month) for three consecutive months, as well as maintaining a feedback rating of 98% or better, will qualify to become a PowerSeller. These qualifications are reviewed every three months, so a long-time Seller may shift in and out of PowerSeller status depending on sales volume.
However based on those qualifications - there are two obvious secrets to becoming and remaining an eBay PowerSeller: (1) Sell high volume. (2) Keep your customers happy.
To become a PowerSeller, you do nothing except sell. eBay will invite you when they determine you meet the criteria.
Why Become a PowerSeller?
There are a number of fantastic ways that eBay rewards their PowerSellers. These include the following benefits:
- Priority eSupport, Toll Free Phone support, and even an Account Manager (for higher tier/volume sellers).
- Since Feb 20, 2008, PowerSellers enjoy up to 15% discounts on Final Value Fees.
- 5% to 25% more exposure than average sellers for those with ratings over 4.6 in the last 30 days.
- Unpaid Item Protection - crediting Listing Feature Fees when a buyer doesn’t pay.
- Personalized sales and Feedback data
- Nifty looking PowerSeller icon next to your user ID (attracting more sales!)
- Exclusive access to the PowerSeller-only discussion board.
Obviously the benefits are not only useful to save money - but those benefits will lead to a higher volume and higher sales. Essentially, becoming a PowerSeller on eBay ensures that with continuing work, you will remain a successful PowerSeller.
5 Most Effective Ways to become a Successful eBay PowerSeller
Being a successful eBay Seller demands discipline, good time management, and excellent organization. These are critical to managing all aspects of an eBay business. The general steps of eBay selling include Photography, Posting, Packaging, and Shipping. Each of these steps can consume much of your time if you are not smart and efficient in managing your time, and if you’re not smart where you invest money into those resources that will save you the most time. Some of the most critical resources into which you should invest include bulk-listing services, remote (cell phone) advanced research services, and photo management services. We will explore each of these in a moment.
1. Quality Photographs
One of the most important factors in not only whether an item sells, but also how much the item sells for, is how well the item is photographed. This means that the seller with the best camera that can take the closest, clearest photo wins. Most new digital cameras now have a "macro" feature that provides clear and focused close-up photos. If your current camera doesn’t have that feature, junk it and buy a new one. Again - I cannot emphasize enough how critical the photos are in selling your items…almost more important than the item itself! Beautiful photos sell an item. Typically 3 to 4 nice, clear, photos are just enough - 6 to 8 can be too much. Try to get as many angles of the item as possible, including a close-up of all markings or imperfections.
2. Reliable and High-Speed Image Hosting
This is absolutely critical to cutting down on costs. A small monthly investment will save a fortune in eBay costs. To list multiple pictures on eBay, fees are about 15 cents for each additional photo. If you want to have four additional photos on your listing, that comes to a whooping 60 cents. If you list up to 40 items in one week - that’s an additional cost of $24 a week.
A much more cost effective technique, and a well-kept secret of most PowerSellers, is using a high quality Image Hosting service such as MyPhotosHub.com . I personally prefer this particular service above any other because of the very reasonable rates. Purchasing the gold plan at under $7 a month gives you 80 MB of space and 2000 MB/month of bandwidth - more than enough space and bandwidth to handle high volume sales. This particular service even offers 360 degree spins, slide shows, and Auction Galleries - all unique features that attract buyers (and encourages sales).
3. Detailed Descriptions
When you are writing your eBay Descriptions, do not make the mistake of most beginning eBay Sellers…skimping on the description. While pictures may tell a thousand words - a well-written description is the salesman that closes the deal. You need to explain to the buyer why they cannot live without the item - how it’ll improve their d�cor, or the many uses that they will have for it in their everyday life. Be creative. You don’t need to write a book; but you should at least write a quick creative paragraph of about three to four lines that describe what the item is, the colors and size, the condition, and how and where it could be used (why the buyer can’t live without it!).
If you want a well-formatted auction, create a template in Word (or HTML) and simply edit the parts of the template that you need to for each item. This will save you a great deal of time when you are listing a high volume of items.
4. Effective Headlines
Keep in mind when you are trying to stuff as many keywords as you can into the one-line provided for the headline, that it isn’t so much the quantity of words - but the quality. You want to make sure that the specific words that buyers are looking for are placed in your headline. This is where research is critical. Before listing your item, make sure to do a "completed item" search on the item, and observe which items that have sold in the past that are most similar to yours sold for the highest price. Make note of the descriptive headline for the item, and what keywords were used. Use the same keywords and simply tailor the headline for your item.
5. Easy Payments make a Happy Seller
It may be a pain to have to swallow an average of 3% in fees for accepting Paypal payments - however the benefits far outweigh the costs. According to eBay, listings that offer Paypal are 6% more likely to sell - and typically sell for 5% more. Clearly eBay buyers prefer sellers who accept Paypal. This means having a Paypal account and accepting payment from buyers is absolutely critical if you expect to become a successful eBay PowerSeller!
It is also important to provide flexibility - so buyers who don’t have a Paypal account can still buy from you. This means accepting alternate forms of payment such as a Money Order. Some sellers don’t accept Checks, because of the possibility of check fraud; however if you make note that items will not be shipped until checks clear, then you can even safely accept personal checks without worry. Remember - the more payment options you accept, the more buyers will likely be willing to buy from you.
Tags: boosting sales, E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, ebay powerseller, Generating More Sales, online auctions, powerseller, Ryan Dube, Sales
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
eBay Fee Hike Followup
Monday, February 25th, 2008
At the beginning of the month I posted about the eBay fee hike…
Since then, smaller sellers in the eBay community have rallied together to boycott the hike as eBay attempts to court the bigger sellers. Sadly, the mini strike apparently had little to no effect and eBay remains firm in going through with the changes on Wednesday.
It looks like smaller sellers or anyone not happy with the fee hike should look closely at the pros and cons of doing business through eBay. There are eBay alternatives that facilitate auctioning such as Amazon.com or you could even consider beginning your own. Whatever you decide….good luck!
Tags: ebay, ebay alternatives, ebay fee hike, ebay sellers, feedback, online auctions, Rebecca Button
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
SEO Tips and Tricks for eBay Listings
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
As an eBay retailer, getting traffic to your store and auctions is critical to your business’ success. The most successful eBay businesses use search engine optimization (SEO) tips and tricks to get their eBay store and auction listings to show up in the natural listings of search engines like Google and Yahoo. An increase in traffic to your store and listings gives more people the opportunity to purchase your items, thus increasing your sales and profits.
The best SEO tips and tricks for eBay sellers
Make a keyword-rich listing title - The title of your listing is the number-one way that people will find your auction listings. Your title should be descriptive and have at least two of the most important keywords or keyword phrases for the item(s) that you are selling.
Add keywords and content to the item description - Without overdoing it, use as many of the most relevant keywords and keyword phrases in each of your item descriptions. Search engines love new content, so instead of copying and pasting information from the manufacturer’s website, create your own. Strive to make each of your descriptions 250-500 words in length, and be as descriptive as possible, mentioning brand names, model numbers and variations in spellings (kidclips, kid clips, kid klips, etc.).
Create an eBay store - If you don’t already have an eBay store, create one and take advantage of many tools available:
* Use all your custom store pages - Be sure to use every one of your store’s pages, using lots of keyword-rich content for each.
* Update store keywords - To keep your keywords fresh for the search engines, it’s a good idea to reset your store’s keywords every few months. Just go into the “marketing tools and search engine keywords” page from your store’s management page and create a new list of keywords.
* Create an About Me page - This is one of the few places on eBay where you can add links in your content, so take advantage. Put links to your store, specific auction pages, and other promotional pages you may have set up. Remember, search engines love new content, so update your page frequently with new information about your store and your products.
When you take advantage of all the SEO tools that eBay has to offer, bringing traffic to your store is easier than ever! And, best of all, each of these tools is easy to use and no html or special coding is required; you can do each of them all on your own.
Tags: boosting traffic, Carrie Hinkel, E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, eBay Edge, SEO tools
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
5 Simple Steps to Keep Your eBay Customers Happy
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
If you are selling on eBay, your reputation is out there for everyone to see. The eBay feedback system is on every item you sell - and potential customers can click at any time to see whether other customers have had positive experiences with you.
It is important to keep a high positive rating on eBay to keep customers’ trust.
Let’s take a look at how to do this.
Keeping Customers Happy
The best way to do this is to do exactly what you promise. When it comes to selling on eBay, there are many levels of customer relations.
1. Honesty In Listings - There is nothing more frustrating to a customer than to find what they think is the perfect collectible in mint condition, and then get the product to find out there is a chip in it, or a crack where it has been glued back together.
When writing your description for an item, make sure it is completely accurate. While many people like to make things sound better than they are, in the hopes of getting a higher sale price, you may end up losing when the person insists on a refund for false advertising.
Not only will they give you negative feedback on the deal, but also you will be out the shipping price and listing and selling fees from eBay. Always read over your descriptions twice and make sure they are descriptions that would fairly match the item, if you were the one buying it.
2. Accurate Pictures - If you are posting pictures of an item, they should be of the specific item you are selling. Many people use stock photos of a brand new version of the item they are selling. If yours doesn’t look like the one that is brand new, customers may feel like they were lied to in your photographs.
If you must use stock photos, make sure it is very clear in your description that these are stock photos of a new item, and that yours is not new or that it does not look the same.
3. Proper Shipping - While it’s acceptable to do, don’t overcharge for shipping unless you make it very clear in your description that your shipping costs are intentionally high. Many sellers try to get around the eBay listing and selling fees by charging much less for the item and very high shipping rates.
While this is legal to do, many buyers don’t pay as close of attention to the shipping price and may be frustrated when their total is much higher than they thought it should be. While it is a "buyer beware" world, sellers should also beware that an unhappy buyer can have a negative impact on their feedback.
Additionally, make sure that your shipping times and costs are very clear. Some shippers only send items out a few times a week. While this is an acceptable practice, you need to assure that your buyers know this.
4. Communication - Even the best thought-out eBay sale may not go as well as you would like. But if you are able to work out the problem with the customer, you will likely get their appreciation and some positive feedback out of the deal.
Whether an item is broken in shipping, running late, or there is some other problem with the transaction, always be available to communicate with the customer.
While every situation doesn’t have a happy solution, a little bit of attention to an unhappy customer will calm them down quite a bit.
5. Feedback - Once you have completed the transaction with the customer and they have gotten their item, ask them to give you positive feedback. You should also do the same for them if the transaction went well.
The more positive feedback, the higher your ranking and the more respectable and professional you appear to be.
Tags: customer loyalty, customer relation management, E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, feedback, Leeia Ladpoh
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
How Not to be a Failed eBay Seller
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
There are plenty of success stories and "Powersellers" on eBay, but what about the sellers who failed? What did they do wrong and how can you learn from their mistakes when starting your own eBay business?
The top reasons eBay sellers fail
They don’t accept credit cards or Paypal � Not accepting Paypal is pretty much a death wish for any eBay seller. Paypal is convenient, easy, and most eBay buyers and sellers use it. If you plan on selling on eBay, sign up for free at Paypal.com.
They have low or poor feedback � Buyers are many times hesitant to buy from sellers with a low feedback rating, especially for high-priced items. If you are new to eBay, then you will begin with zero feedback. In order to get your business off the ground, you should purchase some inexpensive items in order to boost your rating. Once you have a positive rating of 10-15, you’ll be ready to start selling!
They don’t include pictures � With so many auctions to choose from, it’s no wonder the ones with no pictures get overlooked. Pictures allow your customers to see exactly what it is they are bidding on (even if they are familiar with the item).
They have poor titles/descriptions � It’s imperative that your auction title contains all the relevant keywords because that is how most eBay buyers will find you � by doing a keyword search through eBay’s auction titles. However, once a potential buyer is on your page, it will be your description that will convince them to either bid or not bid on your auction. Successful eBayers know that a product description should be 1) descriptive and detailed, yet concise and 2) grammatically correct and error free. Reread your auction page before you submit it to eBay.
They list in the wrong category � Many times, eBay buyers will find products by searching product categories. If you listed your product in the wrong category, you might miss out on some buyers! The best way to choose your product’s category is by searching for similar products on eBay and seeing what category those products are listed in. If you think there is more than one relevant category for your product, then you may want to list in multiple categories.
They charge too much for shipping � eBay provides a free shipping calculator, so buyers can quickly see if a seller is overcharging for shipping. You’ll find that most of eBay’s powersellers offer actual shipping costs, with no (or very low) handling charges built in.
They give the wrong pricing options � New sellers on eBay are sometimes hesitant to start an auction at a low price without the reserve option, so they either list a high starting price or a low price with reserve. Both of those options are mistakes. Buyers get hooked into auctions with low starting prices and then end up staying until the end. Seasoned buyers know that the reserve price is basically the same thing as a hidden high starting price, and they may be wary of sellers who use that bid option. Take a look at any of the Powersellers - they are the most successful sellers on eBay and they know what they’re doing; their auctions start low with no reserve.
They don’t respond to questions � A good way to lose a bid is to ignore potential buyers’ questions. You should answer questions as soon as possible in order to keep potential buyers interested and instill their confidence in you.
There is definitely still a wide-open playing field for sellers on eBay, but in order to succeed, you need to avoid the mistakes of those who failed before you and follow the lead of eBay’s Powersellers. Good luck!
Tags: advice, Carrie Hinkel, E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, ebay power seller, Generating More Sales, online auction, Sales, tips
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
eBay fee hike…
Friday, February 1st, 2008
EBay’s announcement that seller fees are increasing February 20th is not going over well. The new rules go a little something like this:
"It reduces upfront costs such as listing fees, which will drop from a starting price of $0.20 to $0.15 for traditional auction listings, and makes gallery photos free. However, eBay is adding more costs to the back end for many sellers with higher final-value fees, the commission eBay takes after a sale. Top sellers will be rewarded with greater visibility and protections, but - in perhaps the most controversial aspect of the shake-up - sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback for buyers. " (from CNNMoney.com )
I myself have only participated in eBay as a buyer but I can’t quite see how this is supposed to help…well…anything? eBay is claiming top sellers will see more savings but some sellers who’ve run the numbers say it’s going to cost them more.
What are your thoughts?
Tags: E-Commerce and E-Business, ebay, news, online auctions, Rebecca Button
Posted in News & Articles | 2 Comments »