How To Increase eBay Sales
eBay is one of the most popular on line trading sites on the internet, and for good reasoning! I personally have been buying and selling on eBay for a number of years now experiencing both excellent and somewhat disgraceful customer service. In this article I will cover some of the things I've used myself and picked up along the way to increase the amount of attention to your listings and the amount of sales you make.
Be Professional (1)
When people are giving you their hard earned money for an item that you are selling, they expect a good quality of service. Try to design your listings to stand out from the rest and look as though you know what you are talking about when it comes to the item that you are selling.
Photographs (2)
Always try to include a good quality image of the item that you are selling! If the item has damage or imperfections take some extra time to capture an image to show the damage. This will draw people to your items because they can see what they are buying over a stock photo image taken from Google images.
Listing times (3)
When you put up your listings especially ones that are with an auction take into account the time you post the listing. An example of what I mean is this. If you list your item for a 7 day auction and post the listing at 3.00am the listing will finish exactly 7 days from that time at 3am. How many people will be browsing the internet at 3am? not a whole lot! If you were to put the same item up for auction for the same amount of time but at say 7.00pm people will be home from work, kids home from school giving your auction a better chance of reaching a higher total.
Item categories (4)
Putting your items in the correct category is more important that it may sound. Putting items in an inappropriate category will mean when people search for keywords in the search bar your item is less likely to come up. If you have an item that will fetch a large amount it would be a good idea to place the item in multiple appropriate categories to help bring your item higher in the search rankings.
Item Description (5)
This is the section that can often make or break a purchase. If the description of the item is substandard and doesn't properly cover everything a customer may want without having to message you for further details, well it needs to be improved. Some of the things I include in my listings are a detailed description of the item, any damage to the item and finally small details like region coding etc. If you offer services like a discount on postage for multiple services make sure this is added to the description also. Finally and most importantly leave a small paragraph covering your return polices, how to contact you for details on an item and make your listing structured with a professional look! eBay implemented all the tools and plug ins for us to use to create great listings.
Product research/Competition (6)
Most of the items that you are selling on eBay will usually be items that are already on their or have been sold in the recent past. Take some time to research your item via the internet. Search eBay and look for other listings that are selling the same item as you are, check the prices, description and use these other listings to add on and improve anything that you didn't have on yours already, that is of course if you had missed anything. Search on other websites and see how much people are paying for your item, see how many items are being sold, how often are they being sold, where are they being sold. Things like this can give you the extra edge over your competition. If someone is selling the same item cheaper than you, don't be put off by this! Spend time on making the best description for your item and get the best quality image you can. Customers will appreciate the effort put into this and will be more likely to part with their money.
Communication (7)
This could be one of if not the most important tip I can give to people who use eBay. When a customer asks a question about an item give them the best possible answer that they could want! Give them product links, video links etc. When you ship an item send the buyer a message to let them know that their item is on its way to them, keep in contact up until the item arrives and make sure that they are happy with their purchase. Sometimes you may have to go above and beyond with customers but it pays off in the long run with 5 star ratings and a positive feedback left.
Item shipping (8)
When the customer has paid for their item, make sure that you package it with care and time. Use the best quality materials that you can afford and make the package neat and visually pleasing. Ship out the item as soon as possible and once this is done mark the item as "Dispatched" allowing the customer to see their item is on the way.
Summary
eBay can be a very unforgiving place if you happen to get something wrong, unfortunately people who use the website don't always have the patience needed to deal with any problems that may arise leading to negative feedback and a potential downturn in your sales. With the tips that I have just given you you should be able to avoid those situations easier and increase your overall target of a higher selling rate.
Some of my other hubs.
What will be the new leap in social networking?
http://adamowen.hubpages.com/hub/What-will-be-the-new-leap-in-social-networking
How To: Increase YouTube Traffic
http://adamowen.hubpages.com/hub/Increasing-Exposure-On-Your-YouTube-Videos
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