Improving Your eBay Sales

If you’ve been selling in eBay for a sometime now and have yet to see profit, then you should try changing your strategy. eBay customers, as a market segment, are essentially different from those who buy from ecommerce stores. First, the interface is different. eBay offers products from hundreds of suppliers across the globe so the competition can be fierce. Second, even the payment platform is different. eBay is an auction site that allows direct purchases via the Buy Now functionality. Third, even their language won’t compare to the normal retail transaction. Codes like BNWT (brand new with tags) is something that both buyers and sellers in this environment would easily understand.

Here are some tips you could follow to help improve your eBay sales:

1. Make your listing attractive to buyers. Add images and complete information about your products. eBay offers packages to help you highlight your listing, but you’ll find that even the slightest change to the way you present your products could already make a huge difference. Review the text you are including in your listings. The tone should be light and casual, making you seem more approachable yet it should be informative and should have everything that your customer needs to know to make you more credible as a seller. Try looking for other existing auctions for the same product or product category to get an idea how other eBay sellers do it, then give it your own unique twist.
2. Improve your rating as a seller by getting good feedback. Most eBayers are aware of the importance of the feedback system and you’ll be surprised that a lot of them actually create feedback even without you asking. But for transactions that have already completed, it would help to ask for feedback especially if you’re a fairly new seller.
3. Be clear about your policies on shipping and product return. In the world of ecommerce, these are the two things that buyers most often look for. It gives them assurance that they are dealing with a company that is reliable and can be trusted.
4. Make sure your prices are competitive. Whether you are selling the item outright or putting it up for auction, you need to be realistic about the value of your products. If others are selling their items for a much lesser price, then that’s already a lost sale. If it’s an auction, even your starting bid should be within a good range of the actual value. The only time you can dictate the price of an item without considering parity is if you are selling a unique product that only you can provide, even then you need to exercise care and have a good estimation of what your intended audience is willing to pay for such an item.
5. Plain and simply said: good customer service. Whether its reply to an inquiry prior to the sale or checking up on the status of the item, establishing good communication with your buyers would increase the likelihood of being given a good rating. More than that, it also gives you a better chance of getting repeat customers.

There are a lot of ways to increase your sales in eBay, but it really boils down to understanding your market and its needs.

Happy selling!