Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

Early failures pave the way for eventual success

For new and inexperienced entrepreneurs, selling online can seem like a daunting line of work. When business does not do as well as they had expected in the first few weeks and months, giving up are an easy option. They will tell themselves, this is not for me.

There are countless success stories of ordinary men and women raking in big bucks through online selling. Almost all of them would have stumbled a few times before they found the right formula for their success. Sure, a desire to succeed is necessary, but so is a commitment to the new business.

It will not be easy, but selling online should not be impossibly hard either. All it takes is a little luck and a lot of hard work. There are bound to be some early failures, but this is true for most businesses that eventually made it big. Some marketing gurus say there is no such thing as luck in business. One popular saying goes thus: “Luck? I make my luck!”

In other words, working hard while working online will bring together all the resources your way that will result in your considering yourself “lucky.”

Make your luck. Do not be afraid to fail. Each failure is a valuable lesson that you can avoid next time. If you learn your lessons from your past failures, you will no longer repeat them in the future. All these sound like the slogans in the inspirational posters you can buy in any bookstore or gift shop. They also happen to be true. 

 

Holding an auction to boost sales

Everyone knows eBay. This online company’s formula for success is as simple as it is effective. Post a product on the site and have people bid on that product. The bidding is for a fixed time frame, so any interested party has up to the deadline to decide if he or she really wants that product and at what price.

The owner of the product can also specify how much he wants so if anyone really wants that item, no bidding is necessary. The buyer agrees to pay the asking price. The deal is sealed, payment is made and delivery is arranged.

There have been attempts to imitate the eBay formula to varying degrees of success.

Your online store can copy the formula without having to be a poor man’s version of eBay. You simply select one or two products of the week or month, and open the door to bidders. If, for example, you sell men’s clothes, you can have bids for the extra large leather jackets you have in your inventory for one month, and then move to pastel colored golf shirts the next, then on to silk neckties the following month.

If your online store sells women’s shoes and handbags, you can have bids on single items only such as that last small pair of red pumps. If you have single items up for bids, your turnover could be faster than if you offered several similar items.

In addition, adding an interesting detail can make an ordinary product more attractive. If the basketball shoes you sell are the same kind that President Barack Obama or Tom Hanks uses when he plays, then say so. Such details can be enough to clinch a sale sometimes.

 

How to Create a Great Storefront on eBay

Online selling is the perfect channel for you if you want to sell stuff without dealing with the usual overhead costs. All you need is your computer and internet connection and you are all set. When it comes to selling online, eBay is one of the best channels out there to conduct your business. Here are some great tips to keep in mind when creating your own storefront on eBay:

Make sure that eBay is indeed the right selling channel for your business

All the tips in the world will not do you good if eBay is not right for the selling you have in mind. There are items that sell well on eBay but not on other sites like Amazon, and vice versa. There are factors that you have to consider to determine whether eBay is right for your business model. These factors include the type of items you plan to sell and how you plan to list them. For instance, secondhand items and unique stuff sell very well on eBay compared to Amazon.

Test the waters first

Although it looks very easy to establish your storefront, you should not make haste when it comes to testing the waters. Perhaps you should start with few listings while you are still new and grasping the feel of the business. Make sure that you are ready to take on the amount of customer service, packaging, and shipping involved when you have many listings.

Treat customers very well

Just because you will have little or no person-to-person dealings with your customer doesn’t mean you can slack on the quality of your service. Let me tell you now that online customers are very relentless when it comes to getting great service; they will not hesitate to destroy your reputation online through forums and review sites if they experience poor service. This is important especially on eBay, where customers can easily post reviews on your storefront.

Hot Items to Sell on eBay for This Year

One of the great things about eBay is that you can sell practically anything and you will be able to find a buyer for your items. More and more people are turning to shopping on eBay to look for items, easy-to-find or not. If you already have an existing eBay business or just thinking of putting up one, you can gain an edge by knowing which items are hot right now. Life and social trends determine which items will fly off your virtual shelves.

Sell more items for college students

Why, you ask. More people are extending their stay in college, which means that there will be more customers from this market. Aside from the usual items like text books, school clothes, and graduation rings, you can also sell costumes which they can use for those numerous dress-up parties that students have. No matter how limited a student’s budget is, he or she will manage to cough up enough dough for a decent costume.

Sell more items for aging baby boomers

With millions of baby boomers entering their retirement years, imagine the need for recreational items. See, a lot of these baby boomers will unload their big homes to settle for smaller abodes. With the downsizing of homes comes spending money that they will spend on hobby items and gadgets, as well as stuff they can use for their travels. And since they will be selling their furniture and home decors when they unload their homes, this means that the market will be flooded with these items. This is a niche that you should avoid for the meantime.

Holding an auction to boost sales

Everyone knows eBay. This online company’s formula for success is as simple as it is effective. Post a product on the site and have people bid on that product. The bidding is for a fixed time frame, so any interested party has up to the deadline to decide if he or she really wants that product and at what price.

The owner of the product can also specify how much he wants so if anyone really wants that item, no bidding is necessary. The buyer agrees to pay the asking price. The deal is sealed, payment is made and delivery is arranged.

There have been attempts to imitate the eBay formula to varying degrees of success.

Your online store can copy the formula without having to be a poor man’s version of eBay. You simply select one or two products of the week or month, and open the door to bidders. If, for example, you sell men’s clothes, you can have bids for the extra large leather jackets you have in your inventory for one month, then move to pastel colored golf shirts the next, then on to silk neckties the following month.

If your online store sells women’s shoes and handbags, you can have bids on single items only such as that last small pair of red pumps. If you have single items up for bids, your turnover could be faster than if you offered several similar items.

Also, adding an interesting detail can make an ordinary product more attractive. If the basketball shoes you sell are the same kind that President Barack Obama or Tom Hanks uses when he plays, then say so. Such details can be enough to clinch a sale sometimes.

Standing out on eBay

As the world’s biggest online market place, eBay is a place where great fortunes can be made. But for every successful eBay entrepreneur, there are dozens of others who barely earn enough to justify the time spent on posting their products or services on the site.

The key is to maximize the appeal of whatever it is that you are selling on eBay, or any other online selling site for that matter.

As the old saying goes, don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle. You may be selling the exact same product or service that other entrepreneurs are pushing on eBay, but a few carefully chosen words to describe what you have to offer will make all the difference in the world. It could mean a steady stream of dollars into your account, or a woeful trickle of nickels and dimes.

But first, ask yourself. Would you yourself buy that product or service you’re selling? If your answer is a definite yes, you should be on your way, if not to a lot of wealth at least to substantial income.

Know your strengths and weaknesses. If you feel that your abilities as a wordsmith are lacking and you are unable to  craft the words and phrases that will attract more buyers, then seek some help. Professional writers may be too expensive, but you probably know someone who at least qualifies as a talented amateur. He or she may be willing to fix your copy for a song, or a friendly meal.

Don’t be too shy to ask for advice from those who have had greater success than you on eBay. A lot of sellers are more than willing to share their “secrets” because the idea of being a mentor makes them feel good about themselves.

Remember, somewhere out there is a much broader market for your products or services. You just have to reach out to them properly. Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle.

Happy selling !

Year-round versus Seasonal Sellers

While there is definitely an advantage to playing the seasons and it’s ever-increasing sale peaks, you will lose out if you focus only on products that are seasonal. For instance, if you focus on Christmas decorations as your niche, you will definitely make good money from the months of October to December, but you’re sales will be dead for 9 months.

There is a big difference between having downtime, which you can use to manage inventory, and having limited time to sell. You can either switch it up or go with a more general item that has peaks and valleys in sales but are in consistent demand year-round.

In  our earlier example of selling Christmas decorations, a better approach would be to sell holiday decorations. For late December to early January, focus on New Year items. As January draws to a close and before mid-February hits, go with hearts and roses for Valentine’s day. You get the drift here?

Another good approach would be to go with a niche that is affected by seasonality in a good way such as the apparel industry. Here, you can change up your inventory almost quarterly to go with the different spring, summer, fall and winter wear. You can never go wrong if you stay on top of the seasonal demand for different types of clothing while having your usual stock of general all-weather, all-season items like jeans or t-shirts.

The changing seasons and the holidays can help you keep your inventory fresh. Even if there isn’t much change in the demand for the types of products within your niche, you could always use the different seasons and holidays as a way to repackage or redesign the way you sell, for instance with sales and promotions you run. 

Happy selling!  

eBay Selling Tips: About Me Page

Ever wonder what that little blue and red “me” icon is beside the product listing? In the world of eBay, it simply means that the seller has created an About Me page to tell you more about themselves. Clicking on that icon will take you to their About Me page.

But this article isn’t about how to use icons in eBay, we want to tell you a bit more about that particular page and how to use it to advertise your online store and your listings. Basically, this page will let you promote your auctions and build trust within the eBay community.

While your reputation scores will speak for itself, having that About Me page can help your potential buyers gain confidence in your as a seller if they know more about you, how many years you’ve been selling in eBay, the kinds of items you sell, any quality parameters you set as well as other items you sell in eBay.

To create your About Me page, login to eBay and follow the steps below:

1. http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AboutMeLogin&&guest=1&guest=1 login here.
2. Click the Create Your Page button
3. You can use the creation wizard or work your html magic to add information, feedback, listings, links and images.
4. Choose your page layout.
5. Click submit and you’re done!

A good way to really get people to notice you is to participate in the eBay community. All the comments and posts you have in there will be linked to your About Me page, which in turn, will show your available auctions. It’s a great way to advertise your listings in eBay.

Happy eBay selling!

eBay Selling: The Importance of Communications

If you want to take selling on eBay seriously, then you need to understand the importance of communicating with your potential buyers. Aside from building a good reputation, the only other way to gain credibility in eBay is through personal, sincere communication with your buyers.

It starts with the way you create your listings. Be honest about your product details. Pictures paint a thousand words, so take advantage of your ability to add photos. If you have photos that you took  yourself, this would actually be much better than stock photos you can get from a manufacturer. While those coming from your supplier would definitely be cleaner and nicer to look at, it may not necessarily communicate what the actual product looks like.

Having good product descriptions is a given when it comes to creating listings in eBay. One thing that most merchants fail at is being responsive to inquiries. You may be receiving a lot of questions from people about your listing, but do try to answer each one. Remember, they are your potential buyers and those questions they ask may help them in their buying decision. Furthermore,  you can also use those questions as basis of what more you need to add to your product descriptions.

Last but not the least, your customers expect to be updated all throughout the transaction. Send a confirmation email when they win the bidding war or have sent you the Buy It Now confirmation. Send another email thanking them for payment received. And let them know once the product is on its way; don’t forget the transaction number for the courier.

Happy eBay selling!

How to Price Items in eBay

eBay isn’t just an auction site, it has become a very lucrative business venue for a lot of people. It is also a complementary sales channel for those who have their own online stores. We’ve given several tips in this blog to help you sell successfully in eBay. But none of those compare to the impact of how you price your products.

Pricing in eBay is dictated by many things. First, there’s competition. Pricing yourself above the perceived market value will ensure that you get very little bids, if any at all, for your items. So, first, do your research before you even list. Do a title-only search for the same item or items similar to yours. It would be best to go through the Completed items. List these by price, highest to lowest. Then, study those that have been sold successfully. Do not make the mistake of comparing your price to those that never even got any bids. The successful auctions won’t just help you with price benchmark, but you can also use it to understand how to present your product (titles, descriptions and even images used).

Next, study the demand by looking at the available products already listed and the bids they are attracting. If the product is in demand, you can raise the price a little. You can lower your price if you want your item to get sold fast.

The starting price is also a good tactic to play with. If you know that your product has a good potential to fetch bids, then you can price it even as low as a dollar. As a general rule, a lower starting price can encourage healthy bidding. If you want to use this strategy but are concerned about the risks, then you might want to consider having a reserve price. This means that if you don’t receive a bid for at least the amount of the reserve, you aren’t obliged to sell your item. This amount is not show to bidders, but they will know that your listing has a reserve. Once the reserve price has been met, it is no longer displayed and you will have to sell your item to the highest bidder. The reserve price protects you from selling your item for too little. Do take note that this is only available for auction-style listings and not on fixed price or classified ad listings. There is also a fee to set the reserve price. It is good to set the reserve price if you know the value of your item. Do take note that there is a particular disadvantage to it. It can unnecessarily end the auction in the middle of a bidding war when the reserve price has already been reached, so you are limiting your potential to sell the item for an even higher price.  Worse than that, not knowing the reserve price can discourage potential buyers from bidding. If they bid on the item and realize that it doesn’t meet the reserve price, bidders might assume that you are selling your items for too much.

Another strategy to take is to set the start price as close to your ideal selling price as possible and have a Buy-it-Now option a few dollars higher than that. It’s less risky and it makes for a faster sale. The potential buyer will be put in the position of deciding to get the item for the Buy-It-Now price rather than risking losing at the auction.

The last thing you need to consider for your pricing strategy are your costs. Do not list the item at the price you got it for. Remember that there are other expenses that are involved in listing the item, storing it, shipping it and everything else in between. Do not price yourself too low that you are losing money with a winning bid.

Happy eBay Selling!

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!

eBay Selling Tips: Using RSS Feeds to Increase Sales

The RSS technology has been around for a while but is steadily gaining popularity as an online marketing tool. Made popular by the blogging community, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This programming format (usually and xml file) is used for transmitting and distributing headlines to a wider audience via a feed.

eBay sellers can now get their listings from eBay in RSS format. On the bottom of the user’s Store Home Page or from the Selling Manager dashboard, click on the Manage My Store link. Look for the Store Marketing link in the left navigation menu and click on Listing Feeds.

Click on the radio button for Distribute your listing via RSS or you can enable the button for Make a file of your Store inventory listings available. It may take a couple of hours for this to take effect, but you should see an orange RSS icon on the bottom of your store’s index page.

Listing in RSS format can help increase sales for your eBay store. Encourage buyers to subscribe to your feeds to allow them to monitor changes that you make to your store, specifically for any new or updated inventory, auction or listings under Buy It Now.You can also automatically feed your selection to any other online media you are connected to, be it your blog or a social networking site like Twitter.

Another advantage of using eBay RSS Listing Feeds as a seller is that you get notification for items under “Good til Cancelled” that are automatically relisted. To be able to view this feed, you will need an RSS aggregator. There are several free readers online, the most popular of which are AmphetaDes, NewzCrawler and Radio UserLand.

On another note, eBay has been expanding the use of it feeds to cater to its vibrant community. Aside from allowing RSS for eBay stores, feeds are also available for discussion boards, search results pages and announcement boards.

Happy eBay selling!

eBay Selling Tips: Creating Auction Headlines

If you plan on selling in eBay, one of the most important things to work on is your auction title. This goes next to your gallery image and is the first thing a potential customer sees when searching for items on eBay.

Those with popular eBay stores have less of a problem than those listing individual items, mainly because impressions for those without a store are driven by eBay’s search function. So, choose your words wisely. eBay only allows 55 characters for your title.

Include important listing details such as model, color, year, size, new or used, brand name and more. In other words, be specific about the product you are listing. Don’t waste your characters on non-essential words (like “Cute”, “wow” or “super rare”)

• Make sure you spell any proper nouns in the title correctly. If you want to expand your search impressions to misspellings, you can insert those in your listing’s description. But stick with correct spellings on the title.
• You may use capital letters, but do it sparingly. Over-capitalizing all words in your description is just plain annoying. If you must, stick to rendering in all caps a maximum of two words in your auction title.
• In the same grain as that of capital letters, avoid goofy characters that represent letters or abbreviating words with inappropriate characters (for instance: “Must C” or “!!!!”)
• Learn from your competition. Do a search of products similar to the ones you plan on listing. Find out how they use their titles.
• Use descriptive related to your product, and not just the brand name. For instance, if you are selling antiques, it would be a good idea to include words like “vintage” or even “old”
• Keep it simple, use words that are familiar to everyone. Your eBay listing is also displayed in other countries as international listings if there are no items available in the local eBay versions. So consider non-English speakers when you create your auction title.
• Consider highlighting options for items that have high value and can make you more money in terms of profit. eBay offers options for boldfacing your title or adding a subtitle.
• If you have more room to spare on your title, try adding alternate names for the item (ie for a pouch, you can add the word bag or beltbag)
• It helps  to learn eBay lingo. Got one or two characters left, how about adding “NWT” for new clothes, it means “New with Tags” and often pertains to apparel with tags from the manufacturer still affixed to the item.

As a last tip, anytime you feel like you’re on the overdoing-it-mode, pause and think. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer and ask what you would type in that search box to find your item.

Happy eBay Selling!

Usability Tips to Increase Your eBay Sales

We’ve talked about it before. EBay is an excellent source of income for online sellers. In our previous posts, we’ve talked about customer service as well as retaining a good reputation. Today, let’s discuss usability. This is shows how easy it is for people to use your website/shop to achieve the desired result (ie make a purchase).

Here are some tips you can follow to ensure your guest enjoys the buying experience from your eBay store and experiences the least amount of friction:

• Offer different forms of payments. First and foremost, get a PayPal account. This is the easiest way to get your payments from buyers. It allows them to use their PayPal account directly or to pay via a credit card. You also need to think about accepting other payment forms such as personal cheques or postal orders.
• Create an brand for your eBay store. If you are keeping another online store with a unique domain name, it would be best to align these two. In the future, you should be able to freely refer customers on your online store to your eBay shop and vice versa.
• Translate your brand even in offline materials. Print your online store and eBay store URLs in your business card. Use it as a label when you are shipping out items that have been bought. It makes the buying experience seamless between offline and online.
• Include all the details in your listing. Aside from a good product description, be specific with what you are selling. Indicate important information such as year, model, make, materials, color, size, weight and more. If you have policies that you follow for the shipping/handling of a particular product line, then include these as well.
• Use eBay’s Picture Manager or host your own photos. This will entail cost, but do remember that pictures paint a thousand words. Always have more than one photo of the item you are selling. You have the usual façade photo, but don’t forget the other angles, interiors, shots taken with the product in actual use. If you’re a beginner in eBay selling, you can even get free photo hosts like Photobucket or TinyPic to host your images.

Understanding Listing APIs

API or Application Programming Interface is a method of making two pieces of software communicate with each other and work together. It helps you upload thousands of products with several clicks, avoiding the mundane task of uploading individual products to several websites. Shopster offers this option in the form of datafeeds to shopping comparison sites.

This is one of Shopster’s major tools that give it an advantage over other dropship social networks. This listing option allows you to expose your products to another type of market that has a high conversion factor. It can drive targeted traffic with immediate results as well as build your brand in the market place.  

To submit your products to shopping comparison sites via a datafeed, choose one of Shopster’s serviced sites such as: eBay, Bizrate, Froogle, Google Base, Master Storefront, NextTag, Overstock, Pronto, Shopping.com and Yahoo! Shopping.

1. Log in to Shopster.
2. Click on the Marketing tab.
3. Under this, you’ll see Submit to Shopping Comparison Sites. Click on it.
4. Scroll down and click on Create Datafeed for the site you’ve chosen.
5. Follow the link and register an account with your chosen shopping comparison site.
6. Upload your data feed to the newly created account.

There you have it! You have a datafeed for the products in your managed inventory. This will connect you to the shopping comparison site and allow you to start offering your products in the site.  Make sure you monitor this on top of your listings in your own online store.

The more channels you have, the more you will have to monitor. Once you’ve mastered this, you will also learn how to start earning from more channels.

Happy selling!

Selling on eBay: Building Your Credibility

In eBay, your credibility has as much weight on your potential sales as the  product itself. There are many factors that can affect your credibility. From your product descriptions to your responsiveness, customers will find a way to gauge your credibility.  

Here are some tips on what you can focus on to build a credible eBay seller profile:

• Feedback – eBay offers a great feedback system that the buyers heavily rely. Customers use this to tell in advance if they should even purchase from you. Be quick to give feedback to good buyers and provide great customer service and you’ll soon see an increase in your feedback score.
• Be responsive to inquiries – First and foremost, give your potential clients a way to reach you. Provide an active email address or enable the communication function in eBay. When you do get inquiries, treat each customer fairly and answer questions honestly and promptly. Whether they end up buying from your or not, you’ve already established a good start.
• Offer reliable descriptions of your product – Managing customer expectations begins with a truthful description of the state of your product. Aside from that, you should also include good quality photos of your product in different angles.
• Respond to sales in a timely manner - Once a winner emerges from the auction or you’ve made a straight out sale,  start processing the order right away. A winning bid is tantamount to a contract that both the buyer and the seller are expected to honor. As the seller, reneging on the agreement may lead to a bad buyer experience which may result in a negative feedback.
• Promptly ship the purchased product - Ensure that you follow whatever you state on your shipping policy. Communicate the expected time of arrival of the product and give your buyer access to the tracking system (if available). If you foresee any reason for delay, let your buyer know about it as early as possible.
• Offer Money Back Guarantee – If you really want your customers to trust you, let them feel comfortable about buying from you. A money-back guarantee shows your buyer that your are confident about the quality of the product you are selling.
  

Building credibility really boils down to customer service. The better you are at consistently serving your customers at all touchpoints, the better your chances of having a good credibility among your buyers.

Happy selling!

eBay Selling: The Power of Feedback 2

In our last eBay Selling article, we discussed the importance of feedback to your reputation as a seller. In this follow up post, we will talk about how you can improve your overall Feedback Score as well as your Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR).

As with any other customer-facing industry, online retail is dependent on the satisfaction of your customers. It can encourage more business as well as build customer loyalty which results in repeat purchases. There is no better way to improve the customer’s perception of your brand than delivering on your promises.

To be more specific, here are some things you can start off with:

• Create detailed and relevant product descriptions. Include everything the buyer would need to know – color, dimensions, base materials, weight, quantity (for lot listings) etc.
• If the product has defects, make sure to note those as well.
• Do not deceive your buyer when it comes to the condition of your product. When you say “new” or “mint condition” make sure that the item is in fact in those conditions.
• Post several pictures of your item -- in different angles, of course.
• Detail your policies – including shipping, handling and return
• Let the buyers know how they can reach you and how quickly they can expect a response.
• Respond to inquiries and winning bids in a timely manner
• If you list the same item several times, you may already have a database of frequently asked questions. You may want to consider including that in your listing.
• When communicating to buyers about shipping, let them know the estimated time of arrival and provide a tracking number (if your chosen courier has it)
• Be as specific as possible with you shipping costs. You may want to list several options for shipping or use calculated shipping so buyers can find out how much it would cost from their location.
• Offer shipping discounts for multiple items from the same buyer. You might also want to consider offering free shipping promos to attract more buyers.
• Post-sales customer service is always appreciated. Once you know that the item has arrived, check with the buyer if they received it in good condition and how they like the item.
• Leave a feedback for the buyer if you had a positive transaction.

In the end, the eBay Feedback Score that you get is really a rating for the kind of customer service you provide – from the beginning of the transaction right up to the point when they receive the item.

Whether you are supplying the item yourself or are using a dropship service, being there for the customer and answering their questions reflects on you as an eBay seller. Remember, it is your brand and your member ID that they see and not anyone else’s.

Good luck and happy eBay selling!

eBay Selling: The Power of Feedback

When it comes to selling on eBay, you can control most factors that would result in the success of your auction item – the price, the start bid, the date it ends. However, there is one thing that you should be mindful of, even if it is not entirely under your control. In eBay, your reputation matters. And it can make or break your success as an online seller.

Feedback represents who you are as a seller/buyer in eBay. It shows if you are trustworthy. These are made up of comments and ratings left by other members you’ve bought items from or you’ve sold items to. 

Feedback Profile and Feedback Score
Active email members develop a Feedback Profile over tie. Part of this is the Feedback Score, it’s the number in parenthesis next to your user ID and it appears on top of your Feedback Profile.

Buyers can leave 3 kinds of feedback: positive, negative and neutral. This is on top of a short comment. Sellers, on the other hand, can only leave a positive rating with a short comment. These are the basis for the Feedback Score.  A positive rating is equivalent to +1, no points for neutral and -1 for negative ratings. Feedback is encouraged per sale, so those with multiple purchases can rate a seller several times.

Positives

Positives + Negatives

The Feedback Score is calculated based on the total number of positive and negative ratings for transactions over the last 12 months.
 
For ratings from the same buyer (as in the case of multiple purchases above), the impact of the score is affected by the rating for the week.

So for sales that occurred in the same week with the same buyer: 

• If more negatives than positives from the same buyer in the same week, the feedback score is lowered by one point.
• If more positives than negatives from the same buyer in the same week, the feedback score is raised by one point.
• If it’s the same number of positives and negatives from the same buyer in the same week, then the Feedback score is not affected.

Other Detailed Seller Rating
In addition to the general rating, buyers can also leave Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR). These are anonymous and cannot be traced back to the buyer who left it. Buyers are given up to 60 days after the transaction to leave their ratings.

One star is the lowest rating for the DSR, while five stars is the highest. These do not count towards the overall Feedback Score, but can help you see the bigger picture in terms of performance.  Sellers can be rated against four major items: item description, communication, shipping, shipping and handling charges.

In closing, there are several things you can do to improve your Feedback score. Start by being open and honest with your buyers; create accurate product descriptions, tell them what your policies are, respond in a timely manner for both inquiries and in delivery of the product.

Also, it is always good practice for eBay sellers to leave feedback for their buyers. It shows appreciation and can encourage customer loyalty.

How to win a price war without competing on price

Editor’s Note: Today Shopster welcomes the founder of Count Stop, Cameron McGrane, to the Shopster Blog.  His experiences in surviving a price war, and his take on the ethics of competition make for an entertaining read and offer up some valuable advice to all online entrepreneurs.

 

Life was great. I had spent 2 years building a e-bay power-seller store which was starting to pay off. My cash cow products with high margins and partial barriers to entry kept selling repeatably. Our customers and suppliers loved us. We were always there when needed and I was living abroad, working on an exciting new venture that fed off my e-commerce experiences.

I was feeling and acting awesome!

One day my sales started dropping. For the first 14 days, I put the decrease down to seasonal variations. After 30 days, it was obvious a new entrant was selling my product at nearly cost price! “They will go away” I told myself, but after after 45 days and $4000 in lost sales the “the new guy becoming the old guy” was still hanging around!

What did I do? Nothing. I honestly had no actionable task to move forward. I felt paralyzed and embarrassed because I let so much time elapse without addressing the situation.

One thing I did know, I had a deep resolve embedded by one of the greatest business people I have known in person to “Never compete on price”.

This in itself raised the question “How do I compete while maintain my prices?”.

The question nearly gave me a neurosis!

After riffing it out with some business buddies I still had no answers. Sigh. Times like these make you feel alone and you eventually realize that the tough problems can only be solved by oneself.

On day 70, I decided to put my sexy work aside (e.g. creative stuff ), and think about the situation

The words of Oscar Wilde “You know more than you think you know…” infused into my head.

Then then a common sense question came to me. If my product is essentially a commodity what else am I selling on top to warrant the considerably higher price point?
I wrote this list defining what my current store offers:

• Ridiculously Good Customer Support – Fast accurate insight and in depth problem resolution.
• 30 day, No Questions Asked, Return Policy
• Super Fast Processing – Between 1 to 18 hours
• Multiple Payment Options – Paypal, credit card, bank deposit.
• Express postage and execution for urgent delivery
• Sell to all countries
• Custom Branded product

Next I asked “If I was to temporarily compete on price, what would the customer get that differs from above?”

• Basic Customer Support – Only resolve problems that stop item getting to customer’s door.
• Limited Refund – Exchange for store credit within 3 days.
• Low Priority Processing – Up to 3 days
• Limited Payment Options – Paypal only
• Standard Postage Only
• No international shipping
• Unbranded product

By splitting things out and thinking about another distinct offering, I was able to make a mental leap in the form of running TWO stores. One “Premium” and One “No Frills”. And as it so happened, I had a shelfed e-bay ebay store with quality feedback I honestly had forgotten about..

Shady you say? I was worried too. I’m a straight player and value transparency so when the sales came through at the lowest price point in the market using my no frills store. I explained the pros and cons of the two stores to my customers so they had more options next time they chose to buy from me.

Day 75 – My margins sucked but I was turning inventory over, getting brand recognition and seriously making my competitor question why he took on this niche.

Over two weeks, I noticed “that guy” slowly raise his prices as sales and started unloading the products in bulk which my “no frills” store was more then happy to take off their hands to restock the premium store.

Day 90 – Sales have increased, the heat is off and I am living to fight another day with a few lessons to share

• Acknowledge there is a problem - Like people at AA do. My new unprofitable venture was messing with my priorities. Ultimately you should never neglect the businesses making you money!
• If it your first time in a price war you have to fight - Fight early – hopefully this story will provide you inspiration to start fighting ASAP
• You know more than you think you know - Trust and challenge yourself to come up with an actionable strategy. Ultimately you can only depend on yourself.
• Build strategic assets - I didn’t realize my extra store was an asset. What other assets do you have?
• Don’t assume customers only buy based on price  - People have different needs to be met. And every market even with commodities has openings that can be leveraged to access different types of customers.

Tip: Terapeak research can help discover such insights

AND finally DON’T COMPETE ON PRICE and if you must, do it creatively and temporarily with a clear focus on your differing customer offering.

Cameron McGrane is founder of Count Stop, a service enabling internet retailers to automatically track and report on profit, costs and competitor events.

References:

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzbuu/

Advanced Selling Tips for eBay

In yesterday’s blog, I ran through some best practices for selling on eBay. Today's post addresses what eBay sellers can do once they’ve mastered the basics and want to take their online business to the next level.

Follow the tips below to explode your online sales:

Start Using eBay’s Selling Tools - eBay has designed a variety of tools to help members scale their businesses, become more efficient, and make more money more easily. These included bulk listing managers, inventory management tools, and other great features associated with the eBay sales cycle. Best of all most of them are free.

Open an online store - You’ve mastered the in’s and out’s of eBay, the next logical step is to open your own online storefront. Online stores can command higher prices (and therefore profits) than a typical eBay listing, and a store aligns perfectly with your existing eBay business. When you make an eBay sale, share your store’s web address with your customers so that they can visit your online store and buy directly from you next time they’re looking to make a purchase.

Author Note: All Shopster eCommerce accounts come with a free internet store, so it's easy build a web store to complement your existing eBay business. Plus, Shopster’s all-in-one inventory management system allows you to manage and process your store and eBay sales from one convenient location.

Go Global - Start trading with Members of eBay’s global community. Reach larger audiences and make more sales by selling internationally. Because your listings are being bid on by more people you’re more likely to make higher margins per item.

Expand your Inventory - A sure-fire way to make more money is to sell more items. Look for new product sources to expand your existing inventory and new niches to expand into to grow your online business. If you’re currently selling 5 items, try selling 25, if you’re selling 50, look to sell 100.

References:
eBay - http://pages.ebay.ca/sellercentral/techniques.html