eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, an open platform for anyone, who wants to sell and buy different things. For the sellers (both for beginners and resellers with a much larger amount of goods), it is a nice area to work and earn money. According to worldwide statistics, as of June 2020, there are more than 180million active buyers on eBay. Compared to another large marketplace – Amazon, eBay selling fees are lower. This is one of the advantages of starting here. As for the rest, we’ll see further.
eBay selling tips
Find out your type of products
Of course, you can start to sell anything you want. But put the question right: it’s not that much about what you want to sell, but more about what people want to buy. Another important thing to remember is that some products are seasonal and if you are going to sell something seasonal, look around to see when to sell it to have profitable deals. Due to different surveys and investigations, you can easily find the top-selling products. Mainly they are mobile phones and accessories, brand electronics, beauty products, items of clothing, toys, antique, or crafted attributes.
Register
If you want to list your products and start selling them, then you can’t do it without having a profile. Registering on eBay is free. The 2 suggested accounts are personal (for people who just want to sell/resell their things) and professional (for the ones who want to sell a variety of goods and most probably start a store). While registering you enter your full name, email, link to your PayPal or credit card. One can have several accounts with the same bank accounts, but not the same email. As for Paypal, you’d better have it, because the majority of buyers prefer this type of money transfers. So if you don’t want to lose your potential clients, tye a PayPal account as well.
Select a package of your store or sell it as an individual
On eBay, you have a choice of selling by yourself and with a store. If you don’t have listings full of lots of goods, you can sell without a store. In this case, you sell 50 items each month, give higher fees, and don’t have full access to the tools of promotion. As for the store packages, as a beginner, you can choose from Starter (free listings of 50-100 goods, insertion fee of 0,30USD instead of 0,35USD and annual subscription cost – 4,95USD) or Basic (250 listings having fixed prices and 250 listings available for auction, insertion fee of 0,30USD and annual subscription cost – 21,95USD). We suggest listing 65 items per month for the Starter Plan, 157 items for the Basic Plan so that to have cost-efficient and profitable deals.
List your items with proper descriptions, photos, and prices
Having a good impression on your customers should be one of the main initial goals. In real life, we would never enter a dirty, non-organized shop. With e-commerce, it’s the same. So your store on eBay should also have everything in order. Regarding photos, some basic tips are light, good camera, placing (don’t shoot in messy places).
As for the prices, you should be as realistic as possible, because people can find a similar item and find out the “real” price for it. Expect your profit to come not from one sale, but several. Another thing to bear in mind is that the price, of course, depends on the condition of your good (old, new, brand, vintage, needing repair, etc).
The description is one of the most important points people pay attention to. In the line of possible 10.000 characters, you can speak more thoroughly about your item. Do not just copy the title. The more you speak about the product, the higher it appears in the search results. Mention the colour, dimensions, model, the period it was used (if used), the presence of accessories, and so on.
Provide fast and relatively inexpensive shipping of your products
Another main factor that can affect the buyer after the price and condition of the good is the shipment. If you want to become a competitive and highly ranked seller, process the shipment immediately after the payment is done (ideally within 24-48 hours). Before sending the order, make sure it is well-packed, in case of delays keep in touch with your client. Belated delivery is equal to the negative feedback that will affect your rank.
There are different shipping options on eBay. For example, by having a rank higher than the standard, you can make the listings visible internationally for some fee. You can use this function in case you are ready for international shipping. This will take much time and effort. In case you arrange the shipping by yourself (as the majority of sellers do), eBay offers shipping discounts.
Organize the return process
On eBay there are 5 main ways of return:
- No return
- Return within 30 days (paid by the buyer)
- Return within 30 days (free)
- Return within 60 days (paid by the buyer)
- Return within 60 days (free)It’s your choice whether you mention “unconditional return” or “no return” in your store. But it will be better for the sellers to offer a return policy. In any case, be as polite to the buyer as possible. Even if you do not accept returns, you can still negotiate. Make some things clear: whether they have opened the order and if it can be sold again after the return; if they would like you to offer a non-full refund without returning the item. After all, eBay itself has got a money-back policy (used in case of fraud).
Improve your feedback and rating
As a beginner in this field of e-commerce, it is crucial to look after your feedback. Make sure to get the positive ones and never get the negatives. The most important player here is the buyer. The two main points were mentioned above (shipping, returns, as well as the whole communication process). Would be better to keep in touch with the client through the official eBay chatting system. This will provide evidence to get everything in your favour if you were polite enough, suggested refunds/returns and followed the policies.
As you can see, eBay can become a quite nice area to work, earn money, and do it with pleasure. All you need to do is just follow the tips for selling on eBay, invest in the work, and be patient. Certainly, you’d better do it, as eBay is a space that gives the opportunity of selling such products that could hardly be sold anywhere else. As an eBay seller, eSwap suggests you integrate your listings and sales with us and do your management easier than before. This is a perfect variant to do your job faster, which means higher productivity and much more efficient sales. Don’t miss this chance and use our integration of eBay Inventory Management.
