Selling on eBay has allowed individuals to create lucrative small businesses that can drive sales quickly, giving you the potential ability to attract clients from all over the world.
The potential is exceptional. Unfortunately, so is the competition. While there are over 182 million active users, there are also 25 million sellers and over 1.2 billion listings.
If you want to sell on the platform, you need to do more than just have a great product online and hope that your target audience finds it; you need great products, strong listings, and a thorough promotion strategy if you want people to find your listings, let alone purchase from them.
In this post, we’re going to take a close look at eight eBay tips for sellers that will help them increase visibility on the platform and drive more sales effectively.
1. Optimize Every Listing for Search Visibility
Some buyers get on eBay and browse. Many, however, get on the platform are searching for something incredibly specific.
If they’re looking for what you’re selling on eBay, it’s imperative to make sure that they can find you. If not, someone else will get the sale.
Optimize every single product listing you have for full search visibility. This can help you within eBay’s native search and can even help some of your listings pop up in Google searches, too.
In order to optimize your product listings, you’ll want to do the following:
- Use the product’s original title as the listing title. If the product was originally called “Williams Sonoma brushed stainless steel saucepan,” that should be included in the title listing. You can add on adjectives like “new” or “3 quarts” to the title to grab attention and increase relevance.
- Consider commonly-used keywords and optimize your listing accordingly. Some people may search for terms like “waterproof tent” or “3 person tent.” Having the right information in your listing will increase search visibility and the likelihood of a click.
- Include all product information in the listing’s description. Share model numbers, styles, colors, and all features. In many cases, buyers may want to check out the product online and look for other reviews. Having this information can help them do that, making them more confident in their decision. Having the product model numbers and other details also fuels visibility within eBay search.
2. Use Multiple High-Quality Product Images for Each Item on eBay
It’s essential to use high-quality, clear, easy-to-see product images for every listing that you create. If the main product image doesn’t look great, there’s a good chance that buyers will keep scrolling.
Make sure that your product shows the picture clearly. The image should look professional, ideally having whitespace around the product itself to help users focus.
In addition to a main product image that showcases the product with whitespace, it’s also good to include additional photos on every listing. Show the product from all angles, in the original packaging, and in use whenever applicable. The more visual information someone has, the better to help them make a buying decision.
3. Invest in eBay’s Promoted Listings
If you want to sell quickly on eBay, using promoted listings to maximize visibility and to reach relevant audience members is key.
eBay Promoted Listings will help you gain priority in relevant searches, putting you directly in front of high-intent users while they’re actively researching.
It also allows you to have your product featured in “relevant sponsored items,” which users often browse while they’re still trying to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Keep in mind that based on how eBay promoted listings work, you only pay when someone views your product from an ad, clicks, and eventually converts. This can ensure that you’re paying for results and sales, and nothing less.
Promoted trending rates are essentially calculated on ad rates for similar items recently sold through promoted listings, and they’re designed to help you increase your impressions. Keep in mind, however, that using just lowest 1% rate instead of the trending rates works just fine for many.
4. Evaluate Pricing on the eBay Marketplace
When you’re creating new listings, it’s a good choice to do some market research first.
Look at similar items to yours and see what price they’re listed at. This can be helpful when you’re assessing your own pricing so that you can stay competitive.
That being said, there are several factors to take into consideration when looking at pricing, including the following:
- Are your competitors’ items new or preowned?
- Is there any potential damage that’s been disclosed?
- Are their products outdated, or do they have fewer features?
- What are the shipping prices like?
- What do recent sale prices of similar items inform you?
Someone selling a brand new top-of-the-line grill on eBay, for example, wouldn’t want to try to price-match a simple charcoal grill that was manufactured ten years ago from an unknown brand.
Don’t automatically try to just sell more by beating out your eBay competitors on pricing; take the market into consideration but sell on quality and price fairly.
5. Collect eBay Reviews & Feedback as Often as Possible
Seller feedback on eBay can go a long way. Users are automatically more likely to trust you and will even show preferential treatment to you if you have higher ratings. Some are even willing to pay more for an identical product from a higher-rated seller.
In order to increase positive feedback, you should always try to answer questions and make shipments promptly and be available to handle concerns from past and prospective buyers.
If you’re using your eBay shop as a small business, it’s important to treat it like one. Offer outstanding customer service and a reliable, high-quality customer experience, and it will make it easier for you to attract other buyers and increase your sales overall.
6. Assess Shipping & Pricing Combinations to See What Drives More Sales on eBay
The pricing of your product isn’t the only thing that factors into a customer’s decision when they’re choosing what to buy on eBay. Even from a financial decision, they also need to weigh in the cost of shipping.
Free shipping, for example, is immediately appealing to plenty of buyers, so you’ll want to see what your competition is offering. Free shipping, however, is not a requirement, and it doesn’t always mean more sales.
In many cases, a cheaper listing with shipping costs will sell better than a higher-cost listing with free shipping.
Try out different pricing and shipping cost combinations to see what your audience responds to most, carefully tracking the data overtime. Remember that you must account for shipping costs in one way or another or it will eat into your bottom line and can result in a major loss of profitability.
7. Focus on Quality in Your eBay Listing
When you go on any high-quality eCommerce site online, you’ll hopefully find product descriptions that are designed to sell.
You aren’t just seeing a product that says, “purple vase.” It will talk about how the purple glass vase was handblown in Portugal by a glass-blowing master who has been keeping the family business alive after two generations. They’ll talk about the gleam of the vase, and how it’s strong and durable, resistant to cracks, making it easy to clean and care for.
You want to treat all of your listings like you’re trying to make a sale. Convince buyers that this item is what they need and explain why. This can go a long way in helping you stand out from the other billions of listings.
8. Distribute eBay Offers Proactively
Being proactive is always a great choice for eBay sellers, as it allows you to gain the upper hand and re-engage potential buyers who haven’t yet converted. This is one of those selling tips for eBay that are often forgotten about, but that can be incredibly effective
Reaching out to users who are watching your listing but not buying, for example, is an outstanding call. Plenty of users will “watch” items as a way to save them while reviewing other products, and to see if they can take advantage of a lower price.
Send exclusive discounts to high-intent buyers who are watching your item. They need a nudge, and even a few dollars off can result in a fast sale, allowing you to profit and move merchandise quickly.
eBay Selling Tips Conclusions
If you’re looking to drive more sales on for your small business, keep these eBay tips for sellers in mind. Each one will help you sell more by increasing your visibility, giving your brand a competitive edge, or showing buyers why your listing is the one they need to purchase from.
And when you’re struggling with selling tips on eBay or just selling in general in a multi-platform, cross-channel capacity, remember that there are a number of tools that can help with this. Check out what we can do for you here.
What do you think? Which eBay tips for sellers have you tried out? What strategies have you used to increase your sales and drive results? Share your thoughts and questions with us on Twitter!
PS: Speaking of eBay we just wrote a post about another eBay tool that is similar to JoeLister: InkFrog Review
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