eBay is a wonderful site where people all over the world can buy or sell items in a highest-bidder gets the item way. Because of this, many people have found the site a wonderful place to begin a side-hustle or full-time income. Of course, as with any site involving algorithms, there are some tips and tricks you can use to boost your sales and profits when using eBay.
Listen to Your Customers
Just like a physical store location, your eBay listings should be looked at as shops. Pay attention to the feedback customers give you both directly and indirectly through algorithmic data. Consider including the most commonly asked questions you get in messages within your postings. Perhaps people want to know if an item has a specific feature before they buy it. If you add that information into your post, people might have everything they need to decide to buy, and your sales could go up.
Every message you get sent by eBay users is something that is highly valuable. Ask yourself if there is anything you could do to make this potential customer’s (or future customers like this person’s) life easier. Do that.
Rethink Your Headlines
You have only a few seconds to grab a browser’s interest in a post, and more often than not, it’s your posting headline that is going to be holding them or letting them skim over your post. Take some time to craft an informative headline that addresses the pain points of your potential customers. Do they have questions or needs that your item can solve? What are common worries when people buy this sort of item? If, when reading comments and reviews on similar items, you find that people are often disappointed by the durability of this type of item, and you know what you’re selling is durable, include that in the headline.
Price Your Items Right
This one might take a little bit of fiddling and readjust, posting, and reposting until you get it right, but it’s well worth the time. To begin, search similar items on eBay and other sites to get an idea of the typical price range. It’s important to note that the price of things is changing all the time, and if you keep an eye on how prices are flowing, you stand to make a fair bit of money. This is part of the reason there’s such a flipping hype regarding certain items like designer clothing or accessories or collectible toys. Sometimes something goes for sale in stores at one price, but then can be sold for much more on eBay a few weeks or months later once the item has sold out of the stores.
Keep Your Store Active
Algorithms reward people who hang out on the site and get other people to hang out on the site too. Keep your listings fresh by posting new items or reposting older times. Interact with your customers when appropriate.
Do Some Keyword Research
Spend a little time looking into what consumers are searching for word-wise when it comes to your item. Let’s say you have a recipe book that you want to sell. Maybe people aren’t searching “recipe book;” maybe they’re searching “kid-friendly recipes” or “quick and healthy dinners.” Learning about the keywords surrounding your items can help you craft better copy and appear in more search results for those who need your product the most. The eBay algorithm wants to give people as close to what they searched for as possible, make it easy for the site by researching what people are searching.
Mind Your Shipping Habits and Fees
Sometimes something is traveling far away, and so it’s going to take a while. Sometimes there’s an international pandemic that slows things down. Certain times of the year, like the holidays, also tend to overwhelm delivery services. This being said, do your best to ship things quickly and cheaply to your customers.
Whenever possible, offer free shipping—this is something that catches the eye of shoppers when they’re choosing between items. Long shipping times or expensive shipping costs are two of the most common reasons people leave a negative review, and this can hurt the overall presentation of your listing by lowering your average rating.
The above tips should get you set up for some successful selling on eBay. It’s important to note that doing well on eBay means constantly readjusting your listings and approach. Post something and then look for ways to improve upon it using the results you get and customer feedback. Post a new and improved listing, and again, learn as much as you can from it. Those who are successful on eBay don’t just toss something up and leave it; they’re always tweaking and trying to get better.
