7 Ways to Boost Your eBay Sales
I'll be honest with you, if you want to increase your sales on eBay, it will take some effort. That said,
there are strategies that have proven time and time again to work for eBay sellers, so you simply need to
follow the steps and do the work.
First, Establish Yourself as a Reliable Seller
Represent yourself as a trustworthy seller. This will encourage people to buy from you over other
sellers.
How do you do this? Include complete information on your listings. Include all terms and conditions of the
sale so that your buyers know that you are up front with them.
Make it easy ad convenient for people to buy from you. This means offering multiple forms of payment, a
return policy and a product guarantee when possible. This increases customer trust.
Create a brand and logo for your eBay business. If you are going to be considered as a professional seller
on eBay it is important to have a corporate identity. It also helps shoppers to recognize you.
Build a website. This shows buyers that you take your business seriously, and they are more likely to trust
that they can contact you with questions and that you sell quality products.
Second, Open an eBay Store
Opening an eBay store increases your exposure both on eBay and on the web. This increases the liklihood of
shoppers finding you. It also increases your trustworthiness. Here are some things to do:
- List your entire inventory. Items can be listed for a fraction of the price of auction listings giving
your business a way of vastly expanding the number of items available for sale.
- Up selling to customers. Place selected items in the auction listings and use these to drive traffic to
your store where they can make additional purchases.
- Typically eBay shop owners sell up to 25% more items.
Third, Improve the Presentation of Your Products
Explain as much as you can about the product, include pictures at multiple angles and close up images. Note
any damage or issues that the buyer should be aware of. Shoppers will also want to know any other costs and
purchasing procedures associated with the item, like shipping and handling costs, how fast the item is shipped,
return policy, forms of payment accepted, etc..
Fourth, Use Free Advertising Methods
As an eBay seller it is important to make use of all the opportunities available to drive traffic to your
products and eBay shop.
Link to your eBay shop. All you listings, about me page, email and eBay shop custom pages should link back
to your eBay shop and encourage buyers to take a look at your other listings. Cross promote with other eBay
users. Within eBay there is the facility to make arrangements with other eBay sellers to cross promote each
other's products. Make arrangements with seller who sell complimentary products to yours.
Auctiva shopping window. Auctiva (www.auctiva.com) produce a free eBay scrolling product bar. This goes at
the bottom of each listing and displays scrolling pictures of the other products which the user has for sale.
Use this to promote your other products to browsers. According to Vendio such galleries increase sales by
18%.
Optimize your eBay Shop for search engines. Within the eBay shop set up it is possible to input keywords for
which you would like your shop optimized, and also to make a feed file available for shopping comparison
sites.
Take advantage of Froogle. Froogle is Google's shopping comparison site. It accepts fixed price products and
unlike all the other comparison sites it is free. Create a feed file (basically a spreadsheet with product
descriptions, product URLS and image URLs) of your eBay shop items and submit this is Froogle.
Internet shopping malls. There are several eBay shop listing sites which can be used to list your shop, the
most popular being http://www.listmystore.com.
Create an "About Me" page on eBay. This lets shoppers learn more about you and what you offer. It can also
build trust and help people feel more comfortable buying from you.
Email your past customers. Build an email list when people buy from you so you can let them know about new
products that may interest them.
Fifth, Incorporate Enhanced Listing Features.
Photos, gallery images and subtitles have statistically shown to improve sales results for sellers. You may
want to test these strategies on your own listings to see which combinations work best for you. See what other
competing sellers are doing.
Sixth, Remove Barriers that May Prevent People from Buying
Accept buyers from different countries, accept multiple forms of payment, offer faste shipping or a
variety of shipping options. Think about why someone would visit your eBay listing page and walk away
without making a purchase. Try to eliminate potential barriers so you can increase your sales.
Lastly, Use Listing Software
Save yourself time in the listing process, and you will be able to list and sell more products. This can
increase the money you make in the same period of time. Trevor Ginn is an eBay consultant at Auctioning4u
consulting (http://www.auctioning4u.co.uk). He is also an avid eBay
blogger (http://www.trevorginn.com)
