Tips for sellers selling on eBay

[indraneel@ebay.com]

It has always been our endeavour to understand how buyers use different sort functions on eBay to search for the deals they are looking for.

What are buyers looking for?

Today’s consumers want choice, great deals, unique products, customization and specialization. Now this is not to say that we’re seeing the end of mass marketed, commodity products. It’s only to say that buyers are also hungry for something unique. They like new ideas, bundled offers, products and concepts. They like hard to find, obscure, up and coming brands. All this at great prices!

And the easiest way to find success as an eBay seller is to offer these kinds of products. Buyers in this segment are happy to search through 10 pages of results to find the product that is right for them. It pays off handsomely in terms of steady sales.

Specific & relevant selling

This means which listings are the most relevant to the buyer’s search. The more generic your product is, for example “silver hoop earrings”, the more likely those buyer search results are to return thousands of listings and pages and pages of search results.
And the harder you will have to compete (with all the other listings) to get your listing on those first pages of eBay's search results.

Importance of Keywords

In ecommerce, KEYWORDS play a vital role. Keywords, much more than browsing, are the way that the majority of people will find what YOU have to sell. Therefore, it is important, that no matter what you sell, you pay close attention to the keywords you use to describe the products you sell. Are they accurate? Are they relevant to your product? Are you using brand names, model numbers, colors, styles, descriptions, feature names, describing the functionality of the product?

Even if you STOCK the best products in the world, if you are using vague, non-descriptive keywords in your title and listing descriptions, shoppers will be hard pressed to find your products.

How shipping charges impact your visibility in search results?

With the increased competition in eCommerce, buyers have become much more sensitive to shipping costs on eBay. Expensive shipping is a reason some buyers leave eBay.

Hence eBay has made arrangements for listings that provide good shipping prices and offer the best opportunity to deliver great buyer satisfaction. Factors such as Relevance, Time Ending, Seller Performance, and Shipping & Handling decide where you are placed on the search results. The better you are on the above fronts the higher buyer visibility you gain through your listings placed on the first set of pages with search results. We recommend that you offer ‘Free Shipping’ which helps you increase your Shipping & handling DSR scores and thereby catch the first sight of the buyer.

Offer ‘Free Shipping’ to enjoy buyer’s preference

Free shipping deals play a major role in whether consumers buy in a store or online. 18% of respondents said they shop in stores so they won't have to pay for shipping and 33% said they have bought from web site instead of a store because the retailer offered free shipping. Three out of five online customers said the availability of free shipping greatly influenced their choice to shop at one e-retailer instead of another.

Avoiding shipping costs was the third most common response for why shoppers choose to buy in a store rather than on a retailer's website, behind the ability to receive the product immediately and being able to see or feel an item before purchase.

Moreover, consumers gave the retailers offering free shipping higher scores in every satisfaction category than those not offering it. The categories include: likelihood to purchase online, brand commitment, likelihood to return, likelihood to recommend and overall retailer satisfaction.

E-retailers are realizing that free shipping is a major selling point, the study shows. 68% of shoppers recall some kind of shipping offer – a percentage that has increased steadily over the last three years, 20% of holiday customers surveyed said they saw no free shipping offers over the holidays, while 12% did not remember.

Join this workshop to learn more about how buyers search for deals, variety and exclusive items on eBay.

See you on –
Wednesday, 11th February, 4 – 5 PM to learn more on selling on eBay.

Please feel free to ask any questions regarding 'Selling on eBay' on this thread.



Regards,
The eBay Team

[yash@ebay.com]

Hi venusjewellers,

Listing fee on eBay is just Re. 1 per listing. Moreover, beyond Rs. 1500/- there are no listing fees charged. This means at Rs. 1500/- you have the freedom to showcase your entire inventory and attract numerable buyers that come on ebay from all over the world. Also, listing fees act as a catalyst to prevent junk listings on the site. If we are to refund the listing fees if the item does not sell then sellers would take this as granted and do bulk/junk listings to take a chance if the item sells and thereby impact the marketplace health of quality supply. Also if we refund and assuming that sellers pass on this benefit on their items, a Re. 1 deduction in the item price won’t actually make a difference to the buyer.

On listing fee refund - Listings fees is refunded if the seller lists the same item again, and if it successfully sells. This ensures that junk items do not clutter buyer experience.

Moreover, in any business that you do there is a cost of operating business. I’m sure you would agree that @ Rs. 1500/- max per month the business investment is not high at all. Regards

Yash

[indraneel@ebay.com]

Hi mysalesoffer,

It’s been long since we exchanged a dialogue. I’m glad to see you here.

I understand that your concern is similar to what Amitava123gems and Tachusglobal have raised. However, your point is valid on giving shipping discounts to a buyer buying multiple items but still you can give him discounts by offering selling discounts and charges on multiple purchases.



keep posting!!


Regards,
Indraneel

[indraneel@ebay.com]

Hi home_n_lights,

Firstly, let me thank you for your suggestions and assure you that no suggestion put on our discussion forums falls on deaf ears.

I am sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience of selling to such buyers.

While we are taking various steps in this regard to ensure that marketplace is safe and clean, we would like to advise you to set buyer requirements and keep a feedback criterion for choosing only buyers who have got feedback in the past which means that they have transacted successfully in the past.

Consider your account on ebay being an offline retail store. You have no control over who’s entering your shop and who is there just for browsing items and not serious or who is serious and wants to buy. Similarly, we cannot restrict anyone for registering on eBay and then browsing the items. I understand that there is section of buyers who do not pay after bidding however this is applicable to only a small section of buyers and a few categories. To your suggestion of asking the credit card details for online payment to auto-debit his account once he is the winning bidder is something worth exploring but I see this as a challenge when most internet users are still hesitant to use their credit card online.

I’m sure no one wants to limit the number of buyers on the site by creating a mental blockage for such buyers that they have to reveal their credit card details.

Having said the above, there is no denying that unpaid buyers are a cause for concern and rest assured that the efforts are put to ensure that the number of such buyers only keep reducing month over month.


Keep posting!!


Regards,
Indraneel

[indraneel@ebay.com]

Hi pcpriceline,

Yes, you are correct in fact I’d go a step further and say that ‘the better is the listing the better it works for you to convince the buyer’. Your listing is basically your online salesman which ensures that all the concerns/queries of a customer are met and he is convinced that the item he is looking at is the right choice for him. Hence your statement that it converts visitors to buyers is true.

I saw your listings and they are good. Since you are keen on creating some distinguished listings, I’d suggest you to have a look at listings of these sellers (Toycuriousityshop, mugal_art, antiqueastrolab) which I think are great listings. Taking great pictures and including as many pictures as you can for the listing only enhances the visual display of that listing.

However, to get visitors to buyers you need make several attempts so that you assure that the visitors on the site are attracted towards your listings. Using Listing upgrades such as Featured Plus, gallery featured & ProPack will prioritize your listings to be placed at the top and thereby catch the first glimpse of the visitor then it’s the listing that will sell your item.

Similarly, buyers search with many criteria such as Free Shipping, New Items, specific category and specific product lines. Once they have short listed such search results then they start browsing through them. If the search results go into many listings then differentiators such as Bold, border and highlight will help you attract the visitors onto your listings and then rest the listings will do the talking.

One more suggestion: Please do not include links external to eBay (such as http://www.PCPriceLine.com) while posting on the community boards as this is a violation of the Board policies. Please read more on the Board Policies a href="http://pages.ebay.in/help/policies/everyone-boards.html">here.


Keep posting!!


Regards,
Indraneel

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi kmchoksey,

Welcome to eBay and we are glad to have you on board. We appreciate your effort in posting your requirements on this thread.

We will arrange for a free training for you on the same.

Regards,
Sapana

[indraneel@ebay.com]

Thank you all for making this Online Workshop an interactive one.

I promise to have more such Online Workshops in the future!!


Keep Posting!!


Regards,
Indraneel