Today we are going to take a deeper look into setting up an
EBay business.
We talked about in the previous post about opening an EBay
business and the basics of what it took to opening this type of business. Now
we will dive in a little deeper as too setting up an EBay account and running the
business. I listed several steps to help guide you along the process, hopefully
they
Step 1. The very first thing you will need to do is open and
EBay account and a PayPal account. You will need to do this in order to sell on
EBay and to collect the funds that you are owed for the items that you have
sold. Paypal is truly an awesome site that is easy to use and they accept all major
credit cards and will do international processing as well.
Step 2. Since you have just opened your first EBay account
you will want to build up some positive feedback. I would recommend purchasing
a few small inexpensive items to build up positive credibility and a positive
feedback score. Positive feedback will set your buyers minds at ease and it
will show people that you are a trustworthy person and that you have good
integrity.
Step 3. When it comes to selling items you will find a lot
of opinions on the web both positive and negative. Try to not look at the
negative opinions because there is no way to know why their EBay business did
not work for them. Focus on the positive comments and learn from these power
sellers.
In order to learn how to sell
items on EBay I would recommend selling some items that you may have laying
around the house at first so you can experiment with wording and pictures and
if you make a mistake it won’t cost you an arm and leg. Plus this will help you
de-clutter your home, garage and shed and put a few extra dollars in your
pocket.
If you are selling items like clothing, jewelry, or anything
that has a brand name, make sure that you put the brand name in the title and
description. Most people will be searching brand names in their search criteria
on EBay and if you do not have the name of the brand in the title or
description your item will not show up on their search list.
When it comes to condition of items, be 100% accurate and up
front in the description of the item. If there is a flaw or scratch in the item
make sure you mention it, I go as far as to take a picture of the flaw so
people will know about it and cannot come back after me for not mentioning the
scratch. People love it when you are honest and don’t try to sell something as
mint condition when in reality it has a flaw. This also go’s in helping to
build your credibility and good feedback on EBay.
Step 4. Take good pictures with a simple digital camera, you
do not need anything fancy or expensive save your money. I use a point and
shoot automatic camera, I do not use any kind of fancy high dollar camera. I do
spend some extra time staging the item so it has good clarity, and there are no
other items in the picture that would confuse the buyer.
With jewelry I try to use a black background that is nice
looking. I may take a cardboard box and put it on top of a table and cover it
with a clean black sheet. I smooth out the wrinkles, and place the item on top
of the covered box. I take several pictures from the front, top, and sides. I
then download the pictures into my computer and use a simple free picture
editing program in the computer to crop the photo and clean up any distortion
to the picture.
I have four or five different backgrounds that I use, it
just depends what I am selling and the color of the items. Staging to me is a
very important along with writing a good description, spending time with the
staging will make your item look more professional than your competitors.
Step 5. Pricing an item on EBay can be a little tricky. Do
some research on EBay or Amazon Auction for the same item that you are selling?
You do not want to over price your item and it does not sell, this is a waste
of time and listing fee’s. Find what everyone else is selling the item for, as
you will see some people take one or two pics of the item and write a brief
description of the item in hope that it sells. If you want a few more dollars
for your item, put on multiple pictures and write a detailed description of your
item. You may find that you will get a few more dollars for your item than your
competition since you put more effort into your listing.
Sometimes I will hold off on listing an item for 3 to 6
months in order for the market to turn around and the price to come back up.
Once in a great while I will put something on a shelf for a year because the
same exact item is selling to cheap and I have more invested in the item than
what it is selling for. A little patients does pay off.
Step 6. Writing a description and listing your items to sell
is at the top of the list of priority of importance. You do not want to take a
short cut on this.
- a. Brand Names
- b. Item Name
- c. Model Numbers
- d. Sizes
- e. Color
- f. Make of the material
- g. Circa
- h. Measurements
You Must! Give an extreme detailed description of the
item. Remember that you want your item to sell and not lose the customer to the
competition. There is a lot of competition on EBay so you want to make sure
that you stand out above the rest of them.
EBay selling manager is a great tool to use. They offer
different styles and templates to help you sell items. A listing template
contains everything you need to design your listing page. There is other
listing template software on the internet that you can use to dress up your product
listing page.
Step 7. Answering
Customer Question. Buyers will have all sort of questions for you. It is
imperative that you answer these questions as soon as possible. Customers would
not be asking questions about your product if they were not interested in
purchasing the item. Several of my customers ask questions about each item they
purchase and will not make a bid until their question is answered. Customers
can be fickle so do not let a customer slip away because you forgot to respond
to their question.
Step 8. Shipping and handling. There are many ways to ship
your items to the purchaser. I find that USPS has worked out the best for me.
You still can receive free shipping supplies from the USPS if you order them
correctly. Do some research online with the postal website to find these free items for shipping.
You will find that you get positive feedback from customers when you
ship quickly and you use good packaging. Do not go cheap when it comes to
packing the item to be shipped. I still remember receiving a 20” computer
monitor from a seller on EBay that came in a box with no protection put around
the monitor. There was no bubble wrap or peanuts in the box to protect it. I was very upset and I never bought another item from this customer, I
also did give him negative feedback.
Customers want their items fast and in good condition, so take that extra few minuets to package the item extremely good, it pays off in positive feedback from your customers.
These steps should help you in setting up your EBay
business. You will find a lot of positive and negative comments on having an
EBay business on the internet. But like any business it takes work and commitment in order to
make it successful. It is not one of those businesses that will make you get rich
overnight, but it can make you some serious money part time and could
eventually turn into a full time
business if you devote the time and energy to make it one.
