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We've all heard incredible stories of people making big money on eBay selling stuff they pick up at garage sales. While these stories create excitement at the thought of easy money with work from home,
hard work and determination are the key to selling on eBay. So you’ve been buying online auctions for a while, and now you’ve decided to sell on eBay. First, you will need to sign up as a seller and provide all the information asked for including a credit card number. Once that is complete, you're ready to begin listing your items. When thinking of what to sell, start with things you already familiar with and preferably passionate about! When you are already familiar with an item, you don't waste time wondering whether it will sell on eBay or how much you should pay for it. People generally go to eBay looking for deals on electronics, brand-name clothes, video games, computers, and software. Things that can be easily identified with words have strong eBay sales. Things that don’t sell well on eBay are things that don't have a hard and fast description, items that need to be touched or smelled or rely on aesthetics to sell. The reality of buying items from garage sales to sell on eBay is that if you don’t know what you are looking for you will just end up cluttering your own house. Don’t waste your Saturday wandering garage sales looking for “bargains”. If items you intend to sell are sometimes at garage sales (possibly collectables) call ahead! Another good approach is to research on eBay Australia what is already selling and then find a cheap source of that item. The best way to find cheap sources for these items is to work out a deal with a wholesaler. This way you get the best possible pricing and you can still make a profit! An even better arrangement is called drop shipping, this is when the wholesaler stores the product, and ships it directly to your customers. Drop shipping eliminates the need for storing your items, packaging, and shipping them, which is a massive time & space saving. You are effectively acting as a retailer for the wholesaler who benefits from sales with no overhead. There are software tools available to help create and manage eBay listings more efficiently. Turbolister is eBay software for bulk listing items, and there are other third party programs available. They all have slightly different features, so trial them by creating and uploading some listings, to decide which software tool to suits you. Once you have created a lot of listings with a tool, always backup to a database before accepting any software upgrades! The most important thing for online eBay stores of any kind is repeat business. To achieve this you must give customers a seamless and exciting shopping experience. Good communication is the number one ticket to repeat business. When contacted by a potential customer make sure to send a friendly fast reply. Talk the customer through the transaction with emails at each stage of the process. Things like “thank you for your payment your order is being process”, “Your items have been shipped, thank you for you purchase”. Follow up on the item to see if the customer was satisfied. All of this communication can be used to prompt further sales. Ship your item quickly. Top eBay sellers strive to ship within one day of payment. When sending a shipment always use registered post. This will provide tracking for the parcel, so in the rare event it does not arrive, it can be tracked or compensated with insurance. Without a tracking number you have nowhere to go if the customer raises a dispute over an unreceived item. Always include an incentive for repeat business, a flyer, discount, free postage, and if appropriate a freebie for a bit of extra excitement. Come back to these eBay tips now and then to continue to improve online selling for your eBay business. |
Comments (1)
Ebay
1
Saturday, 09 January 2010 02:31
Michelle Russell
Looking at selling all baby items. How do I get started?