Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to listing on Ebay. There are simple steps that can be taken at any point in your selling journey in order to remove as much of the hassle, the mundane and avoid the burnout that many sellers experience. This article will outline the content a template for Ebay selling should contain, as well as some friendly advice from one Ebay seller to another.
An All-encompassing Goal
I have met some folks in my life who claim to enjoy the morbidly unexciting or downright loathsome tasks that life sometimes requires of us. Things like chopping garlic or onions. I, on the other hand, seek to avoid them at all costs.
Uploading listings to Ebay can be another of those unpleasant tasks but that is the beauty of creating a template on which you are going to base every listing you upload to Ebay. Why do work every time you upload a listing, if you could do that work one time and be done with it forever?
I introduce each listing with the phrase, “You are bidding on a…” I should probably change that as I run very few actual auctions these days but that just goes to show how long I’ve been using this template and how the need will arise to adjust or evolve as your business or listings change over time.
However you introduce your item, that is up to you. As you develop your template, keep in mind that the goal is to simply delete the item being sold and replace it with a new item without changing any more information in the listing than is necessary to make it relevant to the new item being listed.
Clearly Stated Shipping Policy
The more room you leave for wiggle, a customer will take advantage and find it. So, take you time and be thorough and consider all the factors involved when developing your shipping policy. Can you ship your items overseas? Are you offering free shipping on all purchases? These are just a couple considerations among a multitude that are present.
State your policy as concisely as possible while including all pertinent information for your customers to have confidence their item will arrive as intended. Most sellers seem to be annoyed by questions from buyers. If a seller has the proper information included in every listing they upload, they will receive far fewer questions from buyers because they educated them correctly in the listing.
A Sense Of Who You Are And What To Expect
I see it all the time where the content of a listing makes it clear the seller takes no pride in the job they do. If that is the message you send with your listings, your sales will suffer as a result. Whether it is bad grammar, misspelled words or just the general sense you done give a crap, there’s no place for any of that in your Ebay listings.
You should portray yourself as a professional even if you’re not. Like they say, “fake it until you make it.” Online customers are pretty savvy when it comes to sniffing out a fraud, so put your best foot forward and develop, implement and communicate a brand and policies that engender confidence from your clientele.
This may seem like an extremely daunting task but if you’ll just think about what you appreciate in businesses that you purchase from, you can likely come up with a sense of how you would like to carry yourself as a seller. It’s pretty common sense stuff and remember, you can adjust your template and allow it to evolve and change as you see fit moving forward.
Sell Yourself: Captivate Your Customer
If you donate a portion of your listings to a charitable cause, that should be included and explained in your listing. A charitable cause gives you an opportunity to tell your customer about yourself and what your business does to help others.
Ebay allows sellers to link to a favorite button and also to your store. All sellers should take advantage of this as it will only increase return customers to your Ebay store and familiarity with your online brand.
Your template should contain all information necessary for the customer to be aware of any regular charity auctions that you run and the organization the auctions benefit.
If you sell items that are condition-sensitive(or used) then some explanation of or qualifications for your condition grading system should be included. It doesn’t have to be exhaustive but should at least give customers a solid idea of what to expect when their package arrives and is opened.
You’ll Find Your Way, Find Ours Too
The most important thing is to include all information common to all of your Ebay listings, while including nothing that you have to remove for the next listing. Remember, your goal here is to avoid as much stress and anxiety as possible by doing the work once, to be used over and over, rather than doing the work on each individual listing.
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Hey there,
It’s evident that you have experience selling on eBay and have developed a template to streamline your process. Creating a template is an excellent way to save time and avoid repetitive tasks. Your template includes:
An all-encompassing goal.
A shipping policy.
A sense of who you are as a seller.
Ways to captivate your customer.
These are all essential components of an effective eBay listing. I appreciate that you included some friendly advice for other eBay sellers, such as portraying yourself professionally and having all the necessary information in your listing to avoid customer questions. Your post provides valuable insights for anyone looking to improve their eBay selling process.
Thank you Amyas, I am glad you enjoyed reading the article, that makes it well worth my time in creating it! You have a strong mastery of the points delineated in the article as you point by point list shows.
There are many principles that can be advantageous for Ebay seller to imitate when starting out as it is difficult sometimes to find one’s footing without some guidance or previous experience with the issue of creating a welcoming mood for prospective buyers.
If you wish to dig a little deeper, check out this article where I talk about the best program to help build any website.
Hey Joseph,
Was looking for some tips since I’m starting to sell some collectibles on Ebay and I’m completely clueless on how to create my listing to get peoples’ attention. I’m glad I found this post, I’m a strong believer of not just having a good price, but also an excellent sales pitch for the customer to be informed and feel confident in their purchase.
Do you have some advice for a future collectibles seller? been looking at the competition and not sure if I should follow a similar format or stick my own template to stand out? thank you for this information.
Hey Victor, thank you for the questions about how to get started selling on Ebay. There are a few principles you can follow that will serve you well and allow you to discover your own niche as a seller.
When starting out, focus on the facts. Do as much research as you can about the items that you are selling. That’s what prospective buyers are looking for above all else, honesty and knowledge and proficiency in the items that you are selling.
I might add another small thing that makes a big difference. Always crop your photos as close as possible before uploading them to your listing. Sure, anyone can zoom in to get a better look but why make a buyer do that if they don’t have to?
This is an awesome post on how to sell things successfully on eBay! I personally found the template super helpful and timely because I’m building up a new e-commerce store right now. I think this template is actually great for any e-commerce site whether or not you’re using eBay so thank you so much for writing this post! I’ll definitely be modelling after this template for some of my products.
Thank you Kevin and I appreciate your insight. Most of the elements of this template are just common sense kind of stuff for those trying to run an online store of any kind but also good principles for any business owner to follow. You want to provide the most simple customer experience possible, taking the burden of shipping and handling on yourself and off the customer. I believe that will pay off in the long and short term because it’s just another element of the transaction the customer doesn’t have to bother themselves with.
Hi,
I have considered starting an e-commerce business for some time now but I have just not been able to nail it down yet. One of the issues I need to clarify is which platform to start from. I know about Shopify, and Amazon and I just read your article about eBay. Which of these platforms would you advise a newbie like me to start with?
Hey Oluseyi, thank you so much for stopping by and asking such a thoughtful question. I think Ebay is the perfect platform for a person to start with because you can have a business up and running in a matter of minutes without the worry of huge overhead, or large layouts of cash just to get started.
The online marketplace is vast and many platforms may have found a niche that enables their success but I have found Ebay to be the best even though many people like to complain about their fees, it all comes out of the transactions you complete and not your pocket which is very important to many, especially in the beginning.
There are tools available to integrate your Ebay store within a working website that you are able to drive and derive traffic to and from. I hope this helps!