It’s always a good thing when the ecommerce platform you use is profitable itself. That means it’s using smart tech tools to drive traffic and buyers to your store. According to Yahoo! Finance, eBay’s first quarter profits for 2013 rose 14 percent to $3.7 billion (compared to Q1 of 2012).
Also during this period, eBay, Inc. gained 2.8 million new customers—even better for merchants looking to reel in customers. Today’s shoppers seek out bargains and enjoy on-the-go shopping using their smartphones and tablets, so it’s not surprising a little over 50 percent of shoppers are using these devices to buy from online merchants and skipping brick and mortar stores.
With eBay profits on the rise, OC Designs Online decided to offer you some industry tips to help you sell on eBay and gain the profits you desire.
Are You Competing with Yourself?
Many eBay retailers do this and don’t realize this can do more harm than good. What is competing with yourself? Say you have 30 women’s tops in different sizes and colors but all are the same style. Instead of listing them separately, list them as one item.
Use your item description to discuss sizes and colors and if you can, include a size chart. Take advantage of drop down menus so shoppers can select the color and size they want.
If you list all of them as one item each, this appears bothersome to the shopper. You can still capitalize on your lots being found if you use keywords to indicate S-M-L-XL, etc. When you have many items of the same type, often the Buy-It-Now option is better than a standard auction. Check out how our eBay listing templates will change the game in your store.
Speaking of Keywords…
To help you sell on eBay, you need to consider keywords—these are the words shoppers type in the search eBay tool. If we go back to those 30 women’s tops, below is an example of the wrong and right way to list them to avoid keyword spamming.
Item Description: ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless Tops | Many Colors and Sizes
Wrong: These ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless Tops are made of 100% cotton and who doesn’t love an ABC Diane Women’s Cut Sleeveless Top? The sizes for these ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless Tops are S-M-L-XL and the colors for these ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless Tops are peach, white, turquoise, black and orange. These ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless tops are great to dress up your summer wardrobe.
Right: These ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless Tops are made of 100% cotton and are available in S-M-L-XL. All tops are NWTs and come in a variety of colors to enhance your summer wardrobe. These sleeveless tops have a side zipper, delicate embroidery on the neckline and are so soft you’ll need more than one. Use the dropdown menu to select color and size.
See the difference between the wrong and right way? If you overuse the item words, “ABC Diane Cut Women’s Sleeveless Tops” as many times as we did here, search engines like Google—and even eBay may penalize you in a consumer search.
How to Price Items Correctly
People come to eBay for bargains. At OC Designs Online, one of our staff members loves J Jill clothing—especially their linen tops. She has told us when searching for these tops some buyers are selling them at the exact same price as J Jill and to eBay shoppers, that’s no bargain.
We used this item as an example but you need to watch overpricing and underpricing your eBay items. If a shopper finds your price as high or almost as high as the manufacturer, why wait for it to be shipped from you? They’ll simply head to the store and get the items they want now.
Research what others are selling similar items for and price items accordingly. If using an auction format, if you price them attractively, bidders will compete with each other and you’ll get that top price you want.
Make Your Store Appealing
This is where OC Designs Online can help you sell more on eBay—by designing a store people are attracted to. If you take your retailer hat off and really look at your storefront, is it appealing, eye-grabbing and noticeable? Would you want to browse the store?
Or, are you relying solely on the images of your items to get customers to buy from you? People are drawn to graphics and images and calls-to-actions like Deals of the Day or Week. Their eyes prefer the well-designed and engaging to the white with your logo-at-the-top kind of store.
Check out some of the eBay store designs we’ve created to get an idea of how your plain and dull store could be turned into a stunning online store. Consider the small investment for a professionally designed eBay store as the equivalent of hiring a full-time sales staff.
Designs, images, graphics and custom listing templates become a sales force to be reckoned with and you don’t have to pay this sales team a salary!
We really do want to help you sell on eBay so get a free quote on a fabulous and unique store design, follow the other tips above and soon you’ll be counting the profits!