It’s a new year and a new time to sell. No matter whether your holiday selling season was better than usual or not-so-great, resolve to make this new year, your best year ever for eBay sales. Here are seven easy ways to clean up your inventory and kickstart the brand new year of eBay sales.
1. Check relevancy of listings
Having lots of views but low sales on a listing is not a good thing. Not only are sellers missing sales, but they are also being punished by eBay’s search engine, Cassini. The specialised algorithm Cassini uses interprets listings such as these as being irrelevant to customers and hence lowers its search result placing. Cassini prefers to reward listings that have a high rate of buyers clicking through and actually purchasing the item. This means that other buyers looking for similar items find relevant listings quicker when they search on eBay and are more likely to purchase. Cassini, much like eBay sellers, is all about making as many successful sales as possible.
What to do: Take time to create quality listings. Put yourself into the mind of the buyer: what search terms would they use to look for the item? What information do they absolutely need to know about the item? Be sure to read more about Cassini and the criteria it uses to rank search results.
2. Start a sale
When needing to kickstart sales or move old stock, traditional retailers start marking down prices. Profits will be lower but overall sales quantities are likely to increase. Sales are popular because they work. And they work on eBay too. If the aim is to move long-sitting inventory, consider deeply discounting select items in a short duration sale. This can encourage buyers to purchase quickly before the sale ends.
What to do: Discount items via the Promotions Manager dashboard and promote the sale via your store’s newsletter. Cut prices either by a specific amount or a percentage.
3. Include measurements in listings
Sometimes the most simple of changes can make the most difference. Buyers want as much relevant information about items as possible and the size of an item is often a key consideration. Comparison to coins or a ruler is helpful but nothing is quite the same as the actual measurements of the item. It will help buyers envisage the item before purchasing and potentially push them towards a sale. It also may help reduce the number of ‘Item Not As Described’ returns.
What to do: Quite simply, add accurate measurements to listings. For eBay.com and eBay.ca users, remember that listings that offer shipping to the U.S., North America, or worldwide automatically show up on both sites. Using both metric and imperial measurements in a listing is therefore ideal for a potential buyer’s convenience.
4. Consider selling internationally
No matter how big (or small) your home country may be, there is a whole world of buyers out there. Selling to a domestic market is generally considered to be the easier option but there is no question that it does limit sales. After all, over 149 million people around the world use eBay to buy and sell. There are a few different ways to sell internationally on eBay ranging from using the (admittedly controversial) Global Shipping Program to listing items on other eBay sites.
What to do: Research methods of selling internationally and think about whether this is something that could be incorporated into your business. There is potential for more sales but there are some important considerations to acknowledge and understand when selling internationally on eBay.
5. Experiment with auctions
Auctions are a bit of a polarising subject with eBay sellers. Some sellers swear by them for high sales while others firmly believe fixed price listings give the best results. Most eBay sellers should agree however that both auctions and fixed price listings have their benefits and disadvantages. Auctions, for one thing, always offer the potential of selling an item far beyond its original listing price. Auctions are also helpful for clearing out stock that may have been sitting for a while.
What to do: If auctions aren’t usually your go-to eBay selling method, consider trying a few to reduce your inventory and start the year with a cleaner slate. Start auctions at a price you are willing to accept if there are no more bids.
6. Try eBay’s Promoted Listings
Sellers who haven’t already tried using eBay’s Promoted Listings feature should consider having a go. While it may seem gimmicky and/or another eBay cash grab, Promoted Listings is actually more seller friendly than first imagined. The most important aspect is that sellers do not pay any upfront costs and also do not pay if the promoted item does not sell. Since Fall 2017, single quantity listings have been eligible to be promoted as well as multi-quantity listings.
What to do: Use eBay’s Promoted Listings feature to reduce long-sitting inventory. The set-up process is quick and simple since the system uses existing listings. The ad rate is a percentage between 1% to 20% of the sale price (decided by the seller), billed only after the item sells.
7. Research the competition
For items that do not seem to be selling, don’t forget to check the competition. Keeping an eye on your competition, in general, is a good idea for any kind of eBay business. If a competitor is selling the same type of items (or indeed, the exact same item) at a lower price or with a higher quality listing, then it will be more difficult to sell. The easiest way to do this is to search for items you’re selling and check for recently sold listings with the same item.
What to do: Search for recently sold items and compare the price, description and photos to your own listings. Also, examine what day of the week the item sold on and try to see if there is a trend between similar items.
Do you have any eBay selling goals for the new year? Tell us about them and how you hope to achieve them in the comments
