Simple Steps To Maximize Your eBay Sales

As an eBay seller is imperative you say ahead of the competition and any rival sellers you may have. eBay is such a highly competitive market place that in order to succeed you are required to constantly think of new and creative ways to market your product.

Competition is a good thing, especially on an auction site such as eBay. However it’s important you keep a close eye on what your rivals are doing, or in some cases, not doing. Compare your own listings with those of other sellers and try to take advantage of their failings.

It can be difficult to know how to get the edge over any competition, especially if you are selling a particularly popular or readily available item. Over the years I have tried many different approaches to selling, finding that some ideas worked better than others.

See if you can implement the following ideas into your business.

1. Low Starting Prices
By running a few auctions starting at just 1 cent, when a potential customer perform a search by “Lowest Price First” your item should be listed near the top. If you are selling a sought after item then bidding should eventually reach your estimation, and by attracting so many early bidders it may well create a bidding frenzy in the closing stages.

Even though you can ultimately only sell the item to one customer, the initial low price will generate a lot of interest from other members. You’ll find this additional traffic will often click through to your other items and eBay store.

2. Listing Times
One thing I’ve noticed when it comes to eBay is that most of my sales occur in the last 24 hours of the auction ending. If you list an item for 10 days, due to eBay displaying search results in the order of “ending first”, your list will most likely be displayed on the last page of search results.

Often, many customers get fed up after clicking through 2 or 3 pages, and therefore will not even see your listing until it is closer to the end date. When your item finally comes into the last 24-hours, it will probably be showing on the first page of search results, and therefore getting far more exposure.

For this reason, I like to list items every single day. By constantly having items in this 24-hour window your listings will gain far greater exposure.

Ultimately, the goal here is to just get people looking at your items. Even if they don’t purchase the item they initially clicked on, they may always click on “See Seller’s Other Items” and buy an alternative item you have.

3. Auction Listing / Sales Page
If you find there is a lot of stiff competition in your particular market then your sales page could be the one thing that separates you from the crowd. Have you ever opened an auction to find row after row of text without spaces breaks. It’s not very attractive and can be very difficult to read. With that said, here are some tips on what you can do to improve your sales page.

• Break the listing into small, digestible portions. Paragraphs make it easier for the customer to find the information they are looking for. Use bullet points to separate lists of features.

• Use bold font on information you wish to highlight or on any major selling points.

• Offer a returns policy. You probably won’t get many buyers asking for a refund, however seeing some soft of 30-Day Guarantee will give them confidence in you, and they will be more likely to buy from you over a seller who does not offer it.

4. Payment Options
It may sound simple, but try to offer as many payment options as possible. Some buyers and sellers absolutely loathe Paypal so see if you can find an alternative to offer, such as NoChex.

Why not accept physical payments such as checks and money orders. It may take a little longer to receive the payment however offering a wide range of payment methods will definitely increase the number of potential customers you have.

I hope you have found this information useful and that your business benefits from it. All the suggestions are free and generally take only 5 – 10 minutes to set up.

Richard Gilbert is successful online entrepreneur who has been selling on eBay since 2003. He now operates a website specializing in helping eBook sellers to succeed. Visit him at www.allaboutebooks.net

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