Use My eBay to Track Sales

Your My eBay page is your own personal dashboard to track all your activity on eBay. Simply click My eBay on top of any eBay page to reveal the items you are selling, items that are sold, shipping addresses of your customers, messages from your prospective buyers and to manage your personal information and communication preferences.  You can enter your tracking information, keep track of your selling totals and much more!

Shipping on eBay Made Easy

By using the United States Postal Service, you can print your shipping labels directly from eBay. You do not need to take a trip and then have the package weighed at the post office. Just purchase a shipping scale to makes it easy to ship from your home. You can get a shipping scale from any local post office or even online at eBay. With this type of ease of service, the United States Postal Service is one of the best shipping methods on eBay in most cases.

Positive Feedback on eBay

The golden rule of eBay ~ You must get good feedback from your customers. These positive feedbacks will help you to get more buyers for your products. Buyers look for eBay seller’s feedback when they buy items on eBay. Positive feedbacks are very important for you as a seller. Try to avoid any conflict, which may get you negative feedbacks from your customers. You have to take pride in your feedback. Build the trust of customers and project a credible image throughout the eBay community by striving for outstanding feedback from others. Your feedback is one of the most essential parts of your marketing and it goes a long way in building the customer's confidence in doing future business with you. While it is not always possible to please everyone, and you cannot allow buyers to bully you, doing everything you can to please the customer without compromising your integrity will go a long way. Great communication with each customer goes a long way on eBay ~ if people have a "relationship" with you, they are more apt to tolerate small issues.

Accurate Item Descriptions are a Must

Accurate Descriptions are a must. You want every buyer to get exactly what they expect when they made that bid. Your feedback is your most important tool to get new buyers interested in your items. Writing a thorough description can really pay off in the price you receive for your item.  Include the item dimensions, what is is made of, a thorough description of any areas that cannot be visualized in your photo, if applicable.  Consider what you would like to know about the item if you were looking at your photo and considering a purchase.  The more information you provide in your description, the better.  You can avoid a buyer attempting to say your item is not as described after the sale. 

Choosing End Times for eBay Auctions

The end time of auctions is very important.For example, if you are selling children's clothing, an auction ending at 8-9 a.m. or 7-8 p.m. on a weekday will not likely be viewed by mothers of young children since those hours involve getting children ready for school and getting children ready for bed. Most auctions end between 8pm-10pm, especially on Sunday evenings, however if you are selling in a very busy category you might find selling at this time is of detriment to you as so many items will be ending. A lot of people who sell are at work and as such, lunchtime is an ideal time for them to shop on eBay. The best results for your product can be obtained by viewing the closing price of competitors items. After choosing the category, click on "completed items" in the left navigation bar in eBay and you can view successful and unsuccessful sales including the times the items ended. Many eBay sellers also find the end of the month slower and the beginning of the month the best time to list due to shoppers having access to more money at the beginning of the month. Bottom line ~ think like your customer. If you were, for example, a mother of young children, when would you be shopping online? There are those who swear by listing on Sunday evening between 7 pm and 10 pm pacific time for a 7 day auction so their item ends during that time frame. I have alot of "Buy It Now" sales in my store on Tuesdays ~ there is no logic, but it is the case!

Choosing Keywords for eBay Auction Titles

You eBay auction title is key to buyers finding your item for sale. Remember that most eBay bidders find what they are looking for by using the search function. Be sure to use carefully chosen and accurate keywords in your title and description. eBay gives you 55 characters in your headline. Be sure to use all of them. This will help you get hits. Important keywords include the brand, color, size, and model number, if applicable. For example, if you are selling a used Vera Bradley handbag, "Vera Bradley" is going to be the most important keyword you use. Then the color or fabric, such as "Java Blue" would be equally important. Then "Handbag" and "Purse" would follow - we usually use both as people search for "Vera Bradley Handbag" and "Vera Bradley Purse". If you are selling cufflinks, think like your customers. Some people will search for "cuff links", others will search for "cufflinks". Use both versions in your title for increased exposure. People searching for "monogram cufflinks" will not easily find your item if you have "monogrammed cufflinks" in your title. The search is specific. Check "completed items" in the left eBay navigation bar to see the keywords others have used to successfully sell similar items.

eBay's Second Chance Offers

eBay’s Second Chance Offer feature allows more than one item to be sold from a single listing, saving on the listing fee for each additional sale. This is a great feature if you have more than one of the item you are selling and they are identical. For example, if you are have 5 identical Barbie Dolls and several people bid on your doll in auction, you can offer losing bidders that doll at their highest losing bid. If the winning bidder won the doll for $20.00, yet there was a losing bid of $19.50 and another for $18, you can decide to offer those bidders your dolls for $19.50 and $18 respectively. This is to your advantage because the offer means you do not have to list the item again and pay listing fees to sell your remaining dolls. It does not make sense if those bids are below an acceptable price that you are willing to sell for. When using second chance offers, you should be aware that you are making a trade-off between price and sales volume, as second chance offers are inevitably lower than the item’s final price.