I recently experienced a slow period for my eBay and Etsy sales as I took some family time. During my time with my family I stepped aside from my usual routine as a seller and my sales slowed down to a trickle!
I turned to eBay and Etsy sales basics.
I want to share with you exactly what I did that worked to turn my eBay and Etsy sales from a trickle to a steady stream of sales.
Breathe!
When sales slow down or stop altogether one’s first instinct is to panic!
The number one key to sales success online is take a moment to breathe and calm your thoughts. I know this can be hard when you’re looking at a stack of bills, but taking a deep breath and doing your best to let go of panic and stress is the best beginning.
OK, I’ve completed step one and I’m breathing deeply and relatively calm, now what?
The number two way to get your sales flowing on eBay and Etsy!
List!
The reason listing is key to increase sales is two fold. First when you list you give the eBay or Etsy search spiders new information for them to crawl. This also applies to the search spiders of Google, Yahoo and Bing. The other reason why listing is key to increase your online sales is more inventory means more potential customers. If you have 200 items listed, that’s 200 potential shoppers arriving to look at your online merchandise. If you have 100 listed, that’s 100 etc. I go into great detail explaining this in my new hit eBook The Secret To eBay Search For Sellers.
The basic rule of thumb is more listings means more shoppers!
The third key that reignited my eBay sales was I ran a sale! One of the great benefits of having an eBay store is that you can run a sale just like a brick and mortar retail establishment.
Run A Sale!
A sale in your eBay store accomplishes several things.
When you run a sale on eBay you get slash through pricing. Slash pricing catches the eye of online shoppers. When your price is lowered on eBay it can help your products to get better placement in eBay‘s Best Match search. Best Match is the default search on eBay. There are 3 ways to run a sale on eBay. You can use Markdown Manager, Promotions Manager, and/or the paid app CampaignGO. I like CampaignGO as I find it much faster than Markdown Manager. In addition I like the data it stores for on my sales results. CampaignGo is adding a Repeat Buyer Alert, so I can know when my previous customer(s) return to shop with me! You can create a sale that attracts shoppers on Etsy using coupons!
Breathe, list and run a sale to increase sales online!
When sales are slow you are looking for strategies that bring shoppers to your merchandise. Staying calm, listing and running a sale are proven successful strategies to increase profits on eBay, Etsy and anywhere you sell!
Every day of the year an online seller is facing catastrophic weather. Fire, tornadoes, torrential rain fall, hurricanes and more impact eBay and Etsy sellers regularly!
To successfully deal with the impact of a natural disaster on your online business it’s smart to take some time now to make an emergency business plan. When bad weather comes your way a well thought out emergency business plan alleviates stress on you during a very challenging time.
Take Time Now To Plan!
Make A Business Emergency Plan Now!
1-Where is your inventory? If your inventory is in your home, in a storage unit or warehouse make sure your items are off the ground. Inventory is best stored during bad weather as high as possible off the ground on metal shelves. Metal shelving is sturdier than plastic. Pick shelves that the height of the shelves can be customized for your needs. Consider raising the bottom shelf height when a storm heads your way.
Decide if you are best to hang clothing on a rack
or fold and put items in plastic bins. Plastic bins can help protect your inventory from rain. For most items cardboard boxes are not a wise storage choice. They are easily saturated by rain and offer little to no protection for your inventory,
2- Put Your Store On Vacation.
Be Smart! Put Your Store On Vacation!
If you have an Etsy shop consider putting your shop on vacation. Your shop listings will be blocked from buyers. If you regularly face bad weather, and sell digital downloads, consider having 2 Etsy Shops, 1 for your regular inventory and 1 for your digital products. With 2 shops you can leave your digital shop open for sales and vacation your other. Click here to learn how to put your Etsy Shop on vacation.
eBay sellers without an eBay store think about ending all your listings. With bad weather and potentially no electricity you don’t want to face trying to mail products and answering customer service inquiries. Once the bad weather has passed relist all your products. Investigate the fees involved an eBay store. It can be worth it to open a Basic Store for a short period of time, and use the store vacation setting to block your listings from shoppers. Here’s how to put your eBay store on vacation. http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/placing-store-vacation.html
There are 2 settings for putting an eBay store on vacation. You can block your listings or leave them available for sale. Facing horrible weather blocking your listings may be the best choice. Dealing with a tornado or a hurricane is stressful enough without thinking about shipping inventory. With horrific weather you may be without power for days. Should your inventory be portable and you have a trained co worker or family member not in the path of bad weather, moving your inventory and business to that person’s home may be a viable choice for you. If you are a Top Rated Seller with same or 1 business day handling, an extra precaution for you is to bulk edit your listings and change your handling time to 5 or more days.
3- Should Someone Have Your Passwords?
If you have a trusted friend, family member or employee you may want to give them the passwords to your account(s). If something needs to be done while you are unavailable a trusted family member or co worker can step in for you. Have them check customer messages while you are facing bad weather. If you are a drop shipper you can train someone to run your business for you during a disaster. Also consider using a Password Manager Cloud System like Last Pass where you can store your passwords and access them remotely. Last Pass has a free and premium version.
4- What About Banking And Personal Readiness?
With bad weather coming your way, decide how much cash you need on hand. Make sure your necessary medications are in ample enough supply to last you more than a few days. Put a full tank of gas in all your vehicles.
5- Back Up Your Data.
Back up all your data to a cloud service, so that if you need to log into your information while away from your home office, your information will be current. It can also be useful to back up date on a portable hard drive to take your data with you.
6- Charge all devices and Juice Packs.
Take the time to thoroughly charge all your phones and tablets. I have Mophie Juice Packs on all our business phones. They keep our smart phones fully charged for a long time.
In addition to Mophies I have portable juice packs. With Mophies and portable packs I have power for our phones for many, many hours with no power.
Make a plan that works for you and your online business. With your plan in hand should you face dangerous weather you can focus on you and your family’s personal safety. You can quickly and easily follow your business plan alleviating stress at a very challenging time.
Remember, your personal safety is more important than any sale. I personally faced Hurricaine Sandy here in NYC. My plan saved me hours of precious time that I need to prepare my family. Be prepared. Be safe. When the bad weather passes, you’ll reopen your store and welcome shoppers!
Since January 1 I’ve been sharing very practical tips with you to build and strengthen your eBay business this year.
To grow an online business it’s essential for sellers to plan.
During January, I wrote about the importance of eBay sellers creating a business plan. A business plan is fundamental to your achieving and sustaining business success. I wrote extensively explaining how your eBay business plan supports your online selling success in my blog post #1 Reason For Business Failure.
Did you take a few moments during your busy day in January to flesh out a business plan? Good for you if you did! Now is the time to take it out, take a look at it and gauge your progress.
Do you have a business plan?
Do You Have A Business Plan?
We’re almost through the 1st quarter of 2016. If you haven’t written out how you’d like to grow your eBay business you’ll find it’s easy for you to lose focus. Without a business plan it’s harder to chose what tasks you want to spend time on to build a stronger eBay online business for yourself.
Now is the perfect time to review your business.
How are your new eBay products selling? What do your customer’s say about you in customer feedback? Is your inventory system efficient? Are you getting likes, comments, shares and repins in social media?
Are Your Social Media Posts Getting Engagement?
Is the answer yes to all the above?
If it is yes, GREAT! Carry on and continue to gauge your progress. If it’s no, pause and grab a pen and paper.
What are the weaknesses you see in your eBay business?
Do you need to develop more inventory sources? Do you need better office organization? Would it be good to list more regularly? Is it time to update old listings? Do you want to learn more keys to search engine optimization? All eBay sellers want better search results for their listings! I’ve written a FREE tip sheet for you “How To Stand Out In eBay Search“.
Whatever you decide still needs work, pick 1 or 2 things to focus on.
Don’t allow yourself to get side tracked. Many eBay sellers sabotage their progress by trying to do and learn all things at once. It’s impossible and it hurts true growth.
When I was first learning social media I focused on 1 outlet at a time for 3 months. After the initial 3 months I moved to the next platform, then the next. Now years later I have a skill level in social media because I took the time to learn the fundamentals.
To grow your business you’ll find yourself chosing to attend webinars, read books and great information on SEO like my FREE ebay search tips, listening attentively in Facebook groups and working on your business with eBay consultants. Focused step by focused step you’ll build yourself a stronger and more vibrant eBay business!
With Focus You’ll Build A Strong eBay Business!
It all starts with a plan!
Take the time now to make your eBay business plan.
“What?!”, you’re thinking, “But Kathy as an online seller what about inventory sourcing, storing product, customer service, cash flow and social media! In addition there are never enough hours in the day for me to finish my daily to do list!”
All those factors are true and must be successfully dealt with for you to have a prosperous online selling business whether you are selling on eBay, Etsy, Amazon and/ or your own website. But there is something far more important that you must start with if you are looking to succeed as a seller.
This key element to success is spoken of often in the hit TV series Shark Tank and The Profit.
Watching the hit TV shows Shark Tank and The Profit what one characteristic do the investors look for in an entrepreneur that’s worth their time and money? It’s passion. Yes passion is fundamental to success as an online seller. Certainly you need to use good business practices or your passion can torpedo your success on eBay, Etsy , Amazon and or your own website. But without passion when it’s crunch time, you’ll give up and or not give it your best and fail.
How do I feed my passion?
As an online business person with your day filled to overflowing how do you keep your passion alive? When I watch the TV shows Shark Tank and The Profit I note often the entrepreneurs that look to be on a successful path are run by people that their small business is very meaningful to them. Their business is an homage to a dear parent or relative. Some of the business owners are deeply passionate about employing people in their local area or fund a cause with a percentage of their sales.
Whatever drives the entrepreneurs, the questions arises how do keep they you and me keep our business passion alive? The answer to that is deeply personal.
To succeed it’s important that you stay connected to your core passion.
Is it having the pictures of the person or cause that motivates you in your office? Does looking at daily sales numbers help you stay connected to your passion? For some prayer and meditation will connect them to what drives and motivates their business passion. There is no right or wrong answer to what or how it is best for you to stay passionate. What is fundamental to your personal and professional success as a business owner is that you regularly connect with your passion.
Take the time daily to connect.
Whatever connects you to your passion do it. Do it daily. This ritual of connection will keep you grounded and focused. Don’t be the seller that looses your passion.
Connect with your passion, use it and watch your business skyrocket!
If you run a successful business, you are going to make mistakes.
Mistakes are not necessarily #1 killer of businesses, did you know that? The errors you make in your eBay, Etsy or Amazon business do not need to destroy your business. #1 way to destroy your online business is to ignore or excuse your mistakes.
You will make mistakes. You will buy inventory that doesn’t sell. Perhaps you’ll allow too much unlisted inventory to pile up. The list goes on and on.
What sets a successful business apart from the ones that fail is that successful sellers take responsibility for their failures.
President George Washington said “99% of failure come from people who make excuses”. When you make an error in your eBay, Etsy or Amazon business you want to pause and think. Is the mistake an error in your research? Did the markets change? Is your mistake a matter of timing? Did you make a business choice on emotion rather than data? Gut choices can be huge winners and there are times when emotional choices lead to belly flops.
When you make an error, it’s a good time to turn to a friend who is a seasoned seller and/or grab some time with a good consultant. Take the time to review your choices and learn from your mistakes.
You may learn that your choice is fine and you are being impatient.
I know that as soon a I list inventory I want it sold immediately!
I Want My Listings To Sell Immediately!
When sales are slow and the bills are starting to pile up stop before you are in over your head. Confer with someone you trust. To blindly keep going when things don’t seem to be working in your business is inviting disaster.
Re-purposing inventory is a super way to drive sales and increase cash flow.
Many online sellers are very busy during the end of the 4th quarter with sales exploding in November and December. Many eBay sellers report sales staying strong in the month of January!
Some sellers note a small slump in sales in February.
Can a sales slump be avoided?
A fast and easy way to increase your sales is to ship international.
If you are not shipping internationally on eBay, many sellers see an increase of up to 30% of sales in a short time once they offer their products to a global marketplace.
Did you know that according to Jordan Sweetham eBay‘s Sr. VP of Seller Experience 97% of small to medium sellers on eBay are already shipping globally!
Jordan noted in a recent blog post for eBay for business that when he addressed an audience at the January National Retail Federation only a handful of the mostly brick and mortar retailers were shipping products globally to shoppers!
Wow! This means that small – medium size online sellers are ahead of the game right now in global sales compared to large brick and mortar retailers.
As an eBay seller, what can I do with this information?! I put on my thinking cap and find ways to maximize my international sales now!
Looking at global sales eBay sellers will fall into 3 categories.
What Category Are You In Global sales?
Sellers that only ship to their country.
Sellers that ship to a limited number of countries.
Sellers that ship everywhere.
If fear if keeping you only shipping to the USA consider that the USPS now offers delivery confirmation to many nations around the world including Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, Croatia, Estonia and more.
Using eBay’s Global Shipping Program the seller ships to a central hub in the US in Kentucky. The hub packs and ships the item to the global destination assuming all liability for the item arriving safely. The buyer pays all the shipping fees, and customs/import fees are paid by the buyer in advance.
Some sellers use GSP for items that are heavier and over 4 lbs and/or fragile and expensive, finding the GSP rates competitive and like the seller coverage the program offers.
Other sellers use eBay‘s GSP for everything they sell globally and some sellers opt to ship all their sold products internationally themselves. The eBay for Business blog covered essential tips for successful global shipping in their excellent recent blog post “How To Attract International Buyers To Your Listings.”
I encourage you to take a good look at your international sales and think, “What can I do to increase them?” Consider opening your shipping to all countries.
If a country is not included in eBay‘s GSP program or USPS eDelcon eligible countries list if it’s a low cost item consider shipping it without tracking using the USPS. For added peace of mind some sellers use are shipping insurance services like Shipsaver.
Items of high value can be shipped with USPS Global Express and other such carriers.
I recently have started started shipping to all nations and noted an almost immediate increase in sales. We all have different businesses and make the best choices for our businesses. Not everything can be shipped everywhere so check the USPS website for shipping restrictions.
Don’t forget when you ship globally you can offer more than means of shipping. Consider if you offer global customers USPS 1st class shipping, adding USPS Priority, and USPS Priority Express etc. If a customer needs something right away, you want them to shop with you!
Finally offer your international shoppers a personal touch. When you package their item include a hand written thank you in their own language.
Delight your global buyers with great products, expert packaging and a variety of shipping choices. A hand written thank you in their language will wow your global buyers with your professionalism and care and is a nice white glove customer service touch.
Watch your sales increase! You will be welcoming your return customers from around the world!
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