It is not too early to start planning your sales strategy to have the best eBay Holiday Selling season ever!
Success starts with great plans and then executing them!
Step #1- Pull Out Your Calendar!
Numerous eBay sellers get themselves in a jam by not planning now for the busy Holiday selling season of November and December.
Look at your calendar and think through the new few months. I plan with Google calendar. Google Calendar is free for use. If you like another electronic calendar or a paper calendar, great! The point is, pull it out and start mapping your course of action for the next few months. With Google Calendar I set alerts to remind me of tasks I need to do.
I create tasks and deadlines for those tasks. With Google calendar I can also make recurring tasks. Do you need to check your shipping supplies weekly or bi weekly? Use your calendar for reminders to order your free USPS Priority mail supplies. Keep an eye on your supply of polymailers, padded envelopes and boxes. When you need to buy more, Bubblefast offers great value on shipping supplies. If you use code esnbes you’ll save 10% on your entire order all year round. Setting alerts and reminder for tasks like ordering shipping supplies will keep you from running out during your busy shipping season. Calendar reminders keep you on track all during this fruitful time of year.
Step #2 Get Organized!
Take time now to organize your shipping station.
Think through your eBay selling and shipping work flow. Are your most frequently used items easy to reach and near each other? Are your boxes and mailers stored so you can see and pick the different sizes quickly? Time spent organizing this crucial part of your sales life, will pay off big time in the months to come.
Do you have a sturdy tape dispenser? (afl)
I bought this dispenser on (afl) eBay and have it ready to go on my desk. You can one yourself HERE(afl). I like that it’s heavy and doesn’t skid around. I also have a tape gun with clear packing tape in it,
Once your shipping area sparkles, tackle your inventory storage. Go through your products bin by bin, shelf by shelf. Make sure everything is listed. Double check that the item’s location is properly entered in your SKU or label organization system. If you’re selling on eBay, you can use the custom label/SKU field to input inventory location information. You the eBay seller see this handy field, your shopper doesn’t. Here is a quick video on how to use the eBay SKU/custom label field.
Tasks are logged on your calendar, your shipping station and inventory storage are organized, next is your social media!
Step #3- Plan Social Media!
Many eBay sellers overwhelm themselves with social media and end up doing none or a very scattered approach. They throw items up on various social platform without thought or planning. Keep it simple. This year pick 1 social media you will focus on. If you do other’s that’s great, but chose 1 to be your main focus.
Think about what is doable for you.
It is better to do 2 posts a day every day than 5 all in 1 day.
Let’s say you want to use a Facebook business page for your Holiday social media plan.
Use my free tips for your Facebook Business page to make sure it’s set to maximize your efforts. Click HERE for your FREE guide.
You could make a goal of 2 posts daily.
You want to mix lots of social content in with your eBay product posts. For instance, let’s say you’re going to be posting Fall/Winter clothing. With those product posts in mind, tips for accessorizing can be great social posts. Recipes and all things food related are very popular on Facebook. Read my popular post Get Likes And Followers o Facebook Immediately for insights on using food to be social with your followers on Facebook. Using the calendar of your choice, create reminders to post daily. Plan what items and social posts to feature. Then daily, weekly and monthly decide what and how you want to feature them for your social media followers and enter reminders on your calendar to keep you on track.
Look ahead at the next few months. Start now with an organized shipping station and inventory storage area. Do the best with what you have available to you. Use your favorite calendar and plan your social media content. Make sure your goals challenge you, yet are doable. Maximize your Facebook Business page now with my free power tips for your page.
Time spent now making a good foundation and a clear social media plan, is the killer punch for a knock out Holiday selling season on eBay!
Hundreds of thousands of shoppers are on the internet now. They are looking for that perfect Mother’s Day gift. In short, sellers be ready for this Mother’s Day sale opportunity.
As can be seen, Statista reports Americans spend more than 23 billion dollars on Mother’s Day sale items!
Savvy sellers have their Mother’s Day sales goods ready to go. Prices are researched. Listings are optimized and promoted on social media. Good job!
Some sellers come to me frustrated. They look at their inventory and note they don’t sell lingerie or perfume. Sellers state, ” Kathy, I have nothing to sell for Mother’s Day gifts!”
Mother’s Day Sale gift ideas!
I answer, “Ah, but I think you do.” In the first place, I have three keys essential to success for Mother’s Day sales for all my seller friends. To begin, these three keys work no matter where you sell.
#1 – Equip yourself with my FREE guide What Sells For Mother’s Day. It’s loaded with dozens of products that shoppers want to buy now!
Complimentary guide to what sells for Mother’s Day sale gifts!
#2- With my tips in hand, go through your listed and unlisted inventory.
Sort what items you discover that are best to feature to attract Mother’s Day Shoppers. Are your most attractive Mothers Day items are unlisted? Make it a priority to list those items online now.
#3 – Get busy on social media.
Moreover, who is your ideal customer? In short, do you sell items that a millennial shopping for their Mom would buy? Then, it’s wise to be active on Instagram. Is it a husband in his 40’s or 50’s buying a gift for his wife? By and large you select to post on Twitter and your Facebook Business page.
Get busy on social media with Mother’s Day sale items.
Spend your time wisely.
Use the killer tips in my FREE guide What Sells For Mother’s Day to discover inventory you have that’s perfect for Mom.
To sum it up, your nicest inventory is front and center for shoppers with great listings and social media. To sum it up, welcome Mother’s Day shoppers and sales!
Holiday shoppers are rushing into retail stores and jumping online to get the gifts they need right now!
Use my 3 hot Holiday sales tips to attract eager customers your way and score sales NOW!
Are you ready?
#1 Hot Holiday Sales Tip – Offer Free Or Paid Expedited Shipping!
Whether you’re selling on Amazon, Etsy, eBay and/or your own website, don’t miss out on crucial Holiday revenue by neglecting to offer expedited shipping.
Why not offer the upgrade in shipping service free for your higher price items and wow your customers?
For lower price items with a few simple clicks of the mouse you can include a paid shipping service upgrade for shoppers that want their items fast. Many sellers neglect to offer shipping upgrades and lose sales to other vendors. Snag extra Holiday sales by offering your shoppers a choice of shipping services. My video shows you how to quickly add shipping choices on eBay. The process is very similar on Etsy.
#2 Hot Holiday Sales Tip – Check Your Prices!
Focus on the items you have chosen as your top Holiday gift items. Regularly check the price(s) of your item(s).
Check Prices On The Web!
Be sure and also monitor relevant prices on the worldwide web.
There are times when pricing a product $1 less can get you the shoppers you’re looking for. Don’t lose crucial Holiday shoppers because you’re not checking prices across multiple platforms on the web. Shoppers know how to use Google search to locate and buy from the seller offering the best value.
#3 Hot Holiday Sales Tip – Keep Sourcing And Listing Holiday Products!
Keep an eye on brick and mortar retail stores when you’re out and about.
Many Big Box retailers are slashing prices deeper and deeper as Christmas and Hanukkah approach.
Be alert to grab great inventory you can list quickly and score sales now and into 2017!
#4 BONUS Holiday Sales Tip – Maximize Your Facebook Business Page To Gain Shoppers!
Facebook continues to be a top resource for sellers who want to quickly and effectively promote their inventory. Don’t miss sales by not fully optimizing your Facebook Business page.
The Ultimate Guide To A Facebook Business Page For Sellers!
Offering shipping upgrades, monitoring prices all across the web and continuing to source hot inventory will get you the Holiday sales you want NOW sellers!
Facebook has over 1 billion daily active users! Online eBay, Etsy and Amazon sellers often come to me scratching their heads and ask me,
“Kathy, how can I get more followers and likes on Facebook?”
My answer is simple, “Share food and recipes!” Want instant engagement with followers? Show them FOOD!
No matter what you sell online, let it baby clothes, antiques and collectible or auto parts, there is a food that your ideal customer loves and likes to see!
If you sell products for young children, how about healthy snack recipes for your social media followers on Facebook?
Post Healthy Snack Ideas If You Sell Kids Clothing!
Do you sell sports and fan gear? If yes, then you can feature food and recipe ideas for tailgating parties on your Facebook Business page!
Are housewares and serving dishes and flatware your product line? Holiday cooking offers a wide array of recipes for you to feature.
Share Holiday Foods!
You can share your own recipes and pictures of foods as your prepare them. There is an abundance of great food content on Facebook that you can easily share with your fans and followers.
Post food regularly and see what selections your followers like the most. Your Facebook Business page has insights so you can see which of your posts gets the most attention from Facebook users, As you learn what gets likes and follows you’ll then be able to search and find more of the same. This targeted strategy helps you gain followers and interaction with your Facebook followers.
Enjoy finding great food and recipe posts that you and your Facebook community will enjoy! Yum! Yum! Yum!
It’s less than 105 days until Christmas sellers! Halloween is a little over a month away. Students and teachers are back in school. With school back in session, Mom and Dad are taking the time now to do some shopping for themselves.
What does this mean for online sellers?
With all these Holidays approaching and parents enjoying buying for themselves, online sellers should be VERY busy packing and shipping sales!
Are you?
If you are, terrific, carry on. Be sure to keep your eye on Halloween fast approaching and Christmas. If you haven’t mapped out a Holiday strategy it’s not too late. Read my recent blog post Quickly & Easily Get Ready For The Best 4th Quarter Ever!and take the time now to get your business set up for continued success.
If your sales are slow, now is the time to stop and take stock of the situation.
Are Your Sales Slow?
The truth about Holiday Sales is that if you are not setting yourself up NOW for success, you are going to have a tough time in the coming months,
It’s smart to take a long hard look at your inventory NOW. A little research will give you the understanding you need to see why your products aren’t selling at the rate you anticipated.
If you sell on eBay, use eBay‘s advanced search and the professional research tool Terapeak. Check the current and past prices for your inventory. Using Terapeak you can see the prices for the past year. Prices fluctuate. To get your items sold it helps to know those price fluctuations, including what sells when and for how much. It can be a matter of a small change in price to get your products moving. When checking prices be sure and also Google your products. Shoppers compare prices on several sites, you need to do the same.
Once you have your items prices properly the next step is to get them in front of your shoppers. It’s crucial to write optimized listings when selling to get found by search engines.
Are Your Listings Optimized?
There have been huge changes to eBay search in the past few years.
As an eBay seller if you are using the same style listing that worked for you three years ago, there is a very good chance that you’re using outdated practices. Those practices can cripple you in eBay and Google search, and that impacts your sales.
The order of your keywords is crucial to search on and off eBay. My YouTube video shows you how to write a killer title in under 3 minutes!
With a great title in place, the next area that can cause your sales to lag is your pictures.
Do your pictures pop?
Are they clear and crisp? Taking a few extra minutes with your pictures can reap big rewards in sales. Most items photograph well with a white background. I’ve done a video to show you a simple and inexpensive way to get plain backgrounds for your pictures.
After eBay‘s OPEN event the summer of 2016 and the eBay Fall Seller Update of 2016 there are new suggestions for item specifics and descriptions.
eBay is making huge strides in using structured data to engage shoppers.
To get a good sell through rate ( how fast your item sells) and price, a successful seller needs to keep abreast of all the current best particles on eBay.
Digesting all the changes and best practices on eBay can be a daunting task.
I’ve done the research for you! I went through all the seminars from eBay OPEN 2016. I had long conversations with eBay staff involved in all areas of eBay listings. I then spent hours analyzing eBay‘s Fall Seller Update. I’ve distilled all this information into my hit guide The Secret To eBay Search.
Don’t you love saving time? I do! Time is my most precious commodity as an entrepreneur.
My guide The Secret To eBay Search saves you time AND helps you get MORE sales!
I’ve taken all the guesswork out of your eBay listing process. I walk you line by line through your listing in The Secret To eBay Search. I explain each current eBay practice. In addition, I explain how and what Google is looking for in your listing.
Arming yourself with accurate information in The Secret To eBay Search. Know what works NOW in eBay listings. Get the power you need now to get your sales moving.
The truth about Holiday Sales is that optimized eBay listings are crucial for sales success NOW and in the coming busy months!
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