eBay Holiday Shipping Delay Seller Survival Tips!

by | Dec 18, 2020 | eCommerce Selling Tips, eCommerce Tips, Selling on eBay

eBay Holiday shipping delay seller survival tips!

eBay Holiday shipping delays are a major seller headache right now. What can sellers do to help buyers without losing hundreds of dollars?

I’ve heard from dozens of sellers that many of their packages have one or no scan. Those packages sit for days — even for more than a week — with no further movement. Then when a buyer reports that they have not received their item, eBay is forcing the seller to refund them.

What to do about eBay Holiday shipping delays?

First of all, if this is not happening to your packages, then lucky you! 2020’s holiday shipping snafu is not impacting every seller. Personally, I’ve had only a handful of packages in limbo out of the nearly 100 packages I’ve shipped lately. All of the others arrived in timely fashion. So if you’re not having shipping issues, don’t borrow trouble. Enjoy the Holiday rush and keep shipping!

Currently on the USPS site and in the eBay purchase sequence, buyers are warned of shipping delays.

So, if your holiday selling season is haunted by the Spirit of Christmas Gifts Yet to Arrive, then you’ve got three options:

1. Continue shipping. In all likelihood your packages will reach their destinations eventually.
2. Keep selling and shipping. Extend your handling time to 5 or 10 days. Ship same or next day. Also you can wait X number of days before shipping.
3. Use Time Away (formerly known as Store Vacation). You can block your listings from being viewed and not sell until 2021. Additionally you can sell and start shipping at the end of the year or on whatever date you set.

Here’s the bottom line: It’s your business to run as you see fit.

Right now, eBay does not reimburse sellers for funds lost due to refunds being given for items delayed in transit.

Here are some ideas for you in my video “Stop eBay Holiday Shipping From Costing You Hundreds Of Dollars!”

What can eBay sellers do if their package(s) are stuck in transit and late in arriving to the buyer?

So, there are a couple of things you can do when tracking shows that a package has gotten hung up somewhere enroute to the buyer. Sometimes logging the tracking number
into USPS.com will goose it along.

To do this, click USPS.com.  In “Search or Track Package” field, fill in the USPS delivery confirmation number. Then click “Fill in the form” to send an online service request. This often yields results within 48 hours. You can share with your buyer that you logged an inquiry for them with the USPS. Helpful customer service goes a long way to calm frustrated shoppers looking for their purchase.

Read this eBay Announcement to find out what eBay tells buyers of the current state of holiday shipping. Basically eBay adds protections for sellers’ Top Rated Status with problematic shipping scans and delivery. However, don’t look to eBay to reimburse sellers for delayed or lost packages.

To note, lost packages have always been a sellers responsibility. Furthermore, this is true on most online sites. What’s different now is how many items are stuck in transit. For some sellers it’s hundreds of dollars of products. Even with this increase in stuck and lost packages refunds for lost packages remains at the sellers’ feet.

Seller help for late eBay packages!

In closing, every seller is in unique situation this Holiday season.

Some sellers have little to no problems with packages stuck in transit. Others suffer with dozens of “stuck” parcels. eBay offers seller reputation protections but not financial reimbursement for lost packages. Every seller needs to look at their sales and chose what is best for them.

eBay Promoted Listings: Your Holiday Superpower!

by | Nov 13, 2020 | eCommerce Tips, Selling on eBay

eBay Promoted Listings are your Holiday superpower.

 

eBay Promoted Listings are a sales superpower

 

We’re already 1/3 of the way into Q4, and time is ticking away on the year’s biggest retail moment: Holiday. ‘Tis the season to sell, sell, sell — so let’s get your eBay items SOLD! What can you do to garner more sales? Three words: eBay Promoted Listings. 

Promoting your listings will boost their visibility in search results by as much as 36%.

You don’t need a store to use eBay’s pay-per-purchase advertising tool, either.

In fact, now it’s even available to sellers using eBay’s quick listing tool. The only listings that aren’t eligible for promotion are those that use the auction format.

I’m going to share with you my top three tips for getting the best possible results from eBay Promoted Listings.

But first, a quick refresher course on how Promoted Listings (aka PL) works:

You specify an ad rate somewhere between 1%-20% for each promoted listing. That’s the percentage of the final sale price you’re willing to pay to eBay (in addition to the regular final value fee) if your item sells via Promoted Listings. You’re only charged that rate when a buyer clicks on your promoted listing, then goes on to purchase the item within 30 days.

Promoted listings appear in search results under the word Sponsored, so you can tell them apart from non-promoted listings. Your promoted listing(s) may appear in premium placements within search results on both desktop and mobile devices or in the Related Items module at the bottom of every search results page.

1- For Optimal Results, Optimize your eBay Listings.

Promoting your listing pretty much guarantees you more eyeballs will see it. But — and this is my first tip — you’ve still got to make sure that you optimize your listing for conversion. That means:

a -Making sure you’re following eBay best practices in your title, photos, item specifics, and description.

b- Having customer-friendly terms of sale.

eBay’s Promoted Listings team says that it also pays to double-check that you’ve listed your item in the right category. One quick way to research that is to use eBay’s Advanced Search function to check Sold items.

 

2 – Advice from eBay UpFront

At several eBay UpFront events, PL team members have suggested increasing your PL rate during the holidays. Remember, right now there are more sellers and more listings than usual vying for buyers’ attention! Raise your rate to give yourself a leg up on your competitors.

To help you strike the best possible balance between cost and performance, eBay provides guidance by displaying suggested rates for each item you set out to promote. The suggested rate is  calculated based on a number of factors, including item attributes, seasonality, past performance, and current competition.

Suggested rates typically run between 5%-10% for most categories, but they may be as low as 2% or as high as 18%. To find the sweet spot for your own listings, start low, then increase your rate by 1% at a time until you start to see a difference in sales.

Conversely, if your item is selling very well, you may be able to drop your rate by 1% or more and still keep sales strong. Test, and carefully monitor your PL dashboard to measure the results of your experimentation.

 

3- Know Your Numbers

That brings us to my third top tip for making the most of PL: Check your Promoted Listings Dashboard (located in Seller Hub) at least once a week. Look at your impressions, clicks, and sales. Are you getting a lot of impressions, but few clicks? Then review that listing:

Is your price competitive?

Is your listing optimized for conversion?

Is it keyword rich?

Have you filled out all the relevant item specifics?

Are your pictures click worthy and enticing?

Have you listed this item in the best category?

Just a few minor tweaks can transform a listing from blah to WOW — and get your item sold!

For more terrific tips on skyrocketing your sales with Promoted Listings, claim your complimentary copy of my free guide Winning with eBay Promoted Listings! You can find it at my website, iLoveToBeSelling.com. This downloadable guide features proven, actionable strategies for making PL work its very best for your business on eBay. It’s 15 full pages of PL sales power tips!

 

Win big sales with eBay’s Promoted Listings!

 

Find out how to pay less in fees while making more sales, discover ways to harness Promoted Listings data for higher profits, and much more. I’ve even added some special bonus content: Fast Fix for Stale Campaigns.

The Bottom Line for eBay Holiday Sales

During the holidays, more shoppers than usual are flocking to eBay. However, at this time of year, there is also more competition for buyers (and their dollars). Use Promoted Listings wisely and well to give yourself a competitive edge — and get more sales!

 

You have an eBay Superpower – it’s Promoted Listings!

 

Top Three Tips – eBay Sellers’ Holiday Success!

by | Oct 24, 2020 | eCommerce Tips, Selling on eBay

‘Tis the season for doing these top three tips for eBay sellers’ Holiday Success!

Top three tips for eBay Sellers’ Holiday Success 2020!

 

eBay sellers’ Holiday time is the busiest time of year. And for ecommerce sellers 4th quarter is also traditionally the most profitable time of year. To make the most of this three-month retail moment, you’ve got to plan ahead.

Here are my top three tips for planning your way to a successful eBay sellers’ Holiday 2020 sales season.

Because remember: If you don’t plan it, chances are it won’t get done!  eBay sellers, Holiday plans matter!

1 –  Write it down.

You need to map out daily, weekly, and monthly to-do lists, and you need to put them in writing. Google calendar is a great tool for this, because you can set up reminders to help you keep track of your various tasks and deadlines. It’s free, too.

How detailed does your plan need to be?

That’s up to you. But write it out, and make sure you set concrete goals. Don’t just jot down, “List more”; be specific, or it won’t happen. “List X number of items daily” or “List X number of items by Y date” is much more achievable.

Try to be realistic when you make your plan. In addition, be flexible; if it turns out you’ve bitten off more than you can chew in some aspect of your planning, then revise your plan for that aspect. You can only do so much. Besides, sometimes life just doesn’t go according to plan!

2 – Schedule whatever you can in advance.

Whether it’s listings going live, launching store sales and/or promotions, or posting on social media, if there’s anything that you can set up ahead of time, then by all means do so. Each scheduled item is one less thing you’ll have to remember to do when the time comes.

Furthermore, having certain things kick into gear automatically as Q4 progresses will make you feel super productive and efficient. It will also ensure that those things happen in a timely manner and according to plan. Win-win-win!

eBay tools that allow you to schedule certain events — such as when listings start or sales take place — include the Sell Your Item form and (for eBay Store subscribers) Promotions Manager. For social media, check out HootSuite, which allows you to schedule posts on various social platforms. 

While you’re mapping out your social media content for the Holidays, HERE are some awesome ideas that work.

3 – Start thinking ahead to 2021.

It’s easy to get bogged down during the hectic Holiday season. However, you don’t want to ring in the new year without being prepared to take care of business. Now is the time to plan not just for Q1, but for the next 12 months as a whole. I’m here to help.

I’ve created and published Your 2021 Sales & Social Media Success Planner just for you, busy eBay seller. (The link used is my affiliate link. I’m paid a small commission at no cost to you)

eBay 2021 Sales & Social Media Planner!

Simply and quickly it guides you in mapping out the future of your ecommerce business. It walks you through the planning process step by step, quarter by quarter, and month by month, complete with positive encouragement along the way.

Its 124 pages include plenty of room for writing out to-do lists and defining and setting both short- and long-term goals. It includes tracking where your business is heading.

Whatever your entrepreneurial destination may be Your 2021 Sales & Social Media Success Planner is designed to keep you quickly and easily on task and on target.

Here’s to a profitable Q4 and a prosperous new year!

 

Top three tips for eBay sellers’ Holiday sales success in 2020!

 

eBay Seller Moneymaker eBay Partner Network EPN!

by | Jun 28, 2020 | eCommerce News, eCommerce Tips, Selling on eBay

There is a new eBay seller moneymaker in town.

 

eBay sellers have a moneymaker with eBay affiliate marketing!

It is eBay’s affiliate marketing program, eBay Partner Network. If you’re like most eBay sellers, you wouldn’t say no to an additional revenue stream. That’s why I’m going to introduce you to affiliate marketing and the eBay Partner Network (EPN). Because who doesn’t like to make money even when they’re asleep? And with EPN, you can both make money and save money! In short, EPN  is an eBay seller moneymaker.

Affiliate marketing is one of the very first types of performance-based online marketing.

Back in the very early days of the internet, a lot of online marketing was pay-per-click: If somebody clicked on your link, you got paid. Maybe only a few cents, but those clicks added up.

Unfortunately, not all of those clicks generated revenue for the companies whose links garnered them. So pay-per-click gave way to pay-per-sale: If somebody clicks on your link and it leads to a sale, then you get paid.

Lots of major companies (and plenty of not-so-major companies) offer affiliate marketing opportunities; it drives traffic to their site, and increased traffic means more sales.

In fact, 81% of all brands use affiliate marketing nowadays.

Brands spend about 10% more every year. In 2020, companies that offer affiliate marketing are projected to collectively spend about $6.8 billion. In fact, 16% of all online sales are thanks to the impact of affiliate marketing. Why shouldn’t that include sales of your eBay items?


Basically, affiliate marketing is a referral program. Here’s how it works. It’s as easy as 1-2-3:

First find a product you like. Next, Promote it to others. Finally, earn a commission for each resulting sale

For eBay sellers, though, there is now an additional benefit if you do affiliate marketing through the eBay Partner Network (EPN for short).

EPN is eBay’s affiliate marketing program. You don’t have to be an eBay seller to be participate, but if you are an eBay seller, there is a brand-new advantage to doing so: Not only can you earn money promoting your items (as well as those of other sellers), you can also save money on eBay fees.

 

eBay sellers road map to free final value fees!

That’s because eBay is rolling out a new feature for EPN: If a shopper clicks on one of your EPN affiliate links for your own item, then buys the item within 24 hours, your Final Value Fee (FVF) will be 0%. In other words, you get a free FVF from eBay! Depending upon what categories you sell in, that means about 10% of the item price goes right back into your pocket. Wouldn’t you like to make 10% more on what you sell?

Setting up an affiliate marketing campaign isn’t rocket science, but there are a few things you should know before you get started.

And once you do get started, there are certain guidelines to follow, along with some rules of thumb.

That’s why I’ve created an exclusive guide to making money through the eBay Partner Network. It’s called EPN Guide- eBay Partner Network: a Moneymaker for eBay Sellers. This hit guide is your road map to making EPN pay off for your business on eBay!

Cheer the cha ching of sales and free final fees, using affiliate marketing links from EPN!

eBay sellers can earn no final value fees!

 

eBay COVID-19 Navigating Challenging Times!

by | Mar 24, 2020 | eCommerce News, eCommerce Selling Tips, Selling on eBay

To start, let’s talk about eBay, COVID-19 and you.

Selling on eBay during the COVID-19 pandemic!

Selling on eBay during the current COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the challenge of our lifetime.

Never before have we as Americans been through a global pandemic like COVID-19. We’ve faced the fallout from 9/11. We’ve weathered numerous hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters. But the coronavirus is a worldwide crisis that is a test  like nothing else in our experience.

What can and should you (and all of us) be doing at this difficult time?

Before even thinking of eBay selling and COVID-19, protect yourself along with your family.

How do you carry out this mandate to protect yourself and your family from the coronavirus? By knowing what is recommended right now — and staying up to the minute with information you can be sure is 100% accurate and reliable.

To do so, go directly to the COVID-19 page on the Center for Disease Control website (CDC.gov). There’s a clickable banner right at the top of the CDC home page. Don’t trust media reports or what you see on Facebook; get your COVID-19 info straight from the source!

Next, watch for eBay announcements about COVID-19.

The Announcements page can be reached from the Selling Announcements module on your Seller Hub Overview page or via the Announcements link at the bottom of any page on eBay.com.

By the way: Some of you will see right on eBay’s home page one way eBay has your back at this time; click on the Shop Small button to see more. If you don’t see the “Open right now and here for you” banner on the home page, just go directly to eBay’s new Small. Mighty. Open for Business page. It’s highly reassuring — even inspirational!

eBay has already announced that they will defer fees to support small and medium-size businesses through COVID-19. If you’re an eBay Store subscriber, watch your My Messages and regular email inboxes on March 25 for details on how to request support, or check the Announcements page.

Additionally eBay Government Relations eBay Main Street has information for sellers. Unsure of actions your state is taking? The page on COVID-19  that eBay Government Relations is maintaining has up to date information for sellers.

With eBay shipping and CO-VID 19, take advantage of USPS’ scheduled pickups.

It’s hard to get to the post office when you’re sheltering in place. Luckily, you don’t have to go there; USPS will come to you. Every day except Sundays and holidays.. Because that’s how they roll. Schedule your package pickups via the USPS website (USPS.com) in just 4 easy steps.

It used to be that you had to have at least one Priority Mail package going out in order to schedule a pickup, but now USPS will pick up any class of package. It’s best to schedule package pickup no later than the night before the day you need it. Often if asked nicely, many carriers will  take and scan your package(s) on the spur of the moment.

Now that you know what you need to do right now, let’s talk about what’s selling right now!

Folks are home. What do they need?

Some eBay sellers are doing very well, while others are struggling. Furthermore, many part-time sellers who have been laid off or are on hiatus from their full-time jobs are expanding their business on eBay and need to stock their virtual shelves.

So think about it: People are staying home.

In fact, many are stuck at home by local government order. Topping the list of products these folks need are household essentials and food. Ponder pantry items. Also think over-the-counter medications and vitamins.

Educational and entertainment items for kids are also in high demand. Look at books, DVDs, games, puzzles, and crafts items of all kinds.These in demand craft items includes lots of egg cartons, wine corks, clean and empty glass jars, plastic pill bottles, and the cardboard tubes from rolls of paper towels and toilet paper. 

Adults need to entertain themselves as well. Jigsaw puzzles and many games are fun for all ages, as are the full gamut of crafting options. Think sewing patterns and fabric; knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, embroidery, and other needlework supplies. Also think about adult coloring books, perhaps bundled with a set of colored pencils or markers (especially the new glittery versions); and model anything kits.

And don’t forget scrapbooking. This is a perfect time for millions of hunkered-down Americans to get caught up on printing out and showcasing their photo libraries.

In addition, lots of folks are using this time as an opportunity to learn new skills or try new hobbies.

They need books and DVDs that teach crafting, DIY home improvement, auto mechanics, languages, and more.

I share even more ideas with you , along with some thoughts regarding the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in my recent YouTube video Sales Success On eBay Despite Coronavirus Outbreak!

In sum, today more than ever, you need to think like a buyer.

Look through your unlisted inventory. Look around your house or apartment. Do you have something on hand that other people need and/or that’s in high demand right now for whatever reason? Get it listed ASAP! My free tip sheet Dominate eBay Search will help those listing stand out to shoppers and get sold!

Take care…stay well…and sell on, fellow seller!!!

PHP Code Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com
Exit mobile version