by Kathy Terrill | Nov 11, 2017 | eCommerce Selling Tips, Selling on eBay, Social Media Tips
eBay’s new shipping program Guaranteed Delivery launched to all eBay buyers as of November 2017.
eBay states that Guaranteed Delivery offers shoppers millions of items.
First of all, here is how to use Guaranteed Delivery to maximize your Holiday sales this year.
Here is how to use Guaranteed Delivery to maximize your eBay Holiday sales this year.
Furthermore, the Guaranteed Delivery program is not available to all sellers right now. I spoke with Greg Ross-Smith Sr. Product Marketing Manager – Delivery Experience, eBay. Greg says sellers not in Guaranteed Delivery are wait listed. Noteworthy is that wait listed sellers will get access to Guaranteed Delivery in 2018.
So, sellers ask,” Kathy how do we know if we’re in right now?” In your eBay account go to “Account Setting” and then locate”Site Preferences”. Next, find your “eBay Guaranteed Delivery Setting”. So, you are wait listed if the Guaranteed Delivery setting is not in your Site Preferences. Know if you are opted in by clicking HERE, and select the opt in for Guaranteed Delivery.
Most of all sellers, use Guaranteed Delivery to maximize your sales.
So, go through your items for sale. Offer same and or one business day handling time. Furthermore, provide a returns policy and click immediate payment required. Best Offer listings are eligible for Guaranteed Delivery, when a shopper clicks immediate payment at full price. Furthermore, Guaranteed Delivery has two versions. The Handling Time Option is a fit for most small – medium sellers
Requirement of eBay shipping labels waived for the Holidays.
First of all, this is great news for multi channel sellers using Stamps.com ( affiliate link I make a small commission) and other third party shipping services.
With the toggle option, only items in eBay’s Guaranteed Delivery Program are shown.
So, shoppers using the Guaranteed Delivery toggle option, only see items in the Guaranteed Delivery Program.
Product search benefits with Guaranteed Delivery.
Customers search by how fast they want their items to arrive with the Guaranteed Delivery filter. Shoppers view a one to four day arrival time for their packages. So due to shipping options Seller’s listings show in more customer searches. Include these shipping choices with the Bulk Edit tool. Business Policies is another way to add multiple delivery options. So, with adding shipping options sellers score more views, impressions, clicks and sales. Greg Ross-Smith states that Guaranteed Delivery does not effect Best Match search.
How many sales do I have with Guaranteed Delivery?
You have a Guaranteed Delivery Dashboard. Here is how it works.
Wait listed sellers, keep your Holiday sales strong. eBay is publicizing how fast buyers get items. You can do the same. Talk about how quickly you mail purchases in your social media. Share customer feedback about the speed of your shipping.
List using shipping upgrades. Offer customers a variety of shipping options for their purchases. Get busy on social media. Spread the word about how fast you ship.
eBay’s Guaranteed Delivery program brings hundreds of thousands of Christmas shoppers to eBay. More shoppers is good news for all sellers!
by Kathy Terrill | Oct 3, 2017 | Selling on eBay, Social Media Tips
Back to school shopping is over. Halloween shopping is in full swing on eBay. Sellers are messaging me, “Kathy my sales are slow. What should I do?”
So, I answer, “It’s time to sort through your eBay inventory and discover in demand items!”
Many eBay sellers think that Halloween is solely packaged costumes.
Many sellers think that Halloween is solely packaged costumes, traditional Halloween decor and candy. So, yes, all those products sell right now. But, shoppers are looking for that and more. Examine your merchandise carefully. Do you have clothing that could be used in a costume? Can your fashion items lend themselves to being a hippie, tacky tourist, zombie or princess? So, once you’re done sorting through your clothing, look at the accessories you have to sell. Consider your hats, belts, bags, and shoes. People often go straight from work to a Halloween costume event. The New York Times has ideas on dressing for work and then heading to your favorite Halloween party.
Your perfect scarf, or flamboyant piece of jewelry can transform the wearer into a costumed party attendee!
So, for your higher priced items, it is worthwhile to revise them. Add Halloween and costume themed keywords. Holiday keywords get you sales. Terapeak’s professional seller research tool SEO Pro gives you the best eBay search keywords and Google keywords for search and sales results. HERE is my affiliate link to test SEO Pro out for yourself!
eBay offers the perfect scarf, or flamboyant piece of jewelry that turns the wearer into a costumed party attendee!
If you have an eBay store, group items perfect for a costume in a Promotion using Promotions Manager. With a Promotion, you receive a shareable link and url address for social media. You gain additional exposure for your listings if you’re a Top Rated Seller and/or eBay Store Owner with eBay’s paid search option Promoted Listings.
Along with fun costume pieces, shoppers are looking to decorate their home and work spaces for Halloween. I’ve compiled pages of products that shoppers want to buy now. You may have them in your inventory, but are missing out on how to showcase them to shoppers.
Armed with my gift of your own Hot Halloween Product Tips you’ll know which items in your current inventory are popular now.
You’ll also know what to be on the lookout for as your shop thrift and retail stores for in demand inventory.
Not finding hot merchandise to sell locally?
Look at top quality wholesale cases and pallets with BULQ. BULQ sells wholesale inventory with a detailed manifest, so you know exactly what you are buying.
Showcase your Fall/Halloween on hand inventory, tweaking keywords, using Promotions Manager, social media and Promoted Listings. With my Hot Halloween Product Tips guide, you’ll be alert to great inventory locally and wholesalers so you can add items that will sell NOW.
Bring on the Halloween sales!
by Kathy Terrill | Aug 22, 2017 | eCommerce Tips, Facebook Business Page Tips, Selling on eBay, Social Media Tips
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!
by Kathy Terrill | Mar 26, 2017 | eCommerce News, eCommerce Selling Tips, Selling on eBay
Yes sellers, with my tip you can improve your search results on eBay in less than 5 minutes! To use this amazing tip right now, you will need an eBay store. So how do you accomplish a boost in eBay search in under 5 minutes? Optimize and use eBay’s paid search service Promoted Listings. Starting in April all Top Rated eBay sellers will also have access to this boost in search with or without a store.
In 5 minutes or less you can set up a Campaign for qualifying listings using Promoted Listings. Promoted listings are fast to set up. Once launched within hours your selected eBay products experience an expansion in search to buyers you want. You have in effect with a few clicks of your mouse effectively boosted your search results on the eBay platform!
Promoted Listings is currently only available to eBay store sellers with multi quantity listings. This paid service will be offered to all Top rated eBay sellers in April. Promoted Listings are a smart choice for sellers looking to increase their visibility in search. The seller only pays the promotion fee to eBay when the selected product sells by a direct click from the Promotion. The seller gets a multitude of views from potential shoppers in effect for free. Many sellers experience a boost in search and sales to the ENTIRE category that has Promoted items in it. More views can lead to MORE sales! Cha Ching!
When setting up Campaigns with Promoted Listings it’s wise to niche a Campaign. The reason for this is that it’s easier to track and compare data in a tightly selected campaign than in a broad general one. I spent time recently in San Francisco with eBay’s Promoted Listings Team. I’ve put together some killer tips from my time in California. I’m glad to pass these powerful insights to you
for free. Click HERE for yours.
In under 5 minutes, with an eBay store and Promoted Listings, your selected products gain greater visibility on eBay. Using my FREE tips you can make great choices on what and how to boost your eBay listings with Promoted Listings. Your promoted products can then boost traffic and sales to your entire inventory. Get busy sellers!
by Kathy Terrill | Feb 24, 2017 | eCommerce Tips
Sellers come to almost daily and say, “Kathy my eBay item isn’t showing up well in search, what can I do?”
My answer is simple, “Let’s get to work”
#1 way to get better search results on eBay is write a great title.
Whether your shopper is on mobile or desktop, your eBay item’s title is one of the first thing your potential buyer sees. Your title is important to your buyer and important for good eBay and Google search results. Have you chosen the best keywords for your product? The best keywords clearly identify what you’re selling. The words that matter here are your brand. color, size, distinctive patterns and the like. Take a minute and look at your item. If you wanted to buy this item, what words would you be using in searching the internet to find it? Use those words. This video will show you how to use eBay search to quickly write eBay titles.
#2 way to improve your search results on eBay is fill in the item specifics.
Fill the item specifics in to the best of your ability. Fill in the MPNs, UPCs, brand, color, size , country of manufacture, leading role etc depending on the item you are selling and the category you are selling in. If you have the UPC for your item and you leave it blank or use the drop down menu does not apply, the seller that does fill in the UPC has given eBay search more structured data information than you. Is there a place to chose the color of your item? If yes, chose the best color, blue, pink etc. Again the seller that takes the time to fully fill in item specifics is giving more search data to eBay. Filling in the item specifics gives eBay and Google search vital information to help your item in search.
#3 way to improve your search results on eBay is take clear, crisp pictures.
Your customer cannot hold and touch the item you’re selling. Your pictures literally put your item in your customer’s hand. Show them every angle of your product. Include pictures of any flaws on the item. You do not need to buy expensive photography equipment to take clear pictures that are in focus. Most smartphones have great cameras. Pictures are important now for the shopping experience on eBay and will grow as an essential part of eBay search. eBay‘s CEO Devin Wenig spoke to this in a recent article for CNET. “We’re doing a lot of work on image recognition. Computers are getting really good at recognizing things. We’re not that far away from a future where you’ll just do this. [Wenig picks up his phone and acts out taking photos of a pen in front of him.] You’ll just take a picture of that and we’ll match it through AI to our catalogue, we’ll know exactly what that pen is. And we’ll say, do you wanna sell it? We can get you five bucks right now for that pen.” In short, pictures matter.
#4 way to improve in search is to use eBay’s paid search service Promoted Listings.
eBay offers it’s eBay store owners an effective way to promote qualifying listings through it’s paid Promoted Listings program. Through Promoted Listings sellers create Promoted Listing campaigns and chose the advertising rate they will pay eBay IF the product sells directly through Promoted Listings. A seller ONLY pays eBay the Promotion fee is the item sells from a click through Promoted Listings campaigns. Sellers do not pay for clicks with no sales. Nor do sellers pay for listing impressions. Many sellers note an increase in sales to the overall category in their eBay store that has Promoted Listings, and increased sales store wide. Promoted Listings can have the effect of increasing overall traffic to an eBay‘s sellers store. Currently Promoted Listings are only available to eBay store owners with multi quantity items. There is a Beta test going on for unique one of a kind items. To be considered for this Beta test go to Promoted Listings under the Marketing Tab in your eBay Seller Hub dashboard. You must apply to be considered. To apply go to Promoted Listings in Seller Hub. It’s under your Marketing tab
CLICK it . Find “Give us feedback”.
Give Us Feedback in Promoted Listings Dashboard
It’s all the way to right of the page in Promoted Listings. Click it. Say something like ” Hi I’d like to be in your beta test for one of a kind items.”
According to my eBay contact, ” from the time the seller sends us the request to be considered for the beta group, it may take up to a week to get added to beta. We will confirm via email once they are accepted. They can share this info with their friends/colleague. However, we cannot guarantee that everyone will be accepted.”
#5 way to improve in search is to research.
eBay is a competitive market place. When you first listed your item a month ago or a year ago the prevailing price may have been XXX but now its Z. You can wait and see if prices change, or you can change your listing for the current market and get the sale. eBay’s advanced search can give you short term sales data. For more in depth and detailed information professional sellers look to Terapeak.
Cleaning up your title and/or pictures can get your better search results on eBay. If an item qualifies using eBay‘s Promoted Listings is a great way to get a boost for your listings and your eBay store. Make sure to stay abreast of marketplace changes in prices with Terapeak.
I’ve made a special FREE How To Dominate eBay Search Tip Sheet for you to use. It has powerful eBay search tips you can use with or without an eBay store.Gain instant access by clicking HERE.
NOW is the time for YOU to stand out in eBay search!
