So, it’s January 2018 and the New Year eBay sellers.
What does a seller do now to attract shoppers on eBay?
Here is what to do to make money on eBay right now. First of all, pull out a pen and paper, or your favorite device, and take notes. As outlined in 5 Steps To Move Your Online Business To the Next Level, planning is crucial to sustained success
Look at what sold for you on eBay in November and December of 2017. What were your hot sellers? According to the Washington Post here is a list of some of the most in demand items from Christmas 2017. What were your top sellers? Was it women’s clothing, kid’s toys, sports equipment, housewares or another category? Where did you buy the products that you are sold out of right now?
Can you get more of the products that are sold out?
Can Your Buy More Of What Sold on eBay?
If the exact item is not be available for you to buy, is there something similar? For instance, the 6 inch brown teddy bears sold out for you on eBay. You cannot buy more from your source. However there are 8 inch bears in the same style available from your supplier. Also, you may have purchased items at a local big box retailer. Now that store is sold out of that hot item. Is there another of the same store within a 30 mile radius that has the item? Another place to check for your product is the big box retailer websites. Wholesale liquidators like BULQcan also be source for in demand items.
Popular items may be sold out locally, but are for sale on the internet.
Sellers often neglect the internet as a source for purchasing hot selling inventory.
From your research, you know what was popular for you one Bay in November and December. Many of those items will stay in demand. By restocking quickly you can start 2018 off strong!
Here are some more ideas for product sourcing to start 2018 off with strong sales!
In closing. take notes on what were your popular items from the end of 2017. Plan how to restock them quickly. Don’t overlook using big box retailers locally and online for inventory. List quickly.
Bravo eBay seller, you’re off to a great start for 2018!
I recently conducted a poll in my Facebook group for eBay sellers, eBay Stores Nothing But eBay Stores. I asked the group members what they need right now during this busy Holiday time. The number one answer was “more hours in the day” right now.
Here are my top five tips for sellers to get more done during the Holidays.
#1 Get More Done And Set Priorities.
To get more done, set your day around your daily must do tasks.
To get more done each day, look at your to do list.
Prioritize your tasks. Shipping and customer service are daily essential tasks. To get more done, the rest of your day is set around your daily must do tasks. If you have rooms of unlisted inventory, you cannot list all of it in one day. Commit to listing XX per day. List the items that will make you most money first.
For social media, note where you get the most likes and comments. Whatever your most popular social media site is, whether it’s your Facebook Business Page, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest, focus there. Here are some quick tips to save time and maximize your social media.
Make choices that move your eBay business forward.
To get more done look at your week. Let’s say you want to list forty items this week. How will you accomplish this?
Grouping tasks works. Set aside a few hours one day a week to photograph your items. Another day, edit your pictures and take measurements for your products. Then starting day three on, list XX items daily.
Want to post on your Facebook Business Page three times daily? To save time, use a scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer. With a scheduler, once or twice a week, set up your posts for the entire week or month.
Make choices that move your business forward. Something doesn’t get finished? Check your calendar and find a place to fit it in. I have great social media tips for you during the Holidays in my Top 10 Holiday Sales Success For Social Media Tips.
#3 Life will happen.
You plan your day. You’re moving along and then, bam, life happens. A customer situation takes hours to resolve. A family crisis arises. Your internet connection goes down etc Quickly look at the absolute MUST DO’s in your day. Do them. Deal with your crisis. Assess what time is left.
Which of your undone tasks is the most important? View your week and see what can be juggled to fit in the undone tasks. If you are a solopreneur with young children or elder care needs, there are daily family situations that occur. Be realistic about what can be done. Ask in Facebook groups for eBay sellers like eBay Selling Basics Nothing But Selling Basics how others deal with running a business with your life situation. The New York Times has some great tips on mastering life’s distractions when they happen in the blog post How To Make The Most Of Your Workday.
#4 Do your best.
Successful sellers set realistic challenges for themselves.
Each of us has unique strengths. One seller is super fast at listing, another is amazing on social media. Do your personal best.
If the best you can do is to list three items a day on eBay, good for you! Want to become a faster lister? Analyze your work flow. How can you speed up? Set a timer when you product research. Can you prep your items in less time, so that photographing them goes quicker? Measure products more efficiently, entering the information on an organized spread sheet to use later. Break down each step in your business. Five minutes saved here and there adds up to thirty minutes to an hour and more in your day.
Applaud yourself for progress you make. Successful sellers set realistic challenges for themselves. You decide where and how you want to grow your eBay business. Assess and plan. Move forward, even if it’s baby steps. Some sellers never make progress as they over analyze and endlessly discuss every action they take, rather than taking regular steps. Baby steps count!
#5 What Can Be Delegated?
The bottom line for any business is to make money. You are running a business. If there is no room in your budget to hire workers, use every free tool you can get your hands on. Schedule your social media with Hootsuite and Buffer. Save hours using the complimentary email digest daily of Unroll.Me.
A business can only grow so large without help. Can you enlist family members to work? Can they list, source and or ship? High school kids can be hired to photograph listings. Is there a college nearby that has an intern program you can utilize? Look at your profit margins. Find ways to increase them. Buy items in bulk. Stop buying certain items as the marketplace price has dropped. Change the way you package an item saving on shipping weight and postage but still wrapping securely.
With as little as $8 -$10 a hour you can hire off shore virtual assistant helpers to do social media scheduling, inventory research, graphics and more for your business. This is my affiliate link for FreeeUp. FreeeUpis a marketplace where you can hire off shore and US based virtual assistants. Consider what that a few dollars a week buys you. More free time for you means you can list, source and ship more, generating more cash!
To get more hours in the day, and get more done, it’s essential to prioritize your tasks.
Life throws you curves daily. Think through your work flow. Discover ways to streamline your essential tasks. An improved work flow saves you precious time and money. As you grow, utilize local help and or a marketplace like FreeeUp to hire professional workers for your business.
There are never enough hours in the day for the busy eBay seller. Adhere to the priorities you choose this Holiday season. Maximize your workflow and paycheck.
A planned selling strategy is the road for more profit and hours in the day.
The Holidays are here. Social media campaigns are in full swing to attract shoppers. eBay sellers turn to me and ask,
“How can I stand out to shoppers on social media this Holiday season?”
The answer is keywords.
Ground your Holiday Planner for 2017 with awesome keywords.
Without good keywords, it’s as if you are taking your items and throwing them in a heap on the floor. You are daring shoppers and search engines to find your products. Keywords enable search engines and customers to discover your listing.
Sellers can forget to think like a buyer. When listing a plush teddy bear toy think, “What words would I be using to find this?” I would search, plush toy, plush teddy bear, teddy bear, small teddy bear, big teddy bear, boy teddy bear, pink teddy bear etc.
Keywords are words that detail and describe your item. They are brands, colors, styles, period and the size of the product. Terms like Nike, Under Armour, Mid Century Modern, lace, 100% cotton and more.
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!
This will the most competitive sales season ever on eBay! There are more eBay sellers and more inventory online than ever before. How can small and medium sellers compete and win in this ferocious online environment?
Smaller sellers can score their share of sales now and all through the Holidays. Here are the top three ways to do it!
#1 – CHECK PRICES ON EBAY AND THE WEB!
First of all, prices change on the internet. Hot products prices change during the shopping season depending on availability. So, if you sell in demand Holiday products, monitor prices carefully. Take advantage of these fluctuations. Small – medium sellers can pivot, changing their prices. Also, small sellers can get often source popular items far faster than larger online retailers. Use the eBay saved search feature to monitor new listings and competition online.
There are numerous hot categories right now.
Trendy clothes, party clothes, electronics, home decor, sporting goods, sports memorabilia, and crafts are all hot categories. For in depth research use Terapeak’s(ad) Hot Product Research. If you’re analyzing seasonal trends nothing beats Terapeak’s (ad)three years of sold data!
Smaller sellers can use social media to their advantage and win! What’s key with social media is to laser focus on your potential customer is. With that in mind, post social content mixed in with products. My Top Ten Social Media Holiday Success Tips shows you clearly how use social media to your advantage. So, you can reach your customers with social media and score sales.
By answering within minutes of getting the query, you the smaller seller will score the sale.
#3- ANSWER CUSTOMER QUESTIONS FAST!
Many large online sellers answer customer service questions with an auto responder. A customer will ask about color or fit and they get a message that the seller will get back to them within one business day. Monitor your customer service and shopper inquiries closely. By answering within minutes of getting the query, you the smaller seller will score the sale.
Shoppers don’t want to wait. They want answers. They want to buy.
YOU, the quick to respond seller scores sales. I’ve gotten numerous messages from happy customers saying ” Thank you for answering my questions. Wow that was fast. I bought from you because your replied so quickly etc” Answering questions promptly works to get you sales during the hectic Holiday period and all year long!
Being a smaller seller can has it advantages! By closely monitoring prices, posting great engaging content on social media and being super responsive to customer service question, you gain the sales edge online!
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