super christmas ebay selling secrets

Transcription

SUPER CHRISTMAS
EBAY SELLING SECRETS
2013
Copyright © 2013 SaleHoo Ltd. All rights reserved.
No part of this ebook may be used or reproduced without permission from SaleHoo
SALEHOO’S SUPER CHRISTMAS EBAY SELLING
SECRETS EBOOK
Welcome to the SaleHoo Super Christmas eBay Selling Secrets eBook.
Even though it’s still a few months away, you should be very excited about the upcoming
holiday season! Not only are there presents, candy canes and lots of parties, but for us
online entrepreneurs it’s by far the most profitable time of the year, which is why we have
put this little guide together to get you pumped up and prepared for profits!
The holiday season is a prime time for attracting new regular customers, and many
retailers make the bulk of their profit from selling in the holidays. Wherever you are in the
world, online retail sales skyrocket in October, November and December.
In fact, over the last 5 years, Americans have said they expect to spend an average of
$828.60 on Christmas gifts. Even now with a slower economy eCommerce sales continue
to boom, and there has never been a better time to discover how holiday selling works.
Read on to get clued up on the best way to approach the upcoming season!
WHAT THIS EBOOK COVERS
Section 1: The Perfect Start for New Sellers
Get super basic information for new sellers such as an introduction to eBay, how to make
your first listing, and a few basic selling tips. If you are new to eBay, this will help to answer
some of your questions and make you feel more confident about taking a leap into the
online world of retail.
Section 2: Step By Step Guide to Profiting This Christmas
Get your stepbystep, monthbymonth Christmas Countdown. This tells you everything you
will need to do (starting today!) to get you on the road to making the most out of Holiday
selling.
Section 3: Beginner and Advanced Sales Tips To Boost Your Sales
eBay and other online marketplaces are noisy at Christmas, so how can you ensure your
listings stand out? You’ll hear from experts including selling guru, Marc Ransom. We’ve
broken this section down into Beginner and Advanced sub sections so there is something
new for everyone to learn.
Section 4: Find your Niche (Or Niches) To Sell These Holidays
In our final section, we play Santa Claus and give you the ultimate gift by spoonfeeding you
with some great niche items to look into for holiday selling. We’ve done our research on
these products and have found there is plenty of room for you to turn them into
moneymakers. You’re welcome!
SECTION 1: The Perfect Start for New Sellers
What is eBay? (Super Basic Information for All Our Beginners!)
eBay.com is a website that acts as a platform for anyone to quickly and easily sell stuff
online. With local sites in more than 30 countries, eBay is arguably the world’s most widely
recognized online marketplace and place for buyers and sellers to get together and trade
almost anything.
Here’s a quick overview of how eBay works:
● A seller creates an account and fills in eBay’s selling form to list an item for sale on
the eBay site. This could be anything from cosmetics to cars or books and
electronics. The seller chooses to accept only bids for the item (an auctiontype
listing) or to offer the Buy It Now option, which allows buyers to purchase the item
right away at a fixed price determined by the seller.
● In an online auction, the bidding opens at a price the seller specifies and remains on
eBay for a certain number of days. Buyers then place bids on the item. When the
listing ends, the buyer with the highest bid wins.
● In a Buy It Now listing, the first buyer willing to accept the seller’s price gets the item.
Who uses eBay?
eBay knows no boundaries, anyone and everyone can get on board; young and old,
computer whizzes and computer fizzes, millionaires in New York penthouses and
handicraftsmen from the highlands of Nepal. Buyers and sellers alike visit eBay to go
beyond the limitations of conventional retail experiences. eBay benefits both parties by
eliminating many overhead costs faced by brick and mortar businesses such as rent and
electricity costs. This means that buyers can get what they are looking for at a cheaper
price and sellers can make a better profit, all from the comfort of their own home.
What can I buy and sell on eBay?
The possibilities are endless. The first ever item to be sold on eBay was a broken laser
pointer which sold for $14.83 and was bought by, of all people, a collector of broken laser
pointers! Clothing, electronics and baby equipment are among the most popular sellers but
all sorts of weird and wonderful items have appeared over the years including a ghost in a
jar and the meaning of life.
Really, the question you need to ask is what can’t you sell on eBay! eBay restricts and
prohibits the sale of all items that are already restricted in everyday retail such as tobacco,
alcohol and adult only material. Other restricted and prohibited items include:
● used underwear
● used cosmetics
● food and health care items
● pharmaceuticals
● electronic surveillance equipment
● government ID’s, documents and licenses and uniforms
It’s important to fully understand the restrictions on the product you are looking into selling
before you make any purchases. Check out eBay’s complete list of restricted and
prohibited items to find out more details.
How to set up an eBay auction
eBay is very userfriendly for new sellers. It has many great tools to help you make great
listings and get the best price possible. Start by visiting eBay’s selling homepage and
using their great What’s it Worth? tool. With What’s it Worth?, you can enter information
about the item you are selling and find out the average that it sells for on eBay.
This information is very valuable for ensuring that you get the price you deserve for the item,
and also for making sure you aren’t wasting your time with a high reserve that is turning off
potential buyers. Additionally, you’ll soon discover that some items just aren’t very popular
and are a waste of time to try and sell; while others are all the rage and draw interested
bidders within a few minutes of listing.
Your stepbystep guide to your first eBay listing
1. First, select which category your item will sell in. To do this, you can either browse
through categories or enter keywords into the ‘finding a matching category’ search bar and
eBay will generate results for you. For example, if I want to sell a collectible Michael
Jackson keychain, I will enter ‘collectible key chain’ into the search bar and eBay will
generate search results for me to choose from, such as car parts, clothing accessories,
and collectibles. I’ll choose collectibles as it is the most important part of the keychain is
that is a collectible item.
Which category you select will determine what options you have next, but you will normally
have to:
2. Choose a title. Think carefully about the keywords you want to use and remember that
great listing titles will not only get buyers interested, they will help to push your listing to the
top of potential buyers search results. You can only use 80 characters in your title so use
them wisely!
3. Take a look at the Item Specifics options. Buyers use Item Specifics to refine their
search and locate items they want faster by eliminating criteria they don’t want. Here you
can check the ‘New’ if your item is in brand new, unused condition, and enter the ‘Type’ of
product you are selling, using eBay generated suggestions. You can also select your own
Item Specifics.
4. Bring your item to life with pictures. I can’t stress enough how important great
pictures are for your listings! It is imperative that you do your item justice by taking good
quality pictures that show the features of your item. Check out our tips in Section 3 for a
howto on taking great pictures.
5. Describe what you are selling. Give as much information about the item as possible.
Tell buyers the measurements, condition, faults or imperfections, brand name, age and
warranty information.
Before you list an item, check at least 5 others selling the same thing to get an idea of how
best to describe the item.
It’s a good idea to look through eBay’s completed listings (under advanced search, on the
right of the search toolbar) to see what listing’s were successful and sold (listed in green
under completed listings) and which didn’t (listed in red).
Think of a description as an opportunity to show potential buyers how great your product is.
Show them how they can use it, how buying the item will solve a problem for them, or fill a
need they might have.
6. Choose whether you would like a Listing Designer to give your listing a little color
and flair to your listing, and select if you would like a Visitor Counter. We don’t really think
the Listing Designer is worth the money though, so feel free to skip this!
Once you have refined your product range and made a nice profit, consider having a listing
template custom made for you. Visitor counters are best left for very popular items which
will attract plenty of views.
7. Choose how you would like to sell your item, either as an Online Auction (great for
items which have an uncertain value or are in high demand) or as a Fixed Price listing
(great for items which are an obvious bargain which you want to sell quickly), and whether
you will allow sellers to send you their best offers for you to consider (highly recommended
for appealing to as many buyers as possible).
8. Select the quantity of the items and the duration of the auction.
9. Enter your Starting Price and/or Buy It Now.
10. Select your auction length. You can choose between a 3, 5, 7 or 10 day listing. I
recommend a 7day auction as it gives buyer plenty of time to find your auction and of
course, the more people who see it, the more bids you will get!
11. Confirm how you would like to be paid and which shipping options you will offer
such as international, overnight courier etc
12. Click Continue and preview your listing. Click Edit Listing if you need to change
anything
13. Click List Your Item to post your listing on eBay!
After making a few listings, the process becomes second nature and takes only minutes.
Plus there are plenty of ways to speed up this process even more by using listing software
such as eBay’s free Turbo Lister tool.
ESSENTIAL SELLING TIPS FOR NEWBIES
Tip #1: Keep a strong focus on customer service.
This will encourage both positive feedback and repeat customers. Good customer service
means prompt (same day) replies to emails, prompt shipping, and keeping your buyers
uptodate at every stage of the buying process.
Ever wondered why when you are waiting in line at theme parks, there are markers to tell
you how long you have left to wait before it is your turn on the roller coaster? It’s because
when people know how long they have to wait, they have certainty. And certainty gives them
confidence in the roller coaster of selling online and the company operating it.
It’s the same for your buyers – they are anxiously waiting to receive their item from you, so
take time to let the buyer know when you have received their payment, and again when you
have sent out their item. This way, they have certainty about how long they’re going to be
waiting for their item. And certainty gives them confidence in you and your business.
Tip #2: Familiarize yourself with shipping costs.
You can find basic information on shipping and helpful calculators at the United States
Postal Service site. With the information you can find on the site, you can make your own
database of prices for each item you are selling and easily refer to it when listing auctions.
This is an important step to make sure you are not losing money on shipping costs.
Another tip is to take a look at what your competitors are charging for postage and to sell a
few things from around the house to get you used to the time and logistics involved with
shipping.
Tip #3: Pay attention to other costs involved with selling.
This is where a lot of eBay sellers go wrong. It’s vital to know the real cost of selling that
DVD or bracelet so that you can be certain of how much money you are making from it.
● Are you a rural seller who has to drive to the post office in town every other day to
ship items?
● Are you spending a lot on bubble wrap or other packaging?
● How much time is it taking you to list each item?
Keep track of all associated costs and divide them up between your items to find out the
real cost. This can be an involved process but is worth it to know how your prices match up
with your profit. Check out online shipping calculators such as USPS’s ones to give you an
idea of shipping costs on items before you buy them.
Tip #4: Get set up to receive payments.
Ultimately you should aim to have a diverse range of ways to pay, but to start out, it’s best
to go for popular and secure methods such as PayPal or Paymate as these offer the
buyers and sellers some level of security and are very popular among buyers. eBay
requires sellers to accept PayPal, ProPay, Moneybookers, Paymate, or Internet merchant
credit card payment options in most categories.
10 Other Places to Sell Online
Although eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, it’s certainly not the only
place to sell. There are now dozens of excellent auction and classified sites, all with their
own unique selling points. Lots of sellers choose to sell on a few different sites, especially
over busy periods like Christmas, in order to get maximum custom.
Site
Unique Selling Point
Traffic
Rank*
Fees
Best for...
Addoway.com
Strong selling commu nity
and growing numbers of
sales
135,232
Free to list, low
final value fees
Sellers looking for
a supportive
community
Bonanza.com
On Bonanzle, if a buyer
sees one of your items,
they'll also see up to 10 of
your other listings too!
8,343
0.50c minimum fee
then 1.55.9% fees
based on your
selling price
Those with a
diverse product
range.
Etsy.com
The place to buy and sell
all things handmade
189
$.20 to list an
item, then 3.5%
final value fees
Crafty types to
make some cash
from their creative
talents.
Amazon.com
America’s largest online
retailer
6
Pay a referral fee
of 625%, a
variable closing fee
and a fixed fee of
0.99 cents. Ouch!
Those selling
items other than
books and DVD's
which have very
high FVF’s.
Craigslist.org
A network of online
statetostate communities
featuring free online
classifieds
45
Free posting
options
Excellent for
secondhand
items. Especially
popular in the US.
Ruby Lane
Marketplace that gives you
your own storefront
21,882
Listing fees from
$0.30. Store fronts
from $30 per
month
Sellers of
antiques,
collectibles and
jewelry
SaleHoo Stores
Start your very own
online store in just
minutes no technical
knowledge required
19,177
From $27 per
month with no
hidden fees.
Cancel at any
time
If you want to
build a business
and really grow
an asset. Learn
more here
*Alexa traffic rank is based on using a combination of average daily visitors and page views over the last
three months. The lower the rank, the more hits the site gets. For example, Google.com has a ranking of 1.
Local sites outside of the US
Quicksales.com.au, Australia. The second largest auction site in Australia, making it
eBay.com.au’s biggest competitor.
Bazaario.com, Canada. North America’s online marketplace. Similar format to eBay in
that it offers sellers options for having their own stores. UK version coming soon.
uk.eBid.net, United Kingdom. One of the largest in the UK, offers zerofee auctions.
Trademe.co.nz, New Zealand. TradeMe is New Zealand’s second most visited site
outside of Google.co.nz and is the largest Internet auction site operating in
New Zealand.
SECTION 2: GETTING STARTED ON YOUR HOLIDAY
SELLING
The first thing you need to understand is that the time to act is now! The longer you can
have your products online and available, the better. There are plenty of ridiculously
organized Super Moms out there who have all their shopping completed by mid October.
Meanwhile, some do a last minute maddash on December 24th, so to make sure you can
appeal to everyone, get in early.
NOW THRU SEPTEMBER: MARKET RESEARCH
This part is vitally important to the success or otherwise of your business. Many first time
Christmas sellers have one thing in common: they fail. Often, this is not because their
prices were wrong or because they charged too much in shipping, it’s because they were
too lazy to do the groundwork.
Researching your ideas is so important there is no point selling something that thousands
of other people are already selling nor is there any point trying to get people to buy
something that they don’t want. So to avoid unwillingly becoming a member of the Failure
Club, put your research hat on and get busy.
Here are our 5 steps to coming up with a bunch of great ideas for things to sell:
1. What’s on your own Christmas list?
First of all, you must come up with a few ideas about what to sell. An easy way to start is by
thinking about gifts that you would like to see under the tree with your name on them.
Chances are, there are plenty of others out there who would want those things as well!
Selling things you are interested works well for sellers because when it comes to Q&A time
with buyers, you will know your stuff. Beyond that, the old saying that goes something like “if
you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life” is true, and when things get
really busy closer to Christmas, you will be living and breathing the products you are selling
so it really helps to be interested in them.
2. What are the trends this year?
To find out what the hot trends are this year, check newspapers and magazines. These
publications regularly compile lists or write stories about hot gift ideas. If lots of people are
reading about these, it’s highly likely they’ll be looking to buy them online too. For example,
backyard gardens are increasing in popularity due to a mix of events and trends: the
recession, interest in the environment, and organic produce. Articles about DIY gardens,
nodig gardens and growing vegetables as pot plants have been in lots of magazines and
newspapers this year.
However, don’t get overexcited by blogs and online articles in places like
EzineArticles.com telling you about the latest hotselling toys – they often have an agenda
of their own. Plus these ‘hottest’ products can be very hard to source and are extremely
competitive. Sure, you can camp outside WalMart all night to be among the first in line to
get the toys, then list them on eBay for twice what you paid it’ll make you a quick buck, but
it’s not a sustainable way to make money and you are better off looking into something that
can benefit you long term.
Here are two easy ways to get the lowdown on the hot trends for this year:
1. Google the name of your interest followed by the year – e.g. ‘home décor tends
2013’. This should bring up tons of articles on all the hot sellers.
2. Try searching YouTube for ‘trends 2013’. This will give you a bunch of fantastic
videos on all the hot trends right now.
A few of the biggest trends this Christmas are:
● For kids: Organic toys; dog/puppy toys and movies; newrelease movierelated
items (The Croods, Jack the Giant Slayer, Escape from Planet Earth, Epic, The
Smurfs 2).
● Fair trade gifts.
● Macaroon and whoopie pie baking kits.
● Organic/ecofriendly gardening equipment, e.g. organic cotton gardening gloves.
● Bikes.
● Clothing and accessories: Vintage and glam styles are hot right now
● Music, especially guitars of all kinds for kids and grownups.
● Crafts and DIY.
See our Niche ideas section for hot trendrelated products to sell.
Hot tip: If you have an existing business, you can ask your supplier what the best
selling products are this year. Easy! If you don’t have a friendly supplier on hand, check
out some of the trade magazines available on TradePub.com.
3. Focus on one demographic
Break down the demographics and look at how these trends could apply to different
markets. Here are some different markets you could target:
1. Homemakers & hosts looking for holiday decorations & accessories like catering
equipment etc.
2. Parents looking for children’s gifts (a huge market, kids are definitely the ones who
get the most out of Christmas, just look at how many presents you got when you
were 9, compared to the couple you get now!).
3. Corporate Christmas gifts.
4. Women looking for gifts for dads, boyfriends.
5. Men looking for gifts for wives and girlfriends.
6. People on a budget looking for gifts.
7. People looking for luxury Christmas gifts
8. Environmentally and socially aware people looking for ecofriendly or freetrade
gifts.
9. Shoppers! People also buy stuff for themselves when they get caught up in gift
buying!
Hot tip: Type ‘Christmas gift’ and ‘Holiday gift’ into the Google keyword tool and
look at all the related searches.
Remember: It’s ideal if you can think of a really narrow niche to make money from – e.g.
organic women’s sleepwear. It’s much easier to set up a business on a budget if you focus
on a single deep niche rather than going wide. Once your business is established you can
look at building up your range.
Once you have come up with a few ideas, you need to find out how much of a market exists
for them. There are some great, easy to use tools out there which make this much easier
than it sounds by analyzing data from past auctions.
4. Find products within the trends to sell to your hungry market
You can do some helpful research just on eBay’s site alone. Start on the homepage and
click the Advanced Search option right next to the search tool bar.
Next, enter keywords for the product you are searching, select a category and check the
Completed Listings box.
Then click the search button and eBay will generate your search results.
The prices written in green represent the listings which sold, while the ones in red show the
listings that did not.
Go through at least 5 pages of results and compare the number of green listings in relation
to the red listings. What you are looking for is products which have a much higher ratio of
green to red listings. When you find a product which has more than 60% sellthrough rate,
you can be fairly certain that product will sell well on eBay.
The easiest way to do this is to scroll right down to the bottom of the page and check that
50 items show per page, then go through and count the number of green listings. When you
get to the bottom and have counted at least 30 (60%) green listings out of the 50 listed, you
have found yourself a little goldmine!
Take notes about average selling price – this information will be invaluable when you are
looking for suppliers.
OTHER MARKET RESEARCH TOOLS
SaleHoo’s Research Lab
SaleHoo’s own Research Lab is free for all SaleHoo members to use and offers upto
date information on selling opportunities on eBay. It provides data on current eBay prices,
sell through rate, and even the best time of the day and day of the week your listing will sell
best on.
If you are still having problems channeling your inner entrepreneur and finding something
great to sell, check out our helpful list of niches in Section 3 of this eBook.
SEPTEMBER: PRODUCT SOURCING
Carefully consider which type of supplier you use for Christmas
You have a range to choose from: wholesalers, manufacturers, wholesalers offering drop
shipping services and liquidators. Each supplier comes with their own pros and cons so
we have put together a little guide to help you decide the right type of supplier for your
holiday selling.
Drop Ship Wholesalers
When wholesalers drop ship, they send the product directly to your buyer from their
warehouse, so that you as the retailer do not have to store stock on your premises or
prepare and package it for shipping.
Pros
● The payasyousell system means there is very little risk in losing money •You don’t
need to find any space to store the stock
● You won’t have to do any packaging or shipping
● Great for products with lowvolume sales and high profit margins
● You can offer your customers a wider product range
Cons
● Your profit margins will be low as wholesalers must charge more for drop shipping
services
● Delays in delivery should be expected, and therefore so should complaints from
buyers who are wondering where their item is, therefore:
● Sellers who are drop shipping will have to finish Holiday selling much earlier than
those who buy items in bulk and ship them themselves
● Most dropship sellers will run into problems when their supplier suddenly runs out of
stock and are forced to put the item on backorder which can lead the buyers to
cancel the sale (wasting their time and yours and possibly leading to bad feedback
being placed)
Liquidation Supplier
A liquidator buys huge amounts of stock from (a) closeout sales which occur when a
retailer goes out of business and (b) large department stores with leftover stock they can’t
clear, or returned/ damaged items.
Pros
● You’ll get supercheap stock
Cons
● You’ll have to buy in bulk, possibly by the pallet load
● Your order may include returned or damaged items
● Your order is likely to be made up with stock that did not sell in store so you might
just find yourself with a bunch of stock that will be very difficult to shift
Manufacturer
A manufacturer is a company that produces the product from raw materials.
Pros
● You’ll find the lowest possible prices when you deal with manufacturers
● Great for bigtime sellers who are ready to make a large order
Cons
● You’ll be playing with the big boys when you deal with manufacturers; they are likely
to laugh at anyone who requests an order for anything under 1,000 units.
Wholesalers
Wholesalers buy products from the manufacturer in large quantities and make money by
selling smaller lots to retailers.
Pros
● They are the closest most sellers will get to the manufacturers prices
● They are used to dealing with smaller retailers and online sellers and often have
advice or userfriendly processes for smalltime or new sellers
Cons
● Sellers need to be able to provide a business registration number and tax
identification
● They prefer to deal with established businesses that can be relied upon to place
orders over their minimums
MultiSourcing
Consider multisourcing by mixing ‘n’ matching suppliers to get a good range of stock to
supply your business. And if you do end up with a bunch of stock you can’t sell, try listing it
as a wholesale lot on eBay. Many sellers have successfully used this technique to get rid of
dead stock!
WHERE TO FIND FABULOUS SUPPLIERS FOR
CHRISTMAS
The SaleHoo Directory
It’s the most reliable source for finding suppliers. We have a team who are dedicated to
finding and bringing our SaleHoo members the best suppliers on the net. We have strict
criteria and standards that must be met before they can grace the pages in our directory
which makes it safe for you to deal with every supplier in our directory.
If you’re not already a member of SaleHoo, join now and meet over 8,000 trusted suppliers
Using the SaleHoo Directory is simple, just enter keywords related to the product you are
looking for and select whether you to want search for all suppliers, drop shippers only,
wholesalers only, liquidators only, manufacturers only or perform an advanced search
(where you can specify the location of the supplier and where they can ship to) and hit the
Search SaleHoo button!
You’ll be presented with a list of trustworthy and well established suppliers. Select the
suppliers you want to check out from the search results to read more about them and visit
their website to view their product range.
Think Locally
When you are looking for a local supplier, check out the Yellow Pages for wholesalers in
your area. Watch out for liquidation auctions by checking newspaper classifieds or go
along to yard sales and thrift stores. This is timeconsuming, but lucrative for highreturn
items like used clothing e.g. you can often source a dress for US$0.50 at a thrift store and
sell for $35, so that’s enough profit to cover your time. Attending trade shows will give you a
good idea of what is up and coming for the new year or season.
Importing
If you are new to buying wholesale and/or selling online, just before Christmas isn’t the best
time to experiment with importing as you run the risk of products from overseas being
either delayed in Customs, or victims of overstressed courier companies! While
experienced sellers aren’t immune to issues with Customs, they know to import earlier for
Christmas and are likely to know how to deal with such any potential ‘situations’, and can
make up for lost time when their stock does arrive more easily than new sellers.
If you know what you are doing, you may already be setup with your supplier if you are
planning on selling the items you sell yearround; or you might be on the hunt for a new one
to get your new niche up and running. Either way, when it comes to holiday selling, there
are a few important things you need to keep in mind to make sure things run smoothly for
you and your customers:
Tips On Dealing With Suppliers This Christmas
● Make sure you give yourself and your supplier plenty of lead time to get the deal
sealed and your shipment sent. If you are importing from overseas, make sure you
allow time for possible delays with Customs who are extra vigilant during the
holidays.
● Consider using multiple suppliers to avoid total reliance on one supplier. This will
help to guard you from issues with shipping delays and back orders. Use the
cheapest and most userfriendly one you can find as your primary supplier and
anyone else as a secondary, backup supplier.
● If you are drop shipping, it’s important to keep some stock on hand to avoid lost
sales from back orders which are more likely to occur when suppliers are
overloaded with orders during the holidays. ‘But that defeats the purpose of drop
shipping!’ I hear you say, but it is better than losing sales altogether.
● Keep in touch with your supplier. If delivery is running a little late, give them a call
and see how they are getting on. They may need more information from you about
your order and just haven’t quite found the time to call or email. Remember to be
polite and understanding with them, it’s imperative that the two of you work together
so that you can both succeed. Keep in mind that your supplier is probably doing
everything they can to satisfy your requests, as it is in their best interests to build a
great relationship with you now, so that you can benefit from each other for years to
come.
● Christmas is a testing time for sellers and suppliers alike and can really make or
break a business relationship. If you are pulling your end of the bargain, but they are
not fulfilling theirs, you will soon see their true colors shine through and will be able to
decide whether it is a relationship worth holding onto for next year, or if it is time to
move on to find a new supplier.
Avoid Christmas Supplier Scams!
If you are looking for a new supplier, you need to be very wary of crooks who crawl out from
the Underworld to get their notsofair share of the Christmas pie by doing what they know
best; scamming the vulnerable. Even the most seasoned sellers are not immune to phony
online suppliers so to help you stay safe, follow these smart productsourcing steps:
How to find who’s naughty or nice:
1. Check for safe payment options such as PayPal and secure credit card options.
These provide you with some security. Suppliers who insist that wire transfers is
their only way of receiving payments put the lie in supplier and should be considered
as highly likely to be illegitimate. Don’t simply check for PayPal or other payment
service provider’s logos. Some sneaky suppliers simply use these to fool sellers
into thinking they have them as an option but will only accept a MoneyGram or
Western Union transfer
2. Check out the supplier’s contact details. If they only supply a mobile phone
number and a wacky email address like [email protected] or
[email protected], then you should proceed with caution
3. Take a closer look at their site. Most reputable and longrunning suppliers will
have invested in a great web site with great branding and consistent use of
company colors. Sites which rely on pornographic advertisements to pay for their
bills are probably run by crooks who have no established supply relationships to pay
for a proper company website.
4. Test them by calling their numbers on their web site. Listen carefully to how
they answer the call. If they answer with a simple “yes?” rather than a more
professional, “Mid West Gardening Supplies, Dave speaking?” you might be on the
phone with a genuine fraudster!
5. Search through the SaleHoo forums to see if their name shows up anywhere.
You might be able to talk with a fellow member to get advice on your potential
supplier. If they show up in our Name Them! Shame Them! Thread which we set up
to expose dodgy sellers, steer clear!
If it all gets too much, just join SaleHoo and remove the headache from wholesale buying!
OCTOBER: GET LISTING!
As soon as your stock arrives, you will need to sit down and get stuck into getting your
items online and testing what sells well. Then you will have time to refine your range and
iron out any supplier problems before the main rush. The sooner you start this the better.
During the Christmas rush, you might need to defer from your regular listing style.
Christmas is a busy time on eBay and buyers are looking to get great deals quickly.
Make sure you make the most of this busy time by carefully deciding which listing style will
suit your audience better, although it’s a good idea to mix it up a bit, whatever your niche.
For example, Buy It Now listings will become really important from December onwards
when people need to buy items quickly. Keep auctionstyle listings for items you have that
are difficult to price or that are highly sought after, such a collectibles or hotselling trend
items.
Shape up your shipping
Christmas is not the time for sloppy shipping: Be clear about postage times in your listings
and give your buyers’ confidence that they will get their items in time for Christmas. Don’t
forget to allow for delays that come with the postal overload in December. Offering free
shipping and free gift wrapping will go a long way in helping to entice buyers (check out
discount stores and dollar shops for cheap gift wrap and tape). When it comes time to visit
the postal office, plan your visit in advance to help make it as efficient as possible and try to
go early in the morning to avoid long queues. Alternatively, send all your mail by courier or
registered mail. Lots of items go missing over Christmas – also, it’s easier for you if
someone comes to pick up your mail every day rather than you having to go to the post
office.
NOVEMBER: MANAGING YOUR SALES
Things will really start to pick up in November as the world starts to get into Christmas
mode and the real rush begins. We have prepared a few tips on dealing with problems you
may encounter.
Getting snowed under with sales:
Things have got to be going good when all you have to worry about is the fact that you have
too many sales rolling in!
During November, you will be kept busy with listings closing, emails coming in from buyers,
shipping out items and relisting. If you find yourself getting swamped with orders (and
here’s hoping you will!), you may want to consider investing in some auction listing software
such as Auctiva which automates your listings and could help save you a lot of time. It also
has some attractive auction templates you can use to give your listings some personality.
You can sign up for a free demo trial at Auctiva.com.
Get help when you get busy
Consider getting some help with answering your emails and getting your items packaged
up and ready for shipping.
There is a lot of busywork involved with online selling and a lot of bigtime sellers would
rather use their time wisely, doing things like scoping new niche ideas or researching
better ways to sell online, so why not do the same and leave the unskilled laboring to
someone else? Got a little brother at home who is keen to earn some cash? Why not get
him to package up all your items for you in advance (just make sure you leave a prototype
out to refer to when buyers ask questions) and label them for you so that you can grab them
when they are ready to send out later. Struggling students on their holiday break are
another great source of people eager to earn some cash. Maybe get them to do your trips
down to the post office (just don’t let them borrow your car!).
Being messed around by unresponsive buyers
The auction is over, you’ve emailed the buyer, but they haven’t responded and it’s now a
week later. Have you just been ripped off?
1. Send them a reminder email. Be polite but firm. Remind them of the conditions of
the auction, for example: ‘7 days ago you purchased #193849 ‘Rocket Train Set’. I
would like to remind you that payment is due for the item within 10 days of auction
completion as per the auction description. Please make the payment in the next
couple of days or contact me in extenuating circumstances. Thank you’. If they do
reply with an excuse for the delay in payment such as illness, or them waiting until
their next pay day, give them the benefit of the doubt, but only do this once.
Unfortunately there are people out there who will bid on auctions or hit the Buy It Now
button without thinking the purchase through. Don’t let these timewasters get in the
way of you making the number of sales you want.
2. If there is still no response 3 days later, send a warning email. ‘Payment is
now overdue for #193849 ‘Rocket Train Set’. Please put the payment through today
using PayPal, or contact me if there are any problems and I’ll be happy to resolve
them with you. This is a final warning. If payment is not received today, I will be
forced to relist the item’.
3. If you don’t hear from the buyer within 10 days, then you can consider filing an
unpaid item dispute with eBay’s Resolution Center.
4. Check back over their feedback and see if they have had any similar
occurrences previously.
5. If you still don’t get any response, you can then relist your item or make it a
second chance offer. Consider blocking the nonpaying ‘buyer’ to prevent a
repeat offense.
DECEMBER: PREPARING FOR THE RUSH
Be prepared for the problems you might face such as when the crazy customers demand a
refund, then realize they don’t have time to get a refund and get another gift in time for
Christmas. This is when their true colors will shine through, and so will yours it’s the
ultimate test in problemsolving!
The best prevention for having to deal with returns is to describe your product honestly and
with as much detail as possible. But when problems do strike and someone does demand
a refund or a replacement a few days before the final cutoff for postage, act quickly.
The last thing you want is negative feedback being placed claiming that you ruined their
Christmas! This is a terrible look for any seller, even if it is something that is beyond your
control such as mishandling by the shipping company.
Breakages in shipping are a part of online selling and there are some avenues you and
your buyers can take to deal with breakages (plus insurance is a big help); but during the
Christmas rush, breakages and mishandling are even more common due to the huge
volume of items being shipped around the world.
Shipping Blunder Case Study
When Shawn from Idaho sent out the last of his Christmas orders last year, he was ready
to sit back with a hot mug of eggnog and make the most of the festive vibe. Too bad that
two days later, he received an irate email from a buyer who was very upset about the
state of the perfume he bought for his girlfriend. It turned out the bottle
cap was smashed and the box had been demolished by some lessthanthoughtful
handling by the courier.
Not wanting to ruin the buyer’s Christmas by not having a great gift for his girlfriend,
Shawn got to work and marched down to the post office armed with another bottle of the
same perfume wrapped up in 2 feet of bubble wrap, and got it sent out by overnight
courier to the nervous buyer.
Normally Shawn would ask the buyer to return the damaged item before sending out a
new one, but in the spirit of Christmas, he took the buyer’s word for it and sent out a
replacement right away. Although it cost him, he got some great feedback from the buyer
and received the damaged perfume bottle in early January and was able to claim for
insurance.
Know when to stop
Final shipping dates for the holiday season will be made available by UPS and courier
companies closer to December. Use these dates to help you plan when your last set of
auctions will finish. Make sure you give buyers at least 24 hours to make payment. If you
are running an ecommerce site, put a banner on your homepage stating the cutoff point for
all items that need to be shipped in time for Christmas.
Cashin on Boxing Day boredom by being ready and waiting with plenty of listings ready to
go. Consider short auctions and plenty of Buy It Now bargains. After a big day of
socializing with the family and overeating, people tend to have a chillout day on Boxing
Day. So when it comes time for them to logon, make sure you are ready for them and their
money they were gifted from their Aunt from Oklahoma!
JANUARY: DON’T SLOW DOWN YET!
After all the hype and craziness of December, you may be feeling a bit over the Holiday
Season... but for us sellers, it’s not over yet!
Plan ahead for next year by using some of your profits to cashin on the January sales.
Most Christmas products have extremely high markups. An 8foot Christmas tree that will
set you back US$100 in December will be reduced to something like US$10 in January.
Many large stores go from a 100% markup on Christmas stock to cost price + 15% after
Christmas, meaning you can get some great bargains to put away for selling next year at a
tidy profit.
Once again, don’t necessarily shut up shop and go on holiday in January. There are a
significant number of people eager to spend their Christmas money during this month, plus
quite a few selling all their unwanted gifts and exchanging them for things they really want!
SECTION 3: EBAY SELLING TIPS FROM THE
EXPERTS
It’s not often PowerSellers and online wholesale experts open up to reveal some of their
best selling tricks and tools, but after a little SaleHoostyle schmoozing, we managed to
twist their arms! Read on for some great industry secrets.
BASIC SELLING TIPS
Take great pictures
After your item title and listing description, pictures are your most important marketing
tools. Great pictures can really drive up the price that bidders are willing to pay, and
conversely, really bad pictures can also quickly turn them off.
So why are pictures so important? When we buy something, we rely on our senses to
determine whether we like it and if it meets our needs. We run our hands over fabric in
clothing stores, squeeze avocados at the supermarket, smell food and perfume, listen to
the purr of a car engine and sip away at wine samples. However, when we buy online, we
can’t do any of those things, we are limited to judging the item by what we can see, which is
why it is so vitally important to take great pictures that really do your item justice.
10 easy ways to improve your listing’s pictures
1. Aim for at least 5 high quality pictures per listing (optimum size is between 600x400
and 800x600. These sizes will still load fast, but also give people a large enough
size to be able to view the product properly). It’s a fact that items with at least 3
great shots that really show the condition and features of a product sell much better
than those that don’t
2. Make sure the color is accurately represented. Taking a picture outside in the
middle of an overcast day gives good photo lighting, as does using a photo tent.
3. Make an effort to accurately represent flaws or damage and explain these further in
your description, e.g. ‘The stain on the sleeve is not really noticeable, but I prefer to
point it out’, or ‘the scratch on the screen will not affect the running of the phone’.
4. Edit your photos. You don’t need to be a Photoshopping pro that can turn flab into
abs, just crop out the excess background so that the item is given more focus. Try
using a free image editor like Picasa or Gimp
5. Consider getting a professional to take pictures for you when you are selling a
bigticket item like a car or boat. Likewise, if you have just bought a shipment of a
few identical products, think about hiring a photographer to photograph them for
you. If you have need a few photographs taken, this can be very costeffective.
6. Use a plain and uncluttered background.
7. Avoid simply hang clothing items you are selling on a coat hanger! Invest in a
mannequin to really show off the items you are selling. You can get these for as little
as US$50 on eBay. If you can’t find one online near you and postage will make the
price skyrocket, try local clothing stores. They may have an excess of old
mannequins that you can buy. Mannequins are so worth the investment as they give
buyers an idea of the way the item will look on themselves.
8. Don’t use a flash when you are photographing items made from reflective materials,
it will blur the pictures and make it difficult for people to see the item
9. Never use pictures which are blurry. You need them to be as detailed as possible.
Blurriness, aside from being awful to look at, can tell buyers that you are trying to
hide something
10. Don’t underestimate the importance of good lighting. Lighting equipment doesn’t
have to be expensive.
More selling tips: Keep buyers coming back with great customer
service
Communicate with buyers at every step along the way. Let them know when you have
received their payment and when you have shipped out their goods. Not only will this give
them confidence in you as a seller and increase the chances of them buying from you
again, it will help with your feedback score which will definitely help to increase other sellers
coming to you.
Maximize your Listing Titles’ Keywords
The majority of bids on eBay come from searches so it is vitally important to get your
keywords right. Keywords are the number one way of driving traffic to your listing, and
obviously, the more people who find your item, the more bids you will get and the more
money you will make!
Top 10 strategies for making your listings titles count
1. Make the most of your characters. Because you only have 80 characters to use in
your title, it’s so important not to waste them with pointless words like ‘L@@K’ and
vague descriptive words like ‘sultry’ that buyers are unlikely to include in their
search. You can go crazy with the adjectives later in your listing description. Instead,
use these characters to really describe the item you are selling. Include information
such as size, color, the condition it is in and it’s make and model.
2. Start your titles with the most important words. This is called frontloading and is a
really basic keyword optimization tool. Find out what keywords your audience uses.
This is an important step in finding out how to optimize your title’s keywords. Check
Google AdWords, a great tool which records how many searches a month are
made for a particular keyword, and will also let you know other related keywords. It’s
a brilliant tool for finding out things like whether more people search for ‘Converse’
or ‘Chuck Taylors’.
3. Check your spelling! Incorrect spelling may have got you no more than a frown from
your English teacher in high school, but in the world of eBay, it can cost you big time
because your listing won’t show up when a buyer searches for the item using the
correct spelling.
4. Forget about punctuation (and what your English teacher would say). You are much
better off using the characters that would otherwise be taken up with commas and
exclamation marks to describe the item.
5. Remember to repeat your keywords in your item description (this helps with your
searchability).
6. Proceed with caution when using Caps. Generally, Caps are best restricted to just a
few keywords in your title: ‘COLLECTABLE KEY CHAIN Michael Jackson, 1990’
rather than ‘COLLECTIBLE KEY CHAIN MICHAEL JACKSON, 1990’. However,
before going ahead, check what your competition are doing: If they are all using
lowercase, it’s definitely a good idea for you to use Caps to stand out.
7. Don’t use explicit or profane language. You’ll instantly lose the interest of most
buyers.
8. Avoid engaging in keyword spamming. This means you should never use brand
names that are irrelevant to your listing to get more page views. For example, listing
a purse from KMart and using the words ‘Chanel look alike’. Keyword spamming is
considered dishonest practice by eBay and will only frustrate buyers who are
searching for the real thing
9. Don’t include words like ‘prohibited’ or ‘banned in 10 countries’, you may scare
potential buyers off rather than entice them and you could also attract unwanted
attention from eBay officials
10. Consider regional differences in keywords. While some may call a kitchen towel a
dish towel, others will call it a tea towel. International sellers must be aware of these
regional differences, as well as differences in spelling.
Consider investing in eBay Seller Assistant software.
During the Holiday Season, you will be much busier with your eBay business than you are
used to, so getting some help to ease you through the busy times is a great idea.
eBay’s Seller’s Assistant Basic ($9.99/month, most seller’s only need a subscription for
December) is designed to guide the mediumvolume seller through the entire process of
listing, selling, processing payments and shipping orders. Such tools can be a big help with
reminding you of who has paid, who needs a followup email and what needs to be
shipped. Seller’s Assistant Pro ($24.99/month) does all these things and more for the high
volume seller. You can trial both tools for 30 days for free, so download them now!
Design your auctions/ecommerce site well
Have you ever clicked on the title of an eBay auction and had to wait over 1 minute for the
page to load? Then you find out you have waited that whole minute just so that a bunch of
flashy pictures, an overthetop background and some tragic looking clip art could cover the
entire page and deflect from what was really important? This kind of auction gets me really
angry! Try to avoid all the bells and whistles that some indulge in the average web user
has a very short attention span and expects to be able to find information quickly and
easily. They won’t delay in moving on to another listing when they don’t instantly find what
they are looking for. Auctiva has some well designed templates which follow all the design
rules and are free for you to try for 30 days. There are over 1700 to choose from, which
means you can have different templates for different products.
By all means, give your auction some personality but remember that the design of your
listing is nowhere near as important as the title and the item description. If you do choose
to add some flair, adopt the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principal to create streamlined
auctions that are fast loading and easy on the eye
.
Basic things to avoid in your auction design:
● Comic Sans. Love it or hate it, Comic Sans is not the best font for your listing! Comic
Sans has been slammed by graphic designers as being bad for readability. It’s also
been proven to reduce sales!
● Hardtoread fonts. Use a “sansserif” font like Arial or Verdanna. “Serif” fonts like
Times New Roman are easy to read in print, which is why they’re used in
newspapers and novels. However, studies have shown they are much harder to
read on a monitor.
● Slowloading and irrelevant Flash animations. Giving your buyers a good
experience doesn’t have to mean putting on a show. It’s better to be remembered
for your excellent pricing and great customer service rather than your latest
animated creation.
● Harsh colors which distract buyers. Use colors that are easy to look at and avoid
bold colored fonts on a bold colored background – e.g. a red font on an electric blue
background is a big nono! Think carefully about the mood you set with the colors
you use. Marketing psychology theory tells us that large companies use certain
colors to intentionally evoke certain emotions. Gold often appears on champagne
bottles because it is the color of wealth. Blue is the color of trust (and the favorite
color of the majority of the population) and therefore is often used by service
providers like lawyers. Red is the color of risk or danger – it gets our adrenalin
pumping, which is why many fast food outlets, including McDonald’s use it to move
customers quickly to free up seats in their restaurants.
For more information on design basics, check out this Auction Template Help page and
eBay’s catalog, which showcases only the very best eBay stores and is a great place to
get ideas on how to display your items.
Consider the finish time of your auctions
Sunday evenings may well be the busiest time on eBay but this doesn’t automatically mean
that you should have all your auctions finishing then. You need to customize your finishing
time to each product you are selling, as well each target market you are aiming at. For
example, if you are selling dolls, don’t have the listing end at 10pm on a school night (the
little ladies won’t be up to nag their mom about it!). Also, consider having different listings
for the same item finish at different times so that you can catch everyone.
For example, last summer I bought a large shipment of mascara and mixed up the finish
times so that everyone had a chance at them. I had some finish at 3pm for the
stayathomemoms who were taking a break while the baby was having a nap, and some
finishing at 8pm during the week so that working professionals could place their bids.
Check out tools like SaleHoo Research Lab and Selling Manager Pro which can fill you
in on the best finish time for your items.
ADVANCED SELLING TIPS
Getting traffic to your listings
With so many millions of visits to eBay every month, one would think it would be easy to get
people to view and buy your items, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. For every visitor,
there are dozens of item listings, so to make sure those visitors find your listings, you need
to spend some time working on your search optimization.
Understanding Best Match
Best Match is now eBay’s default sorting tool and because over 80% of all eBay user’s
don’t change this default (to sort by lowest price, newly listed etc), it is vital for sellers to
understand how it works in order to get maximum traffic. As with the old system, the ending
time is still important, but only the pages are ranked by time ending. The results on each
page are ranked in accordance with Best Match favored criteria, such as listings with:
● High DSR’s
● Proper use of key words
● Free shipping
● High recent sales scores
● The best pricing
● Buy It Now options
● A high number of bids
eBay has announced that price and key words hold the most importance when it comes to
ranking well with Best Match, so to make sure you really get the price right, you can use
eBay’s What’s it Worth? Tool, which will keep you on track with the average price sold.
To get a more accurate idea, you’ll need to spend some time checking out your
competitors pricing. It’s really important for your rankings to be as competitive as possible,
so look at cutting costs wherever you can to really get the price down. To fit Best Match’s
criteria, you don’t need to undercut your competition by much, but if you can beat them and
implement all other Best Match criteria, your listings will skyrocket to the top.
Best Match loves great keywords
Ensure you are using the best keywords possible by using eBay’s Research Lab
BayEstimate, a great tool which shows you how effective your keywords are in relation to
what people search for.
Another trick is to take a look at the keywords that are used by sellers whose auctions rank
at the top when you search for your item.
Also make you never use spam keywords in your listings to try and attract buyers. Because
eBay ranks its listings based on impressions versus sales, keyword spamming just went
from futile to detrimental, because if you have a lot of people visiting your listings but not
buying, you’ll be penalized with a low ranking.
Recent sales scores from fixedprice listings are also really important. The good news is
building up your recent sales score for Fixed Price listings is fairly simple:
5 ways to increase your recent sales score
1. List your multiquantity items at Fixed Prices with 30day duration so there’s time to
build up recent sales.
2. Use the new “Good ‘Til Cancelled” (GTC) option so your listing will automatically
renew for the new low fee every 30 days.
3. If your multiquantity listing sells out or expires, don’t create a new listing just add
inventory and relist.
4. When you relist or revise a listing, it’s important to keep your listings the same. If
you change the category, title, the item’s condition, or raise the price, you will reset
the item’s recent sales, which means they won’t contribute to your recent sales
score.
5. For new listings, consider the paid listing upgrades to jumpstart sales.
CONVERTING TRAFFIC INTO BUYERS
So you won the visitor over with your expertly written, skillfully searchoptimized title and got
them to click the magic link to enter your listing.
Your next challenge is to get them to go from a browser to a buyer, who falls 100% in love
with your item and hits that even more magical button, the one with ‘Place Bid’ on it!
Converting traffic into buyers will come through a synergy of offering a great buyer
experience (think free shipping and multibuy discounts), great pictures and accurate and
thorough item descriptions.
Make sure your item descriptions are perfect
It’s easy for even the longstanding online sellers to get carried away with more advanced
sales techniques and forget about the basics. When it comes to your item description, take
time to really critique the way you have written it. You may have written some of the item
descriptions you use now six or even 12 months ago and think of everything you have
learned since then!
Go beyond just giving accurate measurements and color descriptions, and create a
preemptive strikestyle list of FAQ’s. This will encourage visitors to bid as it gives them
more information about the item and therefore more certainty about making the purchase.
You should be able to start a list of FAQ’s straight away, but it’s likely that you will be
adding to it weekly when new questions arise. If you are getting into a new product range
and want to start a new list of FAQs for the item, take a look at other seller’s listings for the
same product and see what questions pop up to get some direction on what buyers are
asking.
It’s also a good idea to work your Terms of Service into the list of FAQ’s, that way it reads
much easier than a list of commands for buyers.
Smart FAQ’s
eBay has a cool feature called Smart FAQ that makes it easier for sellers to answer
common questions. Smart FAQ’s draws live information from your listings to answer the
top 20 buyer questions before buyers reach you through the ‘Ask a question’ link. To
enable this feature you must:
● Go to My eBay and click
● Site preferences, then
● Manage communications with buyers
Use powerful words to unleash your buyer’s inner shopaholic!
In the first few sentences of your item description, make use of powerful words to fully
engage buyers. The most striking words used in marketing in the English language are:
You
Money
Save
New
Love
Discovery
Results
Health
Guarantee
Free
Easy
Proven
These words can easily be integrated into your description to capture the attention of
potential buyers.
Start with a description of the product and it’s features, including name, make, model,
dimensions, materials and details of any special features. If you are selling secondhand
items, make sure you give an accurate and honest description of the item’s condition. Then
show buyers how to use the product. This might seem obvious, but it really helps them to
picture paint themselves in situations where they will use the item. For example, if you are
selling coolers, you could remind potential buyers that they can be used at barbecues,
camping, when they go to a game or to store their catch when they go fishing.
Tell your buyers about yourself
Creating a personalized About Me page will help buyers feel like they are getting to know
you. An About Me page is a free advertisement for you as the operator of the business. It
should be cheerful, personal and free of any pushy advertising think of it as a way to
advertise yourself as a trustworthy and legitimate seller, rather than another way to sell your
items. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you get started on your About Me page:
● Focus on the area ‘above the fold’ – the screen area that buyers will see before they
scroll down. This area will determine whether or not they will actually take the time to
scroll down. If you have invested in a logo or branding, this is a great place to use it.
● Start by telling the story of how you came to create an online business, e.g. “I
worked as a defense lawyer for 15 years but got tired of the long hours and
demanding lifestyle so I decided to be my own boss and sell antique legal theory
books on eBay”. Next, get creative and think of a quirky way to tell your buyers a little
about yourself, e.g. “5 Things About Me: I can name all 50 states and their capital
cities, I can play the trumpet, I share my birthday with my mom, I was president of my
fraternity in college; I was 13 when I found out Santa wasn’t real.”
● Show your contact details. Your full name and a contact phone number is essential
so that buyers can contact you if necessary. This gives buyers an invaluable amount
of confidence in you as a seller and in the products you are selling, because it tells
them that you are willing to talk with them if there is a problem. Also include a picture
of yourself: it’s nice for sellers to be able to put a face to all those emails.
● Feel free to use your About Me page to showcase other products you are selling,
but do this after you have told buyers a bit about yourself. Around Christmas, this is
a great way to upsell, by showing buyers gifts you have for mom, for dad, for the
girlfriend, for the boss etc.
Write eBay reviews and guides
Don’t make your customers think about what to buy this holiday season, tell them what to
buy! This is also a really great way of getting traffic from Google searches too, especially if
you name your reviews and guides well, e.g. “Christmas Gifts for Dad” or “Gifts for Girls
Who Have Everything”. Your articles don’t have to be long or sophisticated, in fact, it’s
better if you keep them between 300500 words, to the point, and personalized (and
remember to cater them to suit your product range!).
Keep them coming back for more with great marketing
Repeat customers are so important for growing businesses, as they create more business
for you not only just by coming back, but also by referring you on to family and friends. A
great way to keep in touch with these customers is by setting up an email database and
sending out newsletters.
Making the database is easy but will take time to build up. If you have an eBay store, it’s
easy to create your email database. Under “Manage My Store” you will find “Store
Marketing”. Here you’ll find a link for “Email Marketing”. This will take you through the
process of creating and managing your newsletters. Just click “Create Email” to get
started. Use your emails as a way to tell buyers about:
● Upcoming sales and special promotions
● New items that have just arrived (or are about to arrive)
● End of season markdowns
● What’s ‘hot’ for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Winter etc
● Anything that might have changed in your store
Show your buyers how much you appreciate their business with a
little treat
Rewarding your customers for their business is another great way to make them remember
you and the experience they had buying from you. Your business will really stand out when
you include a little token of appreciation. It doesn’t have to be much and it doesn’t have to
be relevant to what you are selling to make your customers feel appreciated.
A great idea is to include a discount voucher with all shipments. This is a gift that works
both ways: you delight your customer and you encourage a return visit to your store or
website.
Of course, when your business is still new, you won’t be able to afford gifts of any great
value, but buyers will still be delighted as this gift is unexpected. It may be as simple as a
lollipop or handwritten card.
Stick to gifts which are easily shipped with the item and keep an eye out for bargain deals
on token items that will make nice little gifts such as:
● Pens
● Key chains
● Magnets
● Calendars
● Gift boxes
● Accessories for the item purchased
HOLIDAY SELLING TIPS FROM SALEHOO’S
COMMUNITY MANAGER MARC RANSOM
Ho, ho, ho! Yes, almost that time of the year once more, and with most of us struggling
through a very tough economy over the past 12 months, the festive season ahead gives us
an opportunity to get a valuable boost in sales, and a little Christmas cheer back in our
stockings!
What about offering gift wrapping?
Quite a few sales are going to be given by your buyers as gifts, so you could be doing them
a huge favor by offering gift wrapping. You can choose to provide it as a value added
service when they buy something, or offer it as a free service to encourage the initial sale.
What about offering your customer a percentage off their next
purchase as a special Christmas offer?
You can put a time limit on it to try and create a quick turnover, valid through Jan 29, 2014,
that kind of thing. There are no guarantees it will bring the customer back, but if the
customer is looking for something you have, the chances are pretty good that they will be
back shopping with you inside the special offer expiry period, or they may even give a
friend the opportunity. Feel free to email them a few days before the offer expires to remind
them to make use of it.
Should sellers use a custom HTML template for their listings?
If you do, get in the spirit of the season with a festive theme to really highlight your items as
gifts. If you aren’t currently using a template, it is a pretty good time of the year to start! If
you have a computer graphics program, an old version of CorelDRAW, Photoshop or
something similar can help develop a festive template yourself.
A really simple idea is to pay around US$25 to get yourself a few festive pictures from a
site like istockphoto.com, and get creative in the graphics program you have. Export the
images as a .jpg files, upload them to a free site like photobucket.com, then just copy the
HTML file into eBay yourself.
You will end up with oneofakind listings that will really put your potential customers in a
festive, and giving frame of mind, and that means you’ve just increased your chances of a
sale, not to mention now having a really cool looking listing!
One of the most important things you can do is keep your customer
service sharp!
It doesn’t matter where customers are spending money, online or off, they always
appreciate quality customer service. That means not waiting two days to return an email,
getting the order dispatched quickly and so on. Stay on the ball and make sure you are
giving the best service you possibly can. It’s not just about product and price good,
effective customer service will always increase your chances of not only making an initial
sale, but also getting you repeat business!
So, just a few tips that I hope can help put some presents under your own Christmas trees
this year.
Ho, ho, ho!
Marc (fudjj)
SaleHoo Community Manager
SECTION 4: FINDING YOUR NICHE (OR NICHES!) THIS
HOLIDAY SEASON
Niches are where the money is!
If you have never quite understood the meaning of a niche, let me clear that up right now a
niche is a profitable segment of a larger, more general market. The best niches are very
specific. For example, someone selling sports helmets might do well and will appeal to a
keen audience, but someone selling children’s bike helmets will have a more targeted
market, which has the benefits of (a) less competition and (b) focused marketing, so less
expense.
Niches aren’t as difficult to find as you might think, all you need is a hunger to find one and
a few hours for research. If you haven’t already, check out our Market Research tips, and
remember when you are looking through eBay for item ideas to dig right down deep into
the subcategories to find the real niches.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
Sporting Equipment
Niche Item
Meets our selling threshold
from eBay completed
listings
Supplier
(requires SaleHoo login. Join now
if you don’t have access)
Resistance Bands
View here
Underwater Digital Camera
View here
Altimeter
View here
Survival Kits
View here
*Some listings sold with multiple items
Hobbies
Hobby
Niche Item
Meets our selling
threshold from eBay
completed
listings
Supplier
(requires SaleHoo login.
Join now if you don’t
have access)
Gardening
Organic Fertilizer
View here
Cooking
Digital Kitchen Scales
View here
Music
Turntables
View here
Target Markets
Gifts for
Niche Item
Meets our 55%
threshold from eBay
completed
listings
Supplier
(requires SaleHoo login.
Join now if you don’t
have access)
listings
Guys
Rechargeable batteries
View here
Moms
Waterproof Mascara
View here
Dad
Solar Battery Charger
View here
Brotherin Laws
Universal Remote
Control
View here
Girlfriends
Quick Dry Nail Polish
View here
Stocking Fillers
Sugar free candy
View here
Niches just waiting to happen: Christmas Novelties and
Decorations
It's best to go for products which sell well yearround which will pick up a lot around the
holidays but there are many items which are virtually unsellable throughout the year but
have a very high demand during December like candy canes and Christmas trees and tree
decorations. For example, from around midNovember until early January, holiday and
seasonal decor sells very well on eBay when the total listings sold goes from around
US$60,000 and skyrockets up to over US$240,000 in December. Things drop off quite
slowly though, so don't stop relisting right after Christmas, there are still plenty of bargain
hunters around on the lookout for cheap decorations for next year so consider adjusting
your prices accordingly.
Christmas time, mistletoe and wine: Going beyond what's under the
Christmas tree
Supplement your product range by selling Christmasrelated supplies that buyers will be
stocking up on to get through the festive holiday period. If you decide to go ahead and sell
these Christmas items, think of them as a way to supplement your product range, rather
than using them exclusively. These items will sell well during the lead up until Christmas but
will become virtually worthless right after the holiday season, so take this into consideration
when ordering supplies to avoid overstocking.
Dinner Table Niches
Aside from giftgiving, Christmas Day revolves around the food so don't forget about all
those things that get used in the lead up to the big day
● Gingerbread cutters
● Stars and angels
● Christmas tree stands and buckets
● Turkey forks and carving knives – novelty ones will make great gifts
● Champagne glasses
Cashing in on Christmas Traditions: Christmas Decorations
Tree lights – start selling in November and peak in late December. Sits on a low sell
through rate but peaks at around 75% in November and December
Christmas ornaments such as tree decorations sell mid year at around a 50% success
rate. You can expect this to increase quite dramatically closer to Christmas. To really find
your niche in this category, try sourcing vintage Christmas ornaments or vintage Christmas
lights which both have a midyear success rate of around 60% which means the sky's the
limit come November and December.
Disclaimer: The information and data published in this manual is strictly for
informational purposes. All above product items are only suggestions for possible
products which will sell favorably over the Holiday Season, and should be used as a
guide only. At the time of writing, all above products were researched using methods
described in this manual and found to be potentially profitable for sellers. All sellers are
encouraged to conduct their own market and product research.
Well that’s it from us! You’ve reached the end of SaleHoo’s holiday sourcing and selling
guide. We hope you have an absolute blast profiting over the holiday season.
Don’t forget, if you have questions about anything in this guide, you can contact us on the
member’s forum or by emailing [email protected]
Not a member of SaleHoo? Join today!
Over 92,000 others already have
SaleHoo offers you a low risk and safe way of finding and sourcing products to sell online,
and provides education for everything else you need to know to be a successful online
seller.
Join now and try it for yourself it is completely guaranteed, we'll refund you right away if
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super christmas ebay selling secrets

Transcription

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