Sol Retail founders, Barry and Katy Tong, give us their top 10 tips for successful eBay selling
When we started selling household items on eBay back in 2010, we definitely didn’t think that it would turn into an actual business, let alone a multi-million pound organisation that sells a product online every 20 seconds. That’s not to say it’s all been easy though and we’ve had to learn a great deal along the way, including how to navigate our way around multiple online selling platforms such as Amazon and eBay. Often, our biggest frustration was that how-to guides and even just basic advice about online selling wasn’t available.
Over time, we’ve taught ourselves how to sell successfully online, making the most of the tools and resources available to ensure our products are discoverable, desirable and, most importantly of all, affordable. We’ve always said that we’d like to help budding entrepreneurs, providing them with the information and advice that we found so lacking as we were developing our business.
So, with this in mind, what are our top 10 tips for successful eBay selling?
Use your own photos. You might think that using brand photos makes your listing better but, if you don’t have permission from the image owner, you leave yourself wide open for an Ebay violation and quite possibly a bill for unauthorised image use.
Offer free postage. This is a must when selling in the UK. Offering free postage helps improve listing rankings and you can benefit from discounted selling fees.
Provide faster service options. Ebay rankings and customers like it when there are options for a free-but-slower service or a paid for fast service.
Deliver on time. The worst thing you can do is be late on delivery. Under promise and over deliver to ensure great buyer feedback.
Use tracked delivery. You are protected on Ebay if you can prove delivery. Protect yourself and always send tracked.
Think from the customer’s point of view. When creating your listing, use words that your customer would search for. You do want to be found, after all.
Fill out ALL the details. Ebay provides optional information boxes on each listing. Fill out everything that is relevant to help get your listing in front of the right people.
Write a full product description. Whether it’s a new or used product, make sure you write a full product description to help your listing get found.
Be honest. If it’s a used item, make sure you give full details of any damage, including images. Dishonesty can mean returns or negative feedback, which can damage your sales.
Don't be afraid to go global. As long as you have the options to get your parcel there safely and profitably, then the world’s your oyster!
Have a look for yourself at the wide range of products we sell today. We might not be on eBay any more, but it’s certainly where we laid the solid foundations that enabled us to build the successful business we have today.
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