The marketing world is a cruel one. One needs to work extra hard to get his/her fair share of the customer/client cake. The same applies to anyone selling on eBay and any other online marketplace. First, you need to optimize your business on eBay, build a profile and traffic to increase sales. Discussed below are a few ways, and tips on how to create a professional profile on eBay to generate more sales from the same.
1. Build your brand on eBay
Brand is everything today. You need to build a brand or identity that shoppers on eBay can relate to and trust. Creating a name on eBay will not only attract more target customers your way, but also make it possible for return traffic, referrals, and repeat business.
To build an identity on eBay, you will need to:
- Choose a sensible username: You’ll need a username customers can remember of their heads; Floorheatingltd is much easier to remember than xxxtigter.
- Develop a logo and a brand: Hire a professional graphics designer to develop a logo for your company.
- Optimize your brand on eBay: You can take advantage of the highly customizable eBay platform to optimize your business or company. Use every opportunity you have to stamp your mark on the platform.
- Use your branding consistently: Be sure to use your branding and logo in the eBay shop, checkouts, auction emails, listings, and PayPal as well. This will help customers trust your business even more.
2. Use a Listing Template
Buyers on eBay cannot touch items on sale. You therefore need to let the audience have an idea of what you are selling, and what to expect once it’s shipped to them. One way to do this is create a comprehensive listing showing all aspects of the product. The listing should not only contain descriptors but also have enough imagery and additional information such as shipping requirements. The images used need to be of the highest quality and resolution possible. Too short a description isn’t recommended either.
For a listing to be effective, it should have:
- Multiple high-quality pictures of every item
- Item full description, dimensions, features, and condition
- Postage costs
- Return policy
- Accepted payment methods
You will need a well-designed template to accommodate all these in each listing. Luckily enough, there are plenty of HTML templates that you can use on eBay. A good template helps your page look trustworthy and professional, thus increasing chances of audiences making an order.
3. Create an about me page
Every eBay user, and especially sellers, should have a page about themselves or what the business is all about. An about me page reassures clients that you are indeed trustworthy, and can help convert lots of audiences into potential customers. You can also use the page to talk about the business as well as promote products the company has to offer. As crucial as the about me page is, only 6% of eBay users have one. Creating one should help your business stand out from other companies on the platform.
4. Open an eBay shop
Although most people don’t know this, each store on eBay has its unique URL and footprint. The shop displays all items listed on the same and can be customized to increase sales in a number of ways. Some of the ways an eBay shop can be used to generate more sales include:
- List entire inventories: This enables you to list products for a fraction of the auction price. This makes it possible for you to list as many products as possible while minimizing costs on the same.
- Upselling to customers: It enables one to use select items on auction listings to drive traffic and sales to the shop, thus additional sales. Most eBay shop owners record up to 20% more transactions than non-shop owners.
- You can also integrate an eBay store with your own site and this can also be a great way to market.
5. Create links to the eBay shop
Be sure to link all your listings, email, custom pages, about me, and listings to the eBay shop. This should help buyers see other listings you may have, and even make more orders from the same store.
6. Cross-promote with other users
eBay has an inbuilt tool that allows sellers to cross-promote their products with the aim of improving exposure and sales. This feature is especially useful for sellers with multiple eBay IDs.
7. Use Auctiva shopping window feature
This allows other products in the user listing scroll automatically at the bottom of each listing. Pictures of these products scroll automatically, a useful feature for customers looking for more than one product.
8. Optimize eBay shop for search engines
Setting up an eBay shop isn’t enough, you need to optimize the same for search engines for improved visibility. A bit of keyword research and promotions are needed to help search engines find your shop on eBay. It is also possible to include keywords in each listing to enable search engine crawlers find and index them for future retrieval.
9. Sell internationally
Although selling items globally can be a headache for some, the pain comes with several gains. For starters, you get your brand known to the outside world, and recorded sales are much higher than when selling locally.
10. Use enhanced listing features
The enhanced listing feature on eBay gives your listings a boost in visibility and selling price. Some of these features include:
- First photo: Increases chances of selling a product by 15%, and is free
- Gallery: Increases sales by up to 12%
- Subtitle: Sells for up to 10%
11. Accept several payment methods
Giving your customers more ways to pay can help your business grow significantly. While many people may prefer to pay using their credit cards, more and more people are embracing PayPal as a payment method. PayPal is one of the convenient ways to pay today despite the high transaction costs involved.
12. Get your shop listed in online shop malls
Have your eBay shop listed on online shop malls to increase visibility online. Listmystore is an excellent example of such malls.
13. Use appropriate categories
Be sure to use the correct category when filling in item specifics. Most buyers use these when browsing items.
14. Choose/use keywords carefully
Keywords play an essential role in enabling search engines to find products quickly. It’s advisable to use the right keywords to attract potential customers.
