EBay | Schmoozins

Why Having An eBay Store Is Crucial To Selling On eBay

January 28, 2009 By The Schmoozins Team

If you’ve been managing auctions on eBay for a while and you are ready to kick things up a notch, opening your own eBay store is crucial to taking your e-business to the next level.

Having a store will save you time and money. Currently, store listing fees are only .03-.05 cents per listing, depending on your asking price. If you elect to use the GTC (Good ‘Til Canceled) option, this will enable your items to automatically re-list at the end of 30 days, giving you more time to concentrate on making sales. You can list hundreds of items to your store inventory for practically nothing, as opposed to maintaining auctions all of the time. With store items, fees will still apply when your item sells, but the over-head for stocking your store is a lot less than constantly running and re-listing auctions each week. An added advantage is that you will be saving time by stocking your store rather than bothering with listing auctions. By listing all types items throughout all seasons, you are opening yourself up to a wide variety of buyers. Shipping worldwide will also allow unlimited potential for buyers in other parts of the country who are in opposite seasons and in need of items that may be difficult for them to find at the time but readily available for you to sell in your shop.

A major key to having a successful store is to continually keep it stocked. This lets you build your inventory to include hundreds of items. The more you list, the more you sell – it’s been proven time and time again. Why? eBay is a wonderful generator of automatic traffic, built in for you to harness without the needed technical experience of running an actual separate online store.

Having an eBay store is your own slice of the Internet. Buyers will check out your store, and by cross-selling other items within each item description, you will be able to recommend items in your store that may interest them. If you offer combined or discounted shipping for multiple
items purchased, customers will be compelled to buy more from you at one time. A store also allows sellers to use features like the Markdown Manager which is not available to non-store owners.

eBay offers tons of additional features at no additional cost. These added features will help you build up clientele for email marketing and more. This will allow you to keep in touch and let your personal email list know of special discounts available to them first before it’s open to the public.

Your store gives you your own unique style. Having a personal, unique design allows you to build your brand and specialize which encourages repeat buyers. Once you master the features of your eBay store, then it’s time to break out and take advantage of outside opportunities to attract more buyers to your product.

Filed Under: Schmoozin on Moms Tagged With: eBay

How to Save Time Researching Items on eBay

January 24, 2009 By The Schmoozins Team

Ever get sucked in by a $ale?! Do you ever wonder what you were thinking when you look at some of your eBay inventory?

Of Course!! It’s only natural to get drawn in by super huge discounts!

Admit it, we all have those buying boo-boos – beginners mistakes, newbie no-nos…whatever you want to call it!

The fact is NOT everything will sell on eBay just because it’s a good sale item. Don’t buy something for resale because you don’t see what you really want and feel like you have to buy something. Unfortunately a lot of people go through this and end up spending money on unwanted items. This only leads to returning to the store, wasting gas,postage and your precious time! There’s also the chance that, if it’s a final sale item, it may not be returnable and you’ll be stuck with it thereby losing money because you stick it up on eBay and take a loss and pay the fees. Or you bring it to a consignment shop and get half of what you originally paid.

These days, with technology as advanced as it is, a majority of us have cameras on our cell phones or Blackberry or even a small camera you carry with you. Eliminate unwanted trips back and forth to stores by taking pictures with your cell phone, email the pictures to yourself, look it up online, or call an eBay buddy!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Steps

Step One

Email yourself – Most cell phones come with some kind of ability to send email. It makes it easier to remember while you’re working at home. You can easily add it to your ‘to do’ list as soon as you read your quick reminder you’ve sent to yourself.

Step Two

Look it up online – If you’re really in a pinch and don’t have the Internet connected on your cell phone, you may have the option to get it on a day-by-day basis. Some cell phone carriers will offer a $2 a day Internet access or charge a fee based on data usage. This comes in handy when you aren’t in town, or really need to look up an item to see if it’s a hot one to pick up.

Step Three

Call an eBay buddy – We all know somebody who sells on eBay, don’t we?? Make a quick call to see if they’ll look something up for you. Better yet, alternate trips to the stores to save on gas and pick ‘eBay days’ that you can research for each other.

Hope this helps!

Filed Under: Schmoozin on Moms Tagged With: eBay

How to Keep Up with eBay DSRs

January 14, 2009 By The Schmoozins Team

It has been a little while since eBay put their Detailed Seller Ratings into effect and so far it’s pretty easy to keep up with the flow of things. Its nice to keep on top of a good rating and take pride in your feedback. DSRs do not impact the overall Feedback Score but provide a more complete picture of the member’s performance as a seller. You want to strive for 5! Here are some really solid ways to keep your DSR performance high.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Steps

Step One

Item As Described – Start at the top and work your way down. Describe your item to the best of your ability without missing any flaws. Be sure to use your own photos!! Take a few different angles and close ups and elaborate on them in your description.

Step Two

Communication – Very important! eBay has all sorts of email notification preferences at your finger tips. Use them! Once an item is purchased, send an invoice, send an email when payment is received, send an email when item is shipped, and you can thank them on the invoice you packed carefully with their item. Keep the lines of communication open every step of the way.

Step Three

Shipping Time – As soon as you have a bid, your item should be packed and ready to go within 24 hours. Then remember communication!

Step Four

Shipping & Handling Charges – Specify any shipping and handling directly in your policy so it’s easily found. Offer a shipping discount on multiple items or free shipping if orders exceed a specified dollar amount. Calculated shipping makes it easy to accurately figure out shipping rates.