Ebay users traded $52 billion worth of merchandise last year. While some folks are content to make a few bucks cleaning out their closets, nearly one million people depend on the auction web site for all or part of their income.
Whether you're a novice or a "PowerSeller," here are five tips to help boost your eBay profits.
1. Choose Wisely
Anyone who's trolled around on eBay knows that they can find everything from blenders to toilet paper. But peddling mundane household products isn't necessarily a winning strategy. The best eBay businesses sell unusual, hard-to-find items at a discount, says Marsha Collier, author of 'eBay for Dummies.' By sticking to this approach, you'll cut down on the competition and the ensuing price wars that could eat into your profits.
Fortunately, you don't need to know anything about antiques and collectibles to fulfill Collier's requirements. One idea is to look for items unique to your region and sell them at a discount. If she lived in Manhattan, for example, Collier says she would regularly shop at Century 21, a famous designer discount store, and then resell the hard-to-find name-brand clothing at a markup on eBay.
2. Keep Your Costs Low
Nothing eats into your profits faster than high overhead expenses. That's why experts agree that you should start off your eBay business by hawking stuff that you already own. Once you've depleted all of the goodies in your basement, move onto your neighbor's. Take out an ad in a local paper and offer to sell other people's possessions on consignment, says Cliff Ennico, author of 'The eBay Seller's Tax and Legal Answer Book' and an instructor at eBay University, which offers instructional DVDs and classes on selling on eBay. Other than your time, your costs will be virtually zero. And, according to Ennico, your efforts and expertise are worth anywhere from a 30% to 50% cut of the sale.
Once you're ready to graduate to the next level and start your own eBay business -- even if it's a small one -- Collier recommends getting a sales tax number or business license (if you live in a state with no sales tax). This will allow you to contact manufacturers directly and buy items at wholesale.
3. Perfect Your Title
If you do nothing else, make sure the title on your listing gets straight to the point. "It's the most important piece of real estate on the Web site," says Jim Griffith, a dean at eBay University and author of the 'Official eBay Bible.' A common and damaging mistake even experienced users make is thinking that their title should read like a sales pitch and include empty descriptors such as "rare" and "beautiful." Instead, just list the facts, including a brand name or model number. This strategy will help serious buyers find your item more readily since the search engine scrolls through titles when trying to match key words, says Griffith. As for the marketing, leave "one of a kind!" for the description inside your listing.
4. Build Trust
Gaining the trust of the eBay community is one of the biggest hurdles new sellers face. It's critical for you to generate a high positive feedback score or else other users won't even touch your auction. The score tells potential bidders that you don't falsely advertise or exaggerate when describing your merchandise and that you ship your items quickly. Your goal is to eventually get at least 100 positive responses from other users, says Ennico. (Read our story to learn how to avoid hurting your score.)
Even if you've never sold anything on eBay, you can still work toward building up your reputation. Your score is based on the feedback you receive as both a buyer and a seller. So before listing your first item, buy a handful of inexpensive things just to get the feedback, says Collier. Then, once you start running your own auctions, make sure every person you interact with has a good experience. And finally, be sure you accept PayPal for payments since it offers buyers some purchase protection if a deal goes awry.
5. Grab Eyeballs
EBay is a numbers game. The more people who bid on your item, the higher the price it sells for. That means boosting the number of eyeballs that see your listing is crucial. If you're selling a high-ticket item, you should consider spending an additional $19.95 to "feature" it, says eBay University's Griffith. This ensures that your listing gets some prime real estate on the first page of a given category. That way you not only catch people searching key words, but also those folks who like to scroll through category pages.
"Once someone is looking at one of your listings, you can then promote other [listings]," says Griffith. EBay allows sellers to directly link to 12 of your other listings. Better yet, a serious seller could also direct buyers to his eBay Store, where one can customize a virtual "store front" and list his entire inventory. An eBay store is one of the best ways to develop a loyal customer base since users can bookmark your page and hopefully return often to see what you're selling one week to another.
