New EBay Seller Advice

[hudsonsclothes]

Afternoon 

Apologies if said/asked elsewhere but I could not find it. I am very very new to eBay business selling (Month and a half) before that I had little to no experience with selling online, eBay or anything so it's all totally new to me.

I'm currently leaving the military after a decade and doing this as a side extra income that will hopefully grow to compensate for the expected drop in wages when I start a new career/ cover the expected rise in living costs when I move back to my home city.

I'm wondering from all you eBay wizards who have been doing this a lot longer, if there is any kind of service, forum on here or externally etc that can look at your page and give feedback and advice both positive and constructive?

I feel, early on sales and page views etc are irratic as expected and i'm constantly wondering when it's quiet if i've got it all wrong. I've tried getting friends to look but they don't really use eBay so don't understand all its intricacies. It would be very helpful to get feedback from experienced sellers who have knowledge and experience to pass on if such a place exists.

I am making sales and getting impressions etc and have good feedback so it's not a total failure. I'm also aware it takes time to grow but, if i'm doing something wrong i'd rather know and correct it now, early on, and if i'm doing anything right it would also be good to know to continue it. It's all just a learning experience and who better to learn from than people who have been here themselves before.

Any help greatly appreciated, if this has been said elsewhere i'll close this thread down.

Cheers in advance.

[hudsonsclothes]

Thank you for the reply,

I have a shop subscription so I have a limit for listings but I have some left this month, trying to use them all up before month end.

I am finding books a pain, I sell some and make a profit (very small) on them. I think in October however I am going to look at grouping them together and selling in bulk to clear out. They have done well for getting me quick easy positive feedback however the postage costs make it hard to sell. Lesson learnt though and i've not made a loss.

Im currently listing around new 5 items a day. That will probably drop a bit now as previous posters mentioned, I will need to add a little more info around sizing so would rather do 2 or 3 good listings then 5 average ones.

With regards to stale listings. I've only just in the last couple of days started to slowly end and then sell similar on listings around 30 days old. Gives me a good opportunity to make improvements to them.

Thanks for all your tips and well wishes

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Unless you have lots of spare listings, then 90 days is the limit you need to look at for relisting and not 30.

Before you know it, you will struggle to keep doing that at 30 days.  🙂

Going forward, I would recommend that you look at a business account with a courier, it will bring the prices down for you.  RM is quite easy to get, as you only need about 20 parcels a week.  And that means that they will collect directly from you,rather than having to go an post them etc.

You should also be able to get fully tracked services at a better price than standard RM48.  That is much more the case, once you become VAT registered.

[hudsonsclothes]

Cheers, I'll not be making a habit of doing 30 days mind its a pain. I've just got a few spare listings left this month so i'm redoing my oldest poor listings.

Contacted RM last week and answered loads of questions then they were supposed to be getting back to me, i'll have to chase that up. 

[pg_kicks]

Only advice I can give is act like you are a lot bigger than the business you are today, be that in your customer service, your packaging or your listings. Use the branding you have and if you can get a good deal on some business cards with your social media on them pop them in the order thanking them for the purchase and so on, if you can get a good deal on tissue wrap your clothing in tissue when you send them out so it just looks more professional, it might cost a few pence but if you leave a good impression you might get a customer returning 2 or 3 times. It might not be something to do straight away but it all just adds to a better customer experience and there's a reason that the big stores do all these things. 

With the listings always give measurements, any marks or defects and use as many of the 24 pictures you can, use all the item specifics too, its a bit of a pain but they all add into the pattern eBay want you to do. If you can get some sort of mannequin it may help, also at the open event they said pictures of the item being worn helps, absolute nightmare if you have multiple sizes but its something you could grow into. 

Use this forum, theres a lot of people who sell full time on here and we have all made multiple mistakes which we have learnt from so probably know the answer to a lot of the questions you might come across, also enjoy it as once it becomes a full time job it becomes less fun some days.

I say all this but I've been doing it for years and still havent sorted out all my listings or got everything sorted, its a long and slow road but its better than working a real job.

[hudsonsclothes]

Thank you,

Some great advice there I think a mannequin for photos is going to be a purchase I make soon for sure. I also like the tissue and branding idea, I have a thermal printer as I do my own postage labels and I can print off circular ones I might look into this and stick one of those on the parcel.

Im looking at getting all sizes of postage bags, I used a mix of postage bags and wrapping things myself with postage paper but when I wrap them myself it looks like i've done it with boxing gloves on so i'm definitely going to get bags for a more proffessional look.

More measurements as you mention is something else i'm going to have to do a lot more of. I use an AR Tape measure app at the moment but its a faff on so i've ordered a clothing measuring tape for £1 off eBay to speed it up, give a more accurate reading.

Hopefully I can implement all that good advice and all the others people have given over the next few weeks or so, thank you

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I must admit, you had me stumped at a clothing measuring tape!  🙂

Until I realised that just meant a soft tape.....

I use the manequinns, they look so much better than hanging something etc.

If you do get one though, you will probably want at least two.  Male/Female.

And the other part to think about there, is the size you get.  I made the mistake of getting a size 14 female and though I don't use it very much (I tend to avoid female clothing), a lot of it simply won't fit on it.  It tends to be smaller.  Or maybe I'm just unlucky with the sizes I get.

Don't go crazy with the different sizes of bags.  I literally have two sizes and it's a very rare occasion, where I can't use one or the other.  And buy bigger quantities if you can, you will find the prices can drop quite a lot.

[hudsonsclothes]

Soft tape yeah that's the one 🤣

Yeah, I am trying to keep away from women's clothing...selling I mean, I don't wear it haha.

Aye I got a selection of those mailing bags on the cheap at the start and the largest ones are just big enough for most items I sell, the rest are too small and pretty useless. I have found a site where its 3p per bag, I will just get the same size I use a lot of now and then a size a little bigger for the odd item that's larger.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Try kite packaging.  They are not the cheapest, but they are one of the best.  And plenty of choice.

[hudsonsclothes]

Just put them side by side with the one I found and Kite is about 1p cheaper on the items i'd want. Only a penny but all adds up. Treat myself to a pick and mix with the savings

[hudsonsclothes]

Thanks for all the advice for everyone in this thread. It is useful for new sellers and more should use it as a way for tips and advice.

I know the discussion boards are full of frustrated and angry people which is understandable when your livelihood is at risk however in balance it's only fair to point out when things aren't so negative.

I've put into place most of the things suggested on this thread and in my less than two months trading I'm currently on my longest run of consecutive daily sales at 7 days so far.

Definitely will be dipping in and out for advice going forward and I advise other newbies do the same and don't just read the negatives which can make you doubt using eBay going forward.

[bricklanebargains]

My advice would be to focus on branded vintage, especially in demand brands and styles. Also your photos and descriptions are pretty good so no need to tweak them constantly.  

[hudsonsclothes]

Thank you, I am going to get branded stuff in as well It's just a bit more of an investment, so needed to ensure this was going to be a thing I wanted to do before spending quite a bit of money on the higher end stuff. Thank you for comments on photos and descriptions

[1956glyn]

Oh boy i remember wearing those shell jackets years ago 🙂  

With listings one also has to sometimes think of psychologically how someone will see them.

This may sound picky but instead of describing items as "old"   maybe you should refer to them as preloved. 

You come across as being very articulate and i am sure you can make a go of this business so my advice would be ......go for it !

[1956glyn]

Just to add if you are unsure about anything whatsoever then do not hesitate asking for constructive advice on these boards.   There is a plethora of members/Business Sellers who can offer proper advice.     Ebay CS often just read from a script 😞

[hudsonsclothes]

Have I used old? don't know why I've done that 🤣 that'll be my next little job thanks for pointing that out.

[1956glyn]

All our retro jackets though old, are in top condition      😂

[hudsonsclothes]

Rookie mistake 🤣

[hudsonsclothes]

Sorted, thank you 

[1956glyn]

You are welcome.    I just thought of something else........never use Ai for descriptions (not that you do) as this makes an awful lot of members like me just click off listings as its just waffle

[hudsonsclothes]

Yeah, I had a look and it sounds ridiculous to me. I try to message buyers after they pay to update them that items been sent and say thank you etc, try to let them know they're buying from a human running a small business and it's not some Chinese seller, dropship temu type business so AI would just ruin that.

Impress your friends with this cotton L jumper black, with a 40 inch chest it is fantastic for winter and formal occasions with round neck and logo accent 

Just sounds so robotic and not very personal. One of my positive feedbacks was that it was great to receive an item from a real UK business and not just sent something from Amazon or China so I'm guessing it's rife