eBay

retrospectif2014 · ‎07-02-2024

Ive been selling on ebay for years and have just discovered some things/tips that might help you increase sales. Its helped me.

TIP 1 - Awhile ago, I discovered that listings end (after 3 months I think) and just drop off ebay without any notification from ebay...so I have a warehouse full of stock which has lots of items NOT on ebay when I thought they were. So now I have to get all those items off the shelves, retake photos and list them again. ARGH. I watched an ebayer on YouTube saying that you need to bulk "end" your listings and "relist" them which creates a "new visible listing" for buyers. Ive been doing that for months.......but......that is WRONG advice. I received a "stagnant listings" report from Ebay Concierge (which I never knew existed due to ebay's poor communication). Looking at the report, the "relisting" doesnt create a new vibrant listing under the noses of buyers....its still the same old listing but has "revised"...so the report says for example "listing created 9 Jan 2023" revised 9 days ago. So I had literally 1000s of listings that are stagnant...lost in cyberspace of ebay. I saw a forum which said you "end" the listings and "sell similar"......thats what creates a new vibrant listing under the noses of buyers! I did that and sold some old stock immediately!

TIP 2 - if you have a "featured" ebay shop on ebay.co.uk which has 1500 free UK listings......did you know that with a featured shop you have 10,000 free listings on ebay.com? And last time I looked, if you sold books you actually have 40,000 free listings. I asked ebay Concierge why UK gets 1500 and USA has 10,000 or even 40,000. I think the girl struggled to give me an appropriate answer. So if you have stock that others sell on ebay.co.uk, it might be worth selling it for free on ebay.com.

TIP 3 - If you post packages using Signed For then be warned.....yes, it has tracking but think again. It doesnt protect you from "late delivery" black marks against you. Reason why is that it only shows the drop off date & time not the drop off date & time when you took it to the post office. So ebay REFUSE to change a late delivery mark against you. Even when I said I had proof of postage. They "advised" I use a better tracking service than Royal Mail Signed For and use something like Special Delivery but I am not charging buyers £8 or £15.50 for a £10 item. So check your late delivery scores under your Top Seller status...you might be getting close to losing Top Seller status.

TIP 4 - Webinterpret. This company is brilliant. Puts ALL your UK listings onto all international ebay sites and even translates the titles & descriptions into the appropriate languages. They charge roughly 10% of overseas sales each month but its worth it as I get a lot of overseas business from this. What happens is......Webinterpret creates all the international listings and if someone in Italy buys your item......all the other international listings (including UK listing) end a few minutes later. Beware though, some people might buy your UK and USA listings at the same time as they think you have two of these items......but that rarely happens and you just explain it to them and cancel one of the listings. For those already using Webinterpret.......be aware that if the connection (token) fails between your webinterpret account and ebay account then until you reconnect the token, any sold items will not automatically end....so go to ebay, listings then all sites and search for the title of the sold items to see if they are still on international sites. Mine were and people bought items I had already sold because the broken token didnt end the listings in US, Canada and Australia.

TIP 5 - EVRI International can be much cheaper than Royal Mail (especially for heavy packages) and includes tracking. Royal Mail only send packages up to 2kg to Canada but thats not the case with EVRI International.

TIP 6 - Warn buyers about estimated delivery timeframes if you sold an item using Royal Mail Economy. Apparently the estimated dates are created using an ebay algorithm. But its rubbish. For example, it will tell a USA buyer they'll get it in 2 weeks when in fact it can take up to 6 weeks. Estimated delivery dates for Royal Mail Economy is incorrect for ALL worldwide locations.

TIP 7 - Under Site Preferences then Postage Preferences you can actually select which days you "work" or "dont work". I have Wednesdays off so I can either collect new stock or list new stock at home but if you dont work Fridays then just tick the days Mon to Thurs.

TIP 8 - For items sold to the USA, the buyer pays sales tax which you dont receive.......but did you know that YOU pay ebay a percentage (10% I think) on that sales tax? Count that up over all your USA sales!

I cant think of any more tips that you might not be aware of. I have to say........I am really frustrated by ebay's lack of selling communication. All the above would have helped me months if not years ago if ebay actually told me this...then id sell more and ebay would make more money. Insane.

Anyway, hope this is of some help. Especially to new ebayers.

Take care!

TIP 6 -

litp*records · ‎08-02-2024

Re: Tip 3... what you need to do is use Royal Mail Tracked, it's much cheaper than Signed-For and you get a better service. IDK why so many people still insist on using Signed-For, when Royal Mail have been saying the last years that it's now a "legacy" service (ie. they are phasing it out, along with regular 1st/2nd for large letters and parcels). They prioritise RM Tracked. Especially during strikes etc.

Personally I use RM Tracked 48 (don't be fooled though, 48 is just a number, it doesn't strictly mean 48 hours as you may be led to believe...) however most items really DO arrive within a couple of days. Unlike the ultra slow 2nd/2nd signed.

And my own tip is NEVER use First Class - It's a total scam! It's basically just the same speed as 2nd and has been for a few years now. Why oh why people pay extra for first class... 20 years ago everything might have been delivered "next day", but not anymore. I urge everyone to take a look at the metrics Ofcom recorded about Royal Mail, you'll see they are doing a terrible job of sticking to their delivery aims for 1st/2nd.

messier44000 · ‎08-02-2024

Tip 1 - Never use click bait titles. My bug bear on you-tube

Did not read through it all as was a bit long.

Tip 4 - Webinterpret - Where do I begin. Tell them not to add to countries I do not ship to.

So they do, time and time again.

Ironically there was a lanquage barrier between me and my appointed rep. We did not understand each other.

Plus countless other issues.

Finally after weeks of me saying DO NOT post this product/s to certain countries due to

brand name T&Cs and them continuing to ignore me, I had to revoke their access to my account ,

and blocked their email and phone number. Had to do this as they refused to close the account.

This did the trick. Never again.

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Astronomy is looking up

vinylscot · ‎08-02-2024

You have been a member for almost twenty years. How have you come so far without knowing (or at least having heard of) these basics?

Tip 1 is nonsense. Only a couple of days ago I sold an item which had been listed since 2021. I could give you dozens of other examples. Yes, older listings will get less exposure, but they do NOT drop off.

I haven't really looked into tip 2, but tips 3-8 are pretty pointless, to say the least; either almost universally known, or a little contentious.

What a waste of time.

nigel_paul_wright7557 · ‎08-02-2024

If an item doesnt sell after 3 months then its either not wanted by anyone or is too expensive.

If my stuff doesnt sell after 3 months then I give it away on Facebook.

vinylscot · ‎08-02-2024

It really depends on what the item is. Many of my items are pretty low-demand, but every now and again, somebody wants exactly what I've had listed for years. That's not really the point - the point is that the OP claimed that items drop off eBay after three months, when this is quite clearly simply untrue.

moldosgifts · ‎08-02-2024

No they get lower priority after 3 months so lower in the general search result. So it kinda true they drop off but they are still there, just buyer has to dig down to find them. Often older listing have lower prices because they have not recieved the inflation price as yet.

maturin.surprise · ‎08-02-2024

Most of this is superfluous nonsense.

Regarding Tip 3, please don't spread misinformation. Literally all my Signed For tracking details include the "Accepted At Post Office" scan at the very beginning. I have never had a single issue with eBay not allowing them.

bojangled · ‎08-02-2024

@retrospectif2014

I appreciate you trying to be helpful, but the relist/sell similar thing has been well known for a few years now.

Need to just say that Royal Mail Signed For is not a 'tracked' service. It is 'Signed For'.

If you take a look on the Business Seller board there is a great thread on tips to increase sales here:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Share-your-tips-for-increasing-sales/m-p/75088...

rjwilmsi · ‎08-02-2024

Signed For: I would definitely say it is better to use Tracked services over Signed For. There may be post office users who don't use the internet so rely soley on services sold there, that's fine for those customers. For eBay sellers you are online so use the better Tracked services - (a bit) cheaper, (much) more reliable, higher priority, much more tracking, higher compensation.

I don't do international sales so can't comment on those aspects. If it works for you and is worth what I see as many extra complications then great for you.

Inventory: I think inventory management is hard, or at least it's simple but easy to make mistakes. I like to think I do a careful job of it but last month I still had to sort out 3 or 4 items on my spreadsheet that I lost track of over the last year or so.

risetoremainfan · ‎05-05-2024

Always the same I follow shedflips on YouTube and yes they get the 10,000 free listings. Whilst uk gets a poxy 1500. But I keep it down to 970 as do t want to pay their accured fees.
I sell under a business name not this one though