If you are not making money online, maybe you are yet to know how to sell on eBay.
Ecommerce stores have become an arena for sellers or merchants to display their merchandise, one of the best parts of eBay is that it does not matter which country you are, you are qualified to sell upon registering and submitting some documents.
With my experience on eBay, I found out that creating an eBay seller account is never a problem with most users but selling their wares.
In this article, you will learn how to sell on ebay quickly and get the most from your listing on eBay,
How to sell on eBay for beginners (step by step)
1. Create an eBay seller account
Well, there is no special link for creating an account either as a buyer or seller, what matters is finding the dedicated page for eBay registration.
Go to https://m.ebay.com/myebay and click on “register” to begin your registration.
Registration on eBay could come in different options depending on what email you want to use. You can either use the email attached to your facebook, create a new account or log in using your Gmail account.
Using Facebook or Gmail to register will easily utilize your email and helps you skip some registration processes. When you tap on “create an account”, you are simply telling eBay that you want a fresh start.
Another option is getting it done using eBay business account. The other registration method, individual account, does not have many complications like eBay business account.
eBay business account comes with a more stricter approach such as more documents to be verified and taxes but you can have all the tools to make your selling a successful one as you get to enjoy promotion and access to professional tools.
New users often find themselves in a dilemma, finding it difficult to make a decision about whether to get an eBay individual account or business account.
Let me take a moment to clear it for you. If you are selling old items or personal items, you do not need to register for an ebay business account. When you already registered your business name and operate on a large scale, business account might be the best for you. You will be asked to provide your legal business name, phone number, and email during registration.
2. Verify your documents
Confirming your eBay account through your email address is not the final part, you will still need to provide some documents to further tell ebay you are what you say you are.
After you have logged into your eBay homepage, upon executing a task on eBay, it could be when you want to buy or trying to sell an item, your account will be suspended. eBay account suspension mostly come after purchase.
When this happens, there is no reason to panic like I once did. You will receive instructions on your email address on how to go about this and on the email, you will be asked to call their helpline for further instructions.
If you are in the USA or Canada, you can request on the eBay platform that eBay care agent should call you. You should receive a call within 20 minutes.
Other nationalists or residents in other regions will have to make that long call to eBay’s customer care agent.
You will be provided with a link of where you will upload a copy of a Government-issued ID card and a cover letter. Don’t bother yourself with trying to impress eBay, just write your eBay account details and the phone number you used to registered for the account.
Finish it by stating you do hope that it is given a due and quick response because you have not done anything wrong which I hope you did not…
Upon reviewed by eBay, your eBay account suspension should be lifted.
3. Find information about the products
If this is your first time, I guess there are not much you know. How about going through top sellers’ listing and find how much they are selling the item?
You do not need to limit your research to eBay alone, you could go to other sites like aliexpress and know what is stated on the tags. After you have been able to confirm from about 3 to 5 sellers, the next step is to know how much you will be getting the products.
You need a supplier if you are not making your own products. If you are making the items, I hope you were able to put into consideration all expenses before deciding a price.
Based on what I have seen so far, products with low or free shipping fees sell more, you should come to terms with that. If you are unable to give that, make sure you set a reasonable shipping fee. Remember, there might be lots of sellers offering the same merchandise you offer. If the profit is too low, you can always group together and sell them once.
4. Always give correct conditions of the item
Now that you have been able to come with the right price, the next step is to coin out descriptions. On eBay, you can sell used or new items, if you are selling a used item, it is important to give a correct description of the title.
The mistake people make on online stores is they fail to realize there is buyers’ protection, as far as the description goes, make sure you come clean to stand a chance in the event of a possible dispute that might arise during the course of the transaction. Always prepare for the worst.
For instance, if you are selling an old hp laptop with a broken part. Make sure you give an honest description of the said item. Your title could come up like this, “fairly used Hp 630 4gb ram 500gb HD” while the description contains undiluted information about the item.
Aside from the conditions of the item, add the basic features of the items and what the buyers will be getting. If you are unsure about the features, you could go to the manufacturer’s website for the specifications, that way you will be able to get the correct description. Never use another seller’s description.
5. Avoid helping the images
Your images do not have to be perfect but must be able to show every detail and not blurry as well. If you are selling a new item, you do not need to take a photo, you can go to the manufacturer website to get one.
For a used item, you will need a camera as they may not be what they used to be. Ensure you take a picture of every angle of the item so the buyer will be able to make a correct decision.
If the item has a serial number, you can also take a photo of it. This will able to protect you against eBay buyer scams. For example, if you buy a used laptop and you later resend a faulty one, I will have a copy of the serial number of the laptop as evidence. That way, I am able to protect myself against buyer scams.
Lastly, you don’t need to make most of the images. eBay does not care about how beautiful your image is. They just care about you showing the correct details of the image. Avoid trying to work on the image using application like adobe photoshop especially if you are selling a used item. A good phone camera is enough to get you through. No special effect!
6. Auction or buy it now?
There are two options available to sell on eBay, you can decide to use the buy it now features or auction.
Both are good to use although I can’t deny their unique features, with an auction, you can get more money if you optimized well while “buy it now” ensures you sell your stuff fast.
Buy it now at times could take much time to sell especially when the item is not in-demand. Items like memory card, flash drive, laptop, and headset always command great sales.
For the auction feature, you are going to do a 7 to 10 days auction listing. For your item to get the most cash and most bids, you could start with a low amount, say a $1. This always works, especially on electronics.
The danger of starting with a very high price is that people might start looking for alternatives. When you set a ridiculous price, you might not get any notification from eBay because no one is bidding for your item. Trust me you want a bidding war.
eBay always give automatic notification to bidders and watchers, in that way, they will be able to keep track of the status, it could also mean more money for you. The feeling of losing out on a great item could mean more cash for you.
If you feel the item you are about to sell won’t get much traction, you can start at a minimum price you will want to sell. That is better than having $4 for an item that is worth more.
7. Should I use regular or express post?
It is always difficult to know what customers really want but judging by how they always rally around items with free shipping, one can easily guess.
You can decide to keep up with two shipping options, one is regular shipping using economic intl international postage which is a lot cheaper. An example is China post which can take about 2 weeks to 7 weeks depending on the location.
I can not recommend regular post but it is the cheapest alternative. The downsides are tracking takes a while to update and items may get lost. Most sellers who give out free shipping tend to use regular post.
The other one is express post. As the name implies, buyers can get the item in 3 days, at most 5 days which is still reasonable to me. FedEx, DHL, and UPs offer quick and efficient transportation to every country supported on eBay. The downside is that it is costlier compared to a normal post.
Whichever one you choose, always make sure the amount is able to cover all miscellaneous expenses. If you are in doubt, visit the couriers and make proper findings before setting shipping fees.
8. Be courteous with buyers
Every great salesman seems to have one thing in common, which is being courteous. Treating customers like a king is one of the best ways I know to improve sales and retaining customers.
I can not come to your store to purchase an item and you gave me that cold look because I was trying to get a good deal, and still expect me to come around again. It does not work that way even on eBay.
You should not be disrespectful to potential customers, try to answer them politely because that is one of the keys to building a relationship with your customers. You can even up your game by offering them a return policy, this makes the customers trust you. Only in rare cases that buyers return item shipped to them, you will still make a lot of profit.
Another thing is buyers love to ask questions, you must be willing to check your mail from to time to avoid losing out on potential customers. You can not expect me to stick around when there are several merchants offering the same products.
When answering questions, try as much as you can to be friendly, let it reflect in your response and be clear that even a 7 years old boy will be able to understand you.
Let’s wrap this up
Much has already been said on how to sell on ebay fast even as a beginner, those methods have worked out well for me even on classified ads sites. These methods can also be replicated on other top online stores like jumia and aliexpress, well at least part of it since they won’t be offering auction feature.
When you are new into the system, it will be a lot harder simply because you are short of positive reviews. Satisfy one customer, ask positive reviews and that could be a dawn of successful trade on eBay.
