A lot of people think that selling on eBay is just about putting as much products as you can onto eBay then sit back and wait for your products to sell. If you are an individual that is just selling your old iPod then this thought process will work. However if you are a business that sells heavily on eBay, then this strategy will not generate good ROI.
Selling on eBay is just like selling in any other market, you have to understand your target audience, the competitive environment, and provide a superior solution. Notice how I didn’t say superior product because you can still offer a better solution with an inferior product, it all depends on the level of service and the value you offer:
1) Know your audience
If you want to sell an item to someone you need to understand who they are and how they think, so you can position your brand or products to have greater appeal to your potential customers. You must understand their behavior (types of listings they buy, what time of day, fixed price VS auction, etc…). Knowing your target customer will effect things like your eBay store & Template design, your eBay listing strategy, and the types of promotions you should run. I highly recommend doing an in depth study of your customers using tools such as Terapeak and conduct customer satisfaction surveys.
2) Know your competition
Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience you have to know who you are up against in selling your products to that target audience. A good analogy I can think of is football, if you are competing against another team you are going to study their plays and watch videos to identify weaknesses. In the same way, if you want to be the top seller for your niche market than you have to identify your top competitor and understand their strengths and weaknesses. That way you can attack their weakness right away then spend your time improving to compete against your competitors strengths. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with a client who thought they knew their top competitors to then realize (after I did a full Terapeak analysis) that their perceived top competitors were not who they should be competing against. Another thing that many eBay sellers do not understand is that they might have one competitor for one brand or one product line, or even one specific product and for another product that seller is not a competitor at all.
3) Know your product
Once you’ve identified your market and your competitors, the final step is to show why you are the best seller of that product. An eBay seller has to show their potential customers why they are the best seller. I named this section “know your product” because you really have to know your product to know how to sell it best. What I mean by that is you have to know the type of product you are selling to then know how to sell it the best. General rule of thumb on eBay is that people buy based on price, trust, shipping speed, quality, and customer service. However, low priced items have a different priority of values compared to high priced items. On a high priced item people care more about your level of expertise so having a well designed template with all the information you can offer is ideal. On the other hand for low priced items having clear and simple information is all you want/need. There are many different combinations of best practices based on the type of product you are offering, but this is a step that every eBay seller must take to increase their eBay sales.
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