How to use eBay as a marketing tool

ebay training

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A lot of businesses wonder whether or not they should grow their eCommerce sales by selling on eBay.  Today, eBay has over 100 million shoppers which is a huge eCommerce market that should not be overlooked.  I believe that almost every company that sells consumer facing products can benefit from selling on eBay.  Now this does not mean that every consumer facing product will sell well on eBay, but there is more than one way to take advantage of the eBay marketplace.

Traditionally, people think the only reason to sell on eBay is to make huge profits from selling their products on eBay.  Now don’t get me wrong, that is always the number one goal.  However, that isn’t the only reason you would want to sell on eBay.  One of the biggest benefits of selling on eBay is getting your brand in front of 100 million customers that you wouldn’t be able to reach without selling on eBay.  If you play your cards right, eBay can act as both a lead generation source and a profitable sales channel.

If your company sells products related to: Antiques, Art, Collectibles, Consumer Electronics, Clothing, Craft Items, DVDs, Jewelery, Music, Pets, Pottery, Sports, Skin Care, Toys, or Video Games then you should definitely sell on eBay because those categories have a large dollar value market that you should want a piece of.  Now this post isn’t going to teach you how to sell well on eBay, for that you will have to check out other posts on eBay.  The point of this post is to bring to light the idea that selling on eBay has more than one benefit.  Now if you’ve ever sold on eBay you know it isn’t easy to maintain a good eBay score because that requires great customer service, keeping customers happy to avoid negative feedback, quick handling time and a lot more.  However, it isn’t as hard as it might seem.  I know sellers that run a full time business on eBay and only work less than 10 hours a week by themselves.  On the other hand, I also know companies that have over 10 full time employees dedicated to selling on eBay, but those are the companies that are usually selling more than $500k per month on eBay alone.

Here are some tips on selling on eBay and how it can help grow your business overall:

  1. Make sure to BRAND your eBay store to match your website (your seller ID and store name should be the same as your website URL)
  2. [This is no longer applicable because eBay removed the ME page] Make sure you use the eBay ME page and link to your website.  Ideally you want them to land on a landing page that is geared towards welcoming eBay shoppers to your website.  On that page you should showcase your good rating on eBay and explain how you offer the same benefits on your own website.
  3. Track your referral traffic on your website analytics for visitors from eBay so you know how much new customers you are getting from eBay each month.
  4. You don’t have to sell ALL of your products on eBay, but you SHOULD sell at least one of each product type so eBay customers can see the types of products you sell.  The more your customers know what you sell, the more ways they have of finding your website.  If you sell all types of toys on your own website, but on eBay you only sell toy cars, you are missing a lot of opportunity to find new customers on eBay for your other toy categories.  One trick you might want to try is on your best selling items, only sell them in auction format on eBay.  That way, if a customers wants to buy it now, they will be forced to find it on your website so they can buy it now without waiting for the auction.  This only works if other people are not already selling your same item on eBay as a buy it now listing.
  5. On eBay there are auction and there are fixed priced listings (buy it now).  If you have good margins than you should sell both auctions and fixed price listings because they are completely different markets.  People who buy auctions usually only search for auctions whereas fixed price shoppers usually filter out auctions.  So if you ONLY sell one way, you will miss a huge market.
Derrick Chan

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