Thursday, November 22, 2012

An online selling tip

When selling online it is a good rule of thumb to start out with some low cost items. This will give you a chance to get familiar with the process and gain trust from customers. When I first starting on ebay I sold really small items that I could easily mail in a First Class mailing envelope. I was able to sell items at an affordable price, ship them quickly and receive great feedback from customers. Although you are eager to jump into the online selling business right away and make large profits, It's a good idea to start small just to get the hang of things and move up the ladder then.



Some of the small items I sold included:
  • Tank tops (new & pre-owned)
  • New socks
  • Coupons

That's my tip for today, be sure to come back for more Online selling tips.

Have you weighed all your shipping options?

Hope you all are doing wonderful today. I wanted to share with you in this blog a Tip to help you save on shipping supplies when selling with ebay.  When I first started selling online, I would always find my own boxes around the home or office to ship my sold items because I felt that the USPS boxes were too expensive. However, after a while I became a Top Rated Seller with ebay and was able to get a discounted shipping rate on shipping which then allowed me to have access to Regional Rate boxes A & B. These boxes come in two styles each.


One style being a game board flat type box and the other the standard rectangular box. Box B is larger than Box A If you have seen the Medium Flat rate box. Box A is smaller than the Medium box while Box B is slightly larger. I really like these boxes because they are a great fit for the items I sell on ebay and the prices are based on the region your item is being shipped to.

The one thing you want to remember is that not all Post Office locations carry these regional rate boxes so you will have to order them online at www.usps.com they are FREE and will be delivered to your home within 7-10 days.

Now, I never have to look for boxes around the home or office. Be sure to always pick up a few Priority boxes as well, sometimes you come out cheaper using them instead of a flat rate box especially if your item is being shipped across the country.

Thank you for viewing my mini blog and be sure to leave comments, questions or feedback.

Are you being creative in your selling?



Think outside the box when selling online...When I first started I followed the trend along with everyone else listing an item with a picture and a standard description. It was so boring.  After doing some research to increase my sells, I came across a seller that was telling a story about the items he/she was selling.

The story went sort of like this... "I have a Nautica jacket for sell, it has been worn only two times and is still in very good condition. I really like this jacket but the sleeves are a little short for my long arms. I would like it to go to a good family, it has been kept in very good quarters...

After seeing this, I felt compelled to buy the jacket myself. The lesson I learned is sometime when you can tell the story about an item, it gives the item a life and a need for someone else to want it and take care of it as you did.

That's my tip for today, be sure to comment below if you have other creative ideas on selling your items online.
 
 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Get more eyeballs to your ebay auction using Social Media

If you have already heard there are over 659 million visits and 75 million unique visitors per month on ebay alone. So why would you need more traffic? Well...you need all the traffic you can get because there are still some people out there that never look at ebay and you just might be able to grab their attention with one of the items that you are selling.

It's a very simple method, I use it quite frequently I might add. It's located on all of your Ebay item sale pages. ebay has placed to the right of each photo several social media icons: email, facebook, twitter, and pinterest. All you have to do is select the item you want to promote to your friends then select which social media platform you want to send the item to by clicking on the icon of your choice. Once you click the icon you will get a notice to connect your social media account to ebay. Next click "Allow" then follow the steps as indicated.

Once you have connected, the social media window to add your text will pop up. Here, you will be allowed to create content and promote your items, so go ahead and tell them all about it! but try to keep it short and sweet (there are only so many characters available)

 *Note- when using pinterest you will be able to post the photo of your item. This format works just as well on that particular platform. Once you have promoted your item click "finish" and your done! Hey! why not get even more eyeballs to your sales. Remember, the more eyeballs the better chance of having more sales!

I enjoy using these methods simply because there's really no way to communicate to people looking on ebay except with email which is very slow and they must already an ebay member. This gives you a chance to have a conversation with a lead quickly and while you are having that conversation with them... let's say on twitter for instance, even more people are starting to take a look as well due the conversation. So, there you are, another tip from me to you, I hope you enjoy and take advantage of this one, I DO!!!

 Happy Selling!