So here we are. After spending months trying to stash your prized collection of Beanie Babies and N64 games around the house to no avail, you come to the realization that enough is enough. You decide to create an eBay store in the hopes of learning the most elusive, magical lesson the internet has to offer: namely, how to make money on eBay from the comfort of your own home. Hoorah! You’re a small business, your inventory is full and your heart is full of hope. What more else is there to do?
The reality of it is that there’s so much more to eBay than just creating a store and uploading your items. If you’re looking to set up an eBay account with the hopes of driving sales, we’re here to help you achieve that dream.
We created this handy dandy guide to selling on eBay that covers just about everything from basic account setup to SEO optimization tactics, advanced selling options and more, so take a second to breathe it all in.
All good?
Great. Let’s get started!
Account Signup
Register for your eBay account here. Under ‘Register’ select business account. Fill in the required information fields. You’ll have to enter some basic information about your store (i.e. address, contact number) then verify your account via a PIN sent to your phone by text or call.
You’ll then want to select a business category from the dropdown that’s most pertinent to your industry (i.e. individual, sole proprietor, etc) and input your payment type.
Once all that technically nitty gritty is out of the way, you’ll be greeted with a commemorative Done! screen. Before you jump straight into listing your items, we’re going to focus on that bit right below the start selling section titled “Set up for success”. Here’s where all the magic’s going to happen. Can you feel it?
Start off by establishing your business policies.
These are defined as “the payment, shipping, and return details you specify for buyers in your listings”. Here’s where you’ll outline what types of payment your store will accept, shipping policies for your inventory, and determine your store’s policy on returns. If that’s enough to get your head spinning, fear not, since eBay’s been kind enough to provide users with this helpful guide on establishing store business policies. They also have an entire section devoted to ‘helpful tips’ which breaks down a few example policy names and descriptions.
Set up your tax table.
A tax table allows you to specify a sales tax rate for the states that require you to do so. The folks at TaxJar have a great blog post that breaks down Sales Tax 101 for eBay sellers, and even an eBay sales tax table with the average tax rate per state listed for your convenience.
Get an eBay store subscription.
The types of store subscriptions are outlined here. You should aim to choose a subscription that’s in alignment with how much you plan on selling, so whether you’ve just got a few items in your shop or are sitting on a cornucopia of rare Beanie Babies worth their weight in gold, it’s always a good idea to plug in a few values to eBay’s fee illustrator. Finding the right store subscription can help you save you money in the long run, so it’s worth your time to go out there and do a little bit of comparative research on the matter. E-commerce expert Andrew Minalto does a good job of outlining the pros and cons in this post, which is definitely worth a read.
Finish up all the little details by linking your shop to your PayPal account.
Hoorah! You’re successfully managed to make it through the monotony of setting up your account, establishing business policies, taxes and beyond. Good job, you. Take a minute to pat yourself on the back. Maybe indulge in a nice piece of cake with a glass of milk, because you’ll be needing all that energy for…
Running & Optimizing Your Store
Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because your store is online appearances don’t matter. Pixels need love, too! A visually attractive storefront design will help keep potential customers on the page longer, increasing your likelihood of scoring a sale. Check out eBay’s quick guide on customizing your store here. You’ll also want to give your store a snappy title—ideally with a few keywords relevant to your business—that’ll bring just about everyone to the yard. And if you’re thinking about going above and beyond the call of duty, you can always register your store name as its own domain, too.
Your shop description should also adhere to the same principles and should provide potential customers with a concise description of what your store sells (keywords included). Keep it short, sweet and to the point. Same goes for an “About Me” page if you choose to create one.
The Art of Creating SEO Optimized Listings
If your store is all set up and ready to go, it’s time to bring the big guns out, aka time to create a listing. Before getting started, it’s a good idea to pull together a list of relevant keywords in your business with tools like Google’s Keyword Planner. When correctly applied, the right set of keywords can help boost your listing higher in eBay’s search results. At a glance, some best practices for SEO and keywords include:
Optimizing product titles with those invaluable keywords you’ve dug up.
Fill in eBay specifics to help give your audience a more thorough understanding of the product (less hassle=better sales).
Splurge for a subtitle (50 cents per listing) if you can. The content you put into your subtitle will show up when users conduct an advanced search, which can help lead them to your store.
Once all the text and details have been taken care of, you can then tend to the matter of photos. You don’t have to be a professional photographer to learn how to take good product photos. In fact, all you really need is a decent camera and a few editing techniques to get your photos store-worthy. This blog post will help you get acquainted with a few helpful product photography tips in no time.
Inventory Management
Now that your store is up and running it’s time to kick back your shoes and reel in the profits.
…almost. One of the most vital components in making money off your store in eBay comes down to inventory management, aka being able to keep track of what’s flying off the shelves and what items aren’t doing so well. Entrepreneur puts it best:
“At any given moment, you need to know what you have on hand, what you’ve purchased that’s on the way, what you need to buy, what’s up for auction, what’s available in your eBay store and on your website, what’s been sold, and what’s been shipped…In addition to keeping track of the information, you also need to consider the physical flow of your inventory. ”
Since being able to successfully manage your inventory is what separates novice sellers from entrepreneurs, it’s easy to see why this aspect of selling can be challenging to new users. While a basic Excel sheet may suffice for stores with low volume sales, finding the right inventory management tool can provide a wealth of additional benefits including:
Ability to find areas that need improvement (poor sales) as well as opportunities for accelerated growth
Avoid overselling
Provide the best customer experience possible by tracking every step of an order in one place
Free up valuable time and space
From Zero to Hero: Becoming A Sophisticated Seller
If you’ve implemented everything in this blog post so far, then congratulations are in order! You’re on your way to bringing in a nice turn of profit soon. But if you’re the kind of person that wants to go above and beyond—the kind of person who dreams of living a lavish life aboard a yacht somewhere—then stay tuned. Here are a few suggested tips for sellers looking to take their shops to the next level:
Double Your Listings
While every online marketplace has its own unique pros and cons, the two biggest names in the business are unquestionably eBay and Amazon. If you’ve put in a good amount of time on eBay and start seeing profitable results it’s natural to start thinking about expanding to other markets. However, when the reality of what it would take to duplicate your inventory across other markets like Amazon hits, it can feel a little overwhelming.
Enter KickSync. Built with small business owners in mind, it’s an eBay selling tool specifically designed to save you precious time by inputting all of your eBay listings into Amazon for you. Not only does it virtually double your inventory (and thus, double your visibility online), but it also allows you to adjust prices according to the strongest market–meaning you get the best price for your item every time.
You’re only a few clicks away from that yacht life. Click here to get started with KickSync for free, and check out our handy tutorial section here.
Become A Trusted Leader In Your Market
Your success as a brand is contingent on two elements: your store and inventory as well as your personal brand. Do you have valuable experience in your industry? Are you full of tips and tricks of the trade that could help other sellers? If so, then writing an eBay guide could prove to be lucrative for your business. Designed to help buyers make more informed purchasing decisions, eBay guides offer a wealth of information on every topic imaginable from how to etch your own glass to making your own beef jerky at home.
Writing guides are a great way to show off your finesse and establish yourself as an industry leader—all the while creating valuable backlinks to your store that’ll boost its SEO. Here’s how to get started.
Got any tips you’d like to share with us? Let us know in the comments below!
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