eBay - How to do it! (Part 1)
Here is the first installment of our 'How To eBay Tutorials'.
We're sure by now you will of heard of eBay and maybe visited it and even bought items from it but we are going to try and show you how to make money from it!
eBay is an extremely powerful online selling tool, which not only enables you to sell products online but can also provide the opportunity for you to build a sucessful e-commerce business.
We have tried to make this as simple as possible to follow, to assist you in getting your products listed and sold on eBay.
1 - Register. This is very easy, Simply click on the "Register" tab at the top of the homepage and follow the instructions. To minimise fraud and protect buyers, you're required to provide a credit or debit card to verify your identity
2 - Creating a listing/selling your item. Presuming you know what you're selling already, you'd want to get it up for sale as soon as possible. Simply go to Sell - Sell an item (at the top of the screen). You'll then be asked to input a/some keywords of the item you are selling. This will help you to place your item in a specific category, which will assist your customers and help them to find your listing/s easier.
When placing your item/s up for sale, the title and description of the listing are very important. Try and fit as many descriptive words as possible into your title, basically things that people will be looking for, e.g if you're selling curtains, include the colour, fabric and brand name etc. Somebody will almost always be searching for what you are selling, and it's your job to help them find your items before others!
A good photograph of your product is also important. It helps to make your listing look professional if done well, and buyers will almost always buy from the most professional looking sellers. It's very easy to upload your photos to your listing, full instructions are given within the listing process.
Deciding how to price your item is very important. You are looking to make money, but eBay is a sensitive market and you don't want to price yourself out of it. Protect yourself by starting your auction at the lowest possible price you're willing to accept. Lower start prices generally attract more bids. If you have some good feedback and have created a good listing, this will also help to attract buyers. There are 2 types of listing. Auction and Buy Now. Auctions work by a bidding format, and as with all auctions, the item is sold to the highest bidder. Buy Now means that you list your item for the exact price you'd like for it, but remember It can't sell for any more (or if you look at it positively), any less than the Buy Now price you have specified.
You will be required to include domestic shipping costs for the items you are selling, it helps buyers make up their mind. Be honest about how much it will cost to post an item - don't be tempted to earn a bit of extra cash by pushing up the cost because this can put people off.
3 - Ebay and Paypal fees - eBay charge you a small fee to list your item, and you'll have to pay a Final Value Fee if/when it sells. Listings fees are dependent on the starting price. Final Value Fees are calculated as a percentage of the sale price, and range from 5.25 per cent to 1.75 per cent. PayPal, the safest and most secure method of payment, will also charge you every time you receive a payment. You'll pay a flat fee of 20p plus 3.4 per cent of the amount being transferred. If you receive a lot of PayPal payments you can get reduced rates when you apply for the Merchant Rate. These are all things to take into account when deciding how much you want to sell your item for. Remember, you'll still have to pay eBay listings fees per item even if the item doesn't sell. So if you overprice your items and don't sell enough quantity you could be paying out more than you're making!