Selling Strategy: List Items Every Day

I don’t know about you, but it seems like my pile of items to be listed on eBay never ends.  Sometimes it gets smaller, but most of the time, it seems to get bigger.  When you list online, it seems that the work is never done.  Job security is what I call it

When I don’t have a lot of time to list everything at once, I like to do the following:

*Take pictures of everything I plan to list that week.

*Get the pictures ready

*Sort them by similar items (Jeans, shoes, DVD’s, etc)

*List 2-3 items per day.

Sometimes, it’s 5-6 items a day, just depending on what I’m listing, and how much time I have to list.

If I have time, I do like to list 15-20 items in an afternoon, but that doesn’t always work.

Life happens, and the point of being self-employed is to enjoy what you’re doing and not have to stress out about it.  If you don’t have time to list large quantities of items in a day, just list a few items every day.  By the end of the week, you’ll have listed a minimum of 21 new items if you list at least 3 items per day.

As you list new items,  different people look at your store.  Someone may be looking for that pair of shoes you just listed and find your store that way.  They may leave your store with something entirely different than what they came to your store for in the first place. That doesn’t matter.  The more you list and the more types of items you have listed, the more you’ll attract people (and most importantly, different people) to your store.

The point is to get people looking at your store.  They can’t find you if you don’t list……and it can’t sell if it’s not listed.

Happy Listing!!!

How Much Inventory Makes A Good eBay Store?

That’s a question I hear pretty often.  Sometimes people ask me to look at their store to see why they’re not getting very many sales. Often the first thing I notice is that their inventory is fewer than 300 items.

Let me ask you a question.

If you went to a store, let’s say Macy’s, and they had 113 items in the store, what are the odds that you’d find something there you needed, wanted, or just had to have?

For me, the odds would be pretty slim.  I bet they would be for you too.

Stores that sell a lot of inventory, have a lot of inventory in stock.  You can’t sell it if you don’t have it in stock.

The same principles that apply to retail apply to selling online.

I try to keep my store at 900-1000 items.  That way, if I’m out of town for a few days, sick, or just not able to list, I still have plenty of inventory listed.

This summer, I plan to increase my inventory numbers.

Everywhere you go, you need to be thinking “eBay”  not just at yard sales and thrift stores.  Think “eBay” when you’re at Wal-mart, Target, Macy’s, discount stores, sidewalk sales.  Pretty soon, you’ll find that it’s not difficult to find inventory if you open your eyes and look around you.

If you don’t have a lot of money to invest in your eBay business, then literally, look around you.  Look in your closets, your garage, attic, storage sheds, anywhere you have belongings.  Look on Craigslist and Freecycle too…..you never know what you’re going to find.

I highly doubt that a person can make a full time income by selling on eBay and having 100 items listed in their store.  Not unless they are $1,000.00 items.

My advice to you: If you have fewer than 100 items in your store, set a goal to get to 100 items listed.

If you have at least 100 but not up to 300 items yet, then set a goal and work toward 300.

If you have at least 300 but not 500, set a goal and work toward having 500 items listed in your store.

If you have at least 500, but aren’t close to 1,000 items in your store, then set goals in 100 item increments to get your store up to 1,000 items listed.

I guarantee you that each time you get to the next 100 items listed in your store, you will see your sales increase.  In my opinion, you can never have too many items listed.

eBay Selling Strategy: FREE Shipping

Here’s an idea presented to me during a little brainstorming session with my friend Sandy.  Everyone needs someone to brainstorm with and Sandy is one of those people. When she hears an issue, she almost immediately has a good solution in mind.

Keep in mind that I’m a little hard headed, so she had the idea for me right away, but it took her and Ginger together almost an hour to convince me to give it a try.

Here was my dilemma:

In the month of January, I was sooooooo close to earning Top Rated Seller status, but I got marked low twice on the dreaded “Shipping and Handling charges” category.  The category that I have been fighting with for so long.  I thought I had it beat, and no, it came back to haunt me.

I wasn’t too happy about it and shared my dilemma with Sandy.

Immediately, she told me that it would help my DSR’s to offer free shipping on my lighter weight items.  That way, I’d automatically earn 5 stars in that category, and it would bring up my average.

I was skeptical.  I thought of the 800+ items in my store and the task of revising them.  Plus, I don’t charge very much to ship light weight items, $2.99, how on earth am I going to get marked down for $2.99 items.  “It’s not the light weight items causing me to get marked down.” I told her.  Yet, she insisted and Ginger reinforced Sandy’s reasoning……..there might be one or two light weight items that you got marked down for this year that wouldn’t be there if you’d have offered free shipping on them. (I found out after pulling a report later, that yes, that was true.)

So, I went through my inventory and put FREE shipping on over 150 items in my store.  I’ll let you know how it goes as far as improving my DSR’s in the “Shipping and Handling Charges” category……and you never know, it might even increase my sales

eBay Seller Challenge: Improve Your Photos

So, as most of you know, Lizzie is a fabulous photographer.  She has this great camera, lenses and uses photo editing on her Etsy pictures especially.

I on the other hand, am about the laziest picture taker on the planet.  I typically lay the item down, take a pic and call it good.  Sometimes, if it’s a dress, or a larger sized item, I’ll put it on a hanger, hang it on the door and take my pics.

No editing, no fancy backgrounds. That’s me.

I’ve sold over 1,500 items this year on eBay, and I’m not quite convinced how spending more time on photos will increase my sales, however my friend Kathryn from KV Creative Designs has been all over me about improving my pictures, laying my items on fabric instead of the floor.

Since my eBay activity has slowed down in January, I finally gave in and told her that I will take the challenge to improve my pictures and have promised her that I will use fabric behind every item that I take a picture of for a month that I would normally just lay on the floor……and believe me, she’s holding me to it

I’ll let you know how my little experiment goes………..

**I would never in a million years be all over Rachel about laying fabric down on the floor to take her photos! Lol–thanks Kathryn! I owe ya one!

5 Easy Steps to Show Newly Listed Items First In Your eBay Store

When you open an eBay store, everything is set to the basic default settings.

There are so many options in “manage my store” to customize your eBay store and maximize your selling efforts.

One thing that I like to do is set my store to show the items newly listed rather than the items ending soonest on the front page.  I find that my items sell faster that way.

If you want to do this with your storefront–

1.Click on “manage my store”

2. Click on  “store design”

3. Find “display settings” click on “change”

4. Find “item display settings” click on “change.”

5. Find “sort order” you click to display the newly listed items.

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