A few days ago, I received an offer from Ebay for one hundred free auction-style listings. I always take advantage of these free listing offers from Ebay because I always use up my fifty listings every month. However, I receive this hundred free auctions offer every month and I have decided that I am not going to be using these anymore. The reason for this is that when my Ebay store is full of auctions, I find that my daily sales drop significantly. Also, most auctions (at least in my experience) don't get any attention and rarely get bids. If they do get bids, it is usually just the one and it usually happens the first day of the auction so the buyer and seller have to wait until the end of the auction for the item to be purchased. I believe that most people shopping online do not want to wait for an auction to end to purchase their item. They also do not want to hit Buy It Now on auctions because the auction price is cheaper and they will feel like they overpaid. With this being said, I am only running auctions on particular items and not using these free auction offers.
Speaking of Ebay, I have also decided to take Best Offer off of my "bread and butter" items. As I've previously mentioned, I follow States Place on YouTube and Instagram and take most of her advise on how to run a successful Ebay store. Recently, she mentioned that she had taken Best Offer off of her listings and that it was one of the best things she had ever done for her store. I have been frustrated by the Best Offer feature on Ebay for a while now, so I have decided to give this a try as well. It has only been a couple of days, but I am pleased with the results so far. I will continue to update on this topic as I go.
States Place also has weekly webinars with a new topic each month. I purchased this month's batch of webinars because the topic is BOLO (Be on the look out!) brands, and I feel that more knowledge in this area is beneficial to me. So far, I have watched the dress and blouse webinars and I love watching them, however, I fear that the brands she is mentioning are not brands that I can find in my area. This makes sense though as she lives on the other side of the country. This information is still beneficial and if I ever do happen upon these brands, I will know that they are worth a grab!
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Another YouTuber/Instagramer I have been following is Solange Mina. She focuses on Poshmark rather than Ebay and I have been able to gain some valuable information from watching her videos. From her I have learned the value of self-sharing on Poshmark rather than spending time sharing other people's closets. She tells her followers the importance of sharing your own closet constantly to gain sales. I have taken this advice to heart this week and have been using The Simple Posher to share my own closet multiple times a day especially at peak times (during parties). This has been working really well for me! I've had almost daily sales on Poshmark since I started aggressively sharing my own closet, and this is definitely something that I will continue and implement into my daily routine.
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"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle." - Lemony Snicket (The Bad Beginning)
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Over and out.
I, too, sell on eBay but my niche is vintage toys. Call up eBay and see if they will up your selling limit. They are usually pretty open to it. Also, do you have a store? I have found that the reduction in postage pays for the store and then some. You also get $25 worth of free shipping materials each quarter through eBay when you have a store. It's also very handy to close the store when on vacation. You leave a message about when you will return and then just forgot about it!
ReplyDeleteI sell almost exclusively But It Now. People are very used to buying online these days, and I agree that they don't want to hassle with waiting for their purchase in an auction sale. I am also very patient with my items because I am waiting for the buyer who needs this particular item. They always seem to show up eventually!
Hi, Isabella! I find vintage toys so interesting! I have called up Ebay in the past and they were very nice about upping my selling limit. I was actually referring to the amount of free listings given in each month. I haven't opened an actual store yet. I am waiting until I graduate from college in a couple of weeks so that I have enough time to devote to it. Thank you for telling me that about the postage reduction! My biggest concern with a store is the cost, but I can see how a reduction in postage would help that.
DeleteAbsolutely! It's always exciting when a person-specific item finally sells! I heard one YouTuber say that almost anything will sell if you give it at least two years.
Bailey, for instance, a 3 ounce package costs $3.50 to ship from the post office. If you have a store, and print your label at home, the cost is $2.66. That's quite a savings when you multiply it by even a modest amount of sales each month. Plus you don't have to stand in the post office line. Just drop it off at the counter. Now that is a real plus for sure!
DeleteI'm always thinking of something to add! The basic store is still $25.00/month, I believe.
DeleteHaha! I understand! That's great savings on the postage, and I love printing the labels from home. I often schedule pick ups so that my postman comes and picks up my packages. It saves on gas for days I don't have anything else to do in town. Yes, I believe that a basic store is $25 a month. I'm thinking about jumping right into a premium store though as I'm listing more than 250 items a month. I need to do some math to figure which one is right at the moment.
DeletePS I also do not have Best Offer on my sales. I think many sellers become frustrated with the low-ball offers. The right person will eventually pay what I want for my items. Again, patience!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteAnother great blog post. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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