There are a lot of things you can do with your time everyday in your eBay business, but what are the most important things to focus on that make you money? Below are the things you should do every day without fail, in order to see stable income, the daily habits of a successful eBayer …
Daily Habits of a Successful eBayer
List 1-5 items
Whether you’re just starting out or have a huge inventory already, each day buyers are looking at what’s new on the site. In search results, you don’t want your potential buyers to have to look very far down in the list of the gazillions of items on eBay to find YOUR items.
Listing items every day, usually means you will have some ending every day as well. So you get the buyers coming and going!
Likewise, effective eBay sellers are also smart about the time of day they are listing their items.
For most products, around 6-7 pm (PST) is a good time frame to list items, but it depends on your particular audience as well.
Run a sale
Huh? Run a sale every day?
Yes!
I know this seems like a weird eBay selling tip, but hear me out. If you have a store, you can up your item prices by 5% pretty easily. Run a sale for 5% off. You will be getting the exact same amount of money, but buyers LOVE to see sales. Trust me on this, it works, nearly everyone does it from eBay to brick-and-mortar stores, and its something your competition generally won’t do as part of their routine, maybe because they don’t know or maybe because they don’t have a store, which will set you apart from the pack.
Ship items
Ship all items within 24 hours of sale.
This is not only required for Top Rated Seller status, but it’s just good customer service. Again, buyers are impatient. They want their items NOW. The faster you can get it to them, the more positive ratings you will get.
Answer all emails in a timely fashion
The general rule of thumb is to answer all potential questions in the ad description, but occasionally there are some questions that can be asked. Answer the emails promptly. Shoppers usually want things NOW. They don’t want to wait 2 days to hear back from you. They will just go somewhere else.
Measure your results and adjust your game plan accordingly
This is where most eBayers fall flat.
All the sudden, they’ll get no sales and wonder why, and just leave it at that.
While its tempting to justify why we’re slow, and everyone IS slow sometimes, if we are not actively trying to see WHY we’re slow, we’re missing the mark.
Are your competitors snagging all the sales that day, or is it slow for everyone?
If your competitors are not slow, why not?
What are they doing differently?
Really spend some time there and try to figure things out. Once you discover the difference, change-up your game plan accordingly.
Always set the bar for OTHERS to follow
One of the things I’m known for is setting the bar for the whole of my niche. I love to come up with new ideas, things no one else has, and really set myself apart. Over time, not only do my regular buyers notice this, but competitors do as well.
It places me above a lot of competitors automatically by always just trying my best. My biggest competitor is ME. I always try to do MY personal best. I think to myself, can I do better?
Complacency on eBay is like feeding your hand to a shark; not a brilliant idea and it could kill you. lol.
Surround yourself with other successful eBayers
Maybe they have some insight you never thought of. Maybe you can share your wisdom with them. eBay amongst sellers is best when it’s a community, rather than a hard-core competition. I know every single one of my competitors by name. If I notice that something is wrong in their ad or if someone steals their watermarked picture, I let them know. It’s not a monster bash, its a friendly game.
If you still don’t see it my way, think of it like this, don’t piss off your competitors. They may just open up another account and trash your feedback on purpose. I’ve seen it happen!
Do NOT solely rely on eBay to get the sales FOR you
If you have a store, eBay does a fantastic job of marketing your items for you. But, this should never take the place of your OWN marketing.
In order of importance…
- Your Website
If you don’t have any of that, you’re missing out on half the sales. People keep looking at my eBay store wondering how I’m snagging all the sales. What my competitors CAN’T see, is that I have all of those things in place and it drives a boatload of traffic to my ads and because people are busy, they don’t always search for the best deal, so whether I am lowest priced or not, I’ll get that sale!
Rule: hang out where your buyers hang out!
Always try to do your best and have integrity
Give it your all. Don’t do a half job. Would you give a half job to your boss? No. Why not? Because they hold you accountable. Hold yourself accountable. After all, your boss is now your customers! Treat them like a king and you’ll do well on eBay.
Have fun
If you’re not having fun and enjoying what you do, you won’t do it very long. Period, end of story.
