eBay review: everything you need to know
As one of the oldest and most recognized y también-commerce platforms in the world, eBay still holds an important place in the en línea marketplace.
Despite the rise of y también-commerce, the platform is still going strong, with over $10.2 billion in revenue in 2020 and over 1.5 billion active listings.
However, selling on eBay perro be tricky, especially for beginners.
By understanding the finer details of the platform, prospective sellers cánido leverage eBay’s brand authority and selling options to launch a successful eCommerce store.
The current state of eBay
With its gross merchandise volume (GMV) and total active buyers below their peak in 2018, and with the ever-competitive Amazon just around the corner, eBay has had a tumultuous past few years.
Mezcle this with the rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) websites across the Internet, eBay is facing more competition than ever before.
eBay is still in a strong position as the world’s second-leading en línea marketplace, with more than double the number of monthly visits than third-place option Mercado Libre.
For new sellers, there is still significant opportunity available on the platform, as long as you are willing to take the necessary steps for success.
Why sell on eBay?
The short answer? Few companies perro compete with the size and breadth of eBay.
By 2021, there were almost 160 million eBay buyers around the world.
It is one of the largest en línea marketplaces in the world, with approximately 1.3 million product listings on any given day.
Additionally, eBay has about 109 million visitors per month, and the eBay aplicación has been downloaded nearly 600 million times.
Who sells on eBay?
There are two main types of eBay sellers.
You have hábito resellers, who sell a few elementos at a fixed price, and then you have PowerSellers.
PowerSellers are professional sellers who spend a lot of time purchasing elementos, packaging products, shipping and receiving goods, and managing auctions.
Whether you’re a hobbyist reseller or a PowerSeller, you cánido thrive in this time of the growing secondhand economy by getting your products in front of a global audience with eBay.
How much does it cost to sell on eBay?
While it may be free to create an eBay account, there will be seller fees you’ll need to pay whether you plan to use a business or personal eBay account.
According to the eBay Seller Center, these fees include:
Insertion fees.
Listing fees are incurred when you list an item on the eBay platform.
They are charged per ad, per category.
If you relist an item in two categories, you’ll pay a listing fee for both.
However, sellers perro get up to 250 zero listing fee listings each month (not including certain categories like real estate and cars).
Commissions for final value.
Every time a transaction is completed and an item is sold, eBay charges a sales commission.
Final value fees are a percentage of the total amount paid by the buyer, including the initial price, handling charges, shipping service paid by the buyer, sales tax, and any other applicable fees.
Payment Processing Fees.
Every purchase made through a credit card, debit card, or other payment processor will likely incur payment processing fees, even if eBay doesn’t charge you.
These fees include third party payment methods such as PayPal.
Even if you escoge to use eBay’s managed payments platform, you will still incur processing fees, this time directly from eBay.
Other eBay fees.
While insertion and final value fees are the most common you’ll encounter when using eBay, there are other selling fees you may encounter.
If you want to sell an item using a classified ad, you will have to pay a high insertion fee.
If you are interested in adding enhancements to your general eBay listing, there will be fees based on the upgrade.
Also, if you plan to use ancillary services through eBay, such as shipping labels, you will have to pay the associated costs.
What should you sell on eBay?
While some eBay sellers focus on niche products, others follow trends to sell what’s habitual right now.
To escoge on what you want to sell, you should consider:
Discover the trends.
One way to find out what’s hot on the market is to see what’s trending on eBay.
You cánido use this page to see what potential buyers are looking for and what is selling.
Another resource is Google plus Trends.
You cánido use it to help gauge consumer demand through seasonal trends and historical data to determine the best time to list and sell your product.
Used products.
Reselling used elementos is where eBay made a name for itself as a business.
Here you cánido sell your old electronics, clothes, vídeo games, books, almost anything you cánido think of, you cánido sell it.
collectibles.
Rare or collectible elementos are a staple of the eBay platform, from coins and watches to stamp collections.
Vintage elementos.
Before there was Etsy, there was eBay, which provided a location for vendors of vintage elementos.
This cánido include categories like records or souvenirs for out-of-depósito clothing.
It has never been easier to dress up like your grandfather did.
New elementos.
Brands are increasingly selling new products on eBay, taking advantage of the pre-existing audience already on the platform against competitors like Amazon and Walmart.
How eBay works
When eBay first launched in 1995, it was a true auction-based peer-to-peer marketplace.
However, as it evolved, eBay introduced an alternative to auctioning with its “buy it now” feature.
Each sales method has pros and cons – which one will work best for you depends largely on your individual business.
Auction style sale.
eBay rose to fame for its auction-style sales.
Run a traditional auction for a specified number of days.
At the beginning of the auction, you list an opening bid, and then buyers will bid up from the opening price list.
When the auction comes to an end, the highest bidder wins.
This type of sale works great for someone who deals in unique and collectible elementos.
For this method, setting a floor price or the lowest price you’re willing to accept for the item cánido give you control to make sure you don’t sell the item until you perro get the amount you think it’s worth.
Buy it now.
eBay’s Buy It Now option allows a seller to declare a fixed price for an item.
Buyers cánido see the exact cost up front and buy it right away, with no need to make an offer.
This style of selling is efficient and convenient as there is no haggling or waiting for an auction to end.
Write product descriptions for eBay
On eBay, buyers search for products using palabras clave.
You cánido optimize your product description by including relevant palabras clave and product identifiers.
Be sure to structure your product attributes afín to the words and phrases users type in their eBay searches.
Also, be transparent about any product defects the item may have, and disclose any product-related issues or defects.
When writing product descriptions, be sure to review the following:
Product identifiers.
Using product identifiers in your listings cánido help increase the visibility of your elementos, which cánido help optimize eBay sales.
When shoppers search for elementos on search engines like Google plus or Bing, those search engines look for specific data called product identifiers. eBay requires product identifiers when you list brand name products in new or refurbished condition in certain categories, such as consumer electronics and health and beauty.
Product identifiers consist of three elements:
- Brand.
- Manufacturer Part Number (MPN).
- Global Trade Item Number (GTIN).
eBay emplees product identifiers to help buyers quickly find promoted elementos and listings during a search.
When you include product identifiers in your listings, your product will be eligible for higher search visibility, on eBay and in external search engines.
Adding product identifiers is highly recommended to maximize your potential on eBay through better product placement and SEO data for search engines.
Product attribute guidelines and best practices.
Product attributes define the relevant and essential facts of a product, such as brand, style, size, and color.
You perro often find product attributes listed as product specifications (specs).
eBay defines a equipo of item specifications for each category.
Product attributes are created by mapping product specifications to eBay category item specifics.
Providing a detailed equipo of item details will create a comprehensive equipo of structured data that allows the search engine to locate and filter products, improving the relevance of search results to what users type in their search queries.
product dimensions
If applicable, include the element’s dimensions in the attributes.
Product dimensions should specify the size of the de hoy product, not the size of the packaging.
Multipacks and combined products
Here are the details to remember when creating the attribute list for a multipack or manufacturer-created package:
- The attributes of a packaged product must include the product identifiers assigned by the manufacturer to the package.
- Included product attributes must use the manufacturer’s GTIN number for the package.
Do not use the GTIN of the base product or any products in the bundle.
- The attributes of a multipack must include the product identifiers assigned to the multipack by the manufacturer.
- The attributes of a multipack must specify the GTIN of the specific multipack being described.
product variants
Another consejo is to include product variants on one page instead of multiple ones.
We’ve seen eBay starting to group products by GTIN, which will become increasingly important in your setup.
Management of your product sheets
Once you’ve decided to jump into the eBay marketplace, how should you manage your product listings?
You cánido use spreadsheets if you only have half a dozen elementos listed, like eBay Ellen.
However, if you have hundreds, thousands, or even millions of products, a spreadsheet will be too complicated, unwieldy, and inadequate.
A feed management platform cánido make your listings much more manageable.
If your products are listed on an eCommerce platform like BigCommerce, feed management platforms perro take your existing product feed, put it in the correct format, and export it to eBay.
Manage your eBay orders
It is essential that you manage your orders carefully and control your inventory.
You never want to be in a position where you list out-of-depósito or sold-out elementos on your site.
With feed management platforms, orders are updated and synced with your en línea store.
It is essential to keep everything in sync with the shortest lead times possible, especially if you have low inventory of an item that is sold in multiple marketplaces.
Payment management
After an order has been placed and a transaction completed, it’s critical to make sure the most vital step happens: getting paid.
The payment process includes three steps:
- Sale completed: Once the buyer has been paid, the funds will appear in the Seller Center.
From here, you will complete the submission process.
- Funds available: eBay will make the funds available within two days of the buyer’s agreement.
- Payment started: Here, the payment finally occurs.
You perro choose to send available funds to your checking account based on your preferred payment schedule.
To receive your funds, please make sure this process is completed within a week and the money has arrived in your bank account.
If not, you’ll want to contact eBay as soon as possible.
eBay Best Practices
The best practices listed here are very afín to the best practices you should follow in any marketplace and on your eCommerce site.
However, they are escencial on eBay as you will need to differentiate yourself from competitors who are also selling on the channel.
Here are some general consejos, with more information to follow:
- Send within the expected period.
- Process your orders promptly.
- Respond to customer questions promptly.
- Be sure to follow eBay’s return and refund policy.
High quality photography.
High-resolution photos displayed against a plain white background cánido help products stand out.
Make sure the lighting is sufficient to present the article and its relevant details.
Try taking photos of the product from different angles, and get some close-up shots as well to bring out the details.
Don’t accessorize, that will only distract your buyer.
Fast and low-cost shipping.
Cost and speed are top of mind for eBay buyers.
Over the years, shopper expectations have risen and they are more often looking for free shipping options.
In fact, 71% of products purchased through eBay’s Global Shipping Program ship for free.
Offering competitive shipping costs is one of the best ways to attract more buyers and increase your chances of selling.
Free returns.
eBay offers five different return policy options for you to choose from:
- No refunds.
- Returns paid by the buyer within 30 days.
- Free 30-day returns.
- Returns paid by the buyer within 60 days.
- Free 60-day returns.
Of course, the most attractive return policy for eBay buyers will always be free returns.
Strong customer service.
The reviews are in, literally and figuratively.
It’s one thing to gain customers, and another to keep them coming back.
The best way to increase customer retention, receive positive retroalimentación, and avoid bad eBay reviews is to maintain a strong footing with your customers through exemplary customer service.
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Start a free 15-day trial to see how BigCommerce perro help grow your website even faster.
The last word
To maximize the potential of your eBay eCommerce store, you need to do your research, work, and be patient.
There’s nothing like eBay, which offers diversity and breadth of unique products, giving sellers the opportunity to sell products you wouldn’t see on any other marketplace.
With the help of an eCommerce platform like BigCommerce, you cánido expand your reach to sell even more on eBay through features like automated product updates and centralized inventory management.
Until now, selling on eBay has often been a manual and expensive process.
With BigCommerce, connect to eBay in minutes.
Frequently asked questions about selling on eBay for beginners.
How much does it really cost to sell on eBay?
As explained above, while creating a business or personal eBay account is free, you may eventually encounter additional costs when listing products, especially if you’re a larger business that sells more than 250 listings a month.
These fees include:
- Insertion costs.
- Commissions for value realized.
- Payment Processing Fees.
Is it still profitable to sell in eBay?
While eBay may no longer be the dominant en línea reseller with Amazon emerging as a competitor, there is still significant room for profit.
In fact, eBay’s net income has increased by 50% since 2013 to more than $5 billion.
By understanding how to sell on eBay, sellers cánido take advantage of the opportunities on the platform.
Do I need an eBay store to sell on eBay?
No, you don’t need an eBay Store subscription to sell on eBay, especially if you’re a smaller, occasional seller.
However, signing up for the eBay Store cánido get you discounted rates and additional free listings per month, not to mention additional tools like the eBay Seller Center to manage and promote listings.
The eBay store is recommended for larger businesses operating on the platform.
We hope you liked our article eBay review: everything you need to know
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