The nature of any business, online or otherwise, is that profits and sales do not come in an endlessly upward trajectory. There will be lulls. There will even be losses. eBay, though it is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, does not guarantee a high volume of sales for everyone, all the time. What you do when eBay sales are down is the question.
In this article, we will guide you through several strategies you can use to combat a case of the bad sales. So, if you don’t know how to do it, you will find everything you need if you keep reading!
What Makes eBay Sales Suffer?
So, you have no eBay sales. Don’t get discouraged: it isn’t the end of the world. Identifying the root cause of your declining sales is an essential first step toward reversing the trend and realizing your full sales potential. In this article’s first section, you’ll learn about the various metrics we examine to get a complete picture of your store’s performance.
Now, you can monitor numerous key factors that affect your eBay seller rating on your performance dashboard. These are:
Rate of Defectiveness
On eBay, your defect rate is determined by the number of reported faults, as a percentage of total sales. If you sold 100 things in your shop this month and 4 of them were flawed, your defect rate is 4%. The following are some of the ways in which eBay claims your shop may be deemed as flawed:
- The item was not described.
- The order was canceled due to your actions.
- The buyer filed a successful dispute through the payment gateway.
Rate of Late Shipments
You will be charged a late shipment fee if your package arrives after the estimated delivery date listed in your ad. Your dashboard score will drop as you postpone transactions more often. If you have a history of late delivery, eBay may limit the shipping methods available to you. Here are some things to keep in mind while crafting your shipping policy so that you can stay within the lines:
- Determine the total order time (including shipping and handling) in order to give a firm delivery date.
- Track your orders as they are shipped.
- If you anticipate a difficult customer, you may want to compensate them for delivery delays.
Cases Resolved Without Your Input
Providing excellent service to buyers is crucial if you want to succeed as an eBay vendor. For this reason, it’s crucial that sellers never let a case end without first reaching an amicable agreement with the purchaser. If eBay has to intervene to address a problem, it’s not good for your business.
If you’ve seen a dip in sales and/or customer satisfaction and have also had a few instances that were closed without a resolution, you’ve probably figured out why. The good news is that every month eBay will re-evaluate your store’s rating.
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Top Methods to Boost Your eBay Sales
Here, we’ll look into some of the ways you can boost your position on eBay and lead your store to increased revenue. These tips are grounded in common sense and an examination of the way eBay’s algorithms appear to function. Keep in mind that only eBay employees are privy to the inner workings of these algorithms. With that said, let’s get started!
Improve your listings
One of the most effective ways to boost your eBay sales is to fine-tune your listings. Your eBay listings may be the most frequent points of contact with customers, regardless of how loyal they are or how well-known your brand is. The long-awaited solutions to increasing eBay sales can be found by just acknowledging the question of how to optimize your eBay listings. Some strategies include:
- Prioritize thoroughly which keywords you will use on eBay. Are these terms straightforward to find? Are they extensive and well-known, or not? Consider using tools to generate keywords, and pay special attention to clients’ search habits and preferred terms. Success is influenced by eBay SEO. You may want to read a full description of the marketplace’s Best Match algorithm that was recently made public.
- Your title must include at least 60 but no more than 80 characters, and it must be spelled correctly. In addition, you shouldn’t include all of an item’s variations (such as color options) in the title itself when listing it.
- The next step is to include a detailed description of the product that includes all relevant details. In addition, make use of the included catalog information where applicable to improve your eBay listings and ultimately your sales. If you are searching for the elusive solution to the question of how to improve eBay sales, this is a fantastic eBay best match hack you shouldn’t miss.
- eBay suggests that sellers take photographs of their products from a variety of angles in order to provide the most accurate description possible. In addition, it’s plausible that customers will be particularly interested in seeing images of any blemishes or imperfections on the things for sale. Listings can be improved without resorting to using borders and inscriptions in product photos. In addition, if the products you are offering are not brand new, you should not use stock photos.
Offer better prices
Sellers on eBay have apparently observed and discussed the downward spiral trend in prices as a result of the intense competition in the marketplace. However, figuring out how to boost eBay sales without being harmed by the aforementioned trend appears to be pretty challenging.
One of the tricks to increasing sales on eBay is to offer lower prices than the competition. However, you can still attract customers by offering reasonable pricing that is in line with the value they will receive. Some things you can do include:
- Doing market research is a must before setting competitive prices. Knowing the pricing points and quality levels of similar products on the market is essential. It’s also helpful to have an idea of the average order value and purchasing habits of online customers. You might get a more realistic estimate of the cost based on these numbers.
- Simply offering lower prices than the competition won’t increase your eBay sales. If you’re trying to figure out how to boost your eBay sales, catchy promos are a must. A Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or New Year’s Eve eBay promotion application might bring in a flood of customers.
- Your raises are temporary, but not indefinite. Keep up with the competition on eBay with our proven strategy for increasing sales on the platform: stick to your tried-and-true pricing methods while exercising complete command over your eBay selling costs. Your company could benefit greatly from some consistency.
Consider bulk pricing
Giving eBay buyers a discount for buying in bulk is a surefire way to boost sales. This means that the more a customer buys from your eBay business, the cheaper each individual item becomes.
Either a bundled product listing or price tiers for a single item will do the trick. If you sell items that go well together, this is a terrific method to increase your earnings. However, it can also increase sales of consumables that customers buy frequently or in large quantities.
Both buyers and sellers can save time and money with volume discounts and reduced delivery costs. The eBay Promotions Manager is the place to do this.
Provide a better customer experience
Another tip on how to boost eBay sales is to maintain a positive relationship with your customers. Providing a positive shopping experience for your customers will increase your eBay sales and build trust with your brand.
- First on our list of ways to better serve our customers is to expand the variety of payment options we provide. Payment methods such as major credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, and Google Pay are expected.
- In addition, feel free to incorporate any reputable third-party solutions you may come across. Payment in cash at the time of pickup is an additional viable alternative. However, there are several variables to consider, including location, product type, and shipping service.
Maintain a proper selling history
Maintaining a positive selling record is the fifth strategy to counter eBay sales being down. This implies that, in addition to offering a high-quality service, you should also seek and respond to good product reviews.
- Your primary focus should always be the satisfaction of your customers as they shop at your online store. Ensure a pleasant shopping experience by answering inquiries, fixing problems, and providing assistance as needed. Any interaction with a customer after a purchase might be pivotal in determining whether or not they return.
- If you want to boost sales on eBay, don’t forget to aggressively solicit feedback from customers. More than half of online buyers read customer reviews before making a purchase, so why pass up the opportunity to gather feedback on your product and service?
Give buyers better shipping
Sellers must consider rapid and free shipping as a way to attract more eBay buyers. When faced with a choice between free shipping and a discount, customers almost always opt for the latter. However, inside shipment, you can choose between two different options: free delivery and rapid shipping.
Customers value free shipping more than quick shipping and are ready to wait longer for it. But can a vendor fulfill both orders at once? With better eBay logistics, it’s doable, at least in theory. To increase your eBay sales, try offering free delivery as a promotion or applying for shipping vouchers. You need to master the eBay shipping process and apply it to your company.
In fact, eBay’s e-sellers can choose from three distinct delivery options: self-management, drop shipping, and a global shipping program. Pick the right delivery method with the most affordable eBay shipping rates for your company’s size, volume, and location, and always hand in your packages on time.
Bring your website into play
Including a Where to Buy option on your website is another effective strategy for directing customers to your eBay listings. Customers can easily check availability at various stores by using this feature. Online auction houses like eBay and brick-and-mortar shops like Best Buy and Argos are examples of this. After selecting a store, customers can complete their purchases with a single click.
They can easily add the item to their shopping cart and complete their purchase by clicking on to the appropriate third-party product website. In this way, the customer experience is simplified and disruptions are reduced. In any other case, there would be several opportunities for competing listings to steal the sale if a shopper conducted a search on eBay after browsing your website.
You can prioritize your eBay listings to boost sales if that’s your focus.
Attract external buyers
You can boost interest from potential buyers in your listings by promoting them using paid search, email marketing, and social media. This will increase the exposure of the listing (and hopefully the sales). To encourage recurring business and website traffic, eBay provides numerous email marketing options. Once you have a solid base of customers, you can start sending them coupons, catalog highlights, reminders, and more.
This can help your listing rank higher in eBay’s search results, which will boost your sales in the long run.
Deal with returns properly
Returns are a pain to deal with. But it’s essential if you want to boost your eBay sales.
To begin, you should know that 79% of customers demand free return shipping. 78% of shoppers report making additional purchases when return shipping is free. Second, as was previously said, eBay prioritizes items that offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. You should expect a drop in rankings and sales if you offer a shorter return window or no return policy at all.
It’s a no-brainer to include free returns as part of your market strategy. If you offer a 30-day free returns period, not only will your consumers be happy, but your sales will increase, and Amazon will promote you to the “Top Rated Plus” seller tier. There are other benefits to this that could boost your earnings.
Keep a cool head after negative reviews
Don’t freak out if someone writes a critical evaluation of your work. You can try to resolve the issue in a way that persuades the consumer to remove the feedback themselves. This improves sales.
Become a top seller
If you’ve been selling on eBay for any length of time, you know that having a perfect feedback rating is a huge advantage. Every eBay seller can reach one of three tiers: highly regarded, average, or poorly regarded.
But what does achieving the status of a top-rated seller on eBay have to do with boosting sales? In a nutshell, here are the justifications for winning the award:
- The listings of highly rated sellers appear higher in relevant eBay searches;
- The highest-rated sellers on eBay are afforded special protection by eBay;
- The Top Rated Plus logo is shown on appropriate listings for establishments that have received numerous 5-star reviews;
- Customers are more likely to buy from those with the highest seller ratings on eBay.
Having a high feedback score on eBay is a surefire way to increase sales, credibility, and security. As a result, it is undeniably one of the methods to boost sales on eBay. Inversely, it wouldn’t be shocking if an online vendor with the Below Standard badge had trouble increasing their eBay sales.
Get in touch with eBay
Call eBay’s customer support and describe the situation if any of the issues mentioned above are affecting your success as a seller. You may receive a defective item by mistake, or you may have received unfavorable feedback for circumstances beyond your control (typically, we are seeing negative feedback due to delays in shipment during the pandemic).
Maintaining contact with eBay via phone or live chat to resolve these issues requires constant attention.
Ready to Boost Your Business?
If you’re wondering how to boost your eBay sales, we recommend that you take care of your reputation, services, and promotion, as well as provide a good customer experience and keep track of your sales history.
In terms of revenue potential, eBay is unparalleled. It’s not shocking to hear success story after success story from people who have sold items on eBay. But why restrict your company to just one method of generating revenue? It’s time for every company to get in on international action and start competing in the multichannel selling arena.
However, if you’re worried about maintaining your store while weathering the slump in sales, then PIRS Capital is here to help you out. You can’t simply stop selling, because you will risk losing everything. So, if you need money to keep operations running, you can reach out to us for monetary aid. We at PIRS have a long history of helping out entrepreneurs on their way to success. We offer fair rates and easy terms, so feel free to contact us if you’re interested in learning more!
I work with companies that sell products on platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, Ebay, Etsy, etc. I understand that every business is unique and thats why I form genuine relationships with owners so I can help them reach their goals and find success through our working capital solutions.