eBay Open is fast approaching and is the flagship conference for eBay sellers and online entrepreneurs. It's a great place to learn about the latest eBay trends and technologies, network with other sellers, and get advice from experts.
Speaking to hundreds of professional sellers over the years at eBay events was a great environment to learn from million dollar sellers on key mistakes they have made as they scaled up from their house to warehouse.
Here are 5 to avoid and improve your chances of sustainable success and growth
1. Not thinking like the customer
eBay sellers admit they focused too much time trying to outsmart eBay's search engine and best match ranking. Listing optimization is important but appealing to human buyers, not robots was more rewarding. Buyers have emotions and need to be able to understand your listing quickly, trust that it will arrive safely and offer them value to make a purchase decision.
Here are some tips from professional sellers to start thinking like the customer
Know your target audience. Who are you selling to? What are their needs and wants? What keywords are they likely to use when searching for products? Once you understand your target audience, you can tailor your listings accordingly.
Use clear and concise titles. Your title should be the first thing that buyers see, so make it count. Use clear and concise language that accurately describes your product. Avoid using spammy keywords or all caps.
Write informative descriptions. Your description should provide buyers with all the information they need to make a purchase decision. This includes things like the product's condition, features, dimensions, and materials. Be sure to also include high-quality photos that show the product from multiple angles.
Use competitive prices. Buyers are always looking for the best deals, so be sure to price your products competitively. However, don't sacrifice quality for price. Buyers are more likely to purchase from sellers who offer high-quality products at a fair price.
Offer excellent customer service. Buyers should feel confident that they're getting a good deal and that they'll be taken care of if there are any problems with their purchase. Excellent customer service is a strong competitive advantage when you sell in a popular category.
2. Being caught out by competitors
Competition is fierce on eBay, and sellers found they had less time and energy to spend monitoring their competitors to protect their market share. Here are some strategies they would have implemented if they could do it all again:
Use third-party tools. There are a number of third-party tools (you’re on the best one!) that you can use to monitor your live competitors on eBay. These tools can provide you with more detailed information about your competitors' listings, pricing, and sales at affordable subscription prices
Hire Help. Combine above 3rd party tools with virtual agents and freelancers to take over the load of monitoring the market for threats and find opportunities. The local universities and colleges are full of smart analytical people or you can turn to some of our product research partners
Once you have relevant and consistent information about your competitors behaviours, you can develop strategies to compete with them effectively. Here are some areas of competitive analysis
Differentiate your business What makes your products or services unique? Why should buyers choose you over your competitors? Focus on your strengths and differentiate yourself from your competitors in your listings and marketing materials.
Match your competitors' prices. If your competitors are aggressive in offering lower prices, you may need to match their prices in order to stay competitive. However, if you think the competitor will be in your space for a limited time then it is often better to just wait until they sell out and avoid a price war.
Offer better customer service. Customer service is a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Make sure that you are responsive to customer inquiries and that you resolve any issues quickly and efficiently.
Run promotions. Running promotions is a great way to attract new customers and increase sales. You can offer discounts, free shipping, or try promoted listings to encourage buyers to purchase from you. Make sure you test & measure return on any advertising spend.
By monitoring your competitors and implementing effective competitive strategies, you can stay ahead of the curve and protect your market share on eBay.
3. Not scaling earlier
Many pro sellers eventually learned that it is important to scale a business effectively so you’re not working in it all the time. As their business grew, they became overwhelmed and struggled to maintain high standards.
Outsourcing allowed them to focus on new ideas and strategies. Here are the main areas of outsourcing to focus on
Customer Service
Customer service is essential for any successful eBay business. However, it can be time-consuming and challenging to keep up with customer inquiries so they invested in a virtual assistant (VA). The VAs handled a variety of customer service tasks, such as responding to emails, answering phone calls, and resolving customer issues.
Others found investing in a customer service platform the right option. Customer service platforms provide a variety of features that can help you streamline your customer service operations, such as live chat, ticketing systems, and knowledge bases.
Bookkeeping
As business grew, it became difficult to keep up with bookkeeping in-house so they hired bookkeepers to help with recording transactions, reconciling accounts, and preparing financial statements.
Cloud-based accounting software was also used and was a cost effective way to automate many of their bookkeeping tasks.
Market Research
As their business grew, it became difficult to find time to do market research and learn about new opportunities.
3rd party tools in combination with Virtual Assistants and freelancers can be a great investment and are very affordable. Think of using them as a strategic advantage when planning for peak sales seasons.
If you are considering outsourcing tasks for your eBay business, here are a few tips:
Identify the tasks that you want to outsource. Make a list of the tasks that are taking up the most of your time or that you are not good at. These are the tasks that you should consider outsourcing first.
Find a reputable service provider. Do your research to find a service provider that has a good reputation and that specializes in the tasks that you want to outsource.
Set clear expectations. Once you have found a service provider, be sure to set clear expectations for the tasks that you want them to handle. This will help to ensure that you are both on the same page.
Monitor the results. Be sure to monitor the results of your outsourced tasks to ensure that they are meeting your expectations. If you are not satisfied with the results, you may need to find a different service provider.
Outsourcing can be a great way for eBay sellers to scale their businesses effectively. By outsourcing tasks such as customer service, research, and bookkeeping, you can free up your time so that you can focus on the most important aspects of your business.
4. Not investing in new product innovation
Many eBay sellers learned the hard way that trusting manufacturers and suppliers to guide them on how well an item would sell can be an expensive mistake.
While it can be time-consuming, it always pays to do your own research to avoid being stuck with a warehouse of unsold stock. All professional sellers invest in research so that they can validate the sales rates they can expect to achieve and the amount of competition that exists in market.
Some sellers even asked their suppliers to do this research before sending them new item proposals.
Here are some tips for eBay sellers on how to get new product ideas
Use eBay's category research tools. eBay offers a variety of tools to help sellers research categories and identify opportunities. These tools include the Category Research Tool, the Seller Hub Insights tab, and the eBay Trending report.
Attend eBay events and conferences. eBay hosts a variety of events and conferences throughout the year. These events are a great way to learn about new categories and meet other sellers.
Use social media to research categories and identify trends. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can be a great way to research categories and identify trends. You can also use social media to connect with other sellers and potential customers.
Look for gaps in Supply vs Demand . Avoid getting into saturated categories and look for gaps where a better product with more features, new colours or other positive attributes could do well. Challenge your suppliers to create these for you and arm them with reports like this so they can empower their manufacturing teams
5. Forgetting eBay announcements
The last one is obvious but all sellers have missed critical policy changes and deadlines to action so their listings comply or take advantage of a new buyer experience launches
Monitor eBay's announcements. eBay regularly publishes announcements about changes to its platform, policies, and programs. You can find the latest announcements on the eBay Announcements page.
Read industry blogs. There are a number of industry blogs that cover eBay and e-commerce trends and dissect announcements and impacts to the community
Attend eBay events and conferences. eBay hosts a number of events and conferences throughout the year. These events are a great way to learn about the latest eBay trends and network with other sellers.
Join eBay seller forums and communities. There are a number of online forums and communities where eBay sellers can discuss the latest trends and developments. Joining a forum or community is a great way to get advice from other sellers and stay informed about the latest changes.
Use social media. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest eBay trends. You can follow eBay, other eBay powersellers, and industry influencers on social media to get the latest news and insights.
By following these tips, you can stay up-to-date on the latest eBay trends and make sure that your business is well-positioned for success.
Avoiding these 5 common mistakes, can set yourself up for success on eBay and other online channels and on your way to becoming a financially independent and sustainable business