A step-by-step plan to bid and sell at eBay during this busy holiday season
At IMC, here’s where we pull together all the new strategies our Advanced
eBay Mentors have been testing — plus a few “evergreens” — so you can take
full advantage of the surge of Christmas shoppers who are already hitting
eBay’s virtual shelves.
First we’ll zero in on popular, in-demand items. Then we’ll show you some
great ways to promote your holiday listings, so when Christmas shoppers
start gobbling up products on eBay, they’ll find YOUR listings before your
competitors’.
Let’s start with where to find some hot holiday items to your inventory…
Step 1: Do some digging to find HOT products to sell over the holidays
If there’s one single thing that separates professional sellers from beginners,
it’s market research. Smart sellers won’t even THINK about stocking up on
inventory unless they know there are people out there willing to buy it!
By doing a little digging, you can find out exactly what products people
are searching for and snapping up — and how much those products are selling
for. Once you know these details, you’ll be able to figure out how much
you can spend to purchase products for resale… and still leave a healthy
profit margin.
Finding hot products to sell for the holidays is no different. Here are
a few hotspots for finding products that will boost your holiday sales:
- * Take the eBay Pulse tour of eBay.
Go to the eBay Pulse page to find out the top 10 items people are
searching for in specific categories for the day. You can also find
out what people have been purchasing recently, as well as what items
people are currently “watching.” For example, at the time of writing,
searches in Toys and Hobbies were “Star Wars,” “Webkinz,” and
“Fisher Price.”
eBay Pulse* Check out eBay’s Want It Now pages.
eBay’s “Want It Now” service presents a golden opportunity to connect
with thousands of buyers who are so desperate to purchase something,
they’re actually advertising for it! Buyers post their Want It Now
ads for free, and you can search their listings for keywords relating
to items you have for sale. This is a great way to assess current
demand. In the run-up to the holidays, the Want It Now area of eBay
should be chock-full of Christmas shoppers – wallets open and armed
with the wish-lists of family and friends.
Want It Now* eBay’s Hot Categories Report.
See which sub-categories are growing the fastest and what kinds of
items are selling best. For example, this month in the Crafts category,
Leather craft is super hot, with deerskins being the top item.
Sub-Categories* eBay’s Popular Keywords.
Browse the most popular words people use to search for products on
eBay to get an idea of what products people are searching for.
Popular Keywords* Find out what products your competitors are selling successfully
with third-party market research tools.
The third-party market research tool we recommend (and use with our
eBay mentoring clients) is Terapeak. For a fee, you can find a gold
mine of information about how well the in-demand items you found are
selling. See the selling price, volume, and other details for specific
sellers over the last 90 days.
Terapeak* The Holiday Hot List.
We mentioned this last month, but it’s worth flagging again. eBay does
its own extensive research to predict what the hottest sellers will be.
Then they list them all here.
Once you’ve found some popular additions to your holiday offerings,
it’s time to home in on Christmas shoppers and promote your listings
and eBay Store.
Step 2: Decide what holiday incentives you’ll offer to entice shoppers
to YOUR listings
Of course, you’re not the only seller planning to cash in on extra Christmas
traffic. In order to maximize sales of your hot new product offerings, think
of ways you can entice searchers to make a beeline for your listings – and
not your competitors’!
What can you offer to set your holiday offerings apart?
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- * Accept coupons by using PayPal.
eBay sometimes sends out promotional discount coupons to eBay members.
As long as you accept PayPal, buyers can use these coupons for your
listings. So why not let them know you accept coupons by adding a short
snippet of text to your listings saying “eBay coupons accepted here.”* Put your holiday Store items on sale.
Using Markdown Manager — one of the features of eBay Stores — you can
easily put certain holiday items on sale (by 5% or more). The sale price
appears as a Buy It Now price wherever your listings appear. You can create
and schedule sales in Markdown Manager.
Get instructions here* Bonus items.
Even just offering a small freebie can be that extra incentive to purchase
a product from you instead of a competitors’ at a similar price point.* A “Gift Buying Guide” for your visitors.
You may also want to consider putting together a quick “Gift Buying Guide”
for your visitors. This is a great resource for people who visit your eBay
Store to buy a gift for someone but don’t know much about the products you
sell. For example, if you sell wetsuits, you could offer some information
about how to choose the right wetsuit as a gift. That way, people who know
nothing about them wouldn’t end up buying a water-skiing wetsuit for someone
who needed one for scuba diving.* Describe how your product (or service) would make a great
Christmas gift.
If you sell items like neckties or Christmas ornaments, you won’t need to
worry about this as much. But what if your site is selling something like
office supplies? Consider writing a short article or story about how
people who received your services as a gift for a particular occasion
couldn’t stop talking about how unique it was!* Offer deals on shipping.
Can you offer free shipping or shipping discounts on multiple purchases?
Can you send items directly to the recipient? Any of these shipping options
can give you an advantage.
Once you’ve decided what you’ll offer as incentive, it’s time to get
the word out…
Step 3: Promote your holiday listings to showcase your new products
and incentives
There are tons of ways you can let the world know about your new products
and holiday specials!
Start by becoming an active member of the community — both on eBay AND off.
Promote your listings and specials in these community hotspots:
- * Harness the power of your off-eBay blog or website.
Expand your eBay business by creating an off-eBay blog. Feature your products
(and any incentives you’re offering, like free shipping or discounts) on the
first fold of your blog or homepage.
eBay BlogThe first fold is the portion of the screen that’s visible without scrolling.
You want to make it EASY for your visitors to find and buy your products.
The best way to do this is to make sure that every single visitor sees your
featured specials, then clicks through to YOUR auction listings.* Feature your specials on your eBay Blog.
By creating short, frequent posts on your eBay blog, you give the search
engines another opportunity to find your Christmas listings. And you add
a human element to your sales process. The trick is to post often, because
the most recent blog posts appear first on the page. You’ll also need to
give each post a descriptive title that includes any holiday sales or extras
you’re giving. (Your title is what shows up first on the eBay blog page.)You can also use eBay To Go to post relevant auction listings on your blog.
They look cool and add excitement to your auctions.
eBay To Go* Link to your holiday specials from your eBay My World page.
If you haven’t yet created an eBay My World page, now’s the time. It’s a
great way to get added exposure for your listings. When you create your
eBay My World page, add search tags that describe your holiday products.
(Remember the top searches you found using eBay’s Popular Word search in
the first step? These are good search tags to add. You can also add words
like “Christmas,” “holiday,” and “sale.”)
My World PagePeople searching for the terms in your search tags will find your My World
page — featuring your feedback and direct links to your items.To make sure you capture people searching from the My World index page,
make sure your photo stands out from the crowd.* Write an eBay Wiki article or sub-topic to boost your credibility
and exposure.
A Wiki is a web-based application that allows you to create articles that
can be edited by other members. Wiki articles are different from blog posts
in that they give informative and factual information. So while you can’t
actively promote your listings on them, you still get your eBay User ID
out there — and position yourself as an expert at the same time!
eBay Wiki
If you don’t have enough information to write an entire article, create a
short sub-topic piece that will be added to others to create one complete
article.
For instance, if you know a lot about one aspect of a broad subject,like
dollmaking, you could write an article about painting doll faces.
* Write eBay guides related to your holiday products.
Writing eBay Reviews and Guides is a great way to get more exposure for
your Store and auction listings — AND boost your credibility at the
same time. It’s also an excellent opportunity for you to get your holiday
listings in front of lots more Christmas shoppers — whether they find you
through the search engines or through the eBay Reviews and Guides page.
eBay Reviews and Guides
Once you’ve tapped into the community, promote your listings to your
existing customers and subscribers…
* Include promotional flyers into your outgoing packages.
eBay offers free promotional tools for Store Sellers that allow you to easily
create professional flyers with your Store URL and other business details.
But even if you don’t have a Store, you can create a flyer on your computer
and get it printed.
Take advantage of these and showcase your holiday offers in all your outgoing
packages from now until Christmas.
After all, so long as you impress your existing customers with your prompt
and professional service, chances are those buyers will return to check out
YOUR holiday auctions before someone else’s.
* Send holiday promotions to your email and favorites list.
If you have a list of customers and/or subscribers, you already have an
incredibly powerful database of people who are just waiting to make purchases
from you! The reason they can’t wait to buy from you? It’s the 80/20 Rule:
80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers.People
who have already bought from you are much more likely to buy from you again,
because you’ve already earned their trust.
If you’re not set up with an email management program, yet, check out eBay’s
list of approved third-party programs.
Now that you’ve found some HOT holiday products, decided how you’ll entice
shoppers to your auctions, and seeded the Web with your promotions, get ready
to handle all the extra sales that will be coming your way!
And if that’s not enough, there’s even an easy-to-follow guide to selling products
on eBay! I strongly urge you to check out this all-new eBay profit-generating
system as soon as possible!
Click here for a FREE preview.
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About The Author: Internet Marketing Center specializes in teaching real
people how to successfully start, build, and grow their own profitable online
businesses on small budgets. IMC’s CEO is Derek Gehl, an internet marketing
expert who has helped 1,000’s of people to succeed in their online businesses
since 1996.
To get instant access to the step-by-step strategies, tools, and resources
he’s used to grow just $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit:
Marketingtips.com
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Tags: eBay auction, make money at eBay, eBay sep-by-step guide
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