Setting up shop
In addition to the more famous auctions, eBay shops are an increasingly popular development on the eBay.co.uk website. While auctions handle individual products, an eBay shop acts as your own mini-site within the safety of eBay. It’s part of the eBay whole (so people will find you when they search eBay), but you get your own web address, and many more features for handling the products and services you want to sell.
Creating an eBay shop means that people can search just your inventory, which you can split up into categories or groupings of products. This is particularly handy if you are a specialist, giving you the chance to really reflect the interests of your market. Shops have really taken off – they can be reached from the main eBay home page and are now being used by sellers who want to list lots of items, through to companies like Hewlett Packard and Vodaphone who use them to sell a wide range of new, out of season and reconditioned kit on eBay.
Building your own eBay Shop is extremely easy. Knowledge of selling products on eBay is more important than technical skills, and you’ll have a chance to acquire that while picking up the 10 positive feedback points that you will need to open a shop. The big question is what you plan to sell in it once you do. There’s not much point unless you’re regularly listing at least 10 items a month.
Getting started
Head for eBay and, once you have registered your credit card with the site and built up your feedback, you’ll be ready to start. It’s worth looking at other people selling similar products to you. As well as being good business sense to check out the competition, it will also give you some idea of what can be achieved with a little creative customisation.
When ready to begin, head here and select the ‘Open an eBay Shop’ tab at the top-right of the ‘Shops’ homepage. Clicking on this will take you through all the usual terms and conditions and user agreements. Once you have accepted these (after thoroughly reading them, of course), it’s time to get going.
Basic set-up
The sign-up steps are straightforward enough. You’ll have to choose a name for your store – ideally something snappy, but relevant; write a description of what you plan to sell, and choose a logo to appear in the main header frame. The shop design interface is based on a straightforward template-driven system. You have to start by picking and choosing from the pre-designed templates, but you can customise them to your satisfaction later on.
There is a fee to pay for running an eBay shop and this will be charged on a monthly basis. If you are just starting out, you’ll likely want the basic shop - £6 per month. If you’re listing more than ten items a month, you might want to think about upgrading to ‘Featured Shop’ status. The featured shops are listed on the category pages and given more prominence in the eBay Shops section, and priced at £30 a month.
When you write your shop description, you should include the key words that users might search, as these will be picked up in search engine (such as Google and Yahoo!) results. That will allow users to find your eBay shop direct from all over the world. If you’re selling computer equipment, for instance, key words for this might be ‘Sony’ or ‘Apple’.
Customising and cross-merchandising
The categories that you create should make it straightforward for shoppers to find their way to your items. Think of them as the aisles and shelves of your store, on which you can organise and display to buyers. The categories are crucial, so spend time working out how best to set them up, such as brand, type of item, or even price level. For example, if your shop primarily sells cameras and accessories, you could have categories such as ‘Digital Cameras’, ‘Nikon’ or ‘Professional’. Alternatively, you could use your categories as a promotional tool, offering ‘50% Off’ or ‘Featured Items’.
You’ll also be given the opportunity to display complementary items to any prospective buyers. When selling a laptop, it might be worthwhile to list alternative cases and peripherals. Equally, if you are selling games or DVDs, you might list other titles from your collection that buyers might be interested in.
Using listing tools
If you have items that are permanently in stock, you can set up listings that stay in your shop for cycles of 30 days for a single fee – called a ‘Shops Inventory Listing’. This makes it possible for users to click ‘Buy It Now’ buttons next to your items to purchase them straight away from your shop, instead of having to worry about auctions or pricing. Setting up your ‘Shops Inventory Listing’ is one the options when listing all your product items you intend to sell.
When listing an item, you can also use ‘Good ’Til Cancelled’ or ‘GTC’ listings to manage your products effectively. These listings automatically renew every 30 days until you cancel them. This means that you can keep sales for items running more-or-less permanently, rather than using the one-, three-, five-, seven- or 10-day listing processes used across the rest of the eBay site.
If you want to sell using the classic auction format, many sellers find that if they start their item at a low price with no reserve, like 99p, it encourages a greater number of buyers. If there is a minimum you are prepared to sell your item for, especially on a regular basis, you should consider using a higher starting price.
Alternatively, if your item is valued over £50, consider using a reserve price to prevent anyone getting too good a bargain. Be careful, however, as there is a £50 reserve price limit when selling on eBay. Over the years, it’s become clear that reserve prices can potentially put off prospective buyers, as they don’t believe it gives them a chance of winning the item. It really is best to save this feature for higher-value items, and stick with starting prices or ‘Buy It Now’ buttons for most other sales.
Using eBay Shops traffic reporting
Once you are up and running, and the sales are pouring in, you’ll find that your shop’s reporting tool will become a vital source of information. It will provide very effective, real-time information about how buyers are finding your products and what visitors are searching for. Particular areas you should pay attention to are the search engine (both eBay search and the independent search engines) keywords that people are typing in to finding you. This should influence the way you list items, adding more emphasis to popular search terms and categories. You can also research return visitors to understand how buyers are browsing your store with a full path analysis. This looks at how people move through the shop. All the reporting will be vital to understanding how effectively your cross-merchandising is working.
Getting your product listings right is the key to attracting buyers. There are some straightforward steps to writing the best listings. The easy to follow ‘Sell Your Item Form’ guides you through the steps to a successful item listing. But the way you list can make all the difference.
Every listing has a title, because this is what many buyers search on. Imagine that you’re the buyer – what information would you type in to find your item? You only have a limited number of characters, so make sure you include all of the relevant key words such as ‘make’, ‘colour’, ‘size’, ‘new’, ‘history’. Avoid using words that don’t describe the product or narrow the search for a prospective buyer, such as ‘wow’ or ‘fantastic’.
In order to make your description more visually interesting, use the HTML editor to add formatting like bold, bullet points and colours. Alternatively, if you’re comfortable with HTML, you can add your own touches to create a distinct identity for both you and your shop listing.
Make sure that your description provides buyers with all of the information they need. Include information such as brand, age, product condition and be honest - don’t withhold information that may lead to misunderstandings later. Some buyers also like to know the reason for the sale, so if there is a story or history behind the item, include that here. Needless to say, this is more important for individual auctions rather than full shops.
Finally, you can list items for 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. Listing items so that the sale runs over a weekend, and thus capturing Saturday and Sunday shoppers, should be a consideration when deciding how long to keep a sale running.