How to Make Money on eBay
For a beginner, figuring out how to make money on eBay can be quite a challenge. While eBay started off as a worldwide garage sale, it has evolved more into a small business medium. This makes it harder for a novice to make a sale. You have to compete with professional eBay merchants, who use wholesale prices and bulk shipping rates to undersell you in both starting bids and shipping costs. How can a beginner compete with that? There are ways, however, and this article will share the secrets of how to make money on eBay.
The trick to knowing how to make money on eBay is to make your product and yourself as a merchant stand out from the crowd. It takes a little more time and effort, but if done properly, allows you to still sell your items despite professional Power Sellers offering the same thing at a lower starting bid.
Make Your Item Stand Out
Power Sellers list hundreds (or even thousands) of items a day. They don’t have time for a detailed description for every item. Consequently, their listings usually consist of a stock photo, a one-sentence description, and several pages of terms and conditions for shipping, warranty, returns, etc. Such an elaborate legal defense, combined with few details about the item, tends to make shoppers suspicious-of a bad item, a bad seller, or even a con. It will take some time to really learn How to make money on ebay, but I it’s definitely worth it!
A beginner, however, can spare the time to do a more complete listing. First of all, always include a photo of the actual item you are selling. Stock photos make customers suspicious that you have something to hide. Next, describe your item thoroughly but concisely. Start with a one-sentence summary of the item, then go on to explain the item’s condition, features, and product details. Use lists of bullet points if you can-shoppers tend to be impatient, and want to get as much information as quickly as possible.
Make Yourself Stand Out
Over the last few decades people have become more comfortable with buying an item, sight unseen, over the internet. Still, horror stories and rumors of con men running scams through online marketplaces like eBay persist. Customers are naturally still a little nervous about buying a product that you’ve never seen from a person you’ve never met – and eBay’s “buyer beware” policy doesn’t help. The trick to knowing how to make money on eBay revolves around getting customers to trust you through your listing alone. Believe it or not, many customers are willing to pay a higher price for the same item if they think they’re buying it from a more trustworthy merchant… call it a “trust premium.”
There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. First, spell out your shipping, return/exchange, and warranty terms and conditions in simple, brief terms. Again, bullet points are useful for this. Long, complicated terms and conditions make customers wonder why you have to go to such lengths to protect yourself. Next, be utterly honest in your item descriptions-the last thing you need on eBay is a reputation as a shady merchant. To this end, do everything you possibly can to maintain the highest feedback score possible – and be sure to mention your feedback score in your listing.
These are the secrets to knowing how to make money on eBay. Put buyer’s natural fears, worries, and concerns to rest. Get them to trust both your merchandise and you as a merchant. Put in the extra time and effort on your item listings and your customers, and you’ll be surprised how often you can outsell a professional merchant’s lower prices.