15 Tips to Make Your eBay Business More Successful
by Robbin K. Tungett
1. Set your business up to accept as many forms of payment as you can. PayPal, personal
checks, cashiers checks, both domestic and International money orders, International bank
transfers, etc. Every additional payment option you add will increase your customer base.
2. Don't exclude buyers from foreign countries or with free email accounts like Hotmail
or AOL. Ultimately, you are only hurting yourself. In some categories the best buyers are
located in a different country than you are.
3. Keep your ads simple. If you confuse buyers, they will either by-pass your
offerings, or leave you negative feedback because they read something into your ad that
you never meant to be there.
4. Don't attempt to increase your profits by a few dollars by charging excessive
postage. Buyers are not stupid. They realize what you are trying to do and most will avoid
your auctions like the plague.
5. Give your customers all the facts to bid intelligently. Don't tell them you will
figure out what the postage will be after the auction ends. Tell them in your ad what
class postage you use and what the actual amount will be.
6. Don't discriminate against buyers who don't have a perfect feedback record. As long
as you have good business procedures in place (such as waiting an appropriate period of
time for checks to clear), there is no need to look downward at buyers whose reputation
might have been damaged just because they got a bad deal. It happens to everyone and
someday it will happen to you.
7. Don't discriminate against buyers who have little or no feedback. Remember, you were
in the same position at one time. Once you have been in business for a while you'll learn
that a buyer with little or no feedback is no more likely to screw you than one with a
shooting star.
8. Don't make customers jump through hoops in order to buy from you. Just because you
had a bad experience with one buyer, that doesn't mean you should threaten everyone else
in advance. Doing so won't hurt your customers, but it will hurt your business.
9. If you are selling collectibles, antiques, or anything else that warrants it, show
lots and lots of good sized, clear and crisp pictures. If you don't want to pay an online
auction site for use of their web space then use the free web space provided by your
Internet service provider. Buyers make critical buying decisions based upon what they see
and pictures are the cheapest way possible to insure that you will have a happy buyer. The
more pictures you include, the more your business will thrive.
10. Offer a money back guarantee. Be prepared to take an occasional loss on some items.
You will encounter far more serious buyers who won't bid unless you have a guarantee than
you will people who are intentionally trying to take advantage of you.
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