>From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: Don’t Be That Random Ebay
Guy
If I could convey only one concept to someone who was about to
start selling on Ebay, it would be this: no one has ever
purchased anything on Ebay with this in mind--"I think I'll buy
something on Ebay from some random guy and pay more than I would
at the store down the street."
No one has ever said that. Not once. That is why Ebay sellers
who appear to be "that random guy" always fail miserably. It's
not enough to simply be professional and responsible. You have
to make an active effort to appear professional and responsible.
To begin with, you must actually have a good deal. There are
dozens of liquidators and wholesale outlets. If you do your
research, you should have no problem finding good prices on
anything you want to sell. I list a number of the best ones in
my book.
Once you have something good to sell and a good source to buy it
from, you have to decide how you are going to present it.
At this point, you are giving your customers a good deal --which
is important--but if you don't present it as a good deal, they
will have no way of knowing.
One way you can do this is by setting yourself apart from the
pack with a unique selling proposition: tell potential customers
exactly why they should shop at your store over other Ebay
sellers' stores.
For instance, if you know that the sellers in your category who
undersell you can only do it because they are selling damaged or
refurbished products, then tell that to your customers. Let them
know that your products may cost a few more dollars. . .but if
they buy it somewhere else for less on Ebay, it is probably
broken.
You will also want to add extra services and guarantees to your
product that no one else offers. For example, you could give
free support or free shipping. Or you could guarantee to ship
everything within 24 business hours of purchase. Or you could
bundle your product with other products. Whatever you do, your
goal should be to gain a competitive edge over big sellers by
adding an unquantifiable amount of value to your item.
. . .but even this is not enough to make you appear professional
and responsible.
You must frame your products in a template that looks
professionally-designed. You will need to either learn HTML or
purchase a template from Ebay or elsewhere. In the end, you need
to ask yourself this: "if I stumbled over this auction, would I
think it was professional--or would I immediately move on?"
It is also a good idea to ask another person what they would do,
since it is often hard to judge your own work.
In addition to this, you will want to operate like a real
business would. You should email your customers with shipping
confirmation numbers. You should be polite to customers and use
a systematic process to conduct all transactions and customer
interactions.
Everything I mentioned in this lesson is relatively simple. Most
of it can be accomplished in a matter of hours; however, the
vast majority of Ebay sellers neglect to do it. If you put
everything in this lesson into practice, you will immediately
put yourself light-years ahead of all stores that look like
"that random Ebay guy."
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