Must Know Tips for Sellers

If you are serious about promoting your products on eBay and getting the buyers attention a little knowledge can help you avoid some of the common mistakes that sellers seem to make. Review these must know tips that you cannot afford to ignore if you want your business to bring in profit.

Email address: Buyers will often contact the seller before deciding to bid or they may contact you after winning a bid to get more information on shipping as well as to discuss a problem with the item you purchased. Sign up to eBay with an email address that you check daily, this way you will not miss any important correspondence from buyers. Ideally, if a buyer contacts you, you want to respond within a 24-hour period.

Photo manipulation: The photos that accompany the desription of an item you are trying to sell on eBay have to be accurate. Enhancing a photo and tweaking it too hide flaws will only get you in trouble when the seller realizes the quality of the item you sold them does not match the quality of your photo. Focus your photos, take in natural light and provide multiple shots for larger more expensive items. Be sure to include photos that show the products flaws.

Violating eBay rules: The eBay user agreement lists the rules of the site that most be followed by buyers and sellers. Violators of the terms may get their account suspended. Acts such as bidding on your own items or getting those you know to bid on them for you are a violation of the site terms. eBay provides a list of items that cannot be sold on the site and you should take care not to list any of these items. For example, drugs and used cosmetics cannot be sold on the site, while adult materials and firearms may be allowed to be sold under certain restrictions. Sellers should also carefully examine these requirements if attempting to sell items outside their country of origin. International and federal laws prohibit the transportation of certain items.



Knowing the market: Though eBay offers a level of convenience and personalization you cannot find at a traditional brick and motor shop, the concept of running a business is pretty much the same. If you plan to become an entrepreneur on eBay then you still have to put in some hard work and research the competition, as well as understand what products are most successful on the site. Spend some time looking around the site, reading product descriptions and looking at photos, this will give you some feedback to understanding the amount of effort required to become an eBay success and can help you decide the type of products that you might want to sell.

Be a buyer first: A good seller understands the buyers experience on eBay. By buying a few lost cost items, you will gain an understanding of how the process works. You can also use this time to build up your buyer rating, then when you transition into selling, buyers will be able to review your history and know you can be trusted.