GENERATE SALES - what do you do to get sales?

[Anonymous]

Just curious what other sellers are doing to help get buying traffic - do you use Social Media? Create sales? What works for you?

[marymaker22]

Thank you for a very interesting tool.  I sincerely appreciate your generosity in sharing. 

Have you done any data analytics to find out what the eBay search engine really looks for?  I try to do everything eBay expects us to do, such as offering 30 to 60 day returns, free returns, no restocking, one day shipping, etc., etc.

I believe that only eBay promotions helps move our items. Of course, now, as a seller, I pay double what I used to pay   in monthly fees.   Not a path to profits....maybe a path to eliminating a little of my inventory.  That's all.  No more fun!

No more excitement in watching an auction take off!  Lots of glitches that eBay apologizes for!  Hours on the phone with Customer Service while being passed up to a 'team mate' while we are on hold!  So Sad!

[fine_find]

You send them a message and state you are sending them this coupon/discount on their next purchase. Be sure and state how much the value of it is. Then say this is your way of letting them know how much you appreciated their business. You can make the message short or long depending on your style.

I hope this helps you. 🙂

[richardwillardcollection]

If you want sales just put all your items in an auction format free shipping with a 1 cent start price with no reserve and I will guarantee you will have sales, positively.

[simplifiedhomesolutions]

Not to sound stupid or mean, but couldnt you just search in the actual ebay site and get the same results?

[azlady07]

I Cry Alot LOL 🙂
I've tried all sorts of Networking, Sharing, On and On And On, I even created my own website to promote. I Average between 1-8 sales a month, Normally having 400+ items on at all times.
I only get views when I tweet my stuff & Those views are Not actual people Looking, they are generated by the Computer Spider Sending out the Link.
so, it's been this way since I can remember & I've been on ebay as a seller since 2003 or there abouts.
So I just never give up, keep on keeping on (Silly perhaps)

[richardwillardcollection]

Not trying to be mean, but I just looked at the first 50 of your listings that popped up and these are all items I can get for a dollar at garage sales and thrift stores. Have you ever thought that not many people want your items at the price you have set? eBay is not a platform like the lottery, your not going to sell anything at prices above the average selling price of like items, those days are gone.

[stopdropsave]

Thank you very much for this tool. I tried searching foe Escada bracelet, one of my items for sale, and found that my item is # 17 on the list.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202400861256

I don't understand how to get to the top of the list.

[vintagemelrose2009]

Wow, plumbingspecials, sorry to hear that.  you are always encouraging here so I am sorry to hear that your sales 

took a dip as well.  There has to be some reason this is happening across the board.  good luck.  take care

[iart]

Overall, our sales have been consistent for the last several years. Some bad months, some really good months.

We've tried google adwords and that generated a little - we found it worth the money but probably not the time to keep it going right (we aren't very tech savvy over here).

We opened up a Youtube channel to generate interest. We made some fun videos. I wish someone would actualy watch them, lol. (if you want to see them, search youtube for "iart books").

We had our own website. It was a lot of work, a lot of expense. We got one sale from it. Bah...

Tried Facebook, but didn't put enough into it to really test it. I mean, who has the time? Keeping up on ebay is full time work for us.

Ebay's promoted sales has helped more than any of the above.

The best tactic we've found is to provide great customer service, do what ebay tells you to do (no matter how wrong they are! lol) and don't rely on on-line sales as your only income (Would you like fries with that order?).

Good luck!

[cooltronix]

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@stopdropsave wrote:

Thank you very much for this tool. I tried searching foe Escada bracelet, one of my items for sale, and found that my item is # 17 on the list.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202400861256

I don't understand how to get to the top of the list.

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Top rank is a little elusive. #17 is not that bad. Things you can try:

• Get better images. Best is a white background. Then google will pick your listings up too. More page hits bring a better ranking. Having it mentioned here helps a bit too 
• Change the price. A changed price will give you a new rank. Within 5-10% is ok. You can change it back the next day. Whether you change higher or lower does not really matter.
• If it's GTC, end it when the time is nearly up. Do not relist, list as similar item. It is the same, but it starts as new listing, and new listings always have a inborn high ranking. 

I am not sure how many listings you have, you can do 50 free listings a month (if that hasn't changed recently). If you have plenty, consider 7 or 10 days listings rather than 30 days.

[jesusrocks3339]

unbelievable, but seriously....

my business model is to figure out what I have into something make a quick turn on stuff and move onto the next item. I try to make the most of every offer and how I do it is to put an item up, figure a price higher than I really expect and use make an offer. I entertain almost every single offer I get, and 2 out of 3 offers are always low. Use good keywords that fit the item, and put any defects in words AND pictures.

I try to work with it and bring them up to something tolerable especially on items that have no intrinsic value. I do have a gauge on many items I sell since they mainly are silver gold, etc and I can always sell things for scrap at least at this point here.

I also offer free shipping & free returns. My items are usually small and ship for 3-6 bucks so it is do-able.

[zakback]

Thank you SOOOO MUCH for the ranking tool link. I've been using it and the results are absolutely startling to me. 

[lovefindingtreasures2]

Thank you for sharing your ranking tool!! AWESOME!

[mstcwrld7]

cool -- that is most interesting about changing the price -- I did not know that --
may I assume you mean that changing the price raises the listing's rank --
it doesn't lower it?

[waltermooreart]

For first time sales, listing a steady stream of new items seems to work best.

For repeat sales, I have a Facebook page I steer my buyers towards. That is where I promote a few listings a day.

Depending on what you're selling, some sort of Real Life face-to-face interaction (I've started doing art shows) works wonders.

Good luck!