What is your opinion of connecting Shopify and Facebook with Ebay?

[michigan_surplus]

How has Shopify and Facebook been for you? I have recently started a site on shopify. Connects to my facebook instagram and i could do more.

What Programs do you use? What do you recommend to increase sales on ebay the fastest.

Antique Collectibles USA

Caregivers Network and Gifts

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

It's all about driving qualified traffic and none of the sales venues such as eBay, Mercari, Amazon etc. allow sellers to drive buyer traffic offsite, its a policy violation worthy of suspension.

Using social media to drive traffic towards you're eBay items is fine but you can do that w/o Shopify.  As storefront packages go Shopify is very expensive at $400+ a year when one can buy their own hosting and install a shopping cart for far far far less money.  But again the issue is driving traffic, its not automatic and there are many mechanisms to do that but most require an education to some extent on technical matters as well as a good underpinning in marketing.  98% of all "I'll make an online store!" webstores fail to deliver because the folks doing so fail to get the education and fail to do the work.  Then they hire someone do it for them and get all bent out of shape at the costing of that.

With tools which you seem be selling as is the case in brick and mortar or online, quality tools sell, sell for more than those that are fair at best and/or poor quality.  There's quite a bit of competition in tools, myself, I don't even bother to buy any tools online... I find good quality tools at yard sales for fractions of what they'd cost me buying in retail or from online third party sellers.

[fbusoni]

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@michigan_surplus wrote:

What do you recommend to increase sales on ebay the fastest.

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@michigan_surplus 

In my personal experience here over many years, I have found that offering (a) same day / 24 hour shipping, and (b) paid 30/60 day returns is the most effective way to increase sales.  And it does not cost anything to do so.

By offering this level of customer service -- what eBay terms Top Rated Plus -- you will be distinguishing yourself from tens of millions of other sellers on this site, and eBay will boost the the visibility of your listings, both on eBay itself and amongst the large search engines (Google, in my own experience).

There has been a lot of discussion about the TRPlus program and, like everything else on eBay, the success a seller has in increasing their sales is the result of many variables, most of which are hidden from view and over which we sellers have no control.  What is certain -- again, in my experience -- is that eBay does give your listings greater visibility and thus a chance at being sold.

TRPlus works well for me, and it could be because of the categories in which I sell -- old books, records, porcelain, bone china, and glass -- nothing that has been mass produced in the last 50 years or so.  Or it could be because of some combination of other factors... perhaps the number of photos I post, or the quality of my descriptions, or the fact that I have added a video to my storefront and that I automatically leave feedback for every buyer who purchases from me.

My general approach to selling here is to do absolutely everything eBay recommends.  I call it "feeding the beast."   

I'm too old to stand on principle any longer (i.e., waiting for a buyer to leave me feedback before I will leave the buyer feedback) and while I am highly critical of eBay for its obfuscatory policies and over-reliance on AI, I really enjoy the selling experience here.  And I have never, not once, purchased a promoted listing -- which by all accounts is a hornet's nest to be avoided.

Nor do I get returns -- I've have three or four in 25 years of selling, and only one of those took place after I started offering paid returns (it was a remorse return and I paid for the label -- the buyer sent it back to me in perfect condition so I could re-sell it).

Again, a lot depends on what one is selling and, perhaps most importantly, on who is buying from you.

FWIW, I experimented with eBay's social media linking to Facebook and after a few months determined that it did nothing for my sales.

ETA: Just noticed that this thread is 18 months old.  LOL.

[gloryglorygifts]

I will tell you my cautionary tale about Facebook marketplace, which is a major downside, if you ask me. Just around our heaviest time (November- December) someone created a fake profile on instagram, stole my business page identity on facebook and then started to post improper things on both the fake insta and my biz page. I've had the biz page for 14 years, a nice following, it was tied to my personal page and the marketplace. Because of the breach, facebook took down every single thing that was associated with  my biz account and it is like I never existed on there. Looking on different discussion boards, I see that happens quite often and there isn't a darn thing that you can do about it. There is no way to contact anyone at facebook. They just don't care and it is too widespread. My biz page had links to both my website and this store. When you add in that your emails, paypal, credit cards and checking accounts are all tied into all of your accounts, it gets even more fun. Facebook has zero customer service. Personally, after having that experience, I would not link any other marketplaces to it. I used social media all the time to promote the store on here and have mentioned it many times in these threads. I'll put up a product and a link and it does usually help with sales. I can't even begin to tell you how devastating it was for me to lose my facebook page, following, and marketplace store. Just know that they do not have anything in place to protect you as a seller, should anything happen. 

As for shopify? I would make sure that you learn everything that you can about their security and customer assistance before I link anything to your ebay store. Good luck to you. 

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.