RSS feed
eBay Tips 2008: Consistent eBay Marketing and Branding

eBay Tips 2008: Consistent eBay Marketing and Branding

The only really important aspect of your on-eBay branding and marketing is consistency. You don't have the full gamut of options on the site that most businesses have so making sure that you extract the most from the ones you do have is vital. Everything you do on the site is an opportunity to tell ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Why Marketing and Branding is Important

eBay Tips 2008: Why Marketing and Branding is Important

I've read enough books about marketing and branding to know that whole forests have been sacrificed for nought. A lot of crap has been written but not much of it explains much about why it's important. Or rather they do, using dictionaries of meaningless terminology. I like to think about ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Stock Discipline

eBay Tips 2008: Stock Discipline

In any sort of retail business there is, what in many ways resembles, a gamble at the core. Can you sell the stock you buy at a price, and in sufficient quantities, without having too much leftover, and still turn a profit? You'll become more expert at this as time goes by, but it must be said that ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Email Efficiency

eBay Tips 2008: Email Efficiency

One of the big sinks of time for any seller is dealing with emails from potential buyers and also dealing with the comms from buyers. It seems to me that there isn't really a way of escaping from these (sometimes peculiar and moronic missives) so there is real merit in minimising the impact on your ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: The ‘Henry Ford' Thing

eBay Tips 2008: The ‘Henry Ford’ Thing

I once asked a particularly robotic, unimaginative and starched new employee at eBay (replete with crisp light blue shirt, tshirt underneath and immaculately pressed chinos) what he'd be doing. He replied, confidently; 'I will manage the process.” He's doubtless doing well and is probably ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Profit from Efficiency

eBay Tips 2008: Profit from Efficiency

I've met thousands of eBay sellers over the years: an admirable bunch for the most part, let me tell you. There have been a few nutters and wastrels, of course, but mostly I've met extremely hard-working, decent, ambitious and honourable folks. In fact, if I have a general criticism of the eBay ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops Email Marketing

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops Email Marketing

Even if an eBay Shop doesn't necessarily float your boat as a way of selling, you can still gain benefit from the suite of marketing tool available to Shopkeepers. In particular, the email marketing feature is a powerful facility that can help you sell more. Bear in mind that it does take time to ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops and the Listings Mix

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops and the Listings Mix

It is vital to bear in mind that the content of this post might very well become outdated in the next few weeks when eBay's fee and other changes are announced later in the month. We don't yet know the substance of these changes but it's a fair bet that they will include substantive changes to eBay ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops and Search Engine Optimisation

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops and Search Engine Optimisation

The old order changeth yielding place to new. I can't recall which poet wrote that (Tennyson?), I'll Google it when I'm done with this post. But it is something that eBay sellers would do well to remember, especially with reference to how Google is transforming how people shop online. Time was ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops Basics

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops Basics

To begin at the beginning, a very good place to start. Let's look at two fundamentals of your eBay Shop: what it's called and what it looks like. eBay Shop Name Rather like an eBay User ID, I suspect that many eBay sellers choose their eBay Shop name without being aware of why it's important. ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops

eBay Tips 2008: eBay Shops

An eBay Shop is an essential part of a professional seller's arsenal of tools. And before we look, over the next few days, at the ways an eBay Shop can contribute to your profitability, it's worth revisiting what your Shop adds to your operations. It's also a chance to evaluate whether you're ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Videos for eBay

eBay Tips 2008: Videos for eBay

Firstly, I must declare my interest: I work for vzaar.com, a company that offers a video service for eBay sellers. The reason why? I reckon that video is the next big thing coming eBay's way. Videos are becoming ubiquitous online and the unstoppable rise of YouTube shows how at ease most net ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Pictures Perfect

eBay Tips 2008: Pictures Perfect

Having recently moved house, I'm in the market for a lot of new things. As a 'check eBay first' kinda guy, I've been looking for more than my usual book and CD purchases and spending time in parts of the site I seldom visit, looking at beds, sofas, rugs, kitchen stuff and the like. I have been ... Read more »
eBay Tips 2008: Return Policy

eBay Tips 2008: Return Policy

When it comes to considering a Return Policy for your eBay listings, two things immediately spring to mind. I've spoken to countless sellers and it seems to me that the number of returns that most sellers get, compared to the despatches they make, represents a tiny percentage. For most, they are a ... Read more »