Many PowerSellers share tales of coming to a point in their
businesses where 24 hours in a day just wasn't enough. They
realized a person, company, process or piece of software could
allow them time to become more productive. Here are some of the
PowerSellers' time-tested secrets for being successful on
eBay:
Tools for Automation
The eBay
Solutions Directory is a good starting place for finding
quality solutions providers that can help increase your
productivity in selling, listing, product sourcing and much
more.
Brad Lerch, owner of ListAssist in Blandon, Pennsylvania (eBay
User ID: listassist), tested various auction management programs to
help streamline his business and chose Kyozou to do the job.
This efficient software helped speed the sales process and freed up
Lerch, 29, to grow his business. Two weeks after implementing the
software, and only four months after the business's inception,
Lerch became a PowerSeller. His company now helps businesses
liquidate their overstock.
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Worrying about how much a tool costs is one of the biggest
mistakes new--and even experienced--entrepreneurs make. When
evaluating solutions to help scale your business, ask yourself if
the cost of the product or service justifies the return on your
investment.
Creating an eBay Store
Upon setting up their eBay Stores correctly, many eBay sellers
have typically seen an increase of 25 percent in sales within three
months. This increase in exposure was exactly what PowerSeller Rob
Smith (eBay Store) was seeking for his Freeport, New
York-based business on eBay. "Opening my eBay Store and using
auctions as a tool to drive business not only increased my profits,
but lowered my overall fees as well," says Smith, 48.
eBay Stores offers a fully customizable e-commerce solution for
your business. For as little as $15.95 a month, eBay Stores helps
build your business brand, provide you with seller reporting tools
to analyze your sales and, most important, provide a vehicle to get
your store and your listings indexed in the major search engines.
An eBay Store is integral to easily scaling your business without
having to invest time and money in the creation of a website with a
shopping cart.
Plus, where else can you get an e-commerce site that ends up on
the big search engines such as Google for less than $20 per
month?
Learn more about opening an eBay Store.
Marketing Made Easy
Successful PowerSellers realize that marketing is a required
part of their business, and many use inexpensive guerrilla
marketing techniques to promote their businesses. Techniques
include knowing where to get unlimited free business cards
(www.vistaprint.com), tapping into the power of the
eBay e-mail marketing program within their eBay Stores, and taking
advantage of eBay's popularity to help boost the visibility of
their own businesses.
"I had a very definite turning point in my eBay selling
career," says Lewiston, Maine, PowerSeller Bill Cartmel, 52
(eBay
Store). "An article about our eBay business in our local
newspaper was picked up by newspapers throughout New England and
the Eastern Seaboard. The focus was on vinyl records, which were
only a small part of our business at the time. I received so many
responses from people from New York to Maine who wanted to sell
their rare, high-end record collections that we have now become the
fifth largest seller of LPs on eBay, and our goal is to become No.
1."
Selling Internationally
Many sellers are looking outside the boundaries of the United
States as a way to increase their customer base. eBay offers these
five solutions for selling internationally:
1. Accept paypal as a payment option. PayPal is now
available in 56 countries and territories and accepts multiple
forms of currency, including euros, Canadian dollars and yen.
2. Offer international shipping. Maximize your global
exposure by choosing which countries you're willing to ship
to.
3. Include shipping costs. eBay's Shipping Calculator
makes it easy for you to offer international shipping options and
instant pricing to your buyers.
4. Use item specifics. A little-known eBay fact: When you
fill out the item specifics for your item, such as the size of
those shoes you are selling, that number will be translated on the
eBay international site it is viewed on.
5. Download the International Selling Toolkit PDF. This in-depth
report is the best place to start when targeting your international
buyers.
Find additional information about selling
internationally.
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