How do I boost sales in my ebay store?

Hi, I'm going to give you a few tips so please don't take it the wrong way.

First I want to say that things on Ebay are really slow for just about everyone including auctions unless your selling unquie items.

First, you need more listings. They suggest at least 100 listings to make a store profitable. The more items you have the better chance you have something someone will want.

Next, even with a store you HAVE to run auctions to bring in traffic to your store. Stores items do not come up in searches unless there is less then 30 items in that search or unless a buyer has chosen to search store.

It is important to have a button or a link in all your listings that say something like "See more Great Items in My Store". ALOT of buyers are not even aware there is such a thing as Ebay stores so its important to get that link in there. I've found right below the description but before the payment/shipping info works best.

also I would take this sentence out of your listings "I highly recomend buying insurance, as I can not be responsible for lost or damaged items in shipping. " In all reality we (the sellers) are completly responsible for getting the item to the customer. If it isn't received, they can do a chargeback thru paypal and will win every time. You can say something, Like Insurance is recommend and always a option or you can make it manatory on some items.

Lastly, your pics of the jewelry need some work, they are great pictures however it says silver and they look gold. There is a secert to taking good pics of jewelry however I don't know it. I do know that you take pics of silver on black and gold on white so you got that right. There are some good sites on taking pics of jewelry just google it.

Bottom line, Fix the pics people want to see exactly what it looks like if it says silver they want to see silver. Get more listed, and run a few auctions with links to your store every week.

Also you might want to go to the ebay store forum, there are wonderful people there that know much more then I do and are very helpful.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=21

Hi,

Things are slow for every one right now. Hopefully they will pick up soon. I have never had a store, just use auctions.

I can offer some advice because all I sell is jewelry, but please do not take this the wrong way, it is meant to help you.

I would make each first letter of your title a capital letter, or do the whole sentance in caps. Also try a different title. For example this auction. 8925150417 try something like BEAUTIFUL MOTHERS DAY GIFT CZ SPARKLING PENDANT !!

and this one 8925150570 say something like STUNNING 8mm LEMON Cubic Zirconia Pendant

I dont know what size it is ?? I just made a size up, this is just some ideas for you.

Also you need more pictures at least 4, take the shots from different angles, try using a macro setting on your camera for clear close ups. Silver jewelry is the hardest to capture on camera. I use normal daylight with a white background, you just need to experiment with your camera. The picture sells the item.

The red writing on the blue background is really hard on the eyes, and does not work, try a different color font.

I would not put the word silver tone in every title. You can mention it is silver tone once they look at your description. There is so much competion on ebay, so you need your store to look professional and eye catching, so that people will want to look at what else you might have for sale. Hope it helps you, good luck,

Carol

EBAY is going into it's slow sales months. I don't know if you want to expend the fifteen dollars a month until before school starts.

I would take every bit of advice that's given and work on a website that will begin feeding you independent sales from ebay and/or feed to your ebay sales.

If you can afford to take the summer off and work on a website, do it. Then somewhere mid August reopen your store. Have your logo ready and the store designed ready to go and you'll be Good To Go!

Auctions feed the eBay stores. It's a fact and you'll have to have both up.

I believe that eBay is revamping and trying to thin the stores on it's site to make room for something else. eBay express? Who knows? I do agree with Rick and the site just looks cheesy.

And all the great advice here was given with your best interests in mind.

Good Luck,
Donna

Yes, eBay is slow! And with items that I sell--clothing--it really gets slow in the hot months. Southernjewel, for someone like me who would you recommend to do a website for me--or tell me more about feeds. Cost, how to do them, who do you recommend, etc. I think that we are learning we can't depend entirely on eBay any longer. Could a website or feed help my other venture? I am addressing this to Southernjewel, but, certainly I would appreciate any person's advice. THANKS.

I have written a few times about my horrible experience with godaddy.com. A very professional Team Leader from there helped me--it was solved within minutes, and, he expressed much sorrow and frustrations over how I had been treated. BETTYSCLOTHESLINENEW2U.COM to see my eBay listings. Now, I can concentrate on listing.

quote:

Originally posted by carolelliott:
Silver jewelry is the hardest to capture on camera. I use normal daylight with a white background, you just need to experiment with your camera. The picture sells the item.

youre right, silver is one of the hardest things to photo. it took me quite a long time to get it down and even still i have bad pics from time to time.

the ONLY thing that worked for me was a camera with a manual white balance setting (one where you have the camera take a reading). And even then you have to watch about reflections of colors.

another fun aspect of silver is that the reflective surface makes it tough for autofocus to lock-in.

blues and greens are another tough one to photo. Again, due to white balance and lighting. Some lights add yellow to your image, some add blue. either way it messes with your greens and blues.

There he is!! Where ya been Steve?

you know how it goes sometimes sometimes you just end up burned out from listing and havng to take a break

Ah, I thought maybe the you fell into a tax hole trying to get those taxes done at the last minute, lol.

quote:

Originally posted by wayoutwest:
you know how it goes sometimes sometimes you just end up burned out from listing and havng to take a break

Dayauum straight!

I <sigh> have gotten a beautiful "spring bug" and have ventured to my flowers and garden far more times than I care to admit.

It does me good to step away from the monitor and take a breather. I've learned through the years that taking a break from listing to piddle on the computer looking at eBaums or some of my funnier sites is just what I need at times. Keeps me going! Plus there's always something new and funny on those sites to make me smile.

Take care, Donna

quote:

Originally posted by betty122243:
I have written a few times about my horrible experience with godaddy.com. A very professional Team Leader from there helped me--it was solved within minutes, and, he expressed much sorrow and frustrations over how I had been treated. BETTYSCLOTHESLINENEW2U.COM to see my eBay listings. Now, I can concentrate on listing.

Glad to hear you got Godaddy taken care of...that's one thing off the checklist.
Plus, you have the URL forwarded to your eBay sales...GOOD! That's double exposure.

http://www.bettysclotheslinenew2u.com

Alright..you need to get work on your Me page with eBay. The more pages you have up and running the more search engines will search you out.

If you're a store owner it's important use all the pages given to you. More pages to be picked up by search engines. I have contact Suthrnjewl page made. Frequently Asked Questions and Store Policies. I shouldn't be talking I believe I get 2 more pages allotted to me and I don't have those done yet.

I'll be back later. It's a beautiful day and I want to get outta here!

Oh Betty..I meant to mention this..perhaps think on changing your ebay ID to an easier name to remember than betty with alot of numbers behind it. If BettysClothesLine is available..snatch it up and convert your ID and it will help you to be remembered alot easier than numbers behind your name.

Peace,
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by betty122243:
Yes, eBay is slow! And with items that I sell--clothing--it really gets slow in the hot months. Southernjewel, for someone like me who would you recommend to do a website for me--or tell me more about feeds. Cost, how to do them, who do you recommend, etc. I think that we are learning we can't depend entirely on eBay any longer. Could a website or feed help my other venture? I am addressing this to Southernjewel, but, certainly I would appreciate any person's advice. THANKS.

I just can't say enough good things about Kathy at www.KWKDesigns.com

Yeah, sales are sucking big time on Ebay. Even my stupid penny auctions--which usually do great--are sucking. I'm branching out. Putting my eggs in all sorts of baskets.

But many thanks to everyone!! I take pictures of jewelry and still have ALOT to learn. But there is something to be said for poorer quality pictures. When I'm looking for a great deal on Ebay, I look for the pictures that don't appear to be stock photos or real professional. I like to hook up with the part-time seller. Often you can get a good deal. All my really great and unique items have been purchased from just such sellers.

To be honest, sometimes I think it's my sucky looking listings that attract buyers. Oh boy, she doesn't know what she's doing!! (Really, just kidding, sort of.)

But again, thanks to all you Auctiva people for giving advice so freely. I'm going to bookmark this page, so I can refer back to it. I'm in the process of trying to better my pics and the overall appearance of my listings and store.

Thanks again everyone. I'm glad I took the time today to look at the message boards.

Don't you sell yourself short or your auctions.
Honest! Your auctions look just fine and your pics are crisp, they do not look suckie! <smile>

I purchased some earrings from you and have had so many compliments on them. I'm constantly teasingly fighting with my teen-aged daughter for one of the pairs specifically. Every time we have a tug of war <smile> I always try to make a mental note to come back and order another couple of pairs for her. (So sorry I haven't done it)

It's always best to branch out and never keep all your eggs in one basket. That basket can break at anytime and there go your eggs crashing to the ground.

Spread yourself out and everywhere.

Open a free ecrater store. Perhaps just put a few auctions up on Yahoo, Overstock, Blujay, IOffer and more that will bring customers to YOU and put your selling name on the search engines double, triple, quadruple and more!

ETSY looks like it could work and it needs time to get in the engines.

I'm thinking of putting some items up on ETSY when schools out this summer just to spread myself out a bit more.

I can NOT wait for Auctiva to get an ecrater type venue going..I'll be on that like white on rice, too.

I'm also going to work on my real web store and have all the others going, too.

With eBay stock down and more..it's best to spread oneself out.

Have your links EVERYWHERE to your sales..that puts them more into search engines. If you send emails, have your links. Buy a box of business cards and tack them up where it's allowed. Put them in with your packages along with a nice note.

There are free web hosting sites that will get your name out there on search engines, too.

http://www.geocities.com

https://pages.google.com

http://members.freewebs.com/

All of these have templates, fill in the blanks, click, click and voila, done. It's not that you might actually be selling from the sites (and you might) it's the fact that your name and product gets out on the internet search engines.

Good Luck,
Donna

Suthrnjewl<-------making a note to buy her daughter some more of your earrings

http://www.Suthrnjewl.com

thanks everyone for the great tips!! :-)