7
Managing Your eBay Listings
Every garden needs tending in order for it to grow, and your eBay “garden” is no exception. Listings may need a bit of tweaking; unsold items should be relisted, and potential customers will message you and ask questions. Prompt reactions are needed to not only catalyze sales, but to avoid unhappy buyers. Don’t worry you won’t become a slave to your eBay venture because your business is mobile and goes anywhere you are. Manage your eBay listings from your desktop at work, a laptop in your den, or while cruising to the Bahamas on the family vacation.
In this chapter, we will discuss proper management of your eBay empire. Let’s start by exploring all you can access with the Account tab.
From the top right of the homepage, click on My eBay and then click the Account tab. You’ll be able to see your account summary, including the latest and unbilled fees as well as which payment method you’ve set up to pay your seller fees. That’s only the tip of the iceberg, and there’s quite a bit more that the Account tab can do for you. Here are some of the things you can accomplish from here:
▶ View 18 months of eBay seller fee invoices
▶ View and update your account information
▶ Change your eBay ID
▶ Change your password
▶ Change your email address
▶ Add two-step account verification for higher security
▶ Link social media accounts for social sign-in
▶ Add and remove your addresses
▶ Add and remove payment options from your eBay “wallet”
▶ Fine-tune selling (and buying) communication preferences
▶ Configure site preferences
▶ Set up business policies
▶ Link to your seller dashboard
▶ Leave feedback for other eBayers
▶ Connect to your PayPal account
▶ Configure your eBay for Charity preferences
▶ Manage subscriptions to eBay and third-party services
▶ Adjust advertising preferences to control what marketing messages you’ll accept from eBay and their partners
▶ Add and remove authorized account users for people trusted to help you with your eBay business
Take a self-tour of these links and make the adjustments that suit your preferences.
Are we really phone junkies? I read that people now spend hours of their lives each day looking at phones. Life sure looks different today than when I listed my first eBay item in 1999. I hadn’t even sent my first text message yet, and when I finally “got there,” I had to use a thing called T9 (aka text on nine keys). Smartphones hadn’t been invented yet.
My motive for using any business productivity tool is to make money. If a tool saves me time, it also saves me money, which still accomplishes the goal of making more money. Having fun is important to me; however, making a profit means more than simply bean-counting. My time is very valuable, and I never like to waste in on useless activity. We have all spent way too much time on a task and later regretted it.
The eBay mobile app can and should be an element of your business management. There is far less you can do with the eBay mobile app than you can accomplish using the complete eBay experience of working on a desktop or laptop. While there are limits, the mobile tools available are still very useful, such as being able to quickly check the status of your listings, accept or counter an offer, and even print and email shipping labels.
I stock most of the shipping boxes needed to fill orders. Occasionally an item is bigger than the boxes in stock or has an odd shape that won’t work with my current options. I have developed a routine that includes using the eBay mobile app. Gina at the Box City in North Hollywood is an incredible packer. She expertly boxes even the most expensive bronze or delicate glass vase for safe delivery. Rather than haul the packed box back to my place, I fire up the mobile app and enter the box dimensions and weight Gina provides me. The mobile app prepares a PDF label that I email to Gina so she can print and tape that label to the box. She even provides a receipt with the tracking number on it, should an insurance claim be required. This is one of the many ways this useful tool advances and elevates my eBay sales. Figures 7–1 and 7–2, both on page 120, will take you to the iOS and Android installation pages for the eBay mobile app, respectively.
Your centralized “war room” on eBay is called the Seller Hub. This is the virtual hang-out spot where you’ll handle your business and grow your sales. The Seller Hub provides the launching place to discover:
▶ Your listings and orders
▶ Orders reports
▶ Promoted listings
FIGURE 7–1: eBay’s Mobile App on the App Store for iOS Devices
FIGURE 7–2: eBay’s Mobile App on Google Play for Android Devices
▶ Promotions Manager
▶ Global Shipping Program
▶ Stores management feature
▶ Competitive listing guidance
Take a moment to find the Seller Hub. Use a desktop or laptop and sign into your eBay account. If you’re not registered yet, this would be the time to get it done. From the Home screen, hover on (don’t click) “My eBay” at the top-right corner of the viewport. When the menu unfolds, click “Selling.” You’re now looking at the Seller Hub. See Figure 7–3 on page 121 to see a view of the Orders tab on the Seller Hub. This is where your sales appear when they’re ready for shipping.
tip
Seller Hub may not be available until after you commence selling activity. You may also have to enable the feature if eBay presents you with a simplified view (things do change all the time].
FIGURE 7–3: View of the Orders Tab on the eBay Seller Hub
From this dashboard, you can quickly springboard to the resources section eBay sellers need and the seller links you’ll need in the future. The Seller Hub provides actionable insights for sellers in many areas. Figure 7–4 provides a breakdown of Seller Hub tabs and what they do.
Depending on how many times you visit Seller Hub each week, now might be the right time to bookmark the page.
FIGURE 7–4: Seller Hub Tabs and Their Purpose
The Seller Hub is modular and customizable. You’ll find that many of eBay’s pages have a discreet link that allows you to tailor the page to your liking. When you click the customize option, you can move the information panes around or remove them entirely. You can add back removed panes at any time. If you don’t want to see something, just hide it. On most days, Seller Hub will be where you see reminders to answer buyer questions, ship orders, and leave feedback.
The Watchlist and Making Offers to Watchers
Head over to the Seller Hub, and click on the listings tab. Assuming you have not yet customized this page, you’ll find a cool search tool that allows you to quickly look for your listings. If you have a few, it’s not that helpful. If you have a boatload of items, you’ll appreciate the flexible search capabilities. There’s an endless number of ways to filter and find listings.
You’ll be able to see how many times your item was viewed and how many eBayers are watching it. Using the pull-down filters at the top of the page, click to show only those listings with watchers. Every eBay listing has a button that lets a potential buyer or bidder add the listing to their watchlist. The watchlist is accessible by hovering over My eBay and then clicking the watchlist link.
Here’s where the magic begins. Next to each qualified listing, you’ll see a pull-down menu under the Actions column. There are quite a few options in this menu, but the one that I love the most is the link that permits you to send offers to watchers. You can send private offers to all of the watchers on your fixed price listings. eBay won’t disclose who is watching but will email your offer to all watchers simultaneously. Your offer has to be at least 5 percent less than your current fixed price. You can include a note with the offer, and you should send something personalized to explain why you’re extending the special price. The offer is valid for 48 hours and can only be sent once. You can send future offers only to new watchers, but not to anyone you’ve sent an offer to already.
Direct member-to-member messages are allowed on eBay. You can start a conversation with another eBayer either from the Contact seller link on any eBay listing or from the Member Profile, which is found by clicking the user ID.
You’ll find your eBay Messages area by hovering over the My eBay link and then clicking Messages. From here you can read communication from potential and actual buyers of your listings as well as official eBay messages. Messages from other members and eBay are conveniently prioritized into separate folders.
Fraudsters harvest email addresses online and then spam the world with fake emails posing as real companies, such as eBay. These spoof or phishing emails ask for sensitive personal information such as passwords, or bank or credit card details. Protect your password and financial data with great care. Official eBay communication will include your real name or eBay ID. Skip the email and go directly to Messages to make sure that it’s really eBay and not a charlatan trying to hoodwink you. Clicking links in emails exposes you to fraud, viruses, and phishing attacks. Promptly report suspicious emails by sending the shady email as an attachment to spoof@ebay.com.
eBay also places rules on communication. Messages between members are private; however, eBay may review what was said in the event of a dispute or if one of the parties to that communication reaches out for help. eBay occasionally reads messages if there is a concern about fraud, abuse, spam, or other policy violations. eBay does not allow members to:
▶ Make offers to buy and sell outside of eBay
▶ Send spam
▶ Threaten others or use profanity or hate speech
▶ Exchange email addresses, phone numbers and other contact information, or web addresses and links
It’s very common to have a potential customer ask you to contact them off eBay. You cannot seek eBay’s help if you trade off the site and if problems pop up with the other eBayer. I discuss the eBay Classified ad format throughout the book (which allows off-site communication); however, I’m not a user of the product. I recommend against trading off eBay for reasons of security and liability.
Best Practices for Communicating with eBay Buyers
Let’s cover the essential and important topic of customer service. Communicating with your customers will become a routine. You must master this routine. eBay is far-reaching, and you’ll be receiving messages from people from across the globe in different time zones. While there’s no need to sleep with your phone under your pillow waiting for an eBay message alert bell, provide total clarity on the frequency with which you check member communication in your Messages. You’ll need to give awesome customer service. Respond to messages with alacrity.
If you’re a solopreneur, you’ll wear at least three hats with your buyers: customer service agent, product sales support specialist, and technical support specialist.
Approach every interaction with cheer. Busy buyers won’t always read your lengthy item description and will contact you with a quick question. Don’t be testy if the answer is in your listing. Every message is a selling opportunity. Have a positive attitude. Never say, “I’ve already answered that question in the listing.” Buyers will get turned off in a jiffy. Here are a few suggestions and reminders:
▶ Respond quickly.
▶ Be fun and keep things light.
▶ Share gratitude.
▶ Be helpful with product questions and return requests.
▶ Don’t argue or fight over things like returns.
▶ Help buyers with damage claims—it’s ultimately on you to do so.
▶ Be thoughtful in responses.
▶ Have essential details, such as tracking numbers, handy.
▶ If you have the time, follow-up with buyers to ask if they were happy with their purchase.
▶ You can always contact your buyer from the order details page.
▶ Go the extra mile—it pays dividends.
Establish written policies for eBay communication when working with a team and when you aren’t the only person communicating with your buyers. Provide stunning customer support—the very same service you expect when you are the buyer in a transaction. Dealings with buyers won’t always be peaches and cream, however. Be fluid and prepared. Strict policies are headwinds against success. Don’t ditch your best practices, but know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to helping people. Be kind and clear, even when you can’t or won’t do what the buyer wants. People want conversations, not correspondence.
Words matter. Find a positive way to say what needs to be said. “I can’t refund your money because the insurance has to reimburse you” becomes, “The insurance will reimburse you for the issue, and I’d like to help you file a claim.”
You can always try the CARP method, which was developed by Robert Bacal to help customer service workers calm angry or abusive customers:
▶ Control the situation
▶ Acknowledge the issue with empathy and active listening
▶ Refocus the customer from being in an emotional state to dealing with the actual issue at hand
▶ Problem solve and come up with helpful solutions so the customer is happy
Do everything in your power to respond or resolve the first time around. I discourage you from checking your eBay messages every five minutes. That’s manic and inefficient. It also means you’re not attending to all the other aspects of your business. Responding to eBay questions within a few hours (or less) represents excellent response time. Don’t head out for a vacation to a remote log cabin in the mountains with no internet, during which time a bunch of auctions is going to end.
Remember the huge warehouse at the end of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark? The items on eBay would certainly fill that government warehouse many times over. There are so many items on the eBay site. You must optimize your listings so that buyers can find you. Structured data works to improve discoverability. I covered item specifics in-depth earlier. Have you made your first listing yet? In your haste, did you simply fill in the required fields and leave the optional boxes blank? No wonder your item has so few views. Many eBay categories use product-based shopping that pulls from known items within eBay’s database for a consistent buying experience. Most consumer products have either a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)—such as a Universal Product Code (UPC) or International Standard Book Number (ISBN)—and Manufacturer Part Number (MPN). Listing with these data points increases your SEO. Fill in as many of the item specifics as you can.
Within the Seller Hub listings tab, you can sort your active and unsold listings by view count. A low view count is a clue, and you should follow the clues to a solution. Is yours a low-demand item? Are other sellers having success with the same product? Do you need to adjust your keywords? Should you add more item-specific data? Most buyers will filter the eBay search results using the menu options on the left-hand side. The Seller Hub lets you know which listings are missing item specifics so that you can focus on improving them to jump-start your sales.
Here’s a neat trick: Say your auction ends with heated bidding, and a boatload of eBayers participated in the action. Your little secret is that you have many more of the same product in stock. You can make a Second Chance Offer to the underbidders for up to 60 days after the auction ends. This feature is free; however, if the offer is accepted you pay the final value fee.
You can leverage Second Chance Offers for additional profits when the reserve wasn’t met, when you have multiples of the item, or when the high bidder backs out. To extend a Second Chance Offer, head over to the Seller Hub and click on the Orders tab. Apply the filter of your choice to bring up the appropriate listings. You’ll see the Second Chance Offer link next to all qualified listings. When you click that link, the bidder list will pop up, and you can send offers to desired bidders. The Second Chance Offer price must be the same as their original bid price.
Here are some other things to keep in mind when you’re making Second Chance Offers:
▶ Whenever a high bidder backs out, you are required to cancel their transaction before you make offers.
▶ If you have more than one of the items available, you can make as many offers as you have stock.
▶ eBayers can block offers within My eBay under the Account tab by changing their Member-to-Member message notifications. But why in the world would they want to miss out on all the fun deals?
You may leave feedback for Second Chance Offer buyers and for any bidder who doesn’t pay for a transaction.
Regret can occur on either side of an eBay transaction, and I’ll guide you on dealing with different scenarios. Handling buyer remorse is sensitive and needs a skillful hand. Here are a few thoughts on how to protect yourself against the most demanding, slow, wishy-washy, unethical, or difficult customers:
▶ Block buyers who have account issues or are chronic deadbeats using eBay’s buyer requirements feature. Adjust these settings by going to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences > Buyer requirements (and while you’re at it, take a self-tour of Selling Preferences and make desired tweaks along the way).
▶ Send invoices to winning bidders promptly so that they will pay promptly and be less likely to have spent their money on something else.
▶ Reach out quickly when your message has been ignored and payment is still tardy—once per day is OK, but keep it professional, for example, “I hope you’re doing well; I sent a message about payment yesterday and didn’t hear from you, so I wanted to make sure you received it.”
▶ Always be polite, but firm in your messages, for example, “I understand you must be busy, do you still want the Seiko watch or have you changed your mind?” No matter how much money is involved, never lose your temper with a customer—if you have a returns policy they can send an item back anyway, and if you press them to pay when they’ve lost their interest in the merchandise, you’ll end up getting it back with an excuse attached to it.
▶ Open an unpaid item case if payment or a promised payment date is not received—this option is found under the Actions column under Seller Hub > Orders > Awaiting payment, or you can click “Resolve a problem” from the item listing page and follow the prompts to report the unpaid item.
▶ Block all buyers who are difficult to work with, don’t pay, or break eBay rules. Go to the eBay Site Map > Sell > Sell activities > Block bidder/buyer list, and from there, enter their eBay ID, and they will be banned from ordering from you again.
▶ Ask eBay for a final value fee credit, cut your losses and relist the item.
▶ Cancel the sale and make a Second Chance Offer when there are multiple bidders (more on cancellations shortly).
Let’s shift to a discussion about seller’s remorse. Cancellation without a request from the buyer is one of the eBay cardinal sins. Your risk of selling for too low of a price should be avoided by carving out sufficient time to properly research the item and list it for an appropriate and acceptable-to-you price. If you’re selling antiques and simply have no clue what you’ve got, hold off until you can find answers. In Chapter 4, I provided a QR code you can scan to pull up the eBay Community page where you can post an image and receive opinions on what you’ve got and the value. Sometimes you simply can’t secure answers. Selling blind is foolish, and if you do it enough times, you very well may sell a $20,000 Ming vase for $20.
If you list and sell an item, you are duty-bound to complete the deal. If you cancel the sale, you’ll receive a transaction defect (not a “public” thing, but an internal bad mark eBay tracks), and too many of those will result in you being banned from selling. When running auctions, if the listing is still active and you’ve got enough time before the listing ends, you can cancel the bids and end the listing, making corrections during the relisting process. I’ll explain canceling bids in the next section. If this is your “first rodeo” and you cancel a sale, it won’t really hurt you too much. If you list enough items, you’re bound to miss a decimal place. That $500.00 starting bid was incorrectly entered as $50, and the listing sold with one bid. It happens. The decision to proceed or not is up to you. Message the buyer and explain what happened. Offer them some compensation. I’ve paid as much as $20 to not ship an item. I don’t do it often, but it happens. I once consigned a rare Star Trek collectible figurine, and just as I was about to ship it out, my staff told me that the client ran in, grabbed it from our shelf, and ran out. I have secure storage now. You’re running a business and mistakes happen. Pause and reflect on what to do. Never make any decision in haste. The answer will come to you.
P.S. if you drop the item and it turns into a pile of broken shards, take a photo and share it with the buyer, extend an apology, give a refund, and use PayPal to send a token additional payment for the buyer’s trouble.
When you have robust margins, add the Best Offer option, which will display a Make Offer button on your listing. In Chapter 6, I explained how you can set your “floor” price to avoid annoying low offers. You don’t want a $5 offer to come through on a $100 item. The lower-limit setting rejects those proposals silently. When an offer comes in and you don’t find it attractive, the knee-jerk reaction is to quickly counteroffer. While you can do this, the power of time is on your side. Consider what you are selling. The rare collectible warrants more thought and therefore patience in the negotiation. Wait a while before making a counter offer. That could be hours, or in the case of something really rare, you could get back to the customer in a day. Include a brief note with your counter offer supporting your price decision. For commodity items that are widely available, you can expect fewer bites on counteroffers and less success with this waiting tactic.
Best offers are valid for 48 hours, so respond to them quickly. Buyers can make five offers on the same item within a 30-day period (10 for most vehicles categories). An offer applies to the item price and shipping costs and other item terms remain the same. Read any notes included with the offer such as, “This price must include shipping”.
Here’s a lesser-known feature that’s very exciting for sellers. When an eBayer asks a question about a fixed price format listing, you’ll see the “Send an offer” button in the top-right corner when you click the reply button on the message. Now you can propose a special price and include a message to the buyer. Accepted offers become a binding agreement between the buyer and you. There are many spirited discussions online that extoll the virtues of hard-nosed negotiation. I take a softer approach. I focus on the price I want, and if the offer is too low, I include a kind note explaining why. Many times the deal proceeds with the eBayer accepting my counteroffer. You’ll run into plenty of people who chase you to the bottom price. Let it go, and wait for someone nicer and more generous.
In all your excitement, you’ve listed a whole bunch of items, and no surprise, they’re selling. By default, eBay will alert you with an email when an item sells, and PayPal will send notifications when the payment arrives. Don’t spend your earnings just yet. If you have a returns policy, your customer still has between 30 to 60 days to return the item. Fingers crossed that it never happens. Also, you’ll need to settle up with eBay and pay their bill when it comes due. The good news is that Seller Hub will tally and display your fees in real-time.
For items sold but not yet paid, you can head back over to Seller Hub and click the orders tab. There’s a filter for orders awaiting payment. If payment hasn’t arrived within a day after the eBayer committed to buying it, you’ll want to reach out with a gentle reminder, which is as simple as, “Hello Satish, do you still want the Nikon?” This generally is enough of a reminder to lubricate the wheels and get them turning. The buyer’s full name and address are on the order details page. Personalize the message even if you use a copy-and-paste form note. I had a customer send a cranky reply when I failed to sign my name at the bottom of the message. People can be that way sometimes.
I’ll talk about packing and shipping later, which will include a discussion about printing shipping labels. For now, you can familiarize yourself with the filters under the orders tab, which includes items awaiting shipment, items paid, and items shipped. When your order volume grows, you can use the convenient search and filter options within the page to isolate individual orders.
Best Practices for Revising an Active Listing
Changing your mind, fixing an error, or adding photos can all be done for free. You can typically change your listings with a few restrictions. There are no fees unless you raise your asking price or add special features. Most of the time, you can edit the title, edit the description, change or add photos, and purchase upgrades. For listings with at least 12 hours remaining that have no bids, you can change the price. You cannot change the listing from fixed price to auction-style or vice versa, and listing duration cannot be changed, either.
What you’re able to revise on an auction-style listing is limited once it has received bids, however. For example, you can’t change the description or remove photos on listings with bids. There’s a sound reason for this: The previous bidders made their decision to place the bid based on the information and photos they saw at the time they viewed your listing. When additional details need to be added to the description, but the bids prevent revising it, eBay allows you to amend the description without changing what was already there. Familiarize yourself with the complete listing revision policy by scanning the QR code in Figure 7–5 on page 131.
FIGURE 7–5: Revise a Listing Policy Page
Regulations for Repeating a Listing
You might be curious what eBay charges if you’d like to repeat a listing. In regard to that, I have some great news. eBay’s fixed-price listings stay active until you end them. Auction-style listings can be relisted if they end without a sale, because you ended the listing early, you canceled the order, or the buyer simply shirked their duty to pay you. The insertion fee applies to relisted items, or the relist will count towards zero insertion fee listings. Every eBay account receives a minimum of 50 zero insertion fee listings monthly, and eBay Store subscribers are provided with even more.
You’ll receive insertion fee credits for relisted items if you relist your item because it didn’t sell the first time around or a transaction has fallen through. eBay will credit your account for the insertion fee if your listing meets all of the following circumstances:
▶ The relisted item sells
▶ It isn’t a classified ad
▶ The listing and relisting have the same format
▶ Your relisting was launched using one of eBay’s relist tools, and you didn’t simply copy-and-paste into a new listing form
▶ No more than 90 days have elapsed since your original listing ended
▶ This is your first relisting
▶ The starting price has not been increased when you relisted
▶ You didn’t add a reserve
eBay allows you to pay monthly fees in exchange for specific selling advantages, called an eBay Store. There are five levels for eBay stores, which are Starter, Basic, Premium, Anchor, and Enterprise, listed in order of price from cheapest to most pricey. Active Basic, Premium, Anchor, or Enterprise Store subscribers receive insertion fee credits on all paid auction-style listings that sell, excluding zero insertion fee listings, Motors vehicles, Real Estate, and select Business & Industrial categories. Listing upgrades aren’t credited. If eBay removes your listing for any administrative reason, you’ll receive fee credits. Best of all, relisting takes only a couple of clicks, and the ended listing is back to life again.
Canceling Bids and Blocking Bidders
You’re crushing it and your first edition Moby Dick book auction is receiving insane bidding action when a rare book dealer informs you it’s worth $16,000, not the current bid of $1,600. You don’t want to risk losing your shirt. Cancel the bids quickly so you can then end the listing and run it again with a more appropriate starting price (or reserve).
There’s no reason to have sleepless nights over the situation. Canceling bids and then ending a listing allows you to relieve yourself of any future pain of having to sweet-talk your way out of a deal when the high bidder wins the really expensive Moby Dick. eBay has strict rules about this sort of thing. After all, they don’t want sellers flippantly putting the smackdown on eager bidders and tipping the apple cart for buyers with cash in hand ready to score deals at auction.
You’ll be required to provide an explanation with a reason for why you canceled the bid or bids. That reason becomes public for all who visit the bid history on your listing page. Here are the legitimate reasons eBay allows for removing a bid:
▶ The buyer asked you to do it and you consent to the cancellation
▶ The item is no longer available
▶ You made an error in the listing
▶ You are concerned that the buyer may be fraudulent
To cancel a bid, click Help & Contact from most eBay pages and complete the following steps:
1. Type “canceling bids” into the box that says, “Search eBay Help …”
2. eBay displays suggested pages: Click on the link for the page entitled “Canceling bids and managing bidders”
3. Click the link: Canceling bids placed on your listing
4. Type the item number, the eBay ID of the bidder, and the reason for the bid cancellation
5. Click the “Cancel bid” button
There’s no going back once you cancel the bid because canceled bids cannot be restored. If you’d like to remove bids from multiple eBayers, then you’ll repeat these steps for each bidder. Please note that bid cancellation does not end the auction. If you no longer wish to sell the item or the listing contains errors that require you to revise it, you’ll need to end the listing (I’ll explain how to accomplish this later in the chapter).
If you’d like to restrict certain buyers from bidding on your listings, configure the buyer requirements. This is accomplished by doing the following:
1. Click “My eBay” at the top-right-hand corner of most eBay pages
2. Click “Account”
3. If visible, click “Switch to classic view”
4. Click “Site Preferences”
5. Click “Edit” under the “Buyer requirements” section
6. Make your desired edits
7. Click the “Submit” button
If an unwanted bidder is feisty and just won’t take a hint, then stop them dead in their tracks by blocking their user ID from placing any more bids or purchasing your fixed-price listings. Block buyers in a jiffy by doing the following:
1. Go to the eBay “Site Map” link available on most eBay pages
2. Navigate to the “Sell activities” section under the heading “SELL”
3. Click the “Block bidder/buyer list” link
4. Click “Add an eBay user to my Blocked Bidder/Buyer List”
5. Enter the user IDs that you’d like to block (separate multiple user IDs with a comma)
6. Click the “Submit” button
Remember that there are tons of bidders on eBay. Blocking one eBayer will not diminish the demand for your excellent goods. Now, let’s talk about ending listings early in the case of a minor error or disaster.
Sometimes the realities of life are headwinds and your eBay business faces challenges. Illness, personal issues, and unexpected situations can all cause problems for your eBay activities. While ending auctions early is a multi-step process, you can end fixed-price listings at any time for any reason. You never have to explain yourself; eBay simply doesn’t require it. When you cancel an auction, there’s a real risk of disappointing potential bidders who are watching and plan to bid at the very last moment. Savvy auction participants know to place bids moments before the auction ends to stifle bidding competition (a method called sniping, which you read about in Chapter 6). eBay allows you to end your auction early if the item is lost, broken, or no longer available, or if you made a mistake, such as listing the wrong starting price in an auction.
There are rules and being able to end your auction depends on a few conditions, which are:
▶ Your listing has no bids (or you canceled the bids before ending the listing)
▶ If there are bids, you are willing to sell the item to the highest bidder
▶ If there are at least 12 hours left in the listing, it has bids and you want to cancel all bids and end the listing
You can’t end an auction if there are fewer than 12 hours left, you’ve received bids, and you don’t want the high bidder to win. You also can’t end the listing if there are less than 12 hours left, you have bids, and the reserve price isn’t met. If eBay doesn’t permit you to cancel bids due to their rules, then message your bidders and explain what’s going on and ask if they would retract their bid. If the comforter you’re selling was chewed up by your pet pygmy pig, then see if the bidder will agree to cancel the transaction.
Buyers fume when sellers cancel their bids and end auctions early. It’s disappointing and can be downright upsetting. eBay won’t charge you fees if you end one auction a year. Beyond that, there’s a toll for traveling along this road; eBay will charge you the final value fee if you cancel the bids and end a listing early (Real Estate and Classified Ads don’t apply). The final value fee assessed will be calculated based on the highest bid received at the time you ended the listing. If you agree to sell to the highest bidder, you pay the customary final value fees. I don’t recommend ending a listing early and selling to the highest bidder because you’ll be leaving money on the table. You’ll never know how much you could have received in bids at the last minute when you do this.
If you get into the habit of ending auctions early, eBay will be watching you (or their smart computers will), and they will review your account for possible limitations or restrictions.
To end a listing, follow these steps:
1. Hover over “My eBay” at the top-right-hand corner of most eBay pages
2. Click “Selling”
3. Click the “Listings” tab
4. Click the pull-down menu next to the listing from the “Actions” column
5. Click “End item”
6. Select the reason for your decision to end the listing on the next page
7. Click “End My Listing” (as shown in Figure 7–6)
FIGURE 7–6: Use This Link to End Your Listing
While it’s dreamy to imagine a business that runs all by itself, allows you to lounge in the backyard hammock all day, and rakes in wheelbarrows full of cash, eBay isn’t that business. In fact, no customer-facing business works that way. I haven’t found that business opportunity yet. Your listings require management, and your business will grow with hard work and laser focus.
The clever computer programmers at eBay are constantly finding ways to save you more time and help you sell more (after all, eBay works on commission, aka final value fees). The more you sell, the more you make, and the more eBay makes. It’s a win-win.
You can use the Mass Editor tool to facilitate large-scale edits in your listings. The Mass Editor tool permits you to change multiple listings, even hundreds from a single page—quickly and in bulk. Here’s how you access Mass Editor:
1. Hover over “My eBay” at the top-right-hand corner of most eBay pages
2. Click “Selling”
3. Click the “Listings” tab
4. Apply the “Active” filter
5. Either tick the checkbox next to the listings you’d like to edit and then click the “Edit” button and click “Edit selected,” or click “Edit” without selecting listings and choose which group of listings you’d like to edit (up to 500 at a time)
6. Make the desired changes to your listings
7. Press “Submit changes” to deploy the changes you made
The Mass Editor is very flexible because you can edit each individual listing in a very convenient spreadsheet-like view, or you can edit the price, quantity, and add Best Offer in bulk to up to 500 listings at once.
It’s not only super cool to be able to view and amend your listings this way, but it will also save you boatloads of time. Drop (or raise) prices by either a percentage or a fixed dollar amount; edit every detail of individual listings without having to open listing pages one-by-one; even add more photos. Mass Editor even allows you to add paid promotions to your listings for a greater chance at making a sale.
There’s a way to score even more sales opportunities by sending offers to watchers in bulk:
1. From the “Active” filter
2. Click on the “Send offers—eligible” button under “Quick filters”
3. These are listings with watchers, select the desired listings (those you’d like to send offers to)
4. Click the “Send offers” button
5. Enter either a fixed amount or percentage to take off, and a message to your future customer
6. Click “Send offers”
eBay will send an email to everyone watching the listings with the special price you extended to them. If you have more than 200 eligible listings, you’ll need to send offers to them in batches of 200 because you can only select as many listings as will display on the page, and the maximum pagination for the page is 200 rows. The default message isn’t good enough in my view. I send something more personalized and meaningful, “Hello. I see that you’re watching this listing. I’m sending you a special price privately for your consideration and hope that you’ll take advantage of it. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.” You and the buyer can negotiate an offer by exchanging up to five offers and counteroffers for each negotiation.
The plethora of bulk actions you can apply to your listings is expansive, and eBay is adding new features all the time. Here are a few more cool things you can accomplish en masse (starting from the Seller Hub > Listings tab):
▶ Add Best Offer to hundreds of listings at once:
1. From the “Active” filter
2. Click on the “Best Offer—eligible” button under “Quick filters”
3. Select the desired listings
4. Click “Sell it faster”
5. Click “Add Best Offer”
6. Set the optional upper and lower price limits
7. Click the “Add Best Offer” button
▶ Automate the relisting process on a few or all of your listings:
1. From the “Active” filter
2. Select the desired listings
3. Click “Actions”
4. Click “Assign automation rules”
5. Use the “Rule” pull-down menu and select the desired relist automation strategy
6. Enter the values under “Quantity available to list” and “Average unit cost: $”
7. Click the “Assign” button
▶ Convert a bunch of fixed-price listings to the auction-style format:
1. From the “Active” filter
2. Select the desired fixed-price listings
3. Click “Actions”
4. Click “Change to auction-style”
5. Optionally edit your listings
6. Click “Submit all”
▶ Elevate multiple listings with improved paid placement using the Promoted Listings option:
1. From the “Active” filter
2. Select the desired fixed-price listings
3. Click “Sell it faster”
4. Click “Promote”
5. Set the ad rate (try “Apply trending rate” initially, which is the rate paid by other sellers for similar items)
6. Select your campaign (or eBay makes a new one)
7. Click “Promote”
▶ Rapidly relist all your unsold items: 1. From the “Unsold” filter
2. Select the desired listings
3. Click “Relist” or “Relist as fixed price”
4. Optionally edit your listings before relisting them
5. Click “Submit all”
▶ Change the launch time for multiple scheduled listings:
1. From the “Schedule” filter
2. Select the desired listings
3. Click “Action”
4. Click “Reschedule”
5. Set the new start time
6. Click “Reschedule”
I simply love the convenience of the many ways eBay automates seller activities. I appreciate that my time is saved, and I can apply the time savings to accomplish other tasks and get more done.
Working Through Account Limits
Both eBay and PayPal worry about posers and fraudsters who prey on the unsuspecting, so you may notice that as a first-time seller, you are subject to some limits on your account. New sellers can be (and usually are) frustrated by account limits, published monthly limits on all eBay accounts that restrict both how many listings you can post as well as the dollar value. These limits are in place to protect buyers and to make sure eBay is a safe place to trade. Don’t fret, you can always ask to list more. But before you make such a bold request, sell some stuff. When you’ve seen a bit of action and the money is rolling in, then convene your courage and let eBay know, “I deserve better.” I’m sure they’ll agree to raise your limits, provided you’re shipping on time; the tracking is uploaded promptly, and customers are raving about your product and service. Don’t expect too much. eBay limit increases are gradual. As you prove yourself, keep asking for more. I did this many times. There’s a link that says “Request to list more” on the monthly limits pane with the Seller Hub that you can use, but I prefer to call and speak with a real person. Call eBay at (866) 961–9253 to ask for a limit increase. Today, as shown in Figure 7–7 on page 139, eBay lets me list as many as two billion items with a value of $2 billion. I wish I could find that much stuff to sell. I really do.
I am in the habit of reading everything. It pays to read (often). The generous folks in eBay’s marketing department are handing out free stuff all the time. Want free listings? Of course. Reduced final value fees? C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding me. To get in on the bounty, head over to the Seller Hub and look up the promotional offers (shown in Figure 7–8 on page 140) that are waiting for you. These are usually time-limited offers that require you to accept them (and why wouldn’t you?). There’s a cornucopia of free stuff here that will periodically pop up on your account.
FIGURE 7–7: Access Your Current Monthly Selling Limit Information from the Overview Tab within the Seller Hub
Building a Strong Seller Reputation
Way back in the day, eBay was pretty free-wheeling and everyone kind of just did whatever they wanted. Yes, there were rules, but eBay was growing really fast, and people often bent the rules. Soon, all that bending meant more rules. As the eBay marketplace grew, the volume of listings became pretty massive. Buyers rely heavily on feedback profiles and detailed seller ratings to make purchasing decisions (I explained the feedback system and DSRs in Chapter 1). Eventually, eBay studied oodles of seller activity and later quantified their view on what good and great sellers looked like by applying some metrics. Keeping your eBay metrics looking good in eBay’s eyes is critical to managing a successful eBay business. Are you shipping on-time? Do you upload tracking numbers quickly? Do you have very few buyer complaints? Is your return rate low? These and other factors are systematically evaluated, and if you come home with a spectacular report card, you’ll earn the badge of honor known as the Top Rated Seller. Buyers trust the best of eBay. Being Top Rated affords you the privilege of receiving big discounts on final value fees plus, and buyers are extremely confident when ordering from you. If you’re wondering how you size up, here’s how to find out:
FIGURE 7–8: Promotional Offers Appear on the “Promotional Offers” Pane within the Seller Hub
1. Click “My eBay” at the top-right-hand corner of most eBay pages
2. Click “Account”
3. Click “Seller Dashboard”
Managing eBay listings involves a lot of moving parts, but rest assured, given time and practice, your high-quality merchandise will not only look fantastic, but your buyers will love your high caliber and beautiful customer service. As you’re learning the nuts and bolts, you’ll instinctively develop the skills required to delight buyers and raise your eBay business to the next plateau. And the best part is that you won’t need to memorize anything. Keep this book within reach to help you overcome any confusion you’re coping with.
In the next two chapters, I’ll go into considerable detail about the handling of your sales and shipping processes (who doesn’t love the money part, right?).