Are You Promoting Other Sellers on Your eBay Listing?
Filed Under How-To's, Sellers' Insights | 3 Comments
A letter to AuctionBytes a few weeks ago warning sellers that eBay was displaying links to my competitors’ auctions on my listings had me concerned. I immediately tubed up my listings and was relieved when I found that this issue was apparently not impacting me.
It wasn’t until I wanted to make a quick check on my listing description from my work that I discovered that eBay conveniently does not display competitors listings to me (on my auctions) when I’m logged in. Here’s what the bottom of the listing I PAID FOR looks like after I’ve logged out:
Pretty sneaky if you ask me. I’m always logged in when I look at my listings.
How to Stop Promoting Your Competitors
To opt-out of this click on My eBay and log in if prompted.
Click on the on the “Account” tab and select “Marketing Tools” from the menu that appears.
Next, click “Promote Similar Items” from the menu on the left and opt out.
In subdued text, eBay tries to subliminally inform the seller the gravity of their decision:
By declining this option:
- You’ll be missing out on reaching thousands of eBay buyers who are interested in items like yours
- Your items will only be displayed on pages and emails directly related to your listings
- Items from other sellers will not be displayed on your listings and emails related to your items
Of course eBay wants you to think you are missing out on cross-promoting your items on other seller’s listings, but read the fine print:
Items are chosen based on popularity–the items in the same category most watched by buyers.
So, unless your listings is one of the five most watched items in your category, you’re really not getting any additional exposure are you?
Of course, if your listing does garner a lot of watchers, it would be prudent to opt back in to this program. Until then, count me out.
Earlier in the fall I experienced a rash of unpaid bidders. It gets really frustrating when an auction-style listing closes at a higher final bid price than I expected but the high-bidder does not come through. While I can send a second chance offer to the next highest bidder, completing the the unpaid bidder process takes a long time. By the time it is resolved, the runner-up bidder has either made a purchase from somebody else or lost interest in my product. All you can do is relist and hope for another bidding war.
However, I recently discovered that you can edit your account preferences to insulate yourself from habitual unpaid bidders. Here’s how: Read more
Did you ever see auctions for big ticket items start at $.01? It turns out that those sellers aren’t so crazy after all. According to a blog post at Psychology Today, these sellers are taking advantage of several basic psychological principles that can help them sell their product at a higher than normal rate.
The Simple eBay Success Formula
Filed Under Sellers' Insights | 2 Comments
Product + Traffic + Conversions = Profit
The title of this post outlines the simple formula to online success. While the formula is simple in concept, it’s sometimes difficult to execute. It’s easy to get overly focused on one variable of the formula such as driving traffic to your listings, while neglecting the other aspects that significantly influence online profits.
Product – Successful internet sellers make money their money when they buy – not when they sell. Profitable product sourcing involves researching and discovering niches in which there is sufficient demand to support your entry into a market that is also under-served by professional sellers who can market their products well. It also involves finding credible and reliable sources for these products at wholesale prices – not a simple task for the uninitiated.
Traffic – Best Match Optimization only one way to increase traffic to your auctions. Independent sellers don’t depend on eBay to drive customers to their listings. They take matters in their own hands.
Conversions – What happens when the potential buyers arrive at your auctions. Do they bid, or hit the back button? The appearance of your listings is often all the potential bidder has to judge your credibility as a seller. By presenting a professional image in your auctions, you can significantly increase your sales.
The success formula is simple. What are you waiting for?
Product + Traffic + Conversions = Profit