eBay

sazzu14 · ‎06-24-2015

New to selling on eBay.

Listed fashion jewelry items as Buy it Now and "Good till cancelled" and wondering if this is the right way to go?

Also, any suggestions as how to get more visibility on eBay search engines would be appreciated.

Thanks

rose-dee · ‎06-24-2015

As 'pj' says, there is a lot of opinion (and speculation) on how to best list items in order to get better results in search, visibility, and sales. I don't think anybody has the real answers but eBay itself, and they aren't going to tell us.

What I think we do know is that the large majority of listings on eBay are now fixed price (I believe the latest figure was over 80%), and that many other variables besides the mere listing type determine the whole "picture" of what gives an item good placement.

So I think you have to use what works best based on the types of items you're selling, your research into how well (and at what prices) similar items have been selling on eBay, and what works best for your personal mode of selling.

As Pierre mentioned, GTC listings work very well where you have multiple identical items to sell (I use GTC almost exclusively for my line of sewing patterns, which I regularly reprint in multiples). However, they can also be useful if you're busy doing other things besides eBay, or have a lot of listings and would rather not be spending time monitoring every one of them on a regular basis. I also find that GTC listings are good for items that may need to wait months for the right buyer. It can sometimes help that the watcher count remains visible on those.

I've done a lot of experimenting over the past few months on using "Sell Similar" (rather than simply relisting) and I can't honestly say that using Sell Similar has made a significant difference in sales for me, although I know there are sellers who claim it can.

On the other hand, some of my GTC items that haven't had a sale in months still show up near the top of the first page in keyword searches, so I'm not sure even that factor (number of recent sales) is the most significant where placement is concerned. Ironically, in one such search, one of my items that hadn't had a sale in several months got displayed near the top of page one, whereas a couple of other GTC listings of mine that had had recent sales were displayed much further down the page. As I said, I think factors other than listing type may be just as important, if not more important.

Bear in mind that with fashion jewellery you're in a very crowded category, so it may be harder to stand out. Keeping your seller status above standard and following eBay's other "best practices" will help a great deal. I'd suggest trying 30-day fixed price listings to start with (unless you have multiple identical items, in which case GTC works best to keep track of your inventory).

If you have an extremely busy life outside eBay and a lot of items to list, you could perhaps divide them more or less evenly between GTC and 30-day. That way, you won't have to carefully monitor all your listings on a regular basis. You can always change the proportions later if you find one type of listing does better for you than the other.

You can also try out the occasional auction if you have an item that may be in high demand -- but start your auction at the lowest price you'd be willing to take (i.e. don't start your auction at $0.99), because it seems one bid is often all sellers get these days on auctions, Pierre's stamp collector bidding wars notwithstanding.

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pierrelebel · ‎06-24-2015

Good Till Cancelled (GTC) is a very useful tool if your listings have multiple quantities of identical items. With GTC eBay relists the listing automatically every 30 days and keeps track of your sales and only the remaining quantity is listed. For example, if you start the listing with a quantity of 20 and you sell 4 during the first 30 days, eBay will automatically relist 16.

If listing one of each kind, then it makes more sense to list with a 30 day duration, allowing you to review and make changes if the item is unsold after 30 days.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-24-2015

You're going to get different views on this because no one knows exactly how the ebay search system works and because we all have different experiences.

I think that buy it now is best unless you have a collectible highly sought after item that people would be excited to bid on.

In my opinion, gtc listings are best when you have more than one of that item and that item is fairly popular. One of the criteria that the search engine uses is based on sales, the more of that item you sell, the more that item shows up in search. When you use gtc the sold history stays with that listing so the search engine knows if is a popular item or if it has been sitting for a few months without any sales. In the latter case, an item without any sales may not show up in search as often so I use gtc for my more popular items and 30 day fixed price listings for my other listings. When the slower items end I normally use sell similar for those without any recent sales and relist for those who had a sale in the previous 30 days. Some people say that if you use sell similar and change up the listing a bit every few months, search sees it as a new listing. But I have also heard that isn't true so you really have to decide what works best for you.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-24-2015

I think that it would be a good idea for you to get some feedback as a buyer as some people are hesitant to buy from a brand new ebayer. Also, it will show you how ebay works from a buyers perspective.

I suggest that you look over your shipping options too.

Item 281719158157 free worldwide shipping with UPS used in Canada and Tracked Packet used elsewhere. I have no idea what UPS charges within Canada but I would guess that it would be at least $15 and TP to the U.S. would cost about the same. For the other countries, tracked packet will cost you $40+. You will end up losing money on those transactions. I really don't think people expect free shipping internationally so you might want to consider changing that. Also, you might want to use less expensive shipping methods but that's another topic that I won't get into right now.

rose-dee · ‎06-24-2015