First eBay Posting

[pgtownsyou]

Hi all!

So I have taken somewhat of a plunge and have imported my first samples of a product. I have had the product on eBay now for about 3 1/2 days and I want to see what you guys think.

So far my single buy-it-now listing (quantity 3 items) has had 50 views, 3 watchers, 0 sales. What does this tell me? Is this a decent amount of views/watchers for this amount of time? Does the lack of sales indicate my price is too high or my copy is sub par?

I'm debating lowering the price at some point here in the near future but I'm not sure how long to let me first test play out. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

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[DrkSide]

Do you know how many of your items are selling per day on Ebay?

I would wait until you get at least 100+ views to make a price change.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

How niche-y is your product? Is there a definitive demand? A weekend is not particularly the best time to list an item on eBay, since eBay gets most views (I believe) Monday mornings. I say ride it out, see how many more views and watches you get over the course of today and tomorrow, and maybe you'll get some sales to verify that your price is actually on point, rather than losing some of your profit margins. Remember, it's EASY to drop a price on an item, but it's VERY DIFFICULT to justify an increase, especially after your product has been purchased at that lower price.

 

[pgtownsyou]

Thank you guys for the advice. There are other product on eBay that are very similar to mine, and are sold in China, but none that are exactly mine. I will ride it out to 100 views to see if I get any action. It seems to be in the right price range comparatively. Any thoughts on charging for shipping vs. moving that cost to the main price and putting free shipping?

 

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[NoLackey]

Compete on price last.

I love ebay because of the control it gives you. You have control over the title, description, the page layout, price, images etc.

So many things that you can tweak to increase views/sales other than just underpricing the other guy.

With that said I dont think 50 views is enough to start lowering price given your price is in line with similar products.

Work on your headline and images first to increase the views. Then work on your listing: fill out every little specific like feature, manufacturer, color etc that ebay asks. Next work on your copy to convert that traffic. This has worked for me and i do it as a systematic process to test. If you have a lot of something you can relist and keep using what you've optimized til it no longer works.

I wouldnt put much weight in watchers as they could be your competition doing research, people who aren't ready to buy, people who want a better price or people waiting for payday. It could be many things that you cant really control.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

Free shipping is ALWAYS more appealing to the buyer, even at a slightly higher price point. I would opt to do that, if it were my product.

 

[cautiouscapy]

eBay's search algorithm gives a positive weighting to "Free" shipping in "Best Match" results - so you will appear higher up in the search results with "free" shipping.

Apparently a really high % of people never bother to sort the results any other way (like "price+shipping - cheapest first")

Beware - make sure the amount you add to your price to cover "free" shipping includes a bit extra to cover eBay's fees as it will now be treated as part of the Final Value Fee.

There's quite a science to getting up eBay's search results for your item. Do some Google research on the subject - some of it's "secret" but many people have sussed a lot of it.

 

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[smartman]

ebay charges the final value fee based on price+shipping so there's really no reason not to offer free shipping at this point.

 

[smartman]

to also give you a small bit of advice if you are trying to test the market-
flat buy it nows are really the way to go when you want to do a lot of volume. I think that is the most important "hard" figure to work off of. However, you will also get more exposure and a higher ranking in the ebay "best match" if you have more bids. So, it may seem counter intuitive, but starting the item off at .99 cents and letting tiny bids keep bumping the price up will help. getting something like 20 or 30 separate bids on an item will skyrocket it to the top almost every time.

 

[HardParked13]

So many things that you can tweak to increase views/sales other than just underpricing the other guy.

+1 for this. Avoid underselling like the plague. It just equals more legwork for you with minimal profit margins, I mean unless you're the Wal-Mart of ebay and can afford to do this.

Free Shipping usually attracted more views in my experience. Also when you search for the type of item you're selling make sure you scroll down to the bottom left and check "completed and sold listings" and see what the trending prices were then. Just because your price is competitive with who's selling now, doesn't mean that's what the buyer is used to buying the item at. Also the Make Offer is an ok tool to see what buyers are willing to pay. Best of luck!

 

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[pgtownsyou]

Thanks everyone. I changed to free shipping and bumped up the base price to make up for it. Also added one more keyword to my title. Views went up pretty substantially overnight but still not sales. Maybe I will will have to play around with the item description as well. Should I be using some sort of html template to make the description look nice? Any suggestions for that? Or is just plain text ok?

 

[DrkSide]

Thanks everyone. I changed to free shipping and bumped up the base price to make up for it. Also added one more keyword to my title. Views went up pretty substantially overnight but still not sales. Maybe I will will have to play around with the item description as well. Should I be using some sort of html template to make the description look nice? Any suggestions for that? Or is just plain text ok?

Plain text has worked for everything that I have sold. You have to make sure it is arranged in a readable manner though.

Did you use the Terapeak tool for listings that gives you related and most searched for keywords?

 

[pgtownsyou]

Did you use the Terapeak tool for listings that gives you related and most searched for keywords?

I used some keyword tool, but it wasn't Terapeak.

 

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[pgtownsyou]

Well I'm up to 115 views now in 5 days. Still no sales, however. My account has 38 feedback, all positive, but they are all from me buying. I've never sold anything before so perhaps that is having an impact.

 

[Jackal0]

Is it a higher priced product?

Your quite low feedback (esp. zero as a seller) may be indeed a reason for potential buyers.

A good method to get a higher feedback quick is to buy a cheap product in bulk and sell them individually.

 

[funkj25]

For me it really depends on the item since some niches will vary. But as a general rule of thumb I have noticed I typically hit a price "sweet spot" when I get about 1 watcher for every 10 views. More than that and I know I may be under-priced (assuming it doesn't get snatched up quickly). Less than that and it can probably sell, but will take a longer amount of time. Personally I say eBay is a price-competitive market when you're starting out (although that doesn't mean you have to be the lowest), but there may be others that can prove me wrong on that.

I typically am slightly above the middle of the road for completed listing prices when I do sell things. I have ~1300 feedback now almost all from selling over this last year so that gives me a little edge to bump up prices. As an aside, offer a return policy, you can charge more when you list with it and you are unlikely (in my experience) to actually get returns if your item is as described.

 

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[pgtownsyou]

Is it a higher priced product?

Your quite low feedback (esp. zero as a seller) may be indeed a reason for potential buyers.

A good method to get a higher feedback quick is to buy a cheap product in bulk and sell them individually.

This may be something I'll need to consider doing. My item isn't too expensive, priced at $30.

 

[NoLackey]

I don't know what you're selling, but you may want to check your category. eBay will suggest a category based on what information you give it, but don't always assume it's the best or the only one that fits.

Recently I had something listed and got up 60 some views over 2-3 days, no sales. I switched to a similar category where my product fell and I sold my first unit the next day. You could also list in BOTH categories for a little extra money.

Also don't be afraid to test, test, test. I'm selling a higher priced item right now and luckily for me the others sellers are all doing the exact same thing. Same stock picture, same generic information, same angle....

 

[pgtownsyou]

Thanks everyone for your help. I added a keyword today and played around with the copy a little bit and what do you know...got my first sale! This is fun.

 

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