Here is a list of 7 eBay seller strategies that could make you wealthy.
If you apply all 7 of these to your business, you can expect to increase your profits exponentially.
Now for the list… show me the money!!!
1. Proper eBay Listing Management Basics
When it comes to listing management, we often know what we need to do but our tools and man hours can be somewhat limited. Organizing multiple products, prices, and variations can be very difficult and tedious. Rival Ripper aims to alleviate these issues by providing tools to help manage it all and save you time. The following two questions can help make sure you have the listing basics covered:
- Do you have a unique listing for each of your product SKUs?
- Do you have a unique listing for each of your Bundles?
There are several improvements that we will cover. However, in my experience, it’s better to get the initial listings posted first so you can begin to see some sales. Then, once your listings are active, you can focus on improvements and revisions to increase your conversions and ultimately your sales totals. It’s never a good idea to wait until you have the perfect listing as you will be missing out on potential revenue. You want to list first and then optimize and revise second.
2. eBay Listing Presentation and Design Templates
I won’t go into a lot of detail about how to create the perfect eBay listing template. Rival Ripper has already done much of the work for you with our professionally designed eBay listing templates.
3. Profit Margin and ROI Calculations Are Essential
Before you start creating thousands of listings or purchasing more inventory, you may want to make sure that your eBay listings are really maximizing profit potential. In some cases, I’ve seen companies lose money on each transaction mainly due to errors calculating their eBay costs. Many people miscalculate how much the following costs them on every sale…
- Product Costs
- Handling Costs
- Shipping Costs
- Import Shipping & Customs
- Shipping Supplies
- eBay Fees
- PayPal Fees
- Optional: Taxes – Social Security, Medicare, Marginal Tax Rate.
If you don’t know your profit margins, return on investment, and sales velocity, you’re literally taking shots in the dark. Ultimately, you want to make sure you know the answers to these questions at all times:
- Do you know your exact profit margin for each listing?
- Do you know your return on Investment (ROI) for each listing?
- Do you know how much money you’re leaving on the table for each listing?
It is easy to know your profit margin if you never change your price, but your competitors change their prices all the time which may make your listings non-competitive. For the savvy business owner, rapid market pricing poses two major difficulties. The first difficulty is keeping up with the rapid price changes. The second difficulty is making sure you are maximizing profitability after these rapid price changes occur.
4. Liquidate the Poor Performers
After you know which listings are profitable and which listings are not, it’s time to start maximizing the profitable ones and cutting the losers.
Clearance time!! It is time to do some spring cleaning although you should probably do this more than once per year if you want to stay profitable.
If your listings are not competitive or you think it is not worth the ten cent profit to list the item, it’s probably time to do a clearance sale. The point of liquidating those assets is so you can reinvest the cash into high velocity and higher profit margin products. Insider tip: make sure you put the word CLEARANCE at the beginning of the title.
5. Multi-Quantity Packs Can Make Unprofitable Items Profitable.
If the profit margin is too low because of shipping and those nasty eBay and PayPal fees, consider removing the single listing and offer them only in packs of two or more.
6. Multiple Listing Generator Tool
eBay allows several different listing opportunities and each variation serves a different purpose. To really maximize your winners, you would want to make sure that you have answered the following questions:
Auction and Fixed Listings:
- Do you have a fixed price listing for each SKU?
- Do you have an auction style listing for each SKU?
Free Shipping and Calculated Shipping Options:
- Do you have a free shipping option for each SKU?
- Do you have a calculated shipping option for each SKU?
As per eBay’s Duplicate Listing Policy, you are allowed to have:
- Two or more listings to sell bundles or “lots” of items, where the lots or bundles are very different and clearly satisfy different buyer needs. For example, a pack of 10 envelopes meets a different buyer need than a pack of 100 of the same envelope.
- Listings with more than one product number, product name, or brand in the listing as long as the item is specifically made to fit each product.
- Separate listings for items made to fit specific products, models, or brands—such as connector cables, phone chargers, or auto parts. You can have up to 5 fixed price and 5 auction-style listings per item for these types of products.
Rival Ripper has a built in feature to capitalize on these listing opportunities, while staying within eBay’s listing policy. It’s called the “Listing Generator”.
7. Capital Allocation: Hey, Put your Money Where Your “ROI” is!!!
Our final of the eBay seller strategies is about capital. I’ve spent over a decade studying Warren Buffet, and I’ve incorporated many of his philosophies into my businesses. I now think of each individual product as an asset. Furthermore, I think of inventory as your portfolio. Rival Ripper was designed to help business owners become more like asset managers, in order to create the highest ROI for their business.
Many times the constraints to running a profitable business are capital, real time information, and execution. At Rival Ripper, we want to make sure you always have the best information and the right tools to execute. The questions to help you with capital allocation within your eBay business are:
- Are my listings maximizing their profit potential?
- Have I liquidated the correct inventory?
- Am I investing in the products with the highest ROI?
- Am I investing in the products with the highest Sales Velocity?
- What are some additional products with the highest ROI?
Final Thoughts on these 7 eBay Seller Strategies
Most business owners know what they need to do, but spending the time is another story. Collecting all the essential data is time consuming. Do not put off making more money. Get the essential data you need. Get started today!
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[…] In summary, by the time it took you to read this article, I ended 2000+ non-performing listings with a couple clicks of the mouse. I gained a net savings of $200 a month in eBay listing fees. Later, I will create more listings using the strategies I’ve outlined here: 7 eBay Strategies That Could Make You Wealthy! […]