eBay Beyond the Basics

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eBay Beyond the Basics
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Agenda

• Structuring Your Business on eBay
• Marketing and MerchandisingThinking Like Your
  Buyer
• Scaling Growing Your Business
• Summary
• QA

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Structuring Your Business on eBay

• A business on eBay is like any other business
• Find the right items to sell
• Manage your inventory and determine where and
  how to sell
• Observe and outperform your competitors
• Provide world-class customer support
• You need to experiment, measure and repeat
• Theres not one best practice that works for
  all products all of the time

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Understanding the eBay Marketplace

• eBays Seller Central and seller communications
• Top buyers searches by category
• Hot, in-demand items
• New releases and promotions
• PowerUp
• Off-line Newsletter sharing best practices

www.ebay.com/optin www.ebay.com/sellercentral
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eBay Sales Reports Plus

• Free tool for all sellers
• Understand the main drivers of your business
• Measure results against goals
• Identify areas of opportunity/ improvement

Tip eBay Accounting Assistant saves valuable
time by exporting eBay and PayPal
transaction and fee data to QuickBooks
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Stores Traffic Reports Marketplace Research

• eBay Stores Traffic Reports
• Understand which items buyers visit and are
  searching for
• Optimize your listing titles and pages
• Cross-promote your most popular listings
• eBay Marketplace Research
• Make data-based sourcing and selling decisions
• Reports sales trends for products
• Includes Average Sold Price, Items Sold, Items
  Listed

www.ebay.com/storefronts/traffic-reports.html www.
ebay.com/marketplace_research
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Third-Party Marketplace Data Providers

• eBay data providers
• Terapeak www.terapeak.com
• Mpire Researcher www.mpire.com
• Andale www.andale.com
• Hammertap www.hammertap.com
• Available data includes
• Closed listings pricing info
• Category-specific data
• Sales trends
• Hot-selling products and categories

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Finding Merchandise to Sell

• Reseller Marketplace
• A B2B marketplace for PowerSellers to source for
  resale
• Sellers manufacturers, liquidators, wholesalers
• Benefits
• Great values
• Buy in lots for resale
• No long-term or volume minimums

www.ebay.com/reseller
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Additional Sources of Supply

• Trade showsfind a trade show in your
  industrywww.Tsnn.com
• Resell used goodsestate saleswww.ustreas.gov/auc
  tions/customs
• Buy directlyfind a distributor and buy
  directwww.thomasnet.com
• Find wholesale suppliers
  www.WorldwideBrands.com/Importing
• Trading Assistantssell on behalf of
  otherswww.ebay.com/tradingassistants

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Structuring Your Business on eBay

• Use the resources on eBay to understand which
  products are in high demand
• Investigate third-party market research tools
• Let your research drive the products, categories
  and prices at which you sell
• Experiment, measure and repeat!
• Get the right product, in the right place at the
  right time!

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Thinking Like Your Buyer

• Drive buyers to your items
• Develop effective eBay listings
• Price your items to attract buyers
• Promote your eBay store
• Use eBay Express
• Keep buyers satisfiedmake them repeat customers
• Customer support
• Cross-promotion and up-selling
• Clear and fair shipping prices

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Listing Titles

• Use all 55 characters
• Use words people most often use when searching
• Brands and model
• Condition, color, style, size
• Use browse words
• Free Shipping
• Offer several points of entry
• Notebook and laptop
• Utilize Subtitles where appropriate

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Item Descriptions

• Provide all data buyers need to make a decision
• Repeat item title
• Include complete product info
• Use item specifics when available
• Provide clear payment info
• Clearly state shipping costs and time frames
• Include links to your eBay Store

Item Description is the most valuable tool for
creating search engine-friendly listings!
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Effective Photos

• Clear images
• Photo at top of listing
• Multidimensional views
• Use Picture Manager to save
• Own pictures or get permission

Tip Use Gallery feature to display your item
picture with search and browse results
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Shipping

• Clearly state policiesreturns, feedback, sales
  tax, etc.
• Include shipping costsflat rate, calculated or
  at no cost
• Set buyers expectations about when you ship
  (e.g., "within 24 hours of payment)
• Offer shipping discounts for multiple purchases

eBay Shipping Center www.ebay.com/shippingcenter
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eBay Formats

• Auction-style
• Fixed Price
• Buy it Now (BIN)
• Fixed Priced
• Stores Inventory (SIF)
• Fixed Price

• Best Practice
• Use Reserve sparinglyReserve deters bids
• Best OfferReceive price-based offers for Fixed
  Price listings

www.ebay.com/sellercentral/formats.html
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Promoting Your eBay Store

• Promote your eBay Store and Store Inventory in
  every listing
• Utilize cross-selling functionality
• Include search keywords in your Store name,
  description and categories
• Promote your Store both on and off eBay using
• Markdown Manager
• Listing feeds
• Email marketing
• Listing frames

www.ebay.com/storefronts/seller-landing.html
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Acquire BuyerseBay Express

• Double your exposure for Fixed Price and eBay
  Store Inventory listings!
• Qualified listings show up automatically with no
  additional work
• Buyers pay upfront via Shopping Cart and Checkout
• No changes to your selling experience

www.ebayexpress.com
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Delivering a Superior Buyer Experience

• Establishing trust and rapport with Buyers earns
  repeat customers
• Address customer questions promptly
• Utilize FAQ to address Buyers questions
• Customize question subject lines to gain
  efficiencies in answering email

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Buyer Retention Managing Sold Items

• Reduce Unpaid Items
• Utilize Seller Preference in My eBay to restrict
  undesirable buyers
• Communicate with buyers early and often
• Utilize Immediate Payment through PayPal on Fixed
  Price Listings

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Marketing Merchandising

• To attract and retain buyers you need to
• Think like a buyer
• How do buyers find your items?
• How do buyers like to be treated?
• Use your buyers behavior to drive your business
  strategy

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Tools to Help You Scale Your Business

• eBay Listing Tools
• Turbo Lister desktop tool with reusable listing
  templates
• File Exchange create listings by sending a flat
  file to eBay
• eBay Listing Management Tools
• Selling Manager/Selling Manager Pro Web-based
  sales management tools designed to help sellers
  manage sales more efficiently
• eBay Blackthorne desktop listing and sales
  management tools designed to save time
• Third-party Tools
• eBay Solutions Directory provides information
  about third-party software tools and services to
  improve your productivity on eBay

http//pages.ebay.com/sell/tools.html
www.solutions.ebay.com
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Grow Your Business Globally

• More than 50 of all eBay users live outside the
  US
• Listing your products internationally ensures
  maximum global exposure and incremental sales
  volume
• PayPal Seller Protection available for qualified
  US shipments to Canada and the UK 
• Utilize a shipping partner to help overcome
  import/export issues

www.ebay.com/internationaltrading/sellertips.html
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Grow Your Business Off-eBay

• Expand your business to be Multi-Channel
• Develop your own Web site
• Tap into a new and incremental customer base
• Lower your cost of sales for servicing existing
  customers
• Capture growing use of search for finding products

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Adding a Sales Channel

• Ideal for existing eBay sellers with a regular
  customer base to grow their online sales
• Fully integrated to allow direct listings to eBay
  and payments with PayPal
• ProStores is one-stop shoppingwith a shopping
  cart, hosting, reporting and more!

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PayPal Benefits Advanced Sellers

• Easily receive money electronically from around
  the world (16 different currencies)
• Automate and become more efficient
• Instant payment information
• Multi-user access
• Company name on customers credit card statements
• Automatic monthly eBay fees payment
• Tailor online payment options to your eBay or Web
  site business

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Scaling Growing Your Business

• Use eBay listing tools and/or e-commerce
  management tools to save time and boost
  productivity
• Open your business to international customers
• Maintain an online storefront off eBay to attract
  more online shoppers
• Practice safe selling

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Summary

• Improve the structure of your business on eBay
  by
• Understanding your marketplace
• Using multiple sources to buy your product at the
  right price
• Identify tactics and strategies to turn shoppers
  into repeat buyers
• Define ways to grow your business
• In the US and abroad
• On and off eBay

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