It is easy to get sale on eBay when you have a right price of a product. The challenge is to increase sales on a long run. How can you grow? There is there tough competition out there. There are loads of companies who sell same type of products. How can you have competitive advantage? We will be discussing some of the factors that worth’s considering.
. customer service
Customer service is one of the greatest keys to your business success. It can literally make or break you.[1] Keeping happy customers brings you repeat sales and increases your audience. eBay CEO Meg Whitman says – “you see that we’re spending less than $10 to acquire new customer. The reason is that we are being driven by word of mouth.”[2] Better customer service creates loyalty and they in turn refer others to your shop. Loyal customers take over the function of advertising and sales – for free!
You will have some complaints from you customer. If they ever contact, you have a good opportunity to hear their say and solve the problem. Only few complain and the rest just quietly go away. Another worrying bit, a dissatisfied customer will tell 7-10 people about the problem and bad service. So you don’t want many dissatisfied customers. You would want to keep them happy and many times even if it is at your loss. Trust me; it pays to keep customers happy in a long run.
Better customer service brings repeat sales and increases your audience reach by word of mouth.
. price comparison
Consumer buying decision process starts with need recognition, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behaviour.[3] Consumers carry out price comparison of an item they need in second state, information search. With everything on click of a mouse this does not take long online. So, it is important to have right price.
The best way to go forward on this is to compare other sellers’ prices on both eBay & Amazon. You can tweak the price by pennies which give better sales opportunity. Bear in mind that you must compare prices periodically as they change. If you don’t you are left out!
. promotions
Roger Hyslop wrote that what he learns in the 1960s still applies: “The use of a sales promotion stimulates consumer excitement, retail reaction and wholesale reward.”[4]
Few popular sales promotions are:
- Buy One Get One Free
- Free Gifts for orders over £50
- Vouchers/Coupons
- Competitions
- Free Limited Time Delivery
These promotions give reason for your eBay customers to return to your shop. We are well aware that all of these promotions cannot be implemented in your eBay store however; you can use them to promote your own store. Remember promotions are means of influencing customer behaviour and should be part of long term business strategy.5
. delivery time
Online Shopping Customer Experience Study by comScore[5] suggests that delivery time is ranked top influencing factor for online shopping and 43% expect to see availability of 2-3 day delivery.
You can update your listings on eBay with various shipping options so that you don’t lose your visitor conversion. You are just giving buyers what they want! You must have noticed that eBay search results highlights “express delivery available” during product search which prompts user to visit the listing. Adding multiple shipping option means you don’t lose our in this important aspect of online selling.
. feedback
eBay feedback must be one of the factor buyers look out before making purchase decision. It quickens the decision making process and creates quick conversions. One research[6] suggests the established identity fared better compared to that of new seller. So you must continue providing better service to your customers. You will get odd number of negative feedback. Don’t worry! Simply reply back and acknowledge if there is any error from your side. One or two negative feedbacks for our new sellers does not affect buyers’ willingness-to-pay.
These are few of many factors you must consider in order get incremental sales on eBay. Most importantly these must be part of your. The competition is tough, so don’t just list your products and expect sale to happen.
What is your experience/thoughts?