How to Sell on eBay for Beginners in 2021

With over 187 million buyers, eBay is among the world’s most popular online marketplaces. It provides individuals and businesses of every size with an opportunity to get in touch with worldwide audiences, however the competition is also pretty stiff.

For novices to succeed, they need to comprehend the basics and master skills like listing optimization. This might appear frustrating, but that’s where we come in.

Need to know how to sell on eBay? Here’s everything you require to understand in 6 easy actions.

Step 1 – Create an account

This is pretty uncomplicated. You’ll see the alternative to register or sign in at the top of many eBay pages.

Simply click to register and you can set up an account. eBay guides you through the procedure and asks for some fundamental details. Easy!

If you plan to sell on eBay as an official business, this page likewise offers the alternative to establish an organization account. This is fairly easy too. Though you’ll need to provide an official business name.

Unless you’re simply clearing the junk out of your attic, this is most likely the very best choice for you. Nevertheless, you can constantly alter your account type later if you require to.

Step 2 – Find out the fundamentals

Prior to you note any items, it’s a great idea to end up being familiar with the eBay fundamentals.

There are many resources online and on eBay that can help, but here are some fundamentals to assist you stay in eBay’s good books and avoid any losses.

Listing types

When eBay was first established, it was everything about offering used items in auction-style sales.

Today, you can still decide to note an item for ten days and offer it off to the highest bidder. But 91% of eBay products are now sold utilizing fixed price or ‘Buy It Now’ listings. This implies you set a rate and ship an item the minute an order comes through. The same way most online shops work.

How much does it cost?

Figuring this out isn’t precisely simple. There are all sorts of eBay fees and a lot of them are optional.

But here are two every seller requires to know about:

Insertion fees: This is a listing fee which is charged pre-sale. Sellers receive 50 free listings each month. After that, eBay takes a flat charge of 35c on every item you note. Though if you sign up to a monthly store subscription, this fee is minimized.
Final Value Fees: A percentage of an item’s last sale price is charged when an item is offered. The percentage depends on what product classification your item was listed under. Many commonly, it will be 12.35%.

eBay selling policies

Failure to follow eBay’s rules can cause reduced visibility for your listings and, in some cases, even account suspension.

Some guidelines are common sense, while others are less apparent. We advise checking out over eBay’s selling policies when starting, however here are some major risks to avoid.

Do not sell prohibited products, such as drugs, alcohol, fake products or remembered products
Don’t use item images drawn from other websites
Don’t try to close any sales beyond the eBay platform
Prevent cancelling client orders
Prevent late deliveries
Don’t ignore purchaser problems
Do not list contact info, external links or misleading info in listings

Beginner constraints

eBay selling limits restrict the variety of listings a seller can have. They apply to the majority of accounts however are especially inhibiting for beginners.

For brand-new sellers, the limit begins at simply 10 products per month. For this reason, you will not be able to utilize eBay’s bulk listing tools till 90 days after your first sale. You’ll need a minimum of ten favorable eBay evaluates too.

These selling limits are intended to secure consumers from the similarity scams or substandard products. Once you develop a favorable selling history, eBay will trust you to sell more.

Step 3 – Submit your profile

To appear trustworthy, it’s an excellent concept to add a photo and a description to your seller profile.

To do this, you can simply click your name, which appears in the top-left corner of eBay when you’re checked in. Click on your avatar and you’ll be able to modify your profile information.

When you register to eBay, you’re appointed a random user ID. You should also edit this to include your brand so eBay consumers will take you seriously.

To do this, head to the My Account tab in My eBay. Then click ‘Personal information’. Here, you’ll be able to edit your username and add your social media accounts.

If you truly wish to develop your brand name on eBay, you should think about registering for a shop subscription. This is optional and comes with a month-to-month fee. However strategies start at simply $4.95 per month and you get to customize your storefront. It likewise comes with advantages like smaller sized fees.

Step 4 – Establish your store policies

When producing a listing, eBay will ask you to fill out details around shipping, payment and returns.

You should think about these policies carefully due to the fact that they substantially impact costs and profits, as well as client satisfaction and eBay feedback.

Payment choices: eBay handled payments was just recently introduced to most sellers. This consolidated platform allows you to provide payment by card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Paypal.
Delivering policies: Here, you specify your dispatch time and the delivery services you use. The faster the better! But you should likewise be practical. 71% of items sold on eBay are shipped for free, so attempt to use totally free shipping if you can. But if you offer big or heavy products, this could be risky. In this case, you could consider offering your consumers integrated shipping rather.
Returns: Here, say whether or not you accept returns. If you do, mention the number of days this is readily available for and who pays for the cost of delivery. A generous returns policy might increase sales, trust and your possibilities of appearing at the top of eBay search results page.

Step 5 – Pick rewarding products

Item sourcing and rates is tricky. But you’ll find it a lot easier if you concentrate on a specific niche that you’re passionate about. You’ll be much better at determining excellent items and creating listings which interest your audience.

Beyond this, you need to hang around researching brand names. You could even think about investing in an item research study tool, which scans the web for rewarding products in your niche.

You can likewise do some research study on eBay! On each listing, you can see the number of times an item offered.

If you click this figure, you’ll be given the item’s purchase history. This provides insights into an item’s appeal and rates.

When sourcing and pricing your eBay products, you’ll want to offer much better value than your competitors. However make certain to factor in marketplace fees, satisfaction expenses and any other outgoings your business has. At the end of the day, you wish to earn a profit.

Step 6 – Create and optimize your listings

To create a listing, you just sign into your account and click the ‘Offer’ button which appears in the top-right corner of practically every eBay page.

eBay will prompt you to enter an item ID or name, so it can instantly populate your listing.

Alternatively, you can go to a product page and click the ‘offer now’ button.

If your item has been noted before, it will save you a great deal of work. You can simply include your own shop policies and make sure the material is accurate.

Whether you’re developing a listing from scratch or getting aid from eBay, here are some ways to enhance it.

Product category: Make certain you note your product in the most relevant classification or it will not be seen by your target market.
Pictures: Supplying lots of premium pictures can help increase sales and minimize unfavorable feedback from purchasers.
Title: While this need to include some keywords, it’s likewise about drawing in clicks from shoppers. Ask yourself: what would my consumers type when trying to find this item?
Description: This is your primary chance to persuade consumers to purchase your product! eBay recommends writing a minimum of 200 words and consisting of keywords throughout the text. This will help your listing appear in more search results. We likewise recommend keeping sentences short and utilizing various fonts and formatting to highlight key selling points.
Fill out as many information as you can!

Final ideas

There’s a lot to learn more about how to sell on eBay, however if you take it sluggish and consider all of these steps, you should be able to avoid major slip-ups. Once you’ve developed yourself as a trustworthy seller, you can then start to increase your listings and drive sales with eBay promos.