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As I’m sure you’re all aware, I’m a big fan of selling or reselling stuff on eBay. It’s one of the best places to sell things online without going through the hassle of setting up your own website and store. So many people use eBay, which means you can tap into a very large market of consumers looking to snag a bargain.

On the face of it, it seems like selling things on this platform is a complete breeze. You have a product, you list it for a certain amount of time, people bid or click ‘buy it now’, and you’ve made a sale – easy!

The truth is, it’s rarely that easy. You’ll be very lucky if all your sales go along those lines. More often than not it’s a case of listing, not finding any buyers, re-listing, dropping the price, re-listing again, and then finally selling a month later.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when this happens to me I wonder why no one wants to buy my stuff? I’m not being biased, but I think the items I sell are pretty good and someone will get a lot of use out of them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother selling in the first place! Is it always a simple case of your products just not being desirable?

No, it isn’t. In fact, there are many reasons why no one is buying your stuff on eBay, even if other products just like yours are selling fast.

 

No One Notices Your Products

One of the main reasons people aren’t buying your products is simply because they don’t know they exist. When you search for things on eBay, there will be lots of search results. If you’re not at the top of these results, it becomes less likely your listing will be seen. Similarly, when people search for products in Google, there will sometimes be eBay results that show up. If your listings aren’t showing in these results, it makes it even less likely you’ll sell fast.

Consequently, you need to try and boost the visibility of your listings. eBay has a few things they take into account when ranking their results. You must be a top rated seller with positive feedback and a good sales history. You need to offer free delivery and shipping, and you should offer the best price for your particular product. Tick all these boxes, and you’re more likely to rank at the top of the results page.

 

For Google, it gets a little bit more complicated. Here, you need to focus on a few typical methods you might find an SEO agency using for their clients. Mainly; keywords and link building. Research the main keywords for your product and implement them in the description and item details/title. This makes it more likely your listing will appear on Google when people search for that same product. Link building helps boost your ranking, all you need to do is get people to naturally link your listing on their site. The best way to do this is by contacting bloggers and asking them to do this.

Slowly but surely, more people will notice your listings, and you will find it much easier to sell things quickly.

 

You Aren’t Providing Enough Information

Another reason people won’t buy your stuff is because you haven’t given them enough information. I bet you’ve all been on eBay and found a listing that looks promising. The title perfectly matches what you’re looking for, they’re a top rated seller, and the price is very decent.

However, you’re put off by the complete lack of information. The description almost doesn’t exist, it just states the product name. There’s barely a list of features and no description of the product history if it’s been used. Hell, even the picture is a basic stock image of the product taken from Google! There’s simply not enough to go by to make you feel confident about making the purchase.

If this is the case for your products, no one will buy them. You’ll end up with lots of views on your listing, but no one wants to take the risk because they can’t fully trust you. eBay used to be a place full of scammers, and people are still afraid even though the site is way more trustworthy nowadays. You need to inspire consumer confidence by proving lots of pictures of the product that you’ve taken yourself so they can see what it looks like. You need to write lengthy descriptions and cover every single detail you can think of.

By doing this, people will visit your listings and gain everything they need to make a confident decision. They’ll be far more likely to buy your items compared to when you withhold information.

 

There’s No ‘Buy It Now’ Price

Finally, people may avoid buying your products as you haven’t listed them with a ‘Buy It Now’ price. A lot of buyers prefer buying things like this as they don’t have time to bid. They want to buy it quickly without any fuss and don’t want to wait until the listing ends.

There’s no downside to listing a buy it now price, it won’t mean you have to sell your products for less. Some people avoid doing this as they think a bidding war could drive the price up. On the contrary, there’s more chance your product will sell for less when you just allow bids.

Add a buy it now price and consumers will know how much your product sells for and can buy it right away. It will help encourage faster sales and leave you re-listing fewer products.

When my stuff has struggled to sell, I find it’s down to one of these three things. Every time I list items on eBay I make sure I do what I can to make them more visible, provide as much information as possible, and give the option to ‘buy it now’. Apply this advice to your listings and see if your fortunes turn around and more people buy your products.

 

Chiino
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