Rob and Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper share five tips to boost your slow sales on eBay.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Rob & Melissa On 5 Tips To Boost Your Slow Sales
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are going to be talking about five tips to pick up your slow or stagnant sales on eBay.
Rob: All right guys, so are your sales right now slow or stagnant or are they just not moving as fast as you want them to?
Well, guess what, we're going to jump into five tips that should help you boost those sales.
Melissa: And we sell mostly on eBay, but this can apply for a lot of different things as well. We do have a couple that are just for, but really it comes along all platforms pretty much.
Rob: For sure, so without further ado, let's jump into tip number one.
Melissa: Check your titles.
Rob: This is huge, guys. Sometimes your titles might not have the buzzwords that they need to capture people coming in, looking for that specific item. Take a stroller, for example. You might have a stroller that you're trying to sell, and you might not have buzzwords like a jogging if it's a jogging stroller.
Descriptive words that people are going to be typing in the search bar that will bring them to your listing. So maybe it's a double stroller. Maybe it's a jogger, or maybe it's an umbrella stroller, all these extra words will help you in your titles. And use it for anything that you're selling. I'm just giving you an example of a stroller to think of.
But think about those words when you're looking to buy this item yourself, what words are you going to type in the search bar and make sure those words are in the search bar? How do you make sure those words are in the title?
Melissa: It does not have to make sense. So a lot of times people want like a cool title that maybe makes sense when you're reading it like a sentence, but it definitely doesn't have to be a sentence.
It can be like this word, this word, this word, just make it more searchable. That really can help and also double check your spelling because if you, somebody searching for the right spelling and actually that's another point too, like some of the things like, that might have weird spellings or that might be spelled wrong all the time, put both spellings in the title too.
Rob: That's a pro tip right there.
Melissa: Yeah, because that can help. I know with NordicTrack, I've done that. Like I never know how to spell NordicTrack. I don't know. I still don't know. I still have to look it up every single time, so.
Rob: Absolutely, you want to be able to, if people are, if it's a common misspelled word, you want to make sure both of those are in the title, also model numbers, make sure a model number. because a lot of people will jump into Google when something breaks and they know the model number because they did the research. eBay will pop up in that Google search and your item will come up for them. So make sure you have a model number, make sure you have the brand name. All those are super, super important in the title.
You want to do that. And this is really for eBay, but it will work on any platform that you are selling on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, whatever it is you want to be descriptive as you possibly can, to be able to catch those buyers, looking for that item.
Melissa: And also to use all the characters that you can use.
So, I mean, get as many things in there that you can. So, and if you run out, you can't think of anything else, maybe add something special about your item, like free shipping, like I'm doing free shipping. So if you really, you feel like everything that they're going to search is in there. Maybe I'm going to add free shipping at the end with an exclamation point or something.
Rob: For sure. For sure. So jump into tip number two.
Melissa: Number two is check on your pictures.
Rob: Pictures, go back and check some of your pictures on your listings. Guys, check, make sure that there's not clutter in the pictures. Make sure that they're brightened up. If they need to be brightened up, don't change colors on items, but make sure it's bright.
It's not in a very dim or a low light place that you're taking pictures. If you update those pictures, you have all your buyers are only seeing the pictures. That's all they're able to see when you're selling on eBay. That's what I'm giving you references for when you're buying on eBay, you're shipping that item to them.
All they're able to see as those pictures that you have in there, and eBay limits you to 12 pictures. So make sure those pictures are the best that you possibly can take. No clutter, try to have a clean flat white background so people can really, really see what they're buying.
Melissa: I have a bonus one to that one. We could use it at the end.
Rob: No, throw it in.
Melissa: A bonus one is add a video.
Rob: Beautiful. We've just recently started doing this in our listings and almost every listing that I'm doing now. And we sell high profit items, you guys know that they're worth a lot more money than typical $5 or $10 flips.
So it's worth it for us to actually throw a video in of the item working or of the condition of the item, all that kind of stuff. So that is definitely a pro tip. If you're willing to do that, you will see sales on that as well, and it will help you. Ebay is allowing you to do 12 pictures and a video with their new listing tool.
Melissa: We did a podcast and a video on this not too long ago. So you can definitely go check that out. But with their new listing tool, you can add a video and it's right in with the other pictures, which is really cool. It's not just in the description like it used to be. Yep. So definitely pro tip use videos.
We are doing it now and it will set you apart from other resellers for sure. All right.
Rob: Tip number three!
Melissa: Number three, promoted listings.
Rob: Promoted listings. So we don't always do this, but this is a good practice to get into. EBay started promoted listings I don't know how long ago, but they really are leaning more towards making people pay to get the item seen, of course, just like every other platform, they want more money. So that's one of those things, but the cool thing is they allow you to, adjust your promoted listing. So if you promote an item, they'll suggest what they want you to, what percentage they want you to promote it at, being that you're going to give them an extra 2%, 5%, 10%, whatever it is, they'll give you a suggestion and then you do not have to take that suggestion.
You can promote as little. I mean, you can use as little percentage back, giving them back as you want, or you can promote exactly what they're asking you to. So one of our sales from last month, we did a promoted listing on, and it cost me, I think $20, what was the total of the sale? Was it $300, $400?
Melissa: $400.
Rob: So $400 total.
We paid an extra $28 to get it seen. And it worked great. It worked out for us and sometimes we do it and sometimes we don't. But that might be something you look at, if you are not using promoted listings, that might be the edge that maybe do it and set a low percentage. So you're not paying them a ton of money, but you're just dabbling in it to see if it's going to help your item sell.
Melissa: Yeah. Especially if it's been a little stagnant for a little while. It can definitely like you don't usually do it right away. Usually you wait a little while and then if it needs to move, then you'll add that. And they do have another type of promotion, which their new, the cost per click.
It's promoted listing advanced beta. We haven't really dabbled with it yet because I don't like cost per click. Don't really love Facebook ads. So, I know it's a lot more complex and it might be what they're wanting people to use. We will probably check it out here soon, sooner or later. That's where you're spending money before you're even making anything.
Rob: Whether you make it or not.
Melissa: Yeah, sorry, whether you make it or not, where the promoted listings, the way we do it right now, we only pay them if it sells on the backend on the back, which we prefer to do.
Rob: But every platform tries to get as much money out of their sellers that they possibly can, or their users.
Melissa: But if nobody uses it, then maybe we'll be good.
Rob: And the other thing about thinking about this is definitely the new products that platforms roll out, eBay probably included, they're trying to get those items seen because it's a new product. So like I said, we haven't done it, but that's one of those things we probably should experiment into it and see if it is going to pay off.
But they are definitely going to be pushing this hard because it's a still in the beta testing right now.
Melissa: All right. Number four, do a listing challenge for yourself.
Listing challenge. This is huge. We have a huge group of resellers that have gone through Flipper University we all do stuff like this together.
Rob: We actually pick a month, or we just decide, hey, we want to start moving some more stuff. When eBay sees you on the site, more, whether that's buying, whether it's listing, whatever it is, the more time you're on platform, this has happened time and time again for us, we've experimented with this, your items start moving.
So typically they're going to show your items more if you're on platform more, like I said, whether that's buying, whether it's listing. When they see you there working in their platform, they're going to show your stuff more. And I don't know, algorithm wise, I don't know how that works out, but every time we have ever done this, we definitely see sales inside of our store.
For sure.
Melissa: Time on platform is important, but also you can use you're buying stuff too. Buying stuff because that can definitely- stuff you'd already normally buy.
Rob: Yep. Stuff that you might buy on Amazon. Amazon's a lot quicker on delivery, but if you can, switch it over and buy it on eBay. And the other thing is sometimes eBay stuff is cheaper than Amazon.
You just have to wait a little bit longer to get it, but I'm telling you eBay loves time on platform. Your items will start to sell. If you can start doing some purchases on eBay and along with listing more items on eBay, you'll start to see some sales as well. So number five, tip number five.
Melissa: Number five, cross post your item on multiple platforms.
Rob: Yes, this is huge guys. If you are only using one platform, if you're only using eBay, if you're only using Poshmark, whatever it is, try to reach out and get it onto another platform. Twice as many eyes on the item that you're trying to sell and you should be able to sell it faster.
Melissa: And that's also when, like if the algorithm decides to tank for a little while, then you have your stuff on other platforms.
I know some Poshmark people have been a little upset lately at Poshmark. So cause they have done some weird things with their algorithm and people aren't making as many sales. So, but if your stuff is on multiple platforms, then you can make more sales and I would probably suggest starting with one new platform at a time and get to know it.
And then, go on to the next one, but you can do it yourself. You can do it manually, or you can use one of the cross listing tools out there.
Rob: Yeah. And there are multiple tools out there. One of the ones that we like is Vendoo. We have used Vendoo. Vendoo, yeah. They're great. They have, I don't how many are they up to now?
Like eight or 10 platforms?
Melissa: I think more than that now.
Rob: Maybe more than that.
Melissa: And they just come out with an app. So, yeah.
Rob: So that's awesome. So check Vendoo out for sure. We like them. They cross post. They allow you to even import into them from eBay and then you can post on other platforms, which is really good for us because the majority of what we post and sell is on eBay.
But we're able to pull the listing over there to them and then put it on other platforms as well. So, check them out.
Melissa: We'll put that link in the show notes.
Rob: Yeah, that definitely might be the cutting edge for you. That might be the edge that will get you that next level and get your items moving quicker when you get them onto the other platforms.
Melissa: So thanks guys.
Rob: You guys are rock. Have a great day. We'll see you on the next episode.