I
have been selling on eBay for 60 days and have experienced every single
imaginable incident (happy customers, unhappy customers, fraud). I have managed
to sell nearly $2000 worth of items and have learned so much about how to
operate a store, how to properly price my items, how to market myself and my
store, stand up for myself against people who abuse eBay’s buyer protection
program and the fraudsters who want to make a buck off of you.
I
have learned early on that my customer only wants to buy shoes so I have
stopped uploading clothes. Instead, I have placed all of my clothes on Depop
and started marketing that online platform. In addition, I have learned the
importance of taking a copious amounts of photos, answering customers’ questions
and shipping the items the same day I receive payment. Initially in the
beginning, PayPal held onto my money for 21 days. Now if I ship on Monday, I
receive my money two days after the customer receives her merchandise. This is
big when I need the money to pay bills!
Another
thing that I have learned is how to properly price things. I have learned that
the hard way ($177 in insertion and other fees during my first month). I have
reduced or increased my price to sell 17 items in two months. In addition, I
have leveraged social media namely Instagram and Blogger to generate awareness
for my store. I have blogged eBay Adventure just to chronicle my experience as
a newbie eBay seller trying to declutter her condo; and, the people love it. I
am genuinely happy that so many people love reading about my journey because I
have learned a lot along the way. Furthermore, photographing the blog post and
uploading it to Instagram has spread like wildfire. Instagram enables me to
share on Facebook and Twitter so I have three major social media outlets.
Moreover, I have an eBay Pinterest board and have been on Periscope and
Snapchat showcasing my latest additions. Overall, I must say that I have gotten
some sales based on social media and blogging.
Finally,
I have experienced some bad things which happens. The bad customer and
fraudsters have taught me not to believe everything that someone tells you on
YouTube. The YouTubers will tell you that eBay always protects the buyer;
however, that has not been the case for me. I offer no returns and promptly
ship all merchandise.
I do have new
sales goals for this new 30-day cycle. They are to move $1000 per week and to
start working on devising my new fashion line. Now that I have gotten the hang
of eBay and online selling, I am ready to take this to the next level.
Visit my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6
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