Hi Andrew,

I would like to ask you some advice on marketing activities I could do to improve my numbers on eBay. A little bit of background info – I’m selling PC/MP4/iPod etc. accessories (like cases, cables, docking stations, decals) and doing pretty good actually – getting some 20-30 sales a day with an average profit margin of 30%.

Now, seeing all those people coming to our listings/shop on a daily basis, I was wondering – could I make more money out of each customer? Our average order is pretty low and usually people just order 1 or max 2 items at one time. Maybe it’s because we offer FREE shipping on everything? I wouldn’t want to risk with this though as it could affect our DSR and Top rated Seller status.

We don’t see much of return customers either but that could be because of lack of branding (our name is crappy, we don’t have a fancy logo/website yet).

So – any ideas on what we should do?

Many Thanks,
Aidan (Limerick, IRL)

Hi Aidan,

Thanks for your question, it’s a good one!

And there’s so much I could tell you about improving your business, but obviously we don’t have that much time here (if you’re interested in a 1to1 consultation, take a look here). Today, I would like to cover one specific strategy majority of eBay sellers are not implementing – it’s called UP SELLING!

Why is it so powerful? Think about it – you have already done the hardest part of the sales process:

• You have a product for sale on eBay Auction;
• You have a interested buyer looking @ your offer;
• You have a Buy Now button in place.

Now – if the lead is qualified, if the product is OK, if the price is OK, if the design & the layout of your listing is OK, if your feedback is OK – the sale should be triggered almost automatically, right? Theoretically yes, but in the real life things are a little bit different…

To become a sales master, you should always analyze the reasons WHY so many people leave your auctions or website without buying anything. Why? The reason is very simple – it’s so much easier to increase your conversion rate than to get more traffic to your website or auction listing! And it will become even more difficult in the years to come due to the increasingly growing competition in e-commerce.

Generally speaking, you can divide your visitors into 2 groups:

1. Information Seekers

2. Shoppers

You’re not interested in Information seekers as it’s almost impossible to convert them into buyers. Information seekers just look for product descriptions, pictures, reviews, feedback, and forum posts about any particular product to make a buying decision later on.

On the other hand – shoppers are the ones on which we should spend most of the time as they are READY TO BUY!

The question is – Do you have an OFFER for them?

We’re Back To My Favorite One -
Give Your Buyers OPTIONS!

I think it’s obvious – if you can give several options to your buyer during the sales process AND after the sales process, you’ll make more money! As simple as that. So without further ado, let’s get started on the exact strategies:

How to Set Up an Efficient Up Sell System on eBay!

1. Get a hosting account (if you haven’t done that already)
2. Create a 1px, white image
3. Upload the newly created image to you hosting account
4. Create a re-direct via your hosting account
5. Insert the white image into your listings
6. Link the image to re-directed URL

Now you have an easy way to manage your up-sell campaigns. Whenever you want to run an up-sell, cross-sell or down-sell campaign, just:

1. Upload campaign’s banner to your hosting account (just replace the old 1px image keeping the same file name).

2. Change the re-direct link to your needed auction

If you want, you can insert several up selling blocks into one listing – just use separate images & re-directs for each block.

Up Sell Ideas

Lets cover some commonly used up sell ideas you can start using IMMEDIATELY to increase your eBay sales:

• Higher Quality – do not underestimate buyers whose main concern is quality, there are plenty of them out there! If you’re selling different quality/range goods – let them know! Example – you sell iPhone pouches. Probably you have products with different styles, different price tags & quality for sale. So let the buyer know: “Hey, OK – if this is not what you’re looking for, we have other stuff for sale as well”! In cheap product listings offer higher quality items and in higher priced listings you can promote lower-end stuff – this will be called Down Selling.
• Greater Quantity – this one is really simple! If you sell 1 item, promote a listing with 3 items, ideally with some kind of discount or FREE shipping! This works really well for everyday items, such as ink cartridges, paper, stickers, and all kinds of hobby supplies, packaging materials and similar products (the ones where people would be interested in buying more identical products to save some money. This won’t work with Laptops for example J)
• Additional Products & Services – Have you ever tried to purchase a domain name through GoDaddy.com? They’re the up selling monsters! They up sell so many additional services that I get sick of them and haven’t used for years. But it works!

Typical examples of up selling additional products and services would be:

• If you sell laptops, up sell 2nd battery or a bag;
• If you sell mobile phones, up sell screen cover or a pouch;
• If you sell video game consoles, up sell games or a 2nd controller;

You can also up sell services, like:

• Extended guarantee;
• 24h Express Shipping;
• Phone Support with assembly;
• Free Upgrade;
• Insurance;
• Tech support;
• Training;
• Customization;
• Gift wrapping;

As you can see – the opportunities are endless!

• More Advanced – works very well in electronics & specific niche markets where you know what you’re doing (knowledge wise). So for example – you sell different types of price tag guns. In the cheaper item listings you can up sell more advanced price guns.

• Packages – up sell several related products as a bundle and offer a discount! This is one of my favourite techniques as it works perfectly and allows you instantly increase sales volume.

• Buy 2 get 1 Free – yeah, I know – it sounds so “over used” but trust me, everyone is using this one because it SIMPLY WORKS! People love FREE stuff and they’ll love you if you give them something for free. This technique will be perfect if you deal with high profit margin items.

• Volume Discount – again, an ideal strategy if you sell all kinds of supplies or products that are usually bought in quantity. One of the easiest ways to give a volume discount on eBay is to set up FREE shipping over a certain order value.

Now, depending on the niche you’re selling in, you can create unique up selling strategies but the ones I mentioned are the most popular ones – I have tested almost all of them and can honestly say to you – this stuff works!!!

Hope this helps!

Thanks,
Andrew

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