The way to a top ranking on eBay

eBay is now the world’s largest online auction house and offers the best possibilities to sell your products easily.

By following some simple rules, you can avoid problems and make your business as lucrative as possible.

Less isn’t always more. Those sellers who make the effort to create a detailed product page with all necessary images, and laid out nicely for the customer won’t only be rewarded with a good ranking, but also more sales.

The product ranking

The buyer will be confronted with a gigantic range of choices. The pivotal moment is when you get them to become aware of your product.

Here are some methods to ensuring your product gets into the top places:

• Use keywords in the product title (tip: short, precise bullet points generally receive better rankings)
• Choosing the best-matching product category
• Using as many product identifiers in the product description as possible, especially EAN and MPN
• Number of product images (one of the most important factors)
• Good reviews / high customer satisfaction for past auctions

Title and description

After the image, the title is the biggest eyecatcher for your product, so it’s worth making this as precise and honest as possible, as well as using the maximum allowed 80 characters. After this, the product description is the point where the customer decides if this is the right product for them. It’s important to appear professional, so try to avoid grammar and spelling errors. The description should also mention any defects or damage to the product, instead of trying to hide them. If the customer returns your product, this could affect your ranking.

Variants, items, and item details

For reasons of clarity, eBay no longer lists products separately because of variations, such as colour or size. So take this opportunity to offer your product in as many different variants, sizes and shapes, especially if you’re selling clothes!

To make this easier for you and the customer, eBay offers technical help with setting up the main product and its variants.

Please note: eBay limits products to 250 variants, 5 variant detail descriptions, and 30 different values per variant detail. For a complete guide, see here.

magnalister also supports this function. More information is available in our interface.

Because of copyright laws, eBay does not allow the product description to be taken from other pages – it has to be written specifically for the listing. You can get around this problem by getting approval from the manufacturer to use the standard text.

In the text itself, you can also link to other products, which can increase your conversion chances.

As a commercial seller, you also have the opportunity to use one common product description for different auctions for the same product.

Other things to include:

– Shipping cost information
– Payment methods
– If product is new or second hand
– Guarantee and return policy

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Dealing with shipping

Shipping and shipping costs can sometimes lead to disagreements. To avoid this, it’s best to be completely transparent with the customer.

As a seller you have the ability to open discounts and offers, including for shipping costs (for example, the buyer pays no shipping on purchases over a certain amount). With this strategy, you can encourage customers to buy more, while you make use of loyalty offers from shipping companies.

To minimise customer queries about the status of their order, and also to manage your deliveries better, it’s best to provide tracking codes and work with trustworthy carriers.

On top of that, you can take the opportunity to offer discounts on shipping costs for orders over a certain amount. This makes your offer more attractive to customers and increases the chances that they’ll buy from you again.

This is why sellers include shipping profiles on eBay. Multiple orders of the same product, as well as combined orders of several products, can be accounted for both digitally and in analogue form.

The shipping profile can be set up to account for different values.

Apart from the shipping profile, you can also set up a shipping cost table. Here, shipping costs are displayed according to different categories, like countries or regions. It is also possible here to exclude areas from delivery, both domestically and internationally.

Please note: When you exclude areas from delivery in your eBay account, this becomes valid for all of your auctions.

Your own eBay shop

For the best success, it is recommended to open your own eBay shop. Apart from the minimal effort required, setting up your own shop also has the following benefits:

– Better ranking for your products
– No extra software or programming required
– Connection to a global online marketplace
– Great opportunities to market your products
– Set valid date as “Good til Cancelled”

Concept consultation from magnalister

For beginners in the area of multi-channel marketing, it’s especially important to not get lost in the many possibilities online. When dealing with such a complicated area, good advice and good preparation are particularly valuable.

In addition to our product and support, magnalister offers a free introduction into the system via on-screen tutorials. With this we can help you make your concept ready to compete on the market.

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For more information, you can reach us by telephone.