Will Using eBay's Vacation Setting Hurt my Store and Sales?

Great question from reader Heather B:

"Will going on vacation hurt my store …. I have read people going on vacation and never recovering in the sales dept." 

I recommend changing handling time and leaving your listings active. eBay store vacation setting has 2 modes - one where your listings are hidden and one where they are active, and you can add a note about your return.

The note should say, "We are away until XX, and will resume shipping on XX." Buyers (who read it) will know exactly when to expect their item to be shipped.

Change your handling time to what you need to cover the time you are gone.

Whenever you do get a sale during your vacation time, always message the buyer to make sure they understand there is a delay in shipping. Some will cancel the order, which is better than getting low DSRs or negatives.

But some will be fine with it. Also, take a screen shot of your vacation and handling time settings so that if anyone does ding you for slow shipping, you can show eBay that your store was on vacation and your handling time was XX, and they can remove anything derogatory from your account.

This is definitely more trouble than just hiding your listings, but it is all about sales, right?

I have never hidden my listings when away, just added a note and increased handling time. I don't mind spending the time shipping all the sales that helped pay for the vacation!

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eBay Success Story - Best Offer Increases eBay Sales

Bonnie sent this email after having her store critiqued and resisting putting Best Offer on everything. I recommended it to her, and her reply was:

"I have tried Best Offer at different times without much luck.  I have used the reject a price lower than and straight best offer.  I get very low offers a lot of the time and when I counter, I never hear again.  I use calculated shipping on every item and many people try to make offers and then add free shipping.  On offers that I do accept, people take a long time to pay or don’t pay so I opted not to use Best Offer. "

I told her I was still standing by my suggestion to add it. Even if you get 1 offer out of 20 you can accept, that is still a sale. And those add up over time. 

So Bonnie tried it, and sent me this email last night:

"I wanted to report back to you about using the Best Offer Option.  I listened to a video Saturday and one of the people talked about using Best Offer.  He talked about not being offended by low ball offers because we as resellers try to get the best deal we can when we buy, so some of our buyers are doing the same.  After your talking about using BO and hearing that I decided to give it a try.  I added Best Offer to everything $12 and up late Saturday night.  Below are my results.

Sunday:

I received a BO.  I countered after about 45 minutes, but apparently before she read the message, she bought the item outright.

I had an item with BO that someone bought outright.

I had an item that someone in Australia offered quite a bit less on, but after checking comps, I could see the person was in the ballpark so I accepted and he paid within 10 minutes.  With over 1000 listings, it is impossible to keep checking comps and adjusting prices so offers force us to do that.

Monday:

I listed an item Sunday with BO, someone bought outright.

I had an item with BO that I had quite awhile, someone bought outright.

Tuesday:

I had an item I received an offer on and after going back and forth, I accepted her offer.  She paid within 10 minutes and sent me a thank you note.

I had another item with BO that someone bought outright.

I just wanted to let you know that I am now a believer in BO.  I am wondering if it also helps move you up in searches, so that people see the item even if they aren’t making an offer.

I haven’t had a chance to add shipping to Canada myself yet, but hope to figure that out in the next week and get that going. 

Thanks for your persistence on using BO."

Visit Bonnie's store here and check out what she sells.

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Selling on eBay when Thrift Store Prices are Too High

I received the following email from a reader:

"Do you think not living by a Goodwill Outlet is working against me? I mean can I still sell on eBay without having a Goodwill Outlet store close by?  I mean sometimes I find it hard to find things to resell at Goodwill and Savers.  Yard sales are seasonal. Savers is so over priced I cry when I leave.  The regular Goodwill store is ok but I feel as though what is left over wont sell that well that's why there left behind.  My nearest goodwill outlet is about 1 hour 15 minutes away and the last time I went didn't find too much and kind of thought twice about my drive being worth it.  I mean is it crazy for me to drive that far to maybe leave empty-handed? I am starting to wonder if selling on Ebay is for me anymore."

Having access to an outlet certainly helps with getting inventory cheaper. It is all about what you pay for inventory. 

I understand about overpriced items at stores - it can be hard. However, I wouldn't assume that what is leftover in GW is not sellable. Everyone is looking for different things. The people ahead of you may have been looking for books and toys and you are looking at clothes. They are constantly adding new things to the sales floor, so you may be the first person to see something. One person's trash is another person's treasure. You aren't buying every single item from a thrift store that has value on eBay, so why assume everyone else is? 

Also, it may be what you are selling. To survive on eBay I am a firm believer that you must diversify. The more you know about different things, the better picker you will be. Think about it. If you specialize and just sell dolls or purses, you may be walking past literally hundreds of items that you could turn a profit on. You just have to study, study, study and learn what to look for. It is constantly changing. I am selling things this year that I never heard of or never tried last year at this time. 

One thing you can do is use Facebook Buy Sell groups, or the Let Go app and buy stuff other people are selling locally. 

You can also put ads on Craigslist that you buy certain items. Something like, "Downsizing? We buy your used stuff." Then see what you get.

It is very important to change your mentality to one of abundance from one of scarcity. It may seem that there isn't anything to sell, but maybe there are other ways you can go about it.

And eBay isn't for everyone forever. Some people burn out and decide it isn't working for them. Things change, sometimes it is time to move on and try something different. 

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On No!! My First eBay Negative!!

I often receive emails from sellers who are shocked, discouraged, and upset by their first negative on eBay. Here is how to mentally handle it:

First of all, take a deep breath. This is just a negative feedback. You haven't been suspended for anything. Your account is still intact and you can go on!

It can seem devastating (the pic above is meant to be humorous...) - I've been there. Trust me, it sucks. But this is the nature of eBay.

This is like if you were in college and you bombed one test - would you give up and drop out? Of course not, you have done too much to get here. Or if you fall of a horse, the first thing you do is pick yourself back up, and get back on. Life is going to knock you down from time to time.

You can certainly call eBay and appeal this feedback. There are certain situations where eBay will remove feedback - like if it contains profanity, threats, personal information, or links. See the full eBay policy here.  But in most cases, the negative stands and you just have to suck it up and move on.  Put that energy back into listing items. Or, give yourself some thrifting therapy and go shopping.

My advice is to take this with a grain of salt, and get focused on your business. You can't unring the bell - you have to have a thick skin and move on. Keep listing. Keep giving great customer service. You will recover.

If your account goes below standard, you can recover. Here are the steps to do that.

Negatives happen, you deal with them, and move on. You can look at this as a road block or a speed bump.

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How to Add a Note to eBay Listings - Inventory Number, Bin Number, or Other Info

Wanted to share this tip with you about how to add a note to your eBay listings. I really like this feature because it is visible on listings in all views of your eBay Seller Hub. A huge time saver when shipping because you can use it for an inventory number, bin number, location number or some other identifying code about where you store the item - and it is visible only to you, not buyers. So you don't have to waste space in your title with irrelevant search info and you don't have to open the listing to find the info.

Quick tutorial:

Go to your Seller Hub, choose active listings

Next, select the listing(s) you want to add the note to. Then go to the actions drop down box, and choose add/edit note.

Add your note(s). You can do several at a time - I don't know what the maximum number is that you can add or edit at once is.

You will see the note in any of your item views in Seller Hub - active, awaiting shipment, ended, etc. No more opening the listing to find the inventory or bin number when doing your shipping. Every minute counts with an eBay business!

This has been working great for our virtual assistant clients. They can provide the inventory number or location code when sending their other info, and we just add it using the notes feature.

Hope this was helpful.

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How to See Number of Views on Your eBay Items

Sometimes it is a good idea to end a listing if it has a lot of views and re-start it. eBay's search engine, Cassini, likes active stores and active listings. The older a listing gets without a purchase, the more it can be pushed down in search because Cassini sees it as an unsuccessful listing. Cassini is all about the buyer experience, and rewards certain actions and punishes others. You may unknowingly be doing things that are pushing you down in search and affecting your sales.

To reach the largest number of buyers, it is crucial to place high in eBay search. This fact has been mentioned several times on eBay Radio, eBay's YouTube Channel, and in eBay webinars since Cassini was introduced in 2013.

Since having your stores critiqued, many of you have emailed me asking how to see the number of views on your eBay items. Here are the steps:

Go to your eBay Seller Hub

Choose Active Listings

 Look for a column titled Views

 

If you do not see the views column, you may need to add it. Look for the word "customize" on the top right of the screen.

Click customize, then choose views.

 

You can arrange the columns any way you like. You can also sort by views so you can pull up the listings with the most views and decide if you should end them and start them over.

If you did not know that a lot of views can push you down in search, there may be other things you don't know about your eBay listings that could be hurting your sales. SEO, search engine optimization is very important in placing higher in search where buyers can see your listings.  I can help you with an eBay store critique.