Auction 411

With so many products out there, there are numerous ways to approach your Starting Bid amount. For example, most people like to start to sell their items at the price they paid for the item to ensure they cover their costs. This could be a good approach especially if you’ve paid less than the going market rate for the product on eBay.

Another approach that is discussed is to whether or not start your bid at $0.99 or even $0.01. Many will swear that the technique works, especially if you are selling an item in a very competitive market. The downside of this approach is that if the super high competitive market yields you only one bid, you must be prepared to sell your item for that amount. Some sellers can’t afford this kind of risk, but others take the risk in order to gain as much exposure as possible for their items or their store. We suggest that you use this approach when you are starting to establish your feedback, but once you have a eBay feedback rating of over 100, you should be able to sell more on the merit and professionalism of your store. The level of risk is unique to each product and each store owner, so to get an accurate risk tolerance level, we always suggest to do as much industry research as possible on your market and your product.

On the flip side of this approach, starting at a non-competitive bid will lead to less eyeballs, so whatever your choice, there’s always a chance that the bidder can actually win the auction at that price. A great way to look at how you correlate your feedback and starting bid points is to think of it as one. If you have less feedback, then you will want to start at a lower starting bid to attract more buyers. As your feedback increases, your starting bid increases because you will be selling more on the merit of your feedback than on just lower prices. People aren’t stupid, they’d rather pay a little bit more from a trusted site than lose all their money for a cheaper price.

Auction411.net Tip: Price Point Cutoff

If you start your listing at a higher price, make sure you cover any fees and remember to price the item just under the listing fee cutoff. For example, if the fee for a price point of $25.00 - $49.99 is $1.20 and the next highest price point fee is $2.40, don’t start your bid at $50.00. Start it at $49.99 - you’ll save on fees alone if you always make sure to check the price point cutoff.

TITLES
The best and most successful auctions are the ones that are written with a powerful title and informative descriptions. These titles and descriptions are no different from regular forms of advertisement — they need to be able to pull in the customer, grab their attention, give them enough details to make an informed decision and then finally, be able to close the deal. If you master writing effective titles and descriptions, then you’ll be turning a profit in no time!

Titles are the first words your customers will read about your product. Actually, it could be the only thing they see as they peruse through the ebay listings, since 90% of all buyers search the titles, not the descriptions. You have only 55 characters (letters) to use to capture the buyer’s attention, so make them count.

First, you need to know your eBay product (See, I wasn’t kidding when I said you should do your research). Enough so that you know what are the most common words people will be using when searching for your product. Once you have pinpointed which words those are, include them in your title. Official names, nick names, year manufactured, color, size, condition are all common types of keywords used in effective titles. We suggest creating more than one listing for each product so that you can test more thoroughly which titles work the best for your product — this is what we call A/B Testing, which we will go over more in depth later (for now, just think of title 1 as “A” and title 2 as “B”).

One of the best things for you to do is to also think like a copywriter. Ask yourself — what are words that will attract buyers? Attention getting words like — Free, New, Bonus, Extra, Deluxe, Rare — as long as they also give an accurate description of your product! The better you know your product, the easier it will be to come up with these words. Also, remember to use common words. i.e. instead of using Argentine Musician, you should use Argentina Musician.

Still having a hard time finding words? Well, let’s cheat a little bit and use a thesaurus. There are also synonym finder programs or other reference books you can find out there on the web. We sometimes recommend using the thesaurus when you have an extremely popular item and you want to be able to distinguish yourself from the other listings a little bit more.

Here are some Don’ts: Don’t shorten the true titles of the products you’re selling! For example, if you’re selling an iPod Nano, be more descriptive in your title by writing out “Apple iPod Nano 4GB mp3 Player.” You want to be able to use all the words that buyers will be searching with to get as many tries at their click as possible. Don’t use too many superlatives, as those kind of titles may sometimes seem too good to be true — which can turn off the buyer and force them elsewhere (i.e. “Best” iPod Nano Deal Ever).

DESCRIPTIONS
Now that you’ve got the buyer to click on your listing with your outstanding title, it’s time to actually sell them on your product. This is where a well planned out description comes to play. Accuracy and details are the most important elements you want to start off with in your description. For example:

• Name
• Condition
• Unique Characteristics
• Age
• Original Use
• Measurements. Be as accurate as possible and maybe use a point of reference in your pictures (i.e. a ruler)
• Value (not to you, but the market value for a similar product)
• Included Accessories (adds to the value for the buyer)
• Be Honest about any known defects or damage

Tip: You might want to include alternative spellings or misspellings of your product in your description. When someone searches those misspellings, you’ll be one of the few listings smart enough to show up.

Unlike the title line’s 55 character limit, the description page gives you an unlimited amount of space to try and sell to your customer. The first thing to do is know that your new visitor wants your product and that you need to prioritize the information in your description to give you the best shot of converting that new visitor into a new customer. Each new line you type in your description should be viewed as another shot for you to convince your visitor to buy. This is where the research we asked you to do before comes in handy (again).

Secondly, if you can write your description as an authority figure of your product, your description will come off more genuine and the visitor will be able to trust what you have to say. Being an authority figure will also give you the ability to write in a unique manner where the visitor will be able learn some valuable insight on the product they are about to purchase. You will be able to stress how owning your products will benefit them, instead of some generic listing which lists just the product features. Remember to be positive and keep your description professional. We’re not looking for any warm fuzzy stories about how you won the teddy bear while taking your ex-girlfriend to the carnival. To-the-point is the name of the game here.

The last section of your description should be your Terms of Service (TOS). This is where you set the rules for your store (a.k.a. the fine print that people should be aware of). Some examples of some TOS stores include:

• Bidding Restrictions: “No bidders with negative feedback”
• Payment Options: “No Personal Checks”
• Shipping/Handling Charges or Options

Your Terms of Service should be clear and detailed, and also not so intimidating that you scare away the buyer.

Finally, make sure you proof read your description. Nothing is worse than reading a description with poor spelling or grammatical errors as that is a great indicator as to how professional your store really is.

Everyone knows the Golden Rule in customer service: The Customer is always right. Since we all know how to deal with the perfect customer, let’s talk about instances when you have one of the worst customer issues ever, and you don’t think that the Rule should apply.

Don’t lose your temper. One important thing to keep in mind is that you are running a real business through eBay, and no matter how well you conduct your business, there will eventually be a problem customer here and there. Just expect it — and whatever you do, don’t overreact to the situation. Let’s be real here, it’s going to happen, you will just need to be prepared for dealing with those difficult customers. Losing your temper over problem customers will negatively affect the way you conduct business only if you let it!

You may also run into buyers that don’t send payment right away, some of which become true “deadbeat” bidders. However, there are a few buyers that just become forgetful for a number of reasons - accidents, computer problems, family, etc. Always give the buyer the benefit of the doubt. Be polite when sending email payment reminders (space about 3 days apart), and give them enough time to respond. If you haven’t heard anything from the buyer within about 8 - 10 days after the auction ending or received payment after 2 weeks, you can file eBay for a fee refund. Just make sure to let the buyer know that you’re canceling the auction transaction. eBay should eventually issue a credit to your account for the amount of the final value fee.

Keep in mind that you can also cancel undesired bids if you suspect the buyer could be a problem. However, it is up to you if you want to contact the bidder to explain to them why you canceled their suspect bid. If you truly feel this bidder is bad news, you can block them from bidding on any of your future listings from the Block Bidder link within the site map.

Another recommendation we have is to never ship to an alternate shipping address unless you can absolutely verify that the buyer is the one requesting the shipping address change. Hackers can break into accounts and re-route shipping information, which in short, can leave you losing your product and your payment. Double-check the payment information with PayPal or wait until the payment has securely cleared to send the item.

We also recommend including a Return Policy in your auction listings (an option you can choose during the listing process). There’s almost no chance that the buyer will actually return the item, however, it will give them the security of knowing that you fully back up your product with a money-back guarantee. Just make sure to mention that the refund is for the purchase price of the item “minus the cost of shipping.” The buyer should understand that they can’t just buy something and send it back without paying a penny. Consider (to yourself) that the shipping cost to the customer is their trial fee that they forfeit if they return an item. We recommend browsing through some of the PowerSeller accounts and reading the different types of language they use in their return policies. If they are a PowerSeller, most likely they will have a well-written, clearly detailed return policy.

So here’s where good word of mouth comes into play. If you have a customer that is demanding a refund or return, and there is not a major loss for you, you might want to consider giving them the refund (which might not work for everyone, but will work for most eBayers). This may sound like you’re wussing out, but actually you’ll probably be doing yourself a favor. If you stand your ground with the wrong customer, the customer may lash out and leave some very nasty feedback. This could turn into very bad word of mouth advertising for your potential customers. Always keep in mind that there will be another sale. And besides, you do want the customer to truly be happy in the end anyway, right? That’s just good business.

So we have all this talk about problem customers…we know you might be feeling a little uncomfortable right now. However, remember that these cases are few and far between, and that you just need to be an alert Seller when dealing with real or potentially problem customers. But the reality is that most of your customer transactions will go smoothly. So how do you make buyers happy buyers? By always providing great customer service.

Most likely you’ve heard the saying “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” Well this also goes for customers. If you’ve ever had a horrible customer service experience, you know that you would never want to make your customers feel that way — for one, you’ll be making them feel just like you felt! And two, they will probably never buy anything from you ever again. Right? So, make sure to communicate clearly and concisely with your customers, provide good shipping service, and make your dealings personable. If a bidder has a question, answer it quickly. Communication is key!