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eBay Seller’s Guide Series Part 3 – Posting, Packing and Communication

Communication

Communication is key to becoming a successful seller on eBay. Buyers like to be reassured that their money is in safe hands and that their purchases will be delivered to them safely. My top communication tips:

• Answer any buyer questions accurately and promptly. Speedily answering questions will impress buyers and may prove essential if questions are asked in the final hours of your listing.
• Message buyers a confirmation of purchase when they win your item, a payment confirmation when they pay for your item and a confirmation of delivery when you post their item. It’s professional and buyers will take kindly to being kept in the loop.
• If any problems come up with delivery, such as postal strikes, snow, or you not being able to get to the post office for a few days, let them know. No one likes to be kept wondering.
• Always be polite in your messages. If a buyer is rude, do not retaliate.

 

Postage and Packing

This is a very important aspect of your listing. There is no point going through the trouble of selling your stuff if you’re just going to package them poorly and then send them to the wrong house.

Your first encounter with postage and packing will come when you try and work out how much to charge on your listing. There are several things to consider:

• How much the item is worth
• Whether you want it to arrive the next day
• Whether you need insurance on the item
• Whether you want it signed for
• How much the item weighs
• The dimensions of the item once packaged
• Which country you will be delivering to

A very handy tool is the Royal Mail postage calculator. You just input the weight of your item and which country it will be going to, and you get an instant price. Unless your item is excessively large or heavy, just use a kitchen weighing scales to get an approximate weight in grams and you’re away.

The Royal Mail offer insurance on items that are worth less than £46. In other words, if your item gets lost in the post or is never delivered, £46 is the maximum amount of compensation you can receive. If your item is worth more than this, you will have to send your item in an insured postal service. The price of this will vary depending on the weight and value of the item. For expensive items, for peace of mind, always go for an insured and signed for service. That way you know when your item reaches your buyer as you can track it online, and if anything does happen to the item you will be compensated for your loss. This will cost more than the standard service but it often worth it.

If your item is large or excessively heavy, you should look at using an alternative courier rather than the Royal Mail. Services such as Parcel Force and DHL will come and pick the item up from you and take it directly to your buyer, which saves you the hassle of taking a heavy item to the post office.

There are a few different ways to buy your postage. The easiest way is to just package and address your parcels and take them to the post office, where the employees there will do it all for you. The downside with this however is that the Post Office often has giant queues which will take up your whole lunch hour. Another way is to buy online. This can be done for both Royal Mail and courier deliveries. You will find the online postage shop on the Royal Mail website, and it allows you to create, pay for and print off postage labels that are ready to go. One thing to remember with these labels is that they are only valid for 2 days, meaning that if you cannot post them until the end of the week, they will be invalid by the time you try. Only buy labels online if you intent to post the same or following day. Once you have done this, just attach the labels to the parcels and either pop them in the post box, if they will fit, or take them to the drop off counter at your local post office. Make sure any necessary customs labels have been filled out if you are delivering overseas.

Posting in other countries can often be complicated. Offering worldwide postage is sure to get a lot more bidders on your items, but difficulties can arise once you get to the post office. Generally, I would advise against sending electrical goods overseas, as some countries, especially those outside the EU, as some have strict customs laws and will not allow them into the country. One that you definitely have to watch is mobile phones. When posting them outside of the country there are very few delivery services available which will cover you for loss, so you risk sending an expensive phone abroad with no insurance or coverage. This can result in a lot of hassle both for you and your buyer. Other things however, such as clothes, DVDs and books are usually perfectly fine to sell abroad. All you have to do is make sure you charge enough postage to cover your costs and ensure any customs labels have been completed if you are sending outside the EU. Opening up your lots to Europe, USA and Australia is often well worth your while!

One trick to entice buyers to purchase more of your items is to offer discounted postage costs if they buy more than one item. You will still easily cover your costs if you promise half price postage for each additional item and may secure a few manic buyers in the process!

One last thing to remember, is that you must properly package your items. If it is delicate, make sure to package accordingly, with plenty of bubble wrap and ‘Fragile’ stickers. The last thing the buyer wants is to receive their item either in pieces, or only half there because the envelope has ripped open in transit. Parcel tape and plastic mailing bags are your friends, as these often ensure a safe parcel.

 

That’s it for this part of our eBay series, check back soon for Part 4- Fees and Charges

Tags: communication, earn money, ebay, ebay buyers, guide, make money from ebay, postage and packing, postage calculator, royal mail, selling online, weighing scales

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eBay Seller’s Guide Series Part 2- Photo, Title and Description

So you know what you want to sell and you know how to create a listing. But there are other things you need to know to really maximise your viewers, bids and of course, profit. The title is one of the most important parts of your eBay listing, as this is what the buyers see when they’re searching. Photos and descriptions are also key elements as these are all your buyers have to go off when they’re looking at purchasing your stuff. To make your listing worthwhile, follow these tips.

 

Title

Your title is the first thing buyers see when they look at your product, and is also the only way they will find it in the first place. Make sure you fill the title with key words and facts rather than meaningless description. For example, if I was selling a black jacket, I would write something like “Marks and Spencer M&S Black Zip Up Coat Jacket New size 10″ rather than “Really lovely jacket from Marks and Spencer, fits great”. Save things like this for the description, the title needs to be full of things that people will actually search for. When writing your title, think to yourself, if I wanted to buy this, what would I search for?

 

Photos

Always always alwayssssss include a photo in your listing. The first photo is always free so you have no excuse. Listings very very rarely sell with no photo, after all, would you part with your money to buy something you’ve never seen before?

Remember to do the following when taking photos:

• Take your photo in good lighting. Dark and dingy photos or those which are over-exposed will not highlight your item’s true potential or character. You will just end up with your buyers squinting at the computer screen trying to see what they are meant to be bidding for, or shielding their eyes from the glare. Take your photos in a well lit room, natural light is usually best, and only use the flash if you dont get any glare, or it doesn’t change the colour of your item.
• Take photos from all angles to give the bidder the best idea of what your item looks like. Usually, they will not be able to view your item before they bid, so make sure you give them as clear an idea as possible as to what it is like. Remember that in most categories only the first photo you upload is free, so take note of the charges before you upload all 30 photos you just took. In some categories, such as clothes, shoes and accessories, all photos are free. If you are listing in this category then take advantage of this.
• Pay attention to the background of your photos. If you are photographing a black t-shirt, do not lie it in your black bedspread to take the photo. Generally, if the item is light in colour, take it against a darker background, or vise versa. Other than that try and find a happy medium. Also, buyers do not want to see your feet, the toilet, or the dog in the background of your photos! Take them in a clean room free from clutter, kids and animals.
• If there are flaws with your item, always make sure you document this. A scratch here or a chip there may not be a big deal to you but it may be to your buyer. It may seem like a good idea at first to conceal these flaws to get more bids, but this will backfire when your buyer demands a refund because the item was not as described. If you include photos buyers know what they’re taking on and may actually be pleasantly surprised at how minor the flaw is. Be honest!
• With some items, it may be a good idea to include a stock photo if possible. For example, the picture off the website if the item of clothing you’re selling is still in stores, or the stock photo from the mobile phone website. Be sure to also upload a photo of the product you have taken yourself however, as if you just include the stock photo people will be unsure of the exact colour, size and condition of the item they are buying.

 

Description

This is the main body of text that people will look to to find out information about your item. You need to use it wisely, and be as descriptive as possible. There is no space limit to this so write as much as you like! Make sure you include:

• Size/dimensions.
• Age/quality/condition of the item.
• Whether it includes the original packaging, labels, box or bag.
• Any flaws or defects, however minor.
• Whether the item comes from a pet and smoke free home.
• Descriptive details on colours, the materials it is made of, where you bought it from and if it cost a lot, include the rrp.
• What type of payment you accept, and if you do not accept a certain payment type, make this clear also.
• Which regions you will or will not ship to- this will save you any repetitive emails asking if you ship to Nigeria.
• If you accept returns and if so, what your policy is.
• Let people know if you are selling more things similar to this, and ask them to look at your other items.
• State if you are willing to offer joint postage costs if someone buys more than one of your items, this may encourage people to buy a lot more than they would have otherwise!

 

That concludes this part of our eBay guide, any suggestions or tips you have found useful are appreciated

Look out for the next post in this series: Part 3: Postage, Packing and Communication.

Tags: ebay, how to get more bids on ebay, make money from ebay, make money online, taking photos

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Online Survey Review: Valued Opinions

As I mentioned in my previous post here, filling out paid surveys for market research companies can make you a bit of money. In this post, I am reviewing the Valued Opinions survey site, which is one of the larger and more popular survey sites around.

The Facts

Valued Opinions is a market research site which pays you in exchange for filling out surveys and providing information which they can then pass on to the big companies that hire them.

• They usually pay between 50p and £2.00 per survey but can pay up to £5.
• Once you hit £10, you can redeem your money in the form of high street shop vouchers, such as Arcadia, Amazon, Tesco and Boots.
• Surveys are pretty regular, usually a few a week, and you are notified by email every time a survey which is appropriate for your profile comes up.
• They have a mobile app which allows you to complete surveys on the go.
• Surveys are variable in length, ranging from 5 mins to around 30 mins.

My Opinion

Personally, I think that Valued Opinions is one of the best online survey sites I have tried. I find the surveys are regular and rarely pay out less than 75p each. This results in cash adding up fairly quickly, and with the low pay out threshold of £10 you will have your reward coming to you sooner than you think. I recently cashed in my £10 for some Topshop vouchers and they arrived in the post around a week later, in which time I have already built up another £5.50 in credit!

Although mobile surveys are few and far between, I like the fact that there is an app, and when the surveys do come around I can do them when I am out and about as they are usually quite short. One downside with the website is that pending credits can take quite a while to become redeemable on your account. This is due to the fact that they can only pay out the reward when the study you have completed is finished and closed to the public, which can sometimes take a few weeks. This could result in you waiting around to cash in your £10 which you earned weeks ago! Also, often you will find that you just didn’t click on the email fast enough, and that the survey will have reached the selected number of applicants before you got a shot. Another downside is that you can often be screened out of surveys after already answering several questions which is a bit of a waste of time.

Nonetheless, this site is one of my favourites and will be one I continue to use. I have found that the credits build up quickly if you keep on top of the surveys and the choice of rewards are great with fairly fast delivery. I recommend!

Tags: amazon, making money, mobile surveys, online, online survey, surveys, tesco, vouchers

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