BEFORE YOU BEGIN
161 Set Up an eBay Store
162 About Listing Items for Sale at Your Store
SEE ALSO
164 Make the Sale
If you build it, they won't necessarily come. After you open your store, don't expect the world to beat a path to it. You'll have to work to get visitors and then work on promoting your items to them. Using your own ingenuity and eBay's built-in promotional tools, you can pack your new storefront with potential customers.
1. | Pay Extra Listing Fees When you list a new item to be sold, you have the option of paying extra fees to highlight the listing. A wide variety of promotional opportunities are available, including a front-page highlight, a highlight on category pages, boldfaced titles, and many other options. Costs range from a $1 fee for a bold listing to $99.95 for a single featured item on eBay's home page, which is listed under the Featured Items area near the bottom of the home page. NOTE Be careful not to overspend when buying promotional spots on eBay. If you're going to choose a $99.95 listing, it only makes sense to do so if you're selling multiple items and fully expect to sell most of them. |
2. | Use Your About Me Page Your About Me page is a great promotional tool for your store. The page lets you list any information about yourself and your interests and automatically includes information about your store as well. But a surprising number of peopleincluding sellersdon't create an About Me page. To do it, click the My eBay button at the top of any eBay page, click the Preferences tab, and click Create a Personal 'About Me' Page . Follow the simple directions for creating one. |
3. | Build Your Own Website Millions of people use eBay, but many more millions of people don't use eBay. Your potential customers are not only existing eBay customers but also those who don't use the auction site. You can draw people to your eBay business from outside of eBay by building your own website and linking to your eBay business from the website. 163. Market Your Store |
4. | Include a Signature on All Your Email Email software lets you automatically include a signature at the bottom of every email you send. That signature can be any text you want. Create a signature that tells people about your eBay store. If you're like most people, you send email to dozens of people a day, and signatures are a great, free way to get the word out about your eBay store. Check your email software to see how to create a signature. TIP In Microsoft Outlook, you can create a signature for your email messages by selecting Tools, Options . Then select the Mail Format tab and click Signatures . From there, follow the easy directions for creating one. |
5. | Use the eBay Merchandising Manager The eBay Merchandising Manager is a great way to cross-promote the items you have for sale in your store. When someone is on a bid confirmation page for one of your items, for example, you can cross-promote other items in your store she might want to buy. For example, if you're selling a CD of the opera La Traviata , you can sell posters of the opera, or photographs of the composer Verdi, or other Verdi operas. If you're an eBay member, you can use the eBay Merchandising Manager for free. From your My eBay page, click the Preferences tab and then click Participate in eBay Merchandising . |