Other Tricks for Improving Item Sell-Through

Starting price and end time aren't the only factors in determining auction success. Let's look at a few other tricks you can use to juice up your close rate and selling price.

Offer a Discount for Multiple Purchases

When you want buyers to buy more stuff from you, make it worth their while. One popular incentive is to offer a discount on multiple purchases. This approach is particularly popular among sellers who run their own eBay Stores, but any seller can do it, by manipulating payment-due amounts at the end of an auction to override eBay's automatically generated invoices. Incent the buyer to make multiple purchases!

Note

Another factor in attracting bidder attention is the listing enhancements you choose when you create your item listing. Learn more in Chapter 21, "Choosing the Most Effective Listing Options."

Offer Free or Discounted Shipping

Offering free or discounted shipping is another popular way to close more sales. Confronted with one seller charging whatever to ship the item or another seller offering free shipping, which would you choose? There are even variations on this technique, such as offering free shipping when a customer purchases multiple items on the same order. (Just don't inflate your starting price to compensate for the lower shippingwhich could price your item higher than the competition and cost you sales!)

Make Changes Mid-Auction

If several days have passed and an item hasn't received any bids, you might want to make changes to the auction listing to attract more customer attention. There are many changes you can make, including

• Extend the length of the auction

• Rewrite the item title or description

• Add more pictures

• Add the Buy It Now option

• Lower the initial bid price

You can make any of these changes up until the final 12 hours of any auction, as long as there aren't any bidders. Once someone makes a bid, the listing is locked in; you can add to the description, but you can't make changes.