Will Your eBay Sales Dive or THRIVE This Christmas?

This is a guest post by John Baxter

Christmas is an exiting time of the year and everyone always seem to be rushing around scooping up gifts for family and loves ones.  So, will your eBay listings be part of the Christmas commerce gold rush or will your sales be left dwindling in the dark?

When I first started eBay’ing I simply assumed that no one would be buying anything from my eBay stores because there are so many people in the physical high street shops at this time of the year.  And ‘Oh Boy’ was I proven wrong. The first Christmas my eBay store was open, was a booming success.  Sales were high leading up to the Christmas week and I was even making sales on Christmas day! (Yes I am a workaholic and I do check my email after the turkey has gone).

So what can you do to make sure that your eBay listings are making sales this Christmas?  Here are a few tips to make sure your store is seen in this festive seasons shopping spree;

1)  If you have heard of the 80/20 rule, then you will know that in any business you will usually find a pattern emerge, and that is that 20% of the products make 80% of your profits.  So spend more time promoting your best sellers.  If you take a look at all your eBay listings you will probably find that some are selling better than others.  Most people spend time trying to figure out how to sell their most unpopular products.  This is time usually wasted.  Instead, spend that time promoting your best selling products.  Those are the products that are proven to make money, so it makes sense to try and make even more sales of those popular products.

2) Bundle your best sellers. If you have products in your inventory that compliment each other, package them together and offer those products as bundle promotion.  For example, you could offer a ‘Stocking Filler Bundle For Him’ and a ‘Stocking Filler Bundle For Her’.  Bundling items can work well at this time of the year and saves your buyers having to spend more time manually searching for different gifts.

3)  Get more exposure! Don’t forget about auction style listings.  If you use ‘Buy it Now’ style listings or store inventory, add a few more of those items as auction style listings. That way those listings will be guaranteed to appear on the first page of eBay’s search results and those hungry Christmas shoppers will be exposed to more of your listings.

4)  Consider holding a ‘Christmas Sale’ on selected items. Discounting one or two items can lull more traffic into your store. Buyers see the great bargain you are offering and click through to your listing.  From there you have the chance to offer more of your store inventory in cross promotion links.

5)  Spread the cheer! Christmas can be a stressful time for many people putting a strain on their time and their bank account. If you see that someone might be a little stressed, try to be patient with them and offer your help. This includes customer service emails.  If you get a pushy customer, remain patient and calm.  Its probably not your fault that the customer is being too aggressive, but maybe they are just having a bad day.  Money is important but there are other things that are more important in life.

These are just a few examples of things you can do to increase your eBay sales this Christmas and it doesn’t stop there. You can use these tips to boost your sales at any time of the year.  So take a little time to relax and enjoy your Christmas holidays.

Happy Christmas!