Product Pricing and Traffic Tips for Ebay Sellers and Drop-Shippers

One of the most common mistakes new drop-shippers make is pricing there items without taking into account the fees that are involved in completing the transaction.  There is a simple way to avoid falling victim to this mistake and make a profit on every sale.

Formula for setting a profitable price:
 
Wholesale cost + Shipping Fee + Drop-ship Fee + Profit you desire to make = Preliminary price
 
Preliminary price + 15% = Sale price
 
It is necessary to add at least 15% to your preliminary price to cover your Paypal fee for payment received and you Ebay listing fees and final value fees.  You can spend the time to calculate exactly the fees that will be associated with the sale of your item if you have the motivation and then you can adjust the 15% that you add to your preliminary price accordingly. 
 
Once you have decided on a total sale price you need to decide how to break it up.  For example, if your total sale price is going to be $50 you can list the item for $35 with $15 shipping.  Use your common sense when deciding how to proceed.  Lower item prices are attractive to buyers but outrageous shipping costs will kill your sales.  Again, search for similar items on eBay to see how other sellers are pricing their items and shipping.
 
As you are setting your pricing you should also take the time to optimize your listing title.  A good title states clearly and concisely what the item is, what condition it is in and if you can squeeze it in it is a huge bonus to add the MSRP to the title–especially on items that you can offer a substantial discount.
 
For example:

Nikon d70 Digital Camera w/ extras! NEW! MSRP-$1800
200 Rolls Kodak 400 Film. FREE shipping! 50% off retail!
Lot of 5 belt buckles-Many choices-Retail $85

Once you have set your pricing and titles you are ready to start driving traffic to your Ebay listings.  Now lets look at how to optimize your ability to tap into the 60 million plus users on Ebay.  The wonderful thing about Ebay is that you don’t have to worry about advertising since there are already millions of customers at your disposal every day.  All you need to do is optimize your listings and take advantage of a few key insider secrets to drive Ebayers to your listings again and again.
 
Optimizing Your Listings in Ebay:

Go through your listings one at a time and do the following:

1.  As we already discussed you title is crucial.  When you feel there is not enough space it the title field to include the necessary information, add a subtitle.  Items with subtitles are more likely to sell.

2.  Add a gallery preview photo to your listing.  I can not stress this enough!  Items with gallery previews are 35% more likely to sell.

3.  Use the listing designer to spruce up your listing.  The more professional your listing looks the more likely you are to win the sale over a competitor who has a dull presentation.

4.  Clearly state your return policy!  You can check Doba’s return policy in the item product details under the supplier notice tab.  Potential buyers are more likely to purchase if there is a return policy available.

5.  Offer combined shipping discounts and clearly state the details in your auction details.
Use Ebay’s cross promotion tools to gain a ton of exposure for all your items.
 
 
Driving Traffic To Your Listings:

Use Ebays cross promotion tools to gain exposure for all your listings every time someone views one of your products.  This is accomplished by adding a window to the bottom of your listings that constantly scrolls through your other items for sale.  The settings are highly customizable to suit your style and needs and it is very easy to set up through Ebay. 

End your listings on Wednesday or Sunday evenings.  Statistically items ending on these nights have a higher sale rate since this is when consumers are typically home and using eBay, and buyers love to snatch up items that are ending soon.

Open an eBay Store and watch your traffic explode.  All you need is a basic subscription which is only $9.95 a month.  It easily pays for itself when you consider that it is only 11 cents insertion fee to add an item to your store where as running auctions and fixed price listings can cost $2, $3, $4 or more for the insertion fee.  Once you have an ebay store you can explode your traffic by following these simple steps: 1) Build your store inventory using the niche model 2) Select one or two hot items to send to auction or fixed price.  Add a subtitle to those auctions that advertises your eBay store.  For example if you are selling handbags send two to fixed price with a subtitle that reads “Many more great deals on handbags at my eBay store”. This simple process will drive buyers to your store even if they are not interested in the specific item you have sent to fixed price.  You can further increase the effectiveness of this approach by highlighting your fixed price items with bold or highlighted options available when setting up your listing. Finally with an eBay store you can utilize the Markdown Manager tool to create sales on items according to your parameters.  Buyers are suckers for a discount and this will greatly increase your store inventory sales.

There are dozens of other ways to drive traffic to your listings but I am not going to get into detail with that here.  This article is meant to give you a solid start in your new business and for now this is all you really need to do to guarantee your success.  If you would like to learn more and visit my free online guide via the link below.  Advanced sellers will find many useful resources on the Advanced Tools page and beginners can take advantage of my step by step guide to starting a successful Ebay business.