By: Luke Wise
Join a Facebook page that is dedicated to eBay talk. Frequent the forums and attend conventions. You might be surprised by how helpful it can be to talk to other sellers.
Whether you’re new to eBay or you consider yourself a grandmaster of online sales, you’ve likely encountered several situations that left you scratching your head and wondering what move is the right one to make. From cases and returns to simply choosing the best wording for a listing’s title, it can be difficult to know if you are setting yourself up for success or failure until after you’ve fallen off the horse a few times. You don’t have to learn by trial and error, though! This industry is full of people who have seen it all, and most are happy to help out a fellow seller navigate the murky waters of online selling.
One obstacle many sellers face is the exorbitant time required to run a successful eBay store. You’ve probably noticed that it’s not as easy as just responding to messages. In addition to all the elbow grease that goes into actually interacting with the site and buyers, there is a ton of background work that takes place outside of eBay and can eat up more of your precious time than you may have originally anticipated. Taking pictures of parts, cleaning them for photos, figuring out interchanges, tagging and storing parts, uploading the photos, and so on.
Then there’s creating all your listings, running promos and coupons, dialing in your settings and pricing, and what to select for your business policies. If you find yourself working weekends just to tick away at the tip of the iceberg, then you’ve likely wondered if you should hire someone to take care of these tasks for you. Will it bring in enough revenue to justify a dedicated position? How do I even find someone who can do all this stuff?
Take a breath and start slow! Spend some time on the basics first. At Online Parts Depot, we tell all our clients there is one surefire practice everyone should follow to improve sales and reduce returns. PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES! Whether you are already selling on eBay or just getting started, taking part-level pictures is something you should consider taking seriously. You don’t need a fancy camera or an over-the-top photo booth to get the job done, and it doesn’t take someone with a doctorate to snap photos of parts.
Some of our most successful clients have the simplest setups that work great for picturing parts. You can easily build a small wooden box with 3 sides, paint it white, place the cleaned parts inside, and fire away with your smartphone’s camera from multiple angles. Get a close-up of that part number written on the back of a receiver. Include a shot of the end of that wiring harness connector on a side view mirror. Do you have wheels that you’re scared to list because they aren’t perfect? Take pictures of the imperfections and list them all! Buyers will accept all kinds of imperfect parts as long as we manage their expectations in advance. It’s when we surprise them with a part that isn’t in the condition they assumed it was when they bought it that they get upset with us.
Adding part notes is always a good idea, but most people do not scour the listing details with a fine-tooth comb. Generally, they look at the pictures, the title, and whether it fits. They’ve already been looking at listings for what probably feels like an eternity to them. Make your listing an easy choice and end their suffering!
Where do I begin? What parts should I picture first? We recommend starting with a handful of the top-selling part types, such as radio parts, wheels, and side view mirrors. Start with the ones you already have pulled. Dust off or wipe down those parts, and get cracking. You may find that hiring someone as a dedicated picture taker is worth the reward of having your weekends free. It’s a menial task, but still very time-consuming.
Do you or one of your employees have a young person in the family who is ready to join the workforce? Maybe you can steal away a sandwich artist from your local Subway. This type of work is not complicated. Someone out there is built for this kind of thing. You might already have an employee who can fill this need. Whether it’s a temporary position until you get a satisfactory amount of your inventory pictured, or a full-time gig,
fill that void and get the ball rolling.
Next up, you’ll probably want someone to handle your eBay needs for you. Where can you find such a person? What options are out there? Well, you can hire someone to work in-house, or you can hire a management company to handle everything for you. A management company can work remotely, as can someone you hire and train yourself. If you want a dedicated soldier in the trenches with you who can work onsite, they can double as your picture taker. Having them work behind the scenes as well as directly with your eBay buyers can only enrich their perspective and sharpen their approach to their tasks.
It can be quite difficult to locate a prospective employee who actually has an in-depth understanding of eBay’s inner workings and also knows car parts. We’ve encountered a few people who told us they “know eBay” only to find out that they most certainly did not. We’ve also trained people from scratch, which can take quite a bit of time, given how much there is to learn.
If you end up wanting to bring someone in who is capable but completely new to the space, take baby steps with them. Have them read eBay’s policy pages and other helpful articles on the site. Work with a management company or consultant at first to see how things are done. Have your new hire answer messages and monitor returns for the first few days, then increase their workload once they have a handle on it. Things like cases, disputes, running promos, tracking your metrics, adjusting pricing, working with a listing tool, and all the other things you want them to take care of can be taken off your plate and moved to their daily to-do list over weeks or months.
Wherever you are on your eBay journey, remember that you are not alone. Tap into the wealth of knowledge and support that is available to you. Join a Facebook page that is dedicated to eBay talk. Frequent the forums and attend conventions. You might be surprised by how helpful it can be to talk to other sellers.
I never tire of discussing the ins and outs of this industry, and there is so much to talk about! So put yourself out there. Post a question online and see what the community has to say. Contact a consultant or eBay management company and let one of us take a closer look at your business practices or evaluate the selling potential of your inventory.
The best way to run your eBay store might be slightly different from what works best for other sellers. Join any of the many conversations happening online, lean on your fellow sellers, and develop a strategy to take the next step in improving.
Luke Wise is an account manager for Online Parts Depot. He has worked closely with many salvage yards and the eBay Motor’s development team, helping both sides identify issues and create solutions. You can sometimes catch him on stage as a panelist in one of the eBay sessions or find him at the OPD booth as a vendor at many of the conventions throughout the year.
