How to Sell on eBay: 5 Tips to Boost Your Profits

Learn how to sell on eBay, and you could boost your home business profits.

Depending on your home business, it's possible to boost your profits with a little help from eBay. However, learning how to sell on eBay isn't always intuitive. If you want to reduce your learning curve, here are 6 tips that can help you boost your eBay profits:

1. Know WHAT to Sell on eBay

First of all, you should have a good idea of?what you should be selling. Think about whether or not your product or old collection or whatever is well-suited for eBay. When you sell something on eBay, it should be easy to ship, in demand, and possibly rare. It also needs to be something that others can make a buying decision about without hands-on experience.

2. Present a Professional Image

If you want your eBay storefront to represent your home business, it needs to look professional. All of your listings should follow a similar format, and you should use keywords that match your business. You can use the listing generator offered by eBay to standardized your look.

Part of your professional image, too, includes using good pictures, and writing concise, accurate descriptions of your product. Learning how to sell on eBay goes better if buyers can take you seriously as a business.

3. Consider Your Pricing

Before you through something up on eBay to sell, do a little research. You need to have a good idea of what something will sell for. Then, price it a bit lower. The idea is to generate interest in the item, enough that people think it's a good deal and begin bidding on it. Let demand send the price higher. Stay away from using the “reserve price.” This often turns buyers off.

You can also include “make offer” and “buy it now” options in your listing. The make an offer encourages buyers to contact you and negotiate, while the buy it now can help you get the minimum you want quicker. Think about your preferences, and what might work best for your business.

4. Understand the Importance of Start and End Times

Interestingly, Sunday evening is the most lucrative time for eBay sellers. However, other evenings are also good. Think about your closing time as well as your start time. You want potential buyers to be available for the auction so that they can bid at the end. While you might have to pay extra to set a schedule, once you get the hang of how to sell on eBay using the best starting and closing times, the small fee is easily worth it.

5. Offer Good Customer Service

Since you are running a home business, you want to provide good customer service so that you get good reviews, and so that buyers will come back to you. Be clear about your return policies. Also, don't gouge your customers on the shipping costs. Be reasonable about the shipping. Watch for buyer questions, and answer them quickly. Take the time to answer questions, and ship promptly when someone pays for a purchase.

With some planning, and adherence to good business practices, you can learn how to sell on eBay in a way that is more profitable for your home business.