7 Ways to Increase eBay Sales During Holiday Season

eBay's holiday or season sales is just like what's in the offline business - November and December are the hottest months of the year. And below tips will make those period to be even hotter to your online auction business.

1. Make a Plan for Your eBay Sales Campaign and Start it Early

Holiday season actually goes beyond itself. Taking Christmas as an example, the holiday buying season starts on November 1st, and peaks from November 20 to December 19 and end on January 20th.

A research shows that during December 11-17, even you increase the price of your items 10%, you still can get 10% increase in sales compared with the other week during November 20 and December 19. The main reason is that this week is the last chance for people to find gifts on eBay, and at that time, people just want to get one as soon as possible instead of comparing the price again and again.

2. Focus on "holiday-friendly" items, and Provide Gift Service if Possible

Item can be bought as a gift should be the main thing you are supposed to sell on eBay during holiday. If you sell items other than it , reduce the supplies of those items since gift purchase is the main reason for people to go to eBay during holiday. And considering the nature of it, gift services such as Ship to Gift Recipient, Enclose a Gift Card or even Gift Wrapping can increase your holiday sales a lot. Gift wrapping can also be part of your eBay profit center.

3. Line up Your Suppliers or Stock up on Hot/in Demand Items

Line up your suppliers. Make sure you have reliable suppliers lined up in advance so you have the product you need to maximize your eBay holiday sales. You can join some of the top eBay wholesale we list in eBay Auction Wholesale Supplier Review to make sure you will get enough supply.

Stock up on hot/in demand items. What's hot in the world at large is what's hot on eBay, too. For example, if you were selling iPods on eBay during the 2004 holiday season, you did well. One way to increase your eBay holiday sales is to add popular items to your product listings.

Find out what's hot on eBay itself by using the tools eBay offers. On eBay's What's Hot page, you can view Hot Items by Category or use eBay Pulse to check out current trends and hot picks. If you can be ahead of the curve (or even in the first wave) with some of these hot items, you'll increase your eBay holiday sales dramatically.

4. Use more "Buy It Now" listings.

The holiday season is prime time for impulse buys - and impatience. Using more eBay Buy It Now listings rather than auction-style listings will give your products an edge with those impatient, impulsive online shoppers who don't want to wait for your auction to end and increase your holiday sales.

5. Explain Your Shipping Policies Clearly and Provide Some Discount on Shipping

Offering free shipping on Buy It Now items have been proved to be a very powerful way to increase your holiday sales. Research shows that this method can increase the sales anywhere from 12% to 40% depending on the product category.

And you can increase your sales by offering combined shipping or giving out some special discount on shipment, such as when buying 2 items, customers will only need to pay 1 item's ship fee. The last points about shipping is that always offer expedited shipping to your customers during holiday season, a lot of people just rush into eBay and buy the gifts right before the holiday, they want the items to be delivered as fast as possible.

Finally, you will need to explain your shipping policies clearly in your list. Online shoppers don't just want to buy gifts; they want to know when those gifts are going to arrive. When you make sure that your shipping policies are clearly explained in your listings, you make it easier for them to decide to buy your product. Otherwise, they have to take the time to email you and ask - or just buy someone else's product.

6. Give your eBay pages a holiday theme.

Giving your pages a holiday theme will help put online shoppers in a holiday buying mood. And also give the online shoppers that this is a place to find hot holiday gift.

7. Leverage the Promotion from eBay during the Holiday Season

eBay runs a lot of free and reduced cost promotions during the holiday season. This announcements is easy to be missed if you don't visit its message center frequently. Recommend to change your Notification Preferences to get an email from eBay that gives you a heads up on the promotions. Go to My eBay. Under Account, click on Preferences. Then edit your Notification Preferences. Under Newsletters, Promotions and Event Notifications, just select the Seller Promotions check box to opt in.

Reference

You can get to know about how to start with your home business on eBay from Make Money on eBay. Sean Ray is an expert on online business. He has more than 10 years working experience of guiding people to create their own online business. - 108 Ways to Work at Home is his web site where he shares the knowledge about how to make money online. And you can contact sean.ray@onlinemoneyclue.com if you have any questions about this article.