It’s time to get your listings up for Christmas!
Have you noticed a bit more traffic lately? Maybe a sale or two you didn’t expect? Have a question from a new Member? That’s because people are already Christmas shopping!
With only 14 weeks until Christmas, it’s time for OnlineAuction.com Members to get their OLA Houses filled with Christmas listings. 14 weeks may seem like a long time away (less than 100 days!), but in eCommerce, it’s not nearly long
enough!
Consider this:
1. Buyers are on tight budgets this year and that means they’re comparing listings and sites. The good news is that they’re better at it than ever
before. According to statistics from last year, more than 500 million people access the internet at least once a week and of that, at least 52.8 regularly purchase items online.
2. Once an item is found, especially in the case of an auction listing, the buyer has to win the item, pay for the item, and then have the item shipped.
3. Right now, you can save your buyers money by using cheaper ‘ground’ delivery options (USPS Parcel Post, UPS Ground, etc.) and saving money is on every buyer’s Christmas List!
4. Listings that suggest Christmas is Coming are more likely to encourage your visitors to get moving on their own shopping and product choices.
5. Sales that have issues or problems (lost in mail, broken in transit, lost in your store room, product has to be made, etc.) have plenty of time to fixed or taken care of.
6. Buyers who need to ship to other places have plenty of time to win the item, pay for the item, receive the item, wrap the item, send the item to its final destination, and know that the item will arrive in plenty of time.
Even if you just read #1 and #6, you should realize that Now Is The Time To List, List, LIST!!!
Some things to consider for listings:
1. Make sure your listings are friendly without being cheesy, professional without being boring, and/or colorful without being blinding. Holiday shoppers rarely continue to look at a listing that is just “too much”! Too many things going on in a listing will send a buyer to the ‘back’ button
fast!
2. Make sure your listings are grammatically correct. Check spelling AND punctuation! If mistakes abound in your listings, buyers will wonder if you can get the item to them safely and on time.
3. Be careful of what colors you choose to use in your listings! With Christmas listings, the urge to use RED letters is overwhelming… but consider
that red is also used for “stop” and “danger”, not to mention that folks who are color blind can’t see it! Imagine someone who is color blind not being able to read the title in your listing!!!
4. Listings where the seller uses the word “you” (as in “You will love this” or “Your son or daughter will love this”, etc.) are more likely to give
the buyer a personalized feeling about the listing and statistics say that if they feel like you’re addressing them personally, they are more likely to buy!
5. Make sure your store policies are clear and easy to locate. I realize that all a buyer has to do is click on your policy page, but new members may not
see it right away. If they have to look for it, it could cost you the sale. It’s better, especially around this time of year, to include at least a basic
description of your return, feedback, and shipping policies in the listing. It doesn’t have to be extensive, but the object is to make sure your prospective buyer doesn’t have to search for it.
6. Make sure your listing has a postage price in it! Listings that do not include an actual postage price are among the lowest selling listings. Some customers will contact you and ask and some customers will go to USPS and enter their zip codes, but most will just back out of the listing and find a listing where the postage is clear, concise, and posted!
7. Be sure to use proper SEO techniques!
(A) Your title should be no more than 72 characters long and keyword rich.
(B) Your subtitle should be no more than 50 characters long and be the most important keywords from your title.
(C) Your listing should have the title in the beginning as well as the end of the listing (here’s a hint: if you don’t center the title, it will show up directly under the photos at the top of your listing and it will show up directly above the photos at the bottom of your listing).
(D) Be sure to name your photos with
keywords from your title.
8. Be sure to utilize good SEM techniques! Search Engine Marketing is as simple as using Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, your personal Blog and/or the OLA Team Blog. When you complete a listing, go ahead and Tweet it and FaceBook it as soon as you submit the listing! NOTE: When using Social Media (Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, etc.) don’t just spam your items! Be sure to follow this rule: For every item you promote, you need to put something that has nothing to do with your (or anyone else’s) items. It’s as simple as ‘sharing’ someone else’s post, a news story, a good/happy thought, etc.
9. Make sure to check for sales every day! The longer a new buyer has to wait for their invoice, the less likely they are to complete the sale.
10. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE!!! Thank your buyer upfront for the sale in the invoice, in a separate Omail, even in a regular email. Do another Thank You after payment is received and/or you have shipping information to give them. After feedback is given and received, Thank them one more time! You
cannot over do a sincere Thank You, but you can under do it! You want new (and old) buyers to remember how communicative and supportive you, as the seller, were… especially when they’re still shopping for items… or telling their friends
about how the transaction went.
And one last bit of advice?
Under Promise and Over Deliver. If you tell them
you’ll ship in no more than 3 days after payment clears, package the item up and ship in no more than 2 days. Don’t think it matters? Think about the last purchases you made… you know when a transaction is done right and when it
isn’t… So Do They!
Good Luck and Good Sales!
