While there can be many ingredients to a successful auction, one of the most important fundamental aspects of any auction is creating confidence in the potential buyer viewing your auction. Although every auction should establish a bond of trust, this is even more important for you as a new seller because you can’t get by on good feedback alone; you simply won’t have garnered a sufficient number of ratings. However, feedback by itself is not everything, and many auction shoppers will gladly buy from you if they see a good deal and have belief that you will treat them honestly. This article will cover 5 key points to help build confidence in your buyer.
The first step is very basic but incredibly important. Make the appearance of your auction as clean and clear and professional as possible. Make your item title and subtitle precise and to the point. Write a clear, to-the-point item description that includes all every descriptive detail about your item that a prospective buyer needs to know about. Do not hype your product. Make your description graphically pleasing and easy to read by using clear headings and bullet lists. Write the description in a business-like yet friendly manner. Never, ever plagiarize someone else’s product description. Also, be sure to include several images of your product so that the buyer can see exactly what he or she is getting.
Second, make your return policy very easy to see and read. Again, make it graphically pleasing and easy read through the use appropriate headings and lists. Be as clear and precise as possible so that there is no confusion or misunderstanding over the terms of your auction. Make your use of language courteous. If you only ship within the United States, do not say, “No Non-U.S. Buyers, Please!” Instead, say something along the lines of, “We are very sorry but we cannot ship outside of the United States at this time.” If you allow 7 days for a return to be refunded, do not say, “Return within 7 days or no refund.” Instead, say something to the effect of, “If you need to return your item, please let us know immediately within 7 days to process a refund.” You get the idea. Make your auction as friendly and inviting as possible. You want your potential customers to like you and spend time viewing your auctions.
Third, clearly state exactly what your payment method is. EBay requires all sellers to make an electronic means of payment available to buyers, and offers PayPal, Paymate, ProPay, MoneyBookers, and allows you to route customers to your own third party payment gateway. According to eBay, auctions that use PayPal are 50% less likely to end in a payment dispute. However, eBay owns PayPal, and so it is difficult to know to what degree eBay is simply promoting PayPal. What is not in dispute is that you must make it very clear to the customer how payment will be made. Also, state Buyer Protection in your listing as this covers buyers for the full price of their item.
Our fourth key tip is to make shipping and handling reasonable, to never pad shipping and handling, and to make the fees easy to find and read for your buyer. Many auctions these days are offering free shipping. Free shipping appears to be on the rise as more and more numbers of larger businesses, such as Petco and Buy.com participate in eBay. Although you may not be able to afford free shipping options, you can still offer fairly prices shipping and handling fees that allow you to at least break even or provide you with a slight cushion. We suggest that you use eBay’s shipping calculator to figure fees and/or offer a flat rate. You may even want to invest in a postage scale that can accommodate the weight of your standard item, unless you are selling really large items such as plasma TVs.
Fifth, clearly list your Buyer FAQs. Make a list of Frequently Asked Questions for your buyer to consult. You can actually display your list of custom written FAQs when a buyer clicks on the “Ask the Seller a Question” button from any of your pages. It is important to always answer any question promptly, and a ready list of FAQs will cut down on your email correspondence. Email from buyers is a good thing because it is a serious indicator of intent to buy. For that reason, you always want to reply to all inquiries as soon as possible.
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