eCommerce is calling out to entrepreneurs to realize their entrepreneurship aspirations. It affords the reach, logistics, and cost-savings that traditional business models simply can’t. With the world preferring to go online to meet its shopping needs, the door is open for a quick upscaling of your business with good profit margins.
The question now is, which of the available platforms do you choose to proceed with. Not going with an established eCommerce platform means having to carry the additional burden of developing and maintaining your own website and ensuring that it gets the visibility its needs, all of which can be costly.
Listing on eBay will solve that problem. The platform is dedicated to giving small time entrepreneurs the support they need to start up and scale their business to great heights. It is an established platform with a significant share of the online shopping traffic, and has a brand reputation as a reliable and supportive platform to both customers and sellers.
Thus, choosing eBay as the launchpad for your eCommerce entrepreneurial journey is a wise choice. While there’s the convenience and visibility of the platform by your side, there’s also the heavylift you need to do to keep your business operational and progressing. Every routine task, from inventory management to eBay bulk product upload, requires constant vigilance to help keep your business competitive.
Assistance in the form of a professional eBay services provider can offload your responsibilities. Such an agency can provide the end-to-end support you need to run your business smoothly and give you the freedom to truly focus on your entrepreneurial plans. So it’s best to hire one from the get-go.
eBay Entrepreneurship: Why It’s Sought After
Concerns about how business-friendly your seller platform of choice is when you’re starting out as an entrepreneur is normal. A wrong choice could leave you with overheads and insufficient brand visibility and value, ultimately drawing your entrepreneurial journey early on, possibly in debt. It may have policies that could severely cut down your profit margins, or hidden fee structures that may not be apparent initially.
It is, therefore, crucial that you know what your choice of platform will entail when you choose to conduct your business through it. Listing on eBay is a choice that will benefit you due to its business-centric structure. It has numerous measures that have made it a favorite among the eCommerce entrepreneur community.
Here’s a look at some of them:
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Multi-Format Selling
When it was established way back in 1995, eBay was a pioneer peer-peer selling platform that leveraged the then burgeoning technology of the internet. It introduced the original selling format of online auctions, where a seller’s listing on eBay would be hosted for auction and potential buyers would bid for it, with the highest bid in the given time getting the product. It was revolutionary then, and still is as no other major eCommerce platform has this feature.
eBay then introduced its “Buy it Now” feature, turning the platform into a regular eCommerce one where sellers could sell their items to buyers instantly and directly without the latter going through the bidding process. This direct selling feature lets entrepreneurs conduct eBay Bulk product upload with the confidence that their inventory won’t stagnate due
to having to open bids on each, and will be bought in the easier, conventional way.
You can do both if you wish, allowing you the flexibility to profit from either option, with the bidding method giving you higher margins depending on the circumstance.
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Easy Account Opening
eBay is not known for a lot of paperwork regarding a seller account opening and maintenance. Its policies are clear and easy to understand, and the opening process itself involves a handful of steps. You can easily open an eBay seller account and have your listing on eBay up and running in no time, especially if you take the assistance of a professional eBay seller management service.
There are two types of accounts you can register with: personal and business. A personal account is for casual selling, while the business account is for the professionals. The best part: opening a business account is free of charge, with you having to only pay product listing and sale charges. For registration, you only need to enter the particulars of your business like its legal name, address, etc. and input a username for the account. Once done, just click “register” and you’re good to go. It’s ideal for your eBay bulk product upload requirements.
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Easy To Start Small
So, you don’t have a lot of budget to spare for your venture but want to go ahead anyway? No problem. eBay has a very easy passageway on its platform for small-time business starters. You can start with selling just a handful of items as well. You’ll get a feel of the product listing, image attachment, customer interactions, and price management. You’ll also get a taste of the backend stuff like inventory management, order filing, finance management, returns management, etc.
Still not sure of doing an eBay Bulk Product Upload? No worries. You can continue with a limited upload count without any fee too. eBay doesn’t charge any fee for product lists up to 250 numbers. After that too, the charges are low. There is the “insertion fee” that is added to every listing post the 250 limit, based on categories. Most category insertion fees stand at 35 cents a listing. And selling an item nets you a small “final value fee” that for most categories stands at 12.55%, with a 30 cent addition per order.
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Global Presence With Large Traffic
eBay is a multinational portal with users all over the world. It has amassed a large fanbase along with people who regularly use the platform for shopping. Its global presence means that by listing on eBay, you can sell your products worldwide. This feature opens up the possibility of growth speed that is not possible with traditional selling. Not to mention the reach and visibility of your brand.
Its average site visit stood at 1.8 Billion in 2020, signifying a large traffic flow that you can use to your advantage. The larger the share of it you can grab, the quicker you’ll be able to grow your revenue and scale as well.
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Easy Product Description Writing and Image Posting
What you tell about your product in its description is what will sell that product. Your listing on eBay’s product description is the main descriptor of its features, functionality, attributes, shipping policy, etc. It’s what customers rely on to make their decision to purchase that item. The other influential factor is the product image. WIthout your customers having a look at what they will be buying from multiple angles, they’ll not be moving ahead. It falls upon the seller to ensure that their product listing has enticing and descriptive product description along with the appropriate image.
You don’t have to struggle to do so with eBay, especially if you have a professional assistance provider doing it for you. Even with an eBay bulk product upload, the facility provided by the platform to write your product descriptions with all its attributes and identifiers is easy to use and accurate. You can even conduct SEO with the right keyword placement and the algorithms will pick it up easily. And if you use the image uploader according to the specifications, like uploading your product image with the correct dimensions and alt text, you’ll have a perfect product representative package for your customers that the search algorithms will love to share.
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Multiple Return Options
Listing on eBay also means having to deal with the returns of those listings at times. Returns and refunds, after all, are a part and parcel of doing an eCommerce business. There may be umpteen number of reasons for products to return to your shop’s doorstep, from manufacturing defects to mistaken order. If managed properly, you could have wasted inventory and unpaid refunds bogging you down in no time. And that management starts with a well thought out return policy.
Fortunately, eBay doesn’t let its sellers down in that department. To make the lives of entrepreneurs like yours easier, it has put in place many return policies to choose from. They can be applied independently to your every product, or uniformly across your eBay Bulk Product upload portfolio. The different options are:
- No Return Policy
- 30 day Buyer paid returns
- Free returns for 30 days
- 60-day buyer paid returns
- 60-day free returns
There’s no need to explain why the free return ones are the most popular option.
The combination of the above-mentioned facilities, and many others like them make listing on eBay a lucrative and progressive choice for your business.
How A Dedicated eBay Account Management Service Can Spruce Up Your Sales And More
Running an eCommerce store, even a small-scale one, comes with its many challenges. There are multiple functions that an entrepreneur must perform just to maintain the store’s status quo. If you intend to grow, then you need to give more than that. The management difficulties only scale up with your business, to the point where you simply can’t do it by yourself.
eBay Account and Listing Management Services exist to mitigate that problem and help keep your business thriving. They handle most of the routine tasks behind running the store, such as product listing on eBay, leaving you with resource savings that you can utilize to focus on the core of your business and its future high-level decisions.
With virtual assistance services, they will be able to handle all of the tasks virtually, saving you the cost of having to dedicate a separate office space for their functioning. Their versatility extends to functions like accounting and customer service, giving you the complete solution package. They’ll even guide you and act as your personal assistant depending on the hire option.
Below are some of the functions you can expect from professional eBay seller account management service:
- Seller Account Opening
- Seller Product Listing
- Product Description Writing
- Product Image Upload
- Order Filling and Management
- Returns Management
- Customer Engagement and Service
- Ads and Marketing
- Financial Account Management
- Inventory Management
- Competitor Analysis
- Market Research
- KPI Data Analysis and Reporting
- Expert Guidance
If listing on eBay and the other functions mentioned wasn’t enough, they will offer customized assistance that’s tailor made to your business’s unique requirements. They will be your most powerful asset, acting as the support pillar and leaving you free to concentrate on making the big decisions to make your business big.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is a fulfilling journey that only some with conviction undertake. With a supportive platform to sell from, your dreams will be fulfilled along with those of your customers. Steady efforts towards delivering your best will take your brand from a small name to a household one that your customers will love to trust and rely on, giving further thrust to your business’ bottomline.