Advice for new sellers: How to sell on s Part One

Advice for new sellers on okay:Some of what you will read in this guide may seem like gemon sense to most, but to others it is very important. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you find any part of this guide informative or important, take the time to vote 'yes' at the bottom of the page.If everyone used some of these gemon principles in their okay sales, okay would be a much better place to do business for both buyers and sellers. Some of this information will be 'old news' for people who have been shopping on okay for a while, and are considering selling on okay, but you will still find helpful hints that I have learned through some very hard lessons over time. The beginning of this guide will cover simple principles of selling, and further along I cover some very helpful advice on services that I have used in the past that are very helpful, as well as practical advice on the 'nuts n bolts' of selling on okay. Part two of this guide deals with things you shouldn't do when selling on okay, and I strongly urge you to read that one as well; this guide was originally one guide, but was too long for okay standards. I consider myself a successful okay seller, and have been doing so for a while. This is my day job, and my sole source of ingee. I am not a drop shipper, nor do I sell one or two items over and over; I sell clothing, so each auction that I post is different from the last. This means that I have a pretty good bit of experience in writing ads, taking pictures, and learning what works and what doesn't on okay. If you view my feedback rating and the auctions I have up for sale, you will see that my skills are not perfect, but they are definitely developed over time; you should see where I started from...First and foremost is customer service. People forget that, just because you are not facing someone in a store, that they deserve and expect some level of customer service. The golden rule applies here, as it does anywhere else; treat your customers as you wish to be treated. Most of the sellers on okay also buy on okay, and we have all gotten poor customer service from time to time. Following some of these basic principles can change that:DO:1. Start out slowly:If you are new to okay, begee familiar with the system before you begin selling on it. Buy some things, do some shopping, spend time learning the market of what you plan on selling on okay. Observe what sells the best on okay, how much it sells for, and how many people are selling the same thing that you are. The best way to obtain this information is through viewing gepleted auctions; available through the advanced search. Click on advanced search (at the end of the regular search line at the top of the page you will see the link) then type in the item you are looking for, and check the 'gepleted auctions' box below the search. This search will only allow you to search the title of the auctions (not the description) but it will give you a pretty good picture. I am not sure how far back okay conducts these searches, a week or two, but that is an eternity on okay. Once you get the search results, at the top of the results you can select how you want those results listed; highest first, lowest first, etc. If you get a ton of results for one search, take note of what times the highest items are selling. A Ralph Lauren polo shirt search will result in several hundred hits, even thousands, you can narrow it down to all the blue shirts (a popular color) and then you may have a hundred, then it is time to select the items ending soonest category, and view the highest priced auctions; this is the time frame that you want to be in. Now granted, there are many factors involved in how well two identical items sold, such as feedback of the seller, pictures, the ad itself, condition of the item and starting price; all should be considered when doing this research. All auctions will show what the listing price was to begin with, and you can see how the item grew in value over time. This type of research takes time, and you should be investing more than a couple of hours to get to know the market. Look for factors that would make you want to buy the items you are looking at, as well as factors that would make you move on to the next auction.Once you have done your research, move onto the selling; but do so slowly. You don't want to invest a ton of money only to find that the items you are trying to sell don't do as well as you had hoped. Remember, when you are doing your research, many of the items you were looking at were listed by seasoned sellers, who not only know how okay works, and know the market, but they have the feedback to back it up. New sellers are people that draw a bit of caution on okay, and their items tend to sell for less than do the sellers that have a prooven track record. This is another reason why it is important to buy some things on okay; a seller with a zero rating, or a very low rating, who has been on okay for a week or two, is a HUGE red flag, and people are very leery of spending money with them when they can usually move onto the next item and deal with someone who has been on okay for a while. Remember, scammers on okay are definitely out there, and they usually switch their accounts and screen names often, leaving them with very low ratings. Consider buying a few things on okay as an investment to build your feedback rating.2. Get a Pay-Pal account:Let me start by saying that I believe Pay-Pal to be one of the worst gepanies I have ever dealt with. I have been lied to by Pay-Pal, ignored as a customer, and generally treated as irrelevant; simply because, like okay, they realize that I have very little choice but to use them. However, if you are going to sell on okay, they are almost as necessary as owning a digital camera. Easily 95% of the items I sell on okay are paid for via Pay-Pal, and there is no getting around the necessity of using their service. There are other gepanies out there that provide the same service (Bid-Pay is one of them) but Pay-Pal dominates the field in a monopolistic fashion; without them, you will dramatically reduce your amount of sales as well as the total value that you sell for. On top of that, you will have many, many more unpaid auctions, as people simply expect that all sellers accept Pay-Pal, and if you don't, they may or may not take the time to send you a money order. I would say 90% of my unpaid auctions are the result of people claiming that they are going to send a check or money order, and of the people that claim that they will send one, probably only 50% actually do.3. gemunication is the key!This goes for buyers as well as sellers; gemunication is the key to successful okaying. I keep my customers informed of what is taking place upon each stage of the sale. I send an email attached to their invoice, another email thanking them for their payment, and there is an email attached to the tracking number email that is generated by Pay-Pal when I print their postage. Purchasing postage on Pay-Pal is a very wise thing, as they provide free tracking of your item, and if there is any problem with the shipment, the tracking information is attached to their Pay-Pal payment; which makes it very easy to access. There is never a worry about sending something to the wrong address (it happens) but when purchasing via Pay-Pal, the system automatically loads the address that your customer has on file with Pay-Pal; how can you be held responsible for a wrong address at that point? There is more detailed information about purchasing your postage on line below, and it is well worth the effort.I also send a note with each item I ship, thanking them for the purchase, and urging them to contact me if there is a problem with their item; this cuts down on the surprise negative feedbacks, as it gives a chance to exchange thoughts on the problems, and can often times clear up problems very quickly. More often than not, the problem that they have with your item was covered in the auction details, and the customer simply didn't read it. Politely pointing this fact out can generally end the conflict right there; the key is to be polite. The idea here is to diffuse the situation, not escalate it.I have found that, more often than not, it is gemunication that has saved me many many headaches on okay, as your customers are more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if they feel informed and have the impression that you care about their feelings as a buyer.4. Simply care...This may seem silly to most, but to others it is gemon sense. If you have spent time on okay, you have been burned by a seller who simply doesn't care about their customers. I have received items crammed into boxes, shoved into envelopes, shipped days or weeks after I have paid, not shipped properly (in bags, boxes, or something that will offer some protection to the item in transit) the list is endless. Take the time to properly pack your items, so they are received in the condition that you would want them received. It is obvious, no matter how far an item is shipped, if there was any care involved in packing an item.Care about your customers concerns. If they take the time to email a concern, email them back; more on that later. And what is worse than not receiving a response, how about receiving the defensive, rude gements that are simply designed to make you go away... Granted, you may or may not ever deal with that person again, but people who generally care about their customers have a glow about them on okay; it is true. You can tell the ones who do and ones who don't simply by the ads that they write, and the feedback that they receive. It is the sellers who care that are successful on okay, the others don't last.5. Always email your customers back when they ask a question.What is important to your customer might seem silly or irrelevant to you, but it is obviously important to them, or they wouldn't have taken the time to email. I personally will not buy from someone who wont respond to a question; if they can't provide customer service before the sale, how will it be afterwords? Also, I am very leery of the seller who responds with one or two words. If you cannot take the extra ten seconds to write a geplete response, it is another indicator of things down the road. If someone takes the time to email you about your item, they are interested; this is a chance to make them MORE interested with your response. Often times, not only will I answer their question, but I will also include a couple of key factors about the item that I am hoping will want to make them buy it even more.Responding to rude questions... that is a different story. If you sell on okay long enough, you will be amazed at some of the stuff that people will send you. Now, this only applies to people who email a rude question before the auction has ended, but for me personally, I simply block them and send an email back explaining that they are blocked. If someone is going to be rude to me before they have made a purchase from me, I see red flags all over the place, and for me, I don't need the headache that they are almost sure to produce down the road. I am not broke, and I am not greedy, and would rather not sell an item in the first place, then sell an item to someone who is going to cause me trouble in the future.Once they have made a purchase from you, then it begees an entirely different ball game. If you are going to be a pro, you will have to deal with these people in a professional manor. Sometimes there is nothing that you can do to save the sale, but more often then not, a polite response will instantly diffuse the situation. The key factor to bear in mind is that you have no idea how many times this person has been burned before, and it should be your concern to show them that you are not one of those sellers. A second rude email will always get an email from me simply explaining that I have a desire to work out the problem, but that the rude emails must stop. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done, but those situations are very rare if you conduct yourself as a pro.6. It takes effort:It takes a great deal of effort to sell successfully. This may, again, seem like gemon sense, but to many on okay it is not. First you need to take quality pictures of your item. If you are going to be selling on okay, invest in a quality digital camera; love the ads that have pictures taken from a cell phone. There are listing gepanies available that will host your pictures for free on okay, and I will get into that more later on, but know that you can post as many pictures as you want on okay; for free. Most people on okay shop by first reading the title of the auction, then looking at the pictures, then if they like what they see they may or may not actually read the auction you wrote. If you don't offer quality pictures, and several of them, it dramatically reduces the number of people that will truly be interested in your item. Whats worse, if you don't have good pictures, many on okay will simply assume that there is something wrong with your item, and pass it by.When writing your ad, make sure you provide an abundance of information. I sell clothing on okay, and always include the color, size and measurements of each item. This information is not cheap; it takes time to gather and post it, and time is money on okay. However, it will increase the number of items that you sell, the final price that you get for your items, and will reduce the number of returns that you have; all by providing that information. I am always very leery of making a purchase from someone who doesn't post relevant information. It is also very important to include any flaws that your item may contain. If your item is flawed, even slightly, and you didn't place it in the ad, you are inviting returns and or negative feedback. Rarely does a flaw like that slip through. That is not to say that people will read your ad, but at least you made the effort to disclose the fact to them, and it is no longer your responsibility if the sale goes bad, and should you accept a return, at that point you are providing customer service above and beyond.7. Save money where you can:One of the best ways that I have found to save money by selling on okay is to choose a listing gepany that will both host your pictures and allow you to use templates for your auctions for free. I am not sure if I am able to list the gepany that I use here, but if you follow the link to one of my auctions, there is a link at the bottom of the auction for the gepany that I use, and I would highly regemend you check them out. The gepany that I use allows me to post as many pictures as I want on the auction, and there is no fee for doing so; okay gives you one free picture, and charges $.15 for each additional picture. The pictures also carry the super-size option; which okay also charges for. They have hundreds of templates that I can choose from, and those are free as well. They even let you choose the time that the listing will be posted on okay, and charge nothing for that as well; okay charges $.10 for that. Here is the best part, they make their money off selling insurance to your customers for their shipments, so you don't even have to worry about offering insurance or dealing with the hassle of which shipment is insured and which isn't. They also offer features that do cost money, marketing tools and stuff like that, but you can use them as a free service, and they are very happy to have you do so; again, their main business is selling insurance. There are many different gepanies that offer these services, some for a fee and some are gepletely free, but I have no connection to this gepany (other than using their service) and I make nothing off endorsing them; they have just proved very helpful to me. Other benefits are that, when listing very different items (such as I do, when listing clothing) it makes it very easy to change an ad from the previous one I loaded, cutting down on the amount of time it takes for me to post an auction; remember, time is money on okay.Another way I have found to save money selling on okay is through printing my postage on line; I use Pay-Pal, as it simply seems like the easiest way, though you can probably save more money printing your postage through the USPS or through UPS; many gepanies offer a discount on shipping if you print your own postage on line. The other benefit you get is that they give you free tracking on your items for domestic shipping; a service that costs $.65 at the post office, and then you have to deal with all the record keeping. Printing postage on Pay-Pal is easy, and all you need is a printer; thermal printers are the best, but I survived a long time using my desktop printer on plain paper, and taping that to the box I was shipping. The real benefit gees when I have a customer email me asking where their package is, and I can simply log onto my Pay-Pal page, find their payment, and there is a link to the tracking page with the number already loaded; showing me exactly where the package is. I can then go to the customers email, and paste the tracking number on the email, and send it back to them letting them know; takes two minutes. Time is money, and it is also great customer service.I also primarily use the USPS for my shipments (usually the cheapest form of shipping) and I also use their priority mail. Priority mail is much faster than ground, takes much less of a beating than does regular shipping, and in most cases costs less than a dollar more than ground. Now, if you are shipping books, or something that can be shipped at the book rate, this is a different story. The best part about priority shipping is that they provide you boxes to ship your items for free. Free boxes saves a TON of money. It is best to order them directly from the USPS website, if you are shipping quite a bit of stuff, as the local post office doesn't stock a lot of these things. The post office will also ship your boxes to you for free; along with other postal supplies. Priority shipping is the way to go; your customers also like getting their items quickly, and can definitely reflect well on your feedback.Starting your auctions out low, and save on listing fees. There is talk of okay going to a free listing system, which may negate this savings, but until then, the lower you start your auction, the better. I have found that, though some items will slip through the cracks, and sell for much less than it is worth, for the most part, items sell for their value. Remember, this is an auction site, and because you list your item at ten dollars, doesn't mean that it will end at that. On the other hand, items listed at their real value often don't sell, and then you have paid the high listing fee for nothing, and have to do so again to re-list it. I cannot tell you how many times I have listed an item high, not to have it sell in a week, and then listed it low the following week, and had it sell for more than I originally listed it for. The logic is simply this: Joe customer sees your $100 widget listed for $10 on Tuesday night, and bids on it. Wednesday, he is driving to work thinking about how great it would be to own your widget for such a great deal, and is thinking of ways that he would use it. Jeff customer sees the same widget for $10, and bids $.50 more the following night. Now it is his widget, and he is thinking about it... all of the sudden, they have both taken ownership of your widget, and the bidding war starts, and as the price climbs, each is telling themselves that they will pay just a bit more, because now they really want your widget. You get the idea, but it is true; actually happens, and I am living proof, on both sides of the deal. This system is not 100% fool-proof, and there are times when you will list something and it will sell for much less than it is worth, but much more often than not, it will sell for what it is worth. Ask yourself how much money you have made on an item that didn't sell, especially for more than a week or two, when you have to pay listing fees on top of the time that you held onto the item; the only way to make money on okay is to actually sell items, not re-list them.8. Ship your items quickly!We all know what it is like to win an auction on okay; you got a cool deal on the widget you have been looking at for a week, and after driving to work for a week thinking about how you are going to use it, you cannot wait to get your hands on it. You wait a couple of days, still no widget, you start to worry. A week goes by, still no widget, you email the seller. They either email you back saying that they haven't shipped it yet, or don't email you at all. A few days later, your widget arrives, after you have had all the awful thoughts of being ripped off, scammed, and considered how long you should wait to file a claim with PayPal... Though relieved when your widget arrives, you don't have a warm fuzzy feeling for your lazy seller. Buyers appreciate fast shipping. It is always nice to be surprised when you open the mailbox two days after you purchase something, and are shocked that it has already arrived. That is a warm fuzzy feeling, before they have even opened the box. Fast shipping can soften the blow if something goes wrong with the item as well. I have had every geplaint under the sun for items I have sold on okay, and 90% of them start with "thanks for the very fast shipping"; it makes a difference in how your customer views you, and will make a difference in the way that they treat you; good or bad. If there is going to be a delay in shipping, email your customer and tell them that there will be. I almost always get a positive response from my customers when doing so, as most sellers don't bother, and this impresses the customer.9. Consider processing your postage on line:I have mentioned this several times in this guide, but it probably deserves its own section. I sold and shipped for a long time simply boxing my items up and taking them to the post office to have them put postage on them. I can tell you, when you walk into the post office every week with 80 packages that need postage, it is not the way to make new friends. Besides that, there are many other benefits of processing your postage on line, that are reflected in both savings and customer service. I use Pay-Pal for my postage, not because I like Pay-Pal by any means; I personally view them as an awful gepany, but a necessity for selling on okay. The reason that I use Pay-Pal is that 95% of my customers pay me that way, and when I ship to them, their tracking information and address are all located in one neat transaction. This makes it easy to track down lost packages. When processing my postage on Pay-Pal, the buyer automatically gets an email showing that I have processed the shipping, and the email contains a tracking number; customers like the gemunication and the ability to track their shipment. When processing domestic shipping via the USPS while using Pay-Pal, the tracking is free; it is free on the USPS website as well. International shipments processed on line should be done through the USPS website, as you will receive a discount on your shipping that way. Again, USPS airmail cannot be tracked, and you must upgrade to express mail for that feature; please see section on not shipping without tracking, located in the 'don'ts' section of this guide.I use a thermal printer for my shipping labels that I purchased on okay for $150, and this saves on ink, but you will need to purchase the sticker/labels that are for that specific printer. It may take some time to have this system pay off, but if you are selling several items a week, in the long run, it is worth it; savings of ink, tape and paper; as well as time. It also looks more professional; I began noticing more and more of my customers using that word in their feedback when I switched to the thermal printer. Anyway, a regular desk-top printer will work too, and you can simply print the postage on plain white paper and tape it to the package.The real benefit gees when I have a customer email me saying that they have not received their item. On their email is a link to the item that they purchased. When I click on the link, there is another link on the auction that will take me to their Pay-Pal payment. On the Pay-Pal payment page there is a link to track the shipment, which takes me to the USPS website, and I can see where the package is, and what the tracking number is. I can then simply copy the tracking number, go back to the original email, paste the number on there with a note telling the customer that the tracking number shows that they attempted to deliver the package (or whatever the excuse is that the USPS website gives) and what the customer should do next to get their package. This entire process takes less than a minute, and I can shoot the email back to the customer. That kind of customer service is worth its weight in gold.Now, a word of caution about this; I have received some pretty awful emails from customers who didn't receive their package, only to find that it has been sitting in the post office for a week waiting for them to pick it up. Take a deep breath, and refrain from returning a equally scathing email explaining that they should really pull their head out of their #!@ and go to the post office to get the item you shipped to them a week ago. When you politely provide the information that they need, and they can see for themselves that it was not your fault, and that you did what you were supposed to do, nine out of ten times they feel fairly stupid for their approach; some of the best feedback I have gotten came from these situations. Handle it like a pro, and your customer will appreciate it. Also, understand that the person has most likely been burned before on okay, and has been sitting there waiting for the item, trying to decide if they have been burned again. It is not your fault, but your customer will know that without being told by you.Please see part two of this guide; things you shouldn't do when selling on okay. If any part of this guide was helpful to you, please take a moment to vote yes at the bottom of the page; it took me a long time to write it, and even more time to gain the lessons learned in this guide. Thanks so much!