Growth as an entrepreneur can be a heady experience, even when you have the best resources at your disposal. If you’ve ever vacillated over starting a eCommerce store or expanding your brand over several platforms because maintaining multiple storefronts in the marketplace proved overwhelming, Highwire might be right for you!
Don't Be Boxed into a Corner: Shipping Options with Mercy!
SHIPPING CONFIGURATION
The cheeky people at the United States Postal Service and the like designed an intricate web of regional and international policies for every conceivable shipping need. This is a good thing until you actually try to configure shipping charges for your own auctions and hit “The Wall” boxes of many sizes and confusing postage fees built.
Highwire recognizes no two shipping rates are alike and gives sellers the ability to tailor postage to the different parcel sizes and items in their inventory. A unique feature with seller’s valuable but limited time in mind, users can create preset records that contain commonly used shipping options for their selling account. Once you create a record, simply assign it via a drop down during listing creation. You can even set up region based taxes.
ENDICIA
Highwire, in partnership with an innovative companion service Endicia, make shipping products throughout the world a streamlined dream. An optional paid subscription, Endicia brings the resources of the neighborhood post office to your laptop! Endicia enables users to import customer addresses, print labels and even weigh boxes and purchase postage. Simply schedule a free home pickup with your shipping service of choice and then concentrate on better serving your customers.
HASTY BUSINESS DECISIONS ARE LIKE A BOOMERANG
You finally found the right products and are confident the shipping method fits your needs. You’re coming into your own, monitoring your sales activity across multiple platforms. As your business grows you naturally want to reach customers across the globe. What else is there to consider?
While there are resources in place to help businesses and sellers educate themselves on customs requirements and prohibited products by country, the regulations can be brutal. As you build your inventory it may prove beneficial to know how—and if—your products are cleared by a country or region. One way to remedy shipping woes is restrict the countries your company delivers to and develop store policy that make this clear to prospective customers. Do your due diligence now and avoid unvetted business decisions coming back to haunt you.
Taking Your Garage Sale Global- A Newbies Intro to Ebay
Finding Your Wings: The eBay Personal Account
Taking Your Garage Sale Global Cont'd
THE PERSONAL ACCOUNT
On first introduction to the site, it’s hard to not be drawn to the lure of millions of items for sale and the prospect successful enterprise is only a mouse click away. What’s more, after you register for a personal account you may bid on auctions or even list your own immediately. In both cases, eBay will prompt you to provide a method of payment for your first purchase or seller related fees respectively. EBay and the payment service PayPal once functioned as a single entity but now exists as independent companies. Nevertheless, if you aren’t registered with PayPal you will be redirected to a page to sign up for the free service. Though you can opt out, PayPal remains eBay’s preferred payment service and will encourage you to create an account and become PayPal Verified. PayPal verification is a free measure designed to show buyers and sellers alike you can securely send and receive funds.
Explore eBay and take genuine notice of the products members offer and how they engage buyers. Some sellers offer .99 cent auctions that draw lots of bidders. While more popular promotions, common to sellers, are auctions with free shipping or discounted postage rates offered with multiple purchases. The earliest indication that you may be flirting with the roll of seller is looking at auctions from the perspective of a competing seller, not a wandering consumer. Perhaps you’ve dabbled in selling, organizing garage or white elephant sales that were met with success. Pushing further and elevating those efforts in an e-commerce setting is the next logical step. If you have items like clothes, electronics or well-known, unused beauty products in excess, your seller’s inventory builds itself.
THE COST
The beauty of a personal account is there is no need to commit to a seller’s monthly subscription. You are allowed to create auctions for a limited number of items, paying only for the insertion fees of items that sell.
INSERTION? LISTING? AUCTION…WHAT?
When eBay breaks down the standard seller’s fee for users-especially non-subscription holders-insertion is a word used to describe what most commonly identify as a listing or auction. Be mindful of this with further reading; you may create a eBay listing, perhaps refer to site articles for help and notice the term insertion fee pops up often. Because words listing and auction are synonymous with insertion, regard the term insertion fee as the itemized cost to create and launch a single auction. If you create a no frills auction the insertion fee (aka listing/auction fee) may be little or nothing. However if you design an insertion with bold words and listing enhancements that make your item stand out in eBay search results, you will incur additional seller insertion fee charges. A snippet taken directly from the eBay site states:
“Insertion fees for your first 20 or 40 listings per calendar month, depending on listing format and category, are free (exclusions apply). Learn more about monthly free-insertion-fee listings.”
With the freedom and ease afforded a personal eBay account, pressure to conform to the standard business practices of eBay Power Sellers may not be foremost on your mind. However if you regard eBay as a powerful tool, that connects you not only with popular products but billions of eager consumers, then it probably should. As you gradually acclimate to eBay it will dawn on you that the time to assume the role of seller is now. No matter your account classification, the key to succeeding as a seller on eBay is establishing trust and recognizing the needs of consumers. Create a few listings and commit to the process, you quickly realize your strength as a seller hinge on basic customer service. To that end, eBay is a platform that thrives on buyer feedback and a detailed ratings system. When patrons purchase items from you, they are given the opportunity to share their buying experiences in a forum visible to prospective customers. Customer feedback can make or break a seller in the making so never take your early reviews for granted.
With the beauty of this a la carte approach to selling, why consider a paid subscription? Well, I'll put it to you this way. You wouldn't run a marathon in shoes two sizes too small.
Yeah, read on to learn the advantages of an eBay paid subscription!
Don't Take This Personal. Make it an eBay Business Account.
Taking Your Garage Sale Global Concl.
THE BUSINESS ACCOUNT
If you find success selling things from home and now have aspirations to bring a higher volume of products to more buyers, how you sell will have to change. Don’t fret. Change is good in this regard as you are essentially identifying resources to streamline your role as seller, behind the scenes, to allow more time to nurture your brand. To entertain a business account, first develop a sound framework that addresses the basic components of business level selling. Growth in small business often feels intimidating because we don’t seek out the proper resources to support our efforts.
True enough, e-commerce can be a complex endeavor with many moving parts but you have to start somewhere! With time and continued education, the preparation needed to accomplish your business goals will become organic to the cause and feel less and less labored. Every plan is unique but starting out you reap the most from an eBay business account when you:
- Design a store space with a level of membership that complements where you are as a seller. The key is to grow with resources that are appropriate to your immediate needs.
- Designate product sourcing: wholesale distributors, dropship companies, eBay bulk sales, items from the home.
- Decide on a preferred shipping company and terms: USPS, UPS, FedEx.
- Determine store payment method (s) and return policy: PayPal, credit cards; 7 day returns vs. enforced “all sales final” policy.
Suggested Reading: Highwire- The Dynamic Dashboard and Seller's Best Friend.
This may sound intimidating but if you have a personal eBay account: sell items from your home, set postage costs for buyers and ship with the post office you’re already familiar with these small business fundamentals. With a business account, however, you’re primed to go further. To do so doesn’t necessarily require multiple paid subscriptions to companies you’ve never heard of, but an openness to resources that exists beyond your garage door.
THE COST
I would be remiss if I didn’t disclose to the reader that an eBay business account is a paid subscription. However if the aforementioned complements your business plans, the paid service is a worthwhile investment. You stand to benefit from discounted insertions fees, not to mention features like a personalized storefront with an optional logo placement, and promotion creation unique to your brand. To learn more about the subscriptions offered at this time, please visit the following page.
I know what you're thinking. Facts are helpful but only to a point. And the burning question remains: should you make the transition from a personal account to an eBay business account?
To determine a need, consider that a paid subscription is useful for members that function exclusively as sellers: with the intent to create a store with a larger inventory and take advantage of enhanced selling features. If you are new to e-commerce sales but are driven to grow as a brand, continue to build a seller’s reputation with a FREE, personal account.