You know you’ve got the perfect product and that people are dying to get their hands on it. But you’re selling on eBay and your profits aren’t as perky as you’d like them to be.

If you’re losing money on eBay, it could be down to one, or all, of these five reasons:

Creating Auctions rather than Fixed Price Listings.

Sure, a tempting item on auction with a low starting price may generate a lot of interest. If the right people see your item at the right time, there’s the possibility of a bidding war and selling your item for much more than you thought possible. There’s certainly a place for auction listings within your eBay selling strategy.

But beware! Auctions are unreliable. You need to include some fixed price listings into the mix too. These last for longer and guarantee that you’re not selling items at a loss.

Poor Delivery Options.

eBay is pushing all sellers to provide excellent delivery options in a bid to keep up with the competition. Customers want good variety when it comes to choosing their delivery. A free postage option plus faster paid services covers all bases for your customers.

You could also sign up to a click and collect service to cater for working customers who aren’t home in the day to accept parcels.

Once you have your postage options sorted when selling on eBay, you need to make sure your delivery operations are faultless. That way you can boost your revenue with repeat customers, impressed with your level of service. You need a quick turnaround time for dispatch and reliable systems.

If you don’t feel you have the time to manage your dispatch effectively, search for a reliable logistics company who can take the hassle off your hands.

Not Contesting Bad Feedback.

As an eBay seller your customer reviews are your business lifeblood. You need to maintain Top Seller status to get seen at the top of search results and to instill confidence in your customers.

If you get a negative or neutral review, do your best to contest it. If you feel that a customer is being unreasonable and this is apparent from the comment they’ve left in your feedback section, talk to eBay. They may be able to delete the feedback if there’s enough evidence that the review is unnecessarily harsh.  

In addition, always respond to bad or neutral feedback on your feedback page. This gives you an opportunity to give your side of the story.

Be careful of your tone and be unswervingly professional and courteous. But use this platform to show other prospective customers that you care about feedback and want to do right by them.

Not Keeping an Eye on Listing Fees When Selling on eBay.

eBay offers a variety of store subscription levels. Each level comes at a higher price but with benefits too, including a number of free listings.

Depending on how many listings you put up or relist every month, you could be better off subscribing to a higher store level. Similarly if your turnover into your Paypal account is over a certain amount each month, you can be eligible for a reduction in Paypal fees.

Something else to consider is how your listing fees mount up. Including a subtitle or putting your item into more than one search category can increase your listing fees.

Do an experiment with a section of your stock to see if subtitles or extra categories really do make a difference to your sale volume. That way you can make an informed decision about whether the extra listing fees are a good investment.

Not Thinking About Scheduling.

Both auction and fixed price listings get a boost and are seen further up in search results as that listing comes to an end. Therefore it’s incredibly important that your listings end at the right time, when lots of people are online (at the weekend for instance).

Rather than setting an alarm and uploading at just the right time, use a listing scheduler. There’s one available through eBay and plenty of eBay compatible schedulers across the internet that will help to maximize the exposure your listings get. 

Selling on eBay can certainly have its ups and downs. Make sure you experience more ups and more profit by working to rectify any of these problems your eBay business currently has.

About the author

This post was written by Elizabeth Lee, a self-improvement addict and a blogger, currently supporting PACK & SEND.