Need some Ideas on How to Improve a Company's Ebay Sales

Heya Charles!

Long time no speak, hope you are well.

I would recommend some serious copy writing ninja for the advert title and advert body. That should increase the conversion rate.

Also, maybe see if you can work out some sort of special offers with the dealership - so maybe include a few extras?

Hey Steven!

I havent been on WF in about a month. That's crazy.

I am doing great, and thanks for your advice.

You seem like a talented guy with the right attitude. If I were you, I would be looking to do an offline JV with this company to try and sell new used cars to old customers.

Maybe something like - they can trade in their old car and get 20% off, plus a free sat nav.

It works fantastically well for a local used car dealership - the letter go out every quarter to past customers (the same ones) - and the conversion rate is pretty decent!

Forgot to say, done right, this could get you the money to buy your car in one fell swoop!

Screw the old job btw, I have a feeling you will do much better without it!

Start the auctions cheap. This gets more traffic, more watchers,
more people "planning to win".

Reserve auctions kill that excitement. Really. Set a minimum price
if you want but coyly hiding behind a reserve is not attractive to
many bidders.

Killer copy really matters. You've got to have a salesman's
attitude to pull top prices in auctions.


Risk reversal sometimes helps increase the selling price where
there is buyer insecurity. Risk reversal can shift bidder activity
away from other auctions and onto yours.

For big ticket items: include a phone number.

Lastly, if it runs with a motor, plays music, or has moving parts
a video that shows how well it works will do wonders for your
traffic. Mention "VIDEO" in the listing title.

I've done press-releases sometimes for hard-to-find items with
killer results. Ie, here's the release and Ebay copy I used to
sell a trailer last summer (I sold it for much more than I paid):

Get A Bargain On Genuine Bunkhouse Motorcycle Trailer Camper Tent - Free-Press-Release.com

& How would YOU Sell a Second-Hand Tent Trailer?

(The trailer was sold privately after doing well on Ebay after
the top bidder welched with a story about his wife running
off with all his money. If you sell cars you've probably had
deadbeats already.)


Reality Check

With auctions it comes down to price and rarity. People
buy at auctions to get a bargain and to acquire objects
of desire. Your credibility as a seller counts too, but once
you're over 100 positive transactions it's all about low
starting bids, salesmanship, and scarcity.

What about using Kijiji in conjunction with their eBay store? You can use Kijiji for local listings and include either a paid, active link to their eBay store, or a free text link typed at the bottom of their ad.

Most people who buy a car, are not going to want to buy it from Ebay.
If it's a classic or collector car, maybe.. but just some new car. Why?

Ebay is full of scams, everyone thinks anything sold on there is a scam.

SEO doesn't apply to Ebay Listings, only the title does when looking at Best Match.

I think you might need to try some other ways of getting the word out about there internet sales. I hear email marketing a 20% off discount code, or maybe doing a "secret sale" only sent to a select few customers (but, the email somehow mistakenly gets mailed to the dealerships whole mailing list) might work...

I bought my first car off of ebay... a 2003 mitsubishi galant in 2004... people do buy cars on ebay. i bought it cause it was a good deal. Only had like 20k miles... sold to me for 10k.. guy drove to my house w filled out paperwork.. and when i needed a new car.. io looked him up again, and i bough a 2007 bmw X3...for 12k so yea... It can be done. I was attracted to sales numbers, good copy, as in wat was good and bad about the used car, why the price was low...(unable to move inventory...bought it at foreclosure auction), how to get it. That is a big concern when buying cars online, is how does the vehicle get to me.

Ebay itself is a huge search engine. My trailer auction,
for example, had 4000 views or something - for a very
odd piece of equipment. The thing is, I sold it right
before the Sturgis bike ralley, and hundreds of those
Harley guys were combing Ebay looking to get a trailer
in time for a lot less than retail.

You can include likely search terms in your auction
listing - they'll likely get indexed with no further
SEO. Ebay has a super high page rank and millions
of backlinks pointing at it. Thus it ranks well for
all search terms, every day.

People go on Ebay, looking for a bargain or something
special. Then they use Ebay's search to get more
specific. The chances high that most traffic you're
gonna get on Ebay is hitting eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices first and then searching by keyword within.

Look: "low prices" is even in Ebay's title tag.