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1
Selling on eBay UK
How to Maximize Your Profits
Suzanne Wells
eBay Power Seller
This eBook does not contain resale rights. My eBooks are for personal use by the original buyer only. All of my eBooks are exclusive property of the author and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not modify, transmit, publish, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the content of my eBooks, in whole or in part. eBooks are not returnable. Cancellation of your order is not possible once the eBook is in your possession. If you received this publication from anyone other than Suzanne Wells or the eBay Selling Coach website, you've received a pirated copy. Please contact me via e-mail at [email protected] to notify me of the situation.
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Table of Contents
Why US Sellers are Turning to eBay UK 3
How to Get Started Selling on eBay UK 5
Don’t Blindly Follow the Herd 7
Avoid Copying Other Sellers’ Listings 10
Learn What Key Words Work Best 12
Speak to UK Customers in Their Language 14
Always Provide Shipping Costs 18
Fill in All Blanks in the Shipping Section 21
Be Careful With Quantities 23
Watch Your Markup 25
Resources 26
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Why US Sellers are Turning to eBay UK
Selling on eBay UK has been the latest trend with eBay sellers who are seeking new
ways to make money on eBay. There are several reasons why selling on eBay UK
cam be profitable for US sellers.
1. The US Dollar is weak. The British Pound, can buy more of our goods because
of the low exchange rate. Their money goes further than ever right now.
Financial experts predict that the British Pound will continue to gain strength
against the US Dollar.
2. Europe does not have huge Super WalMarts, mega grocery stores, Super
Targets, and other large stores like we have in the US. We have more real
estate for larger stores, allowing us to have more shelf space for a wider
variety of products. We have a much larger supply and variety of consumer
products than Europeans have. (Click here to learn about how to make
money selling WalMart items on eBay.)
3. Consumer products are very expensive in Europe. Countries in Europe and
Asia dominate the top 10 most expensive places to live in the world. eBay
allows Europeans to buy these items at a lower price than in their own
country.
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4. Products released here may take years to appear on the store shelves in
Europe. eBay allows Europeans to purchase the newest products on the
American market.
5. eBay is accessible, user friendly and growing every day. Since the same
language is spoken in the US and in the UK, there is no language barrier to
overcome.
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How to Start Selling on eBay UK
1. To sell on eBay UK, visit eBay.co.uk and log in with the same username and
password that you use on eBay USA. You don’t need a separate account or an
additional eBay store. Click here to see the eBay UK Tutorial.
2. Next, convert all of your US Dollar pricing to British Pounds. All transactions
will take place in the UK currency. Payments, refunds, and eBay fees will all
show in British Pounds. Deposits will also come into your Paypal account in
British Pounds. Click here to use an online currency converter.
3. Educate yourself on the USD to GBP exchange rate. The exchange rate
changes several times a day. You can go to websites like www.xe.com,
www.x-rates.com, or www.oanda.com to check exchange rates and
understand how much the US Dollar converts to in GBP and vice versa.
4. Read and understand the prohibited items section. This is the most important
step. Laws governing the sale of consumer products, used clothing, and other
items are very different in the UK than in the US. Verify that the item is
allowed before listing it. (Don’t rely on what other sellers are listing – they
may not have done any research before listing their items.) If you try to sell
an item that is prohibited, your listing can be pulled. Too many prohibited
item violations and your account will be closed by eBay UK. Click here to view
the prohibited items section.
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5. Understand import and customs regulations. Make sure that your item is
allowed to cross international lines and enter the UK. Many types of products
require import licenses that the recipient must acquire from the British Board
of Trade.
6. Educate yourself on UK customs fees. Understand the value that is exempt
from customs fees for any country you ship to. (Every country has a different
dollar value threshold for items that can be imported without duties or fees.)
As a general rule, most eBay customers don’t know the rules for their home
country until they are charged an import fee when the item arrives. In the
event they are charged a fee, they will more than likely blame you as the
seller for not informing them, and leave you a negative feedback. As a seller,
your customers will expect you to know more than they do about shipping
internationally. Click here for more information on UK customs fees.
7. Study the fees on the eBay UK site. The entire fee structure is different than
eBay USA. Listing fees, final value fees, auction vs. fixed price fees, gallery
photo fees, and other fees are different. Understand how you will be charged
for selling your items on eBay UK. Click here to view the fees for selling on
eBay UK.
8. Understand how to ship a package internationally and how to fill out customs
forms, as well as which forms you need. This process isn’t difficult; it just
requires a few extra steps. Click here to learn more about shipping an
international package from the United States.
9. Completing the “Sell Your Item Form” is exactly the same as on eBay USA.
That is actually the easiest part.
Bottom Line: Make sure the item you are listing is allowed. Don’t assume
other sellers know what they are doing.
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Don’t Follow the Herd on Blind Faith
Be prepared for some brutal competition on eBay UK. This is the number one
problem on eBay UK – too many sellers offering the exact same items. Don’t offer
the same products as everyone else, offer something different! If you browse
through eBay UK and look at products offered by US sellers, you will see the same
items over and over again. Some of the most common items are:
A1 Steak Sauce
Acne Free System
Advil
Aleve
Bag Balm
Beef Jerky
Breathe Right Nasal Strips
Certain Dri Deodorant
Expo Dry Erase Markers
Folgers Coffee
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
Frank’s Hot Sauce
Froot Loops Cereal
Kool-Aid Drink Mix
Lucky Charms Cereal
Olay Regenerist Face Cream
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Oreo Cookies
Peanut Butter M&Ms
Sharpie Magic Markers
Tabasco Sauce
Tylenol PM
Here is what happens. US sellers want to give eBay UK a try. They take a look at
what is selling, and list those same products at the exact same or slightly lower
price. New sellers figure, “Hey, everyone else is selling this, it must be a good idea.”
Wrong approach. Eventually, all the other sellers lower their prices to be the low
price leader, and everyone’s profit margins decrease. This is simply the law of supply
and demand. The larger the supply, the lower the price will be. The smaller the
supply, the higher the price. If you undercut someone else’s price, be prepared for
them to do the same to you. Expect this to happen.
Now, think about how many new products are introduced into the American market
every year. According to a 2007 report by All Business (a D&B Company), “182,000
products were introduced globally in 2006.” That equals 498 products a day! Just
about every TV commercial is about something “new and improved.” A new size,
flavor, scent, color, or version of a product is released. Focus on newly released
products. UK customers can’t buy an item if they don’t know it exists. It may take
years for our new American products to reach the UK through traditional distribution
methods. They won’t even know the product exists until you put it in front of them.
If you list it on eBay, the UK customers can learn about it and get it now.
One seller could not possibly every single American product on the market in their
eBay store at one time. Products change too quickly. Some US sellers have been
selling on UK for years and never update their product line. You have virtually
unlimited opportunities to be the only seller offering a product. You may discover
something that sells exceptionally well, and other sellers will have no idea what you
have discovered. You can corner the market on a particular product if you continue
to experiment.
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If you live in a test market city, this strategy can work particularly well. A test
market city is a geographic location selected for the introduction of a new product or
marketing campaign, or both. The top 10 test market cities in the US include:
1. Albany, NY
2. Rochester, NY
3. Greensboro, NC
4. Birmingham, AL
5. Syracuse, NY
6. Charlotte, NC
7. Nashville, TN
8. Eugene, OR
9. Wichita, KS
10.Richmond, VA
Test market cities will have access to products long before other cities. If you live in
or near a test market city, observe your store shelves carefully for new items.
Granted, the new items may not pass the test and be introduced into the major
market, but, you have a unique opportunity to offer items on eBay UK that other
sellers may not have access to.
With this in mind, you have to ask yourself why there are only a few American
products on eBay UK, when we have millions available to us. If something isn’t
listed, don’t assume it won’t sell. Chances are, no one has tried it yet. You can be
the first.
If you are still convinced that you should offer the same items as everyone else, at
least present them in a different way. If a seller offers a product in a 2-pack, offer it
in a 1 or 3 pack. Offer a different size. Offer free shipping. Offer £1 shipping. You
don’t have to offer the item on eBay the same way it is presented on store shelves.
Create a set or kit with items that naturally go together – such as shampoo and
conditioner, razors and shaving cream, or toothpaste and dental floss. Be unique so
that you can stand out. Don’t just blend in with everyone else.
Bottom Line: List items other sellers are not listing. Be unique.
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Avoid Copying Other Sellers’ Listings
eBay members are not allowed to use another eBay user's pictures or
descriptions in their listings without the owner's permission.
Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:
1. Listing cancellation
2. Loss of eBay fees
3. Limits placed on account privileges
4. Loss of Power Seller status
5. Account suspension
You probably already knew that. But, you would be surprised at how many times I
have reported other sellers for copying my listings, and they replied with, “I didn’t
know I couldn’t do that.”
You will notice that many sellers on eBay UK copy their pictures and text directly
from sites like Walgreens.com or CVS.com. Avoid this tactic for several reasons. Let’s
say you want to sell Schick razors. Maybe you saw someone else selling them,
maybe not. You go to Walgreens.com and look up the item specifics. Click here to
see them. You copy the picture, copy the description word for word, and add your
listing to eBay UK.
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Here is what can happen if you use this technique. Another seller who has done the
same thing can report you for copying her listing. Obviously, you have both copied
the material from Walgreens. But, if your listing ends in 28 days, and her listing ends
in 10 days, it is going to appear that you copied her material. She can report you for
text and image theft, and your listing will be removed. You will also receive poor
ratings in the Policy Compliance category of your Seller Dashboard.
This situation can also work in reverse. If someone comes along after you have listed
the Schick razors and posts a listing with information taken from Walgreens they can
report you for copying them. This occurs when your 30 day listing renews. The
competitor’s listing may actually be newer than yours (because yours has been there
for several months automatically renewing), but your listing many have just renewed
and you are on day 25, and the competitor’s listing is on day 20. eBay Trust and
Safety will assume that you copied the other seller, even though technically your
listing was there first, and you both copied the information from Walgreens.
This being said, just take your own photos and write your listings in your own words.
You will avoid the whole scenario above and your Policy Compliance ratings will not
suffer.
Bottom Line: Don’t copy anything from the internet or another eBay seller.
Take your own pictures and write the descriptions in your own words.
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Learn What Key Words UK Customers Use in Searches
Ok, so let’s say you have put a new product up for sale called Olay Definity Eye
Correcting Serum. (Fictional product for this example.) Most sellers will just put the
exact name of the product in the title, and that’s it. But, if the UK hasn’t heard of
this product yet, they won’t even know to search for it. Use key words that describe
what problem the product solves. A better title would be,
Olay Definity anti-aging eye serum cream wrinkles
You will catch shoppers searching for the following terms:
Anti-aging
Anti-aging cream
Anti-aging serum
Eye cream
Eye serum
Olay cream
Olay serum
Olay Definity
Olay wrinkle
Wrinkle cream
Wrinkle serum
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You must think like a buyer and not like a seller. Europeans know that US sellers list
newly released products on a regular basis. They know to look for categories of
items, but not necessarily the names of all the products available in the United
States. They can’t search for something they don’t know exists. Your title does not
have to be a coherent, grammatically correct sentence. The key is to get all the
search terms in your title so that your items will be found. I cannot stress this point
enough. Click here to learn more about using key words on your eBay listings.
Bottom Line: Use key words that describe what the product does or what
problem it solves.
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Speak to UK Customers in Their Language
Always show the weights, measurements, and volume in metric units. Europeans
don’t use pounds, ounces, or inches. They use grams, kilos, milliliters, and
centimeters. You have to speak to them in their language or they won’t understand
you (and probably won’t buy from you). Make it easy for them. Spoon feed them so
they don’t have to convert anything or do any math to understand what they are
buying.
If your measurements are not in metric units, the customer may not take the time to
try to convert it to something he understands. He may just click away and say
“forget it, too much trouble.” Remember, you are selling on the European turf now.
You are competing with other European sellers who understand the metric system
and use it every day. You have to do everything you can to communicate in a way
that the European buyer understands and is comfortable with.
Here is an example of what not to do. This seller is offering this body wash and uses
ounces as the unit of weight. He has wasted space in the title because Europeans
won’t be searching for ounces. They don’t use ounces. His title should read
something like:
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Men’s Axe Revitalizing Shower Bath Gel Phoenix 355 mL
What is unfortunate here is that the metric weight is usually right on the bottle next
to the ounce weight so the seller could have just looked at the bottle and put the
metric weight on the listing.
Bottom Line: Think like your buyer. Understand and use metric weights and
measurements.
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Consider Private Listings
One technique you might want to use to protect your interests on eBay UK is to code
all of your listings as private. I had to learn this the hard way. After I had been
selling on eBay UK for a while, I started to see some patterns. Other sellers, who I
knew were watching my store, would add a product to their store as soon as it
showed up in my feedback profile. They were basically stalking me – checking my
feedback every day to see my feedback, and figuring out what items had sold. Then,
they would list the same exact item in their store for the same price, same shipping,
etc. This began to get very annoying.
So, I went through and coded all of my listings as private. When you use private
listings, you feedback page will eventually look like this:
Other users can still see the comments and whether they are positive, neutral, or
negative. But, no one can see what the product title. If you look up the buyer’s
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feedback, you will see the same thing – no item number or product name. This
technique makes it difficult for your competition to determine exactly what you are
selling.
Click here to learn exactly how to code a listing as private.
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Always Provide Shipping Costs
When completing the “Sell Your Item” form, always complete both sections
(domestic and international postage) with shipping price. The sections look like this:
Having the shipping price completed in this section will rank your listing higher in
Best Match. (Click here for more tips about how to make your listings appear higher
in Best Match.)
Your shipping price will appear in searches and look like this:
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See how most of the listings with the shipping price filled in are at the top? The
others that say “not specified” fall to the bottom. Keep in mind that the Best Match
algorithm is not an exact science. Many other factors affect placement in results, but
adding the shipping fee is a factor you can control, and it only takes a few seconds.
When the customer looks at your listing, the shipping fee will appear at the top like
this:
When the shipping fee is not completed correctly, the listing looks like this:
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Buyers want to know their costs up front. Your customer won’t have to look any
further to determine the shipping cost. You won’t run the risk of the customer
clicking away (and not buying from you) because he is frustrated and can’t find the
shipping cost. It is inconvenient, time consuming, and frustrating for buyers to have
to email sellers for basic information like the shipping cost.
Bottom line: Think like a buyer not like a seller. Give them the necessary
information up front and save them time.
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Complete All Blanks in the Shipping Section
Always complete the shipping section and enter an amount for “each additional
item.” If you leave it blank, the customer will assume that shipping for additional
units is free. And you may have to ship it for free to get yourself out of a tough
situation if the buyer purchases a large quantity. Here is an example.
Let’s say a customer orders 15 of an item. He can check out through Paypal, and the
shipping will remain at the price for only one item. Since the additional items field
was left blank, shipping will only be calculated for one item on the invoice. (Unless
you catch it before he pays and send a manual invoice.) Then, you are stuck. Here
are your options in this situation:
1. Explain that you made the error on the listing and you will have to charge him
more to cover the actual cost (which he won’t be happy about).
2. Cancel the transaction through a mutual withdrawal. You will be very
fortunate if the customer agrees to this.
3. Ship it based on what he has already paid and take a loss on the postage
cost.
Some customers are looking for careless mistakes of this nature, so they can order
large quantities of items for a very low shipping fee. You might call this situation an
eBay loophole. This happened to me once. One time was all it took to learn the hard
way. The customer ordered 12 of an item that weighed 15 ounces. I did not have the
additional items field completed and the shipping charge was $10 for the entire
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order. There was no way I could afford to ship an 11 pound package to the UK
paying the difference out of my pocket, so I had to void the transaction. The
customer would not agree to a mutual withdrawal. I had to pay the eBay and Paypal
fees which were substantial because it was a large dollar amount. The buyer left
negative feedback, and rightly so, it was my error. Pay attention to the small details
because they can come back to bite you!
Bottom line: Complete all fields carefully and completely.
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Be Careful With Quantities
With the Best Match algorithm, listings offering multiple quantities get a boost in
rankings. This provides an obvious incentive to offer multiple quantities if you sell via
the fixed price option. Many sellers interpret this as “offer a huge number of the item
to get to the top.” This assumption can also lead to problems if you are offering
multiples of a single item.
Many US sellers just write up their listings, often copying what other sellers are
offering without ever finding the product in a store. For example, let’s say you put up
a listing for Benadryl Allergy Tablets, based on what another seller is doing. You’ve
seen it in the stores; you assume this is a basic drug store item that is found
everywhere. You want to be at the top of the searches, and based on the Best Match
criteria of “number of listings,” your listing indicates that you have 99 of these items.
Sounds like a good trick, right?
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Yes and no. Yes, the huge quantity may increase your placement via Best Match.
(Remember, item quantity is only one factor in the best match algorithm.) But, what
happens when someone buys 50 of them? This can very well happen. It does happen
because store and small business owners in the UK often buy their inventory on
eBay. You will either have to drive all over town to find 50 boxes of Benadryl Allergy
Tablets, or tell your buyer that you can’t complete the order. This actually happened
to me a few times. I was able to fill the order but it took me several days to find
enough product to do it. Whatever quantity you list as “number available,” be darn
sure you can get your hands on it in a reasonable amount of time or you will be in a
mess. Most sellers list 5-10 as the quantity available. This number is usually
attainable if you don’t actually have the item on hand.
Bottom Line: Don’t list a quantity that is impossible to deliver. Keep your
quantities reasonable enough to obtain if a customer orders a large
quantity.
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Watch Your Markup
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.”
~Mahatma Gandhi
It is very easy to become greedy selling on eBay UK. You have access to products
that customers want. You can charge whatever you like – no one is monitoring what
you do. Some sellers get carried away by greed.
Remember that these are real people you are working with, human beings just like
yourself. Keep this in mind if you are selling medicines or first aid products. Your
customers may need the product to help relieve pain, heal an injury, or care for
another person with an illness. Are you going to be comfortable marking up an $8
item to $30? Is that really the right thing to do?
I personally am horrified and disgusted when I see sellers offering items like baby
diaper cream, teething medicine, or arthritis cream with a $20 markup. Remember
that someone on the other side of the world is suffering, and you may be the key to
helping them. Sure, it is fair for you to make a profit, but don’t price gouge because
you can. There is plenty of room for legitimate profits on eBay UK. Click here for
legitimate ways to increase your profit margin on eBay.
Decide what your markup per item will be. Usually, $10-$12 is fair. Remember that
other sellers will always be able to undercut your price and that if your price is fair
that customers will come back and buy from you again.
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