Starting An eBay Business
Posted 24 Sep 2014 eBay offers entrepreneurs a relatively simple way to set up an online selling business.
To register your business on eBay and start trading under the business name, you’ll need to provide a UK postal address or landline telephone number so the company can contact you to confirm your registration. You’ll also need to supply details of a bank account that accepts Direct Debit instructions so fees can be collected. If you’re registered for VAT, you can supply eBay with your VAT registration number, meaning you won’t have to pay VAT on seller fees.
If you want to open an eBay shop, there are three levels available: Basic, Featured and Anchor. Which you choose will depend on the level of selling you intend to do. You can compare subscriptions and fees here: [url=http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/subscriptions.html]http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/subscriptions.html[/url].
One of the main advantages of an eBay shop is economy. You can list your items at a low cost – rather than spending up to £1.30 to list an item, you pay a maximum of 20p to list per item, with Anchor shops paying just 1p per item.
You can also customise the look of the your shop and listings and take advantage of special options such as Auto Relisting, Good Till Cancelled Listings, 30 Days and 60 Days, and also seller tools to help you manage your business, like Markdown Manager, Accounting Assistant, Selling Manager, Email Marketing and more.
But of course there’s the question of what you’re going to sell. If you’re thinking of setting up an eBay business then you probably have an idea of what you want to sell already, but there are certain things eBay won’t allow.
The list of prohibited items is: adults only; drugs and drug paraphernalia; embargoed goods and prohibited countries; firearms, weapons and knives; government, transit, postal items and official items policy; hazardous materials; items encouraging illegal activity; lock-picking devices; mailing lists and personal information; medicine and healthcare products policy; offensive material; police-related items; prescription drugs; prohibited services; stolen property.
There are also items that you can only list under certain conditions. These are: alcohol; animals and wildlife products; artefacts, antiques, cultural items and grave-related items; British titles; catalogue sales; charity or fundraising listings; clothing, used; contracts; cosmetics, used; counterfeit currency and stamps; credit cards; digitally delivered goods; electrical and electronics equipment; event tickets; food; football tickets; gaming (slot/fruit) machines; human parts and remains; manufacturers’ vouchers; plants and seeds; postage meters; property; recalled items; stocks and other securities; tobacco; travel; unlocking software.
You also need to be wary of others’ intellectual property and make sure that anything you sell doesn’t infringe on any copyrights or trademarks.
Be aware that eBay might put selling limits on your account while you build up your profile as a trusted seller.
Getting good feedback from buyers is essential to a successful eBay business. Your customers will rate their experience as positive, neutral or negative. Anything less than positive is a warning sign to other buyers.
Buyers can also rate you on the accuracy of the item description, your communication, how quickly you despatched the item and how reasonable your postage and packaging charges were. Each of the four criteria are rated from one to five stars and you need to maintain a 12-month average of 4.4 stars or above in each if you have a Featured shop, and 4.6 or above if you have an Anchor shop.
So your priority is to look after your customers. Make sure you sell items of good quality and be completely honest in your descriptions. Also ensure your pricing is fair. Communicate with buyers as much as possible. If a customer does leave negative feedback, try to put the situation right and use your right to reply to explain the situation.
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