TOP 10 REASONS PEOPLE WONT BUY FROM YOU (Part 1)

Reason 1: charging your costumers too much for shipping and handling. The number one reason why most people refuse to buy products over the internet isbecause they believe the shipping charges add too much to the overall cost of theproduct. So why would you ever over charge on shipping? Some people get the cleveridea to over charge on shipping to make a profit (not a good idea).Sure if the shipping costs are only $15 and you charge people $25 you are making anextra $10 in profit, but guess what; you are loosing a lot more than you are gaining,because a high shipping price stands out like a sore thumb and most people will refuse toplace a bid on your auctions.You need to charge the lowest possible price for shipping; because most people willnotice the low price and you will be rewarded with more bids and profit.While on the subject of shipping; there seems to be some bad advice going around. Andthat advice is; to charge a flat-shipping rate in order to save time. This is horrible advicebecause A: you will most likely be overcharging and B: you will be taking control awayfrom the costumer.You need to give the costumer as much control over the buying process as possible. Andyou can’t do that with a flat shipping rate. You need to let the costumer decide how muchthey want to pay for shipping and how fast they want their product delivered to them, youneed to let the costumers decide weather they want their stuff delivered to them overnight or in 3-5 days.Remember the more comfortable and convenient you make the buying process for yourcostumers, the more likely they are to come back and buy from you again. So instead ofhaving a “my way or the high way” type flat shipping charge. You need to give thecostumer some choices (express shipping, regular, priority etc.).
Reason 2: bad photos or photos lifted from manufacturer’s websitesWhen someone decides to buy a product from the internet they have no chance to see,feel, inspect or try out the product they are about to buy in person. And since they can’tsee the actual product they are buying in person; you should show them as much of theproduct as you possibly can!High quality photos that show the product from every angle can ease your costumer’sdoubts and grow his/her desire to own what you are selling. If your photos are of a poorquality, they can make the product look worse than it actually looks in person and make itseem less valuable than it really is. The truth is, photos can make or break your eBaycareer.The number of bids received by listing with high quality photos compared to the numberof bids received by listings with poor quality photos has been proven to be much higher.So the better your photos are the more bids you will receive, and the more bids youreceive the more money you will make.Another thing you should never do is use manufacturers photos in your listings. Why?Because chances are a lot of other sellers will already be using the same photos. This isbad because instead of standing out from the crowd, you will be blending in. A picture isworth a thousand words, and on eBay it can be worth a thousand dollars.If you are using manufacturer’s photos people will think that you don’t have the item youare selling in your position, you might even be trying to rip them off (take their moneyand run). So another reason you should take your own photos is credibility and trust.Your own photos will make your listings look more legitimate and gain the visitors trust.The photos are one of if not the most important thing about your listing. The photos arewhat every person that visits your auction listings craves more of. Everyone wants to seemore of what the product actually looks like.What you absolutely NEED in order to maximize your profits when selling products onthe internet is high quality photos that show the product you are selling from every angle,and show off its best features.Let me ask you a question. If you were buying a $250 camera, would you buy it from A:a seller that has a small photo of the camera on a white background or B: a seller that hasmany large, high quality photos that show the camera from every angle? Exactly, and thatis why you absolutely need the best photos you can take, because if some else has betterphotos; that is where all of the costumers will be.
Reason 3: short item descriptionsOnce again, when someone decides to purchase a product over the internet they have nochance to see in person the actual product being sold to them. When you buy somethingfrom a regular store you get to touch, feel, test out, try on and inspect the product you areabout to buy.Do you get to do this over the internet? NO! But as obvious as that may be, many sellers(including power sellers) are selling $500 products over the internet and all they have todescribe the product is a few short sentences! These are the same sellers that oftencomplain about not making enough profits.When someone decides to buy a product over the internet (eBay, yahoo, Amazon etc.),they are basically going blind. They don’t know who you are, where you live or weatheryou will rip them off or not. In other words these people have a lot of doubts. And whenpeople have doubts, they will usually have second thoughts about buying from you. Andthat’s NOT a good thing.So what you need to do when you are putting something up for auction on eBay or tryingto sell something on Amazon (or anywhere on the internet for that matter). Describe theproduct you are selling in as much detail as possible. I mean mention everything aboutthe product. Mention the color, weight, size, texture, features, accessories, condition,warranty, box size etc.You need to not only mention everything, but explain what it all means as well. Don’tjust say “this camera comes with X2r-c finder scope” say “this camera comes with X2r-cfinder scope which allows you to take pictures at night and improves the quality ofphotos you are taking by 50%”. You need to make your description simple to understandbecause if you don’t, you might confuse your potential costumer. And most people hatebeing confused.Confusion can lead to frustration, and if your potential costumers get frustrated all theyhave to do is click the back button on their web browser. And boom, you’ve just lost abid.So remember, your costumer doesn’t have the chance to actually see, feel and inspect theproduct they are buying from you. And that can fill their head with doubt (BAD!). Somake sure you have a clear, detailed and easy to understand description.
Reason 4: reserve auctionsMost eBay members absolutely hate reserve auctions and refuse to even look at them.The reason for this is because most people don’t want to spend a week bidding onsomething and have all that time wasted in the end because of a high reserve. Would youwant to bid on something for a week only to have the reserve not met?Another reason reserve auctions are hated is because it can be very frustrating to see a bigbold “RESERVE NOT MET” after every bid you place. Most people don’t want to keepguessing about weather or not they will actually be able to buy the product they want;they want to know for sure.I understand that starting something at $1 with no reserve can be very scary (what if theitem sells for a dollar?). But what you must understand is, a no reserve listing will alwaysattract more bids than a listing for the same product that has a reserve.No reserve auctions have proven again and again that $1NR is the best way to go. I knowI know it’s scary. But you gat to take some risks along the road to success, and thinkabout it: what do you have to loose?There are sellers out there that list Rolex watches and luxury cars starting at $1 and noreserve! What are you going to sell? The truth is you have A LOT more to gain than youhave to loose. And besides, you can always get a friend to bid on your auction if thingsdon’t go as planned (this is against eBay policy, but if you are truly afraid its ok).Braking eBay rules is a sure way to end your auction career prematurely, but chances areyou won’t have to break any rules because when you list something at $1. The bids go uppretty fast.
Reason 5: refusing costumersThere are sellers out there that accept only one way of payment and sell only to citizensof the country they live in. Can you see what’s wrong with that? Why would anyone everrefuse to take someone’s money?There are sellers out there that accept payments only through Paypal. This is bad becausethere are a lot of people out there that don’t have a Paypal account, why would you turnthem down? The more people are allowed to buy from you the more people willactually buy from you!It is not wise to exclude a big chunk of potential costumers just because you “prefer”Paypal. You should accept as many payment methods as possible. You should acceptPaypal, Bid Pay, credit card, check, e-check, wire transfer, cash (yes some sellers actuallyaccept cash) and any other form of payment you can think of.Go to http://www.ebay.com and brows through the listings, what you will realize is thatmost successful power sellers accept more than one form of payment. You should do thesame.The more people are allowed to buy from you the more people will actually buyfrom you. So what do you think has more people, your country or the whole world? Sowhy would you refuse to sell to every country but your own?I’m sure the sellers that do this have their own crazy reasons (terrorism, Osama, Russianmafia…). But c’mon, you are smarter than that! I have spoken to over 50 power sellers,and nearly every single one of them recommends selling internationally.So please understand that if you accept only one form of payment or sell to only onecountry, you are neglecting a lot of potential costumers.

TOP 10 REASONS WHY PEOPLE WON’T BUY FROM YOU! (Part 2)

Reason 6: too much rules and stipulationsYour listings are made to attract costumers and put everyone in the mood to buy whatyou are selling, not scare everyone away!Some sellers have so many rules and stipulations you must agree to in order to buy fromthem, it can seem that you would be signing your life away if you buy from them. Therules and stipulations I am talking about is the seller’s policy. Some sellers require you tocontact them with in 24 hours if you want a refund, others will charge you a 25%restocking fee if you chose to return your item. There are also sellers that threaten toreport you to eBay if you don’t fulfill your end of the deal and some even threaten to takelegal action!All of these rules and stipulations are a very negative and scary thing for the costumer.Your listing is supposed to make the visitor feel welcome, comfortable, safe and ready tobuy. That is why you should never include anything negative like a 25% restocking fee inyour listing. Your costumers are already worried about weather or not you are going torip them off or not, why would you want to give them more things to worry about?
Reason 7: no refundsIf department stores, shoe stores, internet stores and even service companies give refunds,you should definitely do the same. Most successful eBay sellers offer a 100% moneyback guarantee, why? Because like I said before, when someone decides to buy a productover the internet they are usually going blind.There are so many things to worry about when you buy something over the internet(credit card scams, flawed products, thieves etc.) that when a person is about to buysomething they are usually full of doubt and worry.That is why you need to offer a 100% money back guarantee…to easy the worry and takeaway the doubts of your potential costumer.Would you ever buy something that you haven’t had the chance to inspect in person,from somebody you have never seen in your life. Knowing that if there is somethingwrong with what you have bought there would be no way for you to get your moneyback? I didn’t think so. But when you say “no refunds” that is exactly what you areasking people to do…go blind and hope for the best.If your policy is “no refunds” most people would have to be crazy to ever buy from you.And guess what, most people are NOT crazy.
Reason 8: sloppy and unprofessional listingsYour auction listings are both your company representative and salesperson, and how arecompany representatives and sales people made to look in the real world? Professionaland presentable! So why would you’re representatives and sales people (auction listings)be dressed in rags?If your listings are filled with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and look like theywere put together in 2 minutes, it will look very amateur and some people will think thatyou don’t take your business seriously (which would probably be true). Most peopledon’t want to deal with amateurs because amateurs are usually the ones that will screw upand send the products to the wrong address.Your listings need to neat, clean, easy to understand and appear professional.Your listings are what you are judged by, so if your listings look sloppy; you will looksloppy. If your listings look chaotic and confusing you will appear the same. The truth isthat it doesn’t take much effort to put together a nice, professional looking listing. Sothere is really no reason why your listings should appear like something a mentallydisabled seagull put together.
Reason 9: unreasonable pricesYou must understand that the reason most people chose to buy off of the internet is to geta great deal. A lot of people also think that it is more convenient to shop from the comfortof your own home, but the biggest reason is still savings. So why would anyone everwant to buy something that is close to or at the retail prices?Another thing you should keep in mind is that besides the cost of the item, the costumermust pay for shipping and possibly even costumes taxes! Remember the number onereason why people refuse to buy stuff over the internet? It is because most people believeshipping and handling charges add too much to the final cost of the product. That is whyyour prices should always be below retail.What you should do is check what prices the competition sells the products you want tosell at. That way you can get a good idea about the prices you should charge yourcostumers.Now I know you might think a good idea would be to find out what the competitionsprices are and make your prices lower in order to attract more costumers. While that maysound like a good idea, it’s really not. The last thing you want to do is needlesslyundercut your competition and get into a price war with some of the more established andrespected sellers…they will destroy you.And besides, as soon as someone else lowers their prices everyone will run to them.Costumers that are looking for the lowest possible deal are not loyal and they will leaveyou as soon as they find a better deal.If you are putting an item up for auction it would not make any scents to start it at a highprice. Auctions are meant to start at low prices and get bided up until there is a winner.And if you check eBay you will notice that most of the power sellers out there alwaysstart their auctions at $1 and no reserve.So remember, if you are going to sell something over the internet, whether it be througheBay, yahoo or Amazon. One of the biggest advantages to buying something from theinternet is the great prices. And that is exactly what most people are looking for, bargains.
Reason 10: bad reputationThere is a reason why eBay created their now famous and imitated feedback system, thatreason is trust. The folks at eBay realized a long time ago that the internet is full of scamsand thieves. They also realized that when it comes to spending money over the internet,most people are very nervous and worried about getting ripped off.Every time a seller rips someone off or makes a costumer unhappy, the costumer has achance to give the seller negative feedback. This negative feedback will stay with theseller for as long as they remain a member of eBay and will forever be a stain on theirreputation. So naturally, the last thing most eBay sellers want to do is make someoneunhappy. This results in a very safe and comfortable environment for people that arelooking to buy something on eBay.But regardless whether you are planning to sell your products on eBay, yahoo, Amazonor open your own internet store. You should protect your reputation at any cost. Becauseeven though a costumer can’t give you bad feedback if you own your own internet store,what they can do is go to internet forums and let others know the horrible things you didto them. The word will spread quicker than you think, your reputation will get ruined andbefore you know it you can find yourself out of business.If you think about it, would you trust someone that has a bad reputation? Of course not,because when it comes to buying over the internet, most people are already nervousenough buying from someone they know anything about. And if you have a badreputation you have no chance.The ten reasons above can severely hurt the number of bids your auctions receive and asa consequence make you loose a lot of money.Overcharging on shipping, using bad photos and short descriptions are not mistakes onlyrookies make. If you brows through the listings on eBay you will find that manyestablished sellers make a lot of mistake, maybe not as much as sellers that are juststarting out, but they do make these common mistakes. So just by following the advicegiven to you in this short list; you will be able to gain an upper hand on some of yourmore established competitors.I think you will agree that most of the advice in this list doesn’t take a lot of effort toapply to your eBay, yahoo or Amazon business. But even though it is quite easy to applythe advice in this book; the results can be overwhelming.Now that you know what NOT to do, go out there and apply everything you should do.Because unless you use the information in this list to your advantage all of that greatadvice you have just received will go to waste.Something you should keep in mind is that even though the advice in this book is aimedat primarily eBay sellers. The advice can be applied to any kind of online sales business,weather its eBay, yahoo, Amazon, Ubid, your own website etc.

WHAT TO SELL AND WHERE TO GET IT

In order to make money on eBay you must sell something (DUH!). But whatshould you sell? What product are the most profitable? Where do I get all thestuff I want to sell? You are probably clueless right now and you want someanswers, don’t worry I’ll give you all the answers you need.Finding products to sell can be the hardest step of starting your eBay business.But if you want to be a powerseller that is one step you can not skip!Even though it can be the hardest part of starting your eBay business, finding asupplier is relatively easy and can be done in a couple of days…if you knowwhere to look. Even though it is easy, many people end up simply quittingbecause they find the task of finding a good supplier challenging and timeconsuming. Finding a suppler can also be very frustrating, it can seem likelooking for a needle in a height stack if you don’t know where or how to look.First of all look at all the powersellers selling the same stuff you want to sell, howdid they get their hands on all that great stuff? They looked for it until theyfound it! You must understand that if a product can be bought, it can besold for a profit. So what ever it is you want to sell I assure you, you can find asupplier for it.You will need to look harder, think outside the box and get creative if you wantto sell certain items. You will sometimes need to think for yourself and figure outways to get your hands on the stuff you want to sell. This might seem scary, butdon’t worry I will give you a lot of information that is sure to help you out.Getting creative and thinking outside the box:Like I said, if it can be bought, it can be sold for a profit. What ever you arelooking to sell you will find it if you look hard enough. What I want you to know isthat not every product can be found in a conventional way. By conventional Imean looking up a supplier in the yellow pages or the internet. Sometimes youjust have to get creative.First you must get rid of all the mental blocks and limitations that are in yourmind, you need a can-do-attitude. More often then not, the spoils come tothose who think the sky is the limit. Thinking out side the box is just that, thelimitations and mental blocks are the box…you must completely ignore them!So what do I mean by thinking outside the box while looking for a supplier? Imean your supplier doesn’t have to be an actual supplier. Your supplier can be astore, website or even another eBay seller that has access to the products youwant to sell. Another eBay seller!? Why would the competition want to help me?Well not everyone is going to want to help. But the smart eBay sellers know thatthis is a chance to make money off of the competition as well as their own eBaybusiness, a smart seller knows that with the extra products he he/she order tosupply you, he/she will probably get a greater discount.EBay is a great opportunity to make money from home, with little or no risk anda small amount of startup money. But guess what, not every real supplier is goingto want to deal with you when your first order is only $100 worth of products.You must understand that if you can’t go in through the front door, just goaround and try the back. As you read on there will be examples of getting theproducts you want to sell through the “back door”Does anyone actually use this “back door method”? Yes! Almost every singleeCommerce website that sells expensive watches (TAG, ROLEX, OMEGA…) usesthe “back door method”, because the manufactures of the watches only supplydirectly from the factory and only to authorized dealers….oh and the watchcompanies forbid the selling of their watches over the internet.So what most of these websites and eBay powersellers do is befriend a jewelrystore that has access to the products they want to sell. So if some of the biggestmost successful powersellers and websites do it, why can’t you?Most people are uncomfortable thinking outside the box and taking the road lesstraveled. Because when you do what everyone else does there is a clear path,there are guidelines and it is much easier and less uncomfortable to follow analready made path than make your own. Please know that you don’t have tofollow “the rules” when looking for a supplier, anyone that sells what youwant to sell is a potential supplier to you.Now, not everyone is going to agree to do business with you. But you mustremember there are thousands of people out there that would agree to be yoursupplier. The sooner you get rid of the ones that don’t want anything to do withyou the sooner you will get to the ones that want your business and are open toyour ideas.