Online retail is absolutely essential for any modern business to become a success and appeal to the largest audience possible. For those retailers struggling to make themselves known online and attract kind of audience that will convert into customers, a sale is a sale and it doesn't really matter where the custom comes from, so long as it comes.
For larger businesses, there are dozens of potential interaction points between themselves and their customers, and they will take advantage of any revenue stream that might drive conversions and increase profits.
When it comes to online retail, many businesses owners, particularly SMEs, tend to think that once they've developed their own eCommerce site than all of their customers will simply come to them. Unfortunately, that's blatantly untrue. Even if you do have a fully-fledged online presence to sell your products, you're still going to have to get out there and find your customers.
You Need To Get Out And Find Your Customers; Few Will Come To You Naturally!
Rather than patiently wait at your eCommerce solution, you need to be proactive. You need to ensure that you are constantly approaching new areas, trying new things and offering fresh avenues of interaction to your potential customers. Today, driving sales across any and all possible platforms is one of the major differences between those businesses that are constantly growing and exploding into new areas, and those that tend to fizzle out quickly.
The biggest retailers know this, and they don't hesitate to take advantage of any potential interaction point, particularly if it will end up in a quick sale. Some of the biggest brands in the world are just as likely to be found on Amazon or, more likely, eBay, as they are to have a high street store or even their own online presence. eBay store designs that reflect all kinds of brand identities are extremely common and even essential for modern eCommerce.
Just a few of the household businesses that trade directly through eBay include House of Fraser, Superdry and The French Connection. Similarly, Amazon is absolutely filled with large scale retailers and brands presenting their products from its digital shelves, or making the most of Amazon Fulfilment.
Top 9 Reasons To Sell Your Products On eBay!
1. You Want To Go Where The People Go – According to information from Hitwise, here in the UK eBay and Amazon both enjoy a much larger share of all online retail traffic. In fact, they have a larger share than all of the other top 20 retail platforms combined!
2. A Fixed Cost – When you come to sell on Amazon or eBay, you'll find that the costs are fixed. This means that you will easily be able to understand the cost of your sale before you list the item. Compare this to the extremely volatile world of paid search advertising, where it is not uncommon to see an entire month's marketing budget disappear in a few days, and you'll quickly learn the benefits.
This fixed cost of selling means that you can effectively plan any other business efforts around an accurate profit derived from each sale.
3. You Should Care About A Bad Reputation – Ignore Joan Jett, maintaining a great, customer-friendly and ethical reputation is essential for any business. Not only will your reputation have much more of an impact on your customers, but you will find yourself rewarded with increasingly prominent positions in these 3rd party websites.
For example, your products could appear much quicker to customers looking for relevant products on eBay. Alternatively, if you're trading through Amazon, you might earn your way towards the Blue Buy Box, which can drastically increase sales.
4. An Easy, One Basket Solution – With eBay, your customers can now add dozens of items, from dozens of different manufacturers, into a single basket and make only one payment. This may not really seem like much, but it is hugely convenient for the buyer, and dramatically increases the potential benefits of the online system for businesses like yours.
This means that smaller products, including hand-crafted gifts and decorative items, can easily be added to a basket alongside products from a larger business. Customers are often put off ordering if they're only looking for one item and will be required to pay postage, particularly if the item is small. By combining this single item with others, more customers are likely to add a wider variety of products to a wide range of baskets, all without being inconvenienced during the transaction.
5. A Range Of Alternative Payment Methods – PayPal is an internationally recognised payment provider, and offering the option to pay through PayPal can really help to increase confidence in your business. As PayPal is the primary payment option on eBay, it has the potential to offer a multi-million pound opportunity to retailers across the world – on a scale that cannot be matched by the high street and is rarely adopted by a brand's own eCommerce website.
Many shoppers also tend to see their PayPal account balance as spare, easily spendable cash. This will usually result in impulse buys across platforms like eBay, on products that they really don't need.
6. Proven Fulfilment Services – There are multiple options available for fulfilment, particularly through Amazon. If you engage in a comprehensive omni-channel marketing strategy, you will be able to offer your products through Amazon fulfilment, which can deal with most, if not all, of your delivery requirements. This can normally open up customer options with regards to returning products and making the most of free delivery.
7. Provides Immediate Opportunities – When you're offering your products through a 3rd party store, you can be up and running in minutes. Whether you've got your own eCommerce website or not, this can be a great advantage when it comes to gaining immediate ROI and starting to make an impact online.
This can also provide retailers with a real opportunity to test the waters before they commit their funds to a bespoke eBay store design. It also offers the opportunity to turn any backlog of stock into cash extremely quickly, with a minimal upfront investment.
8. A Level Playing Field – Premium and previously established brands often tend to dominate any kind of marketplace. Whilst this would normally be a bad thing, in an online eCommerce platform this can actually benefit you. Premium brands will often attract potential buyers to the online store, but they then have the potential to drive these customers to smaller retailers on the same platform.
Whilst smaller retailers will often suffer from this competition in the physical world, even the smallest of businesses can compete with their larger alternatives online. eBay provides a completely level playing field to allow you and your business to compete with even the biggest brands in your industry.
9. Raise Brand Awareness And Customer Experience With A Unique eBay Store Design – By creating a completely bespoke eBay store design, you can use these online marketplaces to raise awareness around your brand identity and ensure that your customers are aware of who they are trading with. This can be a great option for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Small businesses can make the most of great eBay store design to ensure that they are presenting a trustworthy and branded face to their customers, which can be particularly essential if they have yet to develop an eCommerce presence of their own. Larger businesses, meanwhile, can use this store design to reinforce their existing brand identity and ensure that their customers know they are interacting with the real deal.
There Are A Range Of Great Reasons To Trade On 3rd Part Websites, Like eBay!
These online marketplaces offer a range of advantages to business of all sizes, and they work as a platform to provide great mutual benefits. There are three major reasons why you need to offer your products through an online marketplace like eBay or Amazon.
- Increased Sales – Supported by the enhanced trustworthiness, increased visibility and more, you will be able to increase your overall sales to enjoy a highly-rewarding ROI.
- Customer Acquisition – Few people will head to eBay looking for your store, but you will be able to take advantage of the customers looking for products similar to those you offer. Your customers need to be able to find you across the internet if you're going to have a chance of engaging with them.
- Their Online Infrastructure – Marketplaces operate under the principle of strength in numbers. The sheer variety of an online presence such as eBay can draw a range of people in, as they never know what they're going to be able to discover. Online marketplaces like these are excellent when it comes to providing your customers with single-stream checkout options and fulfilment support.
Creating The Perfect eBay Listing With These Best Practices!
Although eBay can offer a fantastic range of advantages, it is essential that you present your products according to the very best practices. You only need to look through eBay for a few minutes, and you're going to see a range of businesses creating hideous listings that put their potential customers off.
If you're looking to create a professional presence on eBay, then you are going to need eBay store design from a team of experienced developers and marketers, but you should also ensure that you have a template or two to present your products in a coherent and attractive manner. There are free options available, but it is extremely easy to tell these apart from professionally created designs.
The Anatomy Of A Great eBay Listing
You need to ensure that everyone of your eBay listing contains the following pieces of information and design features. Without these components, your listing will look half-empty and offer a substandard experience to your potential customer.
When it comes to identifying your business, you need to ensure that your listing features the following information:
- Header;
- Company Logo;
- Company Contact Details;
- Unique-Selling Point/Banner;
This information should be the same across all of your listings, and isn't really relevant to your product. Once you've introduced your business in this manner, you need to talk about the product itself. To do this, you should include:
- Product Headline – For the best results, make sure that you use a sensible font, like Verdana or Arial and that it is either black or a deep red. Don't make the text too big or obnoxious. 20pt and bolded is normally sufficient.
- Main Picture – You best image of the product should be your main picture and it should go right underneath your headline. If you have several images to choose from, go for one that shows to product in full overview.
- Description – Use a sensible font to create a great product description that honestly explains the product's purpose. Don't leave your customers wondering about anything and make sure that they know its dimensions, condition, colour and any features that make it stand out.
Never re-use a product description and aim to write between 200-300 words for the best results. When possible, use bullet points to list the features of the product and the reasons why the customer should purchase the product.
There are a range of other steps you need to take as part of creating a great eBay product listing, but that is an entire industry in of itself. Just make sure you follow the above best practices, and you're well on your way to creating a customer friendly online presence that will provide a great ROI.
Enjoy The Great Benefits Of 3rd Party Marketplace Retail, With A Bespoke eBay Store Design!
Here at eStore Design, we are proud to have many years' worth of experience in creating completely unique online presence to a range of businesses. If you're looking for a bespoke eBay store design or a complete online presence for your business, get in touch with our team of experts today.
You can call us up directly on 0845 050 3500 or, alternatively, email any questions or concerns that you might have to sales@e-store-design.co.uk and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!