How to Create a Top-Selling eBay Listing
The key to securing your online sales, eBay or not, is building buyers’ trust in your business. When trust is high, shoppers focus less on the potential risks of online shopping and feel ready to make a purchase.
1. Use high-quality photos
Because online eBay shoppers can’t see your products in-person, your item photos matter a great deal. Through color, image quality, and more, product photos help buyers assess whether they want to purchase the item.
2. Apply SEO to your listings
Online shoppers don’t want to browse through pages of products. To save time, they’d rather opt for one of the first results that they see. With this reasoning, a listing that ranks high in eBay’s search results will likely attract greater sales than one with a lower ranking.
3. Promote with eBay advertising
Beyond SEO, you can improve your listings’ visibility with eBay Promoted Listings. Available to Top-Rated Sellers and eBay Stores subscribers, this paid advertising program allows you to place your listings where they’ll get more exposure, such as the top of a search rankings page.
4. Maintain a high seller rating
Beyond SEO and promotions, visibility can also be impacted by your eBay seller rating. If you have negative feedback, the Cassini search engine will lower your listing’s ranking.
To ensure that your listing is visible (and that you’re keeping customers happy), you should always aim to meet eBay’s Top Rated seller benchmarks:
Defect rate: Less than or equal to 0.5%, with three or fewer defects from unique buyers
Cases closed without seller resolution: Less than or equal to 0.3% and two or fewer cases
Late shipment rate: Less than or equal to 3% and five or fewer late shipments
Shipping: Carrier validation for 90% of transactions to U.S. buyers, and shipping Tracking uploaded within your stated handling time.
5. Offer generous shipping and returns
When online shoppers are hesitant to purchase, they can often be convinced to buy with free shipping and return policies. If they don’t like the item, they know that it will cost no money and minimal time to have it shipped and sent back.
eBay buyers are no exception. The marketplace found that 75% of their shoppers check return policies before completing an order.
6. Create a custom listing with software
Shoppers are attracted to listings with a professional look. The high-quality design builds buyers’ trust in your business as they associate a polished look with credibility.
Achieving this style, however, can be hard if you’re not a designer. Rather than hire an expensive freelancer, you can save money and still create a professional listing with software. Online programs, such as CrazyLister, provide templates to easily craft an eBay listing at an affordable price.
7. List with eBay’s catalog
As an alternative to using custom listing software, you can achieve a professional look by listing items through the eBay Catalog. Rather than creating your own unique listing, the eBay Catalog lets you share one with other merchants who are selling the same product.
For each Catalog listing, eBay selects the product photos from sellers’ submissions, and the product info is presented in a standardized format. With this uniform look, eBay Catalog listings look professional in the eyes of shoppers.
8. Select item specifics strategically
To maximize your products’ visibility, you’ll want to include relevant item specifics when creating listings. Item specifics are unique identifiers—color, brand, size—that help you distinguish your listing from similar products.
9. Have a competitive price strategy
As shoppers scroll through eBay listings, they’re comparing pricing, among other factors. To attract buyers while staying mindful of your finances, you want to find a price point that’s both competitive and fits your budget.
10. Make sure your listing is compliant
At the very least, your listing can’t attract shoppers if it’s not legally compliant. Failure to meet these standards can result in your listing being removed by eBay and disrupting your business.