Shopify’s guide on selling on eBay explains step-by-step how to create an eBay sales channel for your storefront using Shopify and its built-in eCommerce platform, Shopify.com/eBay.
Are you seeking innovative strategies to expand your Shopify business? Expanding your distribution channels may be precisely what you need.
In This Post
- A step-by-step guide to selling on eBay as a beginner
- Select a business model
- Determine the items you wish to sell
- Set up an eBay account
- Select a Store plan
- Link your Shopify store and your eBay account.
- Start listing
- How to be a successful eBay seller
- Optimize the visibility of your listings
- Offer customers with a branded shipping experience
- Ensure a competitive price point
- Leverage eBay to increase your sales.
Based on Statista data, multichannel online retailers produced more than $350 billion in sales last year and are expected to exceed $575 billion by 2023.
While Shopify enables you to connect your online store to various sales channels, we dedicate this post to eBay’s worldwide eCommerce behemoth.
Selling on eBay allows you to reach 154 million active buyers worldwide, with the platform operating in over 190 countries. Additionally, a recent report stated that eBay exceeded its quarterly revenue forecasts, with sales growing 11% year over year in Q3 2021.
Thus, how do you begin selling on eBay with Shopify? This post will set you through the process of creating an eBay sales channel for your storefront.
Step-by-step instructions on how to sell on eBay as a newbie.
1. Select a business model.
When you’re just starting on eBay, it’s beneficial to choose a business model—the strategy you’ll use to deliver value to your customers while also earning money.
There are a few different business models.
- Private label: You can collaborate with manufacturers to sell your private label items for eBay.
- Wholesale: This entails purchasing a massive quantity of products at a discount and reselling them profitably.
- Reselling: Arbitrage allows you to buy reduced products from in-store or online stores and resell them on eBay.
- Dropshipping: Purchase products from merchants who will package and ship them directly to your customers.
Consider your business strategy carefully when choosing how you will fulfill your orders. Certain options, like dropshipping, handle fulfillment for you. For example, you will be responsible for shipping and packaging with others, such as wholesale.
2. Determine the item you wish to sell.
On eBay, you can sell practically anything. However, the majority of retailers begin with the top-performing categories on their eCommerce site:
- Personal care and beauty: cosmetics, hair dye, nail polish, and tools.
- Household and garden essentials: cleaning supplies, minor appliances, and lawnmowers.
- Toys and hobbies: model-building kits, board games, and video games, among others.
- Crafts: sewing supplies, model-making supplies, and jewelry-making materials.
- Fitness equipment: weights, fitness equipment, and bicycles.
- Computer and networking equipment, including webcams, printers, and wireless routers.
- Pet supplies: bowls for feeding, grooming tools, and toys.
Choosing a category in which you are knowledgeable or passionate increases your chances of success.
Additionally, you can use market analysis tools to determine what to sell by obtaining demand and pricing data. Terapeak is the greatest one—its eBay-exclusive tool generates item recommendations based on accurate data from millions of eBay transactions. It is complimentary as long as you subscribe to one of eBay’s four Store subscriptions.
3. Set up an eBay account.
Choosing to select your business strategy and products, the following step is to establish an account. To register successfully, you must provide eBay with your business’s name, kind of business, and address.
- To start, navigate to the Registration page.
- Enter your first and last names and your email address.
- Create an account by entering a password and clicking Create an account.
eBay will require you to authenticate your identity following the creation of your account by clicking on a link given to your email address. After verifying your account, you’ll be ready to begin listing your items.
Nota bene: If you are registered as a business (LLC, sole proprietor, etc. ), you can set an eBay business account via the registration page.
4. Sign up for a Store plan
Subscribing to an eBay Store package entitles you to discounted costs and additional monthly free listings. Additionally, you receive added tools to help you promote your business to potential buyers.
To sign up, you must connect a checking account for payouts. However, before you subscribe, you should familiarize yourself with the Store features that will help you compare plans.
If you can manage less than 250 products each month, an eBay Store subscription costs only $4.95. The following membership plan is available for $21.95 per month and includes up to 1,000 product listings and cheaper final value fees. In addition, eBay now offers membership programs for high-volume businesses starting at $59.95 per month.
Following your subscription, you’ll be given the option of naming your eBay storefront. Your store name would reflect your brand and the type of products you sell in an ideal world. If you’re still looking for a name, you can use these 24 FREE Business Name Generators: Creative Name Ideas (2022) to generate suggestions.
5. Link your Shopify store with your eBay account.
eBay Shopify App enables merchants to run their businesses via a single cloud-based interface. For example, you can easily combine inventory, manage orders, and enhance sales.
Moreover, the software allows you to:
- Communicate with customers through the integrated message system
- Increase your presence on eBay’s global marketplaces
- Make your products visible to millions of shoppers via mobile and the web
Merging your eBay and Shopify accounts is much easier than you would imagine. The steps are as follows:
- From the Shopify App Store, install the eBay app.
- Login using the login for your Shopify store and follow the prompts:
- In your Shopify dashboard, click Add channel.
Following that, you’ll want to create an eBay sales channel for your internet store. This requires configuring the eBay app settings, which you can accomplish via the eBay channel’s Sales Channels menu.
Select Account > Business Policies from the eBay menu. Click Create Policy to develop your shipping, payment, and return policies. If you already have policies in place on eBay, choose Force Sync from eBay to import them into Shopify.
Then, click the Sync Settings option under the eBay Sales channel menu to sync the settings.
Then configure them by specifying the default package size, inventory location, major categories, eBay tax table, and inventory synchronization preferences.
Then, click Save settings to complete the process.
6. Begin listing
To list your products on eBay, click the Sell button at the top of any eBay page and fill out the form. By checking the “Save this listing as template” checkbox, eBay allows sellers to create templates for their listings.
You can also list products directly from Shopify. Click the Listings option under the eBay Sales Channel menu, then Add Listing. Following that, configure the following parameters for each Listing:
- Title and description
- Details and category
- The quantity, the weight, and the price
- Package settings
To use Shopify product values, you can leave the last two settings blank.
Save and Publish your changes when you’re finished.
How to be an eBay success
Because prospective customers will first encounter your brand through your listings, it’s critical to present your brand in the greatest light possible. The following are some critical best practices that you may use to increase your eBay sales:
1. Optimize the visibility of your listings
Customers use the same method on Google when searching for products on eBay: they use keywords. For example, eBay’s algorithm assists users in swiftly locating products that suit their search parameters.
By including product IDs and relevant keywords in your listings, you ensure that they will appear when shoppers conduct listings for the products you sell.
Shopify allows you to alter the title and description of individual eBay listings. Take care—searches on eBay frequently take the following form:
- “women’s under armor sneakers red.”
- “64gb iPhone 12 pro max unlocked.”
- “boba tea bottle medium size 12 oz.”
Include long-tail terms in your listings’ titles to make them visible to shoppers. Then, in the Publish view, set them as identifiers:
- Product description (for example, “flip flops” “waterproof smartphone case”)
- Brand (e.g., “Samsung” “Puma”).
- Size (“men’s size 11,” “medium”)
- Colors (“holographic,” “blue”)
- Model (“Pro Max,” “Air Yeezy”)
Additionally, consider the following questions that your customers may ask while shopping for a product similar to yours:
- Which size is the best fit for me?
- What are the included accessories?
- What is the product’s dimension?
- Is this a new product?
The more questions you respond to, the less hesitant your buyers will be. Additionally, you’ll be able to decrease the number of communications you receive from shoppers. Make your listings more professional by using proper grammar and capitalization, and make product information consumable by utilizing bulleted lists rather than lengthy paragraphs.
2. Offer a tailored shipping experience
Offering a properly branded fulfillment experience is one of the most effective methods to make your brand memorable to buyers. Keep the following tips in mind to help you become your clients’ go-to merchant:
- Deliver a sanitized and structured fulfillment experience, including duty information and shipping tracking.
- Invest in branded shipping supplies to ensure that your products appear professional.
- Meet deadlines for orders.
- Wherever possible, avoid canceling orders.
Using these tips will reward you with shoppers who see your listings first in their search results and even bookmark your store for future purchases.
3. Ensure a competitive price point for yourself.
EBay’s marketplace is extensive, with merchants providing comparable items at various price points. For example, eBay shoppers make purchasing selections based on multiple elements, including sale conditions and delivery costs, but the most compelling factor is a competitive price.
On eBay, you have two options for selling:
- Buy it now. This refers to fixed-price listings that allow customers to purchase an item and have it sent instantly. It can be advantageous for shoppers who cannot wait for an auction to conclude; buying it now can encourage more consumers to buy impulse purchases.
- The auction process. Auctions often last between one to ten days and can sometimes persuade people to pay a premium for your product. Auctions incentivize buyers to compete, but you must guarantee that your Listing generates excitement. Auction-style listings are advantageous for items in great demand and have a finite quantity, such as rare collectibles. Additionally, they are beneficial if you are unsure about the best selling price.
When setting a starting price for your auction or Buy it now, it’s a good idea to browse other sellers’ listings to get a sense of what your item might sell for while also ensuring that your pricing is consistent with the current price the eBay marketplace.
Read Also:
- 24 Profitable Online Jobs You Can Do In 2022
- Best Motivational Speeches About Life And Entrepreneurship (2022)
- 24 FREE Business Name Generator: Creative Name Ideas (2022)
- Find Clothing Manufacturers For Your Business (2022)
- How To Build Powerful Product Pages That Converts In 2021
Leverage eBay to increase your sales.
With over 154 million members and well-known businesses selling on eBay, it’s evident that eBay is an excellent venue for increasing awareness of your products.
Unfortunately, due to the low entrance hurdle for Shopify store owners, it is a perfect channel for selling products outside of your primary store.
Install the eBay Shopify app first, then connect the two platforms to begin selling Shopify products on the eBay marketplace.
Small Request
Kindly share it with your friends. Especially, the ones you believe really need this information.
Sharing this information with others can make a huge difference. You may ask why?
Well, the truth is, my main aim is to provide the best information pertaining to drop shipping for both beginners and experienced dropshippers.
And I plan to continue doing so for as long as I can.
I would also like to thank those who support the work I do through reading my content and sharing.
Trust me, when you take your time and share it will help a lot not only for me but also for other people who may really be in need of this information.
Here are some great suggestions:
- Pin it
- Share it on another blog
- Share on Facebook (Share it with friends and even on Facebook groups)
- Tweet it
- Stumble it
This will only take a few seconds of your time and I would really appreciate it.
I appreciate you a lot. Thank you!
Join my Shopify dropshipping group mastermind and follow my blog to learn more about Shopify tips, dropshipping guides, dropshipping tricks and checklists, and e-commerce in general.
If you enjoyed and learned something from this post, you can get updates from me, free of charge!
I send out email newsletters about new posts published on the blog, tips, and tricks to help you grow your dropshipping business, as well as new YouTube videos to give you more insights about the e-commerce market, and much more.
If you enjoyed reading this, you can as well join my Facebook group. Thank you for reading how to make money dropshipping online from the comfort of your home.
Click The Image To Join My Facebook Mastermind Group