eBay boasts over 155 million ready-to-buy customers worldwide—a number that grows every year. And since the online parts market is on the rise, it makes sense that auto parts are selling like hot cakes on eBay, too.
But even though eBay is fairly simple to get started on, there are some mistakes that new auto parts sellers tend to make simply because they’re new to eBay. Even if your dealership is already selling online, eBay buyers have a unique mindset that you have to adjust for, or else it could cost you sales. It’s an entirely different market, after all, and you need to adjust accordingly.
Learn about these common mistakes before you fall victim to them yourself.
Mistake #1: Not offering free shipping.
On eBay, buyers really like those two magic words: “free shipping.”
Even if your store’s price + shipping is lower, they’ll gravitate toward the listing that says “free shipping.” It’s the idea of getting something for free that attracts their attention.
And it’s not just in the mindset of online shoppers everywhere—it’s built into the eBay marketplace itself. Offering free shipping helps you stand out and boost traffic on eBay, since it ranks you higher in eBay search results.
So, it’s worth your time to TRY selling auto parts with free shipping to see if it boosts your sales.
Those of you currently selling online are already balking. Offering free shipping for auto parts can be incredibly costly, since expensive, heavy, and odd-shaped items can make shipping prices a bit steep.
But this doesn’t mean you have to eat the loss for shipping. With accurate shipping calculations, you can bake the cost into your pricing while still offering competitive pricing. Plus, there are plenty of tricks for reducing your shipping costs overall so everyone wins on the cost!
By the way, the RevolutionParts eBay solution takes care of all this for you! There’s no need to manually do the math for each and every listing—we’ll do the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.
Mistake #2: Setting prices without accurate shipping estimates.
This seems like a straightforward thing to do, but many parts managers selling on eBay make this mistake simply because they don’t know how to fix it. But really, its a good idea to incorporate some (or all) of the shipping cost into the part price.
How do you calculate accurate shipping costs for the thousands of auto parts in your inventory?
Selling auto parts isn’t like selling cell phone cases. The parts you sell come in all shapes and sizes, so a lot of people end up guessing when it comes to how much it will cost to ship something.
If you estimate shipping too low, then you’ll end up eating the cost of shipping and potentially losing money on the sale. On the other hand, charging too much will scare away customers. It’s easy for eBay shoppers to sort listings by price, so low-priced listings will see the best conversion rates.
You could manually figure out shipping costs for the parts one-by-one, but no one has time for that.
Or, of course, RevolutionParts can help you out, since our eBay solution will calculate those shipping prices for you, based on the weights and dimensions of the parts you sell.
Mistake #3: Taking too long to handle customer questions.
Like all online shoppers, people on eBay have a wealth of options right at their fingertips. They might be eyeing your listing at the moment, but a number of things could make them change their mind.
One of those things is waiting for you to respond to their questions. Online parts buyers are less likely to return purchased parts than in-store customers, likely because they want to make sure they’re buying the right part. Buyer confidence is incredibly important for securing sales online.
If they have a question about a part, they expect an answer from you as soon as possible—ideally, in less than a day. If you can’t provide an answer quick enough, it’s an easy matter for them to buy from someone else.
These aren’t the only mistakes that we see from parts sellers on eBay, but they are some of the biggest. The eBay marketplace offers tons of advantages to sellers, but at the same time it’s a bit more competitive than your average parts store, so it’s in your interests to optimize your eBay store wherever you can.
For an added bonus, good eBay practices like that will help you reach your Top Seller goals, which can give you added benefits and make selling on eBay even easier. As long as you have a reliable way to calculate shipping and the dedication to give your customers quick service, you’ll be able to make even more money on eBay.
