Daily Refinement eBay Photography, Listing & Inventory Storage System (Start to Finish) — Daily Refinement

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• Number #17: Take some time to understand how the performance metrics work on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/traffic In this example, I have 4391 items available for sale eBay populated my listings 383,608 on the screen (Impressions) 1654 people clicked on the listing (Page Views) and 58 people purchased an item. (Sell-Through Item)

• umber #11: Develop 8-10 plugs for inventory. Be known in your category amongst people who have inventory you want to sell. Be their number one option to sell to. Have money ready and be prepared to help them with their specific needs. No two supplies are alike. Make a list of 100 suppliers or people that you can reach out to in 2022, and slowly start developing relationships.

• Number #4: Sort your inventory immediately when you get it. This will train you not to store items that never sell. Regardless if I order supply from a supplier or I go and get items myself, I sort immediately. Needs to Process (Sorting, Cleaning, Grading, Testing) Ready to List Recycle, Donate (Bag of damaged items near the door to remind you to always trim the fat.) Number #5: Create an inventory system. I recommend a sequential numerical system. I’ve yet to lose an item with this system, and i can quickly see if something is out of place because they’re in order. Once a week, I consolidate, and once a year, I check for out of order items. Number #6: Pick all of your items at the same time. Don’t go back and forth, and just ship at the same time every day. That will save you time to work on other parts of your business. If you do it the same way every day, you will do it faster and faster. i actually recommend doing each individual task all the way to completion. Number #7: Create a Photography Station Number #8: Create a Shipping Station with all the common ways you ship easily within reach. Number #9: Learn how to list Items in 3 Minutes or Less. I use templates.

• Promoted listings are not required to make sales. Personally, for promoted listings standard, I promote all listings at 1.1%, but if you want to move inventory faster, you can increase the rate to increase your visibility on the site. The less desirable your inventory is, the more you may need to promote it to gain visibility. No one needs to promote discount Gucci, it will sell organically because the demand for cheap Gucci is far greater than the supply. Another example I use is if you sold $100 bills for $90, free shipping, you would sell out immediately with 0% promoted listings. On the contrary, if you promoted $100 bills for $110+shipping, you wouldn’t be able to sell them, even if you promoted at 100%. If you are selling something super saturated, I’ve seen sellers promote as high as 30% AND combine that with a price 30% under market to gain traction. If you’re in a competitive niche, be prepared to offer every single trick in the book to get sales. Having higher promoted listings will reduce your click-through and sales conversion rates because you will get more traffic to your listings. Promoted listings places your items in view when people are searching for different items. Promoted Listings Advanced (Tutorial Coming Soon) 4 Step Outline to Make $1k a Week

• Change the Backup Funding Source to the credit card you want to use. The primary funding source is your PayPal balance. You cannot change this. In order for eBay to charge your credit card, you’ll need have a $0 PayPal balance. I use a separate PayPal account that doesn’t have any receivables, so the balance is always $0. I recommend Chase or Capital One For Credit Cards, but I’ve heard Citibank or Wells Fargo are also good. Stick to the big banks, I do not advise signing up for retail bank cards or companies like Synchrony bank, because they don’t like credit card churning, and they have ridiculous interest rates. Credit card churning is the practice of repeatedly opening and closing credit cards to earn cash, rewards points or miles. I had a TJ Maxx card and Best Buy card canceled in the past because of too much activity. I personally only use the Spark Plus 2% Card, it doesn’t have a credit card limit, but it’s a charge card, so I have to pay off the entire balance each month. I have a business referral code here: https://capital.one/3gStsGk. I spend $3-$4k a day on this card across all businesses, so that’s around $70 a day in cash back. Technically, any rewards you have redeemed may be subject to taxes; however, Capital One doesn’t report the cash back rewards as income as of the writing of this article. No Fee Credit Cards (For people who can’t justify the annual fees of business cards, no fee credit cards are great. I have both of these cards.) Quiksilver Card 1.5% Referral Link: https://capital.one/3ka5Wa4 Chase Freedom Unlimited 1.5% Referral Link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18a/JFVX6U1CA5 There’s a 5th Step I forgot in the video, you have to select PayPal as a payment method during eBay shipping as well. The image below will show that you need to toggle to “Your saved PayPal account,” before clicking the “Purchase shipping label” button. This should save as your default on eBay, so it doesn’t pay from your pending payouts.

• The draft bank is one of the most essential tools a reseller has. The purpose of a draft bank is help you create consistent traffic in your eBay store. eBay bumps your listing for 24 hours, when you post it, in the Best Match algorithm. If you can spread out the listing visibility improvement out across the entire month or year, you set yourself up for consistent traffic and consistent sales. I recommend 10 days of draft bank, so you can have a 10 day vacation, or if something comes up, you can still get your listings done. Daily Listing Goal x 10 = Optimal Draft Bank You can actually avoid your draft bank expiring by creating a copy of your oldest drafts, and then deleting the old drafts. Don’t let drafts get older than 2 weeks old, pictures expire after 30 days. If you’re worried about not being able to get to your drafts, then I recommend you use scheduled listings instead, where you pay .10 to schedule your listings into the future. This will allow you to create a steady flow of customers into your store. eBay allows us to 3,000 drafts, but I don’t recommend going over 1,000, because you can’t really see them in the draft queue, without clicking the date. Steps to Create and Use a Draft Bank Create your listing as you normally would. Complete everything. Instead of clicking “List Your Item,” you’d click “Save as Draft.” Go to the drafts page each day to launch the listings you’d like to launch. Then you’d sort by oldest draft, click, resume

• Every Single Trick in the Book to Increase Sales (There are no new ways to “hack” eBay. This list will be comprehensive.) Become an Expert in Your Field and an Authorized Dealer of the Products You Sell: The only way you can avoid VERO, or Verified Rights Owner violations on eBay is to have proper invoices from legitimate distributors of the products you sell. If you don’t have expressed consent from that brand, then technically the brand can ask to have your items removed at any time. Every distributor of every item of every brand on Earth has a list of requirements to become a legitimate distributor. The majority of people never put the effort in to become an authorized dealer, and live their entire resale lives in the gray market. eBay even has a button to indicate Authorized Resellers. If you sell used or pre-owned items, eBay will usually not require invoices, but just keep in mind, they can ask for them at any time. If you can become an authorized dealer of the products you sell, that is the biggest advantage on eBay because you can offer the manufacturer warranty and get the biggest discounts on those products. Become Known in Best Seller in Your Niche in Your Area: If you can pull this off, and you become known for selling a certain thing, the people who distribute those things will reach out to you. Improve Your Title: Write the title with the most searched, relevant and top ranking keywords in the exact order customers type it. Add a Subtitle: Write a subtitle that would grab the customer’s attention and entice them to click on your listing AND convert them to an immediate sale. This costs an extra $1.50, and is only be worth it if a few extra keywords and phrases will help conversion. It’s most common for high end items, or listings with multiple quantities or variations. Optimize Store Categories: I recommend using eBay’s categories, versus your own, unless you really know your target customer, and create store categories that would improve your buyers’ experience. Select the Correct Category: Select the correct category that your item is in, and add a second category if applicable(you have to pay an additional insertion listing fee). The correct category is the category where the most eBay customers search for your items most frequently. Accurately Represent the Item’s Condition & Condition Description: Accurately describe your item, and point out every single flaw or defect. I recommend you describe items in their exact condition, or slightly worse, so you can limit returns and create repeat customers. Take and Upload All 12 Photos Of Every Angle of Your Item, With The Most Accurate Color and Brightest Lighting: Take the best and the most photos you can of your item. I’ve seen sellers max out their 12 allocated by eBay, and add an additional 40-60 photos. You have to balance taking excellent photos and the time it takes to take and edit photos. The best pictures on eBay have bright soft-lit photos, and photos of every single angle a customer would care about. Here’s an example from my friend Matt. He has world-class photos, and can justify that level of detail: https://www.ebay.com/str/luxoticthreads. You’ll have to decide for yourself what quality of photos you’d like in your store and what your personal standards are. I recommend taking non-edited photos on a neutral background using natural lighting or as much soft lighting as you can. I recommend a camera and an SD card or an iPhone 8 or better. More photos rank better than less photos. Complete All Relevant Item Specifics: Fill out all relevant item specifics that your customer would care about. Do not add non-related or searchable item specifics. Putting a placeholder like N/A, or a made up term, like“Knick, knack, patty wack, give a dog a bone,” will not help you in the search algorithm because a customer is not going to search for that. Add All Relevant Features in the Item Description: Add size, condition, features and any other details that a customer might care about. Use Either Fixed Priced Format or Auction Format: (Coming Soon) Select the Item Duration: I recommend listing Fixed Price items at competitive prices and no auctions at all. If you use auctions for a rare or unique item with a lot of demand. Then, best practices can include starting the auction at a price you’re willing to sell it at with only one bid, and ending the auction on Sunday afternoon or evening, with a 7 or 10 day auction time. Scheduled Listings: I recommend you use scheduled listings to space out your listings evenly, rather than launching drafts 7 days a week. This allows you to avoid having drafts expire after 30 days, and Pricing: (Coming Soon) Offer Best Offer: Customers want a deal, and there’s no harm in offering best offer. You can, and should, always counter offer rather than declining. Simplify and Optimize Business Policies: More in depth video here. Go to this link to access these policies, you need a Basic Store Subscription, https://www.bizpolicy.ebay.com/businesspolicy/manage These are the 5 Policies that I Use Payment Policy I require immediate payment, but you don’t have to. Return Shipping Policy Returns I recommend having the best return policy you can afford to give. I have 60 day free returns. Shipping Policy $8.99 Standard Shipping GSP International eBay $24.99 Free Shipping (Aged Items) I use this for items over 90 days old, but I currently have only 1 item that’s over 90 days old. Heavy Item Calculated Shipping (Bulk Orders) Fedex UPS

• Rule #1: Ship fast and ship on time. The faster you ship, and the more on time you ship, the higher you rank in the search algorithm. I have same day handling time, and I offer both standard shipping option AND an expedited shipping option. $8.99 Flat Standard Shipping $9.99 for 2+ Items Shipped Flat $1.99 for additional items that have been purchased via best offer, or offer to watcher. $24.99 International Shipping eBay Global Shipping Program (GSP) eBay International Shipping Offer your own international shipping Rule #2: Get your item scanned by a worker physically. This will affect the “Tracking Uploaded on Time and Validated” metric. If you ship on time, and get the acceptance scan, you’ll be covered by eBay for any defects for items that don’t arrive on time. It’s your post office worker’s responsibility to scan the items when you present them the items either at the retail desk, a local pickup or in the back loading dock, but it’s up to you to make sure it happens. Here’s the documentation: https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2006/html/pb22192/pb6ktxt.html. Most post officer workers aren’t strict with this procedure, so it’s important that you stress how important it is to your online business, and couple that with courtesy and politeness. They’re busy and often dealing with hundreds of customers, so they may brush off your requests. Tips to get your Post Office worker to scan your packages. Be courteous and polite. Greet them, crack a joke, ask about their day, get to know them. Carry packages to the truck for them. Make the package tracking numbers face outwards, so they can quickly scan from item to item. Get your packages ready early, so they don’t have to wait for you. It doesn’t hurt to grease the wheel with a gift card up to $20, and a bottled water or snack. $20 in a single occasion is appropriate and the rules for gifts to government workers are outlined here. You can contact your local Post Office General, if there are problems with your pickup, but try not to let it get to that point. Schedule a daily USPS pickup if possible here. I schedule 3 months ahead. It’s free and they’ll pick up at the same time of your daily mail delivery. Additional ways to improve search rank with shipping: Part of the Best Match criteria is how close you are physically to the customer. Best match is what eBay recommends to the customer, and it’s often proximity to the customer. Some sellers have multiple shipping locations to improve their search rankings, and may even go the additional route of setting up another eBay account with the same items warehoused in a different area of the United States.

• Photo Transfer Process Easiest Photo Process. My colleague @technsports, who I run the reseller mentorship with, has listed hundreds of thousands of items with this method with no issues. Use this Canon Elph 180 Camera, and buy some extra batteries. Get a few 32GB Sandisk cards. Take the photos, take the SD card out, and plug it into an SD card reader like this one. Use Firefox 76.0.1., and never update your browser, the photos will upload in the right orientation. My Photo Process I use an iPhone 8. It’s under $200, and it has a 12MP camera. I use extra long lightning cables. Airdrop Process Open Photos App Tap Select Select The Photos You Want to Transfer Click Square With Arrow at Bottom Left Side Click Options Check “All Photos Data” Click Done Click AirDrop Select Computer To AirDrop To Accept Photos on Computer Confirm photos have transferred Delete photos from iPhone. Charge phone Turning Off HEIC Mode on iPhone Unlock your iPhone or iPad and launch “Settings” app on your device and tap “Camera” option. Under Camera page, please tap “Formats” option to set up photo formats when taking pictures and transferring to computer. To disable HEIC image format, simply tap to switch on “Most Compatible” from “High Efficiency” option under CAMERA CAPTURE section. Alternative Way to Transfer Photos in Order Use a Sandisk Memory Stick for Lightning Adaptor. Tutorial coming soon on how to get the memory stick in the right format. How I Pack My Items (Plastic Bags & Supplies) Packing and Storage Process I pack all of my items in clear bags. 9x12 or 10x13 for clothing. 12x15 for shoes.

• My custom photobox is inside of a Husky Metal Shelf System. These are the shelves I use here. You can get them at Home Depot as well. They are 77”x78”x24” If you have limited space, I recommend this photobox instead. I used the same magnestic LED light strips inside my custom box. I plug the 8 lights into this surge protector. I place 6 along the top corners facing down, and 2 on the front columns facing backwards. I haven’t tried strip LED lighting, but someone recommended this one. I use all purpose hook and loop tape to hold things in place throughout the photobox. I cut diffusion fabric and place it around the led panels to soften the light. The backdrop paneling is Home Depot Foamboard. i cut it down to the exact size of my box using a utility knife. The fabric I use is sherpa fleece, you can buy it at Joann’s here. I just rolled excess material over the top and below the paneling, so it’s wedged against the wall and against the bottom shelf. I use a metal yardstick for measurements and hold it in my left hand while I photograph with my right hand. I also recommend resellerruler.com, which also sticks to the fleece I use. Taking pictures with measurements can help you remove item not described defects, and negative feedback. I use these metal sewing pins to hold up items, they stick into the foamboard. Plus sized clothing is my top seller, these are the plus sized hangers I use for them. I use this fishing line to hold the hanger in place.