How does this help find inventory for eBay?
By seeking out inventory this way, I save myself the time of searching through listings looking for what I want.  This allows fellow sellers to find me, sending the listings for the items I want straight to my inbox.

Want to learn more about how to utilize the Want It Now feature and use it to purchase eBay inventory?

Check out my Want It Now course.

Click on the link to buy the course directly, or join Boutique Bargains today and get instant access to this course and many other great resources.

A great FREE feature that is included with all eBay memberships is Want It Now. Whether you are selling or buying, it can be helpful to utilize the Want It Now feature on eBay.

What is Want It Now?
From the eBay site – “Want It Now lets buyers post requests for hard-to-find items and allows sellers to respond to those requests with eBay listings.”

If your primary goal on eBay as a seller is to find a deal and turn it around to make some money, you can use Want It Now as a resource by creating posts seeking out inventory.

Want It Now provides eBay buyers an opportunity to ask for the items that they want or are unable to find. As a seller, you can respond to those requests with your eBay listings. This can be a great way to help boost sales during the slow times. You can look for potential buyers of the items you already have with a simple search.

IMPORTANT: Please only respond to posts if the item you have is exactly the same as that described in the post. It will be considered SPAM if you respond to a post with an item that is not an exact match – and you can be reported.

Try doing a search on the Want It Now boards every once in a while. Maybe a few times each season, when you feel that your sales are slowing down, or whenever you have a surplus of inventory. When you search posts go back about a week. It will take a little time, but is worth the extra sales. It can also give you an idea of what to keep an eye out for as you acquire your seasonal inventory.

Check out eBay’s Want It Now feature today.

Create Multiple Custom Store Categories
This makes a lot of sense! eBay allows you to create up to 300 Categories and Subcategories in a single store. That is a lot of categories!! Be sure to use popular yet relevant keywords when creating your custom category names. This will help to ensure that you are placing on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

To add Store categories:
1. Got to My eBay.
2. Move your cursor over the Account tab to find the pull-down menu.
3. Select “Manage my store”.
4. Click on “Store Categories” link.
5. Click on the Add Category button.

To add a Store subcategory:
1. Got to My eBay.
2. Move your cursor over the Account tab to find the pull-down menu.
3. Select “Manage my store”.
4. Click on “Store Categories” link.
5. Select the link for the category name in which you want to add subcategories.
6. Click the Add Category button.

For more tips on this subject, check out eBay’s Store Categories page.

Q:  Wondering about seasonal items (Christmas etc) leave them up all year?

A:  YES!  Perfect instance – Halloween past – maybe you had some costumes that didn’t quite sell (yet).  Do you know how many costumes sell at Christmas?????  Think ‘Dress Up’!  Costumes sell all year.  Especially well in lots of similar sizes and themes.

It’s January, you should be thinking Valentines and EASTER – you always want to be months ahead of schedule.  If you are ever not sure, take a wonder around the retail locations and see what they have out.  For the most part, my advise is to list all seasons, all year to your eBay store.  Christmas in July will be here before you know it!  Christmas isn’t always about the toys.  Toys will sell all year – birthdays, Easter..etc. Special occasions don’t stop because toy season is over.

Hope that helps! 

Worried about needing an updated spreadsheet when eBay has fee changes….DON’T BE!! A BIG part of why I love this spreadsheet so much is because it pulls the data right from eBay! Everything is integrated, nothing needs to be changed when eBay fees change! It’s a fully automated spreadsheet and has been tested and certified by eBay as a compatible application.

As an incentive to check it out, use code BB10 (case sensitive) for a 10% discount. This code needs to be entered on the Easy Auctions Tracker site before going to Paypal (this isn’t a Paypal coupon code).

Easy Auctions Tracker
The Ultimate eBay Spreadsheet for Sellers & Trading Assistants!

• A Profit & Loss tab has been added. Monthly & Yearly Profit & Loss sheets are side by side so this data is at your fingertips whenever you need it.
• The Inventory tab now links to your Selling tab, so that when items are sold the inventory quantity is automatically updated for you (custom label must be used for the quantity to be automatically updated, otherwise it can be manually updated).
• The Clients tab now allows for a sliding scale commission based on sale price (flat rate commission is still there as before).
• A Video Tutorials tab has been added allowing you to watch an online video demonstration

Get organized now, you’ll be glad you did come the end of the year, trust me!

There is a method to their madness! – Three simple words: Watch and Learn.

Keep an eye on your local retail stores, watch for when they mark down items season by season and even week by week. For example toys may get marked down every Wednesday, and at the end of the Christmas and Spring seasons they may even hold a huge 75% off sale.
It is usually the same week every year, so if you know when it was this year you will know when to expect it next year. Keep a calendar to mark the sales on for each weekly and seasonal sale. Then you will be one step ahead by knowing when to expect those sales next year.

Then you need to learn when items start to peak at their highest prices on eBay. For example, Back to School items begin selling early July, Halloween items in August, and Holiday/Christmas items start selling in late October/early November.
By knowing these things you will be able to have your store stocked ahead of time and set your prices accordingly to take advantage of being their first pick. This helps ensure more store sales, which keeps your listing fees down.

Watching for trends and learning what does well and when can take some time to get the hang of. It is what I do, is if you are ever unsure – just ask!

eBay provides you an RSS Feed automatically when you have an eBay store, so it should already be activated. Whenever you update the listings in your store, your RSS Feed is automatically updated at the same time. However, this only works if you have Store Inventory.

How to check if your RSS Feed is active.
- Go to the Manage My Store page on eBay. Under Store Marketing you should see Listing Feeds.
- Select both ‘Activate your Store Inventory listing via RSS’ and ‘Make a file of your Store Inventory listings available’. Then click Apply.

That’s it, two easy steps. You have updated and made your RSS Feeds active! Now let’s submit your Feed to a few places.

Submitting your Feed to Feedburner.com
One place you can submit your Feed is Feedburner.com, which actually has been acquired by Google! This site is free to join, but you will have to register to be able to submit your feed.
Once you have registered/logged in – there are a few simple steps to getting your Feed burned.
Start by finding your RSS Feed link on eBay. One easy way to find it is to go to your eBay Store Icon and click on it. Then scroll to the bottom of the page. You should see your RSS icon in an orange box.
Click on the RSS icon, and this will show your URL RSS Feed link in the browser. You can also get an idea of what your Feed looks like to others who subcribe to your Feed. Your URL will look similar to mine with ‘rss’ in the beginning: http://rss.api.ebay.com/ws/rssapi?FeedName=StoreItems&siteId=0&language=en-US&output=RSS20&storeId=22585822
Copy YOUR URL for Feedburner.
Then head back to Feedburner.com and submit your feed using these few more steps:
- Select ‘Submit your Feed’ on the upper right of the screen and follow the 3 steps.
1 – Paste your URL into the box.
2 – Select ‘Preview’. You should see a page similar to what you viewed in eBay when you clicked on your RSS Feed icon.
3 – Submit into the Feed burner Directory!

Once you have submitted your feed, you will not be able to submit it again. As long as you keep listing items in your eBay store, your feed will stay updated. You can see how many people subscribe to and view your feeds under the ‘MyFeedpage’ menu, then by selecting ‘My Feeds’.

This is just one of my preferred ways of getting eBay listings out across the internet. This is an easy ‘set it and forget it’ method. Once it is out there and it has been set, you don’t have to do anything – it will just continually keep updated.

There are many, many, many RSS sites that you can submit your RSS Feed on, but keep in mind you need to keep it targeted to your product or it may not be accepted. Feedburner.com has by far been the easiest and most organized. And the best part is, you can show up on Google in their ranking pages…I was ecstatic when my RSS Feed showed up on Google!!

Especially the two sections on selling:

How to Sell - great for the beginner seller.  Includes information in the following areas.

• Selling Basics
• Accepting Payments
• Shipping Basics
• Tips & Tools
• Success Stories

Increase Your Sales - may be helpful to the seller you has been selling for a little while.  This section includes information in the following topics.

• Essentials
• Best Practices
• Policies & Your Reputation
• Top-rated & PowerSeller Program
• Selling Tools & Efficiency
• Listing with the eBay catalog

Also on each page is a section of additional resources you should take a look at.  There is so much free information here!  Check it out and feel free to ask me questions.

Having an eBay store can help save you time and money. Store listing fees are about .03 – .05 cents per listing, depending on your item pricing. By selecting the GTC (Good ‘Til Canceled) option, you can have your items automatically re-listed every 30 days. This will give you more time to concentrate on marketing your items. You are able to list hundreds of items in your eBay store inventory for very little, and save yourself the time and money of having to maintain auctions all the time.

When store items sell, you still have fees that apply, but the over-head needed to stock your store is much less than that needed to be constantly re-listing and maintaining auctions every week. An extra advantage is that you will be saving time stocking your store as opposed to having to bother with listing individual auctions. By having all listing types for all seasons, you will open yourself up to a wider variety of buyers.

Shipping worldwide can also bring you unlimited potential for buyers from other areas of the world who may be in opposite seasons and in need of items that can be difficult for them to find at the time, but you have readily available in your eBay store.

One major key to having a successful store is to always keep it stocked. This will allow you to build your inventory to include hundreds of items. The idea is that the more you list the more you will sell – this has been proven over and over again. Why, you may wonder? eBay is an incredible generator of automatic traffic, already built in for you to take advantage of without needing to know all the technical ins and outs needed for running an actual online store.

Having an eBay store is like having your own little space on the Internet. Buyers will check out your store, and if you cross-promote your other items within item descriptions, you will be able to recommend the other items in your store that may also interest them. Choose to offer combined or discounted shipping for multiple item purchases, and customers will be compelled to buy more from you at one time. Having an eBay store will also allow you to use features, like Markdown Manager, which is not available to other eBay sellers who don’t have a store.

eBay offers several other additional features at no extra cost. These extra features can help you build clientele for email marketing and more. This allows you to keep in touch and inform your personal email list of special discounts available only to them before the specials are available to the public.

Your eBay store can reflect your own unique style. Having a unique and personal design, will allow you to create your own brand and specialize, which will encourage repeat customers. Once you have mastered the many features of your eBay store, you will be ready to break out and start exploring other opportunities that will allow you to attract more customers to your products.

It starts with that first email to a buyer who has purchased one of your items. This email can ultimately win you a future relationship and repeat sales. It is important to keep communication open through every step of the sales transaction – from beginning to end, and even beyond.

Do you say a little cheer or do a little happy dance each time an item sells from you eBay store, or an auction ends at a price higher than you could have even possibly hoped for? I know I do a little dance! And, so does the person who won that auction or found that special item in your eBay store! They are excited and ready to receive that item as soon as they submit their payment!

Here are a few tips for following up and using email to create a lasting relationship.

- Start by letting them know you have received their payment and thank the buyer for their business.

- Be sure to pack the item neatly, and include a receipt personally signed by you and say Thank You, again. Sometimes, if a buyer has bought multiple items from my store, I will even include an eBay gift certificate as an added sign of appreciation. They can be purchased for as little as $5.00. eBay gift certificates can be either printed and mailed or you can email them directly to the recipient.

- The next step is to email a clear expectation of the shipping time, this should be done as soon as you confirm payment. If you do not ship on weekends, make sure to say so in your email. You can customize your ‘shipping notification’ email in your Selling Manager and personalize it with the buyer’s name by using the email auto text feature.

- Always be prompt and clear in your communication – respond to emails from the buyer and be proactive in providing order status updates when needed. Email the tracking number, or if you ship using USPS or UPS there is an option for you to enter an email address to send automatic updates on the order status.

- Once you know that the item has reached it’s destination, send a follow up email to thank the buyer one last time. Invite the buyer back and invite them to add you to their favorite sellers and/or stores list so they can receive updates on new or special items you have listed.

When you begin to build your emailings list, take advantage of the email marketing tool on eBay. This tool is remarkable and can be fully automated. I set mine to send out a weekly email that shows any newly listed items.

Before long you will begin to see those repeat buyers and even track your own progress to see what works best.