Yesterday – as I do every Thursday – I logged on to eBay and checked out their ‘Daily Deals’.
It’s not only me who does this every Thursday – countless thousands of people all religiously do the same!
You can access these from the tab at the top of every eBay page, so if you haven’t checked it out already, please take a look.
Now, I think it’s pretty safe to say that we all love a good bargain; it’s the reason websites such as Groupon with their hugely discounted deals are so successful. It’s also the reason why eBay decided to go down the Daily Deals route as well, with a range of products falling into a selection of different categories and offered for greatly reduced prices.
The thing is, not every seller can hope to advertise their products on these Daily Deals pages as to be in with a chance your existing reputation is absolutely crucial, however it is something that lots of successful sellers aspire to.
That might seem a little bit strange though, because the whole point of ‘Daily Deals’ is that products are offered at hugely discounted rates and you might wonder why you would ever want to reduce the cost of your goods for the eBay Daily Deals section of the website!
But, having your items featured on this page can bring hundreds (sometimes thousands) of page views and potentially hundreds of sales to the items in question, and will frequently prompt a prospective buyer to go on to browse the other goods you might have in stock.
If a buyer does go ahead and make a purchase from you at this massively discounted rate the likelihood is that they will return to your online store again in the future, whether the goods there are discounted or not.
Yes, it’s true that you may need to take a slight hit on your profits compared to normal when listing a Daily Deal, but the sheer volume of sales that you can make here coupled with the enhanced publicity for your own eBay shop will make it more than worthwhile.
Interested? Then you’ll need to go through a three step process to secure your own spot on this exclusive page.
Step 1 – Build up an excellent feedback score
If your feedback rating is below 98% for the period of the last 12 months you won’t even be considered as a candidate for Daily Deals so make sure you keep your score high. (This should go without saying anyway!)
eBay only looks for sellers that have demonstrated their commitment to providing their customers with the very best products and service.
Remember that as a seller just starting out on eBay you will need to look at the Daily Deals page as a long term goal, as it’s only really established sellers who are provided with places on that page.
Make this another reason to put customer service as your highest priority, and when you do have a proven sales record to take to an account manager at eBay you’ll be ready to step up and sell your goods with the big boys.
Step 2 – Sell lots and sell consistently
It’s not just about the positive feedback; eBay also needs to know that you are a seller that can deal with large volumes of sales because let’s face it – once your Daily Deal gets out there, the sales will come flying in at break-neck speed and you must be prepared for this.
So, before approving your option for the Daily Deal, your account manager will take a look at the volume of your sales over the last 12 months, and also your earnings. You’ll need to consistently be selling significant volumes of stock each month, and bringing in a quantity of cash in the thousands to be considered.
Step 3 – Express your desire to create a Daily Deal
You’ll need to put together your own deal for this section of the eBay website, detailing what the product is, what category it falls within, how much you’d be prepared to sell it for and what the recommended retail price might be.
This information should all be passed on to an account manager at eBay who will, after examining your account, assess whether or not you are a worthy candidate for selling through the Daily Deals page. The eBay team receive a multitude of requests for a huge range of products that sellers would like to offer on this discount page so you may have to wait for a response.
If your sales are such that you feel ready right now to contact eBay and start selling on the Daily Deals webpage it’s important that you realise that a promotion such as this will drastically increase the demand on your online business and you must be ready!
You’ll need to offer delivery for free and may need to consider express postage to reach all of your customers in time. You’ll also need to source considerable volumes of stock all at once in order to be ready for the day when your deal is featured.
Taking this on when you aren’t prepared could leave you in an embarrassing situation so please make sure you plan ahead.
Now, please don’t worry if this all sounds like something that isn’t for you right now, because even as a small seller without the means to sell on the Daily Deals page yourself you can still benefit from the offers that appear here. How? Well that’s what I’ll tell you next…
Successful sellers source their stock from a range of different locations
One of the greatest challenges for an eBay seller is to consistently find stock for a great price to sell on at a profit.
The most successful sellers source their stock from a range of different locations such as wholesalers, unsuccessful eBay auctions, local shops and more. You should aim to do the same with your own business, and one extra way of finding goods to sell could very well be the Daily Deals page.
The deals on offer vary substantially from day to day, with some offering huge percentage discounts of greater than 50% and others a more modest 10 – 20%. It’s up to you to research if you would have the ability to sell any of these goods on for a profit, but with the eBay website and other researching tools to hand you should soon be able to tell if a particular bargain could bring you in a greater profit.
It might be that items bought through eBay’s Daily Deals could make great purchases to sell on different websites such as Amazon, or even back on eBay itself at a later date once the discounted offer is completed.
So you see, eBay can also be a valuable product source for you!
Whether you look at eBay’s Daily Deals as a potential way to make a lot of money through selling or as a source of stock, it’s a very valuable tool to be aware of.
Why not take a few minutes this week to check the page out (the general deals change on a Thursday but Daily Deals change every day as the name suggests!) and keep your eye on the type of goods offered to see if this is something that you too can take advantage of.