How To Stay Ahead of Your eBay Competition

When it comes to the online market, eBay is perhaps the most popular and successful of all the auction sites. It is not surprising that many sellers on this website are already earning enough to live comfortably. You may be a novice eBay seller, but that is never a reason to stay behind the competition. More experienced sellers have devised great strategies for selling well online. These strategies are well thought out and studied carefully. You can devise your own strategies too, with some creativity and careful study, and stay on top of the game. Try one or more of the following ways on how to stay ahead of your eBay competition:

* Use keywords wisely. Put yourself in the shoes of potential customers and think of possible phrases that you would use to look for your products. The product’s brand or title does not necessarily have to be the best keyword. If you are selling slimming coffee for instance, you don’t just put down its brand name, especially if it isn’t very popular yet. Instead, use “slimming coffee,” “effective diet,” or “diet coffee” as your keyphrases. This way, your product won’t only be searchable on eBay but on Google as well.
* Give better value to your products. Better value doesn’t always mean a cheaper price. There are better ways to add value to your product than by simply lowering its cost. Offer free items along with the product, or give better deals like free shipping, for buying a certain amount from your eBay store. When offering bonuses, make sure they are related to the product, or are at least interesting to the buyer. Offering a free laptop bag with a laptop makes more sense than offering a free box of chocolates with it.
* Keep your listing page customer-friendly. Explore eBay products. You’ll realize the difference between a customer-friendly listing and poorly listed items. Most experienced eBay sellers will post pictures of the item with the necessary angles and proportions, and will provide all relevant information pertaining to it. Beginners will typically have poor or incomplete data about the product. They also have a poor presentation of the listing.

* Make a better listing. Assess your competitor’s listings and see if there are any loopholes. Make sure to make the same mistakes on your own listing. Better yet, create a much better listing such as posting good pictures or writing more interesting descriptions.
* Accumulate helpful feedback. Simply ask buyers to give you feedback on eBay. You may offer free digital items like an ebook to encourage them. After all, not all buyers like to give feedback, even if they are happy with your services. You may also offer exchange feedback, which means exactly as it says.
* Provide good customer service. A lot of studies have proven that customers will buy from a business with better customer service. This isn’t so hard to understand. You need to make it a habit to check your eBay account, at least once every day. Answer all queries in a friendly tone. Be as approachable as possible so potential buyers do not get too intimidated to bid.


Competition is a fact in any business – be it on eBay or elsewhere. The bottom line is, it is always the one ahead of the competition who gets the most profits. Evaluate your business habits and learn from other people, too. Continuous learning is important to keep you alive in this highly competitive business.