Article by Worldwide Brands - this is a series of 14 blog posts providing information on how to find inventory and products to sell on eBay from wholesalers with Worldwide Brands and their Product Sourcing Tool for eBay.Article #11 - Creating a Great Buyer Experience Retail success is all about delivering great buyer experiences. For a moment, picture in your mind you are stepping into one of your favorite local retail stores. Why is it your favorite?
A great retail experience in the brick-n-mortar world starts with getting to the store easily and finding convenient parking. From store front to your experience when you walk in the door, what catches your eye? As you advance inside, what captures your attention next? Smart retailers use the power of eye level placement and end caps to draw your eyes to items they want to feature. Then typically you next notice the banners or promotional signs where color, size of print, lighting and price tags may capture your interest.
Online Retailers Must Simulate a Great Walk-in ExperienceSuccessful retailing is more about repeat business than it is about initial sales. The most successful stores are those people want to return to frequently. eBay sellers need to replicate the successful walk-in experience with their online auction listings and eBay Stores. Here are some of the criteria for creating a Great Buying Experience:
Your customers must find you easily
. eBay helps by bringing millions of visitors per day to www.ebay.com. It is a powerful selling platform with many sellers all competing for business at the same time. You need to get people to your Auction Listings or eBay Stores easily and quickly. This requires excellent use of keywords in your titles and descriptions as well as an easy-to-remember, relevant and search able eBay Store name. It requires SEO treatments with links back from Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, YouTube etc linking back to your auction listings and eBay Store.
Your Auction Listings or eBay Store must be Recognizable as You. You need to create a recognizable and consistent brand identity of your own that sets you apart from other eBay Sellers.
Create a Great Experience on Entry. From the time browsers reach your listing or eBay Store, they should feel good. The first visual impression should be great with things that catch the eye and keep people browsing and reading on your listing.
Offer a Great Product Selection. Become known as an online retailer with a flair for what people like and need. Your range and choice of products is very important. Pricing and shipping options are critical. Your ability to find quality and good deals comes from your product research. You can apply all the right processes but if the products you offer for sale are not what people want to buy, or your quality and pricing is undesirable, you will not be successful. eBay now offers some help in this area through the Selling Manager section of ‘My eBay.’ eBay Sellers can now access Worldwide Brands’ renowned Product Sourcing Tool and Wholesale Database. Using this tool eBay Sellers can research buyer demand, seller competition, comparative current pricing across more than 8,000,000 products from within eBay’s Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro tools.
Create a ‘Touch and Feel’ Experience. The main difference between a brick-n-mortar retail store and an online store is the ‘touch and feel’ experience. In an online store, you cannot pick up the item, feel it and smell it. In an online listing you have to recreate this experience as best you can through compelling product images and descriptions, supporting specifications and ‘use’ information – even video clips. It’s all about creating the desire to own the item.
Then there is the feel of personal attention. Online retailers can provide a phone number for a shopper to call to discuss the item and purchase during normal shopping hours or even a fast email response system.
Create a Selling Funnel. Through the use of linking, matching, color and imagery, lead potential customers to additional items of interest.
Ease of Check-Out. Once the buying decision is made, the shopper must be able to purchase quickly and easily. eBay provides PayPal at the click of a button. If you use a shopping cart and a payment processor, the process must be easy and user friendly.
Fast, Safe Delivery. Its all about speed from the second your customer places the order. Instant order confirmation. Instant alerts to you. Fast turn around of the order to your supplier. Quick and accurate pick, pack and shipping on the part of the wholesaler, fulfillment house or your own inventory handlers. Rapid confirmation of shipments with tracking numbers for your customers.
Ensure Your Customer is Happy with their Purchase. Follow up with your customer and encourage feedback on their experience. Use this feedback to identify areas of your business you can improve or leave alone because they’re working. Make the ‘Returns’ process easy if the customer is not happy about something. Always provide your seller name or eBay store name to help customers know where to return.
A great buying experience with each visit is guaranteed to bring that buyer back to your auction listing or eBay Store multiple times.
The Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool contains a wholesaler database, education modules and education series called: “The Whole $ale.” This series has many chapters to coach eBay Sellers on best practices in working with wholesalers. Sign up for either eBay Selling Manager or eBay Selling Manager Pro and you can then access the Selling Manager Applications directory and the Worldwide Brands Product Sourcing Tool.
Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Service Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.
Posts
