While Punxsutawney Phil may have seen his shadow on Groundhog Day, February 2, 2012, on the other side of the country in Seattle, WA ‘Ecommerce Phil’ popped his head out to see a very bright and sunny spring selling season online ahead!

Rather than burrowing back underground, Ecommerce Phil is busily out sourcing new products to sell during the spring and summer season.

Fueled by robust 2011 online holiday sales and a stellar 65% Q4 for 3rd party merchants on Amazon, Ecommerce Phil knows he needs to get his best spring and summer merchandise online fast!

So what products is Ecommerce Phil planning to sell online this spring and summer?

Well to plan his inventory strategy, he first took a look at his Online Marketing Calendar to see what the upcoming Spring and Summer selling seasons are.  And this is what he found:

February

• Valentines Day
• Black History Month
• National Weddings Month
• Superbowl Sunday
• Mardi Gras
• Oscar Night
• Pre-gardening season

March

• Saint Patrick’s Day
• National Craft Month
• First Day of Spring

Products to Source:

1. Seeds
2. Flower Bulbs
3. Coldframes
4. Composters
5. Greenhouses
6. Houseplants
7. Planters
8. Raised Beds
9. Supplies
10. Gardening Tools
11. Yard & Deck products
12. Sheds
13. Area rugs
14. Firepits
15. Ceiling fans
16. Grills
17. Hammocks
18. Hose Carts/Reels
19. Outdoor Storage
20. Solar Lights
21. Pest Control
22. Bicycles/Accessories
23. Kites
24. Blinds/shades/curtains/hardware
25. Neon colored clothes, shoes, accessories for women and kids
26. Cosmetics in new spring colors
27. Handbags in spring colors and styles
28. Perfume
29. Big ride on toys for kids
30. Swimwear
31. Sunglasses
32. Soccer cleats/clothes
33. Baby gear
34. Wedding favors
35. Bridal shower supplies
36. Bridal accessories
37. Home spa products
38. Footbaths
39. Aromatherapy machines
40. Super Bowl related football jersey/memorabilia
41. Mardi-Gras party decorations
42. Saint Patricks Day decorations
43. Home decor in bright, spring colors
44. Car care and maintenance products
45. Luggage
46. Walking/jogging clothes and accessories
47. Spray on tan products
48. Snowboards (clearance)
49. Skiing products (clearance)
50. Winter clothes/boots/accessories (clearance)

This is just a sampling of products that Ecommerce Phil is out sourcing!

Think about what products are new for spring and summer in your niche! Check with your wholesale suppliers.  Look through your supplier catalogs.

Whether sourcing products wholesale to sell on Amazon or using arbitrage sourcing to fuel the pipeline.

It’s a fresh new selling season and online shoppers are looking for fresh new products!

What new products will you bring to the marketplace this season?

-Lisa

With exactly two months to go until December 24th, for online merchants, it’s showtime!

And even if you’ve been meticulously planning for the holiday selling season, there are so many details involved, it’s easy to inadvertently make common mistakes that can derail your holiday sales.

Don’t let these 7 mistakes be the Grinch that steals your holiday sales and profits…

7 Mistakes That Can Derail Your Online Holiday Sales

Mistake #1. Discounting too deep, too early and for too long. While media reports of holiday shoppers clamoring for deep discounts and word of Wal-Mart’s new holiday price guarantee could rattle even the most stalwart independent online merchant; discounting too deep, too early and for too long will kill your profit margins.

Sure you may sell more, but you will make less at the end of the season.

Which means you have to compete for those holiday sales on something else…

• Selection
• Delivery
• Customer Service
• Quality
• Integrity

Keep in mind that the #1 thing online shoppers want during the holiday season is selection and confidence that their product will arrive on time.

And they are willing to pay more for it.

Not all buyers shop on price. In fact in the wake of Wal-Mart’s recent announcement, there has been a huge backlash from customers citing all the reasons they won’t shop at Wal-Mart despite their low-price guarantee.

Higher income customers especially, will pay a premium to get a unique gift, the latest gadget and superior quality and service.  So don’t shortchange yourself or your business.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t run any promotions or offer free shipping promotions during the holidays.

Just know that trying to compete on price with a big-box retailer during the holidays is a recipe for dismal holiday profits.

Mistake #2. Running a 2 month long holiday ‘promotion’. A good retail promotion is a time limited discount on a particular product or group of products.

While you might think you’re doing your customers a favor and driving sales by offering 30%  off on your entire store until Christmas, it actually works against  you. There’s a whole psychology around retail pricing and promotions.

A short, time-limited promotion will drive more sales, than long promotions without a deadline. Promotions based around a current event like Cyber Monday also help customers focus and execute on their buying decisions.

Mistake #3. Not creating holiday gift lists. The holidays are overwhelming for your customers. With a list of gifts to buy and thousands of online options, they often don’t know where to start.

Short on ideas and short on time, they need your help to find the most gift-worthy items in your store.

By creating a holiday gift list of the best holiday items in your store, you not only provide a service to your customers, but you also have the opportunity to drive them to your higher quality, higher margin products.

Here are a few gift list examples:

• 10 Hot New Cooking Gadgets for the Gourmet Chef On Your List
• Our 15 Best Selling Gifts for Dads Who Don’t Wear Ties
• 12 Gemstone Bracelets That Say “I Love You” in Color!
  
• 8 Creative Toys for Kids Under 8

Place your gift list prominently on your website, blog and if possible, your marketplace store. Post your gift lists on Facebook, Tweet them out.

A good holiday gift list can easily go viral driving floods of new traffic to your store.

Mistake #4. Ignoring marketplace incentives. If you sell in a marketplace like eBay or Amazon, be sure to get up to date on the holiday sales incentives being offered to sellers. Amazon’s 3rd party sellers can get in front of Amazon’s best Prime customers by fulfilling their inventory through Amazon FBA.This is especially important if you want to sell in the lucrative toy category. On November 15th, restrictions in the toy category go into place, but you can work around them if you fulfill your products through Amazon FBA

eBay has come out with a variety of incentives this year that they say will boost sellers visibility in search.

Mistake #5. Skimping on customer service. There’s no faster way to lose a holiday sale than not responding quickly to a customer inquiry. Shoppers have one thing on their mind this time of year – to get that gift and get it now!

Website owners can use a tool like Olark for Live Chat to provide real-time interaction with their customers. Amazon sellers who sell through FBA will have Amazon customer support doing their holiday customer service for them. And eBay sellers can add common questions asked by buyers to the Auto Answers system, although if possible, having a dedicated person monitoring My eBay during the busy selling season will allow you to assist the customer in finding the perfect gift.

Mistake #6. Not speaking the language of the holidays. If Grandma Mae comes to your fly fishing store looking for the perfect rod and reel for Grandpa Joe, she wants to see some evidence that you are participating in the holidays.

Messaging about holiday deliver, special holiday items, gift-wrapping for Grandpa Joe’s new tackle box (maybe an upsell to the rod and reel) should all be prominently displayed on the home page of your website.

Holiday shoppers who come to an online store where it’s ‘business as usual’ are not as likely to stay engaged with your site as those with clear holiday messaging (and holiday gift lists). You can get great holiday graphics done for $5 at Fiverr (learn how to use Fiverr here.) or for a very reasonable price on ODesk or Guru.com

Mistake #7. Closing up shop too early. Last year only 12.4% of shoppers had completely finished their holiday shopping ten days before Christmas. You need to be prepared to sell and ship right up through December 23rd. 13% of holiday shoppers start their holiday shopping the week of Christmas. 

Offer express shipping and handling. And prominently post these options on the home page of your website or in  your eBay listings. A graphic with your delivery options works best.

And remember… the holiday sales don’t end on December 23rd.

One of the most popular up and coming activities on December 24th and 25th is… you guessed it! Shopping online!

-Lisa

Running an ecommerce business costs money.

Whether it’s buying a new computer with faster processing capabilities, sourcing new inventory so you can sell more and make more, updating your workspace to make it more efficient or, bringing in project based help to get your holiday inventory listed…

It takes money to grow.

Unfortunately for small (and especially home-based, online businesses) the availability of growth-captial is in short supply. Especially from traditional sources such as banks and credit cards.

Enter Kabbage, an Atlanta based company with one goal – “Funding for your online business.”

Kabbage provides short-term loans to online sellers using credentials that other lenders don’t/won’t. They use marketplace and PayPal data from your online business to process your request for capital. An analysis that includes things like transaction volume and consistency, customer feedback/reviews, your product line and more.

Understanding the World of Online Sellers

What sets Kabbage apart from a traditional lender is that they understand the world of online sales, whereas many traditional banks do not.  In fact, traditional lending institutions can be downright leery of lending money to a home-based online sellers – even those with a proven track record.

Kabbage also understands that many online sellers only need a short-term loan to help them get to the next level.

It may only take $1000 to attend a trade show or $3000 to source new inventory once you’re there, but not having access to that $4000 means the difference between your ability to grow your business or staying stuck until you can earn enough money to fund your tradeshow trip or buy new inventory.

Kabbage Founder and CEO Rob Frohwein says:

“Thousands of online merchants have obtained working capital and grown their businesses since our push into the market in April 2011. Although small business fuels the majority of growth in the U.S., it is extremely difficult and time consuming for these businesses to apply for and actually receive financing from a traditional bank. Kabbage fills this need by providing money to these businesses in a quick, easy and painless way, helping them to further grow their businesses and boost the economy.”

Online sellers can apply and be approved for a short-term advance, also known as “Kabbage Kash” in minutes. Once approved, you can use your cash advance line if/when you need it.

It’s free to apply and be approved. Once you use your cash advance, you have six months to repay it. Cash advance rates are determined by your credit history and store performance, as well as the length of time you keep the cash advance. If you pay it back earlier than 6 months, you’ll pay less.

Kabbage has a patented technology that enables them to evaluate seller’s businesses and credit history. Currently Kabbage supports eBay sellers, Amazon sellers and Yahoo store owners.

This week Kabbage announced that they’ve just received $17 million in funding which will allow them to add funding support for merchants who sell on Facebook, Etsy, Sears and Shopify.

Your Ability to Source Quality Inventory Increases Your Sales

I first met the folks from Kabbage this spring and recently caught up with them again here in Seattle at the Amazon Seller’s Conference in July.

At that time, I sat down with Russell Walraven to talk more about the company’s goals to help online sellers grow. Fresh off the announcement that Kabbage would now be supporting Amazon sellers, Russell said that the response to Kabbage cash advances was overwhelmingly positive.  Seller after seller stopped by the booth to tell the Kabbage group that the #1 thing they need is cash to buy more inventory. With Amazon sales skyrocketing off into the stratosphere, lack of product to sell was the only thing holding back Amazon sellers from selling more.

Interestingly, Amazon category managers at the conference told me the same thing. “We need more product. Amazon’s growth is only limited by product selection. And we’re looking to 3rd party merchants to fill that need.”

Kabbage provides a win-win situation for online sellers ready to expand.

Many of my clients and students have already applied for and used Kabbage as a source of funding for their business.  They’ve raved about the simplicity of applying and the fact that Kabbage speaks in “plain english” as just two of the reasons they feel that the folks at Kabbage understand their needs as online sellers.

You can learn more about Kabbage and see if you qualify for an advance in seconds.

-Lisa

Whether you’ve overbought on inventory, sourced the wrong products or have merchandise on hand with little shelf-life left  in it, “stale inventory” is a common (and normal) challenge  for online merchants.

But no matter what you sell or where you sell it, holding on to stale inventory is a costly business practice.

In fact, in the last 60 days Amazon has implemented two new policies on stale inventory:

• Sellers will pay a new annual Long-Term Storage Fee of $45 per cubic foot for any units of inventory that have been stored in an Amazon fulfillment center for one year or longer.

• Limits on the amount of inventory that  Amazon sellers can store in Fulfillment by Amazon Warehouses. Amazon has said
• they want to “ensure that customers are able to get the products they are most interested in.

Stale is merchandise that sits in your store or on your website for months on end with no sales.  (Or just an occasional sale here and there.)

It’s toxic to your profits. And can take a toll on you psychologically. No one likes to look at inventory day-after-day that isn’t selling.

Potential Sales Don’t Equal Profits

Too often people will look at stale inventory and think “Well, I paid $25 for this shirt, so it’s worth at least $25 in potential income.”  But that’s only true if the item sells.  (And in a reasonable time.) If a product sits on your shelf and doesn’t sell, you’re losing money on your investment.

And remember, every time you pay an insertion fee to list a product on a site like eBay for example, your cost of goods for that product increases and  your profit margin on the product decreases.

Additionally, every  item sitting on the shelf that’s not selling could be replaced with a product that is selling.  (And this also applies to unique one-of-a-kind items that have been sitting in your store for years.)

Home based businesses often hang on to inventory far too long due to low storage costs.

But as the saying goes “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

In order to run a profitable ecommerce business, you must keep your inventory lean and clean.

In today’s blog post, I’ll show you how to get rid of  stale inventory quickly and put some extra ka-ching in your pockets!

7 Surefire Ways to Turn Stale Inventory Into Cash

Look objectively at your inventory. The first step in turning dead inventory into cash starts with recognizing that your inventory is stale and it must go.  This is often the hardest step for people. Be realistic about market value.

You should be turning (selling) items in your inventory every 90-120 days. Even one-of-a-kind collectibles need to turn frequently. If an item is sitting there with few views and no sales, you need to take action on it and get it to move!

Re-photograph your item. Retaking a photograph of your item is often all it takes for new buyers to take a fresh look. Your photos should have a clean white (or appropriately colored) background and the item should fill up 85% of the frame. Blurry, murky, poorly lit photos will hurt the sales of your items.  Studies show that items with high-quality photos increase sales by 20% or more.

Re-keyword product title and description. 86% of all online sales begin with a buyer search. If you’re not using the keywords in your product title and description that buyers are searching for on Amazon, eBay or Google, your items won’t be found. If you sell on eBay, the Terapeak Research tool will tell you exactly what keywords buyers are using to find your products. The Google Keyword Tool will show you what keywords and keyword phrases people are using to search for your products on Google.

Feature like items together and run a promotional event. Don’t run generic 20% off sale.  Select a specific line of products and run a sale on the entire group.  20% off all prom wear. 15% off all our summer sandals. Save 40% on our complete line of Back-to-School Backpacks. By grouping items together you can make a splash with your marketing and grab the attention of those specific buyers interested in the products you have on sale.

Give your event a name “Save 30% on our Red, White & Blue Fireworks Sale!”  (perfect for a 4th of July promotion).

Sales on grouped products are more likely to generate buzz as well. Excited customers are more likely to email, Tweet & Facebook “Hey, did you know that Sam’s School Supplies is having a 40% off sale on all their backpacks.”

Slash prices and take the loss now rather than later. Don’t be afraid to slash prices (and lose money or break even) when you have to. While you can start your sale with a smaller discount of 10% – 20%, if that doesn’t get the sales of dead inventory going, it’s time to do some serious price slashing.

Again, this is where many merchants hesitate, trying to recoup their initial inventory investment or at least break even. But here’s the reality. Every day that product sits on your shelves unsold, you are losing money.

Bundle slow sellers with a hot seller. If you have a hot selling line with a couple of product dogs, take those non-selling products and bundle them with the hot sellers. If you’re candle holders sell well but your candles aren’t moving. Bundle a candle or two with each holder, raise the price of your set slightly and watch those items sell!

Cosmetic companies do this all the time. They’ll put together a promo kit and throw in a few items that aren’t selling or are discontinued. People will but the set because there is one item they want in there.  The rest they give away (or often sell on eBay).

You can also do this in reverse and bundle a hot seller with some duds. If you sell a group of products that isn’t moving, add one hot item to it and watch the set sell.

Sell it in a “Lot”. An inventory Lot is a large grouping of like inventory bundled and sold together.  Do a search on eBay for a product and append the keyword “Lot”.  You’ll find thousands of inventory lots being sold in every category.  Many brick and mortar stores shop eBay for Lots of inventory to sell locally.

One client of mine who participates in an annual sidewalk sale here in Seattle, always checks eBay first to buy supplemental inventory in bulk.  Online sellers search eBay for inventory Lots, breaking them apart and reselling them as individual items (this is known as arbitrage sourcing).

Grouping your inventory in a Lot and selling it all at once allows you to get your money out fast and not deal with an ongoing markdown process.

Finally, you can move your inventory to a different marketplace.

If it didn’t sell on your website, move it to eBay for liquidation. If it didn’t sell on eBay, you can try moving it to another marketplace. But be careful with this! Don’t keep moving inventory around the marketplaces to avoid dealing with the problem.

Remember, cash flow is the key to health for an online business. Stale inventory will stop the cash from flowing. So focus not on how much you spent for it originally, but on how good it will feel to have cash in your bank account from the sale of those items!

-Lisa

Are you ready for the new eBay Fees on Shipping coming July 6th? Get help preparing and avoid ‘fee increase shock’ on your August invoice!

In just under three weeks, selling on eBay is about to get more expensive for millions of products sold on the site.

Starting July 6th, eBay will begin charging Final Value fees on the amount sellers charge for shipping services.

For example:

Currently, if you sell a $20 item on eBay and charge $5 for shipping, you’re assessed fees on the $20 final sales price.

As of July 6th,  you will be assessed a Final Value Fee on the total order amount e.g. $20 item price + $5 shipping = $25 total order price.

Whether you’re a part-time seller or established full-time business, this change in fee structure affects you.

While many sellers are aware of this upcoming fee change, the vast majority have yet to take actions to deal properly with the products they sell. Products that will soon start incurring higher fees with each sale.

And as with any economic or fee shift, how your business ends up, depends on the actions you take.

By not preparing for this ahead of time, you’re guaranteed to take a hit to your bank account when it comes time to pay your August invoice.

Who is Not Affected

If you currently offer  products with Free Shipping, you will not be impacted by the upcoming fee change. Those who already list items with Free Shipping already payFinal Value Fees on the total order amount.

You may even benefit slightly from this change in policy, as eBay is reducing the percentage of Final Value Fees charged.

However, the vast majority of sellers will be affected negatively for at least some of the products they sell.

In working hundreds of students and private clients over the past several months, with business models that span hundreds of product categories; 97%  sell products that will result in a fee increase.

This means it’s time for a change.

Who IS Affected

For 97% of sellers, moving to an “all free shipping” model without a serious review of your business is not the right course of action.

This includes sellers of:

• Heavy or odd-sized items. This new eBay FVF will  increase your costs significantly.
• Products with low margins. A bigger bite will be taken out of your profits.
• Products with price sensitive markets. An increase in items costs can leave your customers with stick shock.

In a recent AuctionBytes article, I detailed several options for dealing with the types of merchandise listed above.

But it’s not an easy task, and it will take some time to prepare your product line for the upcoming fee change.

Which brings us to the bottom line – to succeed in your online business, you have to tackle the issue of eBay fees on FVFs head on… and win.

This isn’t something you can put off until July, otherwise your August invoice from eBay could present quite a shock.

“Tackling the eBay Shipping Fees… and Winning!” Teleseminar Series

To help sellers deal with one of the biggest fee shifts in eBay’s history, coming up this week, we recently held a 2-part teleseminar series designed to help eBay sellers assess their current model, provide  tips and strategies on how to deal with the fee increases and help sellers rethink and reinvent their business models.

With a still shaky economy, gas prices soaring, shipping carrier increases, fuel surcharges and sales growth that trails the growth of ecommerce and competitor Amazon, eBay has picked an interesting time to implement fee changes that will potentially amount to an overall increase for millions of  sellers.

And while some early media reports proclaimed a fee decrease, industry insiders that understand how the numbers work provide a clearly more accurate picture.

At the root of the potential fee increase is eBay’s decision to charge Final Value Fees on the total amount of the sale, which includes charges to the customer for shipping.

Yes, eBay is now charging fees on what is categorized by your bookkeeper as a business expense. (The IRS doesn’t tax businesses on expenses.)

You can read the full announcement here.  At the core of the issue is this:

Sellers subscribed to a Store: To reward free and low-cost shipping, Final value Fee rates will be reduced and applied to the total amount of sale—including shipping—starting July 6.

Here’s how it breaks out:

eBay starts by reducing Final Value Fee rates.  Sounds good right?

For example, currently if you are a store owner and sell a lamp for $25 and it costs you $25 to ship the lamp, you pay 12% of the final sale price.

12% of $25 =$3.00

In July that fee drops to 11%.

But here’s the hitch. The fee now applies to your item price plus shipping costs.

Under the new rate, which takes effect in July, you’ll be charged 11% on the item price $25 + shipping $25 = $50.  Your new  fees?  $5.50    A fee increase of 83%.

Now let’s say all along that you’ve been charging $50 for that lamp and offering FREE shipping. In this scenario, you’d see a fee decrease of .50 ₵

But here’s the “X” factor in all this.  If the marketplace is used to seeing this lamp priced at $25 + $25 shipping.

It is highly unlikely that you or anyone in your category has been selling that same lamp at $50 + free shipping.

In the case of these gorgeous, heavy, one-of-kind lamps, the seller must take extreme care to make sure these make it to the buyer in one piece.

Granted, with a lighter weight item, you will not see this variance.

If a seller has been selling a  lightweight bracelet for $21 + Free Shipping, they are already paying a Final Value Fee on the total order price.

Sellers who have been incorporating their shipping into their product price and offering Free Shipping will generally see a fee decrease with the lowered Final Value Fees.

However, in the above scenario a seller has determined that they can afford to incorporate Free Shipping and add the cost into the price of the product because it works for their business model.

Under the new policies, sellers have no choice. Whether it works for your model or not, you’ll be paying FVF on the total amount of sale.

Additionally if you’re a Top Rated Seller, the 20% TRS discount is no longer worth quite as much.  Even though fees are being charged on the total amount of sale, TRS discounts only apply to the price of the item.

The rules change for non-store subscribers and auction format listings… more about that in my next post.

The Bottom Line for Your Business

The bottom line is that this is not a fee decrease across the board.  In fact it’s not even a fee decrease on a per seller basis.

Every seller can potentially see fees go up on some of the products they sell and down on other products. It all depends on the product and how you list it.

So it’s very important to take some time and look at your most common pricing/shipping scenarios. You won’t be able to look at every product, but if you start with your most popular items, it’s a start.

Revisit your product line, your pricing strategies and your fees as you continue to list this month.  A daunting prospect for already busy sellers.

You may be wonder why eBay would make  such a change? Especially during a time when margins are more squeezed than ever, especially for small sellers.

eBay has stated that “buyers have told us they love free shipping”.  Of course they do! Buyers would love free products too if it were an option.

But free shipping was never meant to be the norm. It was meant to be used for special promotions.If you give your kid a birthday cake every single day of the year, it ceases to be special. It becomes ordinary. Expected.   The same holds true for free shipping.

… In fact there is no such thing as free shipping.  There is a hard cost to shipping.  And either the merchant or the buyer pays that cost.  (Last I heard FedEx wasn’t shipping products for free.)

So, should you keep your business on eBay? Only if it can be profitable there.

And as with any business, the purpose is to turn a profit. If the model is no longer profitable, reassessing and reinventing your business is the only way to continue to thrive.

-Lisa

When most people sit down to create an eBay listing, they think about how to describe their item, how to format the listing, how many pictures to add etc.

But one thing people rarely think about is how to create search engine-friendly listings!

However without proper SEO, your listing description doesn’t have a chance of getting found in Google.

And with millions of people searching in Google for the products you sell, you want to make sure that people to find your eBay listings BOTH on eBay and off!

Fortunately, creating an eBay listing that is also search-engine friendly needn’t be time intensive or require any special HTML coding.

You can do it by simply thinking differently about what you put on your listing description page!

7 Quick Tips for Creating Search-Engine Friendly eBay Listings

Many people don’t realize that an eBay listing description is just a simple HTML web page hosted on eBay.

It’s  no different from any other webpage.  It’s open to the search engines to come and crawl it and index it.

But the search engines will only crawl and index your page if you set it up properly!  All you need to do is follow these 7 quick tips!

First, Think Keywords. (Make this one shift, it will transform the way you do business online!) What are 5 to 7 primary keywords that people might use to search for your item. For example, let’s say you’re selling window planters. Some keywords associated with window planters would be:

• window boxes
• garden windows
• planter boxes
• flower boxes
• terracotta
• wrought iron
• a brand name
• color
• style

Keep in mind that keywords are different from adjectives!  Many eBay sellers use adjectives to describe their products: cute, pretty, fun, etc. in lieu of keywords.

People will search online  for a “wrought iron 24″ window box”.  They won’t search for a “Cute window box!  You’ll love it!”

And while it’s fine to embelish your product descriptions with a few well-placed adjectives, using them in place of keywords will not give you any SEO benefits.

Your Listing Title. Now that you have identified 5-7 keywords, it’s time to use them!  And the first place the search engines crawl when they arrive at your eBay listing page is your listing title.

You have 55 characters in your eBay listing title to jam pack with relevant, searchable keywords.  (Remember, people who search ON eBay will be searching using these keywords too.)

Take your core keywords and create a listing title. Your title does not have to read like the cover of a book.  It should only be a “string” of keywords placed in a sensical order.

For Example:

“NEW Home Beauty Wrought Iron 24″ window box planter”

This title will give both the search engines and eBay’s search engine everything they need for the right buyer to find your item!

Create a 200 Word of Keyword Rich Description. When describing your item, you want to create a description of at least 200 words with keywords used naturally througout the description.  Lead with a sentence that includes your most relevant keywords and continue with a description that surrounds the item with relevant keyword phrases.

For Example:

Product Description:

This brand new Home Beauty wrought iron window box is the perfect planter for spring!

Classic wrought iron window planters in the hot new lattice look style are all the rage for spring this year! An outdoor window box lends style  and pizzazz to any window! Or use as an indoor flower box,  transform a deck, embellish a fence or brighten up a bare wall.

See how I’ve naturally included the keywords “wrought iron, lattice look, window box and planter” in the very first sentence in my description.  This reinforces with Google what this page is all about!

Next follow up with a supporting cast of keywords and color commentary.

A bullet pointed list of features gives Google more keywords to index:

For Example:

Product Features:

• Brand:  Home Beauty Window Box
• Style: Wrought Iron
• Size: 24 inches long x 6 inches wide.
• Capacity:   Fits 4 small to medium plants
• Fasteners: Easy fasten system!

Easy to care for, these sturdy planters are riveted for lasting strength and durability. All seams are hand-soldered and sanded to a smooth finish.

Lacquered top coat protects against the elements.

No assembly required!  Just plant, display and enjoy!

Finally, anchor it with a keyword rich summary sentence.

Just like you learned in school!  Start your listing with an opening statement and close with a summary statement.

For Example:

“This beautiful wrought iron flower box makes the perfect planter box for spring!”

From here you can go on to finish up your listing with your shipping and customer service information.

This keyword rich listing description weighs in at about 149 words. Keep in mind that you don’t have to meet the 200 word description every time.  If you’ve said it all in 149 words.  Stop there. If it takes 300 words to accurately describe your produce, keep going!

It’s the format above that’s the secret to listing description SEO!  And you can use this time and time again in every listing!

Don’t Keyword Spam Your Listings. When Google crawls a listing they are looking for “conversational content”. Naturally flowing content on a subject. (Yes, even for product sales.) What they don’t want is a string of rigid keywords and they definitely don’t want keyword spamming! (nor does eBay.

So don’t just stuff keywords into your listing description page and call it good.  Google will tell you otherwise by not indexing your page.  And eBay will pull your listing.

Make it Visible. The practice of using hidden text to bait the search engines is so 1990′s, you’d think that no one would even do this anymore. But just the other day, I was working with a client whose local SEO company had just put hidden text (text in the same color as their web page background) on their webpage. So just in case you might be considering this outdated tactic… don’t do it! Neither Google nor eBay will go for it!

Bold the Headers. Did you notice in the description above that I bolded the words “Product Description” and “Product Features”. I did this both for aesthetic reasons and SEO purposes.  The search engines pay special attention to words that are bolded. Now this doesn’t mean that you should bold your entire listing description!

But you should bold subject headers in your listing.  Also make those headers one size bigger than your text body font. (But never bigger than a 16 pt font)

Use the Alt Tag Attribute on Your Images. If you host your own eBay photos, you can use the “Alt tag” feature on the photo to add relevant keywords “behind the scenes” of you photo.  Alt tags are visible only to the search engines.  Google will crawl you image looking for alt tags.

For example, if you place pictures of the window box into your listing, use the alt tag attribute on your photo.  You should also name your photo with a relevant keyword.  So instead of naming it wp123.jpg, call it “windowbox.jpg”.  This gives you one more SEO reinforcement on your page.

How to Create an Image Alt Tag Attribute:

<img src=”http://yourdomain.com/windowbox.jpg” alt=”window box”>

Make This Your Standard Format

Once you make the mindset shift to creating SEO optimized eBay listings, you’ll be able to easily use the simple format above for everything you list!   And after creating about 10 listings or so, designing a search engine friendly listing will become second nature.

Most importantly, you’ll be confident that you’re getting the most out of every listing description you create and they’ll be properly positioned for maximum visibility potential in the search engines.

To learn more about listing SEO and find out the other components that go into Creating an eBay Listing That Sells! don’t miss this weekend’s Biz Deal of the Day!

-Lisa Suttora

We’re less than a day away from one of the biggest shopping days of the year!  Cyber Monday.

The “official” kick-off to the online holiday selling season.

Millions of motivated shoppers will hit the web on Monday, 11/29 to do some heavy duty shopping.

Early projections for Cyber Monday sales are up 30% over last year!

Soooo, the question is… are YOU ready for Cyber Monday sales?

To make sure you don’t miss a beat this week, I’ve put together a last minute Cyber Monday Eve checklist for you!

Cyber Monday Checklist for Online Merchants

Clean up your website homepage or your eBay listings. Remove all traces of Thanksgiving imagery and messaging.  For more tips on adding holiday messaging and imagery, check out my recent blog post on 7 Late to the Game Holiday Sales Savers.

Send out a Cyber Monday email promotion. 9 out of 10 retailers plan to send out Cyber Monday promotions. Will your customers be bombarded with emails for companies eager to sell their wares? Yes! Which is why it’s important to do emails right…  ( see next tip)

Make your Cyber Monday email subject lines specific. Many merchants will send an email titled “Cyber Monday Deals! Save 25%” – and while that may work for Walmart, it won’t work for smaller merchants competing for Cyber Monday eyeballs with the big guys.

If your best-selling items are kids’ rain boots, promote these in the subject of your email. For example: “Cyber Monday Deal: Save 25% on all Colorcraft Rainboots”.

Track sales trends in your niche. Are you staying on top of the sales trends in your niche? During the holidays, things change quickly as deman increase and supplies dwindle! Use trend sites like Google Insights, Twitter Search and eBay Pulse to track searches and demand for holiday products.

Offer shipping promotions. But keep in mind it’s important to put quantifiers on your promotions! “Free shipping on all orders over $50.” “Free Shipping on all orders placed before December 5th.” will get you better results than a generic free shipping promotion.

Display contact information prominently. Shoppers stress is escalating and people won’t take the time to look for your contact information if it’s not displayed prominently. For website owners, this means the upper, right-hand corner of your website. For eBay sellers, this means the upper right quadrant of your listing.

Replenish your inventory. As you sell out of inventory, restock your homepage and your eBay listings with more styles, sizes, colors, etc. Whatever it takes to fill out your store. Even if you’ve run out of your best holiday inventory already, keep in mind that 52% of holiday shoppers will be buying something for themselves this year!. A pair of plain brown boots may not bedazzle a gift recipient on Christmas morning, but they may be exactly what your customer needs to replace their worn out pair before winter kicks in.

Check these items off your list and enjoy the process of fulfilling those incoming orders!

-Lisa

With the Thanksgiving holiday in sight, and Christmas just over a month away, your holiday sales should be in full swing.

But for those who are late to the game, or need an extra boost to amp up the numbers, these 7 late-to-the-game strategies will stoke the fire in your holiday sales…

Speak Holiday.Go right now and look at your web pages, you eBay listings, your online store. How many places do you see holiday imagery, holiday messaging, holiday gift suggestions? If the answer is none or few then your products are not showing up for the party everyone else wants to be a part of.

You have to give your customers visual clues that you’re dialed-in to the holidays. Your store must be part of the fun and festivities. Even the smallest online sellers can add a few holiday graphics and use messaging on their their website to speak the language of holiday sales.

Run Different Holiday Promotions Each Week. If you want to capture the attention of holiday buyers this year, you must run new promotions on a weekly basis. While this year’s shoppers aren’t suffering from frugal fatigue, consumers are looking for a sale.

Unlike last year, they’re not hoping to find everything marked down to 50% off, but they are looking for somewhat of a “feel-good holiday special” so they walk away from the purchase feeling like they got something extra.

Sell Communication & Service. Prominent service messaging must be a part of your holiday game plan. Whether it’s strategically placed graphics on your site or you hop in front of a video camera, one of the key things shoppers should see when they come to your site is a message from you with a commitment to:

• Same day shipping
• Providing tracking numbers
• Customer service (how will they contact you if they have a question)
• Optional gift wrapping services

Free Shipping. If you’re late to the holiday selling game, one of the fastest ways to amp up your sales is by offering Free Shipping. Again this year, Free Shipping is the #1 thing that holiday shoppers are looking for.

Bundle it Spectacular. If your holiday sales haven’t yet made a blip on the radar, it’s time to pull out the big guns and get really creative with your product offerings. A necklace and matching bracelet sold separately becomes a spectacular gift set.  Pair a warm fuzzy bathrobe with matching slippers and create a special Christmas morning promotion around it.

Offer Holiday Gift Suggestions. Holiday shoppers aren’t looking for the “same ‘ole, same ‘ole” when it comes to purchasing holiday gifts. They LOVE creative ideas and unique gifts. Just because the media doesn’t recognize your product line as a “holiday item” doesn’t mean you can’t!

Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission to present your products as a holiday gift. Be bold and step out and make gift suggestions!

Get in Front of the Video Camera. If there is one thing that etailers can do this year to get found in search without the use of costly PPC campaigns and lengthy traffic driving strategies, it’s to get in front of the video camera. There is not a person reading this blog post who sales can’t benefit by doing a video review of a product you sell.

Whether it increases conversion on your site or eBay listing or helps you make it to page one on Google, video product reviews are all the rage this year. And don’t think you have to have a Hollywood stage production video to make it useful.  REAL sells. Take a look at this video review of a popular Nikon camera lens. A little humor, being real, to the point and educational. 11,000+ people have viewed it so far.  (BTW, I came across it in Google search while shopping for, you guessed it! Nikon cameras.)

Even if you’re sales aren’t yet where you’d like them to be this holiday season, you’ve got 30+ more days to keep focused on selling more. Never give up! Keep doing the right things up until the very last holiday minute and you’ll start to see the results of your efforts!

How about you? What are your plans for increasing your sales over the next 30 days?

-Lisa

As we move closer towards Christmas day, I’ve been hearing from many of  you that you’re beginning to feel swamped and overwhelmed.

Sales are picking up, personal holiday duties are picking up and you’re starting to panic at the thought of attempting to do it all!

It’s a very valid concern…

Because no one can do it ALL by themselves!

As multi-tasking entrepreneurs, we already do a LOT! During the holiday season, our responsibilities triple or quadruple.

That’s why I want you take what I’m about to say next, VERY seriously…

NOW is the time to “Beg, Borrow or Buy help!”

Whether it’s:

• Help with the business
• Help at home
• Help with personal errands

You can’t be shy about asking for help or worry about “putting people out”.

“But I don’t have money to pay for help.” you say.

Help doesn’t always need to come in the form of paid compensation.  There are plenty of people in your life who would love to help you during this busy time if you’d only ask!

Make a choice to ASK for what you need and let others be responsible for determining if they can help you.

• Now is the time to ask your spouse or friends to help you wrap and ship a few evenings a week.
• Now is the time to put the kids to work doing basic household chores.
• Now is the time to call a friend and ASK for help!

For example:

“Hey Christine. Help! I’m happily swamped here with orders! And I need your help!!! Would you be willing to come over on Saturday and help me get the rest of
my holiday items listed?  Then  I’ll treat you to dinner and a movie Saturday night.”

Help doesn’t have to cost a lot either. Many people would love to make a little extra shopping money for a few hours of work each week!

Ask:

• The neighborhood kids
• Your niece your nephew
• Your church youth group
• Your children!a

…if they want to make a little extra holiday money for the next month.

Those of you who have done  this are successfully breaking through the  “Lone Ranger Biz Owner Syndrome!”

Some of you have tapped friends to help through the holiday season, and even though the paycheck is not huge, your friends have been THRILLED to help.

Here’s the bottom line…

You need more than yourself in your business to make things happen!

The sooner you realize that, the MORE money you’ll make!

So who are YOU going to ask for help today?

Tell me below!

-Lisa