A photograph is the most important tool in attracting buyers to your items. Make sure your photographs are good quality and show the items to their best advantage. Some dropship companies allow to upload photographs from their site. Make sure you check that this is allowed before you submit your listing. Photographs are subject to copyright so you must have permission to use them.

If you take your own photographs make sure you use a neutral background and that the item is clearly visible and in focus. Poor quality photographs will not encourage buyers to spend much time on your listings.

A well written description is essential. Make sure you point out any flaws or problems but also point out the positive features and benefits. A feature is a fact about the item. A benefit is something positive the item offers. For example, when selling running shoes a feature might be that they are made of good quality material while a benefit would be that by using them they could help improve your fitness.

Keep your descriptions relatively short and to the point. Allow double spacing between paragraphs and keep each paragraph short using just two or three sentences. This helps to keep potential customers on your listing page.

Featured listings are another way of attracting buyers. Extra photographs, highlighted listings, and listings being displayed prominently on the relevant page are just some of the ways you can enhance your items.

Online auction sites usually charge for these extras so check the fees carefully and decide if the potential profit justifies the extra expense. For most regular items these fees are prohibitive but for special or one-off items they may well be worthwhile.

Timing is very important with some items. Listings intended as gifts for special occasions must be timed to allow for delivery after the auction has finished. An item listed as a Christmas gift would not attract many buyers if the auction ended too close to Christmas to allow for the delivery time.

The length of the auction should also be carefully considered. If it is too short you risk losing potential buyers as they may not log on to the site every day and might miss the listing. If it is too long buyers may be put off from bidding so far in advance and even if they intend to return unless the item is a one-off, they may see a similar item elsewhere and bid on that instead.

Check what other sellers are doing. See what works for them. You can experiment for yourself but by watching what others do you can get all the information you need and put it into practice straight away.


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