How to increase traffic through my eBay store

[ilovephillee]

Hi I have been selling designer clothing on Ebay for the last 12 months, and I am wandering how on earth I increase my traffic flow?  My titles are descriptitive enough to be brought up in search engines, they include the sizes in the title.  I have paid for advertisment through facebook and instead of getting traffic flow of 2-10 it will increase to 20-60.  For some reason the moment I stop the ad (as they are expensive, especially if you are not getting the turn over) I can not maintain that same traffic through my store.  I have set up a facebook page for my store, I also pin my items to Pininterest.  

I am not sure what else I can do.  There is money out there to be made, Im just not sure what I am doing wrong.  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Her Vanity Within

[*crikey*mate*]

Hi

My first thoughts are to contact eBay about that latest neg and see if there are grounds for removal. I'm not sure how you can be held responsible for something looking different on a person's body to the pictures. Might be a long shot, but it might help and it's removal should bring your score up over the 95%.

Your postage costs: I can't work out if they are a little high or if you subsidze postage. It depends on what method you use, i.e. a large envelope, satchel, and what size? $4, $5, $6.50, $8.90? They're kind of all over the place and I can't work out which standard service you are using. If you do subsidize postage - that's an advertising point. If you're postage prices are perceived to be too high then that can be a deterrant.

Excessive Postage and Handling Policy

Hmmm, selling clothes is a pretty competitive market, especially on line as you have many more obstacles to overcome to just get the consumers into your store. It could well be thast you are getting the people into your store, but they just aren't buying what it is what it is you have on offer at that time.

Your virtual store is in a virtual shopping centre with zillions of competitors. Your store front looks professional, but then your photos are taken against a louvre door in your home?- two conflicting mental images....

Your terms and conditions need a little work. For starters, Registered Post is no longer an option for parcels. There are breaches of Australian Consumer Law in both you postage and returns policies. Regardless of your terms and conditions, your policies can not conflict with ACL.

An item lost in the mail may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility, firstly for your own protection with PayPal. If you cannot provide a tracking number and proof of lodgement, PayPal will more than likely find in favour of the buyer. Also, if an item is lost, it is you that has to deal with Australia Post to find it or to receive compensation for it, they won't talk to your customer.

"Buy at your own risk" doesn't generally inspire a lot of buyer confidence either.....

After that, I'm all out of helpful stuff I'm afraid, except to say, clearly it pays to advertise.

I could offer you reasons why which have nothing to do with what you are doing right or wrong, just common consumer spending habits and some realities of business trading.

[greylion2013]

I don’t think you need 20-60 views to be successful; it’s about how to covert those 2-10 views into a sale.

Honestly, you have some lovely looking clothes, but I'm not if I would buy from you because of your feedback combined with your returns policy.

“I will accept returns only if the item has been grossly misrepresented”, this does not foster much confidence - items should be described 100% accurately. If they use paypal they can claim not as described anyway, all you are doing is planting seed of doubt in genuine buyers.

[digital*ghost]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

Your terms and conditions need a little work. For starters, Registered Post is no longer an option for parcels. There are breaches of Australian Consumer Law in both you postage and returns policies. Regardless of your terms and conditions, your policies can not conflict with ACL.

An item lost in the mail may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility, firstly for your own protection with PayPal. If you cannot provide a tracking number and proof of lodgement, PayPal will more than likely find in favour of the buyer. Also, if an item is lost, it is you that has to deal with Australia Post to find it or to receive compensation for it, they won't talk to your customer.

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If you don't mind me asking, which consumer laws do they breach? There's a couple that are often a bone of contention on eBay, but I'm not sure I see which ones breach consumer law. I know a store is obligated to accept a return / refund for a faulty or misdescribed item but not change of mind, and the OP's terms state as much. It is an eBay policy that you can't state you don't take responsibiity for lost mail, but there isn't a consumer law that states a seller is responsible - PayPal will make a seller responsible if they can't prove (to PayPal's satisfaction) they posted it, but if they can prove they posted it, no amount of blaming the seller, negs or threats etc can make them take responsibility for an item that wasn't delivered if they don't want to.

That being said, I do agree that those terms aren't the most buyer friendly around - ilovephillee, I think it is always better to focus on what you are prepared to do for customers than what you aren't; this is customer service, after all, so you don't want your T&Cs to be all about services you don't offer. 😉

In particular, your listings state that all measurements are approximate, but one of your terms is:

Please refer to measurements for sizing I will not except refunds based on the fact that it does not fit

so please be very sure that the sizing is correct

How can a buyer be sure the sizing is correct if the measurements are approximate?  

Those things aside, one of the best way to increase traffic is to increase stock variety, but as has been said, clothing is a competitive market - I sold clothing for a few years but am finding it quite difficult getting rid of the last remaining stock I have. I barely get any views on brand new designer clothing that retails for $300+ when priced under $50 with free post, but being able to convert a view to a sale is significantly more important that increasing views, and that means your listings need to give your buyers the confidence to purchase from you instead of the many other sellers who offer no questions asked return policies etc. 

[gemsttonepette]

When I read a seller's terms & they start stipulating conditions that may impact me, I simply move to another listing.

It isn't specifically what the conditions are, it is the image they project of what sort of person I am dealing with. I have dealt with all types in my life & I have no desire to shop with someone who comes across as dogmatic or inflexible.

Philee, I suggest you remove all obstacles in your listings, throw out all your special conditions & replace them with a note saying that any problems will be dealt with swiftly & fairly. The nicer you come across as a good person to deal with, the more confidence buyers will have to part with their money.

[zawawall]

There are many fact to bring massive traffic to your ebay store, but among the i just point out one of most important part to increase huge traffice is your listing Titile. if you have have attractive listing title with well selected keyword realted to your item, i am sure you will get enough traffic to your listing.

Hopefully this help you

itech-Shop

[ozcraftsptyltd]

One option you have, apart from eBay ads, is google adwords - you can use google advertising for an eBay store. BUT it sounds as though your messages to buyers will be putting them off. It's best to take the 'innocent until proven guilty' position - don't accuse potential buyers of being unreasonable before they've even engaged with you!

I've found eBay buyers to be very honest and to respond well to your being honest with them - tell the truth if you are likely to be late sending, etc.. It's amazing how reasonable the average buyer is, given a bit of positive communication from your end.

Another thing I've found which may be useful to know is that a lot of my buyers hop onto eBay at lunchtime and seem to call up 'newly listed items'. Listing things late morning, and as frequently as you can (every day if possible - even if the items listed are small and insignificant)seems to increase traffic through the store.

[ozcraftsptyltd]

PS - TRY ETSY too!