I guess I'm lucky, my shipments seem to get where they're going in a reasonable amount of time. If I had to guess, I'd say about 1-2% of shipments are lost or thoroughly damaged by USPS. You might try talking to your local postmaster about the excessive ship times, if you do start selling in large quantities that should be a lot of business for them and hopefully they'll work with you to get it back.
Another thing worth noting. Ebay puts selling restrictions on new/disused accounts. Your initial limits will probably be something like 100 items per month/$1,000. If you bring in inventory quickly you'll constantly be bumping up against these limits. You can only call to have them raised once a month and the most they will do is double them. They check your feedback and such before raising them too. Eventually you'll get it raised to the point it's not a problem. My main account has 3,200 item/$72,000 monthly limit, which is more than enough room.
USPS has always been good in the past. Letters are no problem, its just Priority boxes. Their own branded boxes! 
I guess if the tracking is uploaded on time it shouldn't affect your rating since it was shipped quickly. The delay would be with the carrier.
That's a good tip about the limits. Sounds like listing lower priced items to start will give the best shot at growing feedback quickly which should lead to higher limits. My original idea was for items that would sell in the $300-$500 range but selling 2 or 3 a month doesn't sound like a good strategy for quick growth.
Will they raise the limits automatically or do you have to contact them?
They claim that after a while they'll raise automatically but in my experience that's BS. You're allowed to call every 30 days and if I'm hitting my limits you'd better believe I call every 30 days. I'm sitting on a bunch of inventory right now because I'm up against my limits on the small account. I can't get them raised again till the 20th, it's infuriating.
Getting tracking uploaded on time makes it right with eBay but late packages really set some people off.
I don't sell expensive stuff usually but if I did I'd make sure everything was properly insured and had signature confirmation, don't forget to work that into your cost.
My original plan was for 2 stores with different types of items. Seems like it may take a while before I have a high enough limit for my expensive store to be the big money maker. Thank you for the advice. I'm thinking that maybe I should start sooner than I had planned so that I have the feedback and the limit to really make it full time.
Tracking and insurance always on expensive stuff. It's really for your benefit, not the customers. A lot of sellers don't think about that.
nervousdog wrote:
My original plan was for 2 stores with different types of items. Seems like it may take a while before I have a high enough limit for my expensive store to be the big money maker. Thank you for the advice. I'm thinking that maybe I should start sooner than I had planned so that I have the feedback and the limit to really make it full time.
It takes 90 days to even be eligible for Top rated Seller Status. You will also need $1,000 in sales to be Top rated. An early start would definitely be super beneficial.
I have a small side business rebuilding intermediate steering shafts for Porsche 944/968. I have been doing it for three years now and I have learned alot. The number one thing is to figure out what makes what you sell unique. In my case the part is NLA from Porsche and from what I have found I have a monopoly on the rebuilding parts here in the states.
Hence I have a captive audience. I sell on average two a week netting me a $300 A week for about two hours work.
But understand that this is how it is now. In the beginning it took me 2x the time to do the work and I was paying more for things than I am now. I also took alot of the early money I earned and rolled it back in for better tools and better shop equipment. Investing then has made it worth while for me to keep doing it now.
I don't use eBay or amazon. I don't advertise. Word of mouth in the industry keeps me at a sales rate that I am happy with. I do have a web site that I maintain on a almost weekly basis.
The keys to success.
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communicate with your customers. I encourage customers to call with questions and or email me questions.
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Answer questions personally don't say go read the web site. Odds are if they are asking and the answer is on the site it needs to be brought to the front a bit more.
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Be honest. This includes not over promising and under delivering. And if you make a mistake say you did. Don't make excuses. People know when you are and be proactive about letting a customer know when you screwed up and things are delayed a coupole days.
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Be a good listener. Many people want to talk and be told they are a good person. Just human nature. People want to feel good about them selves and want reinforcement of this.
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Over communicate with people. Let them know they are important and helps you keep focused on there needs.
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Spell out in clear concise wording costs and warrants. I deal with cores so this is a little bit of a PITA but I have got it down to a hasel free system.
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In my case I had to spell out to customers how and when there order gets in the queue. Just sending me a core does not get you in line. Payment gets you in line.
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BE NICE. Ya I know we all have bad days but be nasty to one person and the next thing you know there is a thread about you on say a place like GRM.
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I try to go the extra mile. Customers tgat perceive special service are happy customer's. Some times I will bump the shipping to a slightly better service. Or it can be as simple as telling them you ate personally dropping there package at the FedEx hub. These are perceived special treatments. People like being special.
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Follow up personally with select random customers. A phone call from the president of a company will impress people and again listen to what they have to say. Ask them questions and don't expect to be the Roses and honey answer. I have got some great feedback this way that helped me fix a couple things that I did not even realize would be irritating. And in return I got some great word of mouth advertising.
There is alot more but that is what comes to mind.
dean1484 wrote:
The keys to success.
- communicate with your customers. I encourage customers to call with questions and or email me questions.
- Answer questions personally don't say go read the web site. Odds are if they are asking and the answer is on the site it needs to be brought to the front a bit more.
- Be honest. This includes not over promising and under delivering. And if you make a mistake say you did. Don't make excuses. People know when you are and be proactive about letting a customer know when you screwed up and things are delayed a coupole days.
- Be a good listener. Many people want to talk and be told they are a good person. Just human nature. People want to feel good about them selves and want reinforcement of this.
- Over communicate with people. Let them know they are important and helps you keep focused on there needs.
- Spell out in clear concise wording costs and warrants. I deal with cores so this is a little bit of a PITA but I have got it down to a hasel free system.
- In my case I had to spell out to customers how and when there order gets in the queue. Just sending me a core does not get you in line. Payment gets you in line.
- BE NICE. Ya I know we all have bad days but be nasty to one person and the next thing you know there is a thread about you on say a place like GRM.
- I try to go the extra mile. Customers tgat perceive special service are happy customer's. Some times I will bump the shipping to a slightly better service. Or it can be as simple as telling them you ate personally dropping there package at the FedEx hub. These are perceived special treatments. People like being special.
All good advice. I try to do most of this in my current job. It sometimes causes friction with other salespoeple but I think it's why I have far fewer customer problems than some of my coworkers.
dean1484 wrote:
- Follow up personally with select random customers. A phone call from the president of a company will impress people and again listen to what they have to say. Ask them questions and don't expect to be the Roses and honey answer. I have got some great feedback this way that helped me fix a couple things that I did not even realize would be irritating. And in return I got some great word of mouth advertising.
I had not thought about this point. Thanks!
Edit: I cannot get the quoted part to format correctly.
