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It doesn’t matter whether you sell on eBay, Shopify, Poshmark, or Mercari, in eCommerce, exposure means sales.
The more eyeballs you can get on your product listings, the more you’ll sell. At least, you will if your items don’t suck.
The problem is, how do you get more potential customers to see your items without spending more money?
When it comes down to it, there are 3 common (and effective) ways of increasing your sales:
- Increase Organic Reach Through Free Methods. Write a blog, post your items on social media, etc.
- Grow & Curate A Following. On Shopify, this is as easy as building a list and engaging on social media. If people recognize your brand and come back then you can grow your sales organically. This is more difficult on platforms such as eBay and Poshmark but you can include notes in Poshmark orders or send out codes to encourage people to visit your store again.
- Use A Multi-Channel Listing Software. This is, in my opinion, where you’ll get the most bang for your buck. You can start using a multi-channel listing software today and have a nearly instant increase in sales. Putting your items on multiple platforms can instantly give you a much larger customer pool.
In fact, using multi-channel listing software (List Peferctly) helped us to increase our sales by almost 20% in a single month.
My Experience With Multi-Channel Listing Software on eBay (18.7% Increase In Sales)
When we first started using List Perfectly somebody told us that the best method for cross-posting from eBay is to choose a single platform at first and don’t expand until we felt comfortable.
Since we had a small amount of experience selling on Mercari we decided that would be a good place to start.
We spent around an hour most evenings moving our eBay listings onto Mercari (although that time would drop significantly once we got caught up). This ended up being a bit over 20 hours during the month.
So, was it worth it? Well, here are our numbers:
Now here’s the exciting part. Well, two exciting parts, actually:
- This was only cross-posting from eBay to Mercari. Adding additional platforms would likely results in sales on top of what we had.
- If you’re looking to scale your eBay business and want to start outsourcing/hiring help, consider starting with cross-posting. Hiring a VA that will crosspost all of your listings and end items when things sell is an easy process to teach.
All-in-all, a 20% increase in sales is well worth it for us. Cashing out from Mercari at the end of the month was enough to pay our rent and keep up moving forward with larger inventory pickups.
Increase Your Own Audience 200% Or More By Using Multiple Channels
If you’re a reseller, there are a ton of people clamoring for your products. Whether you’re sourcing items to flip from thrift stores, surplus, or liquidation, the real trick is finding the largest audience possible to show your items to.
It stands to reason, then, that you should use as many platforms as possible.
Here’s some food for thought:
List Perfectly supports multi-channel listing to 11 different platforms. Let’s toss out Shopify, Instagram, and Facebook Marketplace and see what kinds of traffic we’re left with:
So, what percentage of your potential audience are you tapping into? Obviously, there will be some amount of duplicates here (people who use multiple platforms) but it still stands true that more platforms mean more buyers.
For example, if you are selling on just Poshmark, you can quadruple your audience by also selling your items on eBay!
3 Advantages Of Using Multi-Channel Listing Software
Beyond the increased sales, there are tons of advantages of using software like List Perfectly that make it well worth the cost.
1. It Gives You An Inventory Service
I can’t speak much on other multichannel listing software options, but List Perfectly has a “catalog” on their site where you add your items. You can then control your inventory, see where things are listed, etc.
Before I used List Perfectly I would end up canceling items almost every single month as I couldn’t find items or didn’t realize that I had sold the item on another platform. Using a decent inventory management system solves both of those problems!
2. You Can Reduce Ad spend
If you’re an eBay seller you might think you don’t have to pay for ads. But the unfortunate truth is, you do, eBay just calls them something else.
“Promoted Listings” are, in effect, just ads as you are paying for placement and increased exposure.
Personally, I would take my promoted listings budget and use a portion of it for a List Perfectly subscription. More sales for less money!
2. You Get Access To Different Dynamics
Every selling platform has a very different feel. This means that they attract different types of buyers and allow you to sell different things.
For example, unbranded items are next to impossible to sell on eBay. There are just too many things for sale and, if you can’t find an item through search, it won’t sell.
On other platforms, such as Depop and Poshmark, people will see and purchase cute/trendy items with or without a brand.
3. You Can Test Different Price Points
I’ve listed an item on Poshmark in 24 hours after failing to sell it on eBay for more than a year. And the cool part? I listed it way higher.
While Poshmark fees are higher than other platforms, we can typically list items for more money on there to more than make up for it.
On the other end of the spectrum, some platforms are good for clearing out old inventory as their shoppers are mainly cruising for deals.
Crossposting to 2 other platforms will give you exposure to all the types of markets and people that you need to move a huge quantity of items!
Which Multi-Channel Listing Software Should You Choose?
If you’re going to cross-post, you only have three options:
- Moving Listings Manually
- List Perfectly
- Vendoo
Many people have beat the List Perfectly vs Vendoo issue to death but, in my opinion, there isn’t really a contest.
I have tried all three of the above options and can tell you that List Perfectly wins when it comes to ease of use, features and capability, and customer service. It might be slightly more expensive but your time savings will come out in your favor at the end of the day.
If you want to know exactly how List Perfectly Works, you can read our full review to see exactly how we utilize it in our selling business.
Conclusion
In my opinion, you’re crazy if you’re not selling on multiple platforms. Not only will it increase your sales, but it will decrease the stress of not having all of your items in one basket.
A good multi-channel listing software just makes it all faster and easier. You can also check out our List Perfectly Discount Code if you want 30% off your first month.
*(Hint: the code is “Reseller”)*
Thank you so much for your wisdom in reselling. I’ve been selling off and on, on EBay for awhile. I just now got serious.
I’ve learned a lot from you. I will continue to take your most helpful advice.
Thank you,
Brenda