Tip: Use the Sell Similar link or create templates in Turbo Lister or your in Java

Recognizer QR Code ISO/IEC18004 in Java Tip: Use the Sell Similar link or create templates in Turbo Lister or your

listing management service that include your standard terms of sale as boilerplate text that appears automatically with each listing you create

When entering the boilerplate text for your terms of sale in your item descriptions and About Me or eBay Store pages, make sure your terms are easy for your customers to read Create a subheading in larger, boldface type that reads Terms of Sale, Our Policies, or something similar, and then list your policies in a numbered or bulleted list Recall the text chunking and list-creation techniques discussed in 3, and extend these same practices in your terms of sale to instill user-friendly readability Use the same font and type size for listing your terms of sale that you use in your item descriptions Using a smaller type size can create distrust in readers as it has the appearance of fine print Even if your intentions are simply to save screen space, your customers may suspect that you are using this notorious trick to sneak something past them Remember your goal of transparency and how it inspires trust You should also avoid using larger typeface, red lettering, or all capital letters for your terms of sale It s the text equivalent of screaming at your customers, and no one likes to have rules and regulations screamed at them Even though some eBay buyers simply don t read stated policies carefully, using such typefaces insults the intelligence of every potential customer who browses your item listings Insulting potential customers is no way to win friends and influence people and certainly no way to run a business

The demeanor you use in writing your conditions of sale reveal much about you and your business You d be surprised at how many sellers get this angle all wrong Many sellers will create a laundry list of conditions of sale No International Bidders, No Personal Checks, Winning bidder must contact me within five days of auction close, Negative Feedback will be left for those who don t comply with terms of sale And these are fairly mild examples; some sellers come off much worse! Figure 6-1 shows an astoundingly nasty list of sale conditions pulled directly from a misguided eBay seller Although the seller may think that he is insulating himself from potential problems or customer fraud, he is also sending a message to legitimate bidders that he is an unpleasant person with whom to do business Authoritarianism is bad salesmanship Remember, one of the founding principles of eBay is that people are basically good You will scare off customers if your terms of sale seem to assume that they re attempting to defraud you Instead of saying, We leave negative feedback for non-paying bidders, try something like this: We are delighted to leave positive feedback upon completion of each transaction Both statements imply the same result: good bidders get good feedback and bad bidders get what they probably deserve But the two statements send different messages about the seller making the statement It s OK to be firm with your conditions of sale However,

Figure 6-1 This seller s Terms of Sale are positively dictatorial Note the screaming ALL CAPS, and if this book were printed in color, you d see that this text is bright red

it s equally important to phrase those conditions positively to reflect the most favorable light possible on your business

Resist the temptation to pad your shipping and handling costs Most eBay buyers are knowledgeable when it comes to postage rates They resent attempts by sellers to squeeze a few extra bucks out of them with padded S&H costs If you charge a handling fee, be sure that it is a reasonable amount so as not to raise buyers eyebrows when they check your S&H rates Some sellers proudly advertise that they charge actual postage only This has the potential to give the seller an edge over competitors who charge inflated S&H costs However, it also represents a lost opportunity to use a reasonable handling fee to help recoup the considerable costs involved in shipping products Other sellers dangle the carrot of

free shipping to entice buyers and build the S&H costs into the price of the product This is a great idea, so long as it results in more sales and higher profits overall Determining the best S&H policy for your business requires a little experimentation and a little calculation Examine what happens if you offer free shipping or charge actual postage only Do your total sales increase Do they increase enough to make up for money you could have earned by charging a reasonable handling fee If you add a handling fee, do your total sales decrease What if you increase or decrease the amount of the handling fee Like all other aspects of your eBay business, making an informed assessment of your S&H policy will lead to higher margins If you decide to charge a handling fee, use eBay s Shipping Calculator to help disguise the costs that you re passing on to the customer Offering the Shipping Calculator option on your listings allows buyers to calculate their own S&H costs based on their location The calculator gives you the option of entering a flat price as a handling fee and automatically combines that amount with the actual postage Your handling fee is discreetly bundled into the single S&H cost shown to the buyer Finally, maximize customer S&H satisfaction by opting not to display actual postage amounts on self-printed shipping labels This option is offered both by the USPS/PayPal label printing service offered through eBay as well as third-party postage services such as Endicia (http:// wwwendiciacom) Sellers with accounts with UPS, FedEx, or other shipping companies also have the luxury of shipping goods without the actual shipping costs displayed on the label This practice falls under the old adage of What they don t know won t hurt them So long as your overall S&H costs are reasonable, your customers will be happy