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Ecommerce Ebay Integration Guide

eBay is the grand daddy of online marketplaces and although many changes have occurred over the years, it still remains among the most influential websites on the web. If you already own an e-commerce site or have plans to start one, you should not overlook the power of eBay. It is known to be one of the largest search engines in terms of online products and has a reach of millions all over the world. Smart business owners are learning to integrate eBay with their own online store and are very successful at it.

If you currently have an eBay store, but have not taken the steps to create your own ecommerce website separate of eBay, you're missing out on huge growth potential. There are a couple of disadvantages of having an exclusive eBay store. The biggest one is that your entire business is at the mercy of eBay. A slight change in their regulation or policy can have a big effect on your business. You have to deal with both insertion and final value fees, and a lot of sellers have complained about the increasing rates. Finally, eBay is a marketplace with a lot of competition. The typical eBay buyer is usually very price conscious and is on the hunt for a bargain. In order to remain competitive and turn a visitor into a paying customer, you have to ensure that your product prices are low. Obtaining customers with low prices is a good method, but it's not viable for your business in the long run.

If you already have an e-commerce store, but do not have a presence on eBay, you are missing out on a vast number of potential customers. It's extremely hard to make your mark on the internet when there's so much competition everywhere, especially if you are just starting out. You have to work on the online store SEO, marketing to the right audience and spend a lot of money on advertising all over the internet. Being on eBay allows you to put your products in front of buyers who are already there to spend money. They are prepared to make a purchase and are actively looking to find the products they need. If you can make the sale, you should use it as an opportunity to establish a relationship with the customer so that he or she can purchase more from you in the future. What's great about eBay is that they are very well established and their consumers feel secure. If you give them the impression that you are a trusted seller, the consumer will not have a problem purchasing from you again from your own e-commerce website.

There are a number of ways you can get eBay users to shop directly through your own online store. This will help you create more of a following and reduce costs by forgoing all those eBay fees. Another thing you can do is create links to redirect eBay users away from the eBay site. You are not allowed to directly do this on eBay's product listing pages, however you can add outbound links on your 'About Me' page. You can even use HTML to create an eye catching 'About Me' page to get people to go to your online store. If you want to get eBay users that have found your products to check out your 'About Me' page, entice them with discounts or free shipping. You are allowed to link to other pages within eBay on your product listing pages so be sure to include easy to spot links to your 'About Me' page at the beginning of your listing. Images can serve the same purpose. Create watermarks of your store URL and add them to all of your product photos. Make sure it is very easy to read and more eBay users will be taken to your own site.

There are several other creative ways to let eBay customers know about your e-commerce site. Email is another area of great importance. You will have to correspond with eBay users through email so make sure to use an email that includes the domain of your online store. Don't forget to add a signature on the bottom of your emails with information regarding your e-commerce website and a link to it. After a purchase is made, be sure to include thank you cards or sticker logos with your online store URL printed on it. Offer discounts on future purchases through your online store or give them free shipping. That's how you get a life-long customer out of a one time eBay purchase.

Now that you know the importance of using both an ecommerce site and eBay for your business, isn't it about time you learn how to use them both seamlessly? If you manually manage both sites, it will take you twice as long and double the work which is not a good option for any business owner. If you have the right ecommerce solution, it can save you time by streamlining your operations and automatically listing products to eBay while you add them to your own store. Use ecommerce eBay integration to combine tasks such as inventory management and customer services, and most importantly sell more.

By: elogichick

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