Arrrgh!!! NOTHING is selling!!! I need some SALES!!!! WTF is going on?!?! Let me tell ya how to fix it!

As I have said in lots of other articles; selling online is nothing more than a simple formula:

Traffic + Listings = Sales

Marketplaces get tons of traffic, so the only thing that can be “wrong” is the listing. I know, it sucks to hear your listing is the “bad thing”, but it’s true. So let’s find out WHY so we can fix the problem:

First, how many listings do you have? Think of each listing as a fishing pole in the big, blue, deep sea. If you cast out only one pole, with one hook and one bait… ok cool. You might catch one fish. But have you ever seen the reality shows where the REAL fishers go out? They catch a literal boatload of stuff by utilizing TONS of traps and bait. Clearly, nobody can make a living off of a single line with a single worm, right? You will notice that substantially more things sell when you have 1,000 listings then 2,000 listings and so on. Cast out those crab pots!!!!

As mentioned, the equation is Traffic + Listings = Sales. So not only do you need QUANTITY of listings, but you need proper listings. A crap listing is like fishing with a shoe as bait. Does fishing with 1,000 shoes help more fish bite? Of course not. That’s stupid. So throwing 1,000 trashy lines out might land you a random fish inside of a shoe but besides that, you can expect to go home hungry.

Listings have 4 main characteristics that NEVER change:

1. The Photo
2. The Price
3. The Description
4. Other

Let’s analyze each charicteristic, one at a time:

PHOTO: Most people shop by looking at photos. If they like the photo they read the title. If they like the photo AND the title they look at the price. If all of those things appear good they look at the listing. So before we even need to consider lowering a price, we need to consider the photo. The top reasons people scroll past photos:

• You’re using “stock photos”
• You took photos of it laying on the ground with your foot in the corner
• Your not using the right type of mannequin
• Watermarks make it super hard to see the item
• The photo looks sketchy in general
• The orientation of the photo is wrong
• Quite frankly, it looks like you didn’t care at all

You can make your photos better by reading any of the guides linked above. We have tons of totally free info you. Take it; it’s free, no catch!

PRICE: For some reason people tend to think that the only way to sell merchandise is to have the lowest price, however these same people have never taken the time to research and learn about male shopping patterns versus female shopping patterns, because if they did take the time to do minimal reading they would have learned that overall, price is NOT the deciding factor for men or women! And, in fact, having too low of a price can actually HARM your sales!

DESCRIPTION: If the potential buyer has gotten to the Description Section of your listing, OMG! You’re soooooo close! You have already passed the photo-test, the title-test and even the price-test… think about it like this; out of an ENTIRE INTERNET FILLED WITH LISTINGS, that fish is nibbling at YOUR BAIT! So, now is the moment of truth… do they chomp or swim away?

If you can’t get a bite at this stage, the issue is definitely the description. Something here is scaring away the fishies. So now it’s time to take a really hard look at your hard work. We have already told you all about how to structure your womens listings and how to create mens listings to sell more products, but there’s a couple things we can go over again:

Always use bullet points. It’s a proven fact that it makes listings easiest to read.

Always avoid writing paragraphs.

Make sure the front, color of text and size of text is easy to read on a cell phone without having to flip the phone sideways. People don’t want to do work to buy something. Even though changing the phone orientation sounds simple, it isn’t for a buyer.

Make sure graphics you use are easy to view on a cell phone.

If you’re really unsure how to layout a listing, look at the professionals, like Macys, Saks, JuicyCouture, BetseyJohnson, Nike, etc.

OTHER: if you have a lot of information to share with the customer, try to water down the details to as few as possible, or else you end up sounding like Hitler. Keep in mind, you want the person to know what they are buying but you don’t want to make them terrified of you. If they fear you as a person they’re going to automatically run away from buying from you, even if it’s the best item ever

Add this other info UNDER the items details and keep it as simple as possible. You can learn a lot more about listing structure by reading out blog posts. 

"Other" can also mean "unexpected charges" at checkout.  As we have previously discussed, people are greatly turned off by added charges; shippping, handling, taxes, etc.  If possible, roll these into the price of your item, even if it makes your item appear more expensive.