Originally Launched in 1995 as AuctionWeb by Pierre Omidyar, since the name change in 1997, eBay is now a household name around the world.
The original purpose of the platform was to auction previously owned goods, however, that changed rather quickly. Now it is primarily known for buying brand new products at a “buy it now price”, which dominates the market. However, just because the focus has shifted to brand new goods, doesn’t mean that the auctions should be forgotten since they still form an integral part of the sales and big profits can be made.
This might lead you to question if there’s “a best time” to sell goods? Or which days are the best? Here are some tips informed by what the current data tells us, to help you on your way.
Different days for different items
For those who are trying to get an increase in profits, you might have heard that different days sell better for different items. This is partially true, but for the most part, it’s quite random. One factor is the demand for the item, the other factor is the actual item itself; more expensive items generally tend to sell less since not many people can afford it, and this correlates with the date.
More expensive items sell better towards the end of the month since this is when people get paid. For some reason, Sunday is the busiest day of the week and this is when the most sales occur, but remember to lower your price slightly.
More expensive items sell better towards the end of the month since this is when people get paid.
Best hours to sell
To determine which hours to sell, you need only consider when people are the busiest and then sell during the opposite hours. For example, in the evenings after dinner and right before the usual time people go to bed seems to be the busiest. This is most likely because after dinner people sit in front of the television or with family, and search for the products that they would like to buy or are thinking of buying.
The absolute best time according to research is during 7-9 pm on Sundays, since more people are most likely to make an impulse buy to alleviate Monday blues.
Best strategies for your items
One of the best things you could do is to check the prices for other listings that are similar to the item that you are wanting to sell. While it is true that you want to sell your item for the highest price, eBay itself has its own economy essentially, and if the price of your item is considerably higher than others, it won’t sell.
Another tip would be to use the best descriptions for your items that directly relate to them. This is because have irrelevant item descriptions won’t help to improve your SEO ratings, which means your item won’t be among the first of the search results when someone searches the internet for it.
One of the best things you could do is to check the prices for other listings that are similar to the item that you are wanting to sell.
Glitches in the matrix
You might, at this point, be thinking that you have a good idea of which hours and days are the busiest, and which are the least busy, but there are many factors to take into consideration. Depending on the item you are selling, businesses might be looking for it during work hours, so you might want to put the price up slightly for the odd customer or two.
During busy hours you should lower your price slightly so that it appeals to the largest audience. Weekends, such as Friday and Saturday, often sell the least number of products, and this is probably because people are enjoying time with friends and family, or going out to restaurants and the like.
Listing tools and automated bidding
If you are familiar with the rules of an auction, this is essentially what auctions on eBay are like; you select a product, set a starting price and then let buyers auction for the product. Naturally, you would need to be present during this process to ensure that you get the highest amount without losing the interest of a buyer, or to not forget about the listing completely.
Now you can be relieved to know that this process can be automated through the Selling Manager. Not only can you select an amount that will automatically end the auction, but you can also automatically relist an item once if it doesn’t sell, or continuously until it does. This relieves a lot of manual work that you would have needed to do.
For more tips on eBay auctions, check out this Youtube video…
