Summary:An all-inclusive 6 step guide on how to build and grow a successful eBay store, achieved by selling digital products.
Contents:
1. Welcome
2. Prerequisites
3. Getting started
4. Finding Products
5. Creating Valuable Listings
6. Delivering the product
7. Getting Paid
8. Customer service
Welcome
Congratulations! You’ve just made your first step into the world of digital product sales on eBay.
The beauty of this industry, and why it will only continue to grow is because of the instantaneous logistical times.
You see, with physical products, they must be transported physically so it takes much longer for them to be delivered to a customer. Whereas with digital products, it’s with the
customer in a matter of seconds.
Nowadays people want things instantly, and that ‘want’ feeling is only going to get more intense as technology advances.
This creates the perfect opportunity for entrepreneurs to sell digital products and create a successful business in doing so.
The following 6 lessons have been created to show you exactly how to set up and run your business so at the end of the lessons, you will have all the knowledge and tools to
build, and grow a successful business selling only digital products.
The best part is when you get set up, and making sales, you can set the business on autopilot!
Ready to get started?
Lets go!
Prerequisites
The only two things required to start are:
1. An eBay Account
2. A PayPal Account
Or eBay Managed Payments
Getting Started
To get started, you need to familiarize yourself with how digital product sales work on eBay before you start listing.
Head over to eBay and search for a digital product. Search for something like an xbox live trial.
Find a product from a seller with a large amount of feedback, and someone who offers instant delivery.
Purchase a code from them and keep your attention on how your order is fulfilled.
Did you receive Instant Delivery?
Did you get a personal “thank you for your order” message?
How was the code sent to you? via eBay message, Email, or both?
Did your code work?
Did you get a discount code for your next order?
These small details will make your customers happy, and if you look after your customers, your customers will look after your business. Simple as that.
If you’re a new eBay user, you’ll want to build your feedback score so that people have more reason to trust you!
These larger key sellers have a system in place that automatically gives you positive feedback once you place the order.
Buy 10 codes from different sellers to build your feedback score until you’ve got about 10, or more positive feedback.
If you’re not new to eBay, and you’ve already established a foundation of feedback, you can skip past this step, however, it’s still important you understand how the process
works instead of going into it with only the information I’ve provided.
Finding Products
Finding hot products doesn’t need to be as stressful as people make it out to be. I enjoy the process of it, but the only reason I enjoy it is because I know how to do it.
It’s not as complicated as you might think.
For this method, you will be focusing on how to find products you can buy and sell on eBay.
So, how do you find winning products?
Here’s an exercise I use:
The goal of this exercise is to create a list of 10, or more products that are selling in excess of 15 per day.
Step 1: Head over to a marketplace that sells digital keys (eneba.com, cdkeys.com, gamivo.com etc.), and scope out some products that you think are selling in excess of 15 per
day.
Step 2: Once you have a list of 10, or more products, head over to eBay and search for those games.
Step 3: Filter the results by Sold and Completed listings. This will give you an indication as to how many orders that specific product is receiving daily. Make sure to filter it by date so that it shows the most recent sales first.
Step 4: If your product has more than 15 sales in a day (the sweet spot), you’ll want to see how much they’re selling for on average, and try to price your products 1-3% cheaper than the average sell price.
Remember: eBay and PayPal fees are ~17%.
Step 5: Search all marketplaces to find the cheapest price for your specific product. There are a few price comparison websites out there that will help you with this. Kinguin,
CDKeys, Eneba, etc.
You see, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as everyone makes it out to be.
You now have a system that works and can be used every time you want to add more products to your store.
Don’t be put off by other people selling the same product. eBay’s algorithm, in my experience, gives everyone a fair opportunity to get their products seen… even when you’re
just starting out.
The amount of product exposure you get all depends on how you run your business. Play by the rules, and you get rewarded.
I’ll talk more about this in the customer service lesson later on.
Listing your Product
Listing Photos
Creating enticing, and optimized listings is the key here.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words, right? Well you want to double down on that and paint a picture with a thousand words.
Enticing photos are one thing, but the SEO that backs up the listing is just as, if not more important.
There are two main points you want to focus on when creating the photo:
1. What the product is – The title of the listing will confirm the product, and help with SEO, but you want a listing photo to entice people into your listing. I recommend using bold colours and bold writing. Some Yellows, Reds, Blues, Blacks. You also want to base your colour pallet on your product design too. So if you’re selling red dead redemption, base your colour pallet on reds. If you’re selling Fortnite skins, base your colour pallet on purples… You catch the drift.
2. Delivery time - Instant delivery is key for a successful digital product store. It’s one of the main reasons people buy digital products in the first place. Who wants to wait 2-3
days for a game when you can get it instantly! Customers also tend to pay more because of that reason too. So make this point well known, and well shown on your photos.
Listing Titles
Your listing titles are vital, you want to keep it simple, yet add as much information as possible in there.
You want to make sure you add these 4 key factors to the title:
• The platform
• The game or product
• The region
• The delivery time
I’ll use Xbox live game pass as an example:
XBOX LIVE | 7 Day Gold & Game Pass Ultimate | Instant Delivery 24/7 | Global
Make sure you input the platform, the game/product, the region and the delivery time. You may change it up however you like, but make sure you have those 4 key factors in
there somewhere.
Listing Description
When you’re writing a product description, there’s a few things I talk about that are vital to implement.
There are 4 Key factors to remember in the description:
• Product Description
• Code Information(how to redeem, terms and conditions, etc.)
• Delivery information (instant delivery to email, ebay message etc.)
• Product Summary (A quick summary about the product itself)
• Returns/Refunds (No refunds will be processed. Replacement codes are sent. – more info on this later on)
You may layout your description however you like, just remember to keep those 4 key factors in mind.
Delivering the Product
Usually delivering a physical product takes time and money. You’ve got to buy the packaging, pack the item, go to the post office and send it off, all the while costing you a huge percentage of your profits!
With digital products, its FREE!
There’s no human bandwidth restrictions for digital delivery, there’s even a way to send the products automatically!
Before I show you the automatic method, first you must understand how to do it manually. Especially if you’re just starting out and doing this with no initial investment.
Here’s what I did when I started:
Step 1: I created a “thank you for your order” message template and saved it on my phone/computer.
Basic example:
Hi, thank you for your order!
Please see your code attached: [enter code here]
If you have any questions relating to your order, please don’t hesitate
to contact us.
Many thanks,
[Name]
Step 2: When someone would purchase a code from me, I’d fine a code in my database, or buy one, I’d then attach it to my template and send it to the customer via eBay message and email.
Step 3: I’d mark the order as paid & dispatched.
Step 4: I’d leave some feedback.
From step 1, to step 4, it took me a total of 3 minutes. This doesn’t seem like much of a task, but when you’re receiving 200+ orders per day, it can get a little time consuming.
KeySender.com
So, KeySender allows you to upload a batch of codes to their database, which they then send off to your customers seconds after they order.
They pack a lot of features:
• Codes sent via email, ebay message or both – automatically within seconds
• Custom message templates to send out your codes with
• Auto invoice feature
• Auto feedback feature
• Auto order complete feature
• Secure databases to store your codes
• £0.03/$0.05 cost to send
• …much more.
I’d recommend using it when you start getting 10+ orders per day. Manually completing the orders will give you an appreciation of the process and will allow you to understand your business better.
Getting Paid
For new sellers, this can be a bit of a problem.
eBay and PayPal have decided to put 21 day payment holds on new accounts with under 90 days activity, and 10 sales.
Your funds are held for 21 days unless there’s a tracking number uploaded.
Unfortunately, the only way around this is to send a tracked letter to your customer with the code written on a piece of paper inside.
As soon as the tracking shows as delivered, your funds are released to you within 24 hours.
This can eat in to your profits, but at least the option is there if you want a quicker turnaround.
For eBay accounts who have been selling for over 90 days, and have sold 10 items in in the last 90 days, you should have access to your funds instantly, depending on your country.
Customer Service
Your entrepreneurial spirit will be tested in this business. We are in a time where small scale fraud is too accessible, and eBay is a feeding ground for such activity.
For the most part, your business will run smooth. However, you will occasionally run into people attempting to scam you.
They could say a few things, but the main excuses I’ve encountered have been:
“I didn’t make this purchase, please refund”
“The code didn’t work, please refund”
In either circumstance, you must treat the customer with respect, and act as if their issue is actually true, because sometimes it will be.
As you have stated in your description, no refunds under any circumstances are to be issued, and the purchase is final. It’s your customers obligation to read through there, and accept the terms and conditions before purchasing.
Your job is to convince the customer to not raise a case with eBay against you. The reason for this is if you build up a significant number of cases against your account, eBay will take action and that usually ends up in an account termination.
So, negotiate with the customer, stay firm by your word unless they’re about to raise a case, and then ease off a little bit. Offer a partial refund, or a code replacement.
To prevent cases against you, set your listings to block new accounts from buying your products.
Conclusion
A lot of valuable information has been provided to you here, the digital product market is only going to get bigger for the foreseeable future, so it’s time to get to work and
grab an early piece of the pie.
Success is not going to come easy, but it’s going to come. Stay disciplined, and you’re guaranteed results. eBay’s market is growing by the day, so don’t worry about this become over saturated.
More opportunities are going to arise.
Edited by BradsProducts, 26 February 2023 - 12:38 AM.