This short guidebook will set you on the path to selling successfully.
Getting Started
This guidebook was designed to equip you with everything you need to sell successfully on Vendidit. It contains up-to-date information on optimizing your seller page, listing items, creating auctions, and engaging with customers during your auction. Please take the time to read through this document before creating auctions; our goal is to ensure our sellers have the fastest turnaround and enjoy the highest profits possible.
Storefront Info
Vendidit offers sellers a customizable online storefront visible to buyers. Setting up a good online storefront will help buyers recognize your brand better and increase your follower count.
Complete your Seller Profile
You want your legitimacy to be known to your buyers, so take the time to fill out all the details. When creating your store description, try to answer potential buyer questions about your company. Include branding, graphics, and images of the physical location or warehouse so people know you're the real deal. Having a transparent storefront will help buyers feel confident in purchasing from you.
Link to your website or Social Media
Got a website or social media following? Share it on your profile! Since buyers use websites and social media to determine legitimacy, it's beneficial to have good social media content and provide a way for buyers to access it. You can also post the types of listings you offer and provide links directly to your seller profile or auctions. Connecting with your customers on other platforms will help grow your traffic count and amount of followers.
Auctions and Listings
This section will help you fine-tune your auctions and listings to the highest efficiency. Strong inventory, auction engineering, good descriptions, and detailed photos will strengthen the quality of your auction and bring in more buyers.
All about the inventory
Besides what you actually list, how you organize your items is incredibly important to your auction success. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Determine your spotlight items and distribute them throughout your auctions. Use them to attract buyers to your auction to increase the performance of other items. Within the same auction, keep spotlight items spaced out from each other so buyers have to search through your other listings for them.
Auction Length Matters
Seven days is the most optimal length to run an auction, depending on the amount and demand of items listed. Low item count and higher demand items call for a shorter auction time. Find a balance between short and long that works for your items: too short of an auction may not attract buyers and too long of an auction makes it hard to keep buyers engaged and lowers bid rate.
Detailed Descriptions Build Trust
How good of a description an item has determines how well an item performs in auction. It can also decide how quickly a buyer trusts a seller. Don’t sell yourself short, fill out item descriptions as thoroughly as possible. Customers should know what they’re bidding on, so include details over:
- item version
- condition
- included parts
- where the item came from
- your store and company
Don't be afraid to put a short description of your store at the top of every item's description. This can help browsing buyers become familiar with your store and may lead to them viewing more of your merchandise.
High-Quality Photos Build Trust
Quality photos are just as important as quality descriptions, and customers like seeing what they’re buying. This helps establish product transparency and reduces the chance of customer dissatisfaction. Here are some photo tips:
- Try to include 4-6 photos per listing, keeping them consistent and descriptive by nature.
- Include photos of the actual item being listed along with stock images.
- Support the item's description with photos, especially related to item condition.
- Many resellers set up a decorative photo area to add some consistency and style to their images.
The bottom line is: you need accurate and descriptive photos to gain the trust of your buyers.
Below is an example comparison of two different listings involving the same item. The right image follows the principles described in this section.
Buyer Marketing
Buyer marketing is crucial to the performance of your auctions. This section will provide some ways to market with your buyers before and after an auction.
Advertise Your Auction Before
Now that you've got all this fine merchandise listed and the auction ready to go, it's time to let the world know about it. Our auction creation section allows you to set a launch date for your auction. If you already have established marketing pipelines with your customer base, use what you've got. If you don't, it's time to find some ways to reach new customers. Here are some pipelines you may be able to utilize:
- Social Media
- Website Followers
- Email Lists
- Second-Hand Markets
It's also important to fill out your seller descriptions on our platform so customers can find your items easier. One example is having location accurate so that buyers who are close enough for pickup will see your items. The bottom line is to do what you can to get as many interested customers as possible to know about this auction.
Engage Your Customers During the Auction
Marketing doesn't stop at auction creation, you have to keep the excitement up, especially around its closing time. Auction closings typically see the highest bid activity, so you want to ensure all customers participating don't forget to put their final bids in. Email and social media marketing are invaluable mid-auction engagement tools. Here are some pointers on what to engage customers about:
- Create a sense of urgency during auction closings.
- Use your spotlight items to attract buyers.
- Highlight items with low bids to attract more buyers.
Conclusion
We trust this document has equipped you with the knowledge necessary to sell quickly and efficiently. If you have any questions regarding upcoming features, suggestions to help you perform better, or any feedback in general, please contact us at hello@vendidit.com.