How to sell

The best selling items have great listings that make a potential buyer’s job as easy as possible.

You can achieve this by providing useful and relevant information while also establishing trust with your buyer via clear and open communication.

If you can demonstrate you’re a trustworthy seller by using the steps below, you’ll get the best outcome for your listing!

Prepare your profile

Your profile provides the foundation for establishing some trust and familiarity with potential buyers. Take some time to fill it out with your name, profile picture and a small bio. Including your social links can really help as well.

Prepare your listing

Information

The information you provide on your listing is critical in helping buyers understand your product. The more detail you can provide, the better chance of a successful sale.

Listings should include the following pieces of information.

The make, model, and year
The overall condition
Details of any components on the item and their condition
Details of any specific damage or non-working components of the item
The price you’re expecting for the item and whether it is negotiable
Shipping/delivery options for the item and any associated costs
Payment terms and accepted methods of payment

You will need to select an appropriate Category for your Listing. You can see an overview of Categories here.

Photos

Photos are the most important part of your listing. Taking a bit of time to provide great photos will enhance your listing and sales prospects! Quality photos will demonstrate that you’re a good seller who cares about the product and the buyer.

Here’s some key tips for item photographs:

Take photos against a neutral background (such as a blank wall) so that the item’s details are discernible
Take photos during daylight hours to assist with lighting
Use a high-resolution camera – most modern smartphones will suffice
Take photos of multiple angles of the product to allow visibility of all sides
Include photos of any specific damage or faults for clarity

Once you have all of the above you’re ready to submit your listing!

Communicate with potential buyers

Once your listing is live you can expect people to start reaching out to you with queries and offers.

Answer queries

Potential buyers will likely ask questions about your item that you hadn’t anticipated. Use those queries as inspiration to update your listing with more information for other viewers.

Regardless, remember that any question is an opportunity to sell your product. Your primary aim is a sale so being respectful, helpful, and timely with replies are key to engaging potential buyers.

Maintaining frequent, clear, and open communication will help to establish a trusted relationship between both parties. This results in a better transactional experience and may result in higher ratings to underpin future listings.

Negotiate a sale

Being aware of the value of your item is key in negotiating a sale. This value may change over time if your item doesn’t sell and that’s completely fine.

Importantly, you will likely receive offers that don’t align with your expectations. In these cases it’s best to politely decline and explain that the offer isn’t what you’re looking for at the moment.

Remember that a lower offer made today may turn into a more appropriate offer in future so it’s best to leave the potential buyer with a good experience regardless.

Deliver the goods

Once a sale has been made it’s time to deliver the goods. Delivery terms should have been discussed during the sale so it is now time to figure out a time and place, or to ship the item.

Packing and sending

Appropriate care and attention is required for shipping products to ensure they arrive safe and sound at their destination.

Ensure that you use appropriate-sized packaging and protection. Err on the side of more protection than less.

If you’re sending a complete bike you can use the following packing guide for some tips and advice:

Rate and Remove the Listing

Before removing your listing, ask the buyer to leave you a review. A review on a listing counts towards your overall rating as a seller. Positive ratings help build trust and are very helpful on future sales.

Once the review is complete the listing can be removed.

Further tips

Establishing a level of trust with potential buyers is very important. You can assist with this in a number of ways:

Including a picture of yourself as your profile pic
Having a well-rounded profile with some details about yourself
Providing clear and accurate information and photos in your listings
Communicating frequently and respectfully with potential buyers
Having good ratings against your listings