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By miguel-ingles
- In Uncategorized
Nowadays and due to the boom of electronic shops, many companies offer their products exclusively on the internet. Many different retail portals have emerged, and each one offer a number of specific products. In this article, I explain how to sell on Etsy and eBay in the UK.
How to Sell on Etsy in the UK
Etsy is an online marketplace that focuses mainly (but not only) on selling craftwork, vintage and decorative items. Therefore, it is the perfect selling webpage for those people with artistic skills and who enjoy doing craftworks. However, it is not recommended for those businesses that, for example, do dropshipping or that sell mass manufactured products.
These are the steps to follow to retail objects on Etsy:
- Creating a commercial account on the platform and answering some questions about where you live or if you have any professional experience, among other things.
- Configuring the store. You will have to choose the name, the language, the country in which it is located and the currency with which it operates.
- Adding the banking data of the business. Etsy will require you to link a bank account with the store in order to receive payments. In addition, it demands the owner to add a debit or credit card so that they pay their pending bills with the platform.
- Designing the shop’s homepage and adding sale items. You can add a description of the shop and other useful pieces of information for customers.
- It is essential to optimize the store to the Etsy search engine. Additionally, the platform offers options to advertise the products within it. Finally, it may be interesting to advertise the articles on social networks.
Please, note that Etsy charges a fee of 0.15 GBP for publishing an article and that operating fees the platform collects range from 6% to 10% of the final price of the product.
How to Sell on eBay in the UK
EBay is a platform for buying and selling products online. One of its characteristics that differentiates it from its rivals is the integration of auctions within the application. Selling on eBay is easy and convenient, and the app also offers various payment and shipping options. These would be the steps to follow:
- Creating a business account. It offers additional benefits over the individual one. For example, it grants access to bulk selling tools. You must provide some information such as the name of the business, where it is registered or its email address.
- Designing effective listings. Not only should you inform about the products’ characteristics, but the articles you sell should stand out from the millions of publications on the platform. This is essential, especially for auctions. Some tips for adverts to stand out from the competition will be to write attractive titles, to take clear images of the item and to set competitive prices.
- Offering fast and affordable shipping methods.
- Encouraging the customers to include positive reviews and feedback in the product profiles.
How to Sell on Platforms other than Etsy and eBay in the UK
Selling on Amazon
Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce platform. Therefore, it is very useful for companies that are starting out in the world of selling products or for those that are looking to expand globally. However, take into consideration that the competition is also huge, so it is essential to design attractive ads, to offer competitive prices and that you optimise the items’ profiles for the search engine of the platform.
Selling in Your Own Online Store
Thanks to web and E-commerce plugins, creating an online store is easier than ever. The two most popular digital store builders are Shopify and WooCommerce. In this article I explain the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of each one.
As a clear benefit of its use, it highlights the ability of personalisation that they offer with respect to the platforms of purchase and sale of assets mentioned above. In addition, the percentage of commissions for the sale of products they charge will be lower than that of Etsy, for example. However, it is more difficult and expensive to design and maintain a website using these programs. Moreover, they reach a smaller audience compared to other options.
In ukstartcompany, you will find information about how to establish, register and operate companies with different legal structures and business activities in the UK.