Do you want to learn how to selling clothes on eBay? Whether you want to start your fashion business by selling used clothes you have at home, reselling clothes from other brands or selling your own creations in this article I will be very specific about the disadvantages of eBay and its advantages. I will give you a complete overview of whether selling clothes on eBay is worth it or not in order for you not to embark on a task that you may not like.
If you are wondering what clothes to sell on eBay, why your eBay listings have no hits or customers, or why you have hits but no buyers, in this article you will get your prayers answered.
How to selling clothes on eBay
eBay opens up as a framework to the freedom of digital sellers who wish to transact products online without having major headaches. There are many other websites and applications to sell clothes that are established as alternatives to eBay to sell clothes, which we will see later, but certainly eBay houses the largest number of customers but also many sellers that makes us hesitate to know how to sell clothes on eBay successfully.
Turn your passion into your profession
In this article you will learn everything you need to know to complete your doubts and uncertainties to sell on eBay:
- The Advantages of Selling on eBay.
- The Disadvantages of eBay.
- Comparison of eBay with other platforms.
- Is it worth selling on eBay?.
- Ways to sell on eBay.
- Where to buy clothes for selling on eBay
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- How shipping works for selling clothes on eBay.
- The secret to selling clothes on eBay.
- Tricks for selling clothes on eBay.
- Tricks for selling clothes on eBay.
The Advantage of selling on eBay
Some of the advantages that motivate us to use eBay to sell are the following:
- Discounts when using Correos: if you use Correos to send the orders you can get discounts on shipping.
- Discounts when using Correos: if you use Correos to send the orders you can get discounts on shipping.
- Variety in the way of selling: you can sell under the auction model, buy it now or classified ad as we will see later.
- Second hand sale enabled: you can also sell second hand products.
- Easy to use platform: relatively simple to use and learn how to sell.
- Payment options: customers can pay by Paypal, credit card, bank transfer or cash on delivery.
- Very experienced website: eBay is experienced due to all the time it has been in existence and managing sales within its platform.
- You avoid maintaining your own platform: when the time comes to make a sale and your payment gateway has an error and does not work! With eBay you have the assurance that there are people maintaining this platform that will not give errors, and if it does, they will be fixed very soon.
- Customer trust: customers trust eBay because it is a well-known international platform, so payments will come more naturally.
The Disadvantages of eBay
But we must also take into account the disadvantages of selling on eBay.:
- Management of shipments: you must be the one to make arrangements with the shipping company.
- Commission per sale: around 10% is the commission eBay will charge you every time you sell a product. These commissions are charged in the middle of the month.
- Payment for posting an ad: 0.35 cents is what you will have to pay for posting each ad.
- High competition of sellers: there are many sellers who may be selling the same product as you.
- You need SEO knowledge: to compete organically with other sellers you will need to write in a way that is optimized for their search engine.
Comparison of eBay with other platforms
You will see that eBay has many advantages to sell on it if you look at the following table where you will find a comparison of selling platforms such as eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, Vinted, Poshmark, The Real, or Tradesy.
Ebay versus other platforms
| Web |
Cost per ad |
Commission |
Other costs |
|---|
| eBay |
Up to $0.30 |
10% |
2.9% + $.30 |
| Amazon |
free |
from 7% to 20%. |
+ of 40$ (+ Prime storage space fees) |
| Shopify |
free |
2% basic plan |
29$ |
| Vinted |
free |
free |
- No commercial sale |
| Etsy |
$0.20 |
3.5% |
3% + $.25 |
| Tradesy |
free |
Up to 14.9% |
2.9% |
| Poshmark |
free |
$2.95 below $15; other 20% |
free |
| The Real Real |
free |
45% |
free |
Is it worth selling on eBay?
As you can see in the table comparing eBay with other digital sales platforms where we can sell clothes it is noteworthy that on eBay we have a lower investment to make at the time of selling.
When we start we do it with free listings and the investment is more focused on buying or making the clothes we are going to sell, in addition to the advertising investment or the time on social media to promote our products. We focus on the most important thing, eBay helps us to go forward much faster.
We can therefore say that It is worth selling on eBay, but you must be the one to judge depending on your goals in life and the resources you have at your disposal. Also be guided by the feeling you get from the platform. Where you feel more comfortable, it will be easier for you to sell.
Ways to sell on eBay
On eBay you have several ways to sell clothes that stand out above all others that you should consider if your desire is to sell clothes as one way may better fit your lifestyle or your desires:
- Designer or luxury brand products: if your goal is to make money and make it fast and not so much to focus on making a career in fashion with your own online fashion brand you should focus on reselling branded or luxury clothing that you can buy at low prices when they are on discount.
- Selling clothes in lots: perhaps large used clothing transactions are your thing and you would like to compare lots of clothes for resale usually to second hand clothing businesses looking for stock to sell. This would be another form of current for selling clothes on eBay.
- Selling punctual used clothes from your wardrobe: in this case it is established as a better platform those online second hand stores like Poshmark, Depop, or Vinted since they are focused on an audience that will be looking for this type of clothing at these prices that will usually be low, but you can also try your luck with eBay.
- Sell handmade clothing on eBay: although it is Etsy the handmade clothing platform that absolutely wins in the sale of handmade clothing within the Internet network, you can also use eBay as the platform where to expose your products since it has lower commissions and attract audience from other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.
- Resale of clothing at low prices: as opposed to the sale of luxury fashion we find the option to buy and resell clothing such as clothing from Aliexpress or other suppliers.
- Resale of vintage clothing on eBay: if your thing is hunting for old trends and you have a good eye for bringing classy garments back to life you can always choose to buy vintage garments and fix them up to sell them again for a higher price.
- Sell Print-On-Demand clothing: there are platforms like Printful in which you upload an image or drawing designed by you and create a mock-up of a garment that connects with eBay to sell it. When the garment is sold Printful will create it and send it to the customer. If you like to draw or do design this is a good modality.
- Sell transformed clothes: if you are not good at creating handmade clothes entirely with purchased fabric you can opt for the transformation of second-hand garments into new and original garments by mixing pieces of clothing and embellishment techniques such as embroidery or printing.
Where to buy clothes to sell on eBay
Buying clothes to sell on eBay is one of the most complicated in addition to the shipping and marketing you will find within selling clothes. It is necessary that of the above forms of selling clothes on eBay you choose the one that you know more and of which you have a deeper market vision, in this way you will know that people are buying what kind of clothes, what colors or sizes and go to the following sites to buy these clothes:
- First-hand and second-hand flea markets: flea markets are the perfect place to find very cheap clothes, both first-hand and second-hand.
- Aliexpress or Alibaba: the companies par excellence for the purchase of clothing at low prices in China that can give us great profit margin is Aliexpress for individual purchases or Alibaba for bulk purchases.
- Wholesale clothing stores on the Internet: they are also available on eBay and can be a good option if you decide to sell second-hand clothing individually.
- Pages with discounts on luxury items: there are websites where they give you specific discounts on luxury items that are on sale at that moment and that fashionistas users want to buy at all costs.
- Buy used clothes in apps and online second-hand stores: if your goal is the resale of second-hand or the transformation of clothes for sale, you can buy used clothes in mobile apps or online stores selling used clothes.
How shipping works for selling clothes on eBay
Within selling clothes on eBay we are faced with the task of knowing how shipping works for selling clothes.
eBay offers a number of eligible shipping companies in your country that you will see when you create a new listing for your clothing item. Before choosing a shipping company, visit their website to find out how much it will cost you to ship an item to the destinations where you want to sell. To do so, follow these steps:
- Take your garment and pack it for shipping as you would normally do to send it to a customer.
- Weigh it on a kitchen weight and note this weight.
- Also measure width, height and length of your package and write it down.
- Do the same for all items: it is therefore recommended to have a range of approximate weights to make it easier to calculate your shipping costs. For example, your package will weigh between 500 grams and 1 kg.
- Access the shipping simulator of the shipping company you choose from this eBay listing and enter the dimensions of your order, its weight, and its shipping destination.
- Create a table by destination with shipping costs.
Finally you will see that eBay lets you choose between two options:
- Shipping free: being free shipping you will be paying the shipping, so we have the advantage that the customer will see the shipping at 0 cost and will be more encouraged to buy, but on the other hand you can not put such a high price of the garment and you must add to the cost of the garment your profit and shipping costs, so then surely you will tend to reduce your profit so that the garment is not so expensive.
- Shipping paid by the customer: if you put the shipping costs separately you will have to put a shipping cost for each destination region. This helps you to be able to put a more expensive price for your items but the shipping costs may make your customer refuse to buy the products.
The best option is always the free shipping cost for simplicity and because eBay favors and shows products with free shipping costs earlier in their listings.
How to ship clothes to your eBay customer
The first thing you should do is to take your garment and wrap it in a transparent bag and then in another plastic shipping bag inside which you will have to add the purchase invoice and the label for returns. In this plastic bag you will paste the label that you will print from the website of the shipping company you have chosen in which you will have filled in the shipping details or paid that freight.
Take your package to the shipping company and you will get a tracking number that you must then provide to your customer via chat on eBay so that he/she knows where the order is at all times.
How do returns work when selling clothes on eBay
In the case of returns, very typical when selling clothes because of the size issue. And that is why it is so necessary to put all the measurements of the garments. The customer will normally have 14 days for the return, although you can extend this period on eBay. The customer must fill out the return form that you have put in the shipping bag indicating that you want to return and pay the shipping costs to return the garment to you and then you are the one who will return the money.
The secret to selling clothes on eBay is here!
selling clothes on eBay has one overarching premise that you can't help but stick to, this is the secret and the difference between having sales and not having sales on eBay. The fact is that you need to be in the eBay search engine that is, when a user searches for an item of clothing in the eBay search engine will usually focus on visits the first results and those will be the most likely to sell.
Therefore the title and description of your articles must be SEO optimized, ie, your title and description must have the words that your customers usually write in the search engine to find that item of clothing.
On the other hand, your description must be complete and alleviate all the doubts and fears of your potential customer:
- Color of the garment.
- Size or sizes of the garment.
- Measurements of the garment.
- Fabric of the garment.
- Handling time until shipment.
- Time and shipping company.
- Whether or not tracking number is delivered.
Including good photographs of the garment on a person will also reduce customer hesitation and encourage sales.
Tips for selling clothes on eBay
Before continuing with the step by step on how to get started you should know some tricks for selling clothes on eBay as a tip without which you can not get the desired success, but at the same time are really simple once performed:
- Photos with examples and details: fashion is very visual. The pictures of your product on eBay should be pictures of the garment on and details such as zippers, pockets, fabrics, elasticity will make the customer more confident when buying.
- Answer the customer's doubts: customers always have doubts. Moreover, in many occasions we forget to describe some detail of the product and their doubts will help us to make our descriptions better. Take care of them to create a good brand image and above all to obtain more sales thanks to the resolution of doubts.
- Simplify shipping: when creating your eBay apparel shipping plan, don't make it complex for the customer. Don't have multiple shipping and return types for your garments. It is better to have only one type of shipping and return to make it simpler.
- Remember in your descriptions your sales policy: create a text where you explain the returns, shipments and what the customer commits to if he/she wants to buy clothes with you to avoid future legal problems. Include them in the product description on eBay.
- Optimized titles and descriptions: don't forget that your title and product text must contain the terms for which the customer searches for the product in order to appear in eBay search results.
- Advertise: creating ads on eBay to stand out from the competition or open your social networks and create community is always a good technique to boost your sales.
- Spy on the competition: when choosing clothes that can sell the most on eBay, keep an eye on your competitors to find out how many sales they have had. You can do this strategy on eBay, Amazon or other similar portals where it indicates the number of sales of each product.
- Focus on higher profit: choose products that can give you more profit with fewer transactions. If you are a single person or a few people selling on eBay, managing sales can be hard work. Focus your interest on those items with lower purchase investment, higher selling power and higher chances of making more profit with fewer sales.
Steps for selling clothes on eBay
If you want to know how to sell on eBay in this list you have the step by step to know how to do it whether you are a freelancer, company or individual:
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Register your account
Creating your account is really easy and simple. You just need your username and an email address to start selling. Then you will need to add your payment details.
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Post your ad
Start uploading your first product, click on "Sell". Put a title that includes those words that the customer would search for in the eBay search engine and an equally key description that includes measurements. Add the condition of the product and the type of ads. Upload at least three photographs with good light, where the details can be seen.
There are three types of listings when it comes to paying on eBay:
- Buy it now listings!: is typical of all platforms where the customer buys the product with a fixed price. This ad is enabled for 30 days.
- Auction ads: the customer bids and whoever bids the most gets the product. This bidding lasts for 10 days.
- Classified ads: available for the mtoro category. The seller places his ad and waits to be contacted by a seller to then start agreeing on how the exchange will be. It lasts for 30 days until renewal.
Remember to check the type of shipment you are going to make. In the dropdown it will show you certain options of shipping companies such as Seur or Correos, but you can also select "other" and make deals with shipping companies to lower your cost in case you are a company.
You must also select the payment method and if you want to receive refunds or not. And ready, you can put it on sale.
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Send your product
As a seller you must be attentive to chat with your customers to solve their doubts and encourage your sales. When you get a sale you must pack the product and take it to the shipping company you indicated on the product. You must provide the customer with the tracking number of the order that the shipping company will give you.
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Manage returns
In the event that you have indicated that you allow returns you must always indicate the return period and if you take charge of the return shipping costs or not. You can indicate this in the product description. Normally the return period is 14 days.
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Receive your money
And finally, you will receive your money in your Paypal account that you indicated in your eBay profile in an easy way.
Start selling today! In this article on how to selling clothes on eBay we hope you have found it easy to understand its mechanism and that you can start selling successfully today. Keep visiting the blog where you will be able to find more articles on how to sell easily.