Getting noticed on eBay is getting harder, and sellers are forced to engage in costly price wars to rank high in search rankings. When you want to win buyers without sacrificing profit, how do you get consumers to buy your product over the competition? If you sell on eBay, you can use eBay Guaranteed Delivery (eGD) to stand out and increase conversions. eGD sets you apart by allowing you to focus on customer experience and fast shipping. Let’s take a look at how sellers can outsmart and beat their competitors without resorting to shady tactics like slashing prices or false scarcity. What is eBay Guaranteed Delivery? eBay Guaranteed Delivery is eBay's fast shipping program, their answer to Amazon Prime. Sellers who want to use eGD must ensure that their products reach buyers within a set time frame. If you consistently get items to your customers in 3 days or less, you'll gain huge visibility. deliver goods To qualify for eGD , you need to have a minimum of 100 transactions per year with a late shipment rate of no more than 5%. There are two types of guaranteed delivery options for sellers to choose from; processing time delivery options and door-to-door delivery . In the processing time delivery option , sellers need to have their items ready to ship within eBay's time requirements. Typically, sellers have 1 business day from placing an order to be ready to ship.
Then, eBay handles the shipping and calculates the delivery time. In the event of a late delivery, eBay will take care of and handle the return arrangement. This option is for small sellers who can prepare items quickly, but your choices are limited to eBay's carriers and capabilities. Sellers using the processing time option are generally limited to a single warehouse and must ship using eBay's rates. The door-to-door delivery option means that the seller is responsible for calculating delivery dates and making sure the item reaches the customer by those dates. If the eGD order is delayed under these circumstances, the customer is entitled to either keep the product and industry mailing list refund, or return the product for a full refund (and free shipping label), at the seller's expense. With this choice comes more responsibility, but potentially greater rewards. If you have multiple warehouses, or a reliable 3PL integrated with eBay Guaranteed Delivery , you can set your own rates and put multiple items on eGD. You can expand coverage and offer faster delivery times than processing time options. To learn more about the basics of eGD, check out What is eBay Guaranteed Delivery and Why Should I Care? How eBay Guaranteed Delivery Helps You Compete For sellers who can't (or don't want to) compete on price alone, eGD is a great way to stand out. Let's look at three ways eBay's answer to Prime can help you get more out of eBay's 171 million active buyers . 1. Rank Higher in Search Unless you're looking for something specific, how often do you scroll through the first few pages of search results?
Most of your clients are reluctant to go beyond the first page. On eBay, the page your listing appears on directly affects your sales. However, getting these top positions is not easy. eBay's search engine, Cassini, has an idea for SEO. Like any valuable search engine, Cassini is interested in showing shoppers the most relevant results. While eBay has been tight-lipped about how their engine determines which listings buyers see, eBay Australia search director Todd Alexander shared that Cassini focuses on four key factors: relevance, value, trust and Convenience . Choosing Guaranteed Delivery increases customer trust in your listing and increases convenience due to short delivery times. It can also improve search relevancy. No Guaranteed Delivery 1 In the image above, you can see the search results for "80s prom dresses" for sellers with and without eGD. Top dresses from eGD sellers cost more than three times the price of the top item on the left. By choosing to use eBay Guaranteed Delivery, you can rank high in relevant categories without having to compete solely on price. 2. Capture last-minute shoppers Doing last minute shopping? Until now, eBay hasn't really supported last-minute shoppers. However, according to the International Association of Shopping Centers , most shoppers fall into this category, especially during the holidays. During the 2016 holiday season, 76% of customers planned to make a last-minute purchase in the week before Christmas. Last-minute purchases are nothing new.
They happen year-round, mostly due to consumer delays . Many last-minute shoppers turn to brick-and-mortar stores, even though the items they're looking for online may be cheaper . Why? Because your potential customers are worried that their items won't be shipped on time. With guaranteed delivery, you have a clear way to show your customers that you will deliver. You can use your track record and reviews from other happy shoppers to demonstrate reliability and marketability to holiday shoppers (and those looking to buy gifts for other special occasions). This complies with another SEO requirement from Cassini. 3. Win customers, not race to the bottom By guaranteeing your products arrive on time, you'll attract customers who are willing to pay a little more in exchange for certainty. No matter what the experts tell you, we value fast and guaranteed shipping. How do we know? In 2014, Harvard Business Review published an article based on consumer data . They surveyed Prime subscribers and asked them if they would pay the suggested price increase — 47% said they would not pay more than the $79 they currently pay for their subscription. At the time of this poll,
Amazon Prime had more than 250,000 subscribers in the United States . Today, membership costs $119, and Prime has more than 90 million U.S. subscribers (and many more worldwide). The main customers are not only large in number, but also highly loyal. Their conversion rate was 74 % compared to non-Prime customers who only bought at a 13% rate . Not only do consumers continue to use the service, but we still flock to it. What does this have to do with eBay? Guaranteed delivery is eBay's answer to Prime. It's still new, but shares a lot of similarities with Prime's early days. Back when Amazon first launched Prime in 2005, they excluded businesses and third-party sellers from the program while they tried to convince investors that Prime could compete with eBay. Due to the newness of the program, eGD has raised similar suspicions among some eBay sellers. But just like Prime does for Amazon sellers, eDG elevates the most trusted and reliable eBay storefronts to the forefront of customer searches.