A Professional eBay Auction in 5 Simple Steps

When a user browses through the vast amount of listings for a particular item on eBay what makes them choose one seller over another? There are a number of factors that can affect their decision, the most obvious being price and the seller’s feedback. But assuming that these are similar, as they often are in highly competitive situations, what sways a buyer? The description, or lack of in some cases.

A professional looking description will get you one step closer to a sale, so to help you on your get that sale, I have produced a list of 5 simple ways you can improve your description.

Check your spelling

If you can’t even spell the item that your selling right, why should a buyer trust you to deliver the item? A poorly spelt description looks rushed and is also one of the major signs of a scam (since many scammers are based in non-English countries). Take care over your spelling and you might see that extra sale coming in.

Turn off Caps Lock

There’s nothing worse than a description written entirely in caps. If you must use caps, use it only to emphasise a word or phrase, not an entire sentence. Personally, I prefer using bold, its more noticeable, and in my opinion less annoying.

Just because you can use different colours for text doesn’t mean you should

If you give people a feature, there’s always going to be someone who uses it just because it’s there. What those people don’t seem to be able to understand is that you should never change the font colour every sentence. Text colour should used uniformly over a description and should be easy to read over any background colour you may have.

Have a decent picture

A decent picture is a must, and it gives you the opportunity to show any blemishes. Don’t try to avoid pointing out these blemishes, it’s a lot better for everyone involved if it’s clear what exactly is wrong with the item, whether it’s a scratch, mark or fault. If a buyer does not know the extent of a problem, then they will probably not risk their money with it.

Use a template

A template can give your description some organisation, as well as some aesthetic goodness. Don’t underestimate the effect of a good template, though I’d advise not going with eBay’s own templates, since all they do is add a border and do not help with the layout.


So there you are, 5 simple ways to make your eBay auction more professional. You’ll probably find that you’re already doing most of them, but if you happen to be guilty of neglecting one of these, I’d advise that you fix that right away.