In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last twenty years, you may not know that eBay is one of the premier, online destinations for selling auto parts anywhere. And, despite persistent questions about whether selling auto parts on eBay is profitable thanks to some of the company’s widely publicized missteps such as its 2013 dispute with Google over the effect of its ads on sales, eBay Motors has never been more profitable. In today’s post we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to learn how to sell car parts on eBay profitably and how to figure out which are the top selling auto parts you should be listing.
eBay Motors: Don’t Leave Money on the Table
Year over year, eBay has been posting significant gains overall but the true star of eBay’s e-commerce marketplace has been its eBay Auto Parts segment, better known as eBay Motors. In fact, it’s such a behemoth that a car or truck part is sold every two seconds on eBay! Whereas Amazon has a cumbersome system that has been gamed to death by Chinese and out-of-country sellers who take advantage of Amazon’s FBA program, eBay does not (yet) have the same problem. In fact, if you own or operate a car dealership, you’re uniquely positioned to make huge profits selling OEM car parts on eBay.
eBay Motors Gives You Access to a Huge Consumer Base
With a total of 179 million active buyers, you can be certain that your auto parts listing will get the eyeballs it needs to sell when you list it on the eBay Motors Parts marketplace. And, just like Google shopping, eBay attracts people who are looking to buy, which means the conversion rate can be very strong if your campaigns are well-optimized. Access to qualified leads, however, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of selling car parts on eBay. Not only does eBay give you access to millions of customers but it also confers almost immediate consumer trust to you, the seller.
Gain Instant Customer Trust & Confidence
If you’re not familiar with eBay you may not realize it but they are pretty serious when it comes to trust and safety. In fact, they have a whole department called “Trust and Safety” which serves as a virtual guarantor of every transaction. In other words, customers feel safe buying from any seller on eBay because they know that, if anything goes sideways, they can contact support for help. And, although this can sometimes be a pain for the honest seller, it really does mean that you’ll get more buyers than you would if you just tried to go it alone by listing only on Facebook or Craigslist for that matter.
It doesn’t end there, eBay also offers other ways for professional sellers to distinguish themselves from the crowd: becoming a Top Rated Seller on eBay. Although we don’t really have the time or space to go into the intricacies of becoming an eBay Top Rated Seller, suffice it to say that all you really need to do is be a good seller. In other words, take great photos of your items, write good descriptions, ship quickly, offer a generous return policy and respond to customer messages in a timely manner. eBay is great at helping you to figure this all out and even provides an intuitively designed Seller Hub page to give you all the info you need in one place. Beyond doing yourself a favor by being an all-around good seller (which will be reflected in your feedback, naturally) eBay gives a boost to its Top Rated Sellers’ listings in its Cassini search engine. In addition, sellers can also qualify for additional discounts on their listing fees so it makes sense to understand the requirements and meet them to make the most profit possible.
Use Parts Compatibility to Supercharge Your Sales
eBay Motors makes it incredibly easy to sell your genuine OEM car parts by giving you a number of options to quickly and easily populate part fitment information. Depending upon your niche and needs, you can manually search for and select your car parts to find a matching product in eBay’s massive catalog. Once you’ve located your product, the compatibility data will be filled in automatically for you. Simple, quick and effective!
What if you’ve got dozens or even hundreds of auto parts to sell online? Unless you understand how to use eBay’s API, there are a number of third-party tools out there that make managing fitment and uploading your listings a piece of cake. Of course, they all want a piece of the action but, in the end, it’s more than worth it. Heavy hitters with huge catalogs and a serious budget will want to consider ChannelAdvisor whereas smaller dealerships and shops might do better with SureDone or Auctiva.
A Fee Structure to Die For
That’s right, we’re making listing fees sexy again — well, actually we’re not but eBay certainly is when it comes to the online competition. When it comes to the elephant in the room (Amazon if you couldn’t guess), eBay Motors fees can be as little as half of those to sell on Amazon. Amazon charges around 12% for non-wheel and tire related auto parts whereas eBay hovers between 6 to 10 percent. When it comes to making and keeping more of your own money, eBay Motors may be your best solution.
eBay Motors: A Winning Choice
In short, eBay is a powerhouse when it comes to selling your dealership’s parts, growing your online presence and building your brand. As we have seen, eBay motors offers unparalleled access to an avid and informed consumer base just looking to buy what you’ve got to sell and the tools to do it. In addition, if you play your cards right, you can maximize your profits (by becoming one of eBay’s Top Rated Seller), minimize your fees (as compared to other ecommerce platforms) and reduce customer returns and complaints by ensuring proper fitment and compatibility. Armed with these tools you and an understanding of how to identify the top selling car parts on eBay (check out our article that covers the best-selling auto parts Amazon for ideas, we’ll have a list of the most searched car parts on eBay in a future post), you’ll be in the money in no time.
If you need help with your auto parts marketing and are you’re interested in selling your OEM and/or aftermarket car parts on eBay, and would like to learn more about OEM Interactive’s eBay marketing services—get in touch! Email info@oeminteractive.com and one of our eBay marketing specialists will get back to you ASAP!
