Selling your second hand things online is a great way to recover money you have previously spent on those items. At the same time, you also contribute to the environment by actively encouraging people to buy used items instead of purchasing new ones from the store.
There are a variety of websites online as well as places offline, where you can list your stuff for sale. One of the more popular such places is our Swapit Marketplace App. However, generally the rules are all the same and the real trick to finally make your sale, comes from a combination of different techniques you can use to:
- Present your product best
- Communicate its core purpose
- Show the price/value of that product
We’ve put together the probably most comprehensive list of 25 tips that help you close your sale quickly. Some of such tips are geared a bit toward our Swapit Marketplace, but most of them are generally applicable to any marketplace or classified out there. So let’s take a look at the full list of our 25 Tips to Make a Sale:
Tip #1 – TAKE A GOOD PHOTO
This sounds simple, I know. However, we’ve seen many items being posted on Swapit, which are sub-par. There can be a variety of reasons for that, but you need to keep in mind that you should ALWAYS strive to take the best, most sharp and most vibrant photo of your product possible. The iPhone has an outstanding camera and most Android phones also have quite good cameras these days. Hence. you just need to make sure you frame your product correctly and you’ve got enough light before you hit the trigger.
Tip #2 – WRITE AN ORIGINAL TITLE
Writing an original title might sound trivial, but in many marketplaces, the title is the most important part of your product’s information when it comes to discoverability. Potential buyers who search for “iPhone 8 256GB” need to be able to find your phone that you put it on sale. Be accurate, inventive and catchy with your title.
Tip #3 – CHOOSE A GOOD PRICE
Only a very attractive price can convince potential buyers to overlook tips #1 and #2, should you not have followed them properly. At any time, an attractive price/value ratio will get more people to look more closely at your offering and it will lead to a faster sale. To find a good market price for your item, you can look up the marketplace’s previous transactions / current listings for the product you’re selling.
Tip #4 – TELL WHAT’S IMPORTANT
Keep it short and simple. People don’t have much time nowadays and they like to get all info as quickly as possible. Hence, listing out some tech specs and other product specific details, are appreciated by almost all buyers. It is often also useful to share a link to the official specifications website of the manufacturer. As a result buyers can view such information from the trusted source of the usually well known manufacturer.
Tip #5 – SELECT THE RIGHT CATEGORY
Categorization is often overlooked. Many people like to just quickly post their stuff and then move on. However, it pays 10x to select the right category. On some marketplaces, buyers enter the marketplace through a pre-defined category selection. On Swapit for example we have a so called Quick Select entry screen, which let’s you easily jump right into one of the most popular filter settings on Swapit.
Tip #6 – SHARE TO MULTIPLY YOUR REACH
Never underestimate the power of social media. If you’re selling stuff online, share it with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. You never know who of them might like it. If they do, usually their friends and family see that as well and your chances to close the sale increase significantly.
Tip #7 – BE RESPONSIVE & KIND
Potential buyers appreciate a forthcoming and friendly appearance. Even if you’re just communicating with via chat, your choice of words and gestures makes a big difference. Be quick to reply to questions and be kind when it comes to any kind of misunderstanding. Your buyers will appreciate that very much.
Tip #8 – CHAT WITH POTENTIAL BUYERS
Direct chat with your potential buyers is worth more than gold. It’s your chance to convince them directly to complete the sale. Keep Top #7 in mind when talking directly to potential buyers.
Tip #9 – AN ITEM A DAY KEEPS THE MESS AWAY
While selling one or two items might be just for fun, keep in mind that we human beings have mostly grown up to be hoarders. We buy things and keep them because we think they are all still worth something. Yet, in the end, we should realize that we do not need all those things. You can make it small goals by publishing one item a day for sale. It helps staying motivated and keeps you getting rid of things you don’t need anymore.
Tip #10 – GO PREMIUM & SELL FASTER
Some marketplaces offer premium services that allow you to sell even faster. If you’re selling higher priced items, like a $1,000 sofa that you bought for $5,000 some years ago, a small add-on of $1 to get access to premium services, will not break your bank, but it might help you close the sale today. Give it a try.
(tip: some marketplace like Swapit have trials or feature your first items for free.)
Tip #11 – SELL AT MULTIPLE LOCATIONS
Swapit is the only marketplace worldwide that you sell at multiple locations. In a nutshell, if you offer your item for sale not just at your home, but also at your work and possibly a meetup location in between, you triple your range. That means, you will reach 3x more people compared to just posting your item at one location. Find out more on: Multi-Locations in Swapit.
Tip #12 – NEGOTIATE OFFERS
In most cases buyers make an offer that’s below the price stated in your sale post. That is fine and it’s intended to be like that. You have the choice to stick to your price or you can negotiate with the buyer and come to a mutual understanding of the best price to close your sale quickly. In Asia, buyers like to haggle a lot. In Europe on the other hand, they often take the price as-is and just want to get it. Feel the situation and always make sure to remain friendly and forthcoming. Your buyers will come back to if they had a great experience.
Tip #13 – BE READY FOR ALERTS
Swapit Alerts are a very neat tool for buyers to receive an alert of product they are interested in. Say someone really wants to buy an iPhone, then (s)he can easily set up a Swapit Alert on the term “iPhone” and once an item with that keyword in the title gets published, the buyer received an instant push notification. So make sure your title is rock solid and it includes the right term buyers would actually search for. Read more about Swapit Alerts
Tip #14 – EDIT AT ANY TIME
We all make mistakes. More often than not, we tap the “Post” button, our sale post goes online and we realize in that moment, that we had a typo in our product description or the price was not accurate. At any time, you can edit your post and make sure you have the correct content shown for your item post. It’s easy, quick and ensures you can always present your product in the best and most accurate light.
Tip #15 – SHARE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS
One of the most efficient ways to spread the word and close your sale quickly is to share it into several buy & sell Facebook groups. While Swapit’s user base is growing rapidly and even today is very active, it always a good choice to expand your sale post reach as much as possible. One of such ways is to share your post to Facebook groups that are popular in your region. As Swapit, we operate and administrate several very active Facebook groups, which you can share into. The most popular one is Swapit HK with over 110,000 members.
Tip #16 – BROWSE THE MAP
You can try to get an edge over your competitors (i.e. other sellers) to find the hottest areas in your neighborhood to trade in. There are usually some hot spots where people like to meet up at and trade, because they are passing through them or are otherwise connected to them. Identify those hot spots by browsing the Swapit Map view and find out where a lot of items are being posted for sale.
Tip #17 – DOUBLE DESCRIPTION LENGTH
Sometimes, more is better. In this particular case, Swapit Premium customers can enter a post description twice as long as the usual one. This allows you to put more content into your sale post. As a result potential buyers get a better idea of the product, its condition and possibly the accessories that come with it. At the same time, search engines that index all of our sale posts, have more data to work with and to offer those sale posts to people who search for them online.
Tip #18 – FOLLOW BULLETIN PROMOTIONS
From time to time, we send out Swapit Bulletins. These small notifications introduce new features or promotions to you, which you can take advantage of. Being the first to use a certain feature often allows you to get the first-mover advantage. Thus, you’ll sell faster than other sellers.
Tip #19 – POST ON PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
Public holidays are great for selling stuff. Buyers are at home on public holidays and therefore they have time to browse Swapit. When they receive a notification about something new that’s on sale nearby, they can act on that immediately because they are free on that day. Public holidays are great days to close a sale.
Tip #20 – RE-SHARE TO CLOSE A SALE
Sharing is caring and in this case, sharing might just get you to close that sale. Swapit integrates with all important social media and with just one click you can share your sale post with everyone on Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, WhatsApp, etc.
Tip #21 – FOLLOW OTHER SELLERS
On Swapit you can build up a social following. If you’re selling great stuff and you’re responsive, kind and generally make people happy, then your buyers will follow you. As a marketplace where everyone can be a buyer and seller, other sellers might be potential buyers of your stuff. By following them, you can raise interest in your own profile and they might start following you back.
Tip #22 – GET FEATURED
You can easily feature each of your listings by tapping the “FEATURE” button. Sometimes, the Swapit team chooses the best listings to get featured as well. Feel free to recommend an item to us as well by sending us an email with the link to your listing.
Tip #23 – LEAD THE RANKING
The “Top Ranking” on Swapit is a unique place where you can shine! There are three types of rankings:
- FOLLOWED Most followed Swapit users.
- SELLING Sellers with most items on sale.
- LIKE Sellers with most likes on all their items.
By promoting your items and being just a good seller, you can grow into this ranking and it will get you extra exposure as one of our top ranked Swapit users.
Tip #24 – USE CHAT SNIPPETS
Swapit is all about efficiency and Swapit’s chat snippets are probably the best example for that. Commonly used terms are shown here that allow you to quickly reply to buyers or to reach out to sellers with just one tap. Use chat snippets to chat faster and close your sale faster.
Tip #25 – LIST TECH SPECS
Buyers love to have all the information at hand. If you list all necessary tech specs about your gadgets and electronics items, you’ll have less questions to answer and more people to be actually interested in what you’re selling. Besides, more tech specs also mean more content, which in return allows our search to find your item faster when someone is searching for it.
To be continued…
These “25 Tips to Sell Your Second Hand Stuff Online” are actually part of our “Tips to Make a Sale on Swapit” trading education programme, which every Swapit user gets enrolled in free-of-charge when signing up for Swapit. If you know of some tricks and tips that are missing here, please do leave a comment below. We’d love to add it to our list.
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