How One Short eMail Can Earn Hundreds of Pounds You Don’t Have to Share With eBay

Many sellers issue newsletters to buyers on eBay, sometimes through eBay’s system, sometimes independently.  

It’s communications sent outside of eBay we’ll talk about today, the purpose of which is usually to turn first time customers into regular buyers without sellers having to pay listing and final selling fees to eBay.  Don’t worry, it’s completely within the rules, as long as those messages are not sent through eBay. 

The usual method is to have new buyers sign up to an outside eBay web page to receive your newsletter or product updates or you might compile your own buyers’ names and addresses manually, all of which is legally acceptable as long as there’s a quick and easy way for people to remove their details from your list.

Marketing to people who have bought from you already is called ‘backend selling’ and it usually takes place outside of eBay, so selling costs are low or even non-existent and profits can be much higher than selling similar products on sites taking a large share of your profits.

Here are more reasons why backend selling is such a good idea:

* People who've bought from you once and enjoyed the experience are likely to buy from you again, perhaps over the lifetime of your mutual existence.  For future sales made on eBay you’ll forfeit a huge chunk of your profits.  And that’s why saving their contact details to promote backend sales outside of eBay - and most other sites charging selling fees - is the first and most essential step after attracting a first-time buyer.

* It costs little or nothing to email past buyers with hundreds of current offers, unlike listing all those items individually on eBay.

But the biggest benefit of backend selling is that you have a target audience of people who trust you and whose buying habits you understand and will help you source products just for them.