Since being founded back in 95’ as an auction site, eBay has become one of the world’s largest eCommerce marketplaces. With millions of visitors per day, it is the perfect platform to sell on without significant upfront capital.
In fact, requiring far less financial input than a regular store, eBay dropshipping could provide an excellent gateway to online retail. Whether for sellers just starting or those looking to test some products.
Additionally, getting started is easy. All we need is to sign up and create our eBay seller accounts. Having said that, eBay holds sellers to a high standard to assure customer satisfaction. That is to say, make sure to follow the set-up steps carefully to avoid account suspensions.
So, keep reading to ensure a smooth start to our first eBay dropshipping stores. Follow the steps below and start making your first sales in no time.
Alright! Let’s get you started. Set up is straightforward and only requires two general steps:
Now, let’s go over how each step works.
For the first step, here is an overview of how to create a free eBay account:
To begin, head over to eBay and select ‘Selling’ from the ‘My eBay’ drop-down menu. After you click ‘Selling,’ you’ll reach the sign-in and sign-up page. Choose ‘create an account’ to register. Doing so will lead you to the following page.
Then, fill in your details and click ‘Create account.’ Before you do so, you will need to choose between the two account types, personal or business.
When registering your eBay seller account, there are two account types to choose from, as previously mentioned:
If you do not have a registered business, it is best to proceed with your eBay seller account as a personal account. Meanwhile, if you’re creating an account as a sole proprietor or for a company, the business account suits you best.
Moreover, the most significant differences between the two account options are as follows:
Generally, eBay places listing limits on new individual sellers. On the other hand, eBay allows higher limits for business accounts.
Next, there are different fee structures and schedules between the two account types when it comes to seller account fees. Bear in mind that it is against eBay’s rules to disguise ourselves as a private seller if we run a registered business.
Furthermore, signing up regardless of the account type is relatively easy. However, the verification process for personal accounts is quicker. The main requirements for individual sellers include:
However, you have to submit additional requirements when creating a business account. Besides the basics, you need to provide the following information:
After completing your account registration, go back to the main ‘My eBay’ page and select ‘Selling.’ This is when you should see your seller account ‘Overview’ page. Next, click ‘List an item’ and create a product listing draft.
Then, enter a name of an item and fill out the ‘Sell your item’ form. After doing so, the website will direct you to a search page, where you can input UPC, ISBN, ePID, part number, or product name.
Once you complete the form, click ‘Submit.’ Afterward, eBay will redirect you to your next step, account verification. After verifying your account, you can start adding your first few products from home.
If we start dropshipping from the get-go, we risk temporary suspensions in which we’ll have to call eBay and answer questions regarding our business. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s easier to start with random products you have at home. Then, we can easily upgrade our selling limits.
Finally, we can continue diversifying our knowledge on how to correctly list products on eBay. Remember that the more trending products we have, the greater our chances of attaining huge sales.
To use your eBay seller account, you first need to verify your account. The verification process applies when registering for a new account or updating any information on our account.
With that said, there are two factors to the verification process:
First and foremost, confirm your identity and basic account information to verify your account thoroughly. The identity verification includes your email address, phone number, and address.
The next part of your eBay seller account verification process is payment verification. Payment verification consists of two parts:
Besides your preferred payout method, eBay requires a credit card or debit card on file. Likewise, this is standard protocol, and the use of your card will only be in the case of a payment failure.
Once you have a card on file, select and verify your payout method. But first, let’s define what a payout means.
Payouts are financial disbursements in exchange for the services or products we provide to our customers. In relation to this, eBay offers two payout methods depending on your location:
Bear in mind that our payment method, whether a bank account, PayPal, or Payoneer, depends on eBay’s default option in our country. Therefore, Payoneer is not optional and is available only in select countries, such as China, Israel, and Russia. Meanwhile, other regions still utilize PayPal as a standard payment option on eBay.
For a step-by-step explanation of how to configure your payout settings, we recommend reading eBay’s help guides.
Below, we’ll understand the details of these payout methods.
To receive payouts through your bank, you have to connect your checking account with eBay. For personal accounts, make sure that your name in the eBay account is similar to the bank details. Later on, if you wish to convert your account from personal to business, you can do so in the ‘Account settings’ on the eBay website.
On the other hand, if you’re handling a business account, the business name registered in your eBay account must be the same as that of the checking account.
In the verification of your bank account, eBay requires you to submit the following information:
Afterward, link your bank account and confirm your details. Then, you will receive a confirmation email from eBay after successfully verifying your information.
Finally, eBay processes your payout within two business days after confirming a customer’s order. Additionally, bank clearing time may take about one to three business days. Once the fund is cleared, you will receive the payout in your checking account.
Another way of receiving payouts from eBay is through Payoneer. Payoneer is a financial solution for eCommerce worldwide. Thus, numerous dropshipping platforms like eBay utilize Payoneer as one of their payment methods.
Moreover, make sure that the account type and country of registration are the same on eBay and Payoneer. After linking these two accounts, the eBay system will automatically copy your Payoneer account details. Upon reviewing and confirming your details, they will show on your eBay account.
Subsequently, eBay shall ask you to add a debit or credit card account. Doing so ensures that you can still cover the selling fees if your store earnings are insufficient.
Before eBay account activation, Payoneer will review your account information and send you an email upon successful verification. Lastly, payouts through Payoneer are usually processed two banking days after a customer’s order confirmation.
If any problem occurs during the verification process, eBay will notify you through ‘My eBay’ messages.
Every time we create a product listing, we have to set our eBay business policies. These policies include choices of payment methods, shipping arrangements, and return guidelines.
For convenience, we can utilize templates for our business policies, which we can edit whenever we list a product. So, here are the steps for creating eBay business policies:
Once again, we need to present practical business policies in our eBay stores. Furthermore, these policies will guide and educate our customers regarding how our business works.
Meanwhile, the shipping/site preferences allow us to set up our selling information like shipping details. In addition, we can manage our listings, orders, buyers, and invoices through this feature.
To assign proper shipping/site preferences, we need to go over the following steps:
Essentially, we have to set up our preferences, as these details serve as our business guide. When we have clear guidelines, we avoid conflicts due to misunderstandings or confusing policies. Thus, we need to provide our buyers with all the information they need about our stores, so we’ll have hassle-free transactions with them.
Aside from a computer and internet access, eBay has some requirements we need to meet to start selling. You will need to verify the following information:
Primarily, we can only create an eBay account if we’re at least 18 years of age. Next, we have to provide our location for the address verification process. Lastly, eBay requires us to input our bank details for payouts, such as a checking account or Payoneer.
Remember that failure to comply with these basic requirements will lead to an unsuccessful eBay seller account creation. Therefore, ensure that you pass all these prerequisites before registering on eBay.
There’s definitely a learning curve to selling on eBay, but AutoDS is here to help guide us on our journey. If we take it slow and consider all of these steps, we should be able to avoid any major slip-ups.
And once we’ve established ourselves as reliable sellers, we can then start to increase the number of product listings in our stores. From there, our stores will grow and so will our profits.
If you’re looking for more helpful beginner dropshipping guides, be sure to check out:
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