stpebble is a firm believer in planning ahead. "To properly meet holiday demand, you should have most of your listings all prepared and ready to go by November 1st. This way, when the peak season hits, all you have to do is time the launch of your listings."stpebble recommends using Turbo Lister to schedule your listings.

danse also believes in starting her preparations early. "During the period between January and July, I spend a lot of time on eBay researching some of the trends that can possibly be hot during the holiday season. I search both current and completed listings and eBay Stores--this tells me if something I wish to sell has a market or if there seems to be one developing. I often watch items and bookmark certain sellers to follow their product success."

Identifying the hottest holiday trends
danse explains that she does a lot of research to hone her business skills on eBay. Twice a year, she attends trade shows in Kansas City and Dallas, and frequents craft shows at both retail and wholesale levels. "Craft shows can be a good indicator of trends and so are trade shows and trade show publications."In addition, she also visits retail shops, flea markets, live auctions, and garage sales to get a feel for what is happening in the market. She also uses tools from eBay's Certified Provider Program, such as Terapeak, to research product trends on the site, and she recommends paying attention to how other craft their item descriptions on their listings.

stpebble's search for what's in vogue begins no farther than the eBay site. She watches eBay Pulse with an eagle's eye, and also prowls the Want It Now posts to see what eBay buyers are looking for. She urges sellers not to limit themselves to the U.S. site, but to check international eBay sites as well. "Use eBay's currency calculator to see which countries will find U.S. merchandise a bargain. Right now I would definitely sell to the U.K., because the exchange rate between the dollar and the pound definitely favors British buyers."

stpebble also urges sellers to have a high degree of awareness about what's happening in the world today, because current events can have an impact on your eBay sales too. She keeps a close eye on world trends by reading newspapers, and by watching the news and entertainment shows on television. "It's important to make connections between what's happening in the world, and what you can sell,"she says. "For instance, if you see that the Dukes of Hazard movie is premiering soon, you might want to list western type items like boots, jean shorts, or cowboy hats."

When we talked to her, rising gasoline prices and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina were the biggest stories in the media. "With what's happening in the news today I would offer items that save people money on gasoline, like bikes, and anything for disaster preparedness." 

Tips for sourcing your inventory
One of the biggest challenges for eBay sellers is how to get inventory at low prices, in order to stay competitive on eBay. stpebble recommends keeping your eyes and ears open for great deals all year round. Often, she says, dropping by a charity rummage sale as it's winding down can be especially rewarding. "Drop by charity rummage sales in the last 45 minutes, gather your items, and wait to pay in the last 15-30 minutes. Usually at this time, they announce that everything is half off the marked price, or that you're allowed to fill a giant garbage bag full of stuff for a nominal price. Often the volunteer sellers are ready to discount everything drastically, so they can clean up, and go home! So you may pick up even more items in the closing moments of the sale."

She also recommends buying end-of-season items for next year's selling season. "Buy cashmere sweaters in May or June when they're dirt cheap." Visiting the websites of popular retailers regularly to look for fabulous bargains in their Final Markdown Clearance bins is another way to stock up on low-cost inventory.

danse emphasizes the importance of maintaining connections with trade publications (such as Tradewinds, which is a source magazine for importing goods from low-cost manufacturers in Asia), and also with wholesale and manufacturing publications. "Most of these are available at regional trade shows such as Dallas, Kansas City, Chicago, Denver, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, and at the Javits Center in New York City."

A useful source of inventory for danse is the extensive network of contacts she and her family members have built up over the years, in and around Russell, Kansas, where she lives. "We have a reputation for taking 'stuff' that people just want to get rid of,"she says. "Most people in our area are aware of what we collect and want. We make contact at the flea markets, garage sales and real-time auctions. We never go anywhere without our business cards, and we pass them out to contacts. When people clean out their homes or move, they call us. Sometimes we get boxes of goodies for little more than the cost of hauling them away. We don't keep a lot of it but sort through and select things we want to keep. The remainder is taken to thrift shops or other organizations that might use it." 

Building depth and breadth in your item selection
Understanding a buyer's state of mind during the holiday season helps smart sellers identify what products they can market to their buyers, stpebble says. "Remember that the New Year is a big time for New Year's resolutions?so I'd say that anything that has to do with New Year's resolutions, such as health, exercise, and self-improvement, has a market on eBay."

She also adds books, DVDs and CDs to her lineup, as these are popular gifts during the holiday season. 

During the prime holiday sales period from September to December, danse tries to list items that can help people carry on their family traditions of celebrating nativity scenes. "What better gift for a collector than an addition for their cherished nativity collection"People also like to give nativity scenes to a family member, child or newlywed and start a tradition for them. In many cases, a nativity item can be also be marketed as a vintage, collectible and/or gift item."She also adds complimentary items to her listings that reflect a holiday theme. "Anything that will work as a decoration, collectible, vintage or gift item is usable." 

Adapting your listing strategies to the holiday season
Smart sellers realize that many shoppers wait until the last minute to shop for gift items on eBay. These impatient shoppers often don't like bidding on auction-style listings, wanting the items to be shipped as quickly as possible. To cater to buyers like these, stpebble recommends that sellers offer the Buy It Now option with their auction-style listings."Also utilize the shorter listing durations, such as the 1 day listing, as you get closer to December 25th." 

stpebble feels that another smart way for sellers to offer Fixed Price items to last-minute shoppers is through an eBay Store. "If you haven't tried it yet, open an eBay Store in December and take advantage of the first month being free."  

stpebble has found she can also attract shoppers by providing suggestions and guidance about how they can gift items she sells. "I mention in the description what kind of person might like that item as a gift."

She also figures that shoppers in a hurry might look for items using Search, and not look for the gift icon that many sellers display on their listings during the holiday season. She knows that item subtitles are searchable, so she modifies her strategy accordingly. "I'm more apt to add the subtitle line to my listings for more hits from keyword searches than pay for the gift icon." 

Using eBay tools and site features to make life easier
Sellers have to juggle many activities simultaneously in the course of managing their sales on eBay. They have to keep track of listings that are ending, make sure they've shipped off items to their winning buyers, make inventory restocking decisions, take pictures of items--the list is endless. In addition, many sellers also have to balance their eBay selling interests with other commitments to work and family. That's why any tools that can help make the selling process on eBay more efficient, and make the seller's life easier, always come in handy. This is especially true during the holiday season, when the demands on a seller's time can be magnified several times.

Both danse and stpebble use eBay tools and features to make selling on eBay as easy and efficient as possible.

"I find My eBay to be invaluable from start to finish in the selling process," declares danse. "I love the ability to have all my activities -- buying, selling, watching, invoicing, shipping and leaving feedback -- in one place. Even being able to purchase and print shipping labels. Having the USPS pick up items from my doorstep is one more challenge simplified during the busy holiday season."

stpebble is also a big fan of reducing the amount of time she spends shipping her items by purchasing and printing shipping labels. She also reiterates her confidence in Turbo Lister for creating professional looking listings and uploading listings in bulk -- essential when you're busy multi-tasking during the holiday rush. 

Setting buyers' expectations
Letting buyers know upfront what they can expect is an important task for any seller. Shipping can turn into a sore point with buyers, especially during the holiday season when carriers' shipping processes can get slow. Both danse and stpebble emphasize the importance of setting their buyers' expectations in their listing descriptions. This is especially critical when someone purchases an item in the last few days before Hanukkah, Christmas or New Year and is hoping that they or their gift recipient will receive it in time.

stpebble recommends clearly stating the various shipping options you offer in the item description, including the estimated delivery date and the cost of each option. danse echoes her recommendation. "We present shipping information, payment instructions, and terms as simply and clearly as possible in the item description. We try to guard against potential problems by anticipating them and clearly setting expectations for the buyer."

danse also does her bit to minimize the time needed to ship out her items. "All items are weighed and ready to ship before they go up for sale; that way the shipping information is always accurate. We ship within 48 hours of receiving payment or after the check clears."

Going the extra mile for your customers
"We treat customers exactly the way we would like to be treated."This summarizes danse's customer service philosophy, not just during the holidays but all year round. "We encourage communication and we try to make it as easy as possible to give the buyer every opportunity to resolve any issues they may have (even letting us know they no longer wish to purchase the item). We know that we're not just competing with other eBay sellers and online stores, but with offline vendors as well."

danse's way of going above and beyond her customers' expectations is to enclose small holiday gifts along with her items. stpebble also believes that such little things a seller does can go a long way towards building customer satisfaction, and eventually in repeat business. She makes a point of enclosing a personalized "thank you" note to the buyer, and her business card when she ships out an item. Sometimes she also includes a discount coupon for a future purchase.

We'd like to thank danse and stpebble for sharing their insights on holiday sales with our members.